INDIA-L Archives

From: Terry Delany <>
Subject: [India-L] Duke of Wellington-India
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 10:02:16 -0400

I am relatively new to genealogy researching on the web and have been
enjoying reading all of the queries and information that have been
provided on this site. I am researching several generations of Grant and
Kippen relatives that served in India and the British military from the
1700 to 1900's. I found a photograph of a letter to a 4 g grandmother,
Julia Kippen the daughter of Col. Grant, in Goderich, Upper Canada in
1838 giving her four commissions for her sons for the British military-
three if not four of them did serve in India. Because there was a
reference in the book to many letters going back and forth between Julia
and the Duke trying to work through the difficulties of giving
commissions without payment I decided to try and find out where the
letters might be stored. In my search I came across an incredible site
that can be searched by surname, regiment or place that includes
thousands and thousands of letters between and about military persons
(pensions, promotions, travel etc.) in India and thought it might be a
great reseach base for members of this list.

The following is the information about the collection. I found it by
entering 'Duke of Wellington" in my goggle search but I am sure it could
also be accessed by University of Southampton Libraries.


Wellington Papers

This is the principal collection of the political, military, official
and diplomatic papers of the first Duke of Wellington, containing in
total approximately 100,000 items. The archive covers the whole of the
Duke's life from 1790 until his death in 1852. A summary
catalogue of the archive has been published and a detailed description
of the whole collection is in progress and is available as an
on-line database. The detailed cataloguing has concentrated on the
papers for 1819-32 and has now passed on to the papers for
the Peninsular War.

In the archive there are approximately 15,000 papers for Wellington's
career in India up to 1805, and they refer particularly to the
presidency of Madras and to Mysore. Papers for 1807-9 cover Wellington's
activities as Chief Secretary for Ireland. The section for
the Peninsular War provides an unrivalled source for the history of
British participation. This part of the archive is extensive, with
well in excess of 25,000 papers, and contains much Spanish and
Portuguese material. The archive also includes Wellington's
correspondence and papers for the international congresses at the end of
the Napoleonic Wars and for the allied occupation of
France.

At the end of 1818, Wellington returned to England, resuming his
political career with a place in Lord Liverpool's cabinet as Master
General of the Ordnance. There are some 30,000 papers from the 1820s,
the Duke's first premiership, and the period of the
Reform Act. The subjects of the correspondence are wide-ranging,
providing a cross-section of views on most of the political, social
and economic questions of the day, with important series of letters from
both home and abroad. There are a further 30,000
papers for the period 1833-52, the Duke's second ministry, his service
in Peel's government of 1841-6, and his third tenure of the
post of Commander-in-Chief of the army; and there are also sequences of
correspondence for the Duke as Constable of the
Tower of London, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Lieutenant of
Hampshire, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, a
Governor of the Charterhouse, an Elder Brother and Master of Trinity
House, and as Ranger of the Royal Parks.

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• [India-L] Duke of Wellington-India by Terry Delany <>