firsts words 2021

Front cover shows the volvelle from a seaman’s archive (No 36).

Back cover shows the binding on the foundation of Margaret Barkham’s school. (No 31).

Frontispiece is a detail from a 17th-century annotated Ovid (No 53).

A catalogue of manuscripts & rare books to be exhibited by Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd on stand A7 at the firsts fair Saatchi Gallery London 21-24 October 2021 .

1. REST IN FLEECE [BURIED IN WOOL] A group of nine printed and manuscript affidavits for being buried in wool.

[Circa 1683-1702]. A collection of nine documents. Printed examples are in various stages of decay (some in poor condition), but the manuscript documents are in rather better condition.

¶ Gathered here together are a group of nine witnesses to the contentious ‘Burying in Woollen’ acts of 1666 and 1678; acts which made the burying of the deceased in pure English woollen shrouds a legal obligation. This collection comprises an unusually large grouping all from the same location. These nine affidavits, written between 1683 and 1702, document the deaths of nine people from the county of Buckinghamshire.

The second “Act for Burying in Woollen” of 1678, a repeal of the first act, stated its aim as “lessening the importation of linen from beyond the seas, and the encouragement of the woollen and paper manufacturer of the kingdom”.

Capitalising on the high death toll of the period due to the plague, this act moved to halt the importation of foreign materials commonly used in burials such as linen from France. The majority of these affidavits reference women from the Buckinghamshire parishes of Aylesbury and Great Kimble. Each affidavit bears a variation of the phrase “buried the day of ye date hereof was not wound or wrapt in any sheet shirt shift or shroud made or mingled with hemp flax gold silver silk or hair, or any other material save of sheeps wool only & that the coffin was lin’d or fac’d with nothing...”. A sworn affidavit was required to be signed by two people, and if relatives of the deceased failed to comply, they were threatened with a fine of £5, a sum often crippling to ordinary citizens.

This requirement inadvertently provides some evidence of education through the quality of the signatures themselves: the ability to write one’s name must proceed from an ability to read it, along with, presumably, other words. Of the 19 signatures, eight are by women, only two of whom sign with “The mark of”, while the others are signed in full or confidently abbreviated (e.g. “An: Lodington”). That so many were able to sign their names perhaps reflects the literacy level of a select group of citizens called upon as witnesses or it may even point to an unusually high level of literacy among both men and women in this small rural community, though it also supports the assumption that fewer women had access to education.

The act was widely unpopular, with disgust at being buried in wool conveyed through 18th-century literature, