About the George Finlay Papers
The George Finlay Papers contain materials created by and related to the British Historian and Philhellene George Finlay, his father John Finlay, Greek-American Philhellene George Jarvis, and British Philhellene Captain Frank Abney Hastings, dating from 1791 to 1949. Most of the collection consists of George Finlay’s meticulous records of his travels, personal and official correspondence, his personal expenditures, copious memoranda on strategy and on military and political organisation, journal entries, maps, facetiae, scrapbooks, personal notes on people—Greeks and others—and on revolutionary events, newspaper cuttings mainly on Greece and international affairs, as well as Finlay’s original manuscripts of the History of the Greek Revolution (1861) as well as corrected proofs of Finlay’s other published works.
Also included are the papers of Finlay’s father, John, two journals of Greek American philhellene, George Jarvis, and those of Finlay’s fellow British philhellene, Captain Frank Abney Hastings. The Hastings papers, which Finlay purchased in 1830, include personal and official correspondence, ship’s logs, notes that he took on board or ashore, as well as memoranda on strategy and on the naval organisation of the revolutionary forces. Collectively, these records reveal a great deal about the character, motivations, ideas, as well as the military and political judgements of these British individuals, as well as of many others, both British and Greek, with whom they interacted during the Greek War of Independence as well as many of Finlay's other interests, such as Classical and Byzantine history, natural history and politics.
6 handwritten, unbound quires. Memoranda relating to travels in Middle East
Black mottle boards, dark crimson calf spine, pasted on front cover: 'Picture of Greece 1866: Statistics of Turkey and its nationalities', paginated, pp. 1-192, handwritten, bound.
Includes notes on brigandage, arbitrary conduct of Government, murders, affairs of Crete, ethnography of European Turkey.
Paper covers, printed cutting pasted up and bound.
An article by George Finlay from the Saturday Review, 11 April 1869, and a duplicate of FIN/GF/E/55.
On the front flyleaf is a note by George Finlay:
'The author was induced to write this paper from observing the general ignorance of the historical side of the ecclesiastical dispute between the Greeks and Bulgarians manifested both by the Greek and English newspaper writers in the east. Athens 25 March 1869. George Finlay.'
At the end 6 notes on the sources are appended in George Finlay's hand.
Blue mottle, faded cloth spine, gilt lettering on spine 'Statistics and Foreign Affairs and Literature', unpaginated, except for pp. 1-7, bound.
A scrap-book containing a few pasted-up cuttings (pp. 1-7) and many loose ones for 1869-72. Most of these do not deal with Greek or east Mediterranean affairs but illustrate George Finlay's wide range of interest (e.g. reviews of Forster on Dickens, Mrs. Oliphant on George II, cuttings on the Fenian troubles).
Printed report, boards, paper cover, 351 pp. Ὑπουργεῖον Ἐξωτερικῶν.
Ἔγγραφα κατατεθέντα εἰς τὴν Βουλὴν περὶ τῆς ὑποθέσεως τῶν ἐκβολάδων καὶ σκωριῶν Λαυρίου 1872-3
A series of letters and telegrams (all in both Greek and French) on the question of the Laurion mines and concessions, June 1872-March 1873.
Miscellaneous notes. Unbound, handwritten except for FIN/GF/E/54/6.
Green board, printed cuttings pasted up, bound, paginated by George Finlay pp. 1-23. Cuttings from the Saturday Review with George Finlay's corrections and addenda.
Listed by George Finlay thus:
(1) 31 December 1870. 'The Eastern Question'.
(2) 17 April 1869. 'The Bulgarian Question', with notes in George Finlay's hand [duplicate in FIN/GF/E/50].
(3) 'Brigandage in Greece.' '27.3.71.' added in George Finlay's hand on p. 17.
Note added by George Finlay in this index though the articles are not pasted up here:
'Other articles inserted in the Saturday Review
6 February 1869. Constitutional Government in the East.
8 January 1870. Panslavism and Panhellenism.'
10 printed pamphlets, unbound.
Green mottle boards, green cloth spine, indexed alphabetically, handwritten with loose cuttings and 1 letter, bound.
Brief notes arranged alphabetically and mostly relating to modern Greece, with some cuttings from Greek newspapers and 1 letter dated 'Athens 19 November' (from W. B. Smyth thanking him for the loan of a book).
Handwritten, unbound octavo quires, paginated by George Finlay.
Nine printed pamphlets on miscellaneous subjects
Blue paper covers. The Hellenic Kingdom and the Greek Nation, George Finlay. Uncut pages.
Note by J. (?) MacGregor on old paper enclosure: 'papers in this box appear almost entirely papers by Capt Abney Hastings', 10 December 1892.
H's notes and 4 letters to him mainly on naval tactics and artillery (loose).
