| Description | The contents of this file were originally in four separate files, three of which are mentioned in the Catalogue of Papers of 1791 under the following titles—
Jno Whitehurst.—[Letters] 1771 to 1787
Thos Day.—Letters 1775 to 1785
Jno Roebuck.—[Letters] 1760 a 1789
There is no mention in the Catalogue of a file of Josiah Wedgwood’s letters, which is curious, as many of the letters from him now in this file are of earlier date.
At the time the Catalogue was compiled, the files probably took the form of bundles, but later the contents of the four files were placed in one portfolio, entitled as follows—
J. Whitehurst J. Wedgewood T. Day Dr. Roebuck 1760 to 1800
This is the title recorded in the Inventory compiled by the Assay Office in 1921 (except that Day’s initial was misread as a J), but unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Under Matthew Robinson Boulton’s arrangement, the file was placed in Box I. II ("Special Correspondents"), but by 1921 it had been moved (inadvertently, no doubt) to Box M. III. There are no documents now in the file as late as 1800.
The documents are now arranged in six chronological sequences, as follows—
John Whitehurst. (1-31)
Josiah Wedgwood. (32-83)
Thomas Day: Correspondence. (84-115)
Thomas Day: Miscellaneous Papers. (116-
John Roebuck: Correspondence.
John Roebuck: Miscellaneous Papers.
Other Documents.
The letters listed under the name of Josiah Wedgwood probably include several which do not belong here, but without more information as to the original arrangement it is hard to identify which these might be.
The Miscellaneous Papers relating to Thomas Day mainly concern his account with Boulton, and may formerly have been in one packet, for one of the memoranda, labelled on the outside "Mr Days Acct.", appears to have been used as a wrapper. However, some of these documents may have been transferred to this file from elsewhere.
In Brown’s Catalogue it was recorded that the letters of Roebuck covered the period from 1760 to 1789. It will be noted that, while the earlier date corresponds with that of the earliest letter listed below, there are no documents of the latter year; perhaps some are missing. The letters of Ann Roebuck may have been transferred from elsewhere by the Assay Master.
The extract from the Act of 24 Geo. III, placed at the end of the List, appears not to belong in this file: it may have formerly been with the "Tool Exportation Act Documents."
In the following List, the copy documents are all press-copies, unless stated otherwise. The summaries in quotation-marks are taken from the contemporary dockets. Each item is a single piece unless otherwise stated. The customary short form Bo’ness has been used for Borrowstounness in West Lothian.
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