Royal African Company of England (Sierra Leone)

Manuscript volume containing a report signed by Alexander Archbold to the Royal African Company on the commerce and value to the Company of their establishment at Sierra Leone, [1725]. Archbold had been an employee of the Company in Sierra Leone for 7 years.

The Royal African Company was founded in 1672 and held the English monopoly in slave trading until 1698, when all Englishmen received the right to trade in slaves. The Royal African Company continued slaving until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of traffic in ivory and gold dust.

Single item.

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Uncatalogued material may not be seen. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

This manuscript was probably from the library of John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield (1735-1821), part of which became part of the Goldsmith's Library of Economic Literature, initially collected by Herbert Somerton Foxwell and presented by the Goldsmith's Company to the University of London in 1903.

Collection level description.

Manuscript folio. Bound in half-morocco.

Compiled by Sarah Smith as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

The Public Record Office, London, holds records, letter books and correspondence, 1672-1750 (Ref: T70, C113/34); Rhodes House Library, Oxford University, has the charter, letters from factors to agents, and correspondence, 1670-1729 (Ref: MSS Rawlinson b516, c745-47).

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

University of London MS 109 comprises copies of documents relating to the Royal Africa Company, and MS 72 contains an account of gold guineas imported from Africa by the Royal African Company, 1755.