Timeline: Sidney Bidulph

1611: King James Bible
Work on this version of the Bible was brought about by King James I of England in 1604 with some persuasion from Puritan president of Corpus Christi College, John Reynolds. Reynolds appealed to King James on this matter by convincing him “that there might be a new translation of the Bible, because those which were allowed in the reigns of Henry the eighth, and Edward the sixth, were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the Original.” There were 47 of the best biblical scholars and linguists of the time chosen to work on the new translation.
This event is significant because of the multiple references to the King James Bible throughout The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph. This translation of the Bible was produced by the King James for England because of their desire for the authenticity of their teachings in the church. So they created their own translation that they knew to be as close to the original as they desired. This version of the Bible was prominent in the church during the time when Miss Bidulph’s memoirs were published, which helps us to comprehend the abundance of references to verses from this translation within the novel.

Eighteenth Century (1700’s): The English country house
Ownership of country homes in England actually began in medieval times, but as it applies to The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, we will just be describing the importance of these estates during the eighteenth century. With land as a signifier of wealth, it was not uncommon for prosperous English families to own a house in town (in Sidney Bidulph, this town is London, but could also be in Dublin or Edinburgh) and a house in the countryside. These homes may be referred to as manors or halls, as we see throughout Sidney Bidulph. Owners of such houses would spend some of the year in their town home, with the remainder of the year being spent in their country house. The country house was typically staffed with workers, providing an important opportunity of employment for rural communities. The English country house was a prominent part of society until the rise of taxation and wage bills during the first part of the 20th century.
Understanding the ownership of English country houses is significant to The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph because it helps us to comprehend why the characters, such as the Bidulphs and Mr. Faulkland, are switching locations as often as they do. Becoming knowledgeable about the English country house, also, aids in our understanding of the English economy at the time and helps us to comprehend the wealth that was flowing around at the time among the prosperous, especially among the Bidulph’s and their companions.

1702-1714: The Reign of Queen Anne
Queen Anne was born in 1665 to James II. During the revolution she backed William III over her father and took the throne in 1702 after his death. Anne was born during the turbulent religious debates in the country over whether or not England should be Catholic or Protestant, as for Anne, she was raised and ruled protestant. Religion was very important to the English people at this time, a sentiment that is reflected in The Memoirs of Sidney Bidulph throughout the novel as Sidney reflects on the "christian thing to do" to or what her duty is as a christian. The novel states at the beginning that it starts at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, which is interesting as this is not the time that the novel was written, so Sheridan could have placed the story at any time period. I believe Anne's reign is significant because Sidney Bidulph as a novel seems to be interested at least to some degree with mothers. As stated in class, Queen Anne grabbed power by perpetuating the idea of her being a good mother and Blythe describes Anne as the "mother to the people of England." These thoughts further the idea that perhaps Queen Anne's reign is significant in the novel due to her motherliness.

1727: Daniel Defoe Essay
In 1727 Daniel Defoe commented on marriage as "legalized prostitution" in his essay "Conjugal Lewdness or, Matrimonial Whoredom." By this he meant that marriage in and of itself was essentially a business deal, a contract that people used to get money, land, or titles. People of course meaning men as women could not own land or (much) money. This idea is very much demonstrated in The Memoirs of Sidney Bidulph as the novel discusses marriage throughout its entirety. A particularly poignant moment that we witness this is when Mr. Arnold kicks Sidney out of the house and Sidney has to leave her children behind because children are of course property. The novel is clearly interested in the same idea that this essay presents, that women have little to no choice in who they marry as courtship and marriage are seen more as business deals, so they can only really be worried about negotiating a good deal.

18th Century as a whole, highlighting 1720s-1760s: Conduct Books and the Shift to Novels
Although Conduct Books had become a common form of publication leading into the 18th century, the 1700s saw a great shift in their use and their interpretation. Quite a few of these books were published between the 1720s and the 1760s, some examples being "An Enquiry into [...] the Better Preventing of Clandestine Marriages" by Henry Stebbing and Mary Cooper in 1753, as well as "English Housewifry, exemplified in above Four Hundred and Fifty Receipts" by Elizabeth Moxon in 1764. These publications were a very large part of English society, as it is how young women were expected to present themselves or not present themselves throughout their lives or in public settings.
The importance of the 18th century to these books was that it presented the grounds for a shift in the genre. The Conduct Books began to see the rise of more female writers and the boundaries that they began to push, eventually breaking through to see the possibilities of more female novelists who did not have to remain anonymous with their publications. This time period saw conduct books shift into novels, which turned out to be the inspiration for many great writers, and females, such as Jane Austen.