INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
Series One: The Boulton & Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from Birmingham Central Library

Part 10: Matthew Boulton Correspondence (Incoming Letters, A-J)

In Part 10 of this microfilm project we cover twenty three boxes of Matthew Boulton's (1728-1809) incoming correspondence. The bulk of these letters cover the period c.1750-1809. The material is organised alphabetically by correspondent.

Correspondents include a wide range of Matthew Boulton's business contacts, scientists and inventors, politicians, diplomats, agents and those involved in the arts, local affairs and philanthropic activities. The material reveals a vast network of contacts encompassing not only England, Scotland and Wales, but also America, Continental Europe, Russia, India and the West Indies. The following gives an idea of the varied scope of the material and the type of correspondents featured:

Boxes 218-224 (Correspondents A-B):

Thomas Allen (of Bromsgrove); Captain A Apsley (Secretary to the Master-General of the Board of Ordnance in London); Thomas Archer (gunmaker in Birmingham); Aime Argand (inventor of the patent lamp); Alexander Aubert (astronomer); Lord Auckland (politician and diplomat); John Warren, Bishop of Bangor; Robert Barclay (brewer, Southwark); Henry Freidrich Bargum (negociant of Copenhagen); Sir Francis Baring (of London); John Barker (banker and nail manufacturer, Lichfield); Samuel Barker (son of John Barker); T Barker (of Cheltenham); Joseph Barney (fruit and flower painter, Wolverhampton); Thomas Barrs (brewer, Birmingham); Sir John Barton (Clerk to the Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations); John Baskerville (printer and japanner, Birmingham); Sir Francis Basset (of London and Tehidy Park in Cornwall, later Lord de Dunstanville and Lord Basset of Stratton); Joah Bates (Custom House, London); Messrs J L & J Baumgartner and Messrs Baumgartner & Hooffstetter; Alexander Baxter (Russian Consul in London); William Bedford (attorney in Birmingham); Sir William Beechey (artist, Royal Academy, London); William Bell (bucklemaker, Walsall); John Bentley (of Birmingham and London); John Beran (mine purser of Marazion, Cornwall); Mrs Elizabeth Billington (singer, London); John Bingham (merchant, Birmingham); George Birch (of Handsworth); Rev John Birch (rector of Handsworth); Alexander Black (of Albion Plate Glass Warehouse, London); Dr Joseph Black (chemist and physician, Edinburgh); John Bligh (Secretary of Chelsea Water Works); Richard Bosanquet (of Cheltenham, later Falmouth); Elias Boudinot (a Director of the United States Mint, Philadelphia); Messrs Chollet & Bordieu (London agents to Messrs Monneron of Paris); H Bourdon (Versailles, France); John Boydell (engraver and publisher, London); August von Boyneburgh (of Irica); Carl Frederick von Breda (artist); Dr Robert Bree (physician, Birmingham); Richard Brown & Son (sculptors and marble masons, Derby); Isaac Hawkins Browne, the younger (essayist and MP for Bridgnorth, of Badger Hall, Salop); Andrew Buchanan (Baltimore, America); John Buchanan (Soho Manufactory, Birmingham); William Budge (private secretary to Mr Dundas in London); Daniel Bureau (London merchant); and Thomas Byerley (of London, nephew and partner of Josiah Wedgwood).

Boxes 225-229 (Correspondents C-D):

Andrew Cabrit (Clerk to Matthew Boulton at Soho); Sir John Call (military engineer, London); Peter Capper (of Bristol); letters from Carron Company Ironworks (Stirlingshire, Scotland); Count Cavalli (of Italy); William Chapman (Engineer); John Sebastian Clais (Mining Engineer, of Prussia); Francis Cobb (Banker and Receiver General for Staffordshire); James Cobb (of East India House, London); Charles Thomas Coggan (of East India House, London); Andrew Collins (agent travelling on the Continent of Europe); John Collins (of Stafford); the Countess of Cork and Orrery; Sir Joseph Cotton (Governor of the English Copper Company, London); Dr H Cramond (of Birmingham); James Crummer (of London and Berrington); Joseph Curtis (of Walsall); Robert Dagley (of Cheadle); Alexander Dalrymple (hydrographer to the Admiralty in London); Sir John Dalrymple (judge, in Edinburgh); Mrs Catherine D' Arcy (of London); George, Earl of Dartmouth and William, Earl of Dartmouth (both of Sandwell Hall); Alexander Davison (of London, Lord Nelson's Prize Agent); Fanny De Luc (of Windsor); Sir John Talbot Dillon (traveller, critic and historical writer); Cornelius Dixon (decorator and scene painter, London); Thomas Dobbs (of Lifford, Kings Norton); Martha Dolphin (Sarehole Farm); George Donisthorpe (clockmaker, Birmingham); Charles Dumergue (dentist, London); Jean Baptiste Barthelemy Dupeyrat (of Paris); and Jean Peter Du Roveray (London merchant).

