Chalk portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851.

1797:    The parents of Elizabeth Gaskell (EG), William Stevenson and Elizabeth Holland, marry in Cheshire.

1798:    EG’s elder brother, John, is born.

1805:    William Gaskell is born in Warrington, Cheshire.

1806:    William Stevenson moves to London and becomes Keeper of the Papers at the Treasury. His family joins him in 1809, in a house in Chelsea.

1810:    EG is born on 29 September.

— Luddites break machinery in Nottingham, sparking off wide unrest and opposition to the Industrial Revolution across the country.

1811:    EG’s mother dies; EG leaves for Knutsford, Cheshire, to be cared for by her maternal aunt, Hannah Lumb.

1813:    Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice.

1814:    EG’s father remarries to Catherine Thomson and has two children with her.

1815:    Parliament passes the Corn Laws, tariffs on imported grains, which drive up prices and have devastating consequences for the poor.

1817:   Jane Austen dies.

Engraving of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile, 1 October 1819.

1819:    The Peterloo Massacre: the cavalry charges into a crowd of peaceful protesters at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, resulting in 18 deaths and several hundred people injured.

— Parliament passes the Six Acts to prevent outbreaks of public disorder.

1820:    William Gaskell starts studying at Glasgow University.

— George III dies and is succeeded by George IV, Regent since 1811.

1821:    EG attends the Byerley sisters’ boarding school at Barford, then at Avonbank, until 1826.

— The Manchester Guardian, precursor to the Guardian daily, begins publication.

1822:    EG’s brother, John, joins the merchant navy.

Engraving of the The Royal Institution, Manchester.

1823:    Local Unitarians cofound the Institution for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, later the Royal Manchester Institution.

1824:    The Mechanics’ Institute is founded in Manchester; William Gaskell later teaches English literature there.

— The Combinations Acts of 1799-1800, which prohibited unions and labour strikes, are repealed.

1825:    William Gaskell begins his studies to become a Unitarian minister at Manchester New College, then at York.

Portrait of Elizabeth Cleghorn in the late 1820s by William John Thomson.

1828:    William Gaskell is appointed to Cross Street Chapel, Manchester.

—  John Stevenson, EG’s elder brother, is lost at sea in India.

— The repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts removes restrictive measures against Dissenters.

1829:    William Stevenson, EG’s father, dies.

— Industrial unrest spreads in Rochdale, Macclesfield, and Manchester.

The opening of the Liverpool-Manchester railway, on 15 September 1830.

1830:    The Liverpool and Manchester railway, the world’s first inter-city passenger railway, opens, accelerating the growth of Cottonopolis.

— George IV dies and is succeeded by King William IV.

1831:    Thomas Ashton, an important local mill-owner, is murdered in Manchester by striking workers.

William Wyld, Manchester from Kersal Moor, with Rustic figures and goats, 1852.

1832:    EG marries William Gaskell in Knutsford, Cheshire; the newly-weds settle in Manchester.

— Harriet Martineau publishes Illustrations of Political Economy, which includes “A Manchester Strike”.

— Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth publishes a treatise warning about the conditions of the cotton operatives in Manchester.

— Parliament passes the First Reform Bill.

— Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, dies.

McConnel & Company’s cotton mills in Ancoats, Manchester, 1820

1833:    EG gives birth to a stillborn girl.

— The Factory Act is passed: children under 9 can no longer be employed in the cotton mills, while hours for children under 13 are limited to 48 per week.

— Slavery is abolished.

1834:    Marianne Gaskell, EG’s eldest daughter is born, followed by Margaret Emily, known as Meta (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), William (1844) and Julia Bradford (1846).

— The Poor Law Amendment Act creates the workhouse system.

1836:    Charles Dickens publishes the first instalments of Pickwick Papers, with Chapman & Hall.

— Manchester manufacturers form a Master’s Association to resist social reform and legislative interference in the running of the industry.

1837:    EG and William Gaskell’s poem “Sketches among the Poor” is published in Blackwood’s Magazine.

— Hannah Lumb, EG’s aunt, dies.

— Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist.

— Thomas Carlyle publishes The French Revolution.

— William IV dies and is succeeded by Queen Victoria.

Victoria receives the news of her accession from Lord Conyngham and the Archbishop Howley. Painting by Henry Tanworth Wells, 1887.

1838:    William Howitt publishes Visits to Remarkable Places, containing a description of Clopton Hall credited to “A Lady,” the first work written solely by EG.

— The Anti-Corn Law League is formed.

— The “People’s Charter” is published, marking the official act of birth of Chartism.

1839:    William Gaskell publishes a book of Temperance Rhymes anonymously.