Liste des Munitions qui se trouvent à bord le batiment National Grec Karteria.
Loutraki à bord la Karteria, 19 April/ 1 Mai 1826 (in French).
Number and nature of Ordnance for each of the ships in H.M.'s Navy.
Black board, handwritten, unpaginated, bound. Jottings on expenditure and receipts during 1790 and 1791.
Diary of journey from London via Newcastle and Morpeth to Belford, Scotland, 6 December- 12 December 1796.
Grey mottle board, handwritten, unpaginated, with 5 loose sheets.
Books FIN/J/12 to FIN/J/15 cover 10 April 1799-20 January 1801 and contain a disjointed mixture of diary, personal accounts, clothes and rations on board, gunnery problems, chemical experiments, and meteorological statistics.
Grey mottle board, handwritten, unpaginated, with some loose sheets.
Books FIN/J/12 to FIN/J/15 cover 10 April 1799-20 January 1801 and contain a disjointed mixture of diary, personal accounts, clothes and rations on board, gunnery problems, chemical experiments, and meteorological statistics.
Grey mottle board, handwritten, unpaginated, with 3 loose sheets.
Books FIN/J/12 to FIN/J/15 cover 10 April 1799-20 January 1801 and contain a disjointed mixture of diary, personal accounts, clothes and rations on board, gunnery problems, chemical experiments, and meteorological statistics.
Grey mottle board, handwritten, unpaginated, with some loose sheets.
Books FIN/J/12 to FIN/J/15 cover 10 April 1799-20 January 1801 and contain a disjointed mixture of diary, personal accounts, clothes and rations on board, gunnery problems, chemical experiments, and meteorological statistics.
Brown calf notebook with clasp, handwritten, unpaginated, bound, much of this is blank.
Random jottings (1799-1801), with 7 sides of diary on journeys to and from Haslemere and London, notes on his work and list of flowers seen en route 17 Apri1-20 April 1801.
Green calf, handwritten, paginated pp. 1-129, the rest blank, bound, with 6 loose sheets.
Inventory and price of furniture and soft furnishings purchased 16 January 1798-22 February 1799. pp. 5-15
Recipes (with 3 cuttings loose at p. 17). pp. 17-18 Experiments (chemical) October 1790-January 1800 (with 2 drawings loose). pp. 31-129
Printed election list of the Royal Society 1799, including Major John Finlay (cutting loose at front).
Red mottle boards, brown calf spine, folder tied sides, top and bottom, containing loose quires and foolscap sheets, handwritten.
Equipment and conduct of certain expeditions to the West Indies.
Copies of reports on various West Indian islands, Buenos Aires, Baldivia, Chilae Islands, Valparaiso, Conception; copies of letters from commanders in the West Indies to ministers in England (ranging from 1771 to 1791).
Folder labelled 'No. 27. Chemistry' containing quires with notes on chemistry paginated pp. 1-62 and pp. 1-27.
Printed list of the members of the Royal Society for 1800 (containing Major John Finlay).
Green mottle boards, brown calf spine, 'Views in the Leeward Islands' on front cover, John Finlay's book plate (coat of arms, 'I'll be wary') inside, bound.
'Views of the Leeward Islands taken in 1790.'
Eight water-colour sketches with description opposite (St. Christophers, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada).
Grey mottle boards, brown calf spine, items paginated separately.
Notes from Dr. Hope's Lectures on Botany, No. 2 (in shorthand, part of a series, pp. 175-222).
Mr. Crawford's Observations on Fire (pp. 1-12).
Pencil jottings of accounts; remains of mounted specimens of pressed flowers.
Brown calf notebook with clasp, unpaginated, handwritten, bound. Mainly notes, accounts, and recommendations concerning making of gunpowder 1791-1801.
The King's Commissions of John Finlay Gent. for various positions in the Army
5 December 1798. Major Commandant of the Volunteer Companies in the Royal Powder Mills at Faversham and Waltham Abbey.
Brown mottle, dark-brown calf spine, 'Byzantine History' pasted on spine, handwritten, paginated by George Finlay pp. 1-73 (the rest is blank), bound.
Translations from Byzantine authors. Listed by George Finlay as follows:
Extracts from Nicetas relating to the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders Reign of Alexius III, Book 3, section 9
Second reign of Isaac II and his son Alexius IV
Reign of Alexius V Murzuphlos
Events after the taking of Constantinople during the reign of Baldwin (in Greece)
Names of officers at the Byzantine Court
Fragment concerning the foundation of Monemvasia and the establishment of the Sclavonians in the Peloponnesus (transl. from Tafel, Symbolarum criticarum geographiam Byzantinam spectantes partes duae, Pars I, p. 58)
Memorial of George Gemistos Plethon to the Emperor Manuel II concerning the state of the Peloponnesus [this item is unfinished]
See also FIN/GF/C/11 [R. 9. 8], item 13, translation of Cameniates on the taking of Thessalonica by the Saracens, and FIN/GF/E/40 [R. 8. 28], p. 94, extracts from Cedrenus.
