Add MS 78194-78195

EVELYN PAPERS. Vols. XXVII, XXVIII. Correspondence of Sir Richard Browne with Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles I and II; 1645-1667. Mostly autograph. Partly drafts and copies. Partly cipher, deciphered in some cases. Consisting of retained draft and copy letters from Browne to Nicholas (some jointly to Lord Digby), Sept 1641-June 1644; followed by twenty-seven letters from Nicholas dated mostly from Caen, [?12/] 22 Dec. 1645-1 June 1648, along with the address-panel only of one of 10/20 July 1648. These are followed by one hundred and two letters written by Nicholas from Bruges, 6/16 June 1656-22 Apr./2 May 1658, with a further thirty-three from Brussels, 30 Apr./10 May-18/28 Dec. 1658, most of which are docketed by Browne with dates of writing, receipt and reply. Also included is an autograph copy sent to Nicholas of Browne’s rejection of the English Parliament’s offer to him as transmitted by their agent René Augier, 23 June 1649 (cf. CSPD 1649-1650, pp. 183-4), along with retained drafts of two letters from Browne to Nicholas of 23 Dec. 1659/2 Jan. 1660 and 1 Dec. 1667. Two further letters of 1647 from Nicholas to Browne, presumably once part of this archive, are in Add. MSS 21066, f. 15, and 28104, f. 5. Fourteen letters of Browne to Nicholas, 1651, 1656-1659, are in the Nicholas Papers in Egerton MSS 2534 and 2536; further letters from the periods 1650-1655 and 1660-1668 are known only from lists assembled by Nicholas in Egerton MS 2556, ff. 1-37v passim. A letter from Browne to Nicholas, 21 May 1660, and a retained copy of Nicholas’s letter to Browne of 5 Feb. 1667/8 are in the further portion of the Nicholas Papers in Add. MS 78268 below; for the complex history of the Nicholas Papers in relation to the Evelyn archive, see the collective description of Add. MSS 78262-78271. Intercepted letters between Browne and Nicholas, Dec. 1657-Dec. 1659, are calendared in CSPD 1657-1658, 1658-1659 and 1659-1660.

Two volumes.