CRAWFORD FAMILY
Crawford and Brown families papers, 1788-1933
PITTS THEOLOGY LIBRARY MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION NUMBER 342
LANGUAGE: Materials in English.
ACCESS: Access is unrestricted.
REPRODUCTION: All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.
COPYRIGHT: Information on copyright (literary rights) available from repository.
CITATION: Crawford and Brown families papers, MSS 342, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.
Rev. Henry Crawford was born in England in 1816 at Chelsfield Court Lodge, Kent, England. He was the son of Robert Crawford (1789-1860) and his wife, Elizabeth Elvy Crawford (1788-1850). Henry studied with a surgeon and practiced medicine in Kent before pursuing theological studies at King’s College, London. In 1851 he, along with his wife Caroline Wallen Crawford and their children, traveled to Jerusalem, where Henry became Chaplain of Christ Church. Ill health forced him to return to England several years prior to his death in 1862.
In Jerusalem Henry became friends with Robert Grant Brown, a Presbyterian minister and missionary. Robert, who was the son of Rev. George Brown, had previously been sent to Alexandria by the Scottish Society for the Conversion of Israel, and also traveled in Aleppo and Lebanon. In 1855, Robert married Henry’s sister, Susanna Frances Crawford, who had traveled to Jerusalem to visit Henry. In 1876 Robert became Secretary to the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to Jews.
The connection between the Crawford and Brown families continued into the next generation, when Rev. Henry Crawford’s son Henry Leighton Crawford married his cousin Elizabeth Alba Brown (daughter of Robert Grant Brown and Susanna Frances Crawford Brown).
Detailed genealogical information about the Crawford and Brown families, including several family trees, is available in the book Half-Lights on Chelsfield Court Lodge (box 4, folder 23).
Letters between members of the Crawford and Brown families comprise the bulk of this collection. Approximately 300 letters are included. Although letters to and from Rev. Henry Crawford and Robert Grant Brown dominate the collection, other family members who are represented include Henry Crawford, Esq. (grandfather of Rev. Henry Crawford); Robert and Elizabeth Elvy Crawford (parents of Rev. Henry Crawford); several sisters of Rev. Henry Crawford including Mary Eleanor, Matilda, Anne, and Susanna Frances; Rev. George Brown (father of Robert Grant Brown); and Alexander Brown (brother of Robert Grant Brown). Included with Alexander Brown’s letters are three letters from Alexander Bain, a classmate who went on to become a prominent psychologist and logician.
Following the correspondence are other Crawford and Brown family papers, including baptism records for Robert Grant Brown and Eleanor Crawford; the marriage certificate of Robert Grant Brown and Susanna Frances Crawford; indentures, wills, and other legal documents; handwritten financial records; and three folders of poetry by unidentified individuals.
At the end of the collection are three printed items. Half-Lights on Chelsfield Court Lodge (1933) includes a narrative history of the Crawford family’s time at Chelsfield Court, as well as detailed genealogical charts spanning several generations of the Crawford and Brown families. Extracts from the Cash-Book of Henry Crawford, H.E.I.C.S. (1907) includes information on Henry Crawford, Esq.’s (grandfather of Rev. Henry Crawford) service in India from 1802-1809 There is also a 1927 Ward, Lock, and Co’s Motoring and Touring Map of Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester. The significance of this map is unclear.
