| Description | In this letter Mary Jane Taylor refers to Elizabeth's father's 'negotiations for a partner' in his stockbrokering business. She also describes her efforts to find someone to supervise Elizabeth's class of teenage boys at the Peckham Friends' First-Day School. Mary Taylor provides a long account of the family's recent difficulties with their neighbour Mr. Smith who had been beating his wife, writing that she had gone next door to help her. She describes how Smith had gathered together money supposedly for the collection plate at Church and then spent all afternoon 'in the wheelbarrow smoking'. Mary Taylor writes that Mrs. Smith had fetched a Keeper from Peckham House to protect her, adding that she intended to visit the bank manager to 'get some arrangement about money' so she could 'try for a separation' if she was unable to get an order to have her husband 'sent to a lunatic asylum'.
Mary Taylor's letter provides an insight into the business difficulties which John Taylor was experiencing and the family's financial trouble. She refuses to take back money which the family had sent to Elizabeth and which her daughter had offered to return, advising Elizabeth to 'not go shabby' by wearing other people's old clothes. She writes that Elizabeth's Uncle Joe had visited the family and encouraged them to believe that they would come through their difficulties, adding that they kept up their spirits by keeping busy. Mary Taylor concludes her letter with remarks about Elizabeth's intention to undertake paid teaching work. |