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Records of the Wood family, comprising 1695 marriage settlement between Edward Wood (son of Thomas and Dorothy) and Elizabeth Bridger of Guildford, mentioning land in Harmondsworth, Stanwell, Littleton, and Yorkshire. Also probate relating to money left by Thomas Wood of Littleton, 1856.

Records of several generations of the Whitehouse family of Islington. The bulk of the collection comprises a range of family correspondence, including letters from family living or travelling abroad in Pennsylvania and New York, USA; Calcutta, India; Wellington, New Zealand; and France. There are also letters from members of the family serving during the Boer War and the First World War; and letters detailing everyday civilian life in London during the Second World War. Other papers include school reports of Henry Whitehouse junior; papers relating to prizes for artwork; Dramatic Society papers; papers relating to Henry Whitehouse junior acting as Special Constable in Islington; papers relating to property in Hornsey and Islington; financial records and family trees.

Record of the inhabitants of Katharine Buildings, Cartwright Street, Aldgate, London.

Photocopies of the diaries of Elizabeth Tyrrell (1769-1835) and of her daughter Elizabeth (b 1802). Also photocopy of a Tyrell family pedigree spanning 1545 to the 20th century.

Personal diaries of John Thornton, merchant and member of the Clapham Sect. One journal has entries only on Sundays and records religious thoughts; while the others provide a record of daily events (including business, charitable activities and social events) interspersed with religious musings. Also drawing of the coat of arms of Lord Slane, described as an ancestor of the Thorntons.

The Sandhurst examination marks from 1913 (ACC/2360/005) appear to have no connection with the journals and the coat of arms.

Title deeds and other legal documents for properties in Old Brentford, Chiswick, Ealing, Enfield, Finchley, Hampton Court, Harrow, Hendon, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Stanwell, Tottenham, and Twickenham.

This collection consists of the diaries of two members of the Scott Turner family, the widow of Major Henry Scott Turner and her youngest son Cecil. Mrs. Turner's diaries cover the years 1885 to 1888 and record social engagements, domestic incidents and local events. Her daily routine is highlighted by visits, walks and outings to church, parties, and occasionally the theatre. She mentions friends and neighbours by name. The activities of her sons are prominent, but she appears to reserve her deepest affection for Cecil, her youngest. She rarely records her innermost feelings in the diaries, and allows her sons to write up entries. In the first diary she writes "End of 1885 which has had its troubles-tho' they may not be recorded here" (ACC/1385/001a). Events of national interest are only noted in passing, for example the Queen's jubilee celebrations in 1887 and the death of the German Emperor on 9 March 1888. The diaries provide a glimpse into the day to day existence, at times dull and humdrum, of a middle class woman of the late Victorian era.

After an education at Rugby and Oxford, Cecil Turner became a solicitor in London where his uncle Harcourt was a partner in the firm of M and H Turner, 22 Sackville Street, Piccadilly (ref. Law list, 1889). A letter dated 1911 found in one of the diaries is addressed to M C S Turner Esquire, 199, Piccadilly (ACC/1385/039, 31 December). For the most part Cecil only mentions his work briefly, with an occasional reference to a law suit or other business. His diaries are a record of his daily activities for 59 years, from the age of 27 to that of 85. They contain accounts of social engagements, particularly outings to the theatre and art galleries, visits to and from friends and relations, the state of the weather, his health, and domestic incidents. He made many visits, both at home and abroad, including voyages to South Africa where his soldier brother Henry was killed in 1899. He had many friends among the gentry and spent holidays shooting, walking and bicycling and attended country house parties. In his later years he became a convert to the Roman Catholic faith and his diaries reflect the great comfort he gained from this. As the years pass he is increasingly reminded of mortality and, with the death of his sister-in-law Dora in 1946, he is the last member of his immediate family left alive. Although the diaries comment on outside events, such as the progress of the two world wars, they are essentially the personal record of a professional gentleman, reflecting the minutiae of middle-class life in a rapidly changing world.

Household financial account books of the Dowager Marchioness of Reading, for London and country residences including 65 Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge, London and Twyford Lodge and Cumberland House, Sussex. Also photographs of 65 Rutland Gate, London and Twyford Lodge; and portraits of Lord and Lady Erleigh.

Papers of the Peachey family, consisting of official and family correspondence and papers, financial records, legal papers, and artefacts.

