Papers of the Mayor and related families

The Mayor archive contains papers of three intermarried families, the Mayors, Grotes and Bickersteths, all of whom had some connection with Cambridge. The earliest member of the Mayor family represented in the papers is John Mayor, vicar of Shawbury in Shropshire. Of his sons, Joseph became a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge and later Rector of South Collingham in Nottinghamshire. Another Son, Robert, became a missionary for the Church Missionary Society and spent much of the 1820s in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with his wife Elizabeth Bickersteth. Three of Robert and Elizabeth's sons became Fellows of St John's, Robert Bickersteth Mayor, who later became Mathematical Master at Rugby and Rector of Frating, John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor, who was University Librarian and Professor of Latin at Cambridge and Joseph Bickersteth Mayor, who became Professor of Classics at King's College, London. It was Joseph Bickersteth Mayor who married Alexandrina Jessie Grote, among whose children can be counted Robert John Grote Mayor, always known as ';Robin';, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Flora MacDonald Mayor, author.

The Grote family came over to England in the eighteenth century. By profession they were bankers and the early letters of Andreas, Joseph and George Grote senior give some idea of their banking business and their links with the continent. George sen. married Selina Mary Peckwell, establishing a link with the Peckwell/Blossett family. They had 11 children, the eldest of which, George, followed the family business before becoming MP for the City of London and later writing a voluminous history of Ancient Greece. One of George's younger brothers, John Grote, was a Fellow of Trinity College and Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy.

The Bickersteths are represented in this collection by John Bickersteth, a student at Trinity and later vicar of Acton and his brother Edward, Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, both brothers of Robert Mayor's wife.

Papers (mostly correspondence) of John Mayor 1780-1826; Jane Mayor 1812-1825; Joseph Mayor 1818-1826; Ann Mayor 1817-1846; Charlotte Mayor 1801-1869; William Henry Mayor 1817-1844; Robert Bickersteth Mayor 1838-1897; Mary Anna Mayor 1834-1898; Elizabeth Mayor 1835-1896; Charlotte Mayor jun 1839-1870; John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor 1848-1910; Joseph Bickersteth Mayor 1842-1916; Katherine Anna Mayor 1846-1898; Emily Mabel Mayor 1842-1914; Georgina Allix Mayor 1849-1897; Frances Jane Mayor 1851-1897; Robert John Grote Mayor (Robin) 1879-1946; Henry Bickersteth Mayor 1927-1949, Alice MacDonald Mayor 1890-1932; Flora MacDonald Mayor 1882-1927; Andreas Grote 1788; Joseph Grote 1764-1781; George Grote sen 1777-1829; Selina Mary Grote 1783-1842; George Grote jun 1835-1871; Harriet Grote 1850-1878; Charles Grote 1827-1835; John Grote 1835-1870; Andrew MacDonald Grote 1850-1860; Henry Bickersteth 1806-1817; John Bickersteth 1802-1830; Henrietta Bickersteth 1812-1813; Edward Bickersteth 1818-1847; Robert Bickersteth 1811-1838; Mary Anna Cooper 1799-1846; John Cooper 1818-1849; Mrs C MacDonald 1821-1848; Roderick MacDonald 1835-1837; Henry Peckwell 1872; Sir Robert Henry Blossett 1811-1838; Louisa Rose 1789-1816; Charlotte Rose 1811-1816.

Donated by Teresa, Lady Rothschild

The papers were passed from Lady Rothschild directly to Trinity College Library

Please cite as Trinity College Library: MAYOR

Additional papers of Robert John Grote Mayor were deposited in Trinity College Library in 2001