Correspondence, diaries, notebooks and other papers of the Arnold family

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS 19c Arnold
  • Dates of Creation
      1810-1894
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      English
  • Physical Description
      Approximately 300 letters held in 14 envelopes, 1 picture frame, 1 bound volume, and 2 folders in 1 portfolio and 3 boxes on 1 shelf, principally manuscript with some photocopies; together with 27 volumes of diaries, notebooks, and other works, partly held in 2 boxes.

Scope and Content

Correspondence: Series I, Letters of Thomas Arnold: 107 letters to family members and friends; Series II, Letters of Mary Arnold: 45 letters to family members and friends; Series III, Miscellaneous family letters: 18 letters. Also, (a)-(d), a further 34 letters of Thomas Arnold, 5 of them photocopies, with other small fragments, (e) 19 letters of Jane Arnold (Mrs W. E. Forster) to family members, (f) an album of 14 letters from Matthew Arnold to Robert Browning and 2 letters from Mrs Arnold to Browning after Arnold's death, (g) portfolio of Mary Arnold's letters to her sister, (h) box containing a xerograph of Thomas Arnold junior's letters to family members from 1850-1896, (i) photocopies of other letters of Thomas Arnold, kept with the records of his conversations between 1825 and 1841. Diaries, notebooks and other papers: contents include travel diaries, journals, poems, family records and pedigrees, and Mrs Arnold's records of Thomas Arnold's conversations.

Administrative / Biographical History

Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), who became headmaster of Rugby in December 1827, married Mary Penrose (1791-1873) in 1820. They had eleven children, of whom nine survived. Matthew Arnold, the poet and critic was the eldest son

Access Information

Access is unrestricted

Acquisition Information

The gift of Mrs Mary C. Moorman of Bishop Mount, Ripon, ca. March, 1965, supplemented later by other deposits.

Note

In English

Other Finding Aids

Letters series I-III are listed in a NRA handlist headed "Thomas Arnold Letters", dated 1965. The great majority of the letters are also listed in the Leeds University Library's Letters database. The additional letters, diaries, notebooks, and other papers are listed in detail in a separate handlist kept with the archive. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/letters/letintro.htm

Custodial History

The papers were originally in the Arnold home at Fox How, Westmorland, in the possession of Dr Arnold's youngest daughter, Miss Frances Arnold, who died in 1923. From her they descended to Mrs Florence O'Brien of Ballyalla, Co. Clare, who was a granddaughter of Dr Arnold (a daughter of his son William, whose children were subsequently adopted by their aunt Jane (Mrs W.E. Forster) and all assumed the name of Arnold-Forster). Mrs O'Brien bequeathed the papers to the late Miss Dorothy Ward, and thence they descended to her niece Mrs Moorman.

Family Names