Records of the Monro family of Hadley, comprising the family correspondence-it is almost entirely correspondence-of the Monro family, about 1775 to 1905. (The one 1905 letter is an exception; most of the correspondence ends in the 1880's.) During most of the period the family lived at Hadley. They were gentry, descended from the Monro family of Foulis, baronets; but the sort of gentry who earned their livings in the law, in the East India service, etc., rather than being landed gentry. There are three boxes. One box contains the earlier correspondence, mainly from various members of the family. A good deal of it is from overseas, especially India.

There is an attractive grant of arms by Lyon, 1787, to Henry Knight Erskine, esq., and a most competent copy, 1862, of an achievement in full colour of the arms of Doctor Alexander Monro, Principal of the College of Edinburgh, by Henry Frazer, herald and painter, 1687. An unusual document is a passport, 1820, issued by the maire of Lisieux for Cecil Monro of Hadley ('sans profession').

There is quite a batch of letters from James Monro (cb. 1806) who seems to have been captain of an East Indiaman. He was master of the 'Houghton', the command of which he eventually sold for 8,000. There is also a printed pedigree of the Monro's, beginning with John Monro, MD, as part of a pedigree of Smith, baronets, of Hadley; a note on the envelope indicates that this is by Montagu Burrows (who appears to have been a relation).

The other two boxes consist entirely of the correspondence of Cecil J Monro, beginning with his earliest letters home from school and continuing for about fifty years. He went to Harrow and Cambridge, and corresponded with many more or less eminent people. His circle of correspondents included many who were in touch with public life and public affairs or with literary or scientific circles. His career is uncertain. He does not appear to have been a practising barrister, yet he obviously knew a great deal of law. There is much correspondence with Clement Mansfield Ingleby, Shakespearian scholar. Amongst other correspondents are W.J. Prowse, journalist and humourist. One of his friends, Litchfield, seems to have been Darwin's son-in-law. His brother was a barrister, as also had been his father.

Letters to Margaret Mackintosh, found during renovations at a dilapidated Victorian house in Ealing. There are ninety two letters in all: thirteen from Willoughby, February 1869-August 1872 and January-March 1877; thirteen from James, July 1871-March 1876; six from Ethel, May 1874-early 1877; six from Mary Anne, May 1874-January 1877; six from members of the Holmden family, June 1871-December 1877; one from Mrs. Mackintosh's brother, Alex Macpherson, undated; four from her friends the MacIrvines, September 1874-December 1876, and thirty three from various other friends.

There are also four letters to Willoughby from his uncle Alex, brother and sister-in-law; one to Mary Anne from an unnamed woman friend; one, almost undecipherable, to MA; one to a Mrs. Brodie from a Miss Paul; one to a Mrs. Ferguson from Alex Macpherson; one to "dearest Lucy", unsigned, and one which has neither beginning nor end.

Apart from the letters there is a certain amount of miscellanea: a dressmakers bill; a list of subscribers to a good cause; two prescriptions (Mrs. Mackintosh was troubled by a persistant cough, and Willoughby by asthma); a wedding invitation; a "short account of Miss Macready's last illness and death written by her nurse"; two manuscript verses, one a copy of "Work for the night is coming ...." and the other a long piece of doggerel extolling the virtues and recording the passing of little Nellie, aged about three; and finally two faded photographs, one of a bearded man in Victorian dress and the other of a younger man in an academic gown.

Records of the Jewish Vegetarian Society including copies of the quarterly Jewish Vegetarian Society magazine.

Records of the Child and Jersey families, including property transactions relating to properties in Norwood, Southall, Hanwell, Heston, Isleworth, and Saint George Hanover Square; sales particulars; tithe records; public utility undertakings; legal papers; estate papers; plans and rentals.

Papers of the Child and Jersey families, including household accounts of Robert Child comprising bills, receipts, and insurance policies for premises in St Clement Danes, Westminster; leases and agreements for premises in Westminster; household accounts for Lord Jersey including bills, receipts and expenses; papers relating to the Jersey estates including rentals, quit rents and fines for the manors of Northall, Norwood, Southall and Heston, and lists of the tenants; and maps of the Heston Enclosure Award 1818.

