Collection of Letters.- Sir John Shaw Lefevre

A collection of letters and papers related to Mr John Shaw Lefevre members of his family, including: a page featuring signatures by various individuals, including John George Shaw Lefevre and Emily Shaw Lefevre; letters by: Henry Melville (autograph letter providing an account on the health of a common acquaintance, 5 September 1851), John Watson Gordon (two autograph letters, the first saying “I had the pleasure of receiving your letter this morning and I shall take care that two copies of the Report of the Scottish Academy shall be sent as you said”, 18 December 1850; the second reading “I am very glad to learn that you are in Scotland and that it will be convenient for you to sit for your portrait before going south”, 30 August 1859), John Bright (brief note in pencil “I will try to come tomorrow evening at 8 o’clock”, 17 July 1883 and loose title page of ‘The Principles of Morality’, with autograph note “John Bright asks Miss Emily Shaw Lefevre to accept this volume. He thinks the essay are of great value, July 22, 1882”); James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (“W. Halliday, one of the Secretaries of the Gov. of India and my very good friend, is obliged to go home for a time ill, after 27 years of India. He is a very able officer, full of India knowledge and…crazy about Parliament. Like all other Indians deluded souls, he is very anxious to sell all about it. As you are now one of the Lares of the House of Lords and of course like those divinities have great internal influence, pray serve W. Halliday in that way all you can”, 2 July 1852); Alexander William Kinglake (“Many thanks for your brochure upon the game laws. I have been passing my Sunday (when, as you happily quote ‘Good Christian people be at Church hearing divine service’) in reading your account of the game-laws from their origin, and have found it both interesting and instructive, for much of what you state is new to me…It will interest me when we meet, to have more conversation with you on the subject”, 21 June 1874); Fenwick Williams (letter declining an invitation, n.d.); Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope (“Many thanks for allowing me to see ‘Elia’. It is indeed a very striking production, and might well encourage the lady author to come forth with her real name”, 39 May 1861); Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland (“I wish to have an interview with you on a matter relating to the Ecclesiastical Commission and would propose to mee you at Whitehall Place tomorrow about 2 o’clock, unless you would appoint another place and time”, 6 November 1850); Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle (letter to Sir John’s son George, reading “I am greatly obliged to you for the Crimean Photographs you have been so kind as to send me. They form a very interesting addition to a collection of Robertson’s which I procured on my way home through Constantinople”, 23 December 1853); v.s. but mostly 8vo. (c.50)

***Sir John George Shaw Lefevre KCB (1797 –1879) was a British barrister, Whig politician and civil servant. He served under Lord Grey as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1834. The latter year Shaw Lefevre was appointed a Poor Law Commissioner after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act. Between 1856 and 1875 he served as Clerk of the Parliaments. He also helped found the University of London and served as its Vice-Chancellor for many years.