Guide to the Mary Martin Rebow Papers 1767-1779
Cage 134

Summary Information

Repository
Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Creator
Rebow, Mary Martin.
Title
Mary Martin Rebow Papers
ID
Cage 134
Date [inclusive]
1767-1779
Extent
.5 linear feet of shelf space, 1 box
Language
Collection materials are in English.
Abstract
Letters written by Mary Martin of London to her fiance (later her husband), Isaac Martin Rebow, whose estate, Wivenhoe Park, was in Colchester, Essex.

Preferred Citation

[Item Description] Mary Martin Rebow Papers, 1767-1779

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Biography/History

Mary Martin and Isaac Martin Rebow married circa 1776. They were cousins; Isaac Rebow's mother (also Mary Martin) and Mary Martin's father were brother and sister. Mary and Isaac had three daughters. He served in local political office as Alderman of the Borough of Colchester, and for nearly thirty years as a member of Parliament.

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Scope and Content

This collection consists of approximately one hundred letters written by Mary Martin (d. 1804) to Isaac Martin Rebow (1731-1781). The earliest letters (1767-1772) were written during their long courtship, and later ones (1778-1779) during their marriage.

Mary Martin's letters are filled with details of daily life: her interactions with family members, friends, servants, and others; recreation, such as walking and fishing, and her pets; social activities; and household events such as redecorating and struggling to engage servants.

In a 1971 essay about the collection, librarian Josephine Asaro Manning described the letters and Mary Martin's social position as a privileged young woman in Georgian England:

"Mary Martin, writing from her fashionable West End residences in Chelsea and Queen Square, and sometimes from Isaac Rebow's elegant Duke Street townhouse, reveals what it was like to be of the leisure class in 18th century England. She conveys through the excessively formal, almost stilted, writing style that convention demanded, her sensitivity to the ordinary, the dramatic, and even the comic episodes that made up her day. News events, family intrigue and gossip, scandal, routine events, and hopes and aspirations, propel her quill pen as the ubiquitous Post-Boy rings the bell and waits at the door for her missive."

(Source: Josephine Asaro Manning, "The Mary Martin Rebow Letters, 1767-1772, Part I," The Record 32 (1971): 5-46.)

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Arrangement

The collection is arranged in a single chronological sequence.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections  © 2014

http://www.libraries.wsu.edu/masc/

Terrell Library

P.O. Box 645610

Pullman, WA, 99164-5610 USA

509-335-6691

mascref@wsu.edu

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open and available for research use.

Acquisition Information

The Friends of the Washington State University Library purchased this collection circa 1955-1960.

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Names and Subjects

Geographic Name(s)

  • Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Sources

Personal Name(s)

Subject(s) :
  • Rebow, Isaac Martin, 1731-1781--Archives
  • Rebow, Mary Martin, d. 1804

Subject(s)

  • Social Classes
  • Women

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Detailed Description of Collection

box folder

Notes and transcriptions  

1 1

Letters 

box folder

undated 

1 2

1767 

1 3

1768 

1 4

1769 

1 5

1770 

1 6

1771 

1 7

1772 

1 8

1778 

1 9

1779 

1 10

Supporting documentation: issues of The Record including essays about the collection (1971-1972)  

1 11-12