Documents, 1730-[c. 1752], probably accumulated by a French lawyer, Daminois, for a legal case, concerning the silver mines of Guadalcanal, Spain, and the alleged defrauding of investors in that enterprise by Lady Mary Herbert ('Demoiselle Powis'), daughter of the Marquess of Powis, and her agent Marc Antoine Mortemer.
They comprise three cross-sections of the mines, one printed, dated 1730 (f. 1), one watercolour (f. 35) and one in pencil (f. 45); a printed petition to the King of Spain from the Duc d'Estrées, Marechal of France, the Duc de Béthune and other French nobles complaining about Demoiselle Powis, [1733x1737] (ff. 3-9); a legal memoir by the lawyer Daminois, defending a Mr Privat, deceived by Demoiselle Powis and jailed, [c. 1752] (ff. 36-44); and four draft memoirs, [after 1741], in the same hand, describing the exploitation of the Guadalcanal mines from June 1725 to December 1730 (ff. 10-14), the alleged swindling of French nobles (ff. 15-20), and two documents reciting the history of the mines from the Roman period up to February 1732 (ff. 21-34).