LETTERS AND PAPERS OF VERNON LUSHINGTON AND JANE LUSHINGTON

The contents comprise:

7854/3/1 LETTERS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON ON THE DEATH OF STEPHEN LUSHINGTON, 1873

7854/3/2 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS, 1865-1911

7854/3/3 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS TO JANE LUSHINGTON FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS, 1843-1883

7854/3/4 LETTERS TO VERNON AND JANE LUSHINGTON FROM HENRIETTA LITCHFIELD, 1871-1909
Henrietta Emma Litchfield (1843-1927) was the fourth child of Charles and Emma Darwin. She was called by a variety of nicknames, but 'Etty' seemed to stick. She was a sickly child and suffered from hypochondria for the rest of her life. Henrietta helped her father edit his manuscripts, especially 'The Descent of Man'. After her mother's death in 1896 she edited a collection of family letters that became a tribute to and a biography of Emma Darwin. She was introduced to Richard Buckley Litchfield by Vernon and Jane Lushington in about 1869. They married in August 1871. They first lived at 4 Bryanston Street, London, before moving to 31 Kensington Square where they were close neighbours of Vernon & Jane. Richard died in 1903 and Henrietta moved to Burrow's Hill, Gomshall, Surrey, where she lived until her death in 1927.

7854/3/5 LETTERS FROM VERNON LUSHINGTON TO JANE LUSHINGTON (NEE MOWATT), 1865-1883
Vernon Lushington married Jane Mowatt on 27 February 1865. She died on 23 January 1884 and was buried in Pyrford churchyard on 26 January 1884.

7854/3/6 LETTERS FROM JANE LUSHINGTON TO VERNON LUSHINGTON, 1865-1883
Jane Lushington (1834-1884) was the daughter of Frances Mowatt MP (1803-1891) and Sarah Sophia Barnes (1806-1885). The Mowatts were of Scottish ancestry. Jane was born in Australia. Her father worked for the Customs Department in Sydney where he had built a long stone house with French windows opening on to wide verandas. It was described as a hunting lodge and Mowatt took out from England a pack of foxhounds with which he hunted kangaroos and dingoes. Returning to England Mowatt became MP for Penryn and Falmouth (1847-1852) and Cambridge (1854-1857). Mowatt was a friend of Richard Cobden and John Bright. In November 1852 Cobden wrote that Mowatt 'has bought up Twyford's property at Trotton (nr. Petersfield) ... He has a family of daughters, fine dashing belles, fond of horse exercise.' [The Letters of Richard Cobden, Vol. II]. Frances Mowatt died at 56 Portland Place, London, after taking his own life. Mowatt's other daughters were Sarah (1831-1901) who married Francis Douglas Grey, a grandson of Earl Grey; Mary (b. 1833) who married James Hope Wilson Gleig; and Harriett (1839-1887) who married William Latham. There was one son, Francis (b, 1864) who married Lucy Sophia Frerichs, a widow of Thirlestaine Hall, Cheltenham. By her first marriage she had a son - Count Eric Stenbock - a poet and writer of macabre fiction who moved in the same circles as Oscar Wilde. A son from the marriage of Francis and Lucy was Francis Herbert Mowatt who took his life and that of his wife during a bout of insanity in 1919. Jane Mowatt married Vernon Lushington on 28 February 1865. The couple had three daughters - Katherine, Margaret and Susan. Jane Lushington was a talented musician. She sang in the Bach Choir and played the piano. Her piano playing was particularly appreciated by Charles Darwin [see 7854/3/4/12]. Jane and her three daughters were painted by Arthur Hughes in 'The Home Quartet' (1883). Jane's portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1865) is at Tate Britain. There is also a sketch of her by Rossetti in the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, [see 7854/3/6/1/14a-d & 7854/3/6/1/15a-d]. It is believed that Joseph Severn used Jane for his model in 'Ophelia' (location unknown) which he painted in c. 1862 and a friendship with the Severn family is confirmed in the archive, [see 7854/6/1/14a-d & 7854/3/6/20/19a-g]. Jane died on 23 January 1884 and was buried in Pyrford churchyard on 26 January 1884. In a letter from Charles Combe of Cobham Park to his son Charles [private collection] he wrote 'Poor Mrs V. Lushington died on Wednesday; she caught cold at one of her 'Barn' entertainments and could not shake it off. We are all very sorry, as she was such a nice person; it will be a dreadful loss to the three girls; she died in London.' [The Mowatt family papers are at East Sussex Record Office ACC 10199.] There is no sub sub series 13.