Black cloth with black calf spine worn off, handwritten, paginated by George Finlay pp. 1-158, the rest blank, bound.
Translations
(1) The annals of George Phrantzes protovestarius [= pp. 1-137, pp. 138-45 are blank].
(2) An Account of the Last taking of Thessalonica by John Anagnostes briefly composed at the request of a noble friend [pp. 146-58].
The rest of the book is blank and unpaginated.
Red mottle boards, green suede spine much worn, indexed alphabetically and each letter of the alphabet paginated separately, handwritten, printed lettering stuck on spine: 'Topography. History. Literature', bound.
Topographical and Historical Notes: many on the islands especially Cyclades giving references (mostly to medieval period).
Information listed alphabetically with further subject headings at end: Geographical works; Topography and Walls of Constantinople; Characters; Books; Turkey; Literary.
A few random notes, mostly bibliographical, on Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Greece. Large amount of loose notes and clippings.
Manuscript notes. Miscellaneous, mostly on Byzantine Greece.
Black cloth, black calf spine, printed.
(1) G. Finlay, On the Site of the Holy Sepulchre with a Plan of Jerusalem (London, Smith Elder and Co., 1847), pp. 1-48 (with George Finlay's ink corrigenda).
(2) A. Schaffter, Die ãchte Lage des heiligen Grabes . . . (Bern, 1849), pp. i-x, 1-93.
(3) Letters stuck in at back:
1. John Evans to George Finlay. Malta, 15 March n.y.
To introduce Mr. Dickson who intends to visit Athens. Appreciation of George Finlay's historical work. 2 p.
2. N. Dragoumis to George Finlay. n.d.
Appreciation of George Finlay's work on site of Holy Sepulchre. 2 pp.
(4) Loose cutting, review of T. Lewin, Jerusalem, in The Critic, 28 December 1861.
(5) Two plans of Jerusalem (loose).
Unbound notes and papers. Notres on Byzantine Greece, Saracen conquests, Ottoman empire, blindness of Belisarius.
Yellow-brown mottle board, bound, calf spine, 'Middleton and Napier' pasted on spine, paginated, handwritten with printed newspaper-cuttings pasted up but not bound in.
George Finlay's note on front flyleaf.
'These letters were given me by Mr. George Brown of London, a friend of Lord Cochrane, in 1826.
The memorandum of a plan of campaign in the Peloponnesus was written for me by Colonel Charles Napier, C.B. in the quarantine at Ancona the same year.'
Two letters from R. D. Middleton, Master of the Maria:
(1) Account of the Egyptian Expedition against the Morea to 26 September 1824, written from Bodrum, 26 September 1824, to Joseph Lachlan, pp. 1-60.
(2) Egyptian Expedition till 25 November 1824, written from Marmarice 25 November 1824 to Joseph Lachlan, pp. 1-14.
(3) 'On Monembasia as the base of military operations Colonel Napier.' Memorandum, pp. 1-6+map of Peloponnesus and position of troops, pp. 7-8. [Printed in George Finlay, History of the Greek Revolution, vol. 11, pp. 390-2, London, 1861.]
(4) Cutting of printed review of Life . . . of General Sir Charles James Napier by W. Napier, from The Times 8 April and 10 April 1857.
Paper covers, bound, printed, mostly uncut.
List of Treaties etc., vol. iv (in English and French), n.d., on Greek Affairs 4 April 1826--30 April 1833 (see Index under Bavaria, Great Britain, and Greece).
Grey mottle board, red leather spine and corners, 'Miscellaneous' pasted on spine, bound, handwritten, paginated by George Finlay, pp. 1-132 (+about 60 pp. blank).
Various Greek Memoranda 1822-43.
Contents listed by George Finlay as follows:
Three letters addressed to the Athena a Greek newspaper published at Nauplia in 1833
Memoir read in the Society of Natural History at Athens giving an account of my discovery of a deposit of fossil bones at Pikermi 13 Decr 1836
Memorandum 22 Decr 1836
Memorial presented to the King of Greece 15 March 1836
Reflections on reading Aristotle's Politics
On the condition and prospects of Greece. I think this was never printed in this form.
