The Boulter letters

Kenneth Milne & Paddy McNally, editors

'The editors ... have brought [their] wealth of experience to bear in their lengthy, informative and incisive introductory biographical sketch and the essay on the content of the letters ... a welcome addition to the corpus of primary sources for eighteenth-century Ireland, the editors ... are to be commended on its production. This handsome volume is therefore in the best tradition of committed scholars making available to their colleagues in the research community, and also to the wider public, important primary sources that had been significant in their own work; long may it continue', Brendan Twomey, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (2016).

‘This volume, admirably edited and produced, can only assist understanding of how the conscientious  grappled with the intractable problems of eighteenth-century Ireland’, Toby Barnard, Search (Spring 2017).

‘In this new edition [of the Boulter letters] by McNally and Kenneth Milne, I am reminded just how rich and significant a collection this is … There is an extensive introduction of almost 100 pages by the editors … together they provide the fullest account yet of Butler’s life and significance … the volume also includes 50 letters not printed in the 18th-century editions', Stephen Taylor, Parliamentary history (2017).

‘This new book is a very significant addition to the excellent corpus of works published on eighteenth-century Ireland … Hugh Boulter quickly established himself as a central figure in the government of Ireland and the foremost upholder of the “English interest” in Ireland until his death in 1744. Published in 1769–70 as Letters Written by His Excellency, Hugh Boulter, DD, Lord Primate of All Ireland, this collection of letters represents one of the most important printed sources for the political and ecclesiastical history of Ireland in the early Hanoverian period. This collection reproduces for the first time the originally published correspondence in its entirety, includes previously unpublished letters written by and to Boulter, and contains an extensive introduction to the collection. Taken together, this reprinted, expanded edition offers a fascinating insight into the political and ecclesiastical history of Ireland in the first half of the 18th century', Michael Merrigan, Ireland’s Genealogical Gazette (2017).

‘The Letters written by … Hugh Boulter, DD, Lord Primate of all Ireland, 1724–42, have long served as one of the most accessible avenues into the politics of the Irish administration in the second quarter of the eighteenth century … The editors have amplified the original eighteenth-century edition with some fifty letters from various collections of public and private papers', James Kelly, Irish Economic and Social History (2017).

‘This splendidly produced book is welcome because it makes an important primary source for the political history of early Hanoverian Ireland available to the general reader’, Richard Holmes, Eighteenth-Century Ireland (2017).

' ... the book is produced to Four Courts Press's usual impeccable standards. Milne contributes a workmanlike biographical sketch, filling in details of Boulter's early life. McNally contributes a lively essay on the political world revealed in the letters', S.J Conolly, Journal of Ecclesiastical History.

'The editors are both very experienced historians of the administrative and political culture of eighteenth-century Ireland and they have brought that wealth of expertise to bear in their lengthy, informative, and incisive introductory biographical sketch and the essay on the content of the letters ... this book is a welcome addition to the corpus of primary sources for eighteenth-century Ireland and the editors ... are to be commended on its production ... This handsome volume is therefore in the best tradition of committed scholars making available to their colleagues in the research community, and also to the wider public, important primary sources that had been significant in their own work; long may it continue.', Brendan Twomey, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, (2016).