Letters to James Watt jr. from various correspondents

There are 2,132 letters arranged in alphabetical order by name of correspondent. No evidence has been found concerning when the letters were arranged this way and almost no original bundle labels have been found.
There is one surviving bundle label for a packet of 20 letters, headed: ' Letters from Divers of Messrs. Walkers Italian Correspondents. 1793'. These letters have been kept in the alphabetical sequence where they had previously been placed, after the correspondence with Thomas Walker.

The order existing in 1998 has therefore been retained, with minor changes, when some letters appeared to have been filed incorrectly. These are noted in the bundle headings.
The letters had no original numbers.
In 1987, the boxes in which the letters were stored were numbered 1 to 10, to facilitate retrieval of individual letters. All the letters have now been re packaged in archival folders.
Photocopies of the outside of the folders previously used have been kept and are stored with the appropriate bundle.

It was decided to place in this sequence of correspondence the following letters, which were found in the James Watt Papers:

Three letters from Robert Fulton. 1802. [JWP C1/24; JWP C7/7 (part); JWP 6/54 (part)]; now placed in bundle F.
Letter from George Lee. 1809. [JWP 3/60]; now placed in bundle L.
Letter from William Maclure. 1809. (1 item.) [JWP 6/51]; now placed in bundle M.
Letter from John Murdock. 1815. (1 item) [JWP 6/53 (part)]; now placed in bundle M.

It was also decided to place here two letters about the London Institution, 1811, found in miscellaneous papers in [M IV/ box 18/ old folder 2]; now placed in bundle L.
The letter to George Hadley from the Globe Insurance was found in miscellaneous papers in [M IV/box 18/old folder 1], and it was decided to add it to this sequence; now placed in bundle G.

On the majority of letters, James Watt jr. has written a docket with the correspondent's name, date and a summary of the contents.
Any summary in square brackets has been given by the cataloguer.

These letters have been arranged in alphabetical order by name of correspondent

All the microfilms and their catalogues are available in Birmingham City Archives.

The Watt and Muirhead papers were microfilmed by Adam Matthews publications as part of 'Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History'. 'Muirhead I' was published in file One: parts 6 and 8, in 1997. The 'James Watt papers' were published in 'file Three', 1999.