POVERTY

Part of Autograph Letter Signed ('Olive Mackirdy') from the Anglo-Indian journalist and philanthropist Olive Christian Malvery, discussing her efforts to raise money for the building of shelters in London for homeless women.

Author: 
Olive Mackirdy [née Olive Christian Malvery] (1877-1914), Anglo-Indian journalist and philanthropist, who raised money for two shelters for homeless women in London
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated (but written after her marriage in 1904).
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. The final leaf of the letter only. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. A poignant letter, given its author's early death. Regarding 'the Shelter' Mackirdy writes that 'Lady Brassey the Duchess of St Albans Lady Radnor & others have been giving big dinner parties etc for me & I only go in order to meet people who will help with the Shelter. I am not very strong and have such heavy work that now I find I simply cannot indulge my own tastes & enjoy my firends if I am going to do definite work.

[Printed parliamentary paper.] Strand Union Workhouse. Copy of the Report made by R. B. Cane, Esq., Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton.

Author: 
[R. B. Cane [Richard Basil Cane], Poor Law Inspector; Matilda Beeton, Head Nurse at the Strand Union Workhouse, Cleveland Street, London]
Publication details: 
Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 25 June 1866.
£220.00

28 + [1] pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. P. 1 has the drophead title: 'STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE. | RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, | dated 25 June 1866; - for, | COPY "of the REPORT made by R. B. Crane, Esquire, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton, in reference to the Treatment of the Sick in the Strand Union Workhouse." | Poor Law Board, 25 June 1866.

Autograph Letter Signed from Mrs Mary Bayly, describing to 'Mrs. Barrow' the ill-health that prevents her from accepting her invitation to take part in 'Temperance Work'.

Author: 
Mrs Mary Bayly, missionary; founder of 'Mothers' Society', 1853, author of 'Ragged Homes and How to mend them' (1859), temperance campaigner with her husband Captain George Bayly of Trinity House
Publication details: 
5 Kempshott Road, Streatham Common. 15 February [no year].
£45.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of glue from mount. It would give her 'very much pleasure' to accept the invitation 'to join you & other dear workers in the Temperance Work you are planning for April, but I am sorry to say at present I am quite liad aside from all work'. She describes how she has been ill since the previous October.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Flora C. Stevenson') from Flora Clift Stevenson to 'Ella', asking for 'somebody to play with me'.

Author: 
Flora Clift Stevenson [Flora C. Stevenson] (1839-1905), Scottish social reformer and educationalist, one of the first women in the United Kingdom to be elected to a school board
Publication details: 
On her monogrammed letterhead of 13 Randolph Terrace, Edinburgh. 'Saturday' [no date].
£65.00

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'My dear Ella: | It wd be very kind if you cd come to see me as I have never recovered & am downstairs again. - Will you come to tea to-day or tomorrow. I want somebody to play with me!'

Printed satirical circular 'To the Ratepayers of this Borough', from 'Wm. Buster, Junr.', concerning his supposed election as a Poor Law Guardian.

Author: 
'Wm. Buster, Junr.', pseudonym [English Poor Law Guardians]
Publication details: 
'Dated, May 1, 1851, Castle Villian.'
£95.00

1p., 12mo. In small type. On aged and creased paper. Signed in type: 'Beggar and Flames! | Gentlemen, | If I am not your Bum Bailiffe, [sic] | For any dirty work, | WM. BUSTER, JUNR.' The circumstances surrounding this spoof are unclear. It begins: 'In fact, I feel it a duty devolving upon me, to return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have done me, in electing me one of your Guardians.' The next paragraph concerns 'the slanderous assertion, which certain persons have industriously circulated, detractive of this honour, in fact, that I am the nominee of my own workman'.

Autograph Letter Signed Herschell, Lord Chancellor, to unnamed woman, concerning the Children's Aid Society of which, as he says, he was President .

