Documents from Matthew Boulton and his family, businesses household, etc.
Matthew Boulton and Family Papers
This material is held atBirmingham Archives and Heritage Service
- Reference
- GB 143 MS 3782
- Former Reference
- GB 143 MBP
- Dates of Creation
- 1737 - 1987
- Name of Creator
- Physical Description
- 17.86 Cubic metres
Scope and Content
Arrangement
The difficult question of the arrangement of these papers exercised the attention of those working on the Project for some considerable time: the choice seemed to lie between three roads - to continue the work of the Assay Office and adopt an entirely artificial arrangement; to retain the arrangement of the listed papers insofar as it went, but to list the remainder according to archival principles; or to attempt to restore as much of the original order as was possible. In the event, the last turning was taken. This decision was greatly affected by the discovery of the various contemporary (18th and 19th century) Catalogues and the Inventories made by the Assay Office in 1921, which supplied a great deal of information as to the original arrangement of the papers, and the state in which they were in on their arrival in Birmingham. As a result, a great deal of attention has been given throughout this catalogue to ascertaining the provenance of the various files and other groups of documents, and it is hoped that this work will clarify the origin and use of the extremely varied contents of the Matthew Boulton Papers. However, a full record of the relationship between the old and new references has been kept, for the sake of those users familiar with the old arrangement.
The papers are now arranged into 21 sections or "sub-fonds," as follows:
Firms’ records.
1. Records of the firm of Boulton & Fothergill, 1757-1782.
Financial records and correspondence of the firm of Boulton & Fothergill, 1762-1782, toymakers, manufacturers of buttons, buckles, plated and silver-ware, ormolu, "mechanical paintings," sword hilts, &c. The earliest letter book contains copies of a few letters issued by Matthew Boulton (the elder) & Son, 1757.
2. Records of the firm of M. Boulton, 1782-1816.
Financial records and correspondence of the firm of M. Boulton, the successor to Boulton & Fothergill.
3. Records of Soho Mint, 1791-1850.
Financial records and correspondence of the firm known successively as
Matthew Boulton (Mint), 1791-1809;
M. R. Boulton (Mint), 1809-1841;
M. P. W. Boulton (Mint), 1841-1850;
manufacturers of coins, medals, and mint machinery; including records of the Soho Rolling Mill, 1825-1841.
4. Records of the London banking agency, 1802-1819.
Copies (kept at Soho) of financial records of the firm known successively as
M. & R. Boulton, J. & G. Watt, & Co., 1802-1805;
M. & R. Boulton, J. Watt, & Co., 1805-1809;
M. R. Boulton, J. Watt, & Co., 1809-1832;
banking agents in London to firms at Soho, members of the Boulton and Watt families, &c.
5. Records of other firms, 1802-1831.
Cash book of the firm of Boulton & Smith, 1802-1819.
Financial records of the Soho Rolling Mill, 1805-1818.
Letter book and burnishing book of M. Boulton & Plate Company, 1815-
Letter book of the firm of M. R. Boulton (Button Company), 1825-1831.
Household and other private agents’ records.
6. Household Books and Documents, 1768-1848.
Financial records and correspondence relating to the day-to-day running of Soho House, its adjacent gardens and plantations, and estates owned by the Boulton family in Warwickshire and Staffordshire.
7. Housekeeper’s Books and Accounts, 1787-1826.
Financial records of the housekeeper at Soho House.
8. Private Books and Documents, 1802-1841.
Financial records and correspondence relating to the Private Account and private business of Matthew Boulton and Matthew Robinson Boulton.
9. Great Tew Books and Documents, 1815-1844.
Financial records and correspondence relating to the estate of Matthew Robinson Boulton at Great Tew, Oxfordshire.
10. Miscellaneous Cashiers’ Records, 1822-1863.
Miscellaneous records which do not appear to belong to any other of the main groups of records kept in the Mint Office (Mint, Household, Great Tew, and Private Books) or whose place in that system is uncertain.
11. Letters and Papers of Charles James Chubb, 1841-1863.
Papers of the Chief Cashier and Bookkeeper Charles James Chubb, who dealt with the accounts of almost all the Soho firms, and the Boulton’s family’s private finances. [NB - some of the Chubb papers remain unlisted.]
Personal records.
12. Letters and Papers of Matthew Boulton, 1760-1809.
Business and private correspondence of Matthew Boulton, and other papers.
13. Letters and Papers of Matthew Robinson Boulton, circa 1770s-1842.
Business and private correspondence of Matthew Robinson Boulton, and other papers.
