The two families of Foster/Massereene came together through a marriage of 1810 between the Foster heir and the Masserene heiress. Their estates and titles merged in the person of the 10th Viscount Massereene and 3rd Viscount Ferrard in 1843. 'Massereene' is the barony (or, rather, Upper and Lower Massereene are the two half baronies) in Co. Antrim where Antrim Castle and the bulk of the Massereene estate lay; and 'Ferrard' is the barony in Co. Louth where Collon and the bulk of the Foster estate were situated.
The collection consists almost entirely of Foster papers, though there are a few Massereene estate papers for the 17th and early 18th centuries. It contains no Massereene correspondence.
There is a certain amount of 17th and 18th century material relating to the Foster estate and family finances and a certain amount of miscellaneous material; but the vast majority of the papers in D207 are the correspondence of John Foster in the period 1804-1811.
Many of the topics and correspondents represented in this correspondence are also well represented in D562. But as a general, though not unvarying, rule, D207 contains letters from John Foster’s most prominent correspondents – prime ministers, lords lieutenant, chief secretaries, authors etc. – in short, from people who are likely to be of interest in their own right.
– Extracted from a full account of the Foster/Massereene Papers in the PRONI catalogue: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni
Appraisal Destruction ↴
Permanent Retention
Arrangement ↴
D207 Correspondence of John Foster in the period 1804-1811
Conditions of Access & Use
Access Conditions
The collection can be consulted in the reading room in PRONI in accordance with PRONI guidelines.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Items may be copied for personal research use only. If a researcher wishes to publish any documents from this collection, a request must be submitted in writing to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
Creation Dates
1590-1935
Extent Medium
Over 26,000 documents + volumes
Material Language Script
English
Finding Aids
A descriptive list is available to search online at: http://www.proni.gov.uk/
Archive Web Link →
Allied Materials
Copies Information
D207 - 4,700 documents are available on microfilm: MIC511
Related Material
PRONI hold further related papers:
D207 - 4,700 documents (Copied as MIC511)
D562 - 18,000 documents (Copied as MIC500)
D1739 (Clotworthy House papers) - 200 documents
D2681 - 163 documents
D4084 (Chilham papers) - 3,330 documents(Withdrawn material copied as MIC611, and correspondence copied as T2519/4)
T2519/4 - 2,400 documents (Photocopies of the original correspondence, which is closed to the public, in D4084. T2519/1-3 and 5-16 comprise photocopies of Foster-related papers in other institutions)
MIC618 - printed matter and a few family letters
D3711 (Emerson papers, not actually of Foster/Massereene provenance)
MIC251 (Cooper papers, also not of Foster-Massereene provenance)
Descriptive Control Area
Archivist Note
PRONI Archivist
Rules/Conventions
ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. 2nd ed. Ottawa: International Council on Archives, 2000.
National Council on Archives: Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names. Chippenham: National Council on Archives, 1997.
UK Archival Thesaurus (UKAT)
