Letters shed light on Rowntree’s life

Revealing archive of family’s letters

BYGONES: New insights into the domestic life of “one of Britain’s greatest and most interesting philanthropists”, Joseph Rowntree and his Yorkshire family, have been revealed in letters .

Joseph Rowntree’s first wife, his mother and sister were prolific writers and their letters have been catalogued.

NEW INSIGHTS into the domestic life of “one of Britain’s greatest and most interesting philanthropists”, Joseph Rowntree and his Yorkshire family, have been revealed in letters written by the women closest to him.

Joseph Rowntree’s first wife, his mother and sister were prolific writers and their letters, catalogued by the University of York, offer revealing vignettes of family life.

They include hundreds to and from Joseph’s first wife, Julia Seebohm, who died three months after giving birth to the couple’s daughter, Lillie. The seven boxes of correspondence also include many from his mother, Sarah, and sister, Hannah, who stepped in after Julia’s death to run the household.

Sally-Anne Shearn, archivist for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, said: “This collection gives us a very poignant and touching insight into the real domestic details of the lives of the family.

“The female members of the Rowntree family were prolific letter writers”.

The collection contains some letters from Joseph, including a carefully penned marriage proposal to Julia’s parents.

It also includes the couple’s notes written to one another during their short marriage about daily domestic arrangements during long days apart when Joseph was working at the family grocery business.

The letters reveal the devastation felt by Joseph and his family after Julia’s death aged 22 and how his mother and sister stepped in to run the household and raise their daughter. The correspondence continues between the wider Seebohm and Rowntree

Dr Catherine Oakley, of the Rowntree Society.

families as they suffer further tragedy when Lillie dies of scarlet fever, aged six.

Dr Shearn said: “Thanks to the preservation and cataloguing of these letters we can begin to know Julia a little better, not solely as the ‘tragic lost wife’, but as a daughter, sister, friend, partner and new mother.”

The archives have 187 surviving letters between Julia and Joseph and Dr Shearn said the fact that they have survived in such good condition, suggests they were “cherished by Joseph and Julia’s wider family”, and reveal a “deep love and affection between the couple”.

The letters also reveal the private side of the York businessman and social reformer, who demonstrates a deep affection for his fiancée, at times tempered by his Quaker roots: “As to thy wedding dress, darling, thou will look so well in anything that it does not make much matter what thou has (within certain limits). I have no obligation to a white silk & it seems as though this might save a good deal of trouble.”

Dr Catherine Oakley, of the Rowntree Society, said: “The most well-known figures in the history of the Rowntree family are men.

“The conventions of the era dictated that men of status occupied roles of formal authority at home, in business and in wider society, and their lives have been documented accordingly.

“However, these letters offer rare insights into the experiences and feelings of Rowntree family women in their own words.”

Rare insights into the feelings of Rowntree family women.