Add MS 4166

The bulk of this collection is made up of two main series. There are forty letters from John Thurloe, Secretary of State, to Henry Cromwell, Major-General of the Forces in Ireland, between June 1655 and July 1657. There are about thirty cipher-codes which were evidently in Thurloe's office ('about thirty' because it is not always certain in separating out the codes). Many are unidentified; some are linked to state officials, such as George Downing and Algernon Sidney; others to royalist correspondents. The collection also includes two letters of Oliver Cromwell to naval commanders, drafts in John Thurloe's hands partly ciphered and partly marked up for further ciphering.

Most of these letters (and all the letters to Henry Cromwell) are printed in A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, ed. by Thomas Birch, 7 vols (London: Fletcher Gyles, 1742), under dates, and described as being in the possession of 'Joseph Jekyll Esqre'.

The bulk of Thurloe's collections - the volumes now in the Bodleian Library in MSS Rawlinson A - were found in a false ceiling over a garret in Thurloe's chambers in the 1690s, and acquired by John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, who had them bound into 67 volumes. From Somers they passed to Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, after whose death in 1738 they were sold to the bookseller Fletcher Gyles, who published the Birch edition. The papers here were probably never bound, but presumably also came into the hands of Sir Joseph Jekyll, passing into the hands of a kinsman when the rest were sold.

There is a further question about the letters from Thurloe to Henry Cromwell. These are original letters in Thurloe's hand, received in Dublin and docqueted by Cromwell's secretary, Sir William Petty. All other letters to Henry Cromwell in the British Library (Lansdowne MSS 821-823 and Add MS 43724; the former contains one letter from Thurloe, 25 Mar 1656, the latter nine, between 15 May 1655 and 19 Feb 1656) passed from Sir William Petty to the latter's descendants, Earls of Shelburne and Marquesses of Lansdowne, and stayed in the family until the 19th and 20th centuries (for an account of these descents, see The Correspondence of Henry Cromwell, 1655-1659: from the British Library Lansdowne Manuscripts, ed. by Peter Gaunt, Camden Society, 5th series, ,Vol. 31 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007], pp. 1-4).The letters in Add MS 4166, in the hands of Joseph Jekyll, esquire, by 1742, evidently had a rather different history.

For other Thurloe Papers in the British Library, in 1742 in the hands of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, see Add MSS. 4155-4159. Add MS 4167 is Birch's chronological list of the papers and letters among the Thurloe manuscripts.

Contents:

ff. 1r-2v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Major-General of the Army in Ireland (at Dublin), Oct 1655. Date from the endorsement. With seals.

ff. 3r-4v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, n.d [1656]. The year is inferred from reference within the letter to William Brayne being appointed Commander-in-Chief in Jamaica. With seal.

ff. 5r-6v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 25 Jun 1655. With seal.

ff. 7r-8v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (in Dublin), 14 Aug 1655. With seal.

ff. 9r-10v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (in Dublin), 16 Oct 1655. With seal.

ff. 11r-12v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (in Dublin), 13 Nov 1655. With seal.

ff. 13r-14v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (in Dublin), Whitehall, 25 Dec 1655. With seals.

ff. 15r-16v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (in Dublin), 22 Jan 1656. With seal. The address notes 'hast post hast'.

ff. 17r-18v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 18 Mar 1656. With seals. The address notes 'hast post hast'.

ff. 19r-20v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 9 Apr 1656. With seal. The address notes 'hast post hast'.

ff. 21r-22v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 15 Apr 1656. With seal.

ff. 23r-24v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 28 Apr 1656.

ff. 25r-26v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 5 May 1656.

ff. 27r-28v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 8 May 1656.

ff. 29r-30v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 19 May 1657. With seal.

ff. 31r-32v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 20 May 1656.

ff. 33r-34v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 8 Jul 1656.

ff. 35r-36v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 26 Aug 1656.

ff. 37r-38v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 9 Sep 1656.

ff. 39r-40v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 16 Sep 1656. With seal.

ff. 41r-42v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 24 Sep 1656. Noted on the address as 'hast hast'. With seal.

ff. 43r-44v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 29 Sep 1656. Noted on the address as 'hast hast'. With seal.

ff. 45r-46v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 7 Oct 1656. Noted on the address as 'hast post hast'. With seal.

ff. 47r-48v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 14 Oct 1656. With seal.

ff. 49r-50v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 23 Oct 1656. With seal.

ff. 51r-52v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 28 Oct 1656. With seal.

ff. 53r-54v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 21 Oct 1656. With seal. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 55r-56v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 4 Nov 1656. With broken seal. Noted on the address as 'hast post hast'.

ff. 57r-58v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 11 Nov 1656. With seal. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 59r-60v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 18 Nov 1656. With seal. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 61r-62v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 2 Dec 1656. With seal. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 63r-64v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 9 Dec 1656.

ff. 65r-66v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, Whitehall, 16 Dec 1656.

ff. 67r-68v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 23 Dec 1656.

