PREFACE
The present work is mainly founded on the collection of MSS. now at Bowood, consisting of the papers originally belonging to Sir William Petty, which afterwards passed to his grandson, John Fitzmaurice, son of Anne Petty, Countess of Kerry, and afterwards Earl of Shelburne; and of the letters written by Sir William Petty to Sir Robert Southwell, which appear to have been added to the collection at Bowood by the third Marquis of Lansdowne, through a purchase made at the time of the sale of the MSS. of Lord de Clifford, the then representative of the Southwell family. The economic works of Sir William Petty have also been freely referred to, as they frequently throw light on the events of his life, as well as on his opinions relating to politico-economic subjects. I have also used a number of scattered MSS., mostly in the Sloane and Egerton collections at the British Museum, and in the Rawlinson collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Of the transactions connected with the Survey of Ireland, Sir William Petty has left more than one account: (1) 'The History of the Down Survey,' of which three MSS. exist: the first, originally the property of Sir Robert Southwell, to whom it was entrusted by Sir William Petty towards the close of his life, is now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin;
