PAPERS OF JAMES BOSWELL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26465, 5 July 1951, Page 6

PAPERS OF JAMES BOSWELL

Address By Professor Nichol Smith

HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND COLLECTION The history of the thousands of documents written and compiled by James Eoswell, which were believed to have been destroyed, and which were later acquired by Colonel R. H. Isham, a New York collector, was described bv Professor David Nichol Smith, a famous English scholar, in a lecture at Canterbury University College yesterday. “Boswell kent all his papers: he destroyed nothing,” said Professor Nichol Smith. “When he died, it was left to his relatives to decide whether or not these should be published, but they decided to keep them strictly private—so much so that over a course of years it was thought they had been destroyed.” On the death of Boswell’s grandson, Sir James Eoswell, Boswell s papers and the effects of the great house in Auchenleck, Scotland, were passed over to his two daughters. Later the papers were willed on to the son of Talbot de Malahide, who had married one of the daughters and was living in County Dublin, Ireland. “They remained in the hands of this Irish peer who knew nothing whatsoever about them, until he discovered their market value,” he said.

The existence of the papers was discovered. and after several attempts had been made to have them published.

they were obtained by Colonel Isham. Colonel Isham, in the contract of sale, made sure that if any other papers were discovered he was to have the sole right to them. The papers were edited in America, and made 18 volumes. More Discoveries Then more papers were discovered, said Professor Nichol Smith. Sir William Forbes, an executor, had taken some of ’Boswell’s papers for examination and still had them at the time of his death. There they might still have remained had not a youns* lee* turer interested in William Beattie, who was known to have been a friend of Sir William Forbes, called at Sir William Forbes’s home. The young lecturer—now Professor C. C. Abbott —was told he could look through Sir William Forbes’s collections himself. He did not discover anything about Beattie, but he did discover two volumes of journals and more than 1000 letters, all written by Boswell. Then arose the question of ownership. continued Professor Nichol Smith. Colonel Isham claimed to have the sole right to all other papers found. The case was taken to a Scottish Court, where the judge gave a verdict which while being sound, was also unexpected. He ruled that Sir James Boswell s two daughters had held the property equally and that the rights to the papers were held equally by the beneficiary. the Son of Talbot de Maiahide and by the residuary beneficiary, the Carlisle Infirmary, and that the papers should be divided equally between the infirmary and Colonel Isham. This was impracticable, said Professor Nichol Smith, so, to overcome any difficulty, Colonel Isham bought out the infirmary’s share.

Papers Bought by Yale In 1939, more papers were found in one of the outhouses of the old house at Auchenleck, along with some furniture. By this time, the old house had been stripped in the hope of finding more documents, but nobody had thought of the outhouses until it was decided to store supplies in them at the outbreak of war. They had suffered little damage. Eventually, these papers were sent to New York to be added to Colonel Isham’s collection, it n Ju Colonel Isham began to realise that he had inadequate space for his collection. He was also in fairly poor health. At once various libraries and universities began vying with one another for the collection. It was his old college, Yale, however, which had the strongest claim, and the collection was passed over to the college on the payment of a large sum. “It may seem rather a shame that be we x re not t 0 be retained in ™*L9 ld £°Ji nt * ry i but U must b e remembered that America has the best curators in the world and can edit the capers far more quickly than any added countr,r ’” Nichol Smith