Sussex correspondence

The Sussex Correspondence consists of over 130 letters to Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, and approximately 30 letters addressed to his surgeon and librarian, Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. The letters, arranged alphabetically by author, span the dates 1812-1841 and document the Duke's book collecting as well as some of his patronage and charitable activities.

Letters from many correspondents originally accompanied presentation copies of works they had authored, including those by George Man Burrows, Bishop Samuel Butler, William Collyer, Thomas Agar Holland, George Skene Keith, César Moreau, William Müller, Sir Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Edward O'Reilly, Charles Hippolyte Paravey, George Petrie, George Skinner, William Smith, and Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy. Other letters seek the Duke's patronage for recent or proposed publications. Thomas Christopher Banks sought to sell a copy of his Stemmata Anglicana, for example, while P. Lauder solicited funds for the publication of his "Observations on the Defective State of British Timber", and Francis Nugent Macnamara requested a subscription from the Duke for his poem "The Liberator."

Some correspondence is more generally concerned with the Duke's library and literary interests, including requests to visit the library, offers to sell incunabula and manuscripts, and gifts of volumes on subjects of interest to the Duke, such as the gift of a catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in Turin from the chargé d'affaires of Sardinia, and the presentation by John Wylie, President of the Maitland Club, of a set of that club's antiquarian publications.

In addition, there are letters requesting financial assistance, patronage appointments, and small personal favors, some written by those in need of assistance, and others written in their behalf by friends and acquaintances of Augustus Frederick; correspondence concerning his membership in various learned societies; and a letter by the first earl of Donoughmore on resolutions recently approved by the Grand Lodges.