Description
Letter from Jessie Kenney (1887-1985) to the Rosicrucean Order written on 2 December 1966 from her London address. She writes to explain 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. She was received into the Roman Catholic Church on Christmas Day 1973.