Author: 
Farrer Herschell, first Baron Herschell (DNB)(1837–1899), lord chancellor.
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 46 Grosvenor Gardens, SW [London] 31 January 1896.
£150.00

Three pages, 12mo, some staining, but text clear and complete. In asking your consideration of the claims of the Childrens' Aid Society a Branch of the Reformatory & Refuge Union of which I am the President, I am not seeking your help for a mere experiment but for work which has been in progress now for nearly forty years with marked success.

[printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845, with seal and facsimile signatures] (Audit Districts.) Officers' Salaries. To the Guardians of the Poor of the several Unions and Incorporations [...] Churchwardens and Overseers [...] Clerks or Clerks.

Author: 
[The Poor Law Commissioners, 1845; George Nicholls, G. C. Lewis, Edmund W. Head]
Printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845
Publication details: 
London: Printed by George E. Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1845.
£125.00
Printed Government circular, Poor Law, 1845

Folio, 4 pp. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper.

The Duties and Encouragements of the Poor. [With wood-engraving.]

Author: 
[Religious Tract Society]
Publication details: 
[Religious Tract Society.] No. 22. [1820?] 'Printed and sold by R. TILLING, 68, Circus-street, Liverpool.'
£56.00

16mo, 8 pp. Unbound as issued. Following slug: 'Price 2s. 8d. per 100. | Great Allowance to Shopkeepers and Booksellers.' Text clear and complete. On aged and grubby paper. Vignette, beneath title, of priest exhorting poor family in their humble home. Separate sections on duties and encouragements, each with numbered sub-sections of 'inspired passages'. Scarce: the only copies on COPAC at the British Library, Lambeth Palace, Manchester and the V&A.

A Letter to the Protestant Dissenters of England & Wales. [Education: and recent educational publications.]

Author: 
Rev. Robert Ainslie (c.1802-1876), Secretary of the Congregational Board of Education
Publication details: 
London: John Snow, 35, Paternoster-row. [Dated, p.53: 'Mornington Road, Regent's Park, February 1st, 1847.' Printed by J. Unwin, Bucklersbury.]
£180.00

8vo: 55 pp. Disbound. Tight, on aged, grubby paper, with wear to the title-leaf, which has a 7cm closed tear along the spine. Inscribed at head of title-page: 'Rev. S. Martin wh ye Authors Affec regards'. An informed discussion, with footnotes, tables and statistics, of the desirability of the education of the poor, by a correspondent of Charles Darwin. Excessively scarce: no copy at the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at King's College, London.

Folio sheet of statistics, by 'G. Hervey, General Inspector', headed 'Eastern District. Return shewing the Total Number of Vagrants relieved during Years ended 31st December mentioned below [i.e. 1902 to 1909].'

Author: 
G. Hervey, General Inspector [Edwardian poverty; vagrancy; workhouses; poor law]
Publication details: 
Dated at foot '6/10. [June 1910] D & S.' Covers the English counties ('County and Union') Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
£120.00

Printed on one side of a sheet roughly 395 x 250 mm. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. Text clear and entire. At foot: '(16611-21.) Wt. 6705-99. 325. 6/10. D & S.' Fifty-two entries, beginning with 'Cambridgeshire, Wisbech', each with columns for the years 1902 to 1909 of 'Numbers of Casuals relieved in the Workhouse', and with a final column headed 'Two Nights' Detention System enforced or not.' Totals given for each county, and a final 'Total of the District'.

Secretarial Letter Signed ('W. Blanchard Jerrold') to 'Wm. <Raikes?> Esq'.

Author: 
William Blanchard Jerrold (1826-1884), English journalist and playwright
Publication details: 
30 June 1864; 11 Maddox Street, Regent Street, London.
£56.00

12mo: 2 pp. Very good. 'The Association for establishing depots of cheap food for the poor' has been formed, 'under the auspices of Lord Brougham, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Sir John Villiers Shelley, and others,' and Jerrold asks whether Raikes would 'permit us to add your name to the list of patrons', a position which 'entails no pecuniary responsibility whatsoever.'

Syndicate content