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University College London

Place Correspondence


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0103 MS ADD 396

Held at: University College London

Title: Place Correspondence

Date(s): 1819-1825

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 1 volume

Name of creator(s): Place | Francis | 1771-1854 | radical reformer

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Francis Place was born on 3 November 1771 and was educated at various schools in London. He wanted to learn a trade, so became a leather-breeches maker's apprentice. However, during the London leather-breeches makers' strike of 1793 he lost his job and so spent his time studying. He then became secretary to his trade club and also to several other trade clubs. In 1794 he joined the London Corresponding Society. In 1799 he opened his own tailor's shop in Charing Cross, which became very successful. In 1807 he took an active part in the general election, and from then on became more well known to the political thinkers and the politicians of the day. Place became friends with James Mill, Robert Owen and Jeremy Bentham. In 1817 he gave over his business to his eldest son, and went to stay with Bentham and Mill at Ford Abbey, where he studied. In about 1812 Joseph Hume was introduced to Place and afterwards Place collected many of the materials on which Hume founded his parliamentary activity. The library behind the shop in Charing Cross was a regular resort of the reformers in and out of parliament. An informal publishing business was also carried on there. Place was a practical politician, untiring in providing members of parliament and newspaper editors with materials, in drafting petitions, collecting subscriptions, organising events and managing parliamentary committees. He triumphed in various political campaigns. After the introduction of the Reform Bill in 1831, Place's political influence declined. After 1835 he withdrew almost entirely from politics. His only published book The principles of population (1822) contains his best writing. He also wrote newspaper articles and tracts. Place was married twice and had fifteen children by his first wife, five of whom died in infancy. He died on 1 January 1854.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Correspondence, 1819-1825, between Francis Place and his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and William Adams, concerning their travels in South America (including Buenos Aires and Chile).

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Normal copyright restrictions apply.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

A draft handlist is available. Please contact Special Collections for further information..

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Given by Mr Brian Adams, a relation of the correspondents, via Professor F Rosen at the Bentham Project, in 1995.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

University College London Special Collections also holds 36 letters of Francis Place to Henry Brougham, Lord Brougham, 1831-1852 (Ref: BROUGHAM); eight letters to Edwin Chadwick, 1829-1841 (Ref: CHADWICK); seven letters to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1833-1840 (Ref: SDUK); three letters to Joseph Parkes, 1851-1853 (Ref: PARKES); two letters relating to University business, 1826-1827 (Ref: COLLEGE CORRESPONDENCE); correspondence and papers among the papers of Jeremy Bentham (Ref: BENTHAM); Place's inscription in Bentham's Not Paul but Jesus (London, 1823) (Ref: OGDEN 577); 13 items of correspondence of William Bridges Adams with Sir Edwin Chadwick, 1836-1866 (Ref: CHADWICK); a typescript autobiography of William and Elizabeth Adams's son, William Alexander Adams, who was born in Chile in 1821 (Ref: MS ADD 401).

Correspondence and papers of Francis Place are held at the British Library, Manuscript Collections; Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library; Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library. For further details see the National Register of Archives.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Source: National Register of Archives. Revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project.

Date(s) of descriptions: 1999, revised Nov 2001


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Emigration | Migration
Liberalism | Political doctrines
Maritime transport | Transport
Social history | History
Travel abroad | Travel
Sea transport x Maritime transport
Water transport

Personal names
Adams | Elizabeth | 1794-1823 | née Place | daughter of Francis Place x Place | Elizabeth
Adams | William Bridges | 1797-1872 | railway engineer and son-in-law of Francis Place
Place | Francis | 1771-1854 | radical reformer

Corporate names

Places
Buenos Aires | Argentina | South America
Chile | South America