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Senate House Library, University of London

Coleridge, Sara: letter (1812)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0096 AL298

Held at: Senate House Library, University of London

Title: Coleridge, Sara: letter (1812)

Date(s): 1812

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 2 leaves

Name of creator(s): Coleridge | Sara | 1770-1845 | nee Fricker | wife of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Coleridge | Sara | 1802-1852 | author | daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sara Fricker was brought up in Bristol and married the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge there in 1794. Their marriage was not happy and they spent long periods living apart, Sara bringing up their children in the household of her sister and brother-in-law, Edith and Robert Southey, in Keswick, Cumberland. Her youngest child, also called Sara, became a well-known writer.

Sara Coleridge was born in Keswick, Cumberland, and brought up by her mother (also Sara) in the household of her aunt and uncle, Edith and Robert Southey. As a child she met many of her family's literary friends and acquaintances, including William Wordsworth. Her first book, a translation from Latin of a work of anthropology, was published when she was 19. In subsequent years, Sara became reacquainted with her estranged father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and later edited posthumous editions of his work. She married her cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge (1798-1843), in 1829 but continued her literary work alongside her domestic responsibilities as a wife, mother, and later widow. She remained a prominent figure on the London literary scene until her death from cancer in 1852.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Letter from Sara Coleridge of Keswick, Cumberland to [John] J Morgan Esq of 71 Berners Street, Oxford Street, London [a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was staying with Morgan's family in London], 5 Sep 1812. '... to request the favor of you to use your influence with my husband to prevail on him to send me a few lines immediately, for I have been so long [since Apr 1812] waiting for a letter from him ... I will thank you to represent to him that I want a little money very much ... for my sister [Edith] Southey having lost 30 pounds by the failure of the Workington Bank, and having occasion for money at present more than is convenient for S [i.e. Robert Southey, Edith's husband] to draw for - I own I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of not being able to settle my accounts with him ... I have bought the books for the boys; I was obliged to send to London for them ... I have also been obliged to get all their school books bound, the Aeschylus among the rest which was coming to peices [sic]. Please also say that we have not been able to find at Grasmere that "Reynard the Fox" which C [her husband] designed for Southey, and that probably he has it with him in town ...' Autograph, with signature. A note in the hand of her 9-year-old daughter, also Sara, appears at the end of the letter.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

See hard copy catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Please contact the University Archivist for details. 24 hours notice is required for research visits.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Typescript catalogue available in the Library's Palaeography Room.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

See archivist

Immediate source of acquisition:

Gift from Mr J W Peppitt, 1961.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

A typed transcript is filed with the original letter.

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Anya Turner.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Aug 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Books | Publications | Communications media | Information sciences
Debts | Financial resources | Finance
Literary history | Literature
Money | Financial resources | Finance

Personal names
Coleridge | Sara | 1770-1845 | nee Fricker | wife of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Coleridge | Sara | 1802-1852 | author | daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Corporate names

Places
Barnet | Hertfordshire | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Keswick | Cumberland | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
London