Add MS 43412-43443

KEENE PAPERS. Papers of Sir Benjamin Keene, K.B., the diplomatist, chiefly as Minister Plenipotentiary (1727-34), Envoy Extraordinary (1734-1739) and Ambassador (1746-1757) to Spain. The first section (Add. MSS. 43412-43422) consists mostly of copies of letters and despatches written by Keene during the years 1730-1739, the originals of which are to be found in the Tyrawly Papers (Add. MSS. 23627-23629, 28149), the Robinson Papers (Add. MSS. 23780-23791) and the Newcastle Papers (Add. MSS- 32714-32992), or in the Public Record Office. The second section (Add. MSS. 43423-43440) includes the original despatches received by Keene from the Secretaries of State during the years 1748-1757. The remainder of the archive comprises three volumes of private letters (1740- 1757) from Keene to Abraham Castres, Consul in Madrid, who became Consul in Lisbon in 1742 and Envoy Extraordinary to Portugal in 1749. Keene's despatches from Madrid and papers sent to him from other Continental capitals were dated according to the New Style, whilst for documents written in London the Old Style was used until 1752: the archive has now been arranged throughout in accordance with the New Style. Some of the documents, whilst in the possession of Keene's brother and residuary legatee Edmund, Bishop of Chester, were printed by Archdeacon William Coxe in his Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon, 1813. Others have been printed by Sir Richard Lodge in his Private Correspondence of Sir Benjamin Keene, K.B., 1933. Cf. also Brit. Mus. Quart., viii, 1933- 1934, pp. 28-29, and Friends of the National Libraries, Annual Report, 1932-1933, pp. 24-25. Further despatches, etc., of Keene (dated 1752) Will be found in Add. MS. 49621. Thirty-two volumes. Paper. Folio and quarto (unless otherwise stated). The names of the writers are given in the Index to this Catalogue. Presented by Mrs Olive Ruck Keene through the Friends of the National Libraries.