The Cobden Archives
West Sussex Record Office is privileged to have
custody of a substantial part of the archives of Richard Cobden,
the nineteenth century politician and statesman, who is remembered
for his contribution to the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the
Anglo-French Commercial treaty of 1860.
Cobden was born at Dunford in the parish of Heyshott, near
Midhurst, in 1804, and returned there later in life to build the
present Dunford House, now the property of the National Council of
the Y.M.C.A. He died in 1865 and was buried in the churchyard at
neighbouring West Lavington.
The records held at Chichester were deposited by the
Trustees of Dunford House and by Mr.R.Cobden-Sanderson,
grandson of Richard Cobden. They are catalogued in two
volumes, The Cobden Papers, edited by F.W.Steer (WSCC, 1964) and
The Cobden and Unwin Papers, edited by P.Gill (WSCC,1967). Other
collections of Cobden Archives are held elsewhere, notably in the
British Library.
The archives in this Office include accounts, diaries
and journals, articles and speeches, scrapbooks, photographs and
drawings. The strength of the collection lies in the extensive
correspondence of Cobden with fellow free-trade campaigners such as
John Bright and leading politicians such as Gladstone and Peel.
Of particular importance amongst the other family papers are the
records of Cobden's third daughter, Emma Jane Cobden, whose various
causes included women's suffrage and the defence of free trade.
An online catalogue of The Cobden Papers is now available via
our Search Online facility.