| Description | This section contains copies of Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's family journal letters, a series of letters created by Taylor Cadbury and distributed amongst her family to record and circulate family news. The section also includes copies of letters written in the form of journal accounts sent to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury and George Cadbury by their son Egbert Cadbury and daughter Marion Janet Cadbury during the First World War. Letters exchanged between other members of the Cadbury family between 1947 and 1952 are also featured.
During the early twentieth century it appears that letters featuring similar content were sent by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury to different members of her family, but this was later reduced to one letter distributed to both the Taylor and Cadbury families as a group. Copies of these letters were kept and filed by Taylor Cadbury's personal secretaries. Typically written at weekly intervals during the early twentieth century, the letters appear to have become less frequent later in Taylor Cadbury's life. The letters include a compilation of personal news, Taylor Cadbury describing her recent activities, commenting on contemporary social and political issues and responding to letters which she had received from her siblings and children. Many of the letters also include extracts from correspondence which Taylor Cadbury received from other family members and additional sections headed 'family news' which follow the main body of the letters. In addition, a number of the letters include extracts from newspaper articles or poetic quotations. Many of the letters are written in the form of extended diary entries with the news divided into dated sections. Occasionally brief additional letters were written between the regular family journal letter announcing important family news such as arrangements for Christmas.
Individual entries here provide the starting date of each family journal letter which typically cover one to two weeks. A number of these letters incorporate a number of letters with different dates attached together to form one document. It is possible that this reflects how the family journal letters were sent. Where this occurs items have been catalogued as one individual letter to maintain the original structure and ordering of items. Similarly, in some instances documents entitled 'family news' featuring the same date as a separate family journal letter have been enclosed loose and not attached to the letter with the corresponding date. These have been catalogued here as separate items to maintain the structure in which the letters were originally filed. Where these sections have been attached to family journal letters they have been incorporated as part of the letter itself. In 1943 each letter appears to have been accompanied by a 'family news' section. These have been catalogued as separate items as they are undated and unnumbered. When 'family news' sections are attached to letters they have only been mentioned in catalogue entries here if they are page-numbered separately, indicating that they weren't prepared as part of the letter to which they are attached. Many letters feature a page of extracts from letters received by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury which are unnumbered and attached to individual letters. These have not been mentioned in catalogue entries as they were incorporated as part of the family journal letters themselves.
In addition to letters exchanged by the Cadbury family, the file of letters written during 1925 contains a letter dated 28th March 1953 from Geoffrey Nutall to Richenda Scott who published a biography of Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury in 1955. Scott's presence amongst Taylor Cadbury's family journal letters illustrates the importance of this correspondence as a source for learning about Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's life during the twentieth century and her role in shaping the legacy of the Cadbury family in her creation and preservation of documents recording their experiences and achievements.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's family journal letters for 1904 has been catalogued in depth here to provide an insight into the type of content and level of detail featured in her family journal letters. Entries relating to family journal letters written in 1905 also feature a brief description of their content. Entries for subsequent years provide information about the dates of each letter and the location where they were written from. These entries also highlight any periods which are not covered within each year and state whether the letters have been typed or handwritten. Owing to the length and detail of content included within each family journal letter readers are advised to consult the documents in person to learn more. |
| AdminHistory | The Cadbury Family Papers contain family journal letters written by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury between 1904 and 1950 as well as an additional file of letters which were exchanged between other members of the Cadbury family during and after this period. These papers are particularly interesting in the light of Sandra Stanley Holton's recent work which explores the ways in which Quaker women often took on the role of 'family chronicler' during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, creating correspondence which 'became central to maintaining the ties of kinship'. It is possible that letters written during the first half of 1904 and perhaps earlier have gone missing. However, other letters in the Cadbury Family Papers suggest that George Cadbury may have written a similar letter to his children as an early forerunner to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's family journal letters. In addition, a letter written by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury to her father John Taylor in 1892 suggests that the Cadburys were enthusiastic about keeping a written record of their family activities indicating that the Cadburys may have begun compiling family journal letters during this period.
A letter dated 4th January 1951 amongst these family journal letters suggests that Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's responsibilities compiling the family letter appear to have been taken over by George Cadbury (possibly Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's son George Norman Cadbury or Grandson George Woodall Cadbury) in January 1951. This letter features a covering note describing the content and editorial principles of the Cadbury family journal letters.
Many of the family journal letters appear to have been written and compiled by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury herself, the majority of the letters featuring her signature written or stamped in ink. However, later in the 1930s and 1940s different family members and Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's personal secretaries Miss Phyllis Cook and her companion Miss Elsa Fox contributed to the family letters with their own content. Taylor Cadbury's relatives and secretaries also assisted her in compiling details for the 'Family News' sections which appear at the end of many family journal letters. Phyllis Cook also annotated the letters with remarks such as the following, featured at the end of a letter dated 2nd July 1946. In the form of a postscript Cook wrote:
'Mrs. Cadbury has written this letter in many different places under all sorts of travelling conditions, pressure of time, etc., and has not been able to see it complete before going to print. She therefore hopes that any omissions or errors or appearance of disjointedness will be excused, as she wishes to circulate it before the Type Office closes down for August week and many members of the family go on holiday.'
Cook's comment reveals how Taylor Cadbury acted as a family secretary, collecting and distributing news amongst her relations which was professionally printed in the form of a family newsletter. Indeed, annotations throughout this collection of correspondence indicate that Taylor Cadbury actively preserved copies of her family journal letters, revealing their function as a record of Cadbury family life. Furthermore, Taylor Cadbury maintained control over the content and circulation of her family letter, sending handwritten letters home to be typed by her personal secretary when she was away on holiday together with instructions about their distribution. Occasionally multiple typed copies of letters written by Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury whilst she was away from home have been preserved in the files here. Comments in the family journal letters also suggest that Taylor Cadbury dictated content to her secretaries who then typed the letters which appear to have been approved by Taylor Cadbury before being distributed. A number of letters feature details of 'corrections' to previous letters which featured typing errors or omissions. In addition, a number of the family journal letters have been censored with content removed or excluded. In relation to this is it interesting that Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury signed her family journal letters with her full name, suggesting that the letters may have had a wider distribution beyond her close family. |