Correspondence and papers of the Marquesses of Tweeddale, formerly preserved at Yester House.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists largely of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century correspondence. The chief correspondents are the members of the family most active in public life, and their letters are on the whole more concerned with public than with personal affairs, though there is some discussion of family matters in the seventeenth-century letters. The most important and extensive correspondence is that of the 1st Marquess of Tweeddale, which dates from 1660 to 1697, and covers most of his political career; and that of the 4th Marquess of Tweeddale, most of which dates from 1742 to 1746, his period of office as Secretary of State for Scotland. Lord Charles Hay's papers concern the campaigns of 1743-1745 against France, and the Seven Years' War in America; the 8th Marquess's papers concern (though very briefly) the Peninsular War.
Dates
- Creation: 1550-1876, undated.
Conditions Governing Access
Normal access conditions apply.
Conditions Governing Use
Normal reproduction conditions apply, subject to any copyright restrictions.
Extent
74 Volumes ; Except where otherwise noted, each volume contains papers of various sizes, folio and under.
Language of Materials
Undetermined
Arrangement
The collection has been grouped around the main correspondents, and relevant papers have, as far as possible, been placed with the letters. Family papers, and manuscripts not obviously connected with the letters, have been placed at the end.
Many of the manuscripts have been bound together so that two or more may form a single volume. This has sometimes been done without careful regard to the intellectual arrangement of the papers and, as a consequence, the descriptive hierarchy of the records has had to be modified to show groups of records together in one extended sequence which would ordinarily have been shown as distinct sequences.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Presented, 1944-1945, 1948, by the Most Honourable William George-Montagu, 11th Marquess of Tweeddale.
Separated Materials
For charters, deeds and other formal documents, see Ch.7566-7593. For further papers relating to the Tweeddale family, see MSS.7121, 14401-14827, Ch.10685-12590.
Papers of the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale as Governor of Madras, 1842-1848, are in the India Office Library and Records.
Genre / Form
- Title
- National Library of Scotland Catalogue of Manuscripts
- Author
- National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division
- Description rules
- International Standard for Archival Description - General
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division Repository
Archives and Manuscript Division
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EJ
0131 623 3700
manuscripts@nls.uk