Mundella Papers Scope
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Sheffield Library. Special Collections and Archives Ref: MS 6 - 9, MS 22 Title: Mundella Papers Scope: The correspondence and other papers of Anthony John Mundella, Liberal M.P. for Sheffield, including other related correspondence, 1861 to 1932. Dates: 1861-1932 (also Leader Family correspondence 1848-1890) Level: Fonds Extent: 23 boxes Name of creator: Anthony John Mundella Administrative / biographical history: The content of the papers is mainly political, and consists largely of the correspondence of Mundella, a prominent Liberal M.P. of the later 19th century who attained Cabinet rank. Also included in the collection are letters, not involving Mundella, of the family of Robert Leader, acquired by Mundella’s daughter Maria Theresa who intended to write a biography of her father, and transcriptions by Maria Theresa of correspondence between Mundella and Robert Leader, John Daniel Leader and another Sheffield Liberal M.P., Henry Joseph Wilson. The collection does not include any of the business archives of Hine and Mundella. Anthony John Mundella (1825-1897) was born in Leicester of an Italian father and an English mother. After education at a National School he entered the hosiery trade, ultimately becoming a partner in the firm of Hine and Mundella of Nottingham. He became active in the political life of Nottingham, and after giving a series of public lectures in Sheffield was invited to contest the seat in the General Election of 1868. Mundella was Liberal M.P. for Sheffield from 1868 to 1885, and for the Brightside division of the Borough from November 1885 to his death in 1897. He served in successive governments under Gladstone: as Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education from April 1880 until June 1885; as President of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet, from January until July 1886; and from August 1892 until his resignation in May 1894. His principal political interests were in the promotion of arbitration in labour disputes, and the provision of education, in particular technical education. He died on 21 July 1897. The standard biography is by W.H.G. Armytage: A.J. Mundella 1825-1897: the Liberal background to the Labour Movement (London, 1951)., while an unpublished Sheffield University thesis: The career of A.J. Mundella, with special reference to his Sheffield connections, by Margaret Higginbotham, was presented in 1941. Both of these works are based in part on the Mundella Papers. Related collections: Mundella Cartoons; Wilson Papers Source: Presented 1930 and 1939. System of arrangement: Chronological Subjects: Arbitration, Industrial - Great Britain; Labour disputes - Great Britain; Liberal Party (Gt. Brit.); Sheffield, Eng.; Technical education - Great Britain Names: Mundella, Anthony John, 1825-1897; Mundella, Maria Theresa; Leader, Robert; Wilson, Henry Joseph, 1833-1914 Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment 1 Restrictions: None Copyright: University of Sheffield Library Finding aids: Listed 2 NOTES ON THE MUNDELLA PAPERS AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT On Mundella's death his papers passed to his unmarried daughter, Maria Theresa, who intended to write a biography of her father based on the papers, supplemented by his own letters to others, given or 'loaned' to her, principally by the Leader and Wilson families. Together with her father's letters to the Leaders were a number of letters from other correspondents (see sections 85-95). Maria Theresa transcribed nearly all of her father's letters to Robert Leader and his sons (the Mundella-Leader correspondence) and several of those which Mundella wrote to Henry Joseph Wilson but she had not begun the proposed biography by the time of her own death in 1922. The papers, as supplemented by the gifts and 'loans' and Maria Theresa's transcripts, then passed to her niece, Lady Charnwood. Lord and Lady Charnwood presented the papers to Sheffield University Library in the 1930s, retaining certain unspecified items as being of family interest. The content of the papers is mainly political so that an indication of subject has only been given where the correspondence relates mainly to one particular topic or is predominantly personal. It should be noted that the papers do not include any of the business archives of Hine and Mundella. Letters to Mrs. Mundella, which are mainly social, have been included with Mundella's own correspondence. Arrangement is chronological, the main correspondents being given individual references within years. The criterion for inclusion of main correspondents is a reference in the Dictionary of National Biography or Who was Who, while all M.Ps have been added. See M.Stenton and S.Lees (eds) Who Was Who of British Members of Parliament, Vol.I, 1832- 1885 and Vol.II, 1886-1918 (Hassocks, 1978). Certain