Kirke's Letter Book, here reproduced verbatim and entire, is a single volume, bound in vellum, of 253 double-sided, royal octavo leaves containing 152 of his official letters, dated between 17 June 1681 and 21 September 1683, the majority addressed to either Sir Leoline Jenkins or the Tangier Committee. The uncatalogued and uncalendared holographs may be found among TNA CO 279/26–33.
Though literate, Kirke was ill at ease with a pen. After the diplomatic mission to Moulay Ismail in 1681, he always employed a secretary.Footnote 1 The autograph letters and Letter Book were compiled by a single hand, possibly from dictation but, more likely, rough drafts and/or verbal briefings.Footnote 2 The various Tangier establishments made no provision for a governor's scribe so Kirke's copyist was probably a member of his household, after the manner of John Luke to Governor Middleton.Footnote 3
The irregular, sparse punctation has complicated some of the longer and more involved narratives but alterations have been avoided even though some passages require concentration. Essential editorial interventions have been enclosed within square brackets. The manuscript's original, continuous pagination has been indicated by numbers inside arrowhead brackets, viz. <47>. In letters 1 to 22, the addressee is noted in the left-hand margin. There are some errors in dating. The year is written as 1683 instead of 1681 in letters 10, 12, 115, 19, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, and 33; letters 42, 43, and 47 show uncertainty about whether to begin the new year on 1 January or 25 March; and, in Letters 58 and 74, the year is given as 1683 rather than 1682. The chronological sequence is maintained except between letters 68 and 69, which should be reordered 69, 68, and 124, 125, and 126, which ought to be read 125, 126, and 124.
There is no consistency among English secondary authorities concerning the orthography of Arabic names, titles, and proper nouns. Therefore, the guidance proffered by the Oxford University Press that, ‘the most commonly occurring spelling of the bearer's name is acceptable, except in specialist contexts’, has been followed, leavened by common sense.Footnote 4
All dates are according to the Julian Calendar, which is still current in the Gharb.
Maps
Maps/plans of English Tangier can be found in Childs, Army of Charles II, 134; Atkinson, Royal Dragoons, 3; Elbl, Portuguese Tangier, 117–118; and Routh, Tangier, 194 (facing). E.M.G. Routh also reproduces most of the etchings of English Tangier made by Wenceslas Hollar following his return to London in 1670. Additional contemporary illustrations are available in, F.C. Springell, ‘The unpublished drawings of Tangier by Wenceslas Hollar’, The Burlington Magazine, 106 (1964), 68–74; and Simon Turner, ‘Views of Tangier by Robert Thacker and Thomas Phillips’, Print Quarterly, 32 (2015), 395–411.