ff. 69r-70v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 13 Jan 1657. With seals. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 71r-72v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 20 Jan 1657. With seal. Noted on the address as 'hast hast post hast'.

ff. 73r-74v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), Whitehall, 27 Jan 1657. Noted on the address as 'post hast'.

ff. 75r-76v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 29 Jan 1656. With seal.

ff. 77r-78v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell (at Dublin), 3 Feb 1657. Some use of cipher. With broken seal . Noted in the address 'hast hast post hast'.

ff. 79r-80v: Letter of John Thurloe to Henry Cromwell, 28 Jul 1657. Date from endorsement.

ff. 81r-82v: Letter of Vincent Gookin to Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, 22 Nov 1656. The letter can be identified from the hand, but the date and author come from the transcription of the letter in Birch, Thurloe State Papers (1742), Vol. 5. pp. 646-649. A much more complete version of the letter is in Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson A 14.

ff. 83r-84v: Letter of Vincent Gookin, Westminster, 3 Feb [1657].

ff. 85r-87v: Letter of Vincent Gookin, Westminster, 27 Jan 1657. Addressed 'To your frend and mine'. Some use of cipher.

ff. 87r-89r: Letter of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, to Robert Blake, General-at-Sea. 13 June 1655. ff. 87r-88v is a copy in Thurloe's hand, with some ciphering and some marking up for ciphering; f. 89r is part of the letter ciphered.

ff. 90r-91v: Letter of Oliver Cromwell to Robert Blake and Edward Montagu, Generals-at-Sea, Whitehall, 9 Jan 1656. A draft in Thurloe's hand. With ciphering. The letter names those present - apart from Cromwell himself, these include the Lord President, the Lord Deputy, Lord Lambert, Lord Fiennes, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Col. Sydenham, Mr Strickland and Col. Jones. Noted, 'That his Highnes be advised to send this letter to the Generalls now before Cadiz in Spayne'. The endorsement gives details of how the letter was sent at night on 10 Jun 1656 by post to Plymouth.

ff. 92r-93*v: Letter of Sir Edward Hyde to Mr Milles, 1 Nov 1659. With cipher key. A copy.

ff. 94r-v: Letter of a spy to John Thurloe enclosing a cipher-key, 1659. A copy. The identities of one of Thurloe's spies and Thurloe himself comes from the endorsement. the cipher-key may be that at f. 95r.

ff. 95r-144v: A collection of about 30 cipher-keys, some probably used by John Thurloe, others royalist. Of these:

f. 95r: Possibly the cipher-key referred to in ff. 94r-v.

ff. 102v-103r: Cipher-key with Sir Philip Meadows, emissary in the Baltic, 1657-1658.

ff. 105r-106v: Cipher-key with Mr [Edward?] Winslowe.

ff. 108-109r: Cipher-key 'given him' [?], 15 May 1658: 'Gardiner writes Monsr. Thomas Planipyn a la Rose Blanche in Ludstreet a Londres'.

ff. 110r-111v: Cipher-key for Mr James Sharp at Edinburgh (also endorsed: 'An invention of new names to express things by'). Possibly James Sharp, future Archbishop of St Andrews.

ff. 115v-116v; Cipher-key with Resident Downing (George Downing, Resident at the Hague, 1657-1659).

f. 117r-v: Cipher-key with Blank Marshall.

ff. 118r-119v: Cipher-key with 'Lord Henry' (?Henry Cromwell).

ff. 120r-120*v: Cipher between W and S,

ff. 121r-122v: Cipher-key with Jack Crosby.

f. 123r: Cipher-key with Mr Barret.

ff. 124r-125v: Cipher-key for Algernon Sidney 'in the Sound' [1659-1660].

ff. 126r-128r: Cipher-key of Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin (ff. 126r-127v specified as 'to his Lady'.

ff. 141r-v: Cipher-key in French using tablature.

ff. 143r-144v: Cipher-key beneath notes on poitical threats (they refer to 'Siddecome', i.e. Miles Sindercombe).

f. 145r: Instructions to the Commissioners (including Captain Thomas Denis) for the reducing of Virginia, Whitehall, 26 Sept. 1651. Signed by John Bradshaw, President. An incomplete copy, which only has the concluding paragraphs. The whole of the document is printed in Birch, Thurloe State Papers (1742), Vol. 1, p. 197, drawing on a version in Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson A 10.

f. 145v: List of papers received, April, no year [?1653]. This is written on the back of the partial copy of the instructions to Virginia. At the head of that, even though the instructions are dated 26 Sep 1651, is written '1653' and this may well be the date of the notes.

ff. 146r-147v; Letter of Ann Thurloe (nee Lytcott or Lycott), widow of John Thurloe to John Howe, Presbyterian minister, Carleton, 4 Jul 1668. A letter in reply to Howe's of condolence. Copy.

ff. 148r-149r: List in Thomas Birch's hand, of speeches and papers by Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, Lord Chancellor, as printed by Robert Stephens, Letters, Memoirs ... State Papers.. . of Lord Bacon, 1736.