[LORD SYDNEY] Note of Fees on Swearing The Right Honourable Thomas Lord Sidney

One of His Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State the 23d. Decr. 1783.  Manuscript in brown ink on single folio sheet with “GR” watermark by Jubb, 185 x 230 mm, above title in upper margin “Council Office”, below title a list of various expenses incurred by the swearing in of Lord Sydney for his second term as Home Secretary: “To the Clerks of the Council…£10:0:0d., To the Under Clerks…£4:0:0d….To the Under Record Keeper…£6:0:0d….”; a manuscript docketed title to the lower page “Receipt for Council Office Fees No.1”; original folds, clean and crisp.

Townshend was created Baron Sydney of Chislehurst and entered the House of Lords on 6 March 1783. In 1785, during his first term as Home Secretary, Sydney, Nova Scotia was named in his honour. In the years that followed, Townshend was responsible for planning the penal colony at Botany Bay, and he appointed Arthur Phillip as the first Governor. On his arrival in January 1788, Phillip named Sydney Cove, which in due course became Sydney Town, in honour of Lord Sydney.