| Description | The contents of this file were formerly in a portfolio entitled:
cH Jno. Rennie & Memoir 1823-1824 Memoir from 1799 to 1820
This is the rather confusing title recorded in the Inventory made when the Matthew Boulton Papers arrived at the Assay Office in 1821; unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Under M. R. Boulton's arrangement the file was placed in Box K. I, and it was still there in 1921.
The file is not mentioned in the "Catalogue of Papers, M.B.'s Counting Room" compiled by William D. Brown about 1791, and this may indicate that the file had not been opened at that time, although it now contains documents of earlier date. It is probable that the dates "from 1799 to 1820" in the title quoted above are unconnected with the preceding word, and indicate that the file originally contained only the correspondence of M. R. Boulton (see below), which covers the period from 1799 to 1821. (The explanation for the slight discrepancy may be that the one item from 1821 was not noticed, or not present, at the time the title was written.) The remaining items may have been added at the time that M. R. Boulton was preparing his corrections to the Memoir of Rennie in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1823-1824.
The contents of the file derive from three sources, viz. the respective papers of James Watt (1-4), Matthew Boulton, and M. R. Boulton. The Copies of letters from M. R. Boulton to Rennie were formerly in a separate packet, but the yellow paper wrapper was torn away from 93 while the Papers were in the custody of the Assay Office. The original arrangement of Matthew Boulton's Copies is not clear, and for the sake of simplicity they have merely been combined with those of his son under one head. The papers concerning the Memoir of John Rennie have been divided into "Correspondence" and "Other Papers."
The present arrangement of the file is therefore as follows:
Letters, &c. (1-89)
Copies. (90-113)
Correspondence respecting the Memoir of John Rennie. (114-120)
Other papers relating to the Memoir of John Rennie. (121-128)
The last item may not belong in this file.
In the following List, the copy documents are press-copies, unless otherwise stated. The summaries in quotation marks are taken from the contemporary dockets. |