James Lawson; John Southern.

The contents of this file were formerly in a portfolio entitled:
cE James Lawson. John Southern from 1800 to 1817 inclusive
This is the title recorded in the Inventory compiled by the Assay Office in 1921, but unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Under M. R. Boulton's arrangement the file was placed in Box K. I, and it was still there in 1921.

The documents are now listed in five chronological sequences, as follows:
James Lawson: Letters. (1-91)
James Lawson: Copies. (92-113)
John Southern: Letters. (114-133)
John Southern: Copy. (134)
Addition. (135)
The single document listed under the last heading was found loose in one of the Assay Office boxes; its origin is unknown.

Correspondence with James Lawson of the same period will also be found in M. R. Boulton's British Mint file. Earlier correspondence of both Lawson and Southern will be found in Matthew Boulton's file entitled, "James Lawson; John Southern; John Roberts. 1788-1799."

In the following List, the summaries printed in italics within square brackets are taken from the Assay Office Catalogue: these must be used with caution, since they are not to be relied on as word-for-word transcripts and they do not always give an adequate idea of the entire contents of the letters.