7854/3/7 LETTERS FROM KATHERINE LUSHINGTON TO VERNON LUSHINGTON, 1877-1911
Katherine Lushington (1867-1922), or Kitty as she was generally known, was the eldest daughter of Vernon and Jane Lushington. Her interests lay in music and the arts. She was described by Quentin Bell, in his biography of Virginia Woolf, as 'smart, with a tight, neat pretty smartness; her blue eyes looked at the world through half-closed lashes; she had a lovely mocking voice; she stood very upright.' Katherine was educated at home and one of her tutors was the novelist George Gissing who wrote to his sister of the Lushington girls, 'The eldest is only fourteen but they might each be taken for at least three years older than they are.' Katherine was a gifted amateur musician and was a close friend of Sir Hubert Parry who addressed her in his letters as 'My dear Kittiwake' and dedicated a piece of music to her. Parry wrote of Kitty 'She is a wonderful girl, not only blessed with singular musical gifts, but with a good memory, good reasoning powers and generous sympathies.' She gave help and support to aspiring musicians and struggling artists. She seems to have possessed a charismatic personality, and to have inspired great devotion from both men and women. After her mother's death, Katherine took over management of the household. For a brief period in 1887 she was engaged to Charles Howard, the eldest son of George Howard, Lord Carlisle. Letters relating to the engagement and its breaking off are in the Castle Howard archives, Reference J23/67. The engagement was broken off at Pyports, Cobham, the Lushington country home and Susan Lushington's diary for 1887 refers to the episode. In 1890 Katherine married Leopold Maxse (1864-1932) son of Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse (1833-1900), admiral and political writer, at Cobham parish church. Guests included Julia Stephen and William Holman Hunt and his wife. Letters to Susan Lushington from Lucy Martineau refer to the wedding. Their engagement had been brought about by Julia Stephen inviting Kitty and Leo to Talland House, St Ives, in the summer of 1890 where the proposal was made before dinner - an episode later recreated in Virginia Woolf's 'To The Lighthouse'. An entry in Susan Lushington's diary on 13 September 1890 refers to the engagement. The Maxse family home was at Dunley Hill, Effingham, Surrey, which the Admiral had built on part of his mother's Effingham Hill estate. Admiral Maxse was a friend of George Meredith who lived nearby at Box Hill. Maxse is said to have been a model for a character in Meredith's 'Beauchamp's Career'. Leopold Maxse was an amateur tennis player, journalist and editor of the 'National Review'. He had been President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1896, and a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Leopold Maxse's sister Violet married Lord Edward Cecil and after her brother's death she took over the editorship of the 'National Review'. In her younger days Katherine had been a friend of Virginia Woolf. However the friendship petered out as Woolf moved to Bloomsbury and Kitty's modish way of life became more unsatisfactory to Virginia. Kitty and Virginia both attended the funeral of Reverend Lewellyn Davies, who had been an old friends of both their fathers, in 1916, but on this occasion Virginia signalled her distance from Kitty by cutting her. Woolf used Katherine as the model for her 'Mrs Dalloway'. Katherine died in October 1922 after falling over the banisters at their London house. Virginia Woolf suggested that Katherine took her own life but there is no evidence to support this. [The Maxse family papers are at West Sussex Record Office.]

7854/3/8 LETTERS FROM MARGARET LUSHINGTON TO VERNON LUSHINGTON, 1886-1905
Margaret Lushington (1869-1906) was the middle daughter of Vernon and Jane Lushington. Like her sisters, her interests lay in music and the arts. Margaret and her sisters were educated at home and one of their tutors was the novelist George Gissing. Margaret both played the cello and sang. She was in the South Hampstead Orchestra under Mrs Julian Marshall and the Magpie Madrigal Society under Lionel Benson. 'The Magpies' were so called because they wore white dresses with little black velvet boleros at their concerts. On 21st December 1892 Margaret was engaged to Stephen Massingberd of an old Lincolnshire family, whose family were living at 42 Kensington Square. Stephen Massingberd was on the staff of the Royal Statistical Society, and the editor of its journal until 1898. They were married at Cobham parish church on 18 July 1895. The young Ralph Vaughan Williams (a second cousin of Stephen Massingberd) played the organ both before and after the service. The honeymoon was spent at The Grove, Cambridge, homes of Charles Darwin's widow. (See Cobham Parish Magazine, August 1895, pp.3-4). In the year of her marriage William Holman Hunt sketched a pencil and crayon portrait of Margaret which is now at Gunby Hall. In 1897 Stephen inherited the Massingberd ancestral estate of Gunby, Lincolnshire. Margaret was in her element there and pursued her love of music by organising many concerts and festivals. She was also a great gardener. In 1900 Margaret became secretary of the East Lincolnshire Music Festival at Spilsby, under the chairmanship of her uncle Godfrey Lushington who had retired from the Home Office. A highlight of the 1903 festival was the presence of Ralph Vaughan Williams to hear the setting for women's voices of Christina Rossetti's poem 'Sound Sleep' which he had composed as a competition piece at the request of Margaret Massingberd, to whom it was dedicated. It was in that year, in the music room at Gunby, that Gervase Elwes decided to become a professional singer. Vernon Lushington's old friend, the artist Arthur Hughes stayed with the Massingberds at Gunby and painted a portrait of Margaret which can still be seen at Gunby. Margaret died in 1906 at Gunby during an operation for appendicitis. Margaret was described by the widow of the singer Gervase Elwes as being 'Tall, beautiful, artistic... with the unusual mixture of the two qualities of deep sympathy and an inexhaustible sense of humour.' Stephen Massingberd died in May 1925. [See also 'Margaret Lushington and the Stephens', Anthony Curtis, Charleston Magazine, Spring/Summer 1998, Issue 17, pp.39-43.]

