Castlereagh papers

Identity Statement

Content & Structure

• Scope & Content: Stewart, Robert, 1769-1822, Viscount Castlereagh ↴

  The Castlereagh Papers consist of c.7,450 documents and c.40 volumes, 1798-1822 (including some earlier and some later documents), deriving from Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, later 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, some papers of his wife, Emily, his half-brother and successor, the 3rd Marquess, and the 3rd Marquess’s wife, Frances Anne.
  The core of ‘The Castlereagh Papers’ is 37 volumes containing 6,217 letters and papers which were arranged and bound in the 3rd Marquess’s time and were selectively published under his remote editorial control as the Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh (12 vols, London, 1848-1853).
  The topics covered by the papers which relate to Castlereagh’s term as Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons include: developments in the war in Europe, the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the Congresses of Châtillon and Vienna, the conclusion of peace and the Treaty of Vienna, subsequent diplomatic relations among the allies, and the Congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle and the Troppau, the Anglo-American War, the peace negotiations at Ghent and the Treaty renewal of the East India Company’s charter in 1813, the tithe system and distress in Ireland, Catholic Emancipation, economic depression, industrial unrest, the movement for social and political reform in England, cash payments, the supply of bank-notes and other fiscal matters, the Queen Caroline affair, agricultural distress, grain imports and exports, and taxation. The correspondents in this group include: the Prince Regent; Tsar Alexander I; Lord Liverpool, Prime Minister; Sir Arthur Wellesley, now Marquess and Duke of Wellington; General Lord Cathcart ; General Sir Thomas Graham; Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies; Lord Burghersh, Aberdeen, Clancarty and Stewart (Castlereagh’s half-brother); sir Edward Thornton; Sir George H. Rose; Frederick Lamb; William A’Court; Stratford Canning; Sir Augustus J. Foster; Prince Metternich; Prince Hardenburg; Prince Talleyrand; Count Nesselrode; Count Lieven; Count Pozzo di Borgo; Cardinal Consalvi; Sir John C. Hippisley; William Wilberforce; Thomas Clarkson; and Zachary Macaulay.

  -Extracted from a full description of the Castlereagh Papers in the PRONI catalogue: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni

• Appraisal Destruction ↴

  Permanent Retention

• Arrangement ↴

  The collection is arranged as follows:
  D3030/A Copy official correspondence between the government of the Madras Presidency and the Board of Control: 1802-1805
  D3030/AA Letters from Edward Cooke to General Charles William (later Lord) Stewart
  D3030/B Correspondence between the government of the Bengal Presidency and the Board of Control: 1802-1805
  D3030/BB Letters, addresses and other papers of General Stewart
  D3030/C Copy official correspondence between the government of the Bombay Presidency and the Board of Control: 1804-1805
  D3030/CC Letters and other papers of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
  D3030/D Printed correspondence between Lord Liverpool, Lord Wellesley and Lord Castlereagh
  D3030/DD Letters and copy letters of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, about his pretensions to the colonelcy of the Londonderry militia and to promotion in the English peerage
  D3030/E MS and printed statements of accounts relating to the expenditure of secret service money during Castlereagh’s terms as secretary of state for war and the colonies
  D3030/EE Draft dispatches and memoranda from Londonderry, as Ambassador to Vienna, to George Canning, Foreign Secretary
  D3030/F Letters from Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, to his step-grandson, Robert Stewart
  D3030/FF Letters to Londonderry about the claims on the Spanish government of former members of the British Auxiliary Legion
  D3030/G Miscellaneous and other papers of Castlereagh, mainly about politics
  D3030/GG Letters and dispatches from General Stewart to Castlereagh, about the events of the Peninsula War
  D3030/H Letters from Robert Stewart, 1st Marguess of Londonderry, to his son Robert, Viscount Castlereagh
  D3030/HH Bound printed brief account of Lord Londonderry’s career up to 1838
  D3030/J Letters from Robert, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Castlereagh, Sir Charles Stewart, and, Frances, Marchioness of Londonderry, to or about James Cleland
  D3030/JJ Letters to Lady Londonderry from Benjamin Disraeli, Prince Gortchakov, Count Brunov and Mary, Duchess of Gloucester
  D3030/K MS letters in Italian and French with English Translations, from Pius VII, Cardinal Borgia and the Cardinal of York to Sir John Coxe Hippisley
  D3030/KK Letters and address relating to the marriage of Viscount Seaham, second son of the 3rd Marquess, and eldest son of Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry
  D3030/L Letters mainly between Castlereagh as President of the Board of Control, and his predecessor, Henry Dundas
  D3030/LL Letters to Frances Anne, Lady Londonderry, from her children
  D3030/M Papers of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, Robert, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, and Charles William, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, relating to Co. Down elections
  D3030/MM Miscellaneous papers of Lady Londonderry
  D3030/N Letters, mainly to Castlereagh and to [his half-brother], General Charles William Stewart
  D3030/NN Letters in French from the Tsar Alexander I to Frances Anne, Lady Londonderry
  D3030/P Letters and copy letters, mainly from Sir Charles Stewart, afterwards Lord Stewart, to his half-brother, Lord Castlereagh
  D3030/PP Copy letters and journal in Lady Londonderry’s writing
  D3030/Q Typescript copy letters, among members of the Stewart family or between members of the Stewart and Pratt families
  D3030/QQ ‘Extracts’ from a fictitious newspaper called ‘The Wynward Weekly Post’, written by Sir Henry Browne
  D3030/R Volume containing minutes of two meetings of the committee of the 1st and 2nd volunteer companies of Newtownards
  D3030/RR Bound history of the Vane-Tempest family, including some related original letters
  D3030/S Newspaper cuttings relating to Castlereagh’s career
  D3030/T Typescript letters between Emily, Viscountess Castlereagh and Lord Stewart, on the one hand, and her husband on the other

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