Egerton MS 3124

TOWNSHEND PAPERS. Diplomatic correspondence, etc., of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend of Raynham, Secretary of State for the Northern Department 1714-1716 and 1721-1730; 1714-1730, n.d. English, French, Italian and Spanish. Other papers of the Townshend family of Raynham, co. Norf., are Add. MSS. 38492-38508, 41139-41152, 41305- 41308, 41654-41656, 45902, 48981, 48982, 50006-50012 and Egerton MSS.

892-894. On the present MS. see also Brit. Mus. Quart., viii, 1933-1934, PP. 76, 77. Much of the correspondence (ff. 119-242 b passim) is with James Stanhope (Viscount 1717 and [1718] 1st Earl of Stanhope), Secretary of State for the Southern Department, while he was in attendance on George I at Hanover and elsewhere on the Continent in 1716, and supplements Add. MSS. 22510 and 41683, ff. 63-81. Of this the letters at ff. 121-124b, 160- 162b, 175-182b, 211-216b are printed in W. Coxe, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, ii, 1798, PP. 55-56, 84-85, 87-90, 115-119. 1ncluded among the enclosures in Stanhope's letters are:-(a) a letter, in French, from the Abbé Guillaume Dubois (Cardinal 1721), printed by C. L. de Sévelinges, Mémoires secrets et correspondance inédite du Cardinal Dubois, 1815, 1, pp. 210-213; 4 Aug. 1716. ff. 134-135 b;-(b) a copy of a letter to Alexander Hume-Campbell, Lord Polwarth (2nd Earl of Marchmont 1724), Envoy to Denmark, printed in Hist. MSS. Comm., Polwarth MSS., 1, 1911, p. 82; Sept. 1726 16. f. 169;-(c) copies of correspondence with Admiral Sir John Norris (see Add. MS. 28145, ff. 99-108b for other copies); 26 Sept. (printed in Hist. MSS. Comm., loc. cit.), 15 Sept.-4 Oct. (the missing covering letter, 9 Oct., to which is printed in Coxe, op. cit., Pp. 101-102), 3 Oct. 1716. ff. 169b-170, 183-196b, 199-202b. Other contents of the volume are:-

(1) Correspondence with Horatio Walpole (1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton 1756), Minister at The Hague; 1715-1716. J. J. Murray, An Honest Diplomat at The Hague: the private letters of Horatio Walpole 1715-1716 (Indiana University Publications, Social Science Series, 13), 1955, printed from a collection in Indiana University Library supplementary to the present papers, the following:- (a) a covering letter, 15 Feb. 1715 (here missing), to the enclosures at ff. 10 - 14b (PP. 52-54);-(b) an enclosure, 3 Feb. 1715 (with covering letter), at ff. 15-15 b (pp. 58-60);-(c) the English version of a letter in French, 19 Mar. 1715, at ff. 18-19b (PP. 75-77). ff. l0-107b passim.

(2) Three letters, in French, from Simon van Slingelandt, Secretary of the Dutch Council of State (Grand Pensionary 1727); 1714-1717. Signed. ff. 1-2b, 20-21b, 244-245b.

(3) Correspondence with William Cadogan, 1st Baron and (1718) Earl Cadagan, successively Envoy and Ambassador at The Hague; 1715-1716. ff. 5-8b, 22-26b, 29-35b, 207, 227-230b.

(4) Drafts, in French (ff. 68-70, 76 in the hand of Stanhope) of a letter from Townshend to Freiherr Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff, First Minister of Hanover; 19 May 1716. A draft in English is printed Coxe, op. cit., PP. 51-54. ff. 68-76b.

(5) Three copies of a letter, in French, from George I to the Prince of Wales, appointing him Regent during the King's absence on the Continent (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., 11 th Report, App. iv, 1887, P. 103); 16 July 1716. ff. 108-118. All the above dates are given in New Style. Paper; ff. ix+284. Folio. 1714-1730, n.d. The material was apparently roughly arranged according to writers, circ. 1808 (cf. old wrappers preserved at ff. i-ix). Setheby's sale-cat., 18-19 Dec. 1911, lot 139. Hodgson's salecat., 30 Nov.-2 Dec. 1932, lot 786.