Papers of Michael James, 1959-2000, including correspondence, 1977-1986, notably letters sent to and written by Michael James whilst in prison, 1977-1982; journals and diaries, 1980-[1999], including material relating to the impact of AIDS on the gay community and Body Positive hospital visiting; notebooks, 1977-[2000], containing poetry and prose, diary entries, records of dreams and predictions, sketches, draft letters, notes and cuttings of articles written by James for gay publications; material relating to published and unpublished poetry, articles, reviews and interviews, 1974-1986; papers relating to Body Positive, 1984-[1994], including annual reports, minutes of the Annual General meetings, Hospital Visiting Group meetings and the Counselling Group meetings, newsletters and other publications, and correspondence; photographs, 1959-1989, including Gay Liberation Front and Body Positive events; printed material and ephemera, [1972-1986], notably copies of Come Together; the years of gay liberation, 1970-1973, and Men in frocks (GMP, London, 1984) by Kris Kirk and Ed Heath; a cassette tape and synopsis of an interview by Michael James for the AIDS Social History Programme, 1991, relating to his work with Body Positive; summary of a life history interview taped for the National Sound Archive, 1993; papers of Tarsus Sutton, 1932-1990, including personal papers, leaflets and pamphlets, letters and postcards from Michael James and a notebook relating to hospital visits for Body Positive; personal papers, memorabilia and diaries documenting gay life in Brighton, 1995-1998; audio tapes, [1988-2000], including material relating to the Gay Liberation Front, the Notting Hill commune, and Body Positive hospital visiting. M3364 (deposited February 2007): correspondence and diaries, 2006, with papers relating to community activities in Brighton and Hove, 2006 (including copies of the 'Kemptown Rag' , papers relating to the Defend Council Housing campaign and Brighton Pride photo souvenir magazine). Also CDs containing letters and diaries from 1997-2006.

Papers of the Howard family including marriage settlements, wills and probates, mortgages and other property documents for premises in St. George Hanover Square and St Marylebone.

This exceptionally interesting collection consists of the archives of a London business family, the Howards, and their relations by marriage, the Eliots. The family were based in London, with homes in the City and various places round about, but they also had property and connections in several other parts of England.

The chief interest of the collection is in its quality as the personal record of a group of prosperous manufacturing and merchant families who were members of the Society of Friends. The Eliots were merchants and their account books, which cover both business and private expenses, together with letters and memoranda, reflect a picture of "City" life in the Eighteenth century. They attended the Change, Lloyd's and Child's and Jonathan's and other Coffee Houses, and dealt with a variety of business including trade overseas in cotton and duck cloth and Cornish tin and invested in "a voyage to Lima" and other merchant shipping ventures (including that of the Tuscany, unfortunately "Taken by the French and carried into Marseilles" in 1757). (See especially numbers 905, 928, 929, 944, etc.).

There is interesting material relating to John Eliot's estates supplemented by John Eliot's letters (e.g. Numbers 988-1011), which also mention a "good season" for pilchards, the decline of the docks at Topsham, the appropriation by the Government of some sugar pans near Exeter to use for French prisoners, etc. John's sister Mariabella also purchased in 1765 Pickhurst Farm, Hayes, Kent (Nos. 376-475).

There are amongst this collection a few letters and papers of later Howards, including an interesting pocket diary in which Samuel Lloyd Howard, grandson of Luke, jotted (unfortunately rather roughly in pencil) memoranda and sketches of impressions of his visit to America in 1854 (No. 1618). At sea his ship rescued the crew of the Hannay of Whitehaven, loaded with salt and flying a distress signal-"lay to and took all off, boy, baggage, chronometer, barometers and all".

At all periods the family kept in close touch with their relations in all parts of the country, including the Hows of Aspley, Bedfordshire, the Paces of Westmorland and London, the Leathams of Yorkshire as well as with fellow Quakers. This gives the collection a national rather than a local interest-indeed the family were not primarily associated with any one locality.

A curious document amongst the collection is a receipt dated 1824 for 8. 15s from R. Smith for freeing Hamma Fie, slave to Bentoo Demba, and signed with the mark of Madeba, Alcaide of "Birkow" (No. 1617/p.12). The Society of Friends Committee for African Instruction supported some missions, and Richard Smith, a friend of Luke Howard, was in Africa in the 1820's.

Quaker marriage certificates, of which there are several examples (eg. Nos. 117, 565, 1273, 1274, etc) give full details of both parties and are signed by members of the Meeting as witnesses. Birth certificates (e.g., Nos. 1275-1286, 1390-1393) give the date of birth and name, and were signed by witnesses to the baby's birth. The Society of Friends was in advance of both the State and established Church in respect of such documentation.

