This material provides a vivid picture of the party and religious conflicts in Augustan England and forms an important source for late 17th and early 18th century social and political history.
The Ballard Collection is well known to scholars and librarians as a unique and fascinating source for the study of Restoration and Augustan England. This key collection of letters and papers was compiled by George Ballard (1706-1755), a learned Oxford antiquary.
For historians, the great attraction of the archive is the correspondence of Dr. Arthur Charlett (1655-1722), Master of University College, Oxford, Chaplain to William III and Queen Anne--a correspondent with an immense circle of politicians, churchmen, noblemen and ladies, academics, scientists and literary figures. The documents reflect the myriad concerns of crown, court and country. In politics they touch upon the critical but problematic transfer of the Crown in 1689, the impeachment of William III's ministers, contested elections, Irish affairs, and the Union with Scotland in 1707. They further detail the Anglican conflict with non-jurors, the Convocation controversy, literary taste, and disputes within the academic and scientific worlds.
The volumes included in this edition are 1-43, 47, 50, 54, 62-64, 67 and 74. The first reel contains the 18th century manuscript index of volumes 1-43, and the Bodleian Library card calendar of literary manuscripts in the Ballard Collection.
18 reels