Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- 1779 - 1803 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
619 items
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
George Macartney was born on 14 May 1737 at Lissanoure, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating M.A. in 1759. He then travelled extensively on the Continent and then made the acquaintance of Stephen Fox, brother of Charles James Fox. In 1764 he was knighted and went as envoy extraordinary to St. Petersburg, where he concluded a commercial treaty with Russia. He was returned to Parliament for Cockermouth in 1760, but resigned when elected for Antrim in the Irish House of Commons, in view of his becoming Chief Secretary for Ireland, a post he held from 1769-1772.
From 1775-1779 Macartney was Captain-General and Governor of the Cariboo Islands (Grenada, the Grenadines and Tobago). He was at his post in Grenada in 1779 when the island was attacked and captured by the French. Macartney was taken to France as prisoner of war but was soon exchanged. In 1700 he was sent on a confidential mission to Ireland and in the same year was appointed Governor and President of Fort St. George (Madras) by the East India Company. On his journey back to England he called at the Cape of Good Hope in October 1705.
Macartney's next missions of importance were to Pekin (Beijing) in 1792 and Italy in 1795, where he negotiated with Louis XVIII of France, then in exile in Verona. Other honours fall to him; in 1772 he was made K.B., in 1776 Baron Macartney of Lissanoure (Irish peerage), in 1792 Earl Macartney and Viscount Macartney of Dervock in the peerage of Ireland and in 1796 Baron Macartney of Parkhurst, Sussex, and of Auchinleck, Kirkcudbrightshire.
In failing health, Macartney, on 30 December 1796, reluctantly accepted the appointment of Governor of the newly captured colony of the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived there on 4 May 1797 and remained until November 1798 when his health compelled his return to England. Because of his continued ill-health, he refused all further offices offered to him.
Macartney married the Lady Jane Stuart, second daughter of John Stuart, Earl of Bute, but there was no issue of the marriage. He died on 31 May 1806.
In youth Macartney was considered one of the meet handsome and accomplished young men of his day. He had scholarly tastes and possessed a fine library. It has been said of him that no public servant over left office with purer hands
Archival history
The Earl Macartney papers are either originals or contemporary copies of letters, notes, reports, military returns and a page from Macartney's diary. Their provenance can be traced to Francis Edwards, the London dealer in manuscripts, from whom they were purchased in 1931 by Dr. J.G. Gubbins, who presented them to the University or the Witwatersrand Library as part of the Gubbins Collection of Africana.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The earliest papers are dated 1779, when Macartney was Governor of the Cariboo Islands, and describe the British surrender to the French during the American War of Independence. Thereafter, the papers relate to the first British Occupation of the Cape of Good Hope and, in particular, to the years 1797-1798 when Macartney was Governor. There are also papers relating to the administration of Sir James Henry Craig, who captured the Cape on 14 September 1795, and was in command until Macartney arrived in 1797.
All aspects of administration at the Cape are touched upon: - shortages of grain, specie (NB: money in the form of coins rather than notes) and timber; the duties of the Burgher Senators (the new name for the old Commissioners of the Court of Justice under the Dutch East India Company); slavery and the importation of slaves; the disaffection of the Dutch population; the indigenous tribes and the need to 'separate' them from the colonists; trade regulations for the Cape and the East India Company's monopoly of trade to and from the East; fiscal arrangements; the question of the debts due to the Dutch East India Company at the time of the capture in 1795 and whether they are to be regarded as prize booty for the captors of the Cape or are to be taken over by His Majesty's government in London. Of particular interest are the reports sent back by Macartney's private secretary, John Barrow, who had been sent on an expedition to investigate supplies of timber, flax and hemp, the existence of mineral deposits, the navigability of certain bays and trading with the "Caffres".
The papers also relate to the Napoleonic Wars and to the Cape's strategic position. There is much about the war at sea, which necessitated the introduction of a convoy system for shipping, and about the military and naval forces at the Cape, including plans for projected attacks on Batavia and Spanish America from the Cape. Many items relate to the naval mutiny at Simon's Town in 1797.
Amongst the British correspondents is the Court of Directors of the East India Company, the Privy Council., Henry Dundas, Secretary of State for War, and William Huskisson, Under-Secretary for War. At the Cape Macartney corresponded with Admirals Pringle and Christian, Major-General Duncan, Commander of the troops, Secretary Andrew Barnard, Under-Secretaries John Barrow and Acheson Maxwell, Deputy Secretary Hercules Ross, Commissary-General John Pringle, the landdrost at Graaff Reinet, Frans Reinhard Dresler, and others.
There in one additional intrusive item (No.594) about the Cape Observatory, dated 1837 and written by Sir John Barrow, who had been closely associated with Macartney at the Cape.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The 619 items are made up of 514 loose items and two bound letter-books, all of which have been individually described and (periodised?) in the calendar in one chronological sequence. The number given at the right hand side of the entry is the number of the item in the calendar and the number shown beside in brackets is its location number in the collection. Where the place, to or from which the item has been written, is omitted, it is to be understood that the Cape of Good Hope refers. Variations in spelling of place names and archaic forms of words, quoted directly from the documents, have been retained in the calendar. Morris L. Radoff's rules of calendaring have been adopted (See the American Archivist, Vol.11, 1948). A general index has been provided of all correspondents, persons, places and subjects of particular interest mentioned in the calendar.
The calendar reflects the language used at the time, which includes racial terms such as "Bushmen" and "Kaffirs" (Caffres).
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Physical characteristics and technical requirements
The papers consist of 514 loose items and 2 bound letter-books of original documents plus 24 photocopies of originals in the Public Record Office, N. Ireland.
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Calendar available
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Archivist's note
Compiled by Anna M. Cunningham, 1977
Archivist's note
Additional material to which no reference could be found in the calendar:
Print of a painting of Lord Macartney, by M. Brown, engraved by Henry Hudson, published 21 September 1790, St. Paul's Church Yard.