Additional Manuscripts: Charles, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, G.C.B.
Item
Country
GB
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
Contact information: phone number
0044 (0)1937 546060 (Customer Services)
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
mss@bl.uk
Reference number
Add MS 20785-21005
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Additional Manuscripts: Charles, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, G.C.B.
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Charles, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, G.C.B.
Date note
14th century/19th century
Language(s)
deu
eng
fra
ita
lat
por
spa
Extent
221 storage units
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
This section of the Additional Manuscripts comprises numerous diplomatic records produced and accumulated by Charles Stuart, Baron de Rothesay. During his missions in Portugal and Spain, Stuart gathered numerous documents from Portuguese diplomatic representations in the 17th and 18th centuries and records regarding Portuguese India (for instance, the 40-volume collection of acts, by-laws and orders sent to India from 1518 to 1754, Add MS 20861-20900). Thus, this section of the Additional Manuscripts contains precious documentation for Portuguese diplomatic history. The correspondence of 18th-century envoy extraordinaries in London includes abundant evidence on the converso migration to England in the 1720s-1730s and the Portuguese Jewish community — especially, those Jews who were close to the legation, such as the physicians Fernão Mendes and Jacob de Castro Sarmento, or the merchants Francis and Jacob Salvador, Benjamin Mendes da Costa, Diego de Aguilar, Gabriel Lopes Pinheiro, and Jacob Pereira de Lima. See the correspondence of D. Luís da Cunha (Add MS 20941), José da Cunha Brochado (Add MS 20819-20820), Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho (Add MS 20795, 20799, 20802, 20940-20943), Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (Add MS 20796, 20798, 20800, 20801, 20804 (London); 20788 and 20803 (Vienna)), and Francisco Caetano (Add MS 20797). Some examples are the following:
Add. MS 20941: "Memorias políticas p.ª os interesses de Portugal" (Political memoirs for the interests of Portugal), which includes records on the project of the Portuguese Jewish merchant João da Costa Baredo to the settlement of a new colony in Southern America, near the Southern border of Brazil. 1737-39.
Add MS 20796, fols. 109-115: Letter from Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Portuguese envoy extraordinary in London, to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho, secretary of state, informing about the sending of Jewish-related books and a report that he entitled as "Colecção Hebraica" (Hebrew collection). August 10, 1740. Published in Vieira (2022a).
Add MSS 20799: documentation on the case of Jacob de Castro Sarmento's refusal to pay the parish taxes of St Katherine Coleman in 1741-3.
MS 20797, fols. 143-143v: Letter from Francisco Caetano to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho, in which he identifies certain fugitives that had left Portugal, including Carlos Rodrigues Alpalhão and José Lopes Pereira. May 13, 1746.
Add. MS 20941: "Memorias políticas p.ª os interesses de Portugal" (Political memoirs for the interests of Portugal), which includes records on the project of the Portuguese Jewish merchant João da Costa Baredo to the settlement of a new colony in Southern America, near the Southern border of Brazil. 1737-39.
Add MS 20796, fols. 109-115: Letter from Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Portuguese envoy extraordinary in London, to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho, secretary of state, informing about the sending of Jewish-related books and a report that he entitled as "Colecção Hebraica" (Hebrew collection). August 10, 1740. Published in Vieira (2022a).
Add MSS 20799: documentation on the case of Jacob de Castro Sarmento's refusal to pay the parish taxes of St Katherine Coleman in 1741-3.
MS 20797, fols. 143-143v: Letter from Francisco Caetano to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho, in which he identifies certain fugitives that had left Portugal, including Carlos Rodrigues Alpalhão and José Lopes Pereira. May 13, 1746.
Archival history
The volumes that compose this section of the Additional Manuscripts were purchased at the sale of the library of Charles, Lord Stuart de Rothesay, G.C.B.
Administrative / Biographical history
Charles Stuart, Baron de Rothesay (1779-1845), was a British diplomat. Born on January 2, 1779, he was the elder son of Sir Charles Stuart (1753-1801) and his wife Anne Louisa (1757-1841). Stuart entered the diplomatic service in 1801, being appointed as secretary of legation at Vienna (1801-04) and secretary of embassy at Petersburg (1804-08). These positions were followed by a liaison and intelligence gathering assignment with the provincial juntas in French-occupied Spain (1808-10). Stuart was a minister in Lisbon from 1810 to 1814, and he became a member of the Portuguese regency council. In 1815, he was the ambassador at the courts of both the King of Netherlands and Louis XVIII of France, who was in exile in Ghent.
Stuart's greatest diplomatic achievement was the treaty by which Brazil became independent of Portugal, negotiated on a joint Anglo-Portuguese special mission in 1825. He was reappointed as ambassador to France in 1828 and was created Baron Stuart de Rothesay of the Isle of Bute in January of that year. His subsequent assignments took him to Russia. Due to health problems, he resigned in March 1844. He died at Highcliffe on November 6, 1845, and was buried there. With no male heir, his title became extinct.
Stuart's greatest diplomatic achievement was the treaty by which Brazil became independent of Portugal, negotiated on a joint Anglo-Portuguese special mission in 1825. He was reappointed as ambassador to France in 1828 and was created Baron Stuart de Rothesay of the Isle of Bute in January of that year. His subsequent assignments took him to Russia. Due to health problems, he resigned in March 1844. He died at Highcliffe on November 6, 1845, and was buried there. With no male heir, his title became extinct.
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Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Bibliography
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