Glynne-Gladstone Archive

Scope and Content

The Glynne-Gladstone Archive contains personal, family, business, and estate correspondence and papers of the Glynne and Gladstone families.

The manuscripts date from c.1550 to 1973, although by far the greatest part of the collection dates from the nineteenth century.

The archive is of particular use to anyone interested in:

The life of four-time Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)
Responses to and representations of William Ewart Gladstone during his life and shortly after his death
The involvement of the Gladstone family in chattel slavery and indentured labour, and the plantations of Sir John Gladstone, 1^st Baronet, in Jamaica and British Guiana
The business affairs of the Gladstone family in India
The foundation of Gladstone’s Library by William Ewart Gladstone
The history of the Glynne family and their purchase of the Hawarden estate
The personal life, charitable works, and health of nineteenth-century upper-class women

The archive is split into correspondence of the Glynne family and correspondence of the Gladstone family, and then papers of the Glynne family and papers of the Gladstone family.

Amongst the Glynne family correspondence is letters of and relating to the generations of the Glynne family from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. It also includes correspondence of members of the Neville family, the Griffin family, and the Lyttelton families, to whom the Glynne family was related.

The majority of the Gladstone family correspondence is from the nineteenth century, and it principally contains the letters of William Ewart Gladstone, his grandparents, his parents, his uncles and aunts, his siblings and their partners, his children and their partners, and some of his grandchildren. It also includes correspondence of members of the Ramsden, Cavendish (including Lady Lucy Caroline Cavendish, née Lyttelton, maid of honour to Queen Victoria), Nimmo, Wickham, and Drew families, to whom the Gladstone family was related. A great deal of the letters are between family members, but there are also letters from politicians, business associates, and friends, as well as some correspondence of William Ewart Gladstone’s private secretaries, Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour (1843-1902), Sir Edward Walter Hamilton (1847-1908), and George William Spencer Lyttelton (1847-1913).

Of notable interest amongst the correspondence of William Ewart Gladstone are the 1099 letters written to his father, Sir John Gladstone, 1^st Baronet, between 1821 and 1851, the 1534 letters to his wife, Catherine Gladstone, née Glynne, between 1839 and 1894, and the 101 boxes of letters from the general public to William Ewart Gladstone. This latter includes many letters from working class people, as well as activists, authors, and publishers from all over the world.

Amongst the papers of the Glynne family are the personal and household papers of Lady Mary Glynne, née Neville, the personal, political papers, and genealogical papers of Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 9^th Baronet.

The papers of the Gladstone family contain a mixture of personal, political, business and financial papers for Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet, Sir Thomas Gladstone, 2nd Baronet, William Ewart Gladstone, Anne Mackenzie Gladstone, Helen Jane Gladstone, William Henry Gladstone, Catherine Gladstone, née Glynne, Reverend Stephen Edward Gladstone, Lord Henry Neville Gladstone, 1st Baron Gladstone of Hawarden, Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, Reverend Harry Drew and Mary Drew, née Gladstone, Helen Gladstone, and Dorothy Mary Gladstone, née Paget.

These papers are then followed by papers that cannot be attributed to one member of the Gladstone family. These are arranged by subject or by business.

This starts with a section containing papers relating to William Glynne Charles Gladstone (1885-1915), and then a section on church building, followed by records related to the Wright v. Gladstone case, and some photographs.

A section devoted to 'The Gladstone Papers' consists of drafts of John Morley's Life of Gladstone and S. G. Checkland's The Gladstones: A Family Biography, with related correspondence and papers, a copy of Herbert Gladstone's edited transcript of the diary of William Ewart Gladstone, copies of Gladstone's correspondence and papers, mostly prepared for Morley, papers of the Octagon Trust, and correspondence relating to access to the Gladstone papers, and their deposit in the British Museum and Lambeth Palace Library.

Items relating to the National Memorial to Mr Gladstone, St. Deiniol's Library (now Gladstone’s Library), and the Catherine Gladstone Convalescent Home are followed by estate and household papers. These relate mainly to Hawarden Castle and the Hawarden estate, and to Liverpool and Seaforth. (There are no records of the Fasque estate other than photocopied and printed items).

The section on business papers includes the surviving early business records of Sir John Gladstone, 1^st Baronet, as well as records of the two firms with which he was connected: Gladstone & Co. and Ogilvy, Gillanders and Co., and their Indian equivalents, Gladstone, Wyllie and Co. and Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co. The firm's records include the minute books of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Co., for which it acted as agents.

The records of the West Indian plantations include papers relating to chattel slavery generally, to the Demerara Uprising of 1823 which started on Sir John Gladstone plantation ‘Success’, lists of enslaved people on his plantations, and to money paid to Sir John Gladstone as a result of the Slave Compensation Act 1837.

The Oak Farm Co., the Staffordshire collieries and ironworks which went bankrupt in 1847, causing William Ewart Gladstone to devote much time to the finances of the company and of the Hawarden Estate, has left records including correspondence of Sir John Gladstone, 1^st Baronet, and William Ewart Gladstone.

