NEWSLETTERS.

Newsletters from London, addressed to Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth, 1666 - 1711. Seven volumes.

The first few letters of this set of newsletters are not addressed to Lord Weymouth or as he was then called "Mr Thinne", the first with his name being dated 20 Dec. 1666. All the rest were sent to him at whatever place he might happen to be.

The following extract from the Historical Commissioners' 1st Report, 1870. p.44. gives a lucid description of the News letter of that period (17th cent.) "A newsman in London had correspondents in different parts of this kingdom and abroad who wrote letters of news to him. He attended Coffee Houses and other places of public resort and there picked up the gossip and news of court and city: from these sources and the few newspapers of the time he compiled the Newsletter, copies of which he sent to his various customers in the country. For Parliamentary news he had the (covert) assistance of the Clerks of Parliament who furnished copies of, or extracts from, the Minutes of proceedings in the Houses of Parliament. It appears from one of the papers in Lord Mostyn's collection that a number of Coffee House Keepers were had before the House of Commons and the Clerk of the House was forbidden to furnish copies of the Minutes to be read at the Coffee Houses":

A note by Canon Jackson (Vol. I. f.1. of this set) runs: "These were probably supplied to Lord Weymouth by Mr Muddiman the great News collector and Vendor of that day". Canon Jackson doubtless had good grounds for the suggestion, though there is nothing on the face of the letters to prove it. It is certain that a good number of the letters in Vol.I. emanated from or passed through the hands of Joseph Williamson, M.P. and Editor of the London Gazette, for he has added postscripts to many of them in 1666-1668 (Vol. I. ff. 1-12). Moreover some letters in 1676 etc. may be similarly ascribed to John Rushworth, the historian. (Vol. I. ff. 142-173.)

This is a very valuable collection, containing as it does news not only from the Court and London, but also from most of the countries of Europe. The letters are mostly of the folio size, written closely on three sides and on the margins. With the exceptions noted above and a few from private persons whose names will be found in the index, they are not signed.