— Thomas Carlyle publishes Chartism.

1840:    William Howitt releases The Rural Life of England, which includes EG’s second published work, entitled “Notes on Cheshire Customs”.

— William Gaskell becomes secretary of Manchester New College; in 1846, he is promoted to Professor of English Literature and History there.

— Economic crisis evolves into depression in Manchester, causing many workers to be unemployed and fall into poverty. The period comes to be called the “hungry forties”.

— Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

The interior of Deane Mills, Manchester, 1851

1842:    The German sociologist and political theorist Friedrich Engels moves to Manchester for two years, to take care of a family factory located there.

— Social unrest increases in Manchester, with strikes, mob gatherings and riots.

1843:    William Wordsworth becomes Poet Laureate.

— Thomas Carlyle publishes Past and Present.

1844:    EG gives birth to a son, who dies of scarlet fever the next year.

— The Factory Act prescribes a maximum 12-hour workday for women and a 6-hour day for children.

— Friedrich Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Classes in England in Germany; the book is translated in English in 1892.

— Benjamin Disraeli publishes the Condition of England novel Sybil, or the Two Nations.

1845:    Potato blight develops in Ireland, leading to the wiping out of the crop, the starting point of the Great Famine.

1846:    The Corn Laws are repealed.

The Royal Exchange, the main trading hall for cotton in the city center.

1847:    EG publishes her first short stories in Howitt’s Journal under the name Cotton Mather Mills.

— Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine start flocking to Manchester.

— Parliament passes the Town Improvement Causes Act.

— Parliament passes the Ten Hours Act, which requires a 10-hour workday for women and for men under 18.

— Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre.

— Emily Brontë publishes Wuthering Heights.

— Anne Brontë publishes Agnes Grey.

A 19th century slum area in Manchester known as Angela Meadow, and called « Hell upon Earth » by Friedrich Engels in 1844.

1848:    EG publishes her first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life, anonymously.

— John Stuart Mill publishes Principles of Political Economy.

— The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood is founded by painters Holman Hunt, D.G. Rossetti and John Everett Millais.

— The springtime of the people spreads across Europe.

1849:    EG goes to London for several weeks and meets the capital’s most prominent intellectuals.

— William Gaskell becomes chairman of the Manchester Portico Library.

— Charles Kingsley publishes the Condition of England novel Alton Locke.

The front facade of 84 Plymouth Grove, once the home of author Elizabeth Gaskell and her husband, now a museum known as Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.

1850:    EG becomes friends with Charlotte Brontë.

— The Gaskells moved to a larger villa in Manchester at 84 Plymouth Grove.

— Dickens invites EG to contribute to his new journal, Household Words.

— William Wordsworth dies; he is replaced as Poet Laureate by Lord Tennyson.

Opening ceremony of the Great Exhibition in May 1851

1851:    On 1 May, Queen Victoria inaugurates the Great Exhibition; EG visits on three occasions.

1853:    EG’s second novel, Ruth, is published by Chapman & Hall.

— EG’s third novel Cranford is published by Chapman & Hall.

— A strike is launched by weavers in the industrial town of Preston, Lancashire, lasting seven months and paralysing the local cotton industry.

Charles Dickens in his study: painting by William Power Frith, 1859.

1854:    Charles Dickens publishes the Condition of England novel Hard Times.

— EG’s fourth novel, North and South, is serialized in 22 weekly instalments in Household Words; it is published in book form by Chapaman & Hall the following year.

— A fifth edition of EG’s Mary Barton is published, with lectures on the Lancashire dialect by her husband included.

— France and England declare war on Russia: the Crimean war begins.

— Florence Nightingale leaves for Crimea, with nurses and equipment.

1855:    Charlotte Brontë dies; Patrick Brontë asks EG to write a biography of his daughter.

The Brontë sisters (Anne, Emily, Charlotte): painting by Patrick Branwell Brontë

1857:    EG’s biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, is published in two volumes.

1859:    The last number of Household Words is published; Dickens launches his new periodical, All The Year Round, and EG’s novella Lois the Witch is serialized in it the same year.

— George Eliot publishes her first novel, Adam Bede.

— Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.

1861:    Prince Albert, Victoria’s husband, dies.

1864:    EG’s eighth and last novel, Wives and Daughters, is serialized in The Cornhill, before being published posthumously in book form by Smith, Elder & Co. in 1866.

Photograph of William Gaskell in the 1870s.

1865:    EG dies of a heart attack in Holybourne, Hampshire, and is buried in Knutsford.

1868:    The first Trades Union Congress is held at the Mechanics’ Institute in Manchester.

1884:    William Gaskell dies in Manchester, and is buried beside EG in Knutsford.