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

Memoirs, Part II

In his memoirs, John Trusler describes a visit of "three Cherokee Chiefs" and their wives to England twenty-eight years later, in 1762. Presumably, these were the Cherokee who accompanied Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, who had recently negotiated a treaty with inhabitants of the Upper Cherokee towns on the Tellico and Tennessee rivers. According to Trusler, they "were brought over from America in order to give them some idea of the Equity and lenity of the English Government, and if possible to attach them to it, in preference to France and Spain which had made some overtures." The actor Thomas Lowe (1719 –1783) brought them to Marylebone, a London pleasure garden and entertainment venue, where they "were exhibited every evening to a crowded company during the hours of their supper," an "exotic" spectacle for which guests paid Lowe. They also were the satirized subjects of Henry Howard's "A New Humorous Song, or the Cherokee Chiefs. Inscribed to the Ladies of Great Britain," illustrated on a 1762 broadside. Catalog Record

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

John Trusler

Bound Manuscript CollectionThis collection includes over 300 volumes of a diverse set of material relating to political, religious, literary and domestic life in the eighteenth-century British world. Extent: over 300 volumes Summary: This extensive and diverse collection of bound manuscripts both supplements the other manuscript collections highlighted in this exhibition, but also stands as a largely untapped and robust resource for any scholar studying eighteenth-century Britain and her Empire. It includes several diaries and commonplace books of prominent political and religious figures, travel journals, account books, autograph books, engravings and religious writings. In addition, the bound manuscripts collection contains more ephemeral items such as recipe books, newspaper clippings, broadsides, songbooks, tickets and much more that offer a glimpse into daily and domestic life. This vast collection is an incredibly rich trove of material that mirrors eighteenth-century society in full, offering insight into anything from high philosophical and political debates to concerns and daily life of the family. Whether consulted in tandem with other collections or on its own, this collection promises to be invaluable for any scholar of the eighteenth-century British world.