SELWYN (George Augustus, 1719-1791, Paymaster of the Works, M.P. and Wit)

Signature on fragment of an Order to the Exchequer to pay him £40,000 "for the Service of His Majesty's Works", 1 side 2" x 6¾", 5th February

Selwyn was obsessive about ensuring that letters he wrote were destroyed - he was always afraid they might be read aloud at some salon and a trifling point held up to ridicule. His letters to the 5th Earl of Carlisle at Castle Howard were published by the Commission for Historic Manuscripts, Report 15, Appendix 6 (1897), and a selection of these in 'George Selwyn: His letters and life' (1899). 'George Augustus Selwyn and France: Unpublished Correspondence', ed. Rex A. Barrell (1990), gathers some scattered letters, but otherwise we have not found anything published, and there are only one or two at the British Library. John Heneage Jesse's 4 volumes, 1843-1844, contain only letters to him.
Selwyn nearly adopted 'Mie-Mie', the daughter of the Marquis and Marquise Fagniani, whose real father may have been the Duke of Queensberry.

Item Date:  1772

Stock No:  51707      £75

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