Wiltshire and Swindon Archives has been successful in securing a grant of £22,700 to help open up the historic archives of the Earls of Radnor, including unique letters by George Washington, Horatio Nelson and Queen Elizabeth I.

Writing to Lord Radnor in 1797, former U.S. President Washington was looking forward to retirement: “I am now placed in the shade of my vine and fig tree; and at the age of sixty five, am recommencing my agricultural & rural pursuits; which were always more congenial to my temper and disposition than the noise & bustle of public employment; notwithstanding so small a portion of my life has been engaged in the former.”

Letter from George Washington, 1797

Other exciting finds in the collection include several 16th century letters from Thomas Cromwell, the senior official of Henry VIII responsible for the dissolution of the monasteries; and a letter on behalf of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, about the birth of Prince Edward (afterwards Edward VI) c1537. However, much of the collection is made up of records of life and work on the family’s estates in Wiltshire, Berkshire and Kent, from the 17th-20th centuries, which will be a treasure trove for anyone researching either local or family history. The aim is to catalogue the archives from April 2011-March 2012, with the catalogue available on-line worldwide. The collection is being made available with the kind permission of the owner, the current Earl of Radnor.

The grant has been made by the National Cataloguing Grants programme which is co-ordinated by the National Archives at Kew. The programme has provided over £400,000 to help archive services across the UK make collections more accessible to the public. The grants distributed by The National Archives are being awarded to archives rich in heritage value which, without financial help, were at risk of remaining hidden forever

The National Cataloguing Grants programme is collectively supported by: the Pilgrim Trust, the Foyle Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation, the Monument Trust, J Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Mercers Company Charitable Foundation and the Goldsmiths Company.  The National Archives provides additional funding, together with expert and secretariat support for the programme. Final decisions on the allocation of grants are made by an independent expert panel.

Author: Claire Skinner, Principal Archivist

claire.skinner@wiltshire.gov.uk

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