Digital Mitford: Letter View

Letter to Mary WebbMary Elizabeth Webb | Born: 1796-04-15 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: .
Close friend and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. Mary Webb was the daughter of James Webb. and Jane Elizabeth Ogbourn. Baptized on April 15, 1796 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Sister of Elizabeth (called Eliza) and Jane Eleanor Webb and niece of the elder Mary Webb, Aunt Mary. In Needham’s papers, he notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on Broad street, presumably in Wokingham, Berkshire. She was the wife of Thomas Hawkins as she is referred to thus in probate papers of 1858 regarding the wills of her sister Eliza Webb Walter and her husband Henry Walter. Date of death unknown. Dates unknown.—scw, lmw, January 9, 1820

Edited by Lisa M. WilsonLisa M. Wilson, Managing Editor, Bibliography and Correspondence, Founding Editor, State University of New York at Potsdam
Lisa M. Wilson is Professor in the Department of English at SUNY Potsdam, where she has taught since 2005. Her areas of interest include transatlantic Romantic and Victorian era literature, particularly women’s writing and popular forms such as the Gothic novel and the literary ballad. She is also interested in book history and bibliographical studies, particularly in the study of authorship in the long nineteenth century (1780-1900). She has published in European Romantic Review, Romanticism on the Net (now RaVon), Romantic Circles, Romantic Textualities, and elsewhere. She is currently working on a monograph on Romantic-period authorship and literary celebrity. Her work on Digital Mitford thus far includes editing and coding Mitford’s Introduction to her collected Dramatic Works (1854), a critical memoir that recounts the author’s influences and experiences at Covent Garden and Drury Lane in the 1820s and 30s. It also includes researching Mitford’s publication history for the site’s working bibliography, particularly tracking the migration of Mitford’s stories from their first publication to their later reappearances in collections and periodicals. A Founding Editor of Digital Mitford, she and her teams of student research assistants have been at work since 2013 on transcribing, coding, and researching Mitford’s letters from 1817 to the early 1820s and on Mitford’s early poems, including her 22 sonnets and her long poems, Weston Grove and Antigone: A Portrait in Verse. She is currently teaching a course on digital textual editing for junior and senior undergraduates and directing undergraduate student internships for Digital Mitford. .

Sponsored by:

Mary Russell Mitford Society: Digital Mitford Project

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

First digital edition in TEI, date: July 1, 2018. P5.Edition made with help from photos taken by Digital Mitford editors. Digital Mitford photo files: DSCF9008.jpg, DSCF9009.jpg, DSCF9010.jpg, DSCF9011.jpg, DSCF9012.jpg, DSCF9013.jpg, DSCF9014.jpg, DSCF9016.jpg, DSCF9017.jpg, DSCF9018.jpg, DSCF9019.jpg, DSCF9020.jpg , .

Digital Mitford Letters: The Mary Russell Mitford Archive

Repository: Reading Central Library. Shelf mark:

Hands other than Mitford's noted on this manuscript:

Someone, apparently other than Mitford, perhaps cataloging letters and describing them, who left grey pencil marks and numbered her letters now in the Reading Central Library's collection. This letter labeled: [9 Jan. 1820] on page one.

Our default is the Diplomatic view.
Click to toggle the Normalized view (shows conventional spellings;
hides pagebreaks, insertion marks, and deletions):

Maintained by: Elisa E. Beshero-Bondar (eeb4 at psu.edu)

Last modified: 2024-12-03T18:19:57.687687Z

Our letters crossed, my dear friendMary Elizabeth Webb | Born: 1796-04-15 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: .
Close friend and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. Mary Webb was the daughter of James Webb. and Jane Elizabeth Ogbourn. Baptized on April 15, 1796 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Sister of Elizabeth (called Eliza) and Jane Eleanor Webb and niece of the elder Mary Webb, Aunt Mary. In Needham’s papers, he notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on Broad street, presumably in Wokingham, Berkshire. She was the wife of Thomas Hawkins as she is referred to thus in probate papers of 1858 regarding the wills of her sister Eliza Webb Walter and her husband Henry Walter. Date of death unknown. Dates unknown.—scw, lmw, & I write this tiny note to thank you for your kind and sweet one & to beg you to take great care of yourself. I don't like coughs & colds & headaches when they assail my own Mary WebbMary Elizabeth Webb | Born: 1796-04-15 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: .
Close friend and frequent correspondent of Mary Russell Mitford. Mary Webb was the daughter of James Webb. and Jane Elizabeth Ogbourn. Baptized on April 15, 1796 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Sister of Elizabeth (called Eliza) and Jane Eleanor Webb and niece of the elder Mary Webb, Aunt Mary. In Needham’s papers, he notes from the Berkshire Directorythat she lived on Broad street, presumably in Wokingham, Berkshire. She was the wife of Thomas Hawkins as she is referred to thus in probate papers of 1858 regarding the wills of her sister Eliza Webb Walter and her husband Henry Walter. Date of death unknown. Dates unknown.—scw, lmw.—My cold is much better, but just now I am almost ill of a fright—LucyLucy Sweatser Hill | Born: 1790-05-02 in Stratfield Saye, Berkshire, England. Died: .
Beloved servant for twelve years in the Mitford household who, on 7 August 1820 married Charles Hill. She is the basis for the title character in the Our Village story. Source: Needham Papers, Reading Central Library. —scw poor thing has had a tremendous fall tonight on the Ice and ^we were afraid of her head, not the page 2
strongest part of the poor faithful maid who is naturally very nervous & hysterical—the only comfort is she was not sick—but still though she has lost much blood. she wanders at times & talks incessantly.—

