What little work has been done in the past on the life of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams has been only marginally concerned with his literary activities. These deserve notice, however, because of the consistent way in which his works were used as political propoganda, and his willingness to change their political contents for reasons of political expediency. In bibliographical notes it is occasionally stated that the oeuvre of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams as presented in the only fairly comprehensive edition of his works, published in 1822, is unreliable. Commentators have very seldom attempted to be more specific than that, however. The aim of this thesis is to separate the incorrect from the correct attributions, and, where external evidence is lacking, to indicate whether certain works can be considered as likely or unlikely attributions on the basis of their political contents. The search for the context within which the works of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams were written has involved the study of how literature was used for political purposes in the years following the fall of Sir Robert Walpole. This thesis is therefore partially concerned with the nature of political parties in the mid-eighteenth century which has engaged the attention of so many modern historians of the period.