| Description | Letters to James Lawson from 1794. Lawson was one of Boulton & Watt’s longest-serving and most experienced engine erectors and engineers. He received letters from both his employers and customers. He appears to have kept them in yearly bundles, and docketed them with the date and the name of the author. Many of these bundles found their way back to Soho – presumably Lawson left them behind on his numerous visits.
At some point, the bundles were split up and letters distributed around the collection, mainly according to author. For example, letters that he had received from Matthew Robinson Boulton were added to the bundles of letters from Matthew Robinson Boulton to James Watt Jr., and letters from John Southern were added to bundles of letters from Southern to Boulton & Watt. During the re-listing of the archives under the Archives of Soho Project, Lawson’s letters were removed from the bundles into which they had been placed, and his original bundles were restored as much as possible.
This bundle consists mainly of letters from John Southern. However there are also letters from William Forman, William Harrison, George Lee, two from John Rennie, and a few from customers. John Southern’s letter of 13 December also includes one from James Watt Jr. They are almost all addressed to Lawson in Yorkshire, mainly at Leeds and Hull, but some are addressed to his home in Scotland and a few to Stockport and Manchester. |