Duckworth-Hills papers

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Description: Stella Duckworth (1869-1897) was the half-sister of Vanessa Stephen Bell, Virginia Stephen Woolf, and Thoby and Adrian Stephen by her mother Julia Jackson Duckworth's marriage in 1878 to Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), a prominent Victorian author and editor. Stella Duckworth married solicitor John Waller ("Jack") Hills (1867-1938) on April 10, 1897 in London, where she died on July 19, 1897. The Hills-Duckworth papers, dated circa 1860-1955, consist of personal and family correspondence, financial documents, photographs of Duckworth and Stephen family members, graphics, and miscellaneous items that were largely in the possession of Stella Duckworth at the time of her marriage to John Waller Hills in 1897, and retained by him after her death. They hold additional correspondence and other items belonging to John Waller Hills and his second wife, Mary Grace Ashton Hills.
Names: Duckworth, Stella (Creator); Ashton, Mary Grace (Correspondent); Duckworth, George Herbert, Sir, 1868-1904 (Correspondent); Duckworth, Gerald, 1870-1937 (Correspondent); Fisher, Mary Louisa, 1841-1916 (Correspondent); Hills, John Waller, 1867-1938 (Correspondent); Stephen, Julia Duckworth, 1846-1895 (Correspondent)
Dates / Origin: Date Created: 1860 - 1955 (Approximate)
Library locations: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature; Shelf locator: Berg Coll 24918
Topics: Bell, Vanessa, 1879-1961; Duckworth, Stella; Stephen, Julia Duckworth, 1846-1895 -- Family; Stephen, Leslie, 1832-1904 -- Family; Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941
Genres: Correspondence; Drawings; Photographs; Prints; financial records
Notes: Biographical/historical: Stella Duckworth (1869-1897) was the half-sister of Vanessa Stephen Bell, Virginia Stephen Woolf, and Thoby and Adrian Stephen by her mother Julia Jackson Duckworth's marriage in 1878 to Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), a prominent Victorian author and editor. Stella Duckworth married solicitor John Waller ("Jack") Hills (1867-1938) on April 10, 1897 in London. She became ill during their honeymoon in Italy and returned to London for medical care, where she died on July 19, 1897 of peritonitis. Stella was the daughter of Herbert Duckworth of Orchardleigh Park, Somerset (1833-1870) and Julia Prinsep Jackson (1846-1895), born in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, to a prominent Anglo-Indian family. They married in 1867. Julia and her sisters Adeline Maria (1837–1881) and Mary Louisa (1841–1916) were the three surviving children of physician John Jackson (1804–1887) and Maria Theodosia Pattle (1818–1892). John Jackson arrived in England in 1855, joining his wife and children who departed India several years earlier. Julia Jackson was a noted beauty who modelled for Pre-Raphaelite artists, and posed for her aunt, the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879). Widowed at an early age, Julia Jackson Duckworth brought three children to her second marriage: Stella, George Herbert (1868-1934), and Gerald de l'Etang Duckworth (1870-1937). Leslie Stephen, soon to become the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), was also widowed, with a daughter, Laura Makepeace Stephen (1870-1945), born prematurely. Together they had four children, Vanessa (1879–1961), Julian Thoby (1880–1906), Adeline Virginia (1882–1941) and Adrian Leslie (1883–1948), the combined families living at 22 Hyde Park Gate in Kensington, London. (The house was re-numbered from 13 Hyde Park Gate South in 1884.) Stella, as the eldest daughter of a mother committed to philanthropic work while caring for elderly parents, helped Julia in raising the Stephen children and running the household. She was a stalwart support to the family after Julia Duckworth Stephen's death on May 5, 1895. Her own philanthropic efforts included working with social reformer Octavia Hill (1838-1912) to improve housing conditions for the poor. Stella also visited her step-sister Laura Stephen, who had lived with the Duckworth-Stephen family at 22 Hyde Park Gate, but was institutionalized in the early 1890s. John Waller Hills (1867-1938), the son of Herbert and Anna Hills of High Head Castle, Cumbria, was a solicitor, Member of Parliament, Army officer, and sportsman. He began his political career in 1906, supporting tariff reform and social reform during his association with the Liberal Unionist and then Conservative parties. Hills left Parliament in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, and served as an officer with the Durham Light Infantry in France, where he was seriously wounded in September 1916. He had attained the rank of major and was acting lieutenant-colonel at that time. Hills returned to government service after his recuperation and won elections to Parliament in the 1920s and 30s. During that period Hills wrote the classic angling work A Summer on the Test (1924). In 1931 he married the novelist Mary Grace Ashton (1908-1980); their son, Anthony Ashton Waller Hills, was born in 1933 and died in 1955 at the age of 21. John Waller Hills was to receive a baronetcy in the New Year Honours list of 1939 