Jane Welsh Carlyle was the wife of a great man, but her importance does not rest on that alone, although, without her resolute support and encouragement over many dark and difficult years, Thomas Carlyle would not have achieved fame and fortune.

Her letter writing alone would give her a notable place in Victorian literature. G B Tennyson wrote of her in 1973:
‘One of the rare Victorian wives who are of literary interest in their own right…..to be remembered as one of the great letter writers (in some respects her husband’s superior) of the nineteenth century is glory beyond the dreams of avarice.’

She had her own circle of distinguished friends, acquaintances, and admirers, and her correspondence with and about them is not only entertaining but of literary and historical importance. And in her own right she is a fascinating personality Working within the constraints on a Victorian woman and wife, and from a relatively humble Scottish background as a doctor’s daughter, she established herself socially and intellectually in society. To read what she thought of others, what she thought of insanity and the insane, and what others thought of her, is to be convinced that she had immense charm and won the respect of many distinguished men and women of her time.

The story of the marriage has been adumbrated in my Carlyle pages, but deserves to be told from her point of view too. For more than a century, since the publication of Froude’s biography, Carlyle research has been bedevilled by the in-fighting of Jane and Thomas factions, each holding extreme views on the merits of their favoured hero or heroine, each trying to blame one of the two for their marital difficulties. In truth, they deserved each other, and remained loyal and devoted to each other - each in peculiar ways at times, it must be admitted.

For the physician and the psychiatrist, Jane Carlyle is as interesting a study as her husband, and medically more of a puzzle. I have not attempted to write a comprehensive biography of Jane, because so much of her life is that of her husband, but I have outlined the main facts in a summary biography. Dates of events are covered in a chronology, and there is a more detailed one for Carlyle. I have combined the references and links with those for her husband.

There are two lengthy essays here about to her health. One covers the years during which Carlyle was friendly with Lady Harriet Ashburton, relating the events and Jane’s health at the time; the other details the serious illnesses she had towards the end of her life. There is a summary of findings about her health. References, links, and further reading are available on the Thomas Carlyle pages..