Eyre Family: Correspondence and Papers

Elizabeth Eyre was the younger daughter of Charles Eyre of Clapham (1732-1794) by his first wife Hannah, daughter of John Briscoe of Goodhurst, Kent, whom he had married in 1771. Elizabeth's sister Maria married the M.P. Robert Thornton. Their brother George Eyre (b. 1772) was Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Verderer of the New Forest, J.P. for Wiltshire and Hampshire, and High Sheriff of Wiltshire (1815). By his first wife Frances (d. 1820), daughter of Sir Edward Hulse, Bart., whom he married in 1803, he had George Edward (1804-1887), barrister and antiquary. George Edward Eyre's son George Edward Briscoe (b. 1840) was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. He became J.P. for Hampshire and Wiltshire, and was elected Verderer of the New Forest in 1877.

The collection consists of two sets of correspondence, those of Elizabeth Eyre and George Edward Eyre. Elizabeth's papers include many lengthy letters from her brother George, and a similar number from her sister Maria. George Edward Eyre's correspondence includes a series of letters from his father advising him upon his studies at Oriel College, Oxford, and at Lincoln's Inn during the 1820s. There are also letters from his business partner William Spottiswoode during the 1840s and 1850s. The collection also contains a few papers of George Eyre and of George Edward's son, George Edward Briscoe Eyre. The latter shed some light on attempts made during the Great War to preserve the New Forest from short-term military development.

Presented to the Library by Pauleen, Lady Chapman in 1974, in accordance with the wishes of her late step-sister Mrs. A.M.H. Westland. The papers were in the possession of Mrs. A.M.H. Westland prior to their transfer to the Library, who appears to have inherited them from her sister-in-law Miss Mildred Westland. It has not been possible to trace any earlier reference to the material.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Eyre Family: Correspondence and Papers, MS Add.7961

The collection complements the papers of the Thornton family, MS.Add.7674, and those of William Smith and family, MS.Add.7621, in illustrating the activities of the Clapham Sect, a group of prosperous, evangelical families which flourished in South London at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.