350th Anniversary
of the Restoration
of the Monarchy
Coming soon: a new series
The National Archives State and Government documents series
16th century 17th century
18th century
19th Century
20th century
Home Office (HO) series 1782-present
State Papers (SP) series 1509-1782
State Papers Online
Parts I-IV,
1509-1714
State
Papers
Online:
18C
Parts I-III,
1714-1782
Foreign Office (FO) series 1782-present
3 Parts:
Date Range: 1714-1782
1 [British] Domestic, Military, Naval and Privy Council
2 Foreign Part 1
3 Foreign Part 2
Size: c. 300,000-450,000 folios per part
Pub Date: Part 1: June 2013
• The final section of the State Papers series from the
National Archives, Kew, UK plus the Privy Council
registers and files
• In 1782, the State Papers series was closed and the Home
Office and Foreign Office series begun
Academic Adviser
Professor Jeremy Black,
University of Exeter, UK
http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/staff/black/
http://www.jeremyblack.co.uk/
National Archives Adviser
Dr Katy Mair
Early Modern Records Specialist
The National Archives, Kew, UK
http://origin.nationalarchives.gov.uk/jobs/staff-profiles.htm
The Period of the Three Georges
 America as British colony until 1783
 Age of change
 Liberty and commerce (ie political liberty and trade). Commerce was coming
to be seen as the defining mark of modernity
 Establishment of the British Empire with Britain as dominant Colonial power
 Urban growth
 Development of agriculture, industrialisation, mechanisation
 Government by parliament with lesser role for the monarch – parliamentary
monarchy
 Parliament as battleground/theatre of party politics. Whig v Tory
 Rise of professions
 European Enlightenment
 Developments in the ‘public spheres’ of Europe – development of press and
political associations
 Foreign travel and economic migration, deportation of convicts
Unique Features of the Product
State Papers Online is a unique resource bringing unsearchable
manuscript documents to the user in a searchable form.
Calendars
interlinked
Manuscripts
Each manuscript document is linked directly to its Calendar entry.
This is a huge advance for faculty and students, saving them the
difficulty and time, time which can now be spent examining the
documents themselves
Users can also browse through manuscript volumes, folio by folio,
volume by volume or jump to a particular folio.
Unique Features of the Product
Tools for researching and studying within the product
Notepad for making notes or transcriptions
Full screen view to enable close examination of the documents
Wide zoom range to view small handwriting and annotations
Links to online palaeography (handwriting) courses to improve skills
in reading these documents
Note: 17th-century documents are easier to read than sixteenthcentury ones. This makes SPO III more accessible for undergraduate
students with no palaeography skills.
Lord Justices to the King
Whitehall
South Sea Bubble
We think it our duty at this time to acquaint your Majesty with the
very extraordinary case which hath happened within this fortnight.
The South Sea stock which was risen to so great a height, and wherein
such vast numbers of your subjects are concerned in interest, is fallen so
low that it hath brought a general discredit upon everything
…
Several other reasons are assigned too various and doubtful for us to
enumerate to your Majesty, but we think the situation so dangerous, that
we most humbly beg leave to represent to your Majesty how this great
fall of the stocks hath already undone great numbers of your people, that
despair or despondency is to be observed in them all in general, for there
are but few families which are not concerned in these funds.
We apprehend that the exchange may turn against this country and
deprive us of great part of our species, many bankers and goldsmiths
having already shut up shop, and as there is a run begun upon them, we
fear it will not stop before others are brought to the same condition.
In so general a calamity as this would prove, we dread the
consequences it might have to your Majesty’s government, and fear it
may excite the hopes of your enemies both at home and abroad, to make
some dangerous attempt during the troubles and disorders which must
arise from so extended a misfortune.
At the same time we beg leave to acquaint your Majesty that some of
your servants have been finding out means to put a stop to this evil;
several of them have with great diligence and industry used their efforts
to bring about an union of interest between the great companies of the
bank, the South Sea and the East Indies, and we have reason to hope this
fruit from their endeavours, that such a concert will appear between
them as will give a new life to the credit of this nation.
But as the necessities of many of the adventures are such that they
must be obliged to sell their stocks at any rates, the market may be so
crowded as to make this expedient ineffectual, and if it should have the
desired effect at present we cannot answer how long it may continue.
