Letters

1851
Emma Evans to her cousin, Arthur Phelps 28 December 1851 From Bosworth
1852

Emma to Arthur Phelps 18 June 1852 Staying with the Attwood cousins at Ashleworth, Gloucester
Emma to Arthur Phelps 8 July 1852 From Portishead, Bristol
Emma to Arthur Phelps 5 August 1852 From London
Emma to Arthur Phelps 23 October 1852 From Farnham, Surrey, visiting her Aunt Harriet and Uncle Septimus Grover.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 21 November 1852  From Bosworth
Emma to Arthur Phelps 30 December 1852  Trials and errors of a budding sculptor.
1853
Emma to Arthur Phelps  5 January 1853  Emma is highly irritated

Emma to Arthur Phelps  20 August 1853 From Bosworth. Her father not well. Janey's birthday.
Charles Partridge writes flatteringly about Emma to Arthur Phelps in 17 April 1853. (Charles was a further cousin to Arthur.)
Emma to Arthur Phelps  1853 - an incomplete letter.
Emma to Arthur Phelps  26 September 1853
Emma to Arthur Phelps  10 October 1853 Emma writes from Hastings.
Emma to Arthur Phelps  19 October 1853  Second week of the holiday
Emma to Arthur Phelps  17 December 1853  Thoughts about being able
to be both a wife and sculptor in the future.
1854

Emma to Arthur Phelps 1854. The letter is not dated but must be written some time in 1854 before Dr Evans died in November.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 18 March 1854 Arthur is in India.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 18 August 1854 From Bosworth. Her father Arthur Benoni Evans is still ill.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 1 September 1854 Frances Dickinson (née de Brissac) has died. Emma visits her cousin Lewis Evans at Sandbach, Cheshire.
Emma to Arthur Phelps  18 October 1854 From Bosworth - a time of change.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 17 November 1854. Emma's father Rev. Arthur Benoni Evans has died.
1855

Emma to Arthur Phelps 2 February 1855 Emma's engagement to Dr. John Waddington Hubbard

Emma to Arthur Phelps 31 May 1855  Emma stays at Osbaston hall so she and John Hubbard can conveniently meet up.
Emma to Arthur Phelps  3 August 1855  From
16 Kensington Square 
Emma to Arthur Phelps 18 October 1855  From Abbots Hill Farm
1856

Emma to Arthur Phelps - 18 February 1856  Emma is now married and back at Market Bosworth
1857
Emma to Arthur Phelps  2 March 1857. Her first baby Arthur John Hubbard is four months old. Emma keeps her mind alive beyond that of motherhood!
Emma to Arthur Phelps 2 November 1857 Emma recovering from gastric fever, they have bought a new cow; John W Hubbard is also an artist.
1859
Emma to Arthur Phelps 3 January 1859  Changes at the Dixie (Bosworth School) and some cats.
Emma to Arthur Phelps 6 September 1859 from Bosworth. Arthur John Hubbard now two and a half.
1860
Emma to Arthur Phelps 29 February 1860 from Bosworth. AJH now talking well and young George, a toddler.

 

Below is a simplified table showing how Emma and Arthur are cousins. As a boy Arthur was a pupil at his uncle's (A.B.Evans) school in Bosworth. Arthur lived as part of the family houshold in Bosworth as a son. Although ten years younger, Arthur would have got to know Emma well, as she was like an older sister to him. The letters show their friendship ran deep. Eventually Arthur married Caroline Anne Peyton, his second cousin, in 1868 and they had four children. Arthur became a Lieutenant General of the Bombay Army. 

relationship

I am indebted to Anthea Boylston and Penelope Forrest great granddaughters of Arthur Phelps for making these letters available and for transcribing them. Emma sometimes wrote very closely with dark ink on flimsy paper on both sides, (a Victorian habit,) which made deciphering quite difficult.

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