Thomas Birch - Writings

Writings

Birch had an enormous capacity for work and was engaged in a large number of literary undertakings. In spite of their dullness many of his works are of considerable value, although Horace Walpole questioned his "parts, taste and judgment." He carried on an extensive correspondence with some of the leading men of his time, and many of his letters appear in Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century (London, 1812–1815) and Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century (London, 1817–1858) by J. Nichols, in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. iii. (London, 1780–1790), and in James Boswell's Life of Johnson. Samuel Johnson wrote: "Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties".

Birch wrote most of the English lives in the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, 10 vols. (London, 1734–1741), assisted in the composition of the Athenian Letters (London, 1810), edited the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742) and the State Papers of W. Murdin (London, 1759). He also wrote a Life of the Right Honourable Robert Boyle (London, 1744); Inquiry into the share which King Charles I had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan for bringing over a body of Irish rebels (London, 1756); Historical view of Negotiations between the Courts of England, France and Brussels 1592-1617 (London, 1749); Life of Archbishop Tillotson (London, 1753); History of the Royal Society of London (London, 1756–1757); Life of Henry, Prince of Wales (London, 1760), and many other works. Among the papers left at his death were some which were published in 1848 as the Court and Times of James I and the Court and Times of Charles I.