Poor HaydonBenjamin Robert Haydon | Born: 1786-01-26 in Plymouth, England. Died: 1846-06-22 in London.
Benjamin Robert Haydon was a painter educated at the Royal Academy, who was famous for contemporary, historical, classical, biblical, and mythological scenes, though tormented by financial difficulties and incarceration. He painted William Wordsworth's portrait in 1842 and painted a cameo of Keats in his epic canvas Christ's Entry into Jerusalem(1814-20). MRM was introduced to him at his London studio in the spring of 1817, and Sir William Elford was a mutual friend, and Haydon’s own acquaintances included several prominent British Romantic literary figures. He completed The Raising of Lazarus in 1823 . He wrote a diary and an autobiography, both of which were published only posthumously, and he committed suicide in 1846. George Paston's Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century (1893) contends that Mitford was asked to edit Haydon's memoir, but declined.—rnes, ebb is in great trouble—his DaphneDaphne
Mitford's dog, a female greyhound. However, there is also a pug named Daphne in the Our Village sketch Our Godmothers from 3: 1828, 266-287 . That Daphne was a particularly ugly, noisy pug, that barked at every body that came into the house, and bit at most.—lmw (once my MirandaMiranda
A greyhound owned by Mitford, described by her as blue all sprinkled with little white spots just like a starry night in her 13 February 1819 letter to Haydon.—lmw) is ill—She has the distemper, & he writes to me for advice & pity—& gets advised & pitied to his heartsheart's content—He is to have a puppy in the page 3
spring so I shall not need to [trouble] you dear PapaJames Webb | Born: 1769 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Died: 1822-01-11 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.
Prominent manufacturer in the Wokinghambrewing industry, and community leader in Wokingham and the county of Berkshire. Father of Eliza, Jane, and Mary Webb. Francis Needham suggested that he was the original of the gentleman in the Our Villagesketch Aunt Martha. Sources: Francis Needham, Letter to William Roberts, 16 June 1953 . Needham Papers, Reading Central Library . —scw, lmw for any of his — for if "the agreeable friend" comes I will come & see him—a compliment I would hardly pay to anyone else in the world.—Adieu my own dear love—I mean PapaGeorge Mitford, Esq., or: George Midford | Born: . Died: .
Father of Mary Rusell Mitford, George Mitford was the son of Francis Midford, surgeon, and Jane Graham. The family name is sometimes recorded as Midford. Immediate family called him by nicknames including Drum, Tod, and Dodo. He was a member of a minor branch of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle in Northumberland. Although later sources would suggest that he was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh medical school, there is no evidence that he obtained a medical degree and he did not generally refer to himself as Dr. Mitford, preferring to style himself Esq.. In 1784, he is listed in a Hampshire directory as surgeon (medicine) of Alresford. His father and grandfather worked as apothecary-surgeons and it seems likely that he served a medical apprenticeship with family members.
He married Mary Russell on October 17, 1785 at New Alresford, Hampshire. On the marriage allegation papers, both gave their addresses as Old Alresford; they later came to live at Broad Street in New Alresford. Their only child to live to adulthood, Mary Russell Mitford, was born two years later on December 16, 1787 at New Alresford, Hampshire. He assisted Mitford's literary career by representing her interests in London and elsewhere with theater owners and publishers. He was active in Whig politics and later served as a local magistrate. He coursed greyhounds with his friend James Webb.
—lmw to take this to Sessions & I will write on the outside how Lucy is at the latest hour—I know you will be sorry for her. Adieu once more—God bless you. Love to all.