The Dropmore Papers (Add

THE DROPMORE PAPERS (ADD. MSS. 58855-59494) ROBERT A. H. SMITH WILLIAM WYNDHAM, Baron Grenville (1759-1834), Prime Minister from 1806 to 1807 and earlier, from 1791 to 1801, Foreign Secretary under Pitt the Younger, left on his death over 300 portfolios of letters and papers and over 150 letter- and precis-books, the fruits of a public career of some fifty years. The Dropmore Papers, named after Grenville's country home, were acquired by the Department of Manuscripts in 1970. The arrangement of this large collection had been started, apparently at various times, during Grenville's lifetime but remained uncompleted at his death and thereafter. A few historians had used the papers when they were in the possession of the Fortescue family, but they were generally known only through the ten-volume Historical Manu- scripts Commission Report (1892-1927), almost entirely the work of one man, Walter Fitzpatrick.^ J. Holland Rose once declared that he found *no striking phrase which glitters amidst the leaden mass of [Grenville's] speeches and correspondence'.^ Grenville, a slow taciturn man, was rarely a witty or lively correspondent, but 'the leaden mass' remains both an unavoidable obstacle and an invaluable source for historians of Grenville's times. 'Fhis is partly because of Grenville's long public career, both in office and out, and the consequent bulk and scope of material, and partly because the papers of several of his contemporaries, most notably those of Henry Dundas and William Pitt, have been dispersed. The Dropmore Papers supplement other collections in the Department of Manuscripts, such as the Holland House, Auckland, Rose, Wellesley, Liverpool, Fox, and Leeds papers, and, furthermore, join other Grenville family collections acquired earlier, namely papers of his father George Grenville; of Earl Temple, Lord Grenville's uncle; and of George, Marquis of Buckingham, and Thomas, the politician and bibliophile. Lord Grenville's brothers;"^ as well as the first major Grenville collection to be acquired by the Department (1883), the Stowe Manuscripts, the papers of the Dukes of Buckingham. The collection contains political and diplomatic papers, family, private, and estate material, general and semi-official papers and correspondence, and miscellaneous documents acquired by Grenville, or by others of his family, dating from 1625 to 1864. There is, however, practically nothing relating to his childhood or to the Eton and Oxford stages of his life. The first nine volumes of the H.M.C. Report contained, for 75 the period from the seventeenth century to 1809, much diplomatic material, a considerable quantits of domestic political correspondence, and some semi-official, general, and miscellaneous documents; the standard of editing was high, judging from a study of Grenville's correspondence with the Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Wellesley, Lord Auckland, and Thomas Grenville. Many of the unpublished letters contained rnere social gossip, or bare accounts of illnesses and deaths or family matters. Letters to Buckingham when the latter was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1782-3, 1788) preserved in an entry book (Add. MS. 59407) were omitted presumably because most, if not all, had been published by Buckingham's son in his Courts and Cabinets of George III (London, 1853). ^ ^^^ errors were made; some letters were wrongly dated; a few interesting letters were omitted, including Tom Grenville's two letters of i and 5 August 1806 concerning approaches to the Opposition (Add. MS. 58885, fols. 92-3, 94-5), and some of the latter's correspondence of 1806-7 as First Lord of the Admiralty. The Admiralty material was probably overlooked because it was hidden among the general correspondence for the period; it covers patronage, the purchase of stores, damage caused by Spanish vessels off Gibraltar, the Buenos Aires expedition, the possible court-martial of Admirals Popham and Stopford after its failure, and other topics, and is clearly closely related to documents now in the Huntington Library.''^ Material in other sections was overlooked: correspondence with Auckland for 1806-7 ^rid with Grey for 1808 was also hidden in the general correspondence; the Grey material included letters on opposition policy in December 1807/January 1808, and December 1808.^ At least three letters of Edmund Burke (Add. MSS. 59315, fols. 92-3: 8 June 1789; 59355, fols. 88, 89: 22, }2], Apr. 1789) the latter mentioning the Hastings trial, escaped notice, as did Grenville's letters to Burke. Nevertheless, from a survey of this limited section of the collection, the first nine volumes of the Report appear sound and contain a fair selection of tbe most important documents for their periods. Grenville's official and private correspondence with his brothers, witb the King, with statesmen like Pitt, Dundas, Wellesley, Auckland, Bedford, Windham, Fox, and Grey, with foreign ambassadors like Starhemberg and Woron/ow, and with diplomats such as Lords Elgin, .