London Office Correspondence

MS 3147/12

London Office Correspondence

1818-1885

The London office correspondence is one of the most voluminous sections of the Boulton & Watt archive, but it is by no means complete, as will be seen from the descriptions of the various series and the List. The correspondence is most complete for the early years of the office, indeed both the outgoing and incoming letters date back to 1818, the year the London office was established when James Brown was appointed as agent for Middlesex and the surrounding counties. As with other sections of the collection, the coverage is far worse for the latter part of the 19th century, when the firm was James Watt & Co.
Nevertheless, the London office correspondence is an extremely rich source of information on the engines Boulton Watt & Co. sold, particularly steam boat engines, engines sold in southern Britain, and engines sold overseas. It also contains a great deal of information about Boulton Watt & Co.’s engine erectors, shipping practices, contacts in London and other areas of their business.

Outgoing Correspondence.
Loose Letters and Bundles.
These are press copies of outgoing letters written by James Brown, William Langdon and occasionally other members of the London office staff. There are also occasional letters by James Watt Jr., written when he was visiting London. The storage of outgoing letters was the main way in which the London office practice differed from that of the offices at Soho. Brown at first kept his letters in loose yearly bundles. From around 1822 he began to sew the letters written in various months together, so that the letters for a particular year were gathered into five or six bundles. In 1826 he began sewing the letters together in monthly bundles, and in the 1840s he changed again, to an arrangement of quarterly bundles. The separate bundles for each year were kept tied together. The letters from Soho to which many of these letters were replying will be found in the bundles of General Correspondence (MS 3147/12/23- MS 3147/12/57).

There are gaps in the series of Loose Letters and Bundles, and also some of the bundles cannot be served due to water damage Further details will be found in the pdf of the List attached and in the separate lists for each year.

Letter Books.
Much later in the firm’s life, during the James Watt & Co. period, the practice of binding together the copies of the outgoing letters into letter books was instituted, although it is not clear when this was begun as the series is incomplete. The books that survive are from the late 1870s and 1880s, and contain letters from London to Soho, mostly on routine administrative matters. Signatories include the partner Henry Wollaston Blake, the London office manager of the time Joshua Rooke, and London staff such as Edward McCreight, Alfred C. Haselden and Frederick A. Parsons, and Blake’s son Lionel E. Blake. Many of the letters however are simply signed ‘J. Watt & Co.’ Many of the letters in these books bear three digit numbers, the remnants of system of numbering correspondence.

These books are similar in size and form to the London Letter Books (MS 3147/3/149-161) and Sundry Letter Books (MS 3147/3/162-167) kept at Soho during the same period, in that they are formed from copies bound directly together rather than being pasted onto pages. The books are indexed.

Miscellaneous Letters.
Two small bundles of press copies of outgoing letters, one of letters to A. Vanderhoop from 1824 to 1825, and one of letters to a Mr. Earle in 1871.

Incoming Correspondence.
General Correspondence.
The bundles of the London office’s general incoming correspondence form one of the most extensive series in the entire archive, although it is by no means complete. The letters are addressed to James Brown, and occasionally other London staff such as William Langdon and William Wright. Brown and the London office staff usually docketed the letters with the name of the correspondent, the date, and a brief summary of the contents. The early years consist in the main of letters from senior staff at Soho, such as James Watt Jr. and William Creighton, but as the London office’s importance grew, so did the number of letters sent directly from customers to the office. The replies to many of the letters from Soho will be found in the Loose Letters and Bundles of outgoing correspondence (MS 3147/12/1-12/17).

Various systems of arrangement appear to have been employed for the General Correspondence. There is evidence of an alphabetical system having been employed early on, then chronological arrangements such as quarterly bundles. However the General Correspondence has suffered a great deal of disruption, for example letters from ‘famous names’ such as James Watt Jr. and Matthew Robinson Boulton were frequently separated, quarterly bundles were split or amalgamated, and so on. The correspondence was found spread throughout the collection, in no particular order. It was therefore decided to arrange each year in one alphabetical sequence.

Special Subjects.
The London office kept various bundles of correspondence relating to particular subjects, in the same way as the offices at Soho. A few of these bundles have survived, but it is presumed that a very large number are now missing. Some of the bundles were assembled from items that had originally been filed in the series of General Correspondence, for example the bundle of letters from the Navy Board (MS 3147/12/58), and some items in the first two bundles of Danube Co. correspondence (MS 3147/12/59 and MS 3147/12/60).

Miscellaneous Items.
A small bundle of letters of receipt acknowledging various payments made from the London office, and a letter covering a specification of a boiler for the boat Dromedary.

The London office correspondence is arranged in various series. The series are grouped together by type of correspondence, as follows:
Outgoing Correspondence
Incoming Correspondence

More detailed information on each series is given in the Description field, while reference numbers and covering dates of the actual records, and a list of the old reference numbers will be found in the pdf of the full series list attached. Item level lists are available in the searchroom of Birmingham Archives and Heritage.

3 volumes, 46 boxes

There are no restrictions on access to or use of the Boulton & Watt London Office Correspondence. However fragile items or those in a poor state of repair may not be served at the discretion of the Duty Archivist.

The records listed here are the survivng correspondence, both outgoing and incoming, of Boulton Watt & Co.?s London office. The London office correspondence was dealt with by the firm?s London agent, James Brown, following the practices that had already been developed in the offices at Soho. (For more information on the people and businesses mentioned in this Introduction, see The Guide to Persons & Firms in the Archives Searchroom). Brown made copies of the letters that he wrote on a copying press, while the letters that he received he docketed with the name of the correspondent, the date, and usually a brief summary of the contents of the letter. In the early years of the London office the bulk of correspondence was with the partners and staff at Soho, mostly James Watt Jr. and William Creighton, the head of the Drawing Office. However as the London office?s business grew, Brown entered more and more into direct communication with customers, suppliers and engine erectors. Brown wrote from the London office, and also from his home, first at Haydon Square and then at 25 Jewry Street. Other engineers in the office, such as William Langdon, also entered into correspondence. In the latter part of the 19th century, when the firm was called James Watt & Co., the London office became the firm?s administrative centre, and the correspondence it generated and its staff rose accordingly.