Add MS 4258-4261

Papers relating to Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, Lord Chancellor; 17th-18th centt. They consist of the collections of Thomas Birch, who edited the Letters, Speeches, . . . of Francis Bacon in 1763; Robert Stephens, historiographer royal and editor of Letters of Sr Francis Bacon, published 1702; and of John Locker, who on Stephens's death in 1732 came into possession of his collection and who in 1734 edited a revised edition of Stephens's work under the title Letters and Remains of the Lord Chancellor Bacon. Copies of many of Bacon's letters are included, mainly in Add. MS. 4261, among them being some from the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (cf. Add. MS. 4259, f. 134, 426 1, f. 303).

Add. MS. 4261 also contains two books of copy letters of Bacon (a) in an early 17th cent. hand. ff. 226-270;-(b) a volume of 18th cent. copies, reproducing a number of the letters found in (a) above. ff. 167-225. Most of the letters are included in the above mentioned editions or in The Works of Francis Bacon, 14 vols., 1857-1874, edited by James Spedding and others. Paper: ff. 231, 168, 69, 306. Folio. XVII-XVIII centt.