correspondents prominent in Sheffield politics, e.g. members of the Leader and Pye-Smith families, have also been included. The sections are arranged as follows: 1-31 Correspondence received by Anthony John Mundella 1861-1897 32-38 Cabinet, departmental and general political papers 1879-1895 39-57 Correspondence received by Maria Theresa Mundella 1871-1922 58-80 Correspondence of Anthony John Mundella with the Leader family ('The Mundella- Leader Correspondence') 1868-1895 81-84 Correspondence of Anthony John Mundella with Henry Joseph Wilson 1875-1897 85-95 The Leader family's correspondence excluding Anthony John Mundella 1848-1890 96-100 Correspondence and copy correspondence of Anthony John Mundella with other persons 1867-1899 100-112 Maria Theresa Mundella's transcripts of Anthony John Mundella's correspondence with the Leader family 1900s 3 113 Maria Theresa Mundella's transcripts of part of Anthony John Mundella's correspondence with Henry Joseph Wilson 1900s 114 Correspondence relating to the presentation of the Mundella Papers to Sheffield University Library 1922-1932 G.A.Dyer August 1978 4 A.J. MUNDELLA'S CORRESPONDENCE 1 Correspondence 1861-1868 Including letters from John Mellor (1), the Duke of Newcastle (2), Samuel Morley (4), Frederick Denison Maurice (6), Jesse Collings (8), and Robert Applegarth (9). 6P/1/2 is addressed to J.C.Hine and 6P/1/6 to 'Pattison' 9 items 2 Correspondence 1869 Including letters from Henry Crompton (1), (Sir) James Stansfeld. (2), Jesse Collings (3), John Evelyn Denison, later Viscount Ossington (4), (Sir) Louis Mallet (5,8,11- 14), John Bright (6,10), Edward Baines of Leeds (9), William Edward Forster (15- 16,18), and Friedrich Max-Müller (17) 18 items 3 Correspondence 1870 Including letters from William Edward Forster (1), Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bt. (3), Jacob Bright (4) Arthur Helps (5), the Earl of Carnarvon (6-7), Goldwin Smith (8), Lord Henry Lennox (9), Frederic Harrison (10), and Auberon Herbert (11) 11 items 4 Correspondence 1871 Including letters from Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bt. (3,9,13,15), the Earl of Elcho (4), Robert Lowe (5), William Ewart Gladstone (6), the Earl of Shaftesbury (7), Thomas Brassey later Lord Brassey (14), Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth (16), Henry Austin Bruce, later Lord Aberdare (19), Robert Applegarth (20), William Edward Forster (21-22) and Henry Crompton (26-27) 27 items 5 Correspondence 1872 Including letters from William Edward Forster (3), (Sir) Sidney Colvin (4), Earl Granville (5,13), L. Brentano (6), Robert Applegarth (7), Goldwin Smith (11,14), Sir Baldwin Leighton (12), Louis Philippe d'Orleans, Comte de Paris (15,17-18), Sir John Tomlinson Brunner, Bt. (16), Francis Knollys, later Viscount Knollys (19), Henry Manning, Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster (20), Auberon Herbert (21), Sir John Lubbock, later Viscount Avebury (22), and Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (23-24), and letter in form of manuscript pamphlet from Henry Prior of Sheffield advocating industrial co-operation and co-partnership (25) 25 items 6 Correspondence 1873 Including letters from (Sir) James Stansfeld (1), (Sir) George Otto Trevelyan (2,11- 13), Jacob Bright (3), Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (4-5), Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice (8), James Bryce, later Viscount Bryce (9), Louis Phillippe d'Orleans, Comte de Paris (10), Goldwin Smith (14,18), Henry Fawcett (15-16,19,21), George Dixon (17), George John Shaw-Lefevre, later Lord Eversley (20), and Auberon Herbert (22) 22 items 7 Correspondence 1874 Including letters from Henry Fawcett (1,6), Frederic Harrison (2-3), (Sir) James Stansfeld (4), Sir John Hibbert (5), George Charles Brodrick (7), and the Earl of Carnarvon (8) 9 items 8 Correspondence relating in part to the selection of a new Liberal leader 1875 5 Including letters from William Edward Forster (1-2,5,8,13,18,25), Henry Fawcett (3,11,15-16), George Charles Brodrick (4), (Sir) George Otto Trevelyan (6-7,9- 10,12,17,20), Robert Lender (14), Sir Bernhard Samuelson (19), Jesse Collings (21), Earl Granville (23) and Samuel Plimsoll (26) 26 items 9 Correspondence relating in part to the Eastern Question Association 1876 Including letters from the Earl of Carnarvon (1), Frederic Harrison (2), Sir Henry Brand, later Viscount Hampden (3), the Earl of Shaftesbury (4,18,21,23,25,30), the Marquess of Hartington, later the eighth Duke of Devonshire (5), William Ewart Gladstone (7-8, 12-13,15,20), James Edwin Thorold Rogers (9), William Morris (10), Henry Fawcett (11), Lord Frederick Cavendish (14,17), James Frazer, Bishop of Manchester (16), James Anthony Froude (16 annex i), Stopford Brooke (19), Leonard Courtney, later Lord Courtney of Penwith (22), Henry Parry Liddon, canon of St. Paul's (24), Samuel Morley (26), (Sir) George