7854/3/9 LETTERS FROM SUSAN LUSHINGTON TO VERNON LUSHINGTON, 1881-1911
In December 1902 Susan Lushington travelled to India to attend the Durbar that was to be held in January 1903. The Durbar was held to celebrate the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India. Susan arrived in Bombay on 12 December. She travelled on the SS 'China' with Gertrude Bell and her brother Hugh. 7854/3/9/198-210 is a series of lengthy letters Susan wrote to her father describing this visit. There is also a narrative account. Photographs of the visit are in the Lushington photograph albums, 7854/4/47/3/-.

7854/3/10 LETTERS AND CONDOLENCE CARDS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON ON THE DEATH OF JANE LUSHINGTON AND RELATED PAPERS, 1884
Jane Lushington died on 23 January 1884 and was buried in Pyrford churchyard on 26 January 1884.

7854/3/11 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS RELATING TO JANE LUSHINGTON, 1862-1882

7854/3/12 LETTERS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON ON THE DEATH OF HIS DAUGHTER MARGARET MASSINGBERD, 1906
Margaret Lushington married Stephen Massingberd in 1895. She died in 1906. For letters to Susan Lushington on the death of her sister Margaret, see 7854/4/6/-.

7854/3/13 LETTERS FROM KITTY LUSHINGTON TO JANE LUSHINGTON, 1877-1883

7854/3/14 LETTERS FROM MARGARET LUSHINGTON TO JANE LUSHINGTON, 1878

7854/3/15 LETTERS FROM SUSAN LUSHINGTON TO JANE LUSHINGTON, 1877-1883

7854/3/16 LETTERS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON ON THE DEATH OF HIS BROTHER SIR GODFREY LUSHINGTON , 1907
For letters and papers of Godfrey Lushington, see 7854/7/-.

7854/3/17 POSITIVIST PAPERS OF VERNON LUSHINGTON, 1841-1925
In a letter to his daughter Susan, written in 1907, Vernon Lushington wrote, 'I shall die, - as I have lived - a Positivist.' Although this letter was written primarily to set out his own funeral requests, it confirms that Lushington was, above else, a Positivist. On the eve of his marriage Lushington had written to his future wife Jane on the eve of their marriage, 'Don't read Comte's Letters, unless you are quite inclined. To me they are very interesting as setting forth to some degree the life of the man who wrote certain books of great importance for my life.' Lushington had discovered Comte in the 1850s when he was at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was probably introduced to Comte's writings by his brother Godfrey who had been tutored at Wadham College, Oxford, by Richard Congreve who had visited Comte in Paris after the 1848 revolution. Positivism was a humanist philosophy which held that man should rule his life on scientific, not metaphysical, principles, and that the worship of God should give way to that of humanity. Huxley famously described Positivism as 'Catholicism minus Christianity.' It was Comte who first coined the expression sociology and his political philosophy was an attempt to reconcile science, religion and the ideals of 1789 with the doctrine of counter-revolution of his own time. Lushington first openly identified himself with the London Positivists in 1878, the year that he resigned his Admiralty post to become a Circuit Judge. That same year there was a split in the British Positivist movement and Lushington broke away from Congreve and joined Frederic Harrison and others in meeting in Newton Hall, London. Lushington lectured at Newton Hall on a range of subjects and made contributions to the Positivist Calendar. He also wrote several Positivist hymns. The London Positivist group was never large and, in 1868, one journalist wrote 'a small drawing would assuredly hold all the London Positivists'. Nevertheless Positivism had an impact on many of the leading thinkers, writers and artists of the second half of the 19th century.

