Correspondence

This material consists of letters, some with enclosures and some containing financial accounts, illustrations and sketches, written to and from members of the Galton family and families related to them by marriage, namely the Abrahams, Douglas, Farmer and Strutt families. Although the correspondence covers the period from the early eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century, the majority dates from either the 1740s to the 1760s or from about 1790 to the early 1830s. This mid eighteenth century correspondence is largely between members of the extended Abrahams and Farmer families, including James Farmer and Joseph Farmer, and Samuel Galton and his brother John Galton, and is primarily concerned with business and financial affairs, particularly those relating to the growth and organisation of the Farmer gun manufacturing firm which Samuel Galton joined as a partner in 1746. This correspondence provides a record of the interlinked family and business relationships between the Farmer and Galton families, and between the Farmer, Galton and Abrahams families, as well as revealing evidence about the business and social network of Quakers based in Bristol, Birmingham and London during this time. The bulk of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century correspondence is concerned for the most part with family and social matters rather than business affairs, the exception being the correspondence of the Douglas family which reveals much about the business interests of Archibald Douglas, a merchant based in Plymouth, and his son, William Archibald Douglas who made financial gains through his contacts with local merchants from his base at a British fort on the coast of west Africa.There are also infrequent references to the Galton & James bank in early nineteenth century letters to and from Samuel Galton jnr's sons Samuel Tertius Galton, Hubert Galton and John Howard Galton. However, the majority of letters written to and from members of the Strutt family, and those letters written to Samuel Galton jnr's children and grandchildren focus on family life and relationships, social activities and friendship networks in the Birmingham and Derby areas. Many letters allude to the interest of both the Galton and Strutt families in education, both for their own children, and for those of a lower social status, and some letters, particularly those written to Joseph Strutt and Joseph Douglas Strutt, and those written by Samuel Tertius Galton, refer to interests in political reform. Other topics include continental travel and other leisure activities and the involvement of the Galtons and Strutts in public life in Birmingham and Derby. There are obvious links between some of the material in this series and that in the business papers of Farmer & Galton, and there are also links to a lesser extent with material in the personal papers. The series as a whole is a rich source of information for family and business relationships during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

This section is arranged by family group. Within each group, the correspondence is arranged by recipient. Letters to each recipient are arranged alphabetically by individual sender, beginning with letters from other family members. Sequences of letters from each individual sender are arranged in approximately chronological order beginning with the earliest. Undated letters are placed at the end of the sequence, unless internal evidence gives a certain date.