Family Background: Clapham and After

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that, although Woolf’s own parents, Leslie and Julia Stephen, were famously agnostic, her wider family was rooted in the Evangelicalism of the Clapham Sect. The chapter presents a detailed history of the involvement of Woolf’s family in the evolution of the Sect, starting with the influential theologies of her great-great-grandfather Rev Henry Venn, and continuing with the anti-slavery activities of her great-grandfather and grandfather, James and Sir James Stephen. Concentrating on her feminist-pacifist essay, Three Guineas, the chapter shows that although Woolf was critical of her ancestors for their religious, patriarchal and imperialist agendas, she also appropriated some of their values. The chapter then explores how conservative values – about women’s roles in particular – persisted, even as later generations of Stephens parted with the faith. It concludes by considering the important role played by Woolf’s Quaker aunt, Caroline Emelia Stephen, in the development of both her spirituality and her feminism.