18th CENTURY ESPIONAGE A document signed by King George II, ...

Hammer

£400

18th CENTURY ESPIONAGE
A document signed by King George II, dated 5th June 1747, recording the payment of six-thousand pounds to John Scrope Esqr. "for Our Secret Service", the lower portion countersigned by Lords Commissioners of the Treasury Henry Pelham, J. Campbell and George Grenville, measuring approx. 37.4cm x 23cm; and a second document, signed by George III, dated 5th July 1771, recording rent payments owing to the Representatives of the Late Samuel Wright, the lower portion countersigned by Lords Commissioners of the Treasury Charles Jenkinson, Jeremiah Dyson and Charles Townshend (2)

Henry Pelham (1694-1754), politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1743-54.

George Grenville (1712-1770), politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1763-65. Appointed Lord of the Treasury in 1747, two years prior to signing this document.    

John Scrope (c.1662-1752), British judge and politician, Secretary to the Treasury 1724-52.

Following Sir Robert Walpole’s fall from power in 1742, parliament summoned his close ally John Scrope before its “Committee of Secrecy”, to account for use of Secret Service funds during his administration. Scrope refused to cooperate, stating,

that he had laid his case before the King and was authorized to say ‘that the disposal of money issued for secret service, by the nature of it, requires the utmost secrecy, and is accounted for to his Majesty only; and therefore, his Majesty could not permit him to disclose anything on that subject

He later commented,

that he was fourscore years old and did not care if he spent the few months he has to live in the Tower or not; that the last thing he would do should be to betray the King and next to him the Earl of Orford

Following Scrope’s death in 1752 at the age of 90, Henry Pelham, signatory to this document and by then Prime Minister, wrote,

old Scrope ... died yesterday ... leaving a vast fortune to Frank Fane, he will have in all at least £2,000 a year in land and above £100,000 in money, all in his own disposal, without any entail on his brothers or even a recommendation.

Note: though the vast payment made to John Scrope is the primary area of interest, this document is notable also for the inclusion of the signatures of two British Prime Ministers, alongside that the King.
 

Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808), politician. The father of Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl. Appointed Lord of the Treasury 1766.

Jeremiah Dyson (1722-1776), civil servant and politician. Appointed Lord of the Treasury 1768.

Charles Townshend, 1st Baron Bayning (1728-1810), politician. Appointed Lord of the Treasury 1770.

Provenance: Charles Campbell (d. 1853), of Croftness, Perthshire, latterly merchant in Brazil, where married to Flora Macgregor.
Robert MacGregor Campbell of Silver Howe, Grasmere, Westmorland and Almeria Caroline Campbell, née Surtees (1852-1936)
Thence by family descent to the present owner, Charles Campbell’s great-great-grandchild.

Featured by Clive Farahar on the Antiques Roadshow in 2002 (series 25, episode 12 – Oban). See also the previous lot.