https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Fanny_ParkesFanny Parkes - Revision history2026-07-31T12:46:40ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Fanny_Parkes&diff=498883&oldid=prevSabari2398 at 10:35, 2 May 20262026-05-02T10:35:34Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Welsh writer on India}}<br />
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{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --><br />
|name = Fanny Parkes<br />
|image = <br />
|caption = <br />
|birth_date = {{birth date|1794|12|8|df=y}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/fanny-parks-case-study/ |title=Fanny Parks Cast Study |first=Joanna |last=Goldsworthy |publisher=East India Company At Home |year=2014 |accessdate=2016-07-19}}</ref><br />
|birth_place = [[Conwy]], [[Wales]]<br />
|death_date = {{death date and age|1875|||1794|12|8|df=y}}<br />
|death_place = [[City of Westminster]], [[London]]<br />
|occupation = Author and travel writer<br />
|birth_name = Frances Susanna Archer<br />
|spouse = {{marriage|Charles Crawford Parks|25 March 1822|22 August 1856|end=d}}<br />
}}<br />
'''Fanny Parkes''' or '''Parks''' (née '''Frances Susanna Archer''') (1794–1875) was a [[travel writer]] from Wales, known for her extensive journals about colonial India, where she lived for 24 years. These are recorded in her memoirs ''Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Parks |first1=Fanny |title=Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque |date=1850 |publisher=Internet Archive|others=P. Richardson |location=London |volume=1|url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofpilg01parluoft|accessdate=26 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Parks |first1=Fanny |title=Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque |date=1850 |publisher=Internet Archive|others=P. Richardson|location=London |volume=2|url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingsofpilg02parluoft|accessdate=26 March 2023}}</ref> in which she acknowledged authorship only by a signature in Urdu script. In 1970, extracts from her memoirs, ''[[Begums, Thugs and White Mughals]]'', became available for the first time since their original appearance in 1850.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History's People |author=Margaret MacMillan |publisher=House of Anansi |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4870-0005-9 |author-link=Margaret MacMillan |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyspeoplepe0000macm}}</ref> The first biography, by Barbara Eaton, ''Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib'', appeared in 2018.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eaton (2018) |title=Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib, Biography of Fanny Parks (1794-1875) An Independent Traveller in 19th Century India |date=20 July 2018 |publisher=KDP Paperback & Kindle |isbn=978-1980329336 |pages=280}}</ref><br />
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==Early life and family==<br />
Fanny Parkes was born Frances Susanna Archer in [[Conwy]], Wales, the daughter of Ann and Captain William Archer, [[16th The Queen's Lancers|16th Lancers]]. On 25 March 1822 she married Charles Crawford Parks (17 November 1797 – 22 August 1856), a writer for the [[East India Company|East India Companies]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eaton (2018) |title=Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib, Biography of Fanny Parks (1794-1875) An Independent Traveller in 19th Century India |date=20 July 2018 |publisher=KDP Paperback & Kindle |isbn=978-1980329336 |pages=280}}</ref><br />
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==Travel writing==<br />
[[File:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu|thumb|Volume 1 of ''Wanderings of a Pilgrim'' (full scan)]]<br />
Fanny lived in India between 1822 and 1846, with a break in England and [[Cape Town]] 1839–1844.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Eaton (2018) |title=Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib, Biography of Fanny Parks (1794-1875) An Independent Traveller in 19th Century India |date=20 July 2018 |publisher=KDP Paperback & Kindle |isbn=978-1980329336 |pages=280}}</ref><br />
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Parkes began living in [[Calcutta]] in 1822, before moving to [[Allahabad]] ten years later due to her husband's posting.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Parks wrote two volumes on her time travelling through India on horseback and befriending people around her, while learning [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] and [[Urdu]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Her detailed [[memoir]]s, written in a lively style, reveal independence of mind. Parkes allows an affectionate pre-colonial perspective of northern [[India]] and its peoples and customs, recording changes in Britain's governing of India, the economic impact of such policies, and domestic problems in Indian society. People she encountered included wealthy socialites and famine-stricken residents of [[Kanauj]], seen on a trip over mountains from [[Landour]] to [[Shimla|Simla]]. Parks' narrative reflects admiration and respect for the richness of Indian culture. It includes a glossary of terms and a collection of translated Indian proverbs.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}<br />
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Some of Parkes's writings cover topics that were controversial at the time. One of the extreme examples was the murder of a woman in [[sati (practice)|sati]] by those who felt that male heirs were more entitled to her possessions.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Parks condemned the event and went on to criticize the laws governing married women in England. Parks also protested about a plan to sell the [[Taj Mahal]], which she compared to [[Westminster Abbey]]. Clashing with the lack of respect for Indian culture commonly found in Europe, she described natural beauty in [[Delhi]] and [[Benares]], and fascinating dress and [[Indian food|cuisine]]. In one of her last entries, she described feeling disenchanted with Europe after leaving India.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}<br />
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The memoirs were published as ''Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque during four and twenty years in the East with Revelations of Life in the Zenana'' (Pelham Richardson, 1850). [[William Dalrymple (historian)|William Dalrymple]] rediscovered and edited this travelogue as ''Begums, Thugs & Englishmen. The Journals of Fanny Parkes'' (Penguin Publishers). [[Iris Portal]] referred to Parks as a "kindred spirit" because of her curious writing style and the fact that her book expresses an open-minded approach to Indian customs.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}<br />
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In 1851 she invested money, organised and wrote the catalogue of the "Grand moving diorama of Hindostan, from Fort William, Bengal, to Gangoutri in the Himalaya", which was displayed at the "Asiatic Gallery, Baker Street Bazar, Portman Square. It was so popular that it was also shown in Hull in 1853.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Grand moving diorama of Hindostan, from Fort William, Bengal, to Gangoutri in the Himalaya |date=1851 |publisher=Asiatic Gallery, Baker Street |url=http://www25.us.archive.org/stream/gri_000033125008505741#page/n0/mode/2up/search/186 |accessdate=11 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Finn |first1=Margot |last2=Smith |first2=Kate |title=East India Company at Home, 1757–1857 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.doa.006 |date=2017 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=978-1787350281}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Parks |first1=Fanny |title=Grand Moving Diorama of Hindustan, Displaying the Scenery of the Hoogly, the Bhagirathi, and the Ganges, from Fort William, Bengal to Gangoutri, in the Himalaya |date=1851 |publisher=The Asiatic Gallery, Baker Street Bazar |location=London |pages=77}}</ref><br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
*F. Parks, ''Wanderings of a pilgrim in search of the picturesque, during four-and-twenty years in the East with revelations of life in the zenana'', 2 vols (London: Pelham Richardson, 1850) <br />
*''Begums, Thugs & Englishmen, the journals of Fanny Parkes'' ed. William Dalrymple (London: Sickle Moon Books, 2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Begums-Thugs-White-Mughals-Journals-ebook/dp/B00B9CO4R8 Kindle edition]<br />
*Barbara Eaton: ''Fanny Parks: Intrepid Memsahib, A Biography of Fanny Parks (1794–1875). An Independent Traveller in 19th Century India'' (UK: KDP Paperback and Kindle ebook {{ISBN|9781980329336}})<br />
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==References==<br />
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[[Category:Welsh travel writers]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Kanpur]]<br />
[[Category:1794 births]]<br />
[[Category:1875 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:People from Conwy]]<br />
[[Category:British women travel writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Welsh writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century British women writers]]<br />
[[Category:British people in British India]]<br />
[[Category:British women memoirists]]<br />
[[Category:Welsh women writers]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century British travel writers]]</div>Sabari2398