Box Folder Description/Dates Crawford family correspondence 1 1 Letter from Anne Venner to her children, 1799 1 2 Letters from Fanny Crawford, 1805, undated Henry Crawford, Esq. [father of Robert Crawford]: 1 3 Letters to Henry Crawford, Esq., 1788-1816 1 4 Letters to Henry Crawford, Esq. from Robert Turaneau, 1814-1824 Robert Crawford (1789-1860): 1 5 Letters from Robert Crawford to Henry Crawford Esq. [father], 1817- 1818 1 6 Letter to Robert Crawford, 1827 Elizabeth Elvy Crawford (1788-1850) [Mrs. Robert Crawford] 1 7 Letters to Elizabeth Elvy Crawford from Susanna Elvy [sister], 1808- 1831 [also contains Elvy family genealogical information] 1 8 Letters to Elizabeth Elvy Crawford from Martha Crawford, 1830-1840 1 9 Letters to Elizabeth Elvy Crawford from miscellaneous correspondents, 1831-1837, undated 1 10 Letters to Elizabeth Elvy Crawford from Venner Crawford [son], 1832 1 11 Letter from Elizabeth Elvy Crawford to her daughters, 1837 Rev. Henry Crawford (1816-1862): 1 12 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to Robert and Elizabeth Crawford [parents], 1830-1857 1 13 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to Matilda Crawford [aunt], 1840- 1861 1 14 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to miscellaneous correspondents, 1835-1860 1 15 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to Anne Crawford [sister], 1839- 1862, undated 1 16 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to Susanna Frances Crawford, [sister], 1840-1857 2 1 Letters from Rev. Henry Crawford to Caroline Wallen Crawford [wife], 1842, 1860 Crawford sisters: 2 2 Letters to Ellen Crawford from miscellaneous correspondents, 1837- 1838 2 3 Letters to Mary Crawford from family correspondents, 1840-1842, undated 2 4 Letters to Eleanor (Mary Eleanor?) Crawford, 1837-1841 2 5-6 Letters to Eleanor (Mary Eleanor?) Crawford from Edward Sidebottom [cousin of Robert Crawford] and Mrs. Sidebottom, 1838- 1859 2 7 Letters to and from Matilda Crawford, 1838-1859, undated 2 8 Letters from Robert Dawson Crawford to Anne Crawford [sister], 1886 2 9 Letters to Georgianna Crawford from family correspondents, undated 2 10 Letters from Mrs. Sidebottom to various Crawford family members, 1817-1836 2 11 Letters to “Miss Crawford,” 1821-1851, undated 2 12 Letters to “Miss Fuller,” 1823, undated [Mary Fuller?] 2 13 Letters to “Miss Crawford” from James Henry Skene, 1863-1869, undated 2 14 Letter from Riou to his mother, 1902 2 15 Unidentified Crawford family letters, 1807-1903, undated Brown family correspondence 3 1 Letters to Mrs. Rev. George Brown from Joseph Spence [father], 1819-1820 Reverend George Brown [father of Robert Grant Brown]: 3 2 Letters to Rev. George Brown from Elizabeth J. Brown [daughter], 1820 3 3 Letter to Rev. George Brown, 1840? 3 4 Letters from Rev. George Brown to George Brown [son], 1844-1855 Alexander Brown [brother of Robert Grant Brown?]: 3 5-7 Letters to Alexander Brown, 1836-1844, 1860, undated 3 8 Letters to Alexander Brown from Alexander Bain, 1840-1841 3 9 Letters from Alexander Brown to George Brown [brother?], 1849- 1868 3 10 Letters to George Brown from Elizabeth J. Brown [sister], 1849-1851 Robert Grant Brown (1825-1877): 3 11 Letters from Robert Grant Brown to family, 1837-1876 3 12 Letters to Robert Grant Brown, 1839, 1845, undated 3 13-14 Letters between Robert Grant Brown and Rev. George Brown [father], 1842-1847 3 15 Letter from Robert Grant Brown to Robert Crawford [future father-in- law], 1855 3 16 Letters from Susanna Frances Crawford Brown to family, 1851-1884 3 17 Letter to Elizabeth Alba Brown [daughter of Robert Grant Brown and Susanna Frances Crawford, cousin and future wife of Henry Leighton Crawford], 1875 3 18 Letters to unidentified Brown women, 1845, 1876 Other Crawford-Brown family papers Crawford family: 3 19 Baptism Record, Eleanor Crawford, 1791 4 1 Financial Documents and Legal Documents, Henry Crawford, Esq., 1799-1819 4 2 Financial Documents, Miscellaneous, 1839-1840, 1865, undated 4 3 Indenture of George [?] to Henry Crawford, Esq., 1785 4 4 Indenture of William Day to Elizabeth Crawford, 1820 4 5 Last Will and Testament, Elizabeth Crawford, 1841 4 6 Last Will and Testament, George Moreland, 1814 4 7 Legal Document Transferring Household Goods from Anne Venner to Dorothy Venner [daughter], 1807 4 8 Legal Settlement, 1927-1928 4 9 Marriage Documents, Robert Grant Brown and Susanna Frances Crawford, 1855 4 10 Memorial Card, Rev. Henry Crawford, 1863 4 11 Photograph, Unidentified Subject, undated 4 12-14 Poetry, Miscellaneous/Unknown Authors, 1784-1882, undated 4 15 Positions Held by Henry Leighton Crawford, List, 1877-1911 Brown family: 4 16 Baptism Record, Robert Grant Brown, 1829 4 17-18 Financial Records, George H. Brown, 1851-1859 4 19 Indenture of Robert Grant Brown to John Philips Mather, 1840 4 20 Obituary from Weekly Review, Robert Grant Brown, undated 4 21 Unidentified Crawford and Brown Papers, 1830, 1837, 1839, undated Printed Materials 4 22 Extracts from the Cash-Book of Henry Crawford, H.E.I.C.S., 1907 4 23 Half-Lights on Chelsfield Court Lodge, 1933 4 24 “Motoring and Touring Map of Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester,” undated