Records of the Monro family of Hadley, comprising the family correspondence-it is almost entirely correspondence-of the Monro family, about 1775 to 1905. (The one 1905 letter is an exception; most of the correspondence ends in the 1880's.) During most of the period the family lived at Hadley. They were gentry, descended from the Monro family of Foulis, baronets; but the sort of gentry who earned their livings in the law, in the East India service, etc., rather than being landed gentry. There are three boxes. One box contains the earlier correspondence, mainly from various members of the family. A good deal of it is from overseas, especially India.
There is an attractive grant of arms by Lyon, 1787, to Henry Knight Erskine, esq., and a most competent copy, 1862, of an achievement in full colour of the arms of Doctor Alexander Monro, Principal of the College of Edinburgh, by Henry Frazer, herald and painter, 1687. An unusual document is a passport, 1820, issued by the maire of Lisieux for Cecil Monro of Hadley ('sans profession').
There is quite a batch of letters from James Monro (cb. 1806) who seems to have been captain of an East Indiaman. He was master of the 'Houghton', the command of which he eventually sold for 8,000. There is also a printed pedigree of the Monro's, beginning with John Monro, MD, as part of a pedigree of Smith, baronets, of Hadley; a note on the envelope indicates that this is by Montagu Burrows (who appears to have been a relation).
The other two boxes consist entirely of the correspondence of Cecil J Monro, beginning with his earliest letters home from school and continuing for about fifty years. He went to Harrow and Cambridge, and corresponded with many more or less eminent people. His circle of correspondents included many who were in touch with public life and public affairs or with literary or scientific circles. His career is uncertain. He does not appear to have been a practising barrister, yet he obviously knew a great deal of law. There is much correspondence with Clement Mansfield Ingleby, Shakespearian scholar. Amongst other correspondents are W.J. Prowse, journalist and humourist. One of his friends, Litchfield, seems to have been Darwin's son-in-law. His brother was a barrister, as also had been his father.