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Welcome to The Sloane Letters Project

sloaneA pilot of this project, Sir Hans Sloane’s Correspondence Online, was first launched at the University of Saskatchewan in 2010 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of Sir Hans Sloane’s birth. The project was renamed The Sloane Letters Project when it moved to this site in 2016.

The correspondence of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) consists of thirty-eight volumes held at the British Library, London: MSS 4036-4069, 4075-4078.  The letters are a rich source of information about topics such as scientific discourse, collections of antiquities, curiosities and books, patients’ illnesses, medical treatments and family history. Most of the letters were addressed to Sloane, but a few volumes were addressed to others (MSS 4063-4067) or written by Sloane (MSS 4068-4069).

So far, we have entered descriptions and metadata for Sloane MSS 4036-4053 and 4075, as well as several letters from each of the following: Sloane MSS 4054-4055, 4066, 4068-4069 and 4076. Several of these entries also include transcriptions. Further entries and transcriptions are being made available gradually.

Please, explore the website and database. You can search through the letters, learn about Sir Hans Sloane or the letters written to him, and peruse blog posts about interesting letters!

Random Letter

Author:
Recipient:

[fol. 182] The Tower feb: 5: 1730 Sir My Obligations to You are so great, that I should be very Unworthy, if I did not acknowledge them with the Utmost gratitude and return you my sincere and hearty thanks in the best Manner that my present weak condition will allow off. You have, Sir, been exceedingly good in speaking to the Duke of New Castle for me and his Grace has been so kind as to send down an order upon it, but it is so unhappily worded for me, that except you are pleasd to prevail upon him to make some small alteration in it, I shall reap no benefit by it. for the order says, that I shall go abroad for two hours in a day only, you know, will be spent in going and Coming thro the streets of London, so that I shall have no time to stay in the open air, which is the intent of my going abroad; in the Next place, It directs that I shall have an officer and a Warder to attend me, and the Expence of providing horses for them and myself will be so great [fol. 183] that I am by no means able to do it; I have represented this in a letter to his Grace, and begd of him to Indulge me with the liberty of five or six hours in a day, attended by an officer or a Warder, and there is not an officer or Warder here, but are willing to take charge of and Answer for me in this manner for I thank God, my behaviour has been such among them, that they think me incapable of a dishonest action and much less of so base a one as to make ill use of any Independence which they are pleased to allow me; Now, Sir as you have been the only person who has procured this Indulgence, I most humbly beg the favour of you to back the representation which I have made to the Duke, which is so true and reasonable, that the least application from you will produce an Order of service to me; since all I request is to go abroad for 5 or 6 hours attended by an Officer or a Warder only I hope you will pardon me for giving you so much trouble to believe me with the greatest gratitude I respect. Sir your most obliged humble sert Gero. Kelly
Read more- Letter 3868


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