19. Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach – a Working Couple. Supplement: Friedelena Margaretha Bach

“The Bach family household was managed by Friedelena Margaretha Bach (1675–1729)”. This idea, formulated in those or similar words, is widespread and can be quite influential when considering the working couple Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach. So let us examine it further here. This will also show how difficult and error-prone it is to create an image of a person from sparse facts and few clues.

The baptismal register of the Gehren parish in Thuringia has an entry for 20 November 1675: “a daughter of the organist here, Mr. Johann Michael Bach, was baptised Friedelena Margaretha” (Hübner 2021, page 118). Friedelena Margaretha was related to Johann Sebastian Bach – they had the same grandfather.

In 1775 Johann Sebastian Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788) sent a genealogy of the Bach family to an acquaintance with the words: “my late father wrote the first paragraph many years ago” (Dok I, page 263). The origin of this document can be dated in 1735. It says about Friedelena Margaretha’s father Johann Michael Bach (1648–1694: “On his death he left a widow, the second daughter of the town scribe Mr. Wiedemann [sic] of Arnstadt, and 4 daughters but no son” (Dok I, page 258). The four daughters, apart from Friedelena Margaretha, were Anna Dorothea (1677–?), Barbara Catharina (1679–1737) and Maria Barbara (1684–1720).

In 1701 Friedelena Margaretha’s sister Anna Dorothea married in Gehren (Kock 1995, pages 74, 76, 109 and 113 f.). The mother, Catharina Bach née Wedemann died in the same place in October 1704.

The name of the sister Barbara Catharina appears in a record in Arnstadt in 1705. Johann Sebastian Bach was organist at the New Church there from 1703 to 1707. He had an altercation with a student in the market square one night in August 1705. One Barbara Catharina Bach witnessed the event and her statement was taken. Two people of this name are known to Bach researchers, but this must be Friedelena Margaretha’s sister, as the other, as recorded in her burial notice in January 1709, had been “bed-ridden for over 4 years” (Kock 1995, page 76).

On the 17 October 1707 “the honourable Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach” was married to “the maiden Maria Barbara Bach, the youngest maiden daughter of the late most honourable Johann Michael Bach, famous for his art as organist in Gehren” (Dok II, page 28).

Although Friedelena Margaretha is not mentioned in any documents it can be concluded that on the death of the mother in 1704 she moved to Arnstadt with her two unmarried sisters, where other relations lived.

From 1707 to 1708 Johann Sebastian Bach was organist in Mühlhausen and then moved with his wife to Weimar, where their first child Catharina Dorothea (1708–1774) was born. A record from March 1709 for the setting of a household tax for the residents of an apartment there says: “the organist Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach with his beloved [wife] and her sister” (Dok II page 39). This could be Friedelena Margaretha, but it cannot be ruled out that the sister Barbara Catharina was living there – she died unmarried in Arnstadt in 1737.

After the baptismal record, Friedelena Margaretha Bach is only mentioned again in a schoolbook of Wilhelm Friedemann. The following names are listed:

“Willhelm: Friedeman Bach. [1710–1784]

Carl. Phillipp. Emanuel. Bach.” [1714–1788]

These are continued in an apparently unskilled hand:

“Johann. Gottfried. Bernhard: Bach [1715–1739]

Christina: Sophiae Henrietta Bachin

mortuae est, die 29 Junio aeta:

 3 2/4     1726

Joh. Gottfried. Heinrich Bach [1724–1763]

Christina. Gottlieb Bach [1725–1728]

Johann Sebastian. Bach

Friedelena Marg” (see figure).

Figure: Entry in a schoolbook of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, found when the St. Thomas School was pulled down in 1902 (Freyse 1953, pages 103 ff.; Sammlung Bachhaus Eisenach / Neue Bachgesellschaft e.V.)

The first six names are children of the Bach family, who lived in the St. Thomas Church square in Leipzig from May 1723. The date of the daughter Christina Sophia Henrietta’s death, 29 June 1726, seems to have been added later but before the surname of “Joh. Gottfried Heinrich” was written. Therefore, the second part of this list of names would have been written after 29 June 1726.

It should be noted that the names of Anna Magdalena Bach and her daughter Elisabeth Juliana Friderica, born in April 1726, are missing, as is Catharina Dorothea (1708–1774), born in Weimar as mentioned above. Caution is therefore required when interpreting this manuscript. It is not an official document listing all the residents of the Bach household, but a list of names the reason for which is unknown, and that suddenly stops in the middle of the name Margaretha. Perhaps it was just an exercise in writing names.

This page could be taken as a small clue that Friedelena Margaretha was a permanent resident in her brother-in-law’s household at that time, but it cannot be ruled out that she was simply remembered for a visit, a letter or a gift.

The communion register of the Leipzig St. Thomas Church has an entry for 20 July 1729 that: “the Cantor’s maiden sister-in-law” received Holy Communion “at St. Thomas Church Square” (Dok II, page 127; Dok V, page 292). Unfortunately, the writer only recorded the relationship and did not make clear whether she lived in her brother-in-law’s apartment. Her name is not given either.

The gravediggers’ records, now in the Leipzig City Archive, show that on Thursday 28 July 1729 “Friedelena Margaretha, daughter of the late Johann Michael Bach, organist in Gehren near Ilmenau [died] at St. Thomas Church Square”.

These two sources are the basis for the conclusion that Friedelena Margaretha Bach lived in her brother-in-law’s apartment, at least during the last years of her life, and died there.

These are the limited facts which repeatedly give rise to many conjectures about her life. It is possible that experiences or assumptions about life in the 1950s play a role in this. In those days it was typical for housework such as cooking, laundry, cleaning and bringing up children to be primarily carried out by the female members of the family. But in the first half of the 18^th century this sort of work was done by servants. Remember the St. Thomas School rules of 1723, which explicitly state that the apartment provided for Johann Sebastian Bach was large enough for “wife, children and servants” (see 5. Were there servants in the Bach family household? Part II). Even a student had a cleaner who polished his shoes, cleaned his room and did his shopping (Müller 2007, pages 53, 65 f. 93, 97, 200).

Of course, it is possible that Friedelena Margaretha moved into her sister’s household after her marriage and helped, but it can be ruled out that she managed the household. This was the prerogative of the wife. She was “the assistant of the house father, consequently the other main person of a household, without whom the same cannot easily be kept in good order. From the point of view of the marital community, she is to be regarded as wife and mother, but from the point of view of the hierarchy and housekeeping she is to be respected as the lady of the house” (Zedler 17135, Volume 12, column 907).

For the time in Cöthen, where the Bach family moved from Weimar in 1717, there is no evidence that Friedelena Margaretha lived with her sister and brother-in-law, but this does not have to mean that this was not the case.

Perhaps she played an important role in the household after her sister Maria Barbara died in July 1720. But the extra work could also have been done by service personnel. (As it was for example in 1732 when Anna Magdalena and Johann Sebastian Bach made a journey to Kassel. See 5. Were there servants in the Bach family household? Part II).

Any thoughts on the relationship between Friedelena Margaretha and Anna Magdalena Wilcke, 26 years her junior, who married Johann Sebastian Bach in December 1721, can only be speculation. This is also true of Friedelena Margaretha’s life in Leipzig. For example, it is not known whether her death was preceded by a long illness. It is possible that she suffered her whole life from physical or mental problems, in which case any contribution to the household would have been severely restricted or impossible. Perhaps she even needed care herself.

In summary, we can only confirm that the great lack of knowledge about Friedelena Margaretha Bach precludes any conclusions about her way of life. Any statements are pure speculation.

While she was living in her brother-in-law’s household until her death, there must have been room to accommodate her. How this space was used afterwards will be the subject of a subsequent article.

Translation: Alan Shepherd

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