| Description | Letters to James Lawson from 1795. 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 contains several letters from James Watt Jr. and John Southern, and a few from Matthew Robinson Boulton. Other correspondents include Peter Ewart, William Forman, William Creighton and Francis Crowder, as well as Boulton & Watt’s clients and close friends George Lee and Benjamin Gott. There is one further letter from a customer, S. Spence. The letters are mainly addressed to Lawson in Manchester and the North West or in London. |