14. Letters and Papers of Miss Ann Boulton, 1793-1829.
Financial records and correspondence of Miss Ann Boulton.
15. Accounts of Mrs. Mary Anne Boulton, 1814-1827.
Financial records of Mrs. Mary Anne Boulton.
16. Other personal records, 1759-1845.
Miscellaneous papers of other members of the Boulton family, and John Scale:
Correspondence of Mrs. Ann Boulton.
Bills of John Scale, 1766-1791.
Bills of Matthew Piers Watt Boulton when at Trinity College Cambridge, 1840-1844.
Hugh William Boulton, "Mem. Of Roma", 1845 [visiting cards, invitations etc.].
Other records.
17. Legal documents, 1790-1818.
Matthew Boulton’s coinage patents, licences and agreements; a lease of land to Thomas Allen; and patents of Samuel Henshall and Jonathan Grove for items made at Soho Manufactory.
18. 1st Battalion, Loyal Birmingham Volunteers. 1794-1805.
Papers concerning the founding, organisation and activities of the 1st Battalion, Loyal Birmingham Volunteers, in which Matthew Robins Boulton was an officer.
19. Records of the Committee at Verdun for the Relief of British Prisoners in France. 1803-1813.
20. Miscellaneous Documents.
21. Additions, 1737-20th century.
Material added by the Assay Office, and also records restored to the Matthew Boulton Papers from the other Archives of Soho collections, including:
Pattern-books, formerly belonging to the firm of Boulton & Fothergill.
Records of the firm of Boulton & Scale.
Letters from Matthew Boulton to Sir Joseph Banks.
Miscellaneous illustrative material added by the Assay Master.
Additions to the Matthew Boulton Papers from Boulton & Watt.
Various additions were made to the collection during the Archives of Soho project. These are documents that had once been part of the records of the Boultons’ various businesses, but which had been removed from the papers before the Assay Office took custody of them, and which subsequently found their way into the Boulton & Watt collection at the Library.
MS 3782/3/253A. Correspondence with the Officers of the Royal Mint. 1815-1819. (1 volume)
When this bundle of the mint agent Zaccheus Walker’s correspondence was removed from the Soho Mint office is not clear. The new owner pasted the contents, including the original wrapper, into a volume. This volume was purchased by the Library in 1924 and added to the Boulton & Watt collection, where it was numbered as Vol. 533. It has now been restored to the Records of Soho Mint.
MS 3782/21/1. Portion of a Boulton & Fothergill letter book, 1773.
This volume was donated to the Library in 1924, and again added to the Boulton & Watt collection. It was placed at the start of the sequence of the engine firm’s letter books and given the number Vol. 0. It is unclear how it relates to the other Boulton & Fothergill records, so it has been placed with the Additions.
MS 3782/21/2-9. Pattern Books.
At some point following the death of Matthew Robinson Boulton, pattern books which appear to have contained patterns of wares made by Boulton & Fothergill, M. Boulton (firm) and M. Boulton & Plate Co. were acquired by Elkington & Co., silversmiths and electro-platers, of Birmingham. It seems most likely that Elkingtons acquired these books in the 1850s, when Soho Manufactory was being vacated and parts of it demolished, but it has been asserted that Elkingtons actually acquired them from the steam engine firm James Watt & Co. at the sale of the assets of Soho Foundry in 1895. The former seems more plausible. How many books Elkingtons acquired, and exactly which Soho firms they were from, is not known, as Elkingtons cut up and re-arranged the patterns, apparently reducing the number of volumes from nine to eight. The pattern books were later acquired by the Library, and added to the Boulton & Watt collection, where they were numbered as Vols. 169-176. They have been placed with the Additions as it cannot be said for certain which of Boulton’s firms they rightly belong with.
MS 3782/21/10, 11. Boulton & Scale Letter Book (incomplete) and Pattern Book.
Inside both these books are slips bearing a note to the effect that, on 3 Feb. 1896, they were delivered by Samuel Timmins into the hands of George Tangye, who had acquired the Boulton & Watt collection with Timmins’ support the previous year. It is not known how or when Timmins acquired these records. Tangye added them to the Boulton & Watt Collection. However, after the records came to the library, the main body of what remains of the letter book was moved to the Matthew Boulton Papers, a single sheet remaining in the Boulton & Watt Collection, in the blue box numbered as Vol. 552. The pattern book however remained in the Boulton & Watt collection, where it was numbered as Vol. 168A, and frequently referred to as "the sword hilt book." Both these books have been placed with the Additions, as their provenance is unknown and no other records of Boulton & Scale survive.