Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Vans Murray (1760-1803) span the period from 1784 to 1805 with the majority of the materials falling between the years 1797 and 1801. Diaries, official documents, and correspondence, principally of an official nature, comprise the collection.
Murray had a short but relatively distinguished career as a diplomat. In 1797, after serving three terms representing Maryland in the United States House of Representatives, he was appointed by George Washington as minister to the new Republic of Batavia (Netherlands). In 1800, John Adams temporarily assigned him to a special diplomatic team including Oliver Ellsworth and William Richardson Davie to settle the undeclared war between the French Republic and the United States. The negotiations took place in Paris between June and September 1800 and produced a convention which was largely a result of Murray's diplomatic skills. Included in the collection are Murray's notes on the progress of these negotiations and an official copy of the convention signed on September 30, 1800.
The four volumes of Murray's diaries include his notes during the period of his diplomatic assignment from 1797 to 1801 and notations made in the latter part of 1801 after his return to the United States and throughout 1802. Besides the comments on the 1800 negotiations noted above, Murray describes a fete given by Joseph Bonaparte at his chateau, Môrtefontaine, to celebrate the successful conclusion of the talks. The majority of the notations deal with aspects of Murray's diplomatic activity at The Hague and Paris.
Correspondence also deals with matters of an official nature and includes letters with individuals such as Timothy Pickering, Oliver Ellsworth, Fulwar Shipwith, Francis Lewis Taney, Rufus King, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. For use in confidential official correspondence, Murray devised an encode sheet, a fragment of which is included in the collection. There is a sizeable number of letters using this code. Other correspondence includes letters from Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Marquis de Lafayette, and Joseph Bonaparte.
Miscellaneous items include Murray's commission to serve on the negotiating team, a letter from George Washington, a variety of laissez passer for Murray and others to travel to the Netherlands and France, and several letters from Americans reporting problems that they had dealing with the French. Many of the items are in French, while others are in Dutch or English.
An addition of forty-one items to the William Vans Murray Papers spans the years 1778-1801 and consists of correspondence, a portion of a treaty, and an invitation placed in a bound volume.
The correspondence consists of letters and transcripts between various parties involved in the American Revolution, the Treaty of 1787 with England, and the XYZ Affair.
Correspondents in the addition include John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Joseph Bonaparte, Charles Guillaume Frédéric Dumas, James Jay, John Paul Jones, Rufus King, Marquis de Lafayette, Arthur Lee, Robert R. Livingston, James Madison, John Marshall, James McHenry, Lewis Morris, Samuel Peters, Timothy Pickering, Joseph Pitcairn, John P. Ripley, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Francis Lewis Taney, George Washington, and Oliver Wolcott.