by Penelope Forrest (Author), Anthea E. Boylston (Author)
William Phelps moved to Madeira with his wife in 1784 to participate in the wine trade, along with a number of other British merchants. It was a family business in all senses of the word. Three of William's sons continued to produce and export Madeira wine until the 1860s. One of them, Joseph, lived there with his family for more than forty years and their diaries and correspondence reveal much about their social life, as well as business affairs. We have transcribed more than 500 letters written by three generations of the family. Selections from the letters form the basis of this present volume and are designed specifically to introduce English readers in Madeira to the role of the Phelps family during the 18th and 19th centuries. William's son-in-law, Robert Page, did much for the inhabitants of Madeira during the time he ran the 'House' and was honoured by the King of Portugal. Joseph and Elizabeth were also philanthropists who founded two schools and she planted many trees to restore deforested areas. Their daughter Bella brought Madeira lace and embroidery to the notice of the wider world at great benefit to the local people. All the family spoke Portuguese which was unusual for expatriots. The letters describe the rigours of reaching the island by sailing ship and coping with outbreaks of disease before an understanding of the cause was possible. There was a scandal in Madeira involving the English church in Funchal and the Reverend Richard Lowe, a famous naturalist whose religious views were based on those of the Oxford Movement. He managed to antagonise half the British community. The Reverend Lowe and Dr Ross went on adventurous trips with Elizabeth Phelps into the high mountains and the letters describe travelling by hammock up precipitous slopes and camping in rocky places. Singing and the playing of musical instruments were important to the family and formed part of the many social events that took place in Funchal. All Joseph and Elizabeth's eleven children lived into their sixties and beyond. Their later lives and careers are described in the final chapter.
Author Biography
Anthea Boylston was elected as archivist for the present generation of the Phelps family. This led to her being given a veritable hoard of documents for the Phelps, Kitson, Burdett-Coutts and Ashmead-Bartlett families. Since retiring from a part-time Lectureship at Bradford University and moving to Oxford, she became increasingly involved in discovering the stories of previous generations. She was hunting through drawers after her aunt's death in Sicily and came across all the letters addressed to Lieutenant General Arthur Phelps, her great grandfather, by members of his family in the 1850s. Joseph's proposal to Elizabeth was hidden in a trunk in the attic of an outhouse at her father's home. It had to be ironed flat by Judith Hubbard and Penelope before his faultless prose emerged into the light of day. When Penelope Forrest's parents died in their nineties and she sorted out their flat, she found a number of old family letters which she transcribed so as to preserve the contents in a digital format before the paper crumbled away completely. She then privately published A Memoir in Letters of the Phelps and Crompton Families. While compiling this, she renewed contact with many cousins in England who later brought to light further hoards of family letters. This in turn led to collaboration with Anthea and Judith Hubbard and the publication of A Shoebox of Letters. Penelope was a Mathematics teacher and lives in Cape Town, South Africa near her son and his family.