Title deeds, family papers and correspondence of the Wheeler, Tuke and Seebohm families,...

The correspondence falls broadly into three sections, that of the Wheeler family 1700-1830: of the Tuke family 1700-1800; and of the Seebohms 1814-1870. Copies of some of the letters from S.R. Grubb (nee Tuke) published as Some Account of the Life and Religious Labours of Sarah Grubb. London, James Phillips, 1794, are in this collection. The sons of Benjamin and Esther Seebohm also used material in this collection whilst editing The Private Memoirs of B.& E. Seebohm. Provost & Co. London, 1873. All correspondence deals with family concerns, health, both spiritual and physical, and news of Friends and meetings. The contents of letters are only noted when they refer to subjects of more general interest, or when the letters are particularly unusual or interesting.

Numbers in the original list, which included only a part of the collection, have not been retained.

The Quaker use of the number of the day and month, instead of the name, has been retained where used. Before 1752 the Quakers used the old style of dating, hence the 1st month was March

[Accession 517]

Deposited 1954

The Wheeler family were living in Cranfield, Bedfordshire in the 17th century, and moved to Hitchin in the middle of the 18th century, where they worked as drapers and woolstaplers. Joshua Wheeler (1635-1712) had become a member of the Society of Friends tovards the end of the 17th century, and the family remained members throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. Several of them were prominent not only in their local meetings, but also in national affairs, and travelled widely throughout the country. In the closely-knit Quaker community families frequently intermarried, and the Wheelers were connected to, among others, the Sharpies and Ransoms of Hitchin, and the Tukes of York.

In 1831 Esther Wheeler married Benjamin Seebohm, who had emigrated from Pyrmont, near Brunswick in Germany, in 1814, and settled among Friends in Bradford. Benjamin became a prominent Quaker, editor of The Annual Monitor, and of The Life of Stephen Grellet. and a widely travelled minister, visiting Ireland, Germany and the United States. Two of their sons became eminent in their own spheres, Henry as an ornithologist, and Frederick as a historian