Senior, Nassau William

Manuscript volume containing an account by Nassau William Senior of the Poor Law Amendment Bill conferences, 1834. Includes a transcript of a letter dated 2 Mar 1834 from Senior to Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne. A note by Sir George Nicholls, dated 1851, states 'This very interesting account...was given me by Mr Senior. The detail is valuable and instructive, and I trust Mr Senior will some day make it public. He has given me permission to make use of it in the Work I have commenced, but I purpose doing so in a way that shall not anticipate or interfere with his publishing of the entire, whenever he may determine on doing this'. Senior later gave the manuscript to Nicholls.

Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford University, gaining an MA in 1815. He became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1819. He held the position of Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, 1825-1830 and 1847-1852, and was a member of the Poor Law Commission in 1833, for which he wrote the report (1834). Senior was a Master in Chancery from 1836 to 1855. A list of his publications may be found in the British Library catalogue.

Single item.

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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 quarto. Bound in calf.

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

The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, holds correspondence, journals and papers, 1811-1864 (Ref: Nassau Senior); Trinity College Library, Cambridge University, has miscellaneous correspondence, 1837-1863 (Ref: PSC B28); Bristol University Library contains journals, 1857-1863; Bodleian Library, Oxford University, has copy journals, 1853-1863 (Ref:: MSS Eng hist d 245-62 passim)); University College London contains letters to Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, 1831-1861 (Brougham papers), and correspondence with Sir Edwin Chadwick, [1832]-1863 (Ref: Chadwick papers); Devon Record Office holds letters to Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue (Ref: 1262Madd2,3,4,5,7,6M); the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, contains letters to Alexander Campbell Fraser, 1854-1855 (Ref: Dep 208); the British Library, London, holds letters to Macvey Napier, 1841-1847 (Ref: Add MSS 34621-26), and correspondence with Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, 1851-1855 (Ref: Add MS 52021); Derbyshire Record Office has letters to Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton, 3rd Baronet, 1829-1836 (Ref: D3155 (WH2872).

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.

This manuscript was given by Nassau William Senior to Sir George Nicholls (1781-1865) [in 1851], and contains the bookplate of the latter.

Used by Sir George Nicholls in A History of the English Poor Law, in connexion with the legislation and other circumstances affecting the condition of the people (London, 1854).