MS 255
Reference code
MS 255
Title
Letters of A C Swinburne and his sisters
Level
Sub-fonds
Administrative / Biographical history
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was an English poet and critic, born in London and raised partly on the Isle of Wight. He was the eldest son of Captain (later Admiral) Charles Henry Swinburne and Lady Jane Henrietta Swinburne, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham. Educated at Eton College (1849-1853), where he began writing poetry, he later attended Balliol College, Oxford, but did not complete a degree. Swinburne became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle and achieved wide literary acclaim in the mid-Victorian period. He was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1903 and 1909. In later life he suffered from alcoholism and lived under the care of his friend Theodore Watts-Dunton at The Pines, Putney. Swinburne died there in 1909 and was buried on the Isle of Wight.
Isabel Swinburne (1846-1915), Alice Swinburne (1839-1903), and Charlotte Jane Swinburne (1842-1899) were sisters of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne. During the 1890s they lived together in London with their mother, Jane Swinburn. All three sisters supported the work of the Rev. Michael Rosenthal and his mission activities among the Jews of London’s East End. Isabel Swinburne was an active member of Rosenthal’s Hebrew Guild of Intercession and served on the council of his church, St Mark’s, Whitechapel.
Isabel Swinburne also formed a close friendship with Beatrice Rosenthal, particularly through their shared involvement in Rosenthal’s work and their mutual interests in literature and poetry. The Swinburne family’s engagement with contemporary Jewish issues is reflected in A C Swinburne’s poem On the Russian Persecution of the Jews (1882), written in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia. This suggests a wider family interest in, and sympathy towards, Jewish communities and the social challenges they faced in late nineteenth-century London.
Beatrice Esther Rosenthal (1875-1953) was a writer, journalist and author. She was born in Primrose Hill, London, the daughter of the Rev. Michael Rosenthal and Mary Margoliouth.
Her father, Michael Rosenthal, was descended from distinguished rabbinical families from Lithuania. After receiving a rabbinical education and travelling extensively, he settled in London in the late 1860s. As a young rabbi he converted to Christianity and trained for ordination in the Church of England, studying at the College of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, which was active in the East End of London among Jewish immigrant communities. He served as curate to the Rev. Samuel John Stone at Haggerston in 1875, was ordained in 1881. As a vicar, he was given St Mark’s Church, Whitechapel, in 1899, where he based his East London Mission to the Jews and also established the Hebrew Guild of Intercession, serving as its Warden. During the 1880s and 1890s he faced harrassment from the Jewish community as well as the challenges of anti-semitism. He died in 1907.
Beatrice’s mother, Mary Margoliouth, was the daughter of Ezekiel Margoliouth (1814-1894), a member of a prominent Polish rabbinical family who had converted to Christianity before moving to England in about 1848. He was closely associated with the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews from 1850 until late in life. Beatrice was thus connected to a wider family network that included notable scholars, among them her uncle, David S. Margoliouth, a renowned Arabic scholar.
Beatrice grew up in London and was closely involved in her father’s ministry work in London’s East End, deepening her associations with Anglican women, like the Swinburne sisters, who supported his Hebrew Guild of Intercession.
On 18 October 1906, Beatrice married the Rev. William Moore at St Mark’s Church, Whitechapel. Following their marriage, the couple moved to Wragby, Lincolnshire, around 1908, where they had two children, William Michael and Beatrice Mary. They later moved to Devon, where she died at Compton Abbas, Dorset, in 1953.
Beatrice Moore described herself professionally as a writer, journalist and authoress. She published a volume of verse with A. R. Mowbray in 1924 (now untraced) and wrote a regular column for the Church Times under the pseudonym 'Hodge' - the name of Dr Johnson’s cat.
Isabel Swinburne (1846-1915), Alice Swinburne (1839-1903), and Charlotte Jane Swinburne (1842-1899) were sisters of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne. During the 1890s they lived together in London with their mother, Jane Swinburn. All three sisters supported the work of the Rev. Michael Rosenthal and his mission activities among the Jews of London’s East End. Isabel Swinburne was an active member of Rosenthal’s Hebrew Guild of Intercession and served on the council of his church, St Mark’s, Whitechapel.
Isabel Swinburne also formed a close friendship with Beatrice Rosenthal, particularly through their shared involvement in Rosenthal’s work and their mutual interests in literature and poetry. The Swinburne family’s engagement with contemporary Jewish issues is reflected in A C Swinburne’s poem On the Russian Persecution of the Jews (1882), written in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia. This suggests a wider family interest in, and sympathy towards, Jewish communities and the social challenges they faced in late nineteenth-century London.
Beatrice Esther Rosenthal (1875-1953) was a writer, journalist and author. She was born in Primrose Hill, London, the daughter of the Rev. Michael Rosenthal and Mary Margoliouth.
Her father, Michael Rosenthal, was descended from distinguished rabbinical families from Lithuania. After receiving a rabbinical education and travelling extensively, he settled in London in the late 1860s. As a young rabbi he converted to Christianity and trained for ordination in the Church of England, studying at the College of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, which was active in the East End of London among Jewish immigrant communities. He served as curate to the Rev. Samuel John Stone at Haggerston in 1875, was ordained in 1881. As a vicar, he was given St Mark’s Church, Whitechapel, in 1899, where he based his East London Mission to the Jews and also established the Hebrew Guild of Intercession, serving as its Warden. During the 1880s and 1890s he faced harrassment from the Jewish community as well as the challenges of anti-semitism. He died in 1907.
Beatrice’s mother, Mary Margoliouth, was the daughter of Ezekiel Margoliouth (1814-1894), a member of a prominent Polish rabbinical family who had converted to Christianity before moving to England in about 1848. He was closely associated with the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews from 1850 until late in life. Beatrice was thus connected to a wider family network that included notable scholars, among them her uncle, David S. Margoliouth, a renowned Arabic scholar.
Beatrice grew up in London and was closely involved in her father’s ministry work in London’s East End, deepening her associations with Anglican women, like the Swinburne sisters, who supported his Hebrew Guild of Intercession.
On 18 October 1906, Beatrice married the Rev. William Moore at St Mark’s Church, Whitechapel. Following their marriage, the couple moved to Wragby, Lincolnshire, around 1908, where they had two children, William Michael and Beatrice Mary. They later moved to Devon, where she died at Compton Abbas, Dorset, in 1953.
Beatrice Moore described herself professionally as a writer, journalist and authoress. She published a volume of verse with A. R. Mowbray in 1924 (now untraced) and wrote a regular column for the Church Times under the pseudonym 'Hodge' - the name of Dr Johnson’s cat.
Date
1872-1907
Extent & medium
1 box
Content description
This collection comprises letters written by the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne to various correspondents, mainly about his poetry. It also contains letters from his sisters Isabel, Alice, and Charlotte Swinburne to Beatrice Esther Rosenthal, discussing the missionary work of Rosenthal’s father among Jewish converts in London’s East End, as well as shared interests in literature and poetry between Isabel and Beatrice
Provenance
The provenance of the A C Swinburne letters is not known, but they were found in College Library in 1996. The letters of the Swinburne sisters to Beatrice Rosenthal were passed down the family to her grand-daughter Verena Hoffman, who gifted them toCollege Library in 1991.
Arrangement
it is an arificial collection, the arrangement imposed by the archivist. It is arranged into two series:
01: Letters written by A C Swinburne
02: Letters written by Isabel, Alice and Charlotte Swinburne
01: Letters written by A C Swinburne
02: Letters written by Isabel, Alice and Charlotte Swinburne
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