| Description | The main part of this file corresponds to the following entries in the Catalogue compiled by William D. Brown in 1791:
Jno Fothergill. do. [Letters] 1762 a 1781
Mrs. Fothergill &c do. Contd. to 1784
At that time the documents were evidently in one bundle, with the latest (212) at the top, as is indicated by the darkening of parts of that letter. About 1819 the documents were transferred to a portfolio, entitled:
J. Fothergill Mrs Fothergill Misses Fothergill Swellingreble 1764 to 1801
This is the title recorded in the Inventory compiled by the Assay Office in 1921, but unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Under Matthew Robinson Boulton’s scheme of arrangement the file was placed in Box K. II.
It is possible that some of the letters later than 1784 were added to this file by the Assay Office from elsewhere, perhaps from the General Correspondence. For instance, to judge by Brown’s description, the two letters of 1786 (214-215) were not in this file in 1791. The four letters at the end of the sequence have not been dated.
Besides the general run of Letters, the file also contains papers of various descriptions. The Assay Office’s catalogue shows that some of these were contained in two numbered packets, as follows:
No. 3.—Copys of my letters respecting Swelengrable’s proceedings.
No. 8.—Letters received from sundry upon the subject of Fothergill and Swelengrable.
(The original wrappers were discarded.) The numerical sequence of packets is clearly incomplete and it is likely that many (if not all) of the papers listed below under the heading "Other papers relating to the Swellingrebel case" were formerly contained in similar packets.
The remainder of the papers in this file are listed under the general title "Miscellaneous papers." It may be that some of these were originally in this file, but it appears that many of them were transferred by the Assay Office from a file listed in their inventory under the title "F. letters and odd papers and memorandums." This file no longer exists, and it is likely that its entire contents were transferred to this one; but some of the papers may have come from other sources.
To summarize, the documents in this file are listed in five chronological sequences, as follows:
Letters. (1-226)
Copies of Matthew Boulton’s letters
respecting Swellengrebel’s proceedings, 1783. (227-233)
Letters received from sundry upon the subject of
Fothergill and Swellengrebel, 1783. (234-246)
Other papers relating to the Swellengrebel case. (247-262)
Miscellaneous papers. (263-284)
Some of the letters have been numbered in a contemporary hand. These numbers refer to a memorandum made by Matthew Boulton (270), probably at the time of his dispute with Fothergill in 1782. The numbered letters are dated as follows:
1. 8 Feb. 1773.
2. 2 Mar. 1773. (Misdated 13 Feb. 1773 on the docket.)
3. 27 Feb. 1773.
4. 1 Mar. 1773.
5. 4 Mar. 1773.
6. 10 Mar. 1773.
7. 13 Mar. 1773.
8. 15 Mar. 1773.
9. 1 Apr. 1773.
10. 3 Apr. 1773.
11. 21 Apr. 1776. (Assigned in error to 1773.)
12. 25 Apr. 1773.
13. 26 Apr. 1777. (?)
14. 27 Apr. 1773.
15. 28 Apr. 1773.
16. 3 May 1773.
17. 8 May 1773.
18. 12 May 1773.
19. 24 May 1773. (Misdated 13 May on the docket.)
20. 13 May 1773.
21. 15 May 1773.
22. 26 May 1773.
23. 14 Mar. 1773.
24. 5 May 1778.
25. 10 May 1778.
26. 1 Jun. 1778.
27. 15 Oct. 1778.
28. 24 Oct. 1778.
In the following List, the summaries printed in italics within square brackets are taken from the Assay Office Catalogue. These must be used with caution, for they are not to be relied on as word-for-word transcripts and do not always give an adequate idea of the full contents of the letters. |