Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole

Letter to Charles Hanbury Williams on Parliamentary Subsidy Debates, January 24, 1752

Even in times of peace, the British government was gravely concerned about preventing French universal monarchy by erecting buffers to French influence in Europe. For this reason, Britain's secretary of state, the Duke of Newcastle, proposed paying subsidies to German princes in Europe following the Peace of 1748. Arising at the peak of public concern over the rising national debt, however, these subsidies produced acrimonious debates in Parliament because of their sizeable expense –debates outlined in detail here in this letter to Charles Hanbury Williams. In the wake of the Seven Years' War, these same debates would re-emerge –this time not in relation to German subsidies, but rather over the question whether to end the costly Native American gift-giving protocols that were central to indigenous diplomacy in North America.

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

Edward Digby

Charles Hanbury Williams Papers (1708-1759)This massive and underused collection is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in diplomatic history and politics during a crucial period in Britain's imperial formation. Boasting over 6,000 texts, it is the largest Hanbury Williams archive in the world. The collection also contains material relating to the language of polite society, the Grand Tour and both political and literary circles of the mid-eighteenth century.Extent: 99 volumesSummary: Sir Charles Hanbury Williams (1708-1759) was a vitally important cultural and political figure in mid-18th century Britain and Europe. This collection of his papers, with over 90 volumes and 6,000 texts, provides insight into Britain's diplomatic relations at a key moment in Britain's formation as an Empire. Hanbury Williams was a diplomat and a successful satirical poet who published several best-sellers in the eighteenth century. While the majority of the collection centers on the lifetime of Hanbury Williams, there are documents as early as 1584 and as late as 1808, so the collection spans over two centuries. The collection comprises personal and diplomatic correspondence in English and French as well as papers on a variety of topics, including the parliamentary debates in the 1740s and 1750s, personal correspondence with his children, correspondence with Sir Sidney Godolphin and the Duke of Marlborough, social and cultural life in Vienna in the 1740s, diplomatic travels to Poland, library catalogues and unpublished poetry.