The Organization of the Cabinet in the Reign of Queen Anne

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is two-fold; firstly, to draw attention to hitherto unknown manuscript materials of great value for the diplomatic, military, political and administrative history of Queen Anne's reign, and secondly, to demonstrate by the use of these manuscripts how the cabinet was organized at that time. The manuscripts in question are memoranda made by three successive secretaries of state. Robert Harley made notes of three hundred and seventy-two meetings of the cabinet or lords of the committee from 21 May 1704 to 8 February 1708; Charles, 3rd earl of Sunderland, of two hundred and thirty-six from 13 December 1706 to 4 June 1710; and William, 1st earl of Dartmouth, of one hundred and sixty-eight from 18 June 1710 to 17 June 1711. These memoranda cover the majority of the meetings of the highest executive bodies of the English government during the most vital years of the War of the Spanish Succession. Not only do they show the gradual formation of policy and the development of strategy, but they also throw a great deal of light on the influence both of the queen and of the leading statesmen of her time. These documents vary, of course, in quality. They consist of notes made by the secretary for his own use; sometimes they are little more than mnemonics. A memorandum of Sunderland's on the meeting of the cabinet on 26 March 1710 runs: ‘Board of Ordnance, & Com. of Ireland to attend on tuesday morning eleven a clock’, which is not very revealing. Sunderland, however, was rather a lazy man, but fortunately most of his notes are fuller than this. Harley, on the other hand, loved information for its own sake.