KP/JK/6/1/1 - Letter, Jessie Kenney to the Rosicrucian Order, 2/12/1966

Reference code

KP/JK/6/1/1

Level of description

Item

Title

Letter, Jessie Kenney to the Rosicrucian Order, 2/12/1966

Date/s

2/12/1966

Quantity & Format

1 Letters (typescript)

Creator

Kenney, Jessie

Creator

Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis

Scope and content

Written from her London address. Jessie explains her recent absence from the Order’s activities, attributing it to ill health and severe loss of weight. She also mentions her project to write the Francis Bacon Chapter’s history, which she managed to complete with the assistance of various Chapter members. Jessie belonged to this chapter for a number of years, even serving as its Deputy Master in 1957-58. Jessie announces her intention to go into a ‘retreat’ to dedicate herself to writing a history of the suffragette movement. She felt it was her duty to dedicate herself to this task as the only surviving Kenney sister who was involved in the Women’s Social and Political Union’s (WSPU) leadership, having lost Annie in 1953.

She ends the letter with a statement that she was behind with her ‘Chapter dues’ as the Order’s new membership rates had had a bad impact on low income members. ‘The people of the lower incomes have to pay as much for food, clothes and warmth as those with higher incomes.’ Jessie was an active Rosicrucian Order member for over 30 years, but was drawn towards Catholicism in her last years at a nursing home in Braintree, Essex. She was received into the Roman Catholic Church on Christmas Day 1973.

Conditions governing reproduction

Existence and location of copies

A digital copy may be viewed at Suffragette Stories: https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/items/show/97

KP - The Kenney Papers
- KP/JK - Jessie Kenney
  - KP/JK/6 - The Rosicrucian Order
    - KP/JK/6/1 - The Rosicrucian Order - Correspondence
      - KP/JK/6/1/1 - Letter, Jessie Kenney to the Rosicrucian Order, 2/12/1966