Philip Thicknesse Letters: Finding Aid mssTH
Brooke M. Black
The Huntington Library
April 2022
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Philip Thicknesse letters
Creator:
Thicknesse, Philip, 1719-1792
Identifier/Call Number: mssTH
Physical Description:
6 Linear Feet
(4 boxes)
Date (inclusive): approximately 1770-approximately 1785
Abstract: Letters belonging to 18th century British soldier and author Philip Thicknesse.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
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[Identification of item]. Philip Thicknesse letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, 1949.
Philip Thicknesse (1719-1792) was a British soldier and author. He traveled to America with James Oglethorpe in 1733, served
in Jamaica and the Mediterranean, and purchased the lieutenant-governship of Landguard, Fort Suffolk, in 1753. Thicknesse
was a patron of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and the author of numerous pamphlets, guides, letters, and other tracts. He
spent much time traveling and lived in Monmouthshire and Bath. He married three times: Maria Lanove (whose large family fortune
he unsuccessfully claimed in a notorious lawsuit after her death in 1749); Elizabeth Touchet, eldest daughter of the Earl
of Castlehaven; and Ann Ford, the author and musician.
The collection consists almost entirely of letters from Philip Thicknesse to his friend John Cooke of Monmouthshire. Subject
matter includes Thicknesse's family life and relations with his wives and children; business and estate affairs, including
his lawsuits, management of his Monmouthshire farm at Quoitca, and his houses at Bath; life and society in Bath; travel on
the Continent, particularly in France and Spain from 1775 to 1777, and in Belgium in 1782. There are a few references to his
own writings and to Thomas Gainsborough.
Processed by Huntington Library staff. In 2022, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid.
Arranged chronologically.
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssTH 1-218.
Some of the letters in this collection have been published in: Gosse, Philip. Dr. Viper, the querulous life of Philip Thicknesse
(London : Cassell, 1952).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Farms -- Wales -- Monmouthshire
Bath (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
Belgium -- Description and travel
France -- Description and travel
Monmouthshire (Wales) -- Description and travel
Monmouthshire (Wales) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
Spain -- Description and travel
Letters (correspondence) -- Europe -- 18th century
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain -- 18th century
Cooke, John, active 1770-1784
Gainsborough, Thomas, 1727-1788
Lanove, Maria
Thicknesse, Ann, 1737-1824
Touchet, Elizabeth
Box 1
1765-1771
Box 2
1772-1774
Box 3
1775-1779
Box 4
1780-1784