Eminent Victorians – Nonconformists – Anti-Slavery Activists
Collection of letters to and from members of the Read, Rawson, and Wilson families of Sheffield, 19th century-early 20th century
£3,528
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 07 February 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
Approx. 90 in total, all autograph unless otherwise stated, a few items mounted in 20th-century 4to blue half calf album, the rest loose, with quarter morocco solander box. Letters include:
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), American abolitionist and journalist, Birmingham, 1877, 3 pp., to Mary Anne Rawson, arranging to visit her at Wincobank Hall, Sheffield (‘It is rare indeed that friends are permitted to see each other, after so long a separation, especially if an ocean intervene … You speak of your advanced age. But I have kept step with you, and we shall meet relatively as to our years as we stood in 1840 …’), the letter mounted in album opposite an albumen print photographic portrait of Garrison;
George B. Cheever (1807-1890), American abolitionist minister, 2 letters, 1886, both to ‘My dear Sir’, 3 pp. and 2 pp., recalling a visit to ‘your dear and honoured aunt’, i.e. Mary Anne Rawson (‘We can never forget her kindness, and the charm of her household circle’), mentioning abolition (‘With what exceeding pleasure you must all have looked back upon your own God-guided efforts in behalf of the millions of slaves, by God’s great mercy and Divine Providence as free as ourselves, and needing only to be educated and trained in the knowledge and grace of the blessed, gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’), enclosing photographic carte-de-visites of Cheever and his wife (both present), etc.;
William Booth (1829-1912), general of the Salvation Army, to Mr Wilson, 1902, 2 pp.;
Evangeline Booth (1865-1950), daughter of William and his successor as general of the Salvation Army, 1896, To Mr Wilson, typed letter signed, 1 p.;
Agnes Weston (1840-1918), philanthropist to sailors, 1 p., 1895, to Mr Wilson, declining an invitation;
Newman Hall (1816-1902), nonconformist divine, 2 letters, 1863 and undated, the first to Mary Anne Rawson, 6 pp., the second to ‘Dear Madam’, concerning an invitation to Sheffield from Mr and Mrs Wycliffe Wilson;
W. E. Nightingale (1794-1874), father of Florence Nightingale, 1843, ‘My dear Sir, Many thanks to you and to Miss Read for your most liberal invitation to stay at Derwent Hall …’, 2 pp.;
Thomas Raffles (1788-1863), Congregational minister and abolitionist, 2 letters, to Joseph Read, 1827, 1 p., and to Mrs Read, undated, 2 pp., on preaching and social engagements;
Thomas Rawson Birks (1810-1883), Church of England clergyman, theologian and opponent of Darwinism, 9 letters, all to members of the Read family, 1820s-60s, on religion, family matters, etc. With 2 letters from Agnes and Anna Birks;
Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905), philanthropist and founder of Dr Barnardo’s Homes, 1877, to Mary Anne Rawson, regarding her gift of a parcel of cloth jackets for Barnardo’s children;
Richard Winter Hamilton (1794-1848), Congregational minister, 3 letters, all to Joseph Read, 1827, 1833 and undated, 1, 2, 1 pp.;
and numerous others, including from John Pye Smith (Congregational minister and abolitionist), Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury (as Viscount Cranborne, 1936, on Foreign Office stationery), Thomas Binney (Congregational minister and abolitionist, to Mrs Rawson), Constance, Lady Battersea, George Rawson (hymn-writer, a bifolium of hymn lyrics), Goldwin Smith (historian), Nathaniel Micklem (Congregational minister and principal of Mansfield College, Oxford), J. Rendel Harris (biblical scholar, 2 letters), politicians, divines, etc. Together with a selection of relevant engraved portraits, cartes-de-visite and printed ephemera, and an ambrotype apparently showing Mary Anne Rawson seated among family members
Footnote
The John Rylands Library (University of Manchester) holds a related collection of papers bequeathed by a member of the Wilson family in 1923 and catalogued as the ‘Rawson/Wilson Anti-Slavery Papers’ (GB 133 Eng MSS 414-415, 741-744). Their description summarises the lives and activities of successive members of the Read, Rawson and Wilson families:
‘Mary Anne Rawson, née Read (1801-1887), of Wincobank Hall, Sheffield, was a noted campaigner against slavery. She was the daughter of Joseph Read (1774-1837) and his wife Elizabeth, both prominent Nonconformists and philanthropists. Joseph Read controlled the company which became the Sheffield Smelting Company. Mary Anne's sister, Elizabeth Read (1803-1851), was married to William Wilson (1800-1866), and was the mother of Henry Joseph Wilson (1833-1914). Sometime in the late 1820s, Mary Anne Read married William B. Rawson, a banker of Nottingham. The marriage however was very short-lived, as William Rawson died sometime during the 1830s … Henry Joseph Wilson (1833-1914) was born in Nottingham, the son of William Wilson (1800-1866) and Elizabeth, née Read (1803-1851), Nonconformist radicals; his father was the chairperson of the Nottingham Anti-Slavery committee … In 1866, after the death of his father, Wilson joined his brother at the Sheffield Smelting Company. The success of the business enabled Wilson to pursue a career in politics, championing ultra-progressive Liberalism … Wilson's son, Alexander Cowan Wilson (1866-1955), was a well-known Quaker philanthropist. Alexander Wilson moved to Manchester in 1916 where he continued in the family tradition of campaigning against slavery and conscription’.
Provenance:
By descent to David R. Wilson (1926-2020), bookseller and ornithologist (obituary: British Birds, vol. 113, issue 9, pp 560–561).