1 - 4 Correspondence

5 - 22 Accounts

23 - 109 Various Documents and Title Deeds

The collection comprises largely correspondence and title deeds. The title deeds cover the Grattan estates at Stradbally and Cuffsborough, Queen's County (1608-1829) and at Garrycross, County Cavan (1751-1851), as well as papers for the Marley family estates including Simonstown and Celbridge Abbey, County Kildare and land in counties Meath, Monaghan and Longford (c.1700-c.1850). Correspondence in the collection comprises 15 letters to Henry Grattan (1746-1820) about Irish and political affairs from 1782 to 1808 and a large number of letters to his estate agent and friend Ross McCann. Many of these are from Henry Grattan senior; some are from his sons, James Grattan (b.1783) and Henry Grattan junior (b.1789). Those from Henry Grattan junior are revealing about his father's involvement in politics, especially about Catholic affairs. Other letters in the collection to Ross McCann include some from Wakefield Orr in Coleraine relating to the Leslie family and the Hutchinson estate at Stranocum, County Antrim 1790-1792; some from E Berwick in Moira, County Down 1790-1807; some from C Flynn of Inch Academy at Balbriggan relating to the education of McCann's children 1805-1808; estate correspondence from Frederick Cavendish, Carton House, Clontarf 1810, John Dare at Clogheen, County Tipperary 1815-1819 and Marmaduke Deere in Leixlip, County Kildare 1815-1817; and legal correspondence with a solicitor in Dundalk in a matter about the children of a Mrs Forbes in Dublin 1790 (Deputy Keeper's Report 1960-1965). There are a number of personal account books in the collection including that of James Grattan 1743-1765 (rents, servants' wages etc.), some accounts of Henry Grattan senior, a bundle relating to the estate of Thomas Marley and a bundle relating to rents and tenancies at Celbridge Abbey. Marriage settlements are those of James Grattan and Mary Marley (1740); Henry Grattan and Henrietta Fitzgerald (1782, 1789); William Leake and Ann Grattan (1803); Patrick Grattan and Grizell Brereton (1669) and Francis Maude and Georgianna Bushe (1849). Wills are those of Henry Grattan junior (1855) and Gervase Parker Bushe (1817). Other items of interest in this collection include a copy of the order of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland concerning £50,000 voted to the purchase of lands settled on Henry Grattan senior in 1782; miscellaneous correspondence and other papers about Catholic affairs; the election address of Henry Grattan junior when he sought the place of his father in parliament in 1820; an estimate for completing the house of Henry Grattan at Celbridge; a bundle of letters and other documents relating to the painting of the Irish House of Commons by Nicholas Kenny in 1842; an inventory of furniture belonging to James Grattan at Tinnehinch, County Wicklow in 1854; papers in the case of Rex -v- Edward Duffy of The Freeman's Journal and the notes of Mary O'Kelly Grattan about her father, Whitfield Harvey.