A George Eliot Family Archive

Abstract

(ELIOT, GEORGE). EVANS FAMILY. An archive of correspondence and other material, formed by the Evans family, comprising: Correspondence and other manuscript material, books, photographs, military and sporting medals and ephemera, etc. Various sizes and formats, v.p., circa 1744–1993. The material in the archive derives, with the exception of a few stray earlier pieces, from the three generations of the Evans family succeeding that of its most famous daughter, George Eliot (Mary Anne, or Mary Ann, or Marian, Evans)—and, in its textual component, largely concerns her legacy within the family. At its heart is an historic animosity between Mary Anne and her elder half-sister Frances (‘Fanny’) Houghton, conveyed in a letter held within the family until the 1970s, and here present in the form of their typed transcription—wherein Marian (as she by this time was) declines an invitation from her nephew, Robert Evans, the son of her half-brother of the same name, to be reconciled with Mrs Houghton, giving a long and friendly, but forthright, account of why she cannot revert to an old affection. The slight on the part of her half-sister that has been reported to her is not described, but we might assume it consisted of reproval over her relationship with G. H. Lewes. Marian is at pains to emphasise the enduring nature of their youthful fondness, but in equal measure insistent that the breach is final. Aside from the transcript itself, letters between the grandchildren of her correspondent, as well as letters to them and their Aunts Ethel and Dorothy from George Eliot scholar, biographer and editor of her collected letters Gordon S. Haight, discuss the episode from both a scholarly and a familial point of view—the latter cutting to the quick far more readily, assessing their great-great-Aunt Fanny as having been ‘bitchy’. The long sequence of letters from Haight (of Yale) offer an interesting contextual perspective on George Eliot studies in the twentieth century, demonstrating his absorption—to the point of neuritis—in his research, and his eager cultivation of a relationship with her descendants, genealogy conferring a privilege manifest in this archive that is only through determination made accessible to the scholar. Robert Evans, the tentative conciliator in his aunts’ grudge, was a notable architect, and eminent in Nottinghamshire life. A letter from Henry Pelham-Clinton, Duke of Newcastle—at this time both Secretary of State for the Colonies and Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire—refers to Evans' interest in a fledgling Rifle Corps following the Crimean War, and there is printed ephemera and other memorabilia in the archive that further illustrates his passion for this pastime—in the form of various badges and medals, bronze and embroidered, from the middle years of the nineteenth-century. Evans’ wife was Sarah Ann, née Mulcock, with whom he had six children—his aunt’s letter delights that one of them shares his name, being that also of both her own father and his (her half-brother). A long, chatty letter from Sarah Ann Evans to a friend is here present, principally concerning a ham, as are some photographic portraits of their children, and a couple of silhouettes of her father and grandmother. The archive comprises approximately forty items, including a copy of the rare ‘George Eliot Birthday Book’ (title page missing but circa 1879/1880), in green publisher’s cloth (missing spine), with numerous entries, 19th century and later, of birthdays and deaths of many members of the Evans family and others. Overall, as a document of a family, its converging strands, in the middle of the class system and of the country, it has much to recommend it, demonstrating their various interests and interactions—though, of course, the presence of so eminent a cultural figure as George Eliot naturally comes to dominate, and significantly enlarges the interest of the whole. Whilst its content is diverse, and its relation to George Eliot sometimes tangential, where it forms a coherent and focused narrative—largely in the correspondence, which makes up around half of the total—it offers a compelling contribution to our understanding of the author, from an otherwise unavailable point of view. A detailed listing of the material is available on request. The books in various bindings, many of the photographs in their original frames, and the letters in their original envelopes, the material well-kept and in good condition overall.£1500