Miscellaneous Literary and Political Letters Collection

  • Reference
    • GB 133 Eng MS 700
  • Dates of Creation
    • 17th to 19th Century
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
    • English
  • Physical Description
    • 145 items

Scope and Content

The contents of the collection are as follows:

  • (i) Numbers 1-98, miscellaneous letters, including several from various authors and others to the printers, John Nichols (1745-1826), his son John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863), and grandson John Gough Nichols (1806-1873); no. 46 is from Thomas Frognall Dibdin; many of the letters appear to have been removed from albums;
  • (ii) Numbers 99-138 include letters from Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), librarian and scholar (nos 101-107), and Thomas J. Wise (1859-1937), bibliographer, book collector and forger (nos 118-135);
  • (iii) Numbers 140-3 are from John Ruskin (1819-1900), art and social critic;
  • (iv) Numbers 144-5 are to William Blathwayt (?1649-1717), Secretary-at-War, 1690, 1691/2.

Access Information

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Acquisition Information

Numbers 101-107 and 118-135 were purchased by Thomas Murgatroyd from the bookseller J.E. Cornish and presented by him to the John Rylands Library.

Note

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan and Jo Humpleby, project archivists.

Other Finding Aids

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928-35 (English MS 700).

Related Material

Papers of and relating to the Nichols family of printers widely dispersed. For further information see the National Register of Archives entries for John Nichols, John Bowyer Nichols and John Gough Nichols.