Petition to H.M. the King of Greece on the subject of the tenths as the land tax
Memorandum of an article written for the Athena 6/18 Sept. 1838
Draft of Petition for a Bank circulated among the landed proprietors of Attica and Euboea 7 July 1837
Extract of a letter which appeared in the Morning Chronicle Nov 1839
Memorandum on the state of Education in Greece
Note on the modern Greek language by Revd H. D. Leeves
Anecdote illustrating the condition of the Greeks in Turkey
Translation of Hattisheriff read on the appointment of Grand Vizier 12 Nov 1822
Translation of writing placed on the corpse of Kurkor Duzoghlou 16 Oct 1829
Paper circulated through Greece by Lord Stranord George Finlay on his return from the Congress of Verona in 1823
Letter of Lord StranGeorge Finlayord to the Patriarch on Ionian church
Answer of Patriarch 23 FebY 1823
Patriarchal and Synodical Epistle for the consecration of Archbishops and Bishops
in the Septinsular Ionian States Feby 1823
Act of the Greek people offering to place themselves under the protection of Great Britain
Correspondence relating to the appointment of the Revd H. D. Leeves as Chaplain to the British Legation in Greece 1843
Translation of a letter by the Duchess of Plaisance relating to her donations of money to the Mavromichales family and Mr Tricoupes
Revenue and Expenditure- Greece and England
Loose cuttings, handwritten notes and letters. With paper enclosure by Joan Hussey.
Brown mottle board, brown calf spine, gilt lettering on spine 'Hellenic Kingdom', bound, printed, with cuttings and letters.
George Finlay, The Hellenic Kingdom and the Greek Nation (London, 1836), pp. i-vi+1- 115.
Cuttings from Morning Chronicle and other papers on state of Greece pasted up at back, 1839-40.
Extract from 9 April 1828 The Times announcing the death of John Finlay in 1828 (pasted inside front cover).
At end loose:
(1) Letter from A. Contostavlos to George Finlay. Egina, 10 April 1836.
Appreciation of George Finlay's pamphlet on Hellenic Kingdom. Criticism of Regency; German failure to understand Greek traditions. 2 pp.
(2) Letter from T. Ayrton to George Finlay. 17 April 1842.
Appreciation of George Finlay's pamphlet on Greece; comments on Greek affairs and organization of Greece. 4 pp.
(3) Printed extract (pp. 530-47) entitled 'Art. V. The Hellenic Kingdom and the Greek Nation. By John [sic] Finlay Esq. of Lyosha, Honorary Major in the Service of his Majesty the King of Greece'. London, Murray, 1836 ['Honorary . . . Greece' has been pasted over on this copy of the pamphlet].
Brown mottle board, black calf spine, gilt lettering on spine 'Finlay Sur la banque', bound, printed with letters and cuttings.
G. Finlay, Essai sur les principes de Banque appliques a l'état actuel de la Grèce (Athens, 1836), pp. 1-28. Date at end : 'Athènes, le 8 Janvier 1836'.
Letters and cuttings on this subject, pasted in at back of book:
(1) The Admiral Count D. to Gropius. Smyrna, 2/24 February 1836.
Extract of a letter of Count D. approving George Finlay's observations on the setting up of a Bank in Greece (in French ; stuck on back of FIN/GF/E/6). 1 p.
(2) A. Contostavlos to George Finlay. Egina, 28/29 February 1836.
Appreciation of pamphlet re principles of banking with reference to Greece; criticism of German economists' ignorance of Greek affairs (stuck in back of FIN/GF/E/16). 2 pp.
(3) N. K. (?) to George Finlay. Syra, 27 January 1836.
Appreciation of George Finlay's pamphlet on banking; requests its translation into Greek (in French ; stuck in back of FIN/GF/E/16).
Dark-blue mottle board, dark-green leather spine 'Greece 1843' pasted on spine, paginated, pp. 1-183, mostly printed cuttings pasted up.
Greek politics 1843-9 (printed newspaper cuttings) pasted up with a few loose cuttings and some disjointed comments on various historical topics at one end of book.
Printed official Greek Government Statistics for 1844 and 1845, mostly revenue returns and expenditure (large quarto and foolscap).
Drafts of letters on the state of Greece 1841 :
(1) George Finlay to Robinson, Patras. Athens, 26 July 1841.
Relations between King Otho and Mavrocordatos; the position of Melas; criticism of dictatorial policy of Otho (loose). 4 pp.
(2) George Finlay to Sir Edmund Lyons. 1841.
Views re Tricoupis's nomination as Greek Minister in England; comments on Lyons's attitude. 8 pp.
(3) George Finlay to the Editor of Spectator. 27 August 1841.
Appeals for support for civil liberty in Greece; comments on English support of Otho; king's dictatorial conduct; Greek political and administrative anarchy. Measures proposed by George Finlay (unfinished copy ofletter). 6 pp.
(4) George Finlay to Goss. n.d.
Pernicious foreign influence fails to foster genuine interests of Greece, particularly local communal development. Effect of Cretan insurrection. Provincial hatred of Bavarian Government. Otho and Mavrocordatos. Cretan position and need for support. George Finlay's house at Liossia (copy ofletter). 18 pp.