Catalogue description Letters from Elizabeth Anne (Eliza) Bostock

Eliza Bostock [EAB]was one of EJR's staunchest supporters in the venture of setting up Bedford College, and was one of the original Trustees of the Reid Trust. She was the daughter of a dependent mother, and was unable to devote as much time to College business as she wished to, so her letters tend to report on her social and family news more than on College affairs. The letters are written from her London home (34 Clarges Street until 1855, 5 Ulster Terrace thereafter until her mother's death in 1863), from the home of her aunts, Misses Maria and Ellen Yates (the Dingle, Farmfield, near Liverpool), and houses of other relations, and from lodging houses on her frequent excursions with her mother or with friends, including Kate Roget whom she supported through a depressive illness. Very few of the letters are fully dated, so this attempt to put them into chronological order is not necessarily authoritative. The letters have been left in the files as found. A few surviving envelopes had unfortunately been separated from the letters to which they pertain. At some time [for Margaret Tuke's 1939 history of the College?], suggested dates have been written in pencil on the letters, but these are not always accurate.