Description:The Sutherland Papers contains a collection of eleven letters, seven of which were written by Katherine when she was still Katherine Duddeley. The other four, also written by Katherine, followed her marriage to Richard Leveson. Although the date of their marriage and the length of their courtship are unknown, they must have been married before May 8 1658, the date of one of the letters she signed as Katherine Leveson. Marriage negotiations of the higher social echelons in this period were frequently long drawn-out affairs.
Several of the courtship letters contain very wordy and poetic lines of affection. On the whole they are quite formally written and although they betray Katherine’s clear fondness for Richard, her style is both respectful and submissive, as would have been appropriate. At times she stresses her humbleness before him writing, for example, ‘for I know your judgement is so many degrees above mine.’ The continued use of affectionate language in the later letters justifies their description as love letters. There is, however, a change in style, both in the subject matter of the letters and the manner in which they begin and end. In the letters written during their courtship, Katherine addresses Richard as Sir or Worthy Sir and signs them as affectionate, faithful, constant or true friend. When married, she addresses Richard as My Dear or Dearest, and signs the letters your entirely loving or truly affectionate wife, showing a greater degree of informality. One of them ends ‘yours ever til death.’ Several of the letters contain touching asides: one ends with a comment that ‘I was Loth to keepe your saruant past his time as you may see by my hasty scribbling;’ another makes clear to Richard that he ‘neede not feare my Lady seeing any thing you wright, for she neuer sees any Lettire of mine, exsept I show it of my selfe.’
Many of the letters are concerned with the marriage settlement and they act as a channel through which information was passed from Katherine’s mother to Richard Leveson about the status of the financial negotiations. It was normal for women to be involved in the arrangements for the marriages of family members in this period. The arrangements are, however, only briefly touched upon in these surviving letters, rather than discussed in detail. It was clearly a very stressful and emotional time for Katherine. One of the letters makes this especially clear, where she fears that the marriage negotiations may have broken down on the back of rumours about her worthiness and appropriateness as a choice for his bride, particularly due to financial concerns. As well as discussing the financial arrangements for the match, in one letter, Katherine sends one of her rings to Richard to be sized and in reply to his questions about the traditional duties for the groom, she explains that although she does not know the latest fashion, she thinks that it is customary for men to give gloves and points rather than garters or ribbons.
Katherine’s letters as a married woman refer a lawsuit concerning land and other on-going matters of business in the family, which had been alluded to in the marriage negotiations. We also learn that she was staying in London with her mother and was visited by Lady Dorset and her children. Other acquaintances named include her cousin Newdigate. While in London her mother developed an illness and Katherine, like most of her party, suffered from a cold, which lengthened their stay.
Women’s letters surviving from this period are relatively rare and although these letters are neither numerous nor especially lengthy, they do contain interesting details about the process of marriage negotiations, the style of letter writing, the customs associated with marriage in this period, and references to some of the Duddeley/Leveson connections. They can also fruitfully be compared to other collections of women’s letters from this period, for example Alison Wall’s Two Elizabethan Women: Correspondence of Joan and Maria Thynne, 1575-1611 (Wiltshire Record Society, Volume 38, 1983.) Further information on marriage in this period and female letter writing can also be found in James Daybell’s Early Modern Women’s Letter Writing, 1450-1700 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001) and David Cressy’s Birth, Marriage & Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)