William Henry Zuylestein, Earl of Rochford, papers, 1688-1823 (bulk 1766-1780).

0.42 linear feet (1 box)

English; French; Dutch

Chiefly in English; some material in French and Dutch.

W. S. Lewis purchased the papers from G. H. Last in 1933; bequest of Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (Yale 1918), 1979.

Organized into two series: I. Correspondence, 1766-1780. II. Other Papers, 1688-1823.

This material is open for research.

William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford (1717-1781) was a British diplomat of Anglo-Dutch descent, the son of Frederick Nassau van Zuylestein, 3rd Earl of Rochford, and his wife Elizabeth Savage. He was born in St Osyth, Essex, attended Eton College (1725-1732) and the Collège de Genève, where he became fluent in French; he took the title as the 4th Earl of Rochford when his father died in 1738. After various court appointments in England, Rochford held ambassadorial posts in Turin (1749-1755), Madrid (1763-1766) and Paris (1766-1768), and served as Secretary of State in both the Northern (1768-1770) and Southern (1770-1775) departments. He retired from service in 1775, and died at St Osyth on September 29, 1781.

The William Henry Zuylestein, Earl of Rochford, Papers contain correspondence and documents concerning his government service and personal affairs. The more than forty letters are primarily from diplomatic colleagues including George Cressner in Bonn, Sir John Goodricke in Stockholm, Fulke Greville in Munich, Sir Robert Gunning in Copenhagen, Sir William Hamilton in Naples, William Petty, Marquis of Lansdowne in Paris, David Murray, Earl of Lansdowne in Vienna, Andrew Mitchell in Berlin, William Norton in Bern, Robert Walpole in Madrid, Ralph Woodford in Hamburg, James Wright in Venice, Thomas Wroughton in Warsaw, and Joseph Dover, Baron Yorke, in The Hague. There are two reports from the Battle of Tiruvannamalai in South India, on September 25-27, 1767, and other letters concerning some of his real estate transactions. A small group of Other Papers include some writings, accounts of British government expenses (1769-1777), and an ancestral document in Dutch from 1688 signed by King William III, then the Prince of Orange.

February 28, 2024

William Henry Zuylestein, Earl of Rochford, Papers. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

William Henry Zuylestein, Earl of Rochford, Papers. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.