ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN
The Social, Political and Cultural History of Rich and Powerful Women

Part 1: The Correspondence of Jemima, Marchioness Grey (1722-97) and her Circle, from the Bedfordshire County Record Office

"This project includes microfilm copies of a large corpus of letters written by women to women, thus bringing the eighteenth century to life from a woman's point of view. In it are answered a number of the questions students will inevitably ask about women's attitudes in this period."
James Collett-White,
Archivist, Bedfordshire County Record Office,
writing in the Introduction to the guide that accompanies this project.

This microfilm project covers some very lively and wide-ranging correspondence of an important literary circle. It includes letters to and from Marchioness Grey and her daughters, Amabel and Mary, as well as those of the essayist Catherine Talbot, who achieved fame with her Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week (1770).

Catherine Talbot was a good friend of Bishop Butler, the Earl of Bath, Lord Lyttleton, William Pulteney, Mrs Montagu and Samuel Richardson. She contributed to Samuel Johnson's Rambler.

Jemima's husband was Philip Yorke (1720-1790), a man of scholarly taste and well known in literary circles.

Some 1,832 letters and 9 volumes of transcripts provide scholars with an opportunity to examine the inter-relationships between these individuals and their close friends.

Women's attitudes to their husbands and on the upbringing of children feature regularly in the letters. Mary Yorke’s substantial letters to her sister-in-law, Jemima, describe her experiences with seven children and advice on how a nursery should be run and what wages should be paid. Other subjects covered include patronage, consumerism, their love of art and literature, reading habits, court life, Wrest Park & leisure pursuits.

This project will be of great interest for scholars of eighteenth century history, gender studies, literature and women's studies.

The Arrangement and Content of the Letters

Reels 1-5
Letters to Jemima, Marchioness Grey
The letters to Jemima should be used with her letters in reply (L30/9A/1-9 (Reel 10), L30/11/122 (Reel 5), L30/13/9 (Reel 8) and L30/21/3 & 5 (Reel 9), Jemima’s correspondents were either friends or relations who knew most of the other people of her set. The letters are therefore full of references to mutual acquaintances, especially to their health. Part of the year they lived in London and were involved in the political and court life of the capital. Often they had been brought up or visited Wrest Park, the old house and great garden, seat of the Greys. Love for Wrest is a theme that echoes throughout the correspondence. They shared a common intellectual and cultural background in which it was understood that women would enjoy literature including history, books in foreign languages and of course novels.

Women’s attitudes to t heir husbands and to bringing up children feature regularly in the letters.

Despite arranged marriages, Jemima and her two daughters were clearly fond of their respective husbands. The later letters reveal a warm and caring approach to children, in which nurses which were too old to have a romp were dismissed. While these general themes appear in a number of letters, individual groups have their special interests and these will now be highlighted.

Mary Gregory’s letters (L30/9/50/1-43) show her involvement in the restoration of Christchurch Deanery Oxford. One of Anne Sophia’s (L30/9/52/1-2) is an appeal to Jemima to help her in the difficulties of her engagement to her future husband. Jemima’s daughter Amabel’s letters (pre 1772, L30/9/51/1-18) and 1772-1796, L30/9/60/1-371) show her developing interests in art and her especial love for Wrest. She gives a detailed description of her bridal tour to Scotland in 1772. Her letters are full of her husband Lord Polwarth’s activities such as farming and hunting. His health increasingly predominates in the letters until his death in 1781. Amabel’s comments on her sister’s marriage negotiations shed an important light on how these were conducted. From 1781 Amabel’s letters concentrate on Wrest, her sister’s family and her father’s health.

Her sister Mary Baroness Grantham’s early letters (L30/9/54/1-18) date from when she was a child having a seaside holiday in Brighton. Letters when she was in her twenties refer to the famous Queen Charlotte’s Bed embroidered by Mrs Pawsey at Silsoe. The letters after her marriage (L30/9/81/1-158) give a detailed picture of her short marriage and the bringing up of her children, including Thomas, the future Early de Grey (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1841-1844) and Frederick, the future Earl of Ripon and Viscount Goderich (Prime Minister 1827-1828).

The two letters from Lady Marchmont concern the illness of her son, Lord Polwarth. The few items relating to Catherine Talbot include a couple of poems (one a translation from the Italian) (L30/9/87/1/4). The rest are believed to have been accidentally destroyed.

