Catalogue description Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville and predecessors and successors: Papers

Transferred to the British Library (reference: Add MS 89317).

The papers consist mainly of the private and semi-official correspondence of the first Earl Granville, and of his son the second earl. There are in addition some documents belonging to the first earl's father (the second Earl Gower and first Marquis of Stafford, president of the council 1767-1779 and 1783-4) and mother, and to the second earl's first wife, besides a few belonging to the first earl's grandfather (the second Lord and first Earl Gower) and others attributable to the latter's predecessors.

The bulk of the first Earl Granville's papers relate to his embassy to the courts of Russia (1804-1807) and of France (1824-1841). The papers of the second earl include much correspondence with the Queen and the Cabinet, reflecting his various offices as Foreign Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Colonial Secretary, an extensive series of private correspondence with British representatives abroad and with foreign representatives accredited to the court of St James, and many volumes of Foreign Office Confidential Print.

There are also a few papers dated 1783-1784 relating to the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa.

For further papers of the 2nd Earl Granville see FO 362

For the main series of records on the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa and successor, see T 70

Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, 1773-1846

Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, 1721-1803

Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, 1815-1891

Rose Constance Granville, Countess Granville, 1890-1967

Granville George Leveson-Gower, 3rd Earl Granville, 1872-1939

See The Life of the Second Earl Granville by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, 2 vols (1905).