Thursday 17th November 2016

Venue: Chawton House

6.30pm drinks reception for 7.00pm talk

nunPenelope Cave and Katrina Faulds (University of Southampton)

The letters and journals of the Jerningham family, located in the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham and Staffordshire Record Office, offer a rich resource for the study of elite British family life.

At the centre of the correspondence of this large Roman Catholic family is Charlotte Jerningham, who went on to become the wife of Sir Richard Bedingfeld of Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. Besides maintaining an extensive communication with her mother, Charlotte also received letters from a cousin in Vienna who wrote marches, an uncle who was a harp-playing poet, her daughter who became a nun in Belgium and her future sister-in-law, who was a highly talented pianist.

Penelope Cave and Katrina Faulds will perform some of the music relating to this family on the early nineteenth-century piano on loan to Chawton House Library from the University of Southampton, in addition to recitations of poetry by Edward Jerningham, who was the most notable member of the family, in his day.

Tickets: £11; Students/Friends £8.50 (includes drinks and canapés)


Book here or call 01420 541010