Two Letters from Elizabeth Benger (to xxx 31 January, unknown year and to Mr Smith, prior to 1821)

"Portrait of Elizabeth Ogilvie Benger published by John Bell, after Thomas Charles Wageman
stipple and line engraving, published 1823" (National Portrait Gallery)

By: Cristine Cruz

Introduction

These two letters from William Upcott's album written by Elizabeth Benger are possibly both addressed to Mr. Smith. The first letter appears to be a reply to a "very dear friend's discerning letter". The second letter explicitly addresses Mr. Smith, asking for his help for a second time in her research for the Genealogy of the Boleyns. She asks if it "were possible to assign a meaning" to the word she doesn't understand. Considering Benger wrote in the first letter, "thankhim for his information" and  in the second letter, "May I once more...trespass on Mr. Smith's kindness," (emphasis mine) Mr. Smith is likely the correspondence for both letters. The first letter is dated "31 January" but the year is unspecified. However, the undated second letter discusses the Genealogy of the Boleyns. Therefore, the letters must have been written prior to the publication of the Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn, Queen of Henry VIII (1821).

Description

The letters say a lot about Benger's financial status. The first letter has very little white space and even has a sentence inserted into the left margin. It has been written on one sheet, front and back both filled with text. The second letter uses two separate sheets of paper. Benger scribbled out words and re-wrote them in both letters as opposed to starting over. These aspects of the letters indicate that Benger uses as much of the sheet as she could because they are costly. 

The letters were likely hand-delivered to Mr. Smith in London. Benger closes the second letter with the line "I shall pay my respects/to you and Mis Smith/on Monday" which proposes that the distance between the correspondence and herself was not very far if she could travel to him by the upcoming Monday. The letter must have been written in London because Benger moved to London "about the begining of 1800" (Aikin,1854, p.3) and Mr. Smith lived and worked there (Pelts, 2004). 

Notable features

• There is repetition in the phrase "her legitimate love for bring so it/it gives learning".

• Some features of Benger's penmanship that might be helpful for understanding the letters are the scribbles and joined words. For example, some words have been scribbled out and re-written: "hesitations" from the first letter's first page, and "ominous lurking" from the second letter's first page. Some words that are joined together are "thankhim" and "don'tdeserve" from the first letter.

• The first letter includes a phrase inserted in the left margin which reads "from [illegible] my most respectful remembrance to her if" that could be inserted before the word "Information". However, it would change the understanding of that letter that Benger is thanking Mr. Smith "for his information". In this case, another possibility for the recipient could be to Ms. Sarah Wesley (Andrews, p. 23, see Table 1.2: Letters to and from Sally Wesley).

Analysis

The correspondence for Benger's letters is  Mr. John Thomas Smith, a Librarian at the British Museum (Pelts, 2004). In the second letter, she is asking him for help a second time around to define the word "Gotte" from a document she has enclosed with the letter (not included in Upcott's album). She informs Mr. Smith that someone has recommended her to seek the information she needs from the Herald's office, an option which she deemed "very troublesome". It is not surprising considering Benger did not inherit wealth from her Parents, that she would choose to turn to friends and acquaintances such as Mr. Smith for help rather than trying to access those resources herself.

Though the first letter cannot be easily interpreted (and several of the words transcribed may be incorrect for the formed sentences don't deliver a clear message), there is some information that can be deduced:

Perhaps, Mr. Smith is not a regular correspondence of Benger for she calls writing to him a "luxury".  She also offers words of flattery: "I am always beneffited by your welcoming/letters as much as that interesting young/man has been by your conversation" before proceeding with what appears to be an attempt to promote the topic she is researching. From the second letter, we read that she is writing about the Genealogy of the Boleyns which she includes in the Memoir of the Life of Anne Boleyn (1821). The phrases from the first letter "what we give sympathy to is as much abstracted from personal suffering" and "her legitimate love" may be about Anne Boleyn. Boleyn undoubtedly underwent a lot of "personal suffering" because she was subject to "humiliating degradation" and was eventually executed (Benger, 1821, pp. 3 & 300).

DIPLOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION

Works Cited

Aikin L. (1854). "Memoir of Miss Benger". Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn Queen of Henry VIII  with the Memoir of the Author by Miss Aikin. https://archive.org/details/memoirslifeanne03benggoog/page/n10/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater

Benger E. (1821). Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn Queen of Henry VIII. https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifeofa01benguoft/page/n7/mode/2up

National Portrait Gallery. Bell & Wageman, 1823. www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw232050

Pelts L. (2004). "Smith, John Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1093/ref:odnb/25867

Winckles,  A.O. "Chapter Two: Sisters of the Quill, Sally Wesley, the Evangelical Bluestockings, and the Regulation of Enthusiasm". Women's Literary Networks and Romanticism. P. 23