| Description | John Hodges, according to Matthew Robinson Boulton, was taken by his father from a charity school to be an apprentice at Soho, and subsequently managed the silver plated ware department which went by the name of Matthew Boulton & Plate Company. He was paid a salary, and bonuses from time to time. Hodges died on 4 September 1808, intestate. Thereafter his widow, Elizabeth Hodges, and his daughter, Elizabeth Rhodes, claimed that a formal partnership existed between John Hodges and Matthew Boulton. Matthew Robinson Boulton denied the existence of such a partnership and claimed that the machinery, stock, gold and silver etc. were the sole property of Matthew Boulton. Elizabeth Rhodes' husband, Thomas, acting on his wife and mother-in-law's behalf, asked for detailed accounts of his late father-in-law's assets, and asked repeatedly to inspect the books. This Matthew Robinson Boulton refused to allow because of the confidential nature of the information in the books. Ultimately the case went to the Court of Chancery.
In a codicil to his will, Matthew Boulton had left Hodges a small legacy and described him as 'my partner', but Matthew Robinson Boulton maintained that his father had not meant this to indicate a legal partnership, and that Hodges had received everything to which he was entitled. In February 1812 Thomas Rhodes' solicitor proposed a compromise, but the two parties could not then agree. Ultimately, Matthew Robinson Boulton agreed to pay Rhodes £2,083.10.6d. and the affair was concluded on 12 March 1814.
The records were originally kept in several different locations. The "Index to Correspondence and Documents" records that the "agreement and release from the parties" was kept in Matthew Robinson Boulton's "Archiva" portfolio, lettered "B" in his scheme, while the "General Documents" were kept in the Strong Chest for security, and the correspondence with Messrs. Weston and Weston & Teesdale, the solicitors, was kept in the General Correspondence series.
At some point the "general documents" and the correspondence were brought together, and a large number of legal documents and copies of correspondence were sent to Soho from London by Weston & Teesdale. This meant that original letters by Boulton to his solicitors were reunited with the press copies that had been taken at the time and kept at Soho. Enough material was gathered together to fill an entire iron box when the papers were arranged circa 1820, as the "Rough Catalogue" drawn up then records iron box BI as containing records of "Hodges Repr. v. Boulton." Within the box the material was divided into three files, as follows:
1. Correspondence & Accts.
2. Briefs &c.
3. Law Instruments.
However the final version of the Agreement & Release appears to have remained in the "Archiva" portfolio, as only drafts of it have been found among the iron box's contents.
The box then remained untouched - it is recorded as iron box "BI Hodges v. Boulton" in the "Catalogue of the Study Safe" of circa 1841, and it is included in the inventory of twenty five cases drawn up by the Assay Office in June 1921, when it is listed as "B.I Hodges v. Boulton." Unfortunately the Assay Office dismantled the three files within the box, to create two seemingly arbitrary boxes of their own, mixing together the correspondence and legal documents which had been kept separate.
It was decided to reconstruct the original divisions. The contents of the file "Correspondence & Accts." were simple to divine. The "Law Instruments" file was assumed to have contained formal legal documents such as writs and bills, and a numbered set of the documents used in the Court of Chancery. Other legal documents such as briefs, copies of bills, court orders and the like were placed in the file "Briefs &c." This re-division of the material may not exactly replicate the original order, but it does at least replicate the spirit of the original division.
All the copy letters are press copies unless otherwise noted. |