Miscellaneous Literary and Political Letters Collection

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.

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

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.

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

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

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.