W. S. Lewis Collection of George Selwyn Correspondence

The collection consists of letters sent to George Selwyn by nearly one hundred friends, associates, and family members; they range in content from short formal notes of invitation to long and descriptive letters from friends in his social and political circles. Also present are five letters written by Selwyn to colleagues and unidentified recipients.

Prominent among the correspondents are his father Colonel John Selwyn (1688–1751) and his agent Vincent Mathias who wrote to George Selwyn while he was on his grand tour. In combination, their twenty-one letters focus on finances: Colonel Selwyn sent questions such as “Why are you not at Leyden & why are you to keep the most extravagant company you can be with,” while Mathias served as a go-between delivering messages from father to son about expenses and making sure Selwyn’s bills were covered. Mathias was the brother of the artist Gabriel Mathias (1719-1804), and he was, as well, a go-between for Selwyn and the painter in one March 1742 letter. Colonel Selwyn also warned his son away from William Maynard (1721-1772), a schoolmate of Selwyn’s at Oxford, whose own colorful letters to Selwyn give an indication why a father might have concern.

While many of the correspondents in the collection are represented by single letters and notes, others provide a greater window on Selwyn's relationships: fellow London club man and wit George James “Gilly” Williams (1719-1805) has nineteen lengthy letters, and the Reverend Samson Harris (1727-1763) of Stonehouse near Gloucester, in his twenty-nine letters, kept Selwyn apprised of all the latest local news and political gossip in addition to improvements being made to the buildings and grounds at Matson House, Selwyn’s estate nearby. Another area colleague, John Harcourt (1716-), wrote five letters from his home Dan-y Park near Crickhowell in South Wales. Four long letters from Anthony Morris Storer (1746-1799) describe his activities while visiting Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle, at Dublin Castle in 1781, and there are five from Selwyn’s school friend Henry Reade (1716-1762). Six letters from Anne Liddell FitzRoy FitzPatrick, Countess of Upper Ossory (1737-1804) and two from Marie du Deffand (1697-1780) affirm Selwyn's friendship with those noted women in the Walpole circle.

In his dramatic letter of October 22, 1754, Robert Mackreth (1726-1819) recounted the accidental suicide of Henry Douglas, Earl of Drumlanrig and son of the Duke of Queensbury, at age 32. The most charming item in the collection is a short note from a Miss Tichborne written on a nine of hearts playing card that had been split open to receive her message and addressed to Selwyn on the verso. While business and finance are mentioned in several of the letters, there is only one invoice in the papers: the Oxford cordwainer Sampson Remmett billed Selwyn for eight pairs of leather shoes including red and yellow slippers.