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Inventory of the Rufus King Papers, 1782-1830
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Table of contents
Title: Rufus King Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1782-1830
Creator:
King, Rufus, 1755-1827
Extent: 599 pieces
Repository: The Huntington Library
San Marino, California 91108
Language:
English.
The Huntington Library has no record of the provenance of these papers, other than the immediate source: the George D. Smith
Book Company (1927). This collection is not to be confused with the published correspondence of Rufus King, edited by Charles
R. King, 1894-1900.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information
please go to following
URL .
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission
from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical
property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances,
the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate
curator for further information.
[Identification of item], Rufus King Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Rufus King (1755-1827) American statesman and diplomatist, was born in Scarborough, Massachusetts (now Maine). He attended
Harvard College, graduating in 1777; after a short interval of military service, he devoted himself to the study of law, and
was admitted to the bar in 1780.
Entering public life in 1783, as a delegate from Newburyport in the Massachusetts general court, King rose rapidly to a position
of prominence in the Federalist party. He was a member of the Federal Convention, and later U. S. senator from New York.
In 1796 Rufus King was called to succeed Thomas Pinckney as minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, where he remained for
eight years. Again, in 1825, just as he was about to retire from public life, King was called once more to the Court of St.
James, but illness forced him to return a year later, and his death occurred on Apr. 29, 1827.
U.S. foreign relations, as shown in letters and dispatches addressed to Rufus King while American minister in London.
Persons represented by five or more pieces:
- Adams, John Quincy
- 52
- Dawson, John
- 9
- Ellsworth, Oliver
- 6
- Gerry, Elbridge
- 20
- Hammond, George
- 5
- Madison, James
- 6
- Mountflorence, James C
- 39
- Murray, William Vans
- 156
- Pickering, Timothy
- 94
- Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth
- 21
- Randolph, Edmund
- 16
- Smith, William Loughton
- 47
- Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles Maurice
- 10
- Wolcott, Oliver
- 7
Some important or interesting items
Note: The following groups of letters have more significance in this collection than single pieces
- Murray, William Vans, to Rufus King. Letters written from 1797 to 1801, in Murray's characteristic conversational style, giving news of the shifting rulers and governments in France and the Batavian Republic.
- Adams, John Quincy. Letters to Rufus King, giving Intelligence regarding the German states, and conditions generally in the north of Europe, 1796 - 1801.
- Smith, William Loughton. Letters to Rufus King, giving Reports of disturbances along the Mediterranean, 1797 - 1802