Managers of the Residence, Bedford College

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0505 BC GB140-144
Held at	: Royal Holloway, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/archives ›
Full title	: Managers of the Residence, Bedford College
Date(s)	: 1860-1928
Level of description	: Subfonds of Bedford College View parent record
Extent	: 2 boxes or 0.02 cubic metres
Name of creator(s)	: Bedford College | Managers of the Residence
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1860, Mrs Reid gave £2,000 to her friends Elizabeth Ann Bostock, Jane Martineau and Eleanor Elizabeth Smith, to purchase the lease of 48 Bedford Square as a boarding house for pupils of Bedford College, administering the money as Managers of the Residence. There was no formal trust agreement, even following Jane Martineau's death in 1882, until 1885, when the relevant documentation was created and a further three women became Trustees (Ethel Glazebrook, Sophia Margaretta Pilcher and Madeline Shaw Lefevre).

The three Managers agreed to rent part of Number 48 to the College, retaining the remainder of the rooms for the boarding house. This meant that although in close proximity, the management of the College and the Residence were entirely separate. The Managers were directly responsible for everything to do with the boarders, including discipline and propriety. A Lady Superintendent was employed to watch over the young women staying there. On Mrs Reid's death in 1866, the lease of 47 Bedford Square also became the property of the Managers (the three women were also Reid Trustees), giving them a great deal of say in the future of the College, and allowing them to demand a new Constitution (created by a Committee of Management in 1868-1869).

In 1874, due to serious overcrowding and lack of facilities at Bedford Square, the Managers of the Residence leased 8 and 9 York Place, to which Bedford College transferred in the same year, and used the income from the capital of the Trust to help in the maintenance of various buildings and the lease of further accommodation in the surrounding area. Buildings leased included 64, 65 and 66 East Street in 1886, directly behind the College, and work was undertaken to build the Shaen Wing in 1889. Once again, as with the houses at Bedford Square, the Managers leased the College part of all the new premises.

Despite their opposition to the merging of the College and the Residence, which they saw as undermining the independence of the latter, the Managers agreed in 1893 to the merging of the offices of Lady Resident (responsible for the College) and Lady Superintendent (responsible for the Residence) in the person of a Lady Principal. The successful candidate, Miss Emily Penrose, was therefore to report to both the College and the Managers separately, a complicated situation which was remedied by an offer by the Managers in 1894 to hand over to the College Council entire responsibility for the management of the Residence, together with the leases of 8 and 9 York Place and the East Street Residences. The offer was accepted.

The Managers of the Residence retained the capital of Mrs Reid's Residence Trust, together with savings accumulated. The income was used for various maintenance projects, such as the acquisition of 7 York Place, and the possible redemption of the leases of York Place and East Street. In 1927 the sole surviving Manager, Mrs Pilcher, handed over the Trust to the College.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Minutes of the Committee of the Managers of the Residence, 1869-1899; financial material, including Account Book, 1860-1880, Bank Books, 1876-1927, bills and receipts, 1876-1891, and a tax forms, 1924-1926; legal documents, 1870-1894, including a Declaration of Trust, Tenancy Agreements, and lawyers' bills; letters, 1888-1892, from Elizabeth Ann Bostock and Eleanor Elizabeth Smith to Blanche Shadwell and Lucy Russell, Honorary Secretary of the Council, mostly concerning plans for building the Shaen Wing at York Place; general papers and correspondence, 1856-1905, including reports on the drainage at Bedford Square, notes on teaching and curriculum, notes concerning the winding up of the Trust, and the finances of Bedford College, letters concerning the administration of the Residence and the Reid Trust, and death certificates of Shaw and Eldebrook; Report and correspondence of the Residence Sub-Committee concerning the choice of a site for new buildings and the raising of funds, 1901-1907, including papers relating to an offer by the Trustees to give the capital of the Residence Trust to a fund being raised for the rebuilding of the College; correspondence and papers, 1873-1928, relating to the removal of Bedford College to Baker Street and Regent's Park. Plan for a tablet commemorating Sir Hildred Carlile, [1914].

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open to all registered users of the Royal Holloway, University of London Archives.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be supplied, subject to the condition of the original. Requests to publish original material should be directed to the College Archivist.

Finding aids:

'A catalogue of the Archives of Bedford College (University of London), 1849-1985' by Claire Gobbi Daunton and Elizabeth Bennett, 1987.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The papers were transferred from the Bedford College Archives when the College merged with Royal Holloway in 1985.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Royal Holloway, University of London Archives hold the papers of the Reid Trust (BC GB130), and papers relating to the various residences of Bedford College (BC AR800-900).

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

A history of Bedford College for Women, 1849-1937 (Oxford University Press, London, 1939), by Dame Margaret Jansen Tuke; Educating women: a pictorial history of Bedford College, University of London, 1849-1985 (Alma Publishers, Surrey, 1991), by Dr Linna Bentley.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the AIM25 project.

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:
Mar 2000