Guide to the Public Record Office. Personal Collections (as filmed by the AJCP), 1605-1938

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Summary

Collection number:

PRO 30

Creator:

Public Record Office. Great Britain. Personal Collections

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material (The National Archives of the UK) and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Citation of items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material (The National Archives of the UK) and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: TNA Series: CO 201/429, New South Wales. Original Correspondence. Despatches May-June 1850 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Further information on TNA citation guidelines in available at The National Archives of the UK

Availability:

Available

Background

Content Summary:

The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) filmed papers in nine of the collections of individuals in PRO 30.

The AJCP filmed the Hatton (PRO 30/45), Northcote (30/56) and Lord Kitchener (PRO 30/57) Papers in their entirety. Each of these Series have distinctive features.

The Hatton Papers is an artificial Series, in that the records were Home Office official papers that for some reason passed out of the custody of the Home Office and were acquired by Joseph Hatton.

The Northcote Papers are distinctive in that they were assembled in Australia rather than Britain, the letters all relating to Lord Northcote's term as Governor-General. Although only three correspondents are represented in the Series, no other personal papers of Lord Northcote are known to have survived.

The other seven Series have all been filmed selectively and in some cases the selections form a very small proportion of the total collection. Of the seven individuals who assembled the papers, six were British politicians, including two Prime Ministers (William Pitt (PRO 30/8) and Lord John Russell (PRO 30/22) and four Secretaries of State for the Colonies (Russell (PRO 30/22), Edward Cardwell (PRO 30/48), Lord Granville (PRO 30/29), Lord Carnarvon (PRO 30/6).

The remaining Series is somewhat different in that it dates from the twentieth century, was assembled by an official and businessman, Sir Alan Anderson (PRO 30/68), and deals with a single subject, the shipment of Australian wheat to Britain during World War I.

The subject matters of these political Series vary considerably. The Pitt Papers, the only eighteenth century collection, contain documents on the first British settlement in Australia, the establishment of the Pacific whale fishery, and British economic and strategic interests in South East Asia.

The papers filmed in the other Series include material on convicts and transportation (Abbot, Russell), appointments of governors, self-government for the colonies (Russell, Carnarvon), the withdrawal of imperial troops from the colonies (Cardwell, Granville), and British interests and annexations in New Guinea and the Pacific (Russell, Carnarvon, Granville).

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the National Archives of the UK. Further advice is available from: The National Archives of the UK. Copyright