Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1663-1678 / (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
129 ff. (old partial pagination 1-50; leaves excised after ff. 26 and 48; f. 54 torn; ff. 27-48 verso, 104-5 blank) ; 380 x 240 mm. Vellum over boards, covered with coarse canvas.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
The volume was transferred to the NLW MSS series in 1996.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Sir Pryse Loveden Saunders-Pryse, bart; Gogerddan; Deposit; 1948
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letter-book of Sir Andrew King, London, merchant, containing copies of his outgoing correspondence written, 1663-5, just before his departure for and during his residence in Madrid where he was in the service of Sir Richard Fanshawe, the British Ambassador to Spain (ff. 2-26 verso, 105 verso-28 verso inverted text), and, 1667-78, after his return to Great Britain and his residence in London (ff. 49-103 verso inverted text). The letters written from Madrid are mostly to British merchants in London, Spain and elsewhere, and relate mainly to his commercial ventures, especially to his designs to import grain and olive oil into Spain to alleviate the shortages of those commodities there; many of the letters are to Sir Joseph Williamson, Whitehall, informing him of the economic, political and social conditions in Spain, and of the movements of the Dutch fleet, intelligence about which King obtained from British merchants and consuls resident in Spanish ports. A letter to Daniel Wycherley, whose son, the dramatist William Wycherley was also one of Fanshawe's gentlemen in Spain, assures him that his son is not proposing to convert to Roman Catholicism (f. 125). The letters from London comprise correspondence written, 1667-72 (together with a copy of one letter written in 1662), mostly to British colonists in the West Indies, especially to Sir James Modyford in Jamaica, and merchants in England, including Giles Vanbrugh, Chester, sugar-merchant, father of the architect and dramatist Sir John Vanbrugh, mainly relating to the engaging of servants for service in Jamaica; and, 1672-8, mostly to agents of the Royal African Company in Barbados, Guinea and Jamaica, concerning the supplying of negro slaves to the West Indies.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
The contents of NLW MSS 22853-23691 are indexed in greater detail in Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, vol. 9 (Aberystwyth, 2003).
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
For William Wycherley's conversion to Roman Catholicism see Notes and Queries, 243, n.s. 45 (1998), pp. 53-4.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
The volume was deposited along with Gogerddan estate records, which were subsequently bought by NLW in 1949.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MS 23528E.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
- Merchants -- England -- London -- Correspondence.
- Merchants -- Spain -- Correspondence
- Merchants -- Spain -- Madrid -- Correspondence
- Navies -- Netherlands
- Sea-power -- Netherlands
- British -- West Indies -- Correspondence
- Colonists -- West Indies -- Correspondence
- Merchants -- England -- Correspondence.
- Sugar trade -- England -- Chester
- Sugar trade -- Jamaica
- Domestics -- Jamaica
- Slaves -- West Indies
- Slave trade -- West Indies.
- Slave trade.
- Spain -- Economic conditions -- 17th century
- Spain -- Politics and government -- 17th century.
- Spain -- Social conditions -- 17th century
Place access points
Name access points
- Royal African Company. (Subject)
- King, Andrew, Sir, d. 1679 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Fanshawe, Richard, Sir, 1608-1666. (Subject)
- Williamson, Joseph, Sir, 1633-1701 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Wycherley, William, 1640-1716. (Subject)
- Modyford, James, Sir, 1618-1673 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Vanbrugh, Giles -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Williamson, Joseph, Sir, 1633-1701 (Subject)
- Wycherley, Daniel, 1617-1697 (Subject)
- Modyford, James, Sir, 1618-1673 (Subject)
- Vanbrugh, Giles (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
May 2009.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Bethan Ifans for the retrospective conversion project of NLW MSS. The following source was used in the compilation of this description: Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Volume IX (Aberystwyth, 2003);