IV Parliamentary Diaries of Nathaniel Ryder, 1764–7

This Parliamentary diary is taken from shorthand manuscripts in the archives of the Harrowby MSS. Trust at Sandon Hall in Stafford-shire. For nearly a century from about 1713 successive members of the Ryder family recorded much of their personal, legal and political activities in shorthand notes and diaries. This practice was begun by Sir Dudley Ryder, who used a variant of Rich's shorthand system, which had been devised in the seventeenth century. He taught the system to his son Nathaniel, the author of this diary, and he in turn taught it to his two eldest sons, Dudley, later first Earl of Harrowby and Foreign Secretary 1804–5, and Richard, Home Secretary 1809–1812. Legal business comprises much of the material thus recorded, and many other notes concern personal and social matters, or estate management and accounts: but a considerable amount of important Parliamentary and other political information has also been discovered. Altogether, the surviving shorthand documents at Sandon Hall amount to some four million words. During the last thirty years or so, the Earl of Harrowby has sought to have these documents transcribed as part of his plan to put his family records in order. Since 1949 this task has been undertaken on something approaching a voluntary basis by Mr. K. L. Perrin of Great Comberton in Worcestershire, a hobby of great benefit to past, present and future historians.