7854/3/17/1 LETTERS TO VERNON LUSHINGTON, MAINLY FROM POSITIVISTS , 1868-1909

7854/3/17/2 PRINTED MATERIAL, SOME RELATING TO POSITIVISM , 1841-1925

7854/3/17/3 MANUSCRIPT NOTES OF VERNON LUSHINGTON RELATING TO POSITIVISM, 1860-c.1902
The papers comprise manuscript lectures and notes for lectures given by Vernon Lushington to the Positivist Society, or draft texts for publication in the Positivist Review and elsewhere. There are also bundles of research notes on a range of topics, especially the rule of law and martial law. The latter interest seems likely to have been a response of Vernon's to the events of the Boer War.

Vernon Lushington (1832-1912) was the fourth of Stephen lushington's sons. He was a twin and his brother Godfrey achieved a distinguished career in the Civil Service as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Home Office. Vernon was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge where he became a member of the Cambridge Apostles; his contemporaries included F D Maurice, John Sterling, Arthur Hallam and Alfred Tennyson. Through the society he was introduced to John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle for whom he worked for a period as an unpaid secretary, receiving Carlyle's unstinted praise. At Cambridge Vernon came under the influence of Auguste Comte and Positivism. Through Positivism Vernon met Frederic Harrison who introduced him into a new circle of friends which included George Eliot, Herbert Spencer, Anthony Trollope, Longfellow and Wagner. Another close friend was Richard Monkton Milnes at whose parties in London Vernon met Palmerston, Dickens, Browning and Landseer. Vernon's twin brother Godfrey introduced him to William Morris who persuaded him to contribute an article on Carlyle in the first issue of 'The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'. Morris later became a life-long friend of Lushington's. Through the Cambridge booksellers, Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, Vernon was drawn into Christian Socialism and went on to serve on the Council of the Working Men's College alongside Lowes Dickinson, John Ruskin, D G Rossetti and the sculptor Alexander Munro. It was also through the Working Men's' College that Vernon Lushington met Arthur J. Munby, the extraordinary barrister cum poet who had a questionable obsession with working class women. It was through the Working Men's College that Lushington came to introduce Edward Burne-Jones to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Burne-Jones later wrote to Lushington, 'My first introduction to Gabriel was your doing - and big results it brought into my life'. With his friend, the sculptor, Thomas Woolner, Vernon Lushington visited Alfred, Lord Tennyson on the Isle of Wight and became a close friend of the family.

From the late 1850s Vernon and his brother Godfrey became increasingly involved with Beesly, Harrison, Crompton, J N Bridges and Congreve in helping the Labour Movement. Sidney and Beatrice Webb wrote of 'the talented young barristers and literary men, who, from this time forward became the trusted legal experts and political advisors of the leaders of the Trade Union Movement'. Vernon and Godfrey took up the cause of Lancashire Cotton Operatives who were starving as a result of the sudden stoppage of American cotton during the Civil War. Vernon corresponded about this cause with the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell to whom he was known as 'Cousin V'.
Vernon Lushington was also a close friend of the social reformer Charles Booth and their two families were often together.

Vernon became a distinguished lawyer, a QC from 1868, Deputy Judge Advocate General, 1860-1869, Secretary to the Admiralty, 1869-1877, and a County Court judge in Surrey from 1877. Vernon married Jane Mowatt, daughter of Francis Mowatt, who was Liberal MP for Penryn and afterwards for Cambridge (and a friend of Richard Cobden and John Bright), on 20 February 1865 at Holy Trinity, Brompton. Jane was born on 24 September 1834 in Australia.

Vernon and Jane Lushington lived for a while at Wheelers Farm, Pyrford, before moving to Pyports, Cobham, whilst maintaining 36 Kensington Square as their London residence. They had three daughters, Katherine 'Kitty' Lushington (1867-1922), Margaret Lushington (1869-1906) and Susan Lushington (1870-1953). Jane Lushington died in London on 23 January 1884 and was buried in Pyrford churchyard on 26 January 1884. Vernon Lushington died on 24 January 1912.

There are no access restrictions.

Deposited by Mr R Norris of London through David Taylor of Cobham in October 2005 and January 2014. The majority of Vernon Lushington's Positivist papers were presented by Professor Martha S Vogeler, Emeritus Professor of English, California State University, Fullerton, in March 2011.

An item level description of the archive is available on the Surrey History Centre online catalogue