ABSTRACT
There were signs in the letters from and to James Brydges from 1709 onwards that all was not well with John Drummond’s personal finances, a situation that staggered on for a further three years before reaching a conclusion. That he was able to carry on with his other activities without this affecting his good judgement and sound performance says much for him. In particular, Drummond was set with the task of giving Lord Strafford (‘Raby’) the junior British plenipotentiary at the preliminaries, every sort of help. The information he supplied was also forwarded to Raby’s senior, John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol. Every piece of correspondence shows beyond doubt that almost everything useful that occurred was due to Drummond. Strafford sent Drummond a very full letter on 1 May 1711. He complimented him on his ‘tremendous usefulness in every respect in Europe,’ at a personal as well as public level.
