The Melville papers: Letters of an uncrowned Scottish king saved from auction

By ANDREW WHITAKER
Published on 04/07/2012 00:48

A COLLECTION of revealing letters between iconic historical figures such as Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson and one of Scotland’s foremost political families from the 18th and 19th centuries is to be kept in public ownership after the Scottish Government bought the papers for more than £1 million.

The papers of the 1st Viscount Melville Henry Dundas and his son Robert, once pre-eminent figures in Scottish public life, were to be auctioned off to private collectors after the Melville family decided to sell them.

However, the Melville papers containing around 11,000 records, including letters from Scottish economist Adam Smith, have been acquired on behalf of the public by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) following a £1.35 million sale.

Some of the Dundas archives will now be put online. George MacKenzie, keeper of the Records of Scotland, promised that the papers would now be “even more widely available” for visitors to the NRS site in Edinburgh.

Henry Dundas, who is commemorated with a 150ft column in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square and was widely known as “the uncrowned king of Scotland”, massively expanded the Scottish connection with India through his dominance of the East India Company.

The papers, which had been on long-term loan to NRS since 1951, include a letter from Nelson to Dundas, who served as the first Secretary of State for War. Nelson demanded a campaign medal for veterans of the Battle of Copenhagen, on 2 April 1801, describing it as “the hardest-fought battle”, and the “most glorious result that ever graced the naval annals of our country”, after the government withheld honouring the admiral’s sailors.