| Description | This file is mentioned in the "Catalogue of Papers, M. B.’s Counting Room, 1760 to 1790," compiled by William D. Brown about 1791, under the title:
Thos Wilson.—[Letters] 1780 to 1790
At this time the letters were probably in a simple bundle. The contents of the file were later transferred by Matthew Robinson Boulton to a portfolio, entitled as follows:
T. Wilson 1773 to 1804
(It appears that a few early letters were added to file in the interim.) 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 arrangement, the file was placed in Box I. II ("Special Correspondents") and it was still in the same place when it arrived at the Assay Office. The letter from Lord Falmouth to Wilson, 14 Aug. 1784, may have been transferred from elsewhere by the Assay Master.
It is not clear whether the letters of M. R. Boulton up to 1804 were originally in this file. The file contains a number of documents later than the last date in the file’s title, all apparently relating to Wilson’s bankruptcy; but it appears that these were added to the file intentionally by Boulton (see the wrapper). According to the Assay Office Catalogue, only the letters of 1815 and later were in the wrapper, but this was probably not the case originally.
Presumably the name "Boulton & Watt," as used in the bankruptcy letters, refers not to the steam-engine company of that name (which ended in 1800) but to Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. as private individuals; but the point is unclear.
In the following List, unless otherwise stated, the copy documents are all press-copies and each item is a single piece. The summaries in quotation-marks are taken from the contemporary dockets.
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