Descriptive Summary
Access
Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Jarman Family Papers
Dates: 1883-1962
Bulk Dates: 1883-1897
Collection Number: mssHM 79906-79951
Creator:
Barnes, Maria Bidgood Jarman Ford
Extent:
56 items in 1 box
Repository: The Huntington Library,
Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts
Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection primarily consists of correspondence related to the Jarman
family, Mormon converts who immigrated from England to Utah in the 1860s. It
includes statements by Maria Bidgood Jarman Ford Barnes regarding her divorce from
her abusive, polygamous first husband; 26 letters sent to Maria from her son Albert
while he was serving on a mission trip to England from 1894-1895; and various
letters from other family members and friends, including the Dickert family, who
describe their life in Germany, and a friend who served on a mission to Switzerland
in 1897.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Jarman family papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
The collection was purchased from the Swann Americana Sale 2310, Lot 192, on
April 16, 2013, by the William Reese Company.
Biographical Note
Maria Bidgood Jarman Ford Barnes (1832-1924) was born in Devon, England. Dissatisfied
with the religious atmosphere of her day, she became interested in the evangelical
Plymouth Brethren. While attending one of their meetings, Maria met widower William
Jarman. They married in Exeter in 1862 and a son, Albert (1863-1929), was born a
year later. Maria later stated that William was prone to excess drinking and the
company of “lewd women,” and in 1865 he was briefly placed in an insane asylum in
Devonshire. Maria continued to support him after his release and a second child,
Maria, was born in Cudleigh in 1865. Soon after, a millinery apprentice named Emily
Richards came to live with the Jarmans and quickly became pregnant. Around the same
time the Jarmans received a copy of “The Faith” by Orson Pratt, and after a visit
from a Mormon elder were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Less than six months later, the family arrived in Albany, New York, where
Emily gave birth to William’s child. The Jarmans lived in Albany for two years while
they saved the money to travel to Utah. They eventually emigrated with the Murdock
Company to Salt Lake City, arriving in August 1868. William married Emily in
December, after which time he became increasingly violent toward Maria and was
arrested for threatening to kill her in April 1869. Maria filed for divorce, and
soon after the couple’s separation she gave birth to a third child, who went by the
name John Jarman Bidgood (1869-1960). In May William was arrested for grand larceny.
After being acquitted on a technicality, he left his job at the Jennings Mercantile
Company and returned to England, where he became an outspoken opponent of the Mormon
Church. Maria found employment as a milliner at Auerbach’s Department Store, and
later ran a millinery business from her home. The family struggled financially, and
at the age of eight Maria’s daughter began working as a nursemaid. Maria married
Robert Henry Ford in 1881. Robert did not get along with Maria’s daughter, who moved
out of the house and later married Samuel DeGrey against her mother’s wishes. Edward
remained active in the Mormon Church and served on a mission to England from
1894-1895. Following Robert’s death, Maria married a man named Mark Barnes. She
later reconciled with her daughter and went to live with the DeGreys in 1919. She
died on February 5, 1924.
Scope and Content
The collection primarily consists of correspondence related to the Jarman family,
Mormon converts who immigrated from England to Utah in the 1860s. It includes
statements by Maria Bidgood Jarman Ford Barnes regarding her divorce from her
abusive, polygamous first husband; 26 letters sent to Maria from her son Albert
while he was serving on a mission trip to England from 1894-1895; and various
letters from other family members and friends, including the Dickert family, who
describe their life in Germany, and a friend who served on a mission to Switzerland
in 1897.
In the earliest letter, sent by Maria to George Lambert in 1883, Maria describes the
history of her family’s emigration from England first to Albany, New York, and later
to Salt Lake City; of her husband’s attempts to “cover his shame” with his pregnant
mistress by converting to Mormonism and adopting polygamy; of his theft from the
general store where he worked and threats to kill Maria; and of her attempts to
befriend her husband’s second wife, whom she “treated as a sister.” An additional
notarized statement from Maria further describes the difficulties of her marriage.
