Original Correspondence and other items

An extensive collection of family papers relating to the Beard and Winder families. The bulk of the material is made up of correspondence to and from John Relly Beard, and to and from his son James Rait Beard. The papers relating to the latter include a detailed account of his travels to India on business as a young man. It also contains birth, marriage and death certificates along with wills and personal memorabilia. In all, it constitutes a detailed portrait of family life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with insights into family, business and faith matters in a family heavily involved in Unitarianism and Unitarian education.

The original material was sorted into a broadly chronological sequence by the family and this order has been maintained. Exceptions were made for the documents listed as UCC/2/3/1/459 - UCC/2/3/1/462 which are made up of photo lithographic plates, a collection of loose notes and letters and a bundle of detailed notes on the same paper and in the same handwriting which had been distributed throughout the collection. The latter constituted a detailed account produced by James Rait Beard of events in the family's history. These have been reunited into the single original sequence produced by their author. Also the various genealogical charts have been bundled together at UCC/2/3/1/463.