but he died on December 24, 1938; the baronetcy was created for his son, and his widow given the title of Lady Mary Grace Hills.; Content: The Hills-Duckworth papers consist of personal and family correspondence, financial documents, photographs of Duckworth and Stephen family members, graphics, and miscellaneous items that were largely in the possession of Stella Duckworth at the time of her marriage to John Waller Hills in 1897, and retained by him after her death. They hold additional correspondence and other items belonging to John Waller Hills and his second wife, Mary Grace Ashton Hills. Correspondence, comprising the bulk of the collection, is arranged in one alphabetical order by the writer's surname, noting the recipient. In cases where letters are undated or only partially dated, dates are broadly supplied. There are no letters written to or by Virginia Woolf, although there is reference to her. Letters notably illuminate Stella Duckworth's relationships with her fiance John Waller Hills, her mother Julia Duckworth Stephen, her brother George H. Duckworth, and her aunt Mary Louisa Jackson Fisher, thus sharing details of life with the Stephen family. (Letters from Mary Louisa Jackson Fisher, signed "M.F.," are further identified by references to her children Hervey, William, Adeline, and Arthur, known as "Jack.") There are also letters to Stella Duckworth from friends and unidentified correspondents, and several items relating to her philanthropic work, and nursing care for her mother. Julia Duckworth Stephen's correspondence comprise two letters written to her daughter Stella ("Beloved Female"), a letter from her son George at school; nine letters from Stella written during the mid-to-late 1880s or early 1890s, mostly in French, describing her activities while staying with relatives; a letter from George Murray Smith concerning Leslie Stephen's health and possible retirement from the DNB; and a letter from Dr. David Seton concerning her son Thoby. There are also three fragments of letters written by her, one of which is enclosed with a letter from Madge Symonds to Stella Duckworth. John Waller Hills' correspondence include his six letters to Stella Duckworth and one letter from her, written prior to their marriage, and letters from personal friends and political colleagues in Parliament. There are various condolence letters, notably a letter from Lisa Stillman to Hills enclosing Stella Duckworth's letter to her, sharing the news of her engagement to Hills. There is also a 1901 letter written by Hills to his mother Anna Hills, describing his view of the funeral procession of Queen Victoria in the company of Vanessa and Virginia Stephen. Letters received by Mary Hills are entirely condolence letters from socially and politically prominent persons on the death of John Waller Hills, 1938-1939, and one on the death of her son Anthony Ashton Waller Hills, 1955. Financial documents comprise Stella Duckworth's bank book in account with the Union Bank of London, 1890-1893; grocery invoices from the Army and Navy Co-Operative Society in account with her step-father Leslie Stephen, 1895-1896, and an undated quarterly statement for the Duff Baker Trust. The collection also contains fourteen photographic prints of members of the Duckworth and Stephen families, including Virginia Stephen Woolf, dated circa 1860 to 1902, and a photograph of Anna Tennant, dated 1948. Several of the Duckworth-Stephen photographs were taken at Talland House, their summer home in St. Ives, Cornwall. The earliest photograph, of Julia Jackson, circa 1860, is attributed to the collaboration of photographers Oscar Gustav Rejlander and Julia Margaret Cameron. Other graphic material found in the collection are a pen-and-ink sketch of John Waller Hills by the artist G.P. Jacomb Hood, 1920s; a black-and-white print of two sailboats at sea by the artist Norman Wilkinson, inscribed to John Waller Hills, 1923; and a small landscape print, circa 1890s. Miscellaneous items comprise a draft manuscript poem "Ode on a distant prospect of matrimony," possibly written by Stella's cousin James Kenneth Stephen (1859-1892); a Latin translation of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar" by Charles, Lord Bowen; and a printed seating chart of Queen's Hall in London, all dating approximately from the 1890s. There are fourteen loose envelopes addressed to Stella Duckworth. A few bear notes as to their content, but the letters are not found in the collection. A number of items in the collection, including photographs, contain identifying notes written on their surface in ink; most are initialled by Mary Hills ("MH") or are in her hand.; Language: Some letters are in French; Acquisition: Purchased 2019.; Content: Processing information: Processed by Susan P. Waide, 2020
Physical Description: Extent: .67 linear feet (2 boxes)
Type of Resource: Text
Identifiers: Other local Identifier: Berg Coll 24918; NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b21818699; MSS Unit ID: 24918; Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): ac2ddc90-8ce1-013a-7d36-0242ac110004

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Duckworth-Hills papers

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