Blair Worden - A Book of Friendship

BLAIR WORDEN - A BOOK OF FRIENDSHIP

which were explicitly intended to help her in the writing of her History. 11 When the first volume of that work appeared, in the autumn of 1763, he wrote her what he described as a ‘complimentary letter’ after she presented him with a copy of the work. 12 Having read it, he declared it ‘honestly written; & with considerable ability & spirit’ describing it as being ‘full of the freest & noblest sentiments of Liberty’. 13 In early 1764, when Macaulay was working on the second volume, Hollis arranged with her husband to produce a portrait of her to be prefixed to it, and he later discussed its contents with her. 14 Their political affinities were also noted by others. Horace Walpole identified a ‘very small republican party’ in England in the late 1760s, and named Macaulay, her brother John Sawbridge, his brother-in-law, and Thomas Hollis as its ‘chiefs’. 15 Despite this personal and political closeness, Hollis had a very different view of the former Lord Protector. Catharine Macaulay was not the first historian whose research Hollis had supported. On 15th July 1759 he wrote to William Harris of Honeyton (Honiton in Devon) offering him ‘some curious particulars respecting the life of Oliver Cromwell’ relevant to the biography of the former Lord Protector that Harris was then engaged in writing. 16 Ten days later he noted in his diary that he was preparing a parcel of books and tracts to send to Harris as a present ‘and in loan to the use of his history of Oliver Cromwell, & the after Stuarts’. 17 Further packages were subsequently sent and the following year Hollis spoke with the printer and bookseller Andrew Millar about Harris’s biography. Millar apparently took the project on, since when the book appeared, it was described as ‘Printed for A. MILLAR in the Strand’. 18 Hollis also seems to have been pleased with the result. His diary entry for 1st July 1761 records ‘Read Harris’s life of Oliver Cromwell, in which I have had some share. Liked it, being much more curious & spirited than his Life of C. I, & alike honest & well-intentioned. But will read it shortly a second time.’ 19 He then wrote notes into a copy which he sent anonymously 11 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , pp. 113, 117, 174, 238, 247, 250. 12 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 172. 13 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 176. 14 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , pp. 182-3, 185, 187, 249. 15 Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third , ed. D. Le Marchant (London, 1845), III, p. 331. 16 The Diary of Thomas Hollis, p. 6. 17 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 7. 18 An Historical and Critical Account of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (London, 1762). 19 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 77.

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