Eardley-Wilmot correspondence

The John Eardley-Wilmot Correspondence consists of three boxes of letters to and copies of letters by John Eardley-Wilmot, as well as a small number of personal papers and related items. The papers span the dates 1769-1912; the bulk of the material dates from between 1793 and 1810.

The letters are alphabetically arranged by author; retained draft copies of letters by John Eardley-Wilmot himself are arranged alphabetically by recipient under the entry for Eardley-Wilmot.

The collection reflects the variety of Eardley-Wilmot's intellectual and charitable interests. Letters from Christopher Anstey, John Anstey, Sir Joseph Banks, Benjamin Incledon, and Mark Noble discuss Oliver Cromwell's correspondence; Wilmot's writings are the subject of letters from Wynley Blair, Charles Butler, Robert Cadell, Daniel Coke, James Ross and others. Wilmot's early letters to his lifelong friend Henry Michell are in Latin and Greek, drawing upon their literary studies at Cambridge.

Eardley-Wilmot's participation in the political patronage systems of his day can be traced in the letters of Thomas Blomefield, Isaac Crakell, Baron Harrowby, Bishop Hurd, John Phillips, and WIlliam Pitt. A 1779 letter to Nathaniel Ryder discusses Eardley-Wilmot's views on the American Revolution, while a later letter to Benjamin West comments on the compensation claims made to the Crown by American Loyalists.

Eardley-Wilmot was the executor of the estate of William Petty, 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, and his role in the purchase by the British Museum of Lansdowne's manuscripts is documented in letters by Sir Francis Baring; Sir Henry Ellis; William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd marquis of Lansdowne; Joseph Planta, and Spencer Perceval. His abiding interest in King's College, Nova Scotia, is seen in letters from Shute Barrington, Charles Inglis, and John Inglis; while his activities on behalf of French refugees are noted in letters by the 1st marquis of Buckingham, Edmund Burke, Jean François de la Marche, Samuel Parr, John Hampden Trevor, and an unidentified contributor to his fund who signed himself "Philo-Caritos".

Other correspondents of note include William Franklin; John Bowles, who in an 1807 letter expressed fear that dancing and music "naturally lead to licentiousness and debauchery" in the poor; and Warren Dawson, who was likewise concerned with "mirth and jollity among the lower classes." The letters of Martha Wilmot, Edward Wilmot, and John Henry Michell are largely personal in nature.

Box 3, folder 157 contains a small number of personal papers of John Eardley-Wilmot, including his call to Temple Bar. Folders 158-160 contain bibliographical and biographical information.

Descriptions of individual letters or correspondences can be found in the notes appended to many of the folder entries in the finding aid.