Search

The papers of George Townshend, 4th Viscount and 1st Marquis Townshend, particularly concerning his lord lieutenancy of Ireland.

The collection contains 127 letters and 7 letterbooks, covering the years 1649 to 1848, with the bulk concentrated around 1767-1772. The materials relate almost entirely to Townshend's career as lord lieutenant of Ireland.

The Correspondence series primarily contains Townshend's incoming correspondence for the 1760s and 1770s, with a small number of outgoing items written by Townshend. Letters concern Townshend's political career, the politics of Ireland, the Seven Years War, political patronage, and Townshend's social and family life. While sailing to North America in the spring of 1759, Townshend wrote some of the earliest letters in the collection to his wife Charlotte; in these he described the voyage and his shipmates. On February 18, 1759, he mentioned acquainting himself with a French pilot on the deck of the HMS Neptune, and wished that his young son George could see the assemblage of ships at Plymouth. Other early letters relate to his career in Parliament, including a bill to expand the militia, which he strongly supported (May 11, 1765).

During 1767 to 1772, the years in which Townshend served as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the bulk of letters concern Irish politics, political patronage, and Townshend's social life in Dublin. One frequent topic was the augmentation of the army in Ireland, which Townshend advocated as a way to standardize the size of British and Irish regiments. The collection includes the comments of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, on the subject (March 14, 1768), as well as those of Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Earl of Grafton (October 18, 1768). Also present is Lord Frederick North's discussion of another of Townshend's undertakings, the division of the Irish Board of Revenue into two boards of excise and customs (January 3, 1771), and Shelburne's comments on a bill to enable Catholics to lend money to Protestants (May 7, 1768).

In addition to references to these political issues, the Correspondence series contains numerous mentions of patronage as well as payments made to several Irish politicians. On January 16, 1768, Shelburne wrote to Townshend, acknowledging his "secret and confidential" letters and recommended offering a "certain Salary" to the lord chief justice of the Kings Bench in Ireland. He also noted, "In regard of the Bill for Appointing The Judges during good Behaviour, I can add nothing more to what I have already said on that Subject to your Excellency." Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquis Bath, noted in a letter that "other Opportunities must be found, as soon as possible, for providing for some of the most eminent of those Gentlemen who so honorably supported Government the last Session of Parliament" (July 8, 1769). In addition, Townshend received frequent requests from friends and acquaintances for favors and minor roles in the government. This includes a request by a Henrietta Macartney that Townshend confer on her younger brother "any small place of about four hundred pounds a year" (February 11, 1768), as well as a request for a favor from William Barrington for a friend's son. Occasional bits of Irish news, letters concerning family matters (including the death of Townshend's wife in August 1770), and remarks about Townshend's departure from Ireland in late 1772 are also part of this series. On this last topic, Richard Jackson wrote, that the exit must provide "agreeable Relief to you from the long Fatigue and Trouble of a painful Preeminence in this Country" (September 4, 1772).

The Letter Books series contains 7 letter books covering 1767-1772. The original numbering of volumes 1-7 has been kept despite some overlapping dates. The letter books consist of George Townshend's outgoing letters to various recipients, including, among many others, William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington; Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton; William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784); Frederick North, Lord North; and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Several early letters contain references to the death his younger brother, Charles, in August 1767, and the family's grief over the loss. However, most letters relate to politics, patronage and appointments, and Townshend's activities as the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In letters to his colleagues, Townshend wrote candidly about many topics, including the filling of political vacancies, conditions in Ireland, and his agenda for augmenting the army in Ireland and reorganizing the Irish Board of Revenue. In a letter of November 28, 1768 (Volume 1), he wrote to Grafton, "With respect to Ireland it is true Sir that Preferments in the Church since I have been here, have gone chiefly and in unnatural Proportion to the Natives." To Lord Frederick Campbell, he wrote about the Irish poor: "The emancipating the poor Irish Peasants from the savage Oppressive Landlords…will have a very salutary effect both upon the Service of the Crown & the prosperity of the Kingdom." ([January 1769] Volume 1, page 337). The letterbooks provide a wealth of information on the various positions taken by Townshend, as well as the duties required of him as lord-lieutenant.

This collection is made up of letters that Richard Brinsley Sheridan received regarding opposition to a trade bill discussed in the Irish Parliament in August 1785.

This collection contains 6 letters to Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a member of the British Parliament, from Isaac Corry and S. Canning, who commented on Irish politics and the debate over a trade bill in mid-August 1785. Corry and Canning discussed political sentiments in Dublin and the Irish countryside, frequently mentioning the actions and politics of Prime Minister William Pitt and the Whig opposition in England. Corry also wrote about his dissatisfaction with reports of debates in the Irish House of Commons (July 20, 1785). In one undated letter, Corry celebrated a recent triumph in the Parliament of Ireland.

The William Dowdeswell papers contain political correspondence of William Dowdeswell, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Charles Watson-Wentworth Rockingham and Member of Parliament. In these letters Dowdeswell analyzes and critiques some of the most important issues of the day, such as domestic and colonial taxation, relations with America and Ireland, support for the East India Company, and the opposition's role in the Middlesex election controversy.

The William Dowdeswell papers contain important correspondence concerning Dowdeswell, Charles Watson-Wentworth Rockingham, Edmund Burke, and other prominent Rockingham supporters. The collection consists of 40 signed drafts or retained copies of letters written by Dowdeswell, and 13 letters other politicians. Dowdeswell analyzed and critiqued some of the most important issues of the day, such as domestic and colonial taxation, relations with America and Ireland, support for the East India Company, and the opposition's role in the Middlesex election controversy.

The papers are made up of letters Dowdeswell's tenure as Rockingham's Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1765, and as his trusted political counselor. Included are letters the new First Lord of the Treasury, Augustus Henry Grafton, Duke of Fitzroy; Secretary of State Henry Seymour Conway; Speaker of the House of Commons Charles Wolfran Cornwall; Councilor and member of the Upper House, Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond; and Lord of the Admiralty, Charles Townshend (see the box and folder listing for an itemized list of the collection).

The bulk of the letters are Dowdeswell to Burke and Rockingham, advising them on parliamentary politics and policies, particularly concerning government business and financial affairs. Of note is his 16-page appraisal of affairs with America, in which he commented on the outbreaks of violence in Boston and New York and suggested a repeal of the Townshend duties. He called the duties a "folly" but asserts that Parliament must retain the right to raise taxes in the colonies. "It must either be admitted[,] which is timidity[,] weakness[,] irresolution[,] and inconsistency; or it must be resisted, and arms of this Country must be exerted against her Colonies" (August 12, 1868).

Dowdeswell's letters the summer and fall of 1769 demonstrate his role in the Middlesex election controversy, in which he and Rockingham defended the embattled John Wilkes. On September 5, 1769, Dowdeswell discussed his pamphlet entitled Sentiments of an English Freeholder, which argued for checks and balances in Parliament. Also of note is the July 18, 1773, letter, in which Dowdeswell discussed the government's treatment of the East India Company. After 1774, Dowdeswell often discussed how his ill-health was keeping him engaging in politics.

A late-18th or early-19th century letterbook contains 29 copied letters from Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, to William Dowdeswell, dating between 1767 and 1773, and letters by Edmund Burke (January 1771 and October 27, 1772), Holles Newcastle (September 17, 1768), and Charles Townshend (May 25, 1765, and Undated). See the box and folder list for a complete list of letters represented in this letterbook.