Letters offer rare glimpse of 18th century romance

2:14pm Thursday 9th October 2008

The discovery of a set of love letters between two young people in the 18th century sheds a fascinating light on the romantic stylings of an earlier age,as EDMUND TOBIN discovered.

PERIOD dramas are proving increasingly popular among TV audiences these days with Jane Austen and her contemporaries frequently finding new life on the small screen.

Many people watching these programmes with their elaborate courtship rituals between young lovers must wonder how accurate a reflection they are of the romantic entanglements of our ancestors.

Now, a new book published by The Lavers Local History Society shows for the first time the love letters between a young 18th century couple in west Essex: John Cozens and Elizabeth Ide.

A lucky man in terms of fortune, John Cozens’ father, also called John, had worked as a servant to the wealthy landowner Henry Cole who lived at the manor house in Magdalen Laver and owned properties stretching from Ongar, through North Weald and into Hornsey, then in Middlesex.

When Henry died a bachelor, in 1760, he left all of his personal estate to John Cozens snr who suddenly found himself a man of fortune.

Legal problems around the will would plague the Cozens throughout their life, but they would continue to own much of the local land around Magdalen Laver where John Cozens Snr died in 1766, leaving his property to his son.

The wife of John Cozens Snr, Mary Cozens, died in 1774 leaving to John Cozens Jnr “the diamond ring that was the late Henry Cole’s Esquire, my large silver snuff box and my best punch ladle.”

Before he inherited his father’s estate John Cozens Jnr had already begun his series of love letters to Elizabeth Ide, the daughter of shopkeeper Richard Ides, who lived in Stanstead Abbots.

They married at Magdalen Laver on November 25, 1766 – just eight days before John’s father’s death.

The Cozens would have five children together at Magdalen Laver although one of their sons, Edward, shot himself dead at the age of 18.

After his own death in 1784, John Cozens left the manor to Elizabeth who died in 1824, aged 82, who bequeathed the estate to her son John Cozens III.

The deaths of Elizabeth, John, and their parents, are marked by a marble plaque still on view within Magdalen Laver Church.

The family manor passed out of the Cozens’ hands in 1832 when it was sold to James Ewing.

It has had many owners since and still stands, although it has been considerably altered particularly in the 1960s when it was owned by Charles French.

The love letters of John and Elizabeth were recently donated to the Essex Record Office by a medical institution, and have now been compiled into a book written by one of their distant relatives, Adrian Taylor.

- Copies of A History of the Families of Cole and Cozens of Magdalen Laver Together With the Love Letters of John Cozens and Elizabeth Ide are available by writing to Patrick Streeter, Watermans End Cottage, Matching Green, Harlow, Essex, CM17 ORQ, or by emailing sptstreeter @aol.com. They are priced £3 including postage.

TWO LOVE LETTERS

October, 13, 1764

Dear Bettsy,

My sincere love for you is beyond expressing, I assure you. And could I be so happy as to have that great favour granted to me of keeping you company I should think myself the happiest young man in the world.

For only I think that you have a great regard and respect for me; but it is impossible for you to have more than I have for you.

For your person is too charming ever to let a heart escape that you have once made entirely your own, and when mine is not, so may it fester in the breast of.

Your sincere lover,

John Cozens

October 19, 1764

Mr Cozens,

Permit me to answer you – it was with the greatest impatience I broke open your letter, and much more to read the contents when finding it signed with your name, which always give me pleasure to hear it mentioned.

If what you have wrote is grounded on sincerity and truth together with honour, I shall think my self the happiest person living.

Yours, with all sincerity,

Eliz’th Ide

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