Other letters include those from Maria’s sister Lydia Chaney, who writes from
England of putting money in an emigration fund for her daughters, who she hoped
would travel to Utah (1893); a letter from Sperry W. Lawson describing his arrival
in Basel, Switzerland, for mission work (1897); a letter from Maria’s niece Maude
Evans in Marietta, New York, detailing the cost of clothes and groceries since the
outbreak of World War I (1917); a letter from an elderly relative named Emily Hall
in San Francisco who worried that she would have to go to a “Relief Home for the
poor” (1923); and a letter from an unknown acquaintance named Ted who writes of a
fire caused by his wife washing clothes in “high powered gasoline” and her quick
thinking in saving a boarder from the fire. Letters involving the Dickert family,
who may have been related to Maria, include those written while they were living in
Teufelsbrucke, Germany, and planning to return to Salt Lake; an 1891 letter to Mrs.
Dickert from a friend apparently working as a governess in Warmbrunn, Germany, in
which she compared the scenery to Salt Lake City (much to the consternation of the
locals) and wrote of a pair of sandals “really…worn by a Chinese lady..this of
course makes them quite a valuable curiosity” (1892); and a letter from a Dickert to
his young son Dilpert sent from Helena, Montana, in 1895. Also included are some
genealogical notes on the Jarman, Bidgood, and Sherring families.
Albert Jarman’s letters from his English mission often focus on the difficulties of
mission life, and he notes that “no one knows what an Elder has to put up with until
they have to go through [it].” The hardships he describes include lack of pay,
unsanitary living conditions, his many illnesses (Jarman tried to cure his lung
ailments with Turkish baths before ultimately ending up at St. George’s Hospital in
London), and the reluctance of local Mormons to offer him aid. “The Saints ain’t
like they used to be,” he wrote on September 25, 1894, “they don’t want to do
anything for the Elders now…[the Saints] are a very queer set of people some of
them.” He writes often of theology and the “heathens” he has to deal with, noting
that, while he originally had success distributing religious tracts, people
ultimately would not “sit to talk…for fear that they may have to embrace what we
say” (June 15, 1894). He had long talks with a local minister and befriended a
Catholic family, conceding that “there is [sic] good people in the Catholic [Church]
but they are priest bound” (May 4, 1894). Albert also prophesied that England would
“become a forest instead of a garden…her industry is dying out fast” (July 27,
1894); described the scenery of Kent, which he greatly admired although he was not
quite as interested in “old castles and old ruins,” noting that “I don’t care much
for these kind of sights” (Aug. 31, 1894); and complained about the cold winter of
1894-1895, during which a man “froze to death while driving his cab in London” (Feb.
12, 1895). In other letters Albert praises British mission president A. William
Lund, occasionally writes of hearing news of strife between Mormons and Gentiles in
Utah, and mentions the books he is reading, including a novel by Ben E. Rich. He
also writes of a future meeting with his estranged father, assuring his mother that
“you didn’t need to be alarmed about my Father doing me any harm because he won’t
have the power, why he is afraid of me” (Apr.27, 1894). Although he had hoped to
bring his father and other family members back to the Mormon Church, after a brief
encounter with William Jarman Albert conceded that “I do not expect that [he] will
repent” (March 12, 1895).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged chronologically.
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
Barnes, Maria Bidgood
Jarman Ford, 1832-1924.
Subject
Domestic
relations--California.
Domestic relations--England.
Domestic relations--New York
(State).
Domestic relations--Utah.
Fires.
Mormon converts.
Mormon families.
Mormon missionaries--England.
Mormon
missionaries--Switzerland.
Mormon women.
Mormon Church--History--19th
century.
Mormons--Genealogy.
Mormons--Utah--History--19th
century.
Polgamy.
World War, 1914-1918--Public
opinion.
Geographic Areas
California--History--1850-1950.
England--Description
and travel.
England--History--19th
century.
Germany--Description
and travel.
Germany--History--1789-1900.
Kent
(England)--Description and travel.
Maidstone
(England)--Description and travel.
New York
(State)--History--20th century.
Warmbrunn
(Germany)--Description and travel.
Genre
Letters (correspondence)--England--19th
century.
Letters (correspondence)--Germany--19th
century.
Letters (correspondence)--Utah--19th
century.
Manuscripts--Utah--19th
century.