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Add MS 81081
- Record Id:
- 032-001628274
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001628274
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000035.0x0001fc
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 81081
- Title:
- Correspondence of Sir Edward Thornton, P.C., K.C.B, G.C.B., diplomatist (1817-1906), whilst British Ambassador to the United States of America; 1868-1870.
- Scope & Content:
- Correspondence of Sir Edward Thornton, P.C., K.C.B, G.C.B., diplomatist (1817-1906), whilst British Ambassador to the United States of America; 1868-1870. Partly copies. Partly printed, telegrammed. Sir Edward Thornton, the son of Sir Edward Thornton, G.C.B (1766-1852), diplomatist, was a career diplomat, serving in Turin, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. On the death of Frederick Bruce in 1867, he was appointed British Ambassador in Washington, D.C., during a period of delicate relations between the United Kingdom and the United States following the Civil War. Described by a Canadian paper as ‘the most zealous diplomatist that England possesses’ (PRO FO 361/1), Thornton’s major service related to the negotiations concerning the ‘Alabama Claims’ for compensation against the sinking of Union ships by British-built Confederate vessels. See Adrian Cook, The 'Alabama' claims: American politics and Anglo-American relations, 1865-1872, (London, 1975). Other diplomatic concerns included the US-Canadian border dispute in the straits of San Juan de Fuca, Newfoundland fishing rights, Irish-American raids on Canada, and US claims in Cuba and Colombia for a trans-Isthmus canal. The papers contain correspondence between Thornton and Foreign Office officials, including two successive Foreign Secretaries (Lord Stanley and the Earl of Clarendon), Charles Abbott, T. H. Sanderson, Edmund Hammond, and Charles Spring-Rice. Notes on the visit of Anthony Trollope and Prince Arthur’s military sojourn in Canada, and considerations on the disagreeable conditions of British diplomats and civil servants are also included. Partial copies and related correspondence are at FO 391/16 & 17, FO 881/1636, the National Archives, Kew. Thornton’s second and subsequent letterbook (1870-1872) is held at MS Eng lett c 193, Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford, which also holds many Thornton letters among the papers the Earl of Clarendon. The second letter book was sold to Oxford by George Walsby, bookseller and socialist, Islington, at which time the first letter book presumably was sold to an American buyer. Much of Thornton’s private papers and correspondence (1847-1886) is at FO 933, the National Archives, Kew. See also Add MSS. 43622-43625, correspondence with Lord Ripon. See also the related Foreign Office ‘Blue Books’ held by the Social Policy Reading Rooms, British Library and elsewhere, and Papers relating to the Treaty of Washington; Geneva arbitration, (Washington: G.P.O, 1872) [Mic.F.232]. Purchased from Wm. Reese & Co., Connecticut, March 2005. Add. 37201 f. 539
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- U.S. Civil War Digitisation Project
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001628274", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 81081: Correspondence of Sir Edward Thornton, P.C., K.C.B, G.C.B., diplomatist (1817-1906), whilst British Ambassador to the United States of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001628274
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001628274
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- Manuscript, f. 539
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_81081 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1868
- End Date:
- 1870
- Date Range:
- 1868-1870
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)