Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1084

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 box

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Southwell family papers on Ireland, 1662-1977 (bulk: 1685-1715), Ms. Coll. 1084, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1662-1977 (inclusive) and 1685-1715 (bulk)

Creator:

Southwell, Edward and Southwell, Robert, Sir

Form:

Correspondence, Petitions, and Financial records

Abstract:

This collection consists primarily of documents concerning government administration in Ireland during the tenures of Sir Robert Southwell (1635-1702) and his son Edward Southwell (1671-1730) as Secretaries of State for Ireland. The documents here are largely miscellaneous in nature but are clustered around a few themes. Highlights include lists of rents and financial transactions from the period after Cromwell's invasion and before the Williamite war in Ireland, a 1689 eyewitness letter recounting the battle of Derry, a series of documents related to admiralty, smuggling, and collecting maritime revenue in the first decade of the eighteenth century, an inventory of maps of Ireland, and a substantive series of petitions relating to Richard Blake of Ardfry.

This collection consists primarily of documents concerning government administration in Ireland during the tenures of Sir Robert Southwell (1635-1702) and his son Edward Southwell (1671-1730) as Secretaries of State for Ireland. Because of their nineteenth and twentieth century collection history, the documents here are largely miscellaneous in nature but are clustered around a few themes. Highlights include lists of rents and financial transactions from the period after Cromwell's invasion and before the Williamite war in Ireland, a 1689 eyewitness letter recounting the battle of Derry, a series of documents related to admiralty, smuggling, and collecting maritime revenue in the first decade of the eighteenth century, an inventory of maps of Ireland, and a substantive series of petitions relating to Richard Blake of Ardfry.

The collection Archibald Cameron Elias Jr. (1944-2008) was a literary scholar who wrote extensively on the writer Jonathan Swift and his circle. Dr. Elias' books include Swift at Moor Park (1982) and the Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington (1997). His collection reflected his interest in 17th and 18th century Irish and English literature and in addition to the materials listed here he also owned a number of bound manuscript volumes which are cataloged separately.

This collection was formerly owned by Archibald Cameron Elias Jr. (1944-2008), a literary scholar who wrote extensively on the writer Jonathan Swift and his circle. Elias purchased this collection at Sotheby's (London) in their 4 April 1977 sale, as lot 140. The documents contained within had almost certainly been sold, re-sold, and reorganized in the 150 years since they left the possession of the Southwell family. The Southwell family papers were purchased in bulk by London bookseller Thomas Thorpe and dispersed in a series of sales in the 1830s. Nearly all of these papers were purchased by the famous manuscript collector Sir Thomas Phillipps and many of his distinctive manuscript numbers appear on the documents and volumes in the collection. Phillipps' collection was sold in an extended series of sales over nearly a century from the 1890s onward and it is clear that the present collection consists of the remains of once larger sets, with material removed and sold by bookdealers over the years. Many of the documents have penciled page numbers or other annotations which indicate the presence of other materials not preserved here.

This collection includes documents bearing annotations from the following sales and lots:

Thomas Thorpe: 137, 690, 752

Sir Thomas Phillipps: 10,018; 10,020; 10,035; 10,060; 10,070; 24,227; 24,274; 24,523; 26,291; 29,013

For the catalogs of the Southwell papers sold by Thorpe see

Catalogue ... containing the Greater Portion of the United Libraries of Sir Robert Southwell ... his Son, the Hon. Edward Southwell, and the Late Lord De Clifford (London: Thomas Thorpe, [1834])

Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Southwellianae ([London]: Thomas Thorpe, 1834)

Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts .. Several Volumes Relating to Ireland, (Omitted in former Catalogue of State Papers,) from the Southwell Collection (London: Thomas Thorpe, 1835)

Catalogue of upward of Fourteen Hundred Manuscripts…Paston, Sidney, Ormond, Orrery, Southwell, and other Family Papers (London: Thomas Thorpe, 1836)

Supplement to Thomas Thorpe's Catalogue ... and another Portion of the Southwell Papers (London: Thomas Thorpe, 1836).

These documents were loosely contained in three volumes, often without discernible order or any clear arrangement. They have been organized here according to their physical volume of origin and then by shared provenance to a given Phillipps collection if recorded.