\linto, Gowcr, and Bute, was well represented, and many of Grenville's political papers were also published, covering a wide variety of subjects. The tenth volume of the H.M.C. report was less satisfactory; it covered the period 1810 to 1820, but was based to a disproportionate extent on Grenville's correspondence with Auckland, who died in 1813, and with Grey and Tom Grenville. No letters of Grey after 1813 were printed, although their regular correspondence continued up to 1817, and the last letter from Grey is dated 1831. Omitted material included a 'Memorandum made Ap 28 1814 of a Secret conversation between Lds Grey & Grenville — abt Pfrince] of W|ales] & Mrs. Fit/Herbert', concerning the difficulties likely to arise on this subject (Add. MS. 58949, fols. 116-21). No use was made of Grenville's correspondence witb Lord Liverpool, with his nephews the Wynnes and the second Marquis of Buckingham, or with members of the royal family, all of which contain important material. The decision to end the series at 1820 meant that no material 76 relating to the Grenvilles* accession to the Government in 1822 or Grenville's subsequent relations with the Government was reproduced. Correspondence with Canning, Robinson, Bathurst, Holland, Plunket, and others had to be omitted. Even the coverage of 1820 was incomplete, for interesting letters from Lord Elgin on the Naples Revolution and on the course of reform in Germany were omitted (Add. MS. 59008, fols. 111-24, 125-8: 6, 17, 18 July and 27 Nov. 1820). The shortcomings of the tenth volume must not be over emphasized. Few other H.M.C. reports cover the early nineteenth century. The conditions under which Fitzpatrick worked are not known. Fitzpatrick selected the material for this final volume but did not live to write an introduction; he may have intended to cast some light on his reasons for his choice of material or even to publish a further volume. However, in the light of the high standards maintained in the earlier publications the failings of volume ten still remain a mystery. Material for this later period, especially for the period after Grenville's stroke in 1823, is not so abundant as for earlier years, but it contains much worth publishing; further reference will be made below to material omitted from the tenth volume. The H.M.C. was able to publish a proportion of Grenville's foreign papers relating to the French Wars, to Holland, the Americas, and to the abolition of the Slave Trade; much was omitted: in addition to several Dropmore volumes concerning Britain's relations with France, there are others relating to Austria, Russia, Prussia, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal (see Add. MSS. 59051-83). Other papers cover the military and naval campaigns, and provide information concerning the British forces during the war (Add. MSS. 59279-85). Three volumes deal with the organization of the yeomanry and militia; the latter material relates chiefly to the organization and training of these forces in Buckinghamshire, long the residence of, and a traditional sphere of interest for the Grenville family (Add. MSS. 59291-3). Other volumes contain correspondence with the War Office (1788-1809, n.d.: Add. MSS. 59286-90). Several series of papers indicate Grenville's interest in and work concerning finance and trade, the abolition of the Slave Trade, Church Reform and Roman Catholic affairs, and the colonies, most notably India and Canada. One of Grenville's major achievements was the framing and passing of the Canada Act of 1791, and a number of documents refer to this matter (Add. MSS. 59230, 59231). A series of 145 precis-books records in outline the correspondence of the Foreign Office under Grenville and the Duke of Leeds for the period 1789 to 1801. These volumes contain summaries of dispatches—and of some enclosures—sent to and received from Europe and America, including those relating to special missions such as that to Vienna in 1793, and to peace negotiations with France. They throw further light on the Foreign Ofi^ce records of this period, earlier outlined in The Records of the Foreign Office i782-ig3g (P.R.O. Handbook No. 13, London, 1969). James Bland Burges, appointed Under-secretary of State at the Foreign Office in August 1789, initiated a short-lived series of precis-books covering six European countries and roughly spanning the period from January to August 1790. The system was revived on Grenville becoming Foreign Secretary in 1791. Grenville's correspondence with Burges offers no clues as 77 to why the system was revived or why the first series was abandoned. The new series covered the years 1791 to 1796 and included two separate sequences of in and out correspondence for individual countries. The surviving series is incomplete: it is described as covering only France, Spain, and Prussia: the Prussian volume was in fact deposited later with the Chatham Papers.

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