An amazing collection of personal letters from the rich and famous was recently discovered in a manor house now owned by the British National Trust. In a story reported by The Guardian, it was revealed that 229 letters from some of the most prominent personalities of the nineteenth century and earlier had been found at Waddesdon Manor. That was the home of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. A fourth generation Rothschild, Ferdinand was born wealthy and did charitable work, along with being elected a Member of Parliament. He died in 1898, and while he had no children, the manor was passed down to other family members. The last was his nephew, James de Rothschild, who bequeathed the manor to the National Trust. However, it is still managed by the Rothschild Foundation.
James was the son of Baron Edmond de Rothschild of the French branch of the family. Edmond was the letter collector. In an unpublished memoir written three years before his death in 1934, Edmond explained that his parents hosted foreign diplomats who came to sign the Treaty of Paris. This was the treaty of 1856 that ended the Crimean War. Edmond, then 11 years old, asked the diplomats to sign his autograph album. That started him on his autograph and letter collecting hobby. He gave the collection to his son, James, who moved to Britain following World War I. James later inherited his uncle's Waddeston Manor.
James died in 1957. The letters remained with James' widow, Dorothy, who bequeathed them to the Waddeston archive in the 1980s. However, apparently no one ever opened the box until a French antiquarian visited the manor last summer. That is when the overseers of Waddeston realized what they had possessed all along.
The collection includes such names as Queen Elizabeth I, Admiral Nelson, Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Peter Paul Rubens, and Madame de Pompadour, mistress, confidante, and influential member of the court of French King Louis XV. There is even a musical manuscript from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The earliest go back to the 16th century. The most intriguing of these is a 1588 letter from Queen Elizabeth I to French King Henri IV. Addressed to “my dear brother – the most Christian king,” she warns him to beware of the Spanish. Henri was Protestant, like Elizabeth, but he would soon be in a war of succession with those preferring a Catholic King. They were supported by Spain. Nelson's letter came from 1802, five years after he lost his right arm. His handwriting shows he still struggled to write with his left.
The most interesting of all is this letter from Benjamin Franklin, the American polymath who at the time was serving as American Ambassador to France. It was written to Dutch scientist Jan Ingenhousz. He describes one of his scientific experiments, one in which he filled a balloon with “inflammable air” and sought to fire it with electricity to match “the thunder of nature.” Franklin then goes on to note “tomorrow is to be signed our definitive treaty which establishes for the present the Peace of Europe and America. Long, long may it continue!” The letter is dated September 2 1783. On September 3, the Treaty of Paris of 1783 was signed, which officially ended the American Revolution and established America as a free and independent country.
Waddeston Manor will be displaying some of these signatures in an exhibition from March 26 – November 2, 2025. The Manor is in Waddeston, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. Hopefully, they will display some on their website too for those unable to make the journey. You can learn more about the display on the Waddeston website.
