Eyre Family: Correspondence and Papers

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.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

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.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

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.