Matthew Boulton: John Vivian; Thomas Williams; John Wilkinson; William Wilkinson;...

The contents of this file were originally contained in four separate files, listed in the Catalogue of Papers of 1791 under the following titles—
John Vivian. Letters 1785 to 1790
Thos. Williams. do 1781 to 1790
Jno Wilkinson. do. 1775 to 1790
Jno Hurd. do 1785 to 1790
At the time this Catalogue was compiled the files probably took the form of bundles. Later they were placed together in one portfolio entitled:
Jn. Vivian T. Williams Jn. Wilkinson W. Wilkinson J. Hurd 1772 to 1805
This is the title recorded in the Inventory compiled by the Assay Office in 1921, but unfortunately the portfolio was subsequently discarded. Under the arrangement made by M. R. Boulton about 1819, the file was placed in Box I. II, and it was still in the same place in 1921.
The documents are now arranged in six chronological sequences, as follows:
John Vivian. (1-60)
Thomas Williams: Letters. (61-128)
Thomas Williams: Miscellaneous Papers. (129-141)
John and William Wilkinson: Letters. (142-210)
John and William Wilkinson: Miscellaneous Papers. (211-217)
John Hurd. (218-239)
It is likely that many of the documents classed as Miscellaneous Papers belong elsewhere, having been removed from their original locations by the Assay Office. Note that the correspondence of John and William Wilkinson begins in the year 1776, not 1775, as recorded in the 1791 Catalogue. 36 does not belong in this file, having been added by the Assay Office to their "John Vivian" file after their Catalogue was typed; but its origin is unknown.
In the following List the copy documents are press-copies, unless stated otherwise. Summaries in quotation-marks are taken from the original dockets. The summaries printed in italics within square brackets are taken from the Assay Office Catalogue: these must be used with caution, for they are not to be relied on as word-for-word transcripts and they do not always give an adequate idea of the contents of the letters.