| Description | This file contains correspondence with the firm of A. & J. Weston, attornies of London, and the partners-the brothers Ambrose and James-individually. It is a continuation of the file "Ambrose Weston, James Weston," which is among Matthew Boulton's Letters and Papers.
The contents of the file were formerly in a portfolio entitled:
cG J & A Weston J. Weston Weston & Teasdale From 1802 to 1820.
This is the title recorded in the Inventory made when the Matthew Boulton Papers arrived at the Assay Office in 1821, but unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Possibly the two initial characters "J &" were added later than the rest. Under M. R. Boulton's arrangement the file was placed in Box K. I, and it was still there in 1921.
The original arrangement of the documents within the portfolio is uncertain, but it seems likely that, considering their large number, the Copies would have been kept in a separate sequence, as is the case in many other similar files. The contents are therefore now arranged in two chronological sequences, as follows:
Letters. (1-127)
Copies. (128-193)
77 and 78 may have been transferred from elsewhere by the Assay Office.
Unless otherwise stated, the copy documents are press-copies, and the letters written in London by the law firm (or the partners thereof) are dated at their office in Fenchurch Street. However, note the following comment in Ambrose Weston's letter of April 26th, 1806:
I date my letters habitually from F. Street; but I write this at Brompton, a mile west of Hyde Park Corner, where I am fixed for the summer.
The summaries in quotation-marks are taken from the contemporary dockets. |