In Reading Timothy Harding’s doctoral thesis ‘correspondence chess in Britain and Ireland, 1824-1914, a social and cultural history‘, which may be found online here Thesis, I learnt that Befordshire made an appearance on pg. 283.
Victorian England is the context, the chapter pertaining, documenting some of the difficulties and challenges female players faced back then in much detail. Fellow county chess players, if you look through what has been posted on this site, you will note that, locally, women were never written about regarding chess in Bedfordshire, however, this does not mean that chess was not played by women in Bedfordshire but rather that it was more likely played at home rather than at a club as was commonplace back then, the author claims. The post-modern historian Jenkins once wrote in his publication Re-thinking history that ‘history and the past are categorically distinct’, herein lies evidence and argument to that effect. Put more simply, just because something has been left undocumented, it doesn’t mean it did not happen.
You may find what is linked below of further interest.
Mark. J. McCready
McCreadyandChess 
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