Diaries of Anthony Heap, 1928-1985. The intention of the diarist does not seem to have been to record all the details of his life nor of the world around him. Some major world events are noted, and it is possible to derive some idea of life in London during the Second World War though not of the progress of that war. He recorded the deaths of statesmen and of people connected with the theatre of whom he wrote brief obituaries. He also recorded strikes and similar national events. From the 1960s the increasing cost of living receives frequent comment. Local and national elections are noted.

On the personal side the events which the diarist recorded, apart from reviews of performances and books, fall into a few main categories. He recorded expenditure and savings; his physical ailments (including the near-fatal attack of peritonitis which led to him being in hospital at the outbreak of war and which, with a later rupture, rendered him unfit for military service); the scouting and outdoor activities which he pursued as a youth and young man; his friendships, both male and (far fewer) female, and his family; and the weather.

From 1937 (Acc 2243/10) the diaries are kept in bound notebooks which the diarist paginated. The diarist recorded his attempts to secure a supply of these. The first diary is a pocket diary (Acc 2243/1) issued by Henekys Ltd., wine merchants, and the Sound and third (Acc 2243/2-3) Boy Scouts pocket diaries. Those for 1931-1932 are bound notebooks (Acc 2243/4-5) and those for 1933-1936 (Acc 2243/6-9) are Letts's office desk diaries. The first and second diaries are written in pencil, the third in ink, and the fourth and fifth in ink and indelible pencil. All the others are in ink. Every diary has been covered in brown paper by the diarist. All are in very good condition. There is evidence that the diarist corrected some entries throughout (usually spelling) but it is not known when.

Household accounts of Mrs K E Graham.

The collection mainly consists of a set of Isabel Fry's personal diaries and notebooks dating from 1878-1958. These are supplemented by letters to her friend Eugénie Dubois, c1930-1958, and a few publications and photographs. The diaries reflect all aspects of her life and career including her teaching activities and educational ideas; her preoccupations with political and social affairs, including political reform and emancipation in the East and in Turkey and Persia; her friendships with liberal intellectuals; and her involvement with anti-militarist movements, slum clearance, socialism and feminism. Also included are details of her relationship with her family, friends and their wider social circle.

Papers of Kurt Ferber, 1932-1949, comprise a set of correspondence between Kurt Ferber and a friend in Berlin, Olga Bruewitsch-Heuss; material relating to the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur; miscellaneous contemporary newspapers and cuttings; and unidentified notes. The correspondence is of particular interest for it provides insight into the mentalities of two ordinary German citizens with special reference to their political and cultural interests. From the content it is clear that Olga Bruewitsch-Heuss is a fervent follower of the Nazis and a virulent anti-Semite.

Personal papers of painter Andrew Brown Donaldson and his wife Agnes Emily Twining. The main series comprises diaries written jointly by Andrew and Agnes Donaldson. They start on the day of their wedding in June 1872, and end with Andrew's death in 1919, Agnes having died in 1918. The diaries provide a fascinating insight into middle class life in Victorian and Edwardian London, being mainly concerned with domestic matters, with occasional references to external events such as the Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, and World War One.

The plays and poems appear mainly to have been written by Donaldson for his children. Many of the plays were performed by the family during Christmas and new year festivities.

The collection also contains a small amount of material relating to the Donaldson's third child, Leonard. He pursued a career in the Royal Navy and was ultimately made an admiral.

Records of the Codd family, including journal/diary of Harrison Gordon Codd, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, 1824-40, recording his involvement in society and government, giving for example, his thoughts on the Poor Law Enquiry 1832, and his friendship with Nassau Senior, and details of family life and events (including a list of his children and their dates of birth on page one); journal/diary of Sophy Shirley Codd, daughter of Harrison Gordon Codd, 1835-36, giving details of daily employment (reading, writing, drawing, singing) and places visited (including Regent's Park Zoological Gardens and several picture exhibitions), and describing the death of her sister, Emma; and journal/diary of Frances Anne Codd, daughter of Harrison Gordon Codd, 1840-1879, recording her daily routine but placing emphasis on visits and outings, including pressed flowers and numerous prints of places visited. Also some Codd family papers including obituaries, correspondence, photographs, event programmes and family history.

The collection comprises diaries of William Hugh Burgess, a fifteen-year old boy from a family of Huguenot descent, who lived in Marylebone in the late eighteenth-century. They are rare examples of historical diaries written by a child.

In what became part of his daily routine from January 1788 until October 1790, William wrote about himself and his everyday life, simply recording what he did and what he saw.

Household and personal account book of Colonel Henry Ferryman Bowles.

Notebook containing recipes and some home remedies, 1850-1890.