Finally, there are papers related to the Newcastle Trust. William Ewart Gladstone acted as executor of the 5th Duke of Newcastle (1811-64). These records include papers relating to his divorce, as well as some of his political correspondence and papers, particularly as Colonial Secretary, 1859-64 (the remainder of the political papers are in the library of the University of Nottingham). there is also extensive correspondence relating to Gladstone's work as executor.

Physical Description and Extent

The archive consists of around 70200 items in 3030 files. Records are paper or parchment with some photographs and bound volumes. Some of the correspondence is in the form of bundles which are delicate to handle and difficult to photograph.

Provenance

The papers of William Ewart Gladstone were deposited at Gladstone's Library in 1908 by Lord Henry Neville Gladstone, 1st Baron Gladstone of Hawarden, and Sir Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, both of whom wanted their father's papers to be preserved and available to biographers. Prior to their being deposited in the Muniments Room at Gladstone's Library they were arranged by Arthur Tilney Bassett.

In June 1930, this material was relocated to the British Museum who wished to acquire William Gladstone's political papers. At the British Museum, the papers were further sorted and arranged into political papers and personal papers, and some of the general correspondence to William Gladstone was disposed of. The political papers and some of the general correspondence was retained by the British Museum and became the property of the Nation in 1935 on the death of Lord Henry Neville Gladstone. The royal correspondence is now held by the British Library on permanent loan from the tenant-for-life of the Gladstone settled estates. William Gladstone's personal papers and the rest of the general correspondence that remained was transferred back to Gladstone's Library.

Some deeds and legal papers for the Hawarden estate were deposited by Lord Henry Gladstone in the National Library of Wales in 1926. William Gladstone's diaries as well as some records relating to the court case of Wright v. Gladstone were deposited at Lambeth Palace in 1928.

Other material including Glynne and Gladstone family papers, some deeds and legal papers relating to Hawarden estate, and material from Fasque, the Gladstone family's Scottish estate, were transferred from the Octagon at Hawarden Castle to Gladstone's Library in 1968-1969.

Records related to Ogilvy, Gillanders and Co. were deposited by that company, with which firm several members of the Gladstone family have been associated.

Until March 2016 although the Glynne-Gladstone Archive was held at Gladstone’s Library, access to the records was managed by Flintshire Record Office, formerly known as Clwyd Record Office and now North East Wales Archive.

Arrangement

The upper levels of this archive is arranged into correspondence of the Glynne family, correspondence of the Gladstone family, papers of the Glynne family, and papers of the Gladstone family.

William Gladstone arranged his own papers, as well as those of his father, Sir John Gladstone. For his own records, he created bundles which he arranged chronological and then by subject, and then in 1855 he started to create series of special correspondence which he arranged alphabetically by author. When John Morley used William Gladstone's papers in 1899 they were separated into the following categories:

Special and family correspondence, arranged by correspondence
General correspondence, in monthly or alphabetical bundles
Letter-books, registers of letters, and loose copies of out-letters
Political papers in subejct bundles, including papers as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, together with papers as Special Commissioner for the Ionian Island
Diaries, travel journals, autobiographical memoranda and drafts for an autobiography
Devotional writing and sermons
Notes for speeches
Literary papers, including notes and drafts for published works
Personal, household, and estate accounts and papers
Trust and executorship papers, including papers as trustee for the 5th Duke of Newcastle
Pamphlets, newspaper cutting, and other printed matter

This material was then rearranged and catalogued by Arthur Tilney Bassett - a project which was completed in 1908. The material was then rearranged again when it was transferred to the British Museum in 1930.

Access and Finding Aid

The complete handlist of the archive is available to be viewed here.

This handlist was created in the 1990s and uses the historical terminology found in the records themselves. This terminology would now be considered offensive and may be upsetting to users. The use of these terms does not reflect the views of Gladstone's Library and we are working on a revised version of the handlist as we bring it in line with current archival cataloguing standards, however, due to the size of the archive this is a lengthy process.

Records from the Glynne-Gladstone Archive can be viewed by emailing a completed copy of our Request to View Restricted Archival Items Form to [email protected] at least 14 days before you would like to have your viewing.

The letters and papers of William Gladstone in the archive have been digitised as part of the 2018-2023 Carnegie-funded Gladstone’s Writing project. These are available to be viewed online in our digital catalogue.

Reprographics

All reprographics queries should be directed to [email protected]. Information about Gladstone’s Library’s reprographics services can be found here.

Related Collections

The British Library holds the partner archive to the Glynne-Gladstone Archive, which is referred to as the Gladstone Papers and forms part of their collection of Papers and Correspondence of British Prime Ministers. This can be searched here. Copies of all of these papers are held by Gladstone’s Library where they can be viewed on microfilm.

William Ewart Gladstone’s original diaries are held by Lambeth Palace. Herbert Gladstone's edited transcripts of these, as well as M. R. D. Foot and H. C. G Matthew’s printed editions of them, can be viewed at Gladstone’s Library.

Some papers and correspondence related to William Ewart Gladstone and his family are held by the National Library of Wales.

Papers related to Hawarden Estate are held by North East Wales Archives.