Scope and arrangement
This is a synthetic collection consisting of manuscripts, correspondence from 1759 through 1894, diaries kept from 1786 to 1846, journals for 1768 through 1777 and 1795, notebooks dating from 1786 to 1839, scrapbooks with material dating from 1653 to 1890, legal documents, and pictorial and printed works. The manuscripts comprise holograph works by the author including plays, poems, incomplete holographs and notes for her novels, "Camilla," "Cecilia,""Edwy and Elgiva," "Love and Fashion," "The Woman Hater," and other works, as well as manuscripts by her son Alexander d'Arblay, Samuel Crisp, Mary (Granville) Delany, and others. The diaries were kept by the author as well as her son, Alexander d'Arblay, and Richard Barrett, Marianne Frances, and Susanna Elizabeth Burney Phillips. The correspondence consists of letters, dating from 1768 to 1838, from Frances Burney d'Arblay to her son, Alexander d'Arblay, to her husband General Alexandre d'Arblay, to her niece, Charlotte Barrett, to her sister Charlotte Burney Francis Broome, to her brother Dr. Charles Burney, Jr., to her father, Dr. Charles Burney, Sr., to her sister Esther Burney Burney, to her sister Susannah Burney Phillips, to Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, to Mary Port Waddington, as well as to members of the British royal family, and others. Also present are letters to Frances Burney d'Arblay, dating from 1764 to 1839, from her husband, General Alexandre d'Arblay, her niece Charlotte Francis Burney, her sister-in-law, Charlotte Burney Francis Broome, her father, Dr. Charles Burney, Samuel Johnson, her sister, Susanna Elizabeth Burney Phillips, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, Maria Allen Rishton, Princess Sophia of Great Britain, and others. Also present are letters relating to the author, dating from 1759 to 1894, between various correspondents including, Alexander d'Arblay, General Alexandre d'Arblay, Charlotte Francis Barrett, Henry Barrett, Richard Barrett, Charlotte Burney Francis Broome, Dr. Charles Burney, Sr., Clement Francis, Marianne Francis, Marie Joseph Paul Roch Yves Gilber de Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Julia Charlotte Barrett Maitland, Sarah Burney Payne, Susanna Elizabeth Burney Phillips, Sarah Wesley, William Wilberforce, Arthur Young, and others. Also included are letters to Fanny Burney, dating from 1764 to 1839, from Alexander d'Arblay, H. Boinville, Jacob Bryant, Charles Burney, Sr. and Charles Burney, Jr., Princess Elizabeth of England, Samuel Johnson, Hannah More, Princess Sophia, and others.
The Frances Burney d'Arblay collection of papers are arranged in five series: