INTELLIGENCE

This subsubseries consists of a number of distinct collections of different provenance.

• ADM 1/3930-3934 ('1st series') are original letters to the Secretary of the Admiralty from the Secretary of State, Lloyds, secret agents and others conveying naval intelligence.
• ADM 1/3970-3976 ('2nd series') is another collection of original and copy letters conveying naval intelligence, in a variety of languages and from both official and unofficial sources.
• ADM 1/6032-6036 ('3rd series') are summaries of naval intelligence, almost entirely extracted from the reports of proceedings of H M Ships, copied into ledgers in chronological order. ADM 1/6037, 3984-3986 and 6038-6039 ('4th series', in that order) are an alphabetical index and digest of the same information.
• ADM 1/3935-3969 consists of the Admiralty's copy of the 'Secret Correspondence' conducted on its behalf and that of the Secretary of State (whose copy is in SP 84) by Richard Wolters of Rotterdam, and subsequently by his widow Marguerite. The Wolters maintained a network of informants in Paris, Madrid, and the principal French dockyard and garrison towns, who wrote once or twice a week with naval, military and political information. The letters are anonymous, in French, and copied by the Wolters' clerk.
• ADM 1/3977-3981 are referred to as 'Foreign Letters', meaning in foreign languages, and are not all to do with intelligence. They include information from foreign correspondents, intercepted letters and petitions from prisoners of war.
• Four miscellaneous items comprise: a marriage register (ADM 1/3982), a list of the armaments of foreign ships of war (ADM 1/3983) and two drafts of a precis of documents relating to the Scheldt Expedition. (ADM 1/3987 and 6040).

Other naval intelligence may be found (often scattered) in ADM 1/3458-3500, 3542-3544, 3992-3996, 4080-4277, 4297 and 4352. Intelligence from public offices, 1802-1807, is indexed and digested in ADM 12/29-34.