Boxes 230-233 (Correspondents E-F):

East India Company; John Ebbinghaus (of Germany); A G Eckhardt (of London, including letters, accounts, articles of agreement, printed description and use of rolling parallel ruler, and printed account of advantages of mills with flat-board wheels for draining marshes); John Edwards (of the Hayle Copper Company, Cornwall); Francis Egington (of Handsworth, painter on glass); Hon W F Elphinstone (of the India Office, London); William Emery (of Brewood); Peter Ewart (of Manchester); John Ewen (of Aberdeen, hardware retailer); William Foden (of London, geographer and printseller); W & I Farmer (of London, coach builders); W Fawkener (of Council Office, Whitehall, London); Otto Jacob Finck (of Altona near Hamburg); P C Fisher (of London); John Flaxman (of London, sculptor and draughtsman); Samuel Ford (of Birmingham); John Foster (of Dublin, relating to terms of first Irish coinage); George C Fox & Sons (of Falmouth); and Rev Thomas Lane Freer (Rector of Handsworth).

Boxes 234-238 (Correspondents G-H):

Galton family (regarding canal shares); Henry Geast (of Deritend, barrister and coroner); M Genet (from Paris, Chef du bureaux des affaires d' Etrangeres, with letters from M Sage, assayer at the Paris Mint, and from M de Bournoville); Colonel George Chapman George (of Penryn, Cornwall); Joseph Gibbins (Secretary to the Rose Copper Company); John Gilbert (of Worsley, agent to the Duke of Bridgwater); Thomas Gilbert (MP of Coton, Staffordshire, and agent to the Leveson-Gowers); Lord Sylvester Glenbervie; Charles Glover (builder of Snow Hill, Birmingham); Samuel Glover; Sir Thomas Gooch (of Benacre Hall, Saxmundham, Suffolk); John Baptiste Gottwaltz (of Birmingham, postmaster); Amos Green (engraver); Hon Charles Francis Grenville (from Warwick and London); Jonathon Grove (gunmaker, London); Jenny Hall (daughter of Thomas Hall of Yoxall); John Hall (from Soho Manufactory, Ketley Furnace and Rotherham); Sir William Hamilton (diplomat and archaeologist); Thomas Hammersley (banker, of Pall Mall, London); Thomas Handley (of London regarding patents and specifications); George Harrison (from The Treasury in London); Thomas Hart (of Uttoxeter); Charles Hatchett (metallurgist of Hammersmith, London); Lord Hatherton; Lord Hawkesbury; William Henderson (Secretary to the British Linen Company, Edinburgh); W Herries Herrisse (of London, with memoranda and notes relating to coinage); Marquis of Hertford; Heus de Hendrikus (of Amsterdam); Thomas Hinckley (Clerk of the Peace in Staffordshire); Hofman and de Bie (of London); Walker Hog (of the British Linen Office, Edinburgh); William Hollins (of Birmingham, architect and sculptor); Abraham Hoskins (of Market Drayton and Birmingham); John Houghton (from the Navigation Office in Birmingham); Rev Theophilus Houlbrooke (from Shrewsbury); William Hunt (barrister, of Edgbaston, Birmingham); James A Hunter (of Perry Hill, seedsman); Benjamin Huntsman (of Sheffield, Yorkshire, inventor of cast steel); John Hurd (letters from Birmingham and London); and William Huskisson (from Eastham, near Chichester, statesman).

Boxes 239-240 (Correspondents I-J):

John Iddins (timber merchant of Birmingham); John Jackson (of Lichfield, Clerk to the Commissioners of Assayed Taxes); Rev Cyril Jackson (Dean of Christ Church); Sir George Jackson (from London); Eginton Jee & Company (Birmingham); Nathaniel Jefferys (of Pall Mall, London, jeweller and silversmith); also Nathaniel Jefferys, jnr; William Johnson (of Bradley Ironworks); and Francis Jukes (of Howland Street, London, painter and aquatint engraver).

In the lists above we have concentrated on individuals for whom their are a number of letters or a significant body of correspondence (c.6-30 letters for each particular correspondent). There are also many hundreds of other correspondents who contributed isolated letters or for whom few letters have survived. Please see box listings (contained within the guide which accompanies the Parts 9-11 of the collection) for more details.

For sake of completeness and convenience to scholars we have included again a small amount of material which was included in Part 1 of this microfilm project (the Lunar Society Correspondence) namely:

Box:    Items:   Correspondent:
 - 220: 14-30 - Thomas Beddoes
 - 230: 97-103 - Richard Lovell Edgeworth
 - 233: 119-128 - Benjamin Franklin
 - 234: 20-85 - Samuel Galton, jnr
 - 240: 163-167 - Robert Augustus Johnson back 

Contents listings for each box are filmed ahead of the material contained in that box.

The list of correspondents above gives ample evidence of the richness of the material contained within this part. Matthew Boulton was at the center of eighteenth century life, pushing back boundaries in both business and science. His sphere of influence extended beyond the Industrial Revolution, encompassing many fields including Britain's expanding empire, her navy and military and the world of diplomacy and letters. His letters are a rich source for these many interests and should appeal to all social, cultural and economic historians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.