…
September 21, 1720
SP 35/23 f. 54
Christopher Layer to Townshend
Tower of London
Atterbury Plot
Praying that his life may be spared and complaining that, contrary to
the promises of the Lords of the Committee, the evidence he gave at
his examination was used against him at his trial and was the
occasion of his conviction.
November 24, 1722
SP35/34 f.59
Walter Evans to Walter Evans of Brailes to – renewing complaints against the
Papists there who have attempted to intimidate the witnesses for
the Crown in the trial of persons accused of treasonable activities to
be heard at Warwick Assizes.
August 03, 1736
SP 36/39 f. 64
Scheme against the King’s Person
Copy of deposition made before Lord Stanhope, by Peter Childe,
of Essex Street, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, Middlesex,
staymaker, to the effect that having started on his way home from
Hampstead, about a quarter five in the afternoon, he overheard
between that place and Kentish Town a conversation between
three persons relating to a scheme against the King’s person
concerted by the brother of one Williams. They were to meet at the
house of Williams on the next Friday evening. He heard them
mention the name of “Kew” several times. When discovered he
was fired at twice, the first ball going through his hat. He was
followed into the fields on this side Pancras Church, but escaped.
December 17, 1760
SP 37/01 f. 9
Part I: State Papers Domestic, Naval, Military and Registers of the Privy Council
Series title
SP 35: Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, George I, 1714-1727
SP 36: Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, George II, 1728-1760
SP 37: Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, George III, 1760-1783
SP 38: Signet Office: Docquets
SP 41: Secretaries of State: State Papers Military
SP 42: Secretaries of State: State Papers Naval
SP 43: Secretaries of State: State Papers Regencies, George I and George II
SP 44: Secretaries of State: State Papers: Entry Books
SP 45: State Papers Office and other Bodies
SP 46: State Papers Domestic: Supplementary
SP 47: Secretaries of State: State Papers Channel Islands
SP 48: Secretaries of State: State Papers Isle of Man
SP 54: Secretaries of State: State Papers Scotland Series II, 1714-1783
SP 55: Secretaries of State: State Papers Scotland: Letter Books
SP 56: Secretaries of State: State Papers Scotland: Church Books
SP 57: Secretaries of State: State Papers Scotland: Warrant Books
SP 63: State Paper Office: State Papers Ireland, Elizabeth I to George III
SP 67: Secretaries of State: State Papers Ireland, Entry Books
PC 2: Privy Council: Registers [1714-1782]
PC 4: Privy Council: Minutes and Associated Papers
PC 5: Privy Council Office: Plantation Books
PC 6: Privy Council Office: Miscellaneous Books and Correspondence Registers
PC 13: Privy Council Office: Sheriffs' Lists
Totals
Vols
78
163
27
12
46
132
128
217
25
17
8
2
43
13
6
7
111
21
44
5
10
4
1
1120
Part II: Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Netherlands and Germany
Manuscript series
Series Title
SP 75: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Denmark
SP 77: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Flanders
SP 80: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Holy Roman Empire
SP 81: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, German States
SP 82: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Hamburg and Hanse Towns
SP 84: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Holland
SP 87: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Military Expeditions
SP 88: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Poland and Saxony
SP 90: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Prussia
SP 91: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Russia
SP 95: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Sweden
SP 97: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Turkey
SP 105: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Archives of British Legations
SP 110: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Supplementary
Total
Vols
104
49
210
98
73
340
40
96
101
103
116
38
118
65
1551
Part III: Foreign B: Western Europe Manuscript series
Series title
SP 71: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Barbary States
SP 76: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Dunkirk
SP 78: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, France
SP 79: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Genoa
SP 85: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Italian States and Rome
SP 86: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Malta
SP 89: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Portugal
SP 92: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Savoy and Sardinia
SP 93: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Sicily and Naples
SP 94: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Spain
SP 96: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Switzerland
SP 98: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Tuscany
SP 99: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Venice
SP 100: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Foreign Ministers (in England)
SP 101: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Newsletters
SP 102: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Royal Letters
SP 103: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Treaty Papers
SP 104: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Entry Books
SP 106: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Ciphers
SP 107: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Confidential
SP 108: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Treaties
SP 109: Secretaries of State: State Papers Foreign, Various
Totals
Vols
16
9
178
19
3
2
69
62
29
173
36
63
22
70
19
62
49
51
58
110
532
88
1720
State Papers Online 18th Century is fully cross-searchable with the earlier
four modules covering the years 1609-1714.
For further information contact: julia.demowbray@cengage.com