Table of cypher substitutes issued by Sir Charles Hedges [manuscript] November 2 1703

England, November 2 1703

4 sheets 310 x 235 mm

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Great Britain -- England, -- production place.

272890 MS

From dealer's description: "Table of cypher substitutes issued by Sir Charles Hedges (1650-1714), Secretary of State for the Northern Department, [to Edmund Poley (1655-1714), diplomat, in preparation for his embassy to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg], 2 November 1703, manuscript list in the hand of Edmund Poley on laid paper bifolium with watermarks of hunting horn with ‘WR’ and ‘GTM’ motifs, the first sheet containing cypher substitutes (two columns on recto, single column to verso), numbered 2-139, 150, 200, 300, 350, 500, 1000, 1500, 1501-1504, representing persons and classes of persons, places, subjects and phrases, categories including 50 Secretary of State, 55 King of Denmark, 65 The Queen [Anne], 91 House of Commons, 123 Judges, 15 Holland, 28 The Army, 134 Very well, 135 Very ill, 136 Dangerous, 1503 Ill consequence, 1504 Great consequence, etc., integral blank leaf endorsed [by Edmund Poley], ‘A Private Cypher between me and the secretary of state Sir Charles Hedges; given me by him the 2nd November 1703’, partially browned with some tears to fold intersections affecting a few letters without loss of sense, folio (310 x 235 mm), together with 2 contemporary clerical copies of letters from Sophia, Electress of Hanover (1630-1714), Hannover, 14 July 1705 & Herenhausen, 9 September 1705, in Latin and French respectively, 2pp. each, both endorsed on blank integral leaf as 'Mr [Edmund] Poley's Recredentialls from the Electrice of Hanover', folio & 4to, plus a contemporary clerical copy in German, giving tables and lists with numbers of Allied army soldiers killed or wounded at the Battle of Blenheim, 13 August 1704, on two facing pages of a bifolium, docketed in French, folio (Quantity: 4) Sir Charles Hedges served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department, the overseas duties of which covered The Empire, Holland, Scandinavia, Poland and Russia, between May 1702 and May 1704. The list is arranged as a decyphering key so anyone using it to encypher has to remember the location of the desired name. A convenient encyphering arrangement (e.g. names in alphabetical order) was labour-intensive to compile and (with two copies of essentially the same information in circulation) no doubt discouraged on security grounds. The list omits the ordinary cypher elements which would be essential in any workable system: equivalents for single letters, syllables, and longer words. It is possible that members of the Northern Department may have shared the same repertoire of basic equivalents. If so, this document may most likely to have been by way of an up-to-date supplement compiled as circumstances required. This cypher was evidently constructed to accommodate the political preoccupations of the autumn of 1703: the question of the succession [86] to the English throne following the death of William III in 1702, when Princess Sophia of Brunswick-Lüneburg [1000] became the immediate heir; and the campaign of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough [93] against the French army in Germany [300]. In September 1703 the government in London ordered three of Marlborough's regiments to be detached from his army [28] to prepare for service in Portugal [16]. The name of the career diplomat Edmund Poley (1655-1714) appears flatteringly near the top of the list at number 8. Out of favour for nearly ten years, he had previous experience in Sweden and the German states and was recalled in August 1703 to be envoy to Brunswick-Lüneburg. On 11 August he was issued with his credentials and received his instructions on 17 August, so there was no need for a cypher with his name on it any earlier than that. He is not known to have been in Hanover until 17 December 1703 (dates in D. B. Horn’s list of British diplomats). Horn’s list contains no other envoy who fits the bill, most of them having already been in post in 1702 or sent out earlier in 1703. When a Secretary of State gave an envoy a personal cypher it was an intimate gesture of trust usually delivered immediately before departure. Even on 2 November Poley would have had plenty of time to get to Hanover and report back in mid-December. Other examples of Poley’s hand can be found among the archive of William Blathwayt (1650-1717), Secretary at War, see Yale University, Beinecke Library OSB MSS 2, Series 1; Box 6 Folder 142, Edmund Poley to William Blathwayt, 11 June 1693." Ordered from Christopher Edwards, D9672, 2023-07-19, purchased at Dominic Winter Auction "Printed Books, Maps & Documents, Caricatures of James Gillray" 19th Jul, 2023, Item #318

272890