Mary Yorke’s letters (L30/9/111/1-273) are much more substantial. The descriptions of the places she lived in with her pluralist husband such as Lincoln and St Davids are particularly vivid. Using her experience of bringing up seven children she gave her advice as to how a nursery should be run and what wages should be paid.

Reels 5-7
Letters to Amabel Countess de Grey
These letters were written by Amabel’s mother, sister and cousin. The themes mentioned in the introduction to the letters to Jemima recur. Literature, Wrest and Mary Baroness Grantham’s children all figure prominently.

Jemima Gregory had been brought up with Amabel and seems to have been like a second sister. Her letters centre on their mutual interests, life at Court and her retreats at Esher and Petersham and her reaction to the death of her brother David are the highlights of this part of the correspondence (L30/11/122/1-41).

Jemima’s letters to her daughter (L30/11/122/1/395) show the developing relationship of mother and daughter from Amabel’s childhood through her widowhood to the trusted heiress of the Wrest Park estate. She was instructed by Jemima as to how the Pavilion at Wrest was to be repapered in 1773 and how Capability Brown should be handled. In the correspondence are details of a Royal Wedding and a Royal Christening, an elopement, and the American War of Independence. Jemima’s letters of sympathy to Amabel during Polwarth’s illness are especially noteworthy. The letters of her sister Mary have only been filmed prior to her marriage in 1780. The later letters have the reference (L30/11/240/1-294*). The two sisters were obviously warm friends. Mary’s love as a child of pets and her adult enthusiasm for musical evenings both feature.

Reels 8-9
Letters to Mary Jemima Baroness Grantham
The letters to Baroness Grantham filmed here are mainly from her mother and sister Jemima’s start when Mary was a small child and end in 1790 (L30/9/1-133). The 1780 letters for example include an account of a visit to Luton Hoo and elections in both Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Jemima commented on the death of Lord Polwarth and its effect on Amabel. After Mary had three children, the letters are full of reference to child care.

Amabel’s letters to her sister (L39/13/12/1-117) after her marriage. The earlier ones have a reference (L30/13/12/1-114)*. Highlights include the 1772 bridal tour, a visit to Wrest Park by Capability Brown and the illnesses of her husband and their father.

Two charming letters from Catherine Talbot to Mary as a small child round of this group. They are full of reference to cats and goldfish and written in a way to appeal to a child (L30/13/25/1-2).

Reels 9-10
Letters to Catherine Talbot
The bulk of Jemima’s letters to Catherine are found on Reel 10 (L30/9a/3-9). Most of the letters of Reel 9 (L30/21/3/1-14) are of ephemeral nature but do include two travel diaries, copied into (L30/9a/6).

Amabel’s letters show her interest in drawing and in literature, both of which enthusiasm she shared with Catherine.

Jemima’s in-laws, the Yorkes were also firm friends of Catherine. Elizabeth Anson shared Catherine’s love of books. References to patronage at her husband’s disposal reveals the important part she played in this role (L30/21/1/1-10). Margaret Heathcote’s letters (L30/21/14) refer to her lonely life at Stocken. She sent some verses to Catherine for criticism.

On Catherine’s death both Jemima Marchioness Grey and Mary Yorke continued to correspond with her mother (L30/21/5 & 6).

Reel 9
Letters to Jemima Gregory
Amabel’s letters in reply to those found on Reel 5 (L30/11/121/1-41) shed light on her attempt to get literary work published, secretly for fear of being called "an authoress". References are made in the letters to George III’s madness, the Gordon Riots and the American and French Revolutions.

Reel 10
Transcripts of letters by Jemima Marchioness Grey
After her mother’s death in 1797, Amabel gathered together letters from the chief recipients of Jemima’s letters: Mary Gregory, Catherine Talbot and Mary Yorke. The letters to Mary Gregory (L309a/1-3) and Catherine Talbot (L30/9a/3-9) cover the first twenty years of Jemima’s marriage; Catherine’s cover another ten and Mary Yorke’s bring it up to 1775 (L30/9a/9). Through these letters an intimate portrait of an intelligent woman’s daily pursuits and thoughts can be ascertained over a long period. The first two writers shared her love of books and her affection for Wrest Park. The travelling that Jemima did is particularly interesting when her comments are compared with those of her husband (see BHRS XLVII). Her growing children are often mentioned. Quite frequently she writes about her philosophy of life. The letters to Mary Yorke include on of 16 November 1772 describing the household intended to be set up by Amabel and the duties her housekeeper was to perform.