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

Tract to Lord Bishop of Petersborough on Ancient Liberties of Britain, June 1777

When eighteenth-century Britons conceived of the indigenous peoples living at the frontiers of their empire, they overwhelmingly did so in relation to their own nation's history as a colonized island. For many, Britain's history embodied the same gradual evolution from feudal "slavery" to commercial "liberty" that Enlightenment thinkers argued was possible for the "barbarous" or "wild" communities they encountered around the world. This tract on the "Ancient Liberties" of Britain narrates that historical process and uses it to make a case for the British Empire as uniquely capable of extending liberty to native communities across the globe.

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

T. Erskine

Thomas Walpole Papers (1770-1790) This new and unmined acquisition of approximately 400 letters in the Thomas Walpole Papers provides a unique and unmined insight into the Age of Revolutions, in which Thomas Walpole (1727-1803)was both participant and observer. Extent: approximately 400 letters Summary: The Thomas Walpole Papers provide insight into the American and French Revolutions through correspondence of participants and diplomatic officials. Thomas Walpole (1727-1803), MP and banker, was the nephew of Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and cousin of Horace Walpole. Thomas Walpole was involved in ventures across the Empire, from America to India, and his correspondence features prominent historical figures including Benjamin Franklin, Lord North, Lord Shelburne and Jacques Necker. Much of the material in this extensive collection dates from the 1770s and 1780s and concerns Walpole's diplomatic efforts with America during the Revolution and France in the early 1780s. Walpole, then, was a witness to and actor in the politics surrounding both the American and French Revolutions. In addition, he also corresponded frequently with William Pitt the Elder as well as the Duke of Newcastle. Outside of the realm of politics and diplomacy, this collection also contains private correspondence relating to Walpole's own financial exploits and failures. These papers provide insight into the political world of Britain and her position in the international political sphere during the revolutionary period of the late-eighteenth century.