Original and copy letters of William Cowper, poet (1731-1800) together with some...

The papers comprise original and copy letters sent to various recipients by William Cowper (presumably accumulated by Hayley in connection with his authorship of his biography of Cowper), with a few other papers relating to Cowper, together with original and copy letters sent by Hayley to Cowper and other letters received by Hayley, some draft poems of his, etc. They by no means, however, comprise all the letters consulted by Hayley for his biography of Cowper, nor all of Hayley's letters to Cowper, nor all correspondence received by Hayley. There is, for instance, correspondence between the Reverend Samuel Greatheed and Hayley at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge; between the Reverend John Johnson and Hayley at the Bodleian Library at Oxford and between Lady Harriet Hesketh and Hayley (mainly on the subject of Hayley's biography of Cowper) at the British Museum. The reason for the survival of these papers as a discrete entity is therefore, no less than their survival in the Earls Cowpers' archive, obscure

• <persname>Cowper, William, 1731-1800, poet and letter-writer</persname>
• <persname>Hayley, William, 1745-1820, poet and biographer</persname>

[Acc 430]

Purchased 1994

The papers catalogued herein form part of the archive of the Earls Cowper of Panshanger, Hertingfordbury, (see catalogue DE/P for full details of the constituent parts of this archive). How they came to be in that archive, however, is unclear, since they appear in fact to be some of the surviving papers of the poet and biographer, William Hayley (1745-1820), who was not in any way directly connected with any part of the Cowper family significantly represented in the main archive

William Hayley's main claim to fame is now not as a poet, but as the first biographer of his friends and contemporaries the poet William Cowper (1731-1800) and the painter George Romney (1734-1802). William Cowper was a grandchild of Spencer Cowper, younger brother of the first Earl Cowper. Hayley was chosen by William Cowper's cousin and executrix Lady Harriet Hesketh (née Cowper) to write Cowper's biography, which, when published, he prefaced with an introductory letter to the then Earl Cowper. These factors may all serve to indicate why the Earls Cowper may have been interested in acquiring the papers of Hayley represented here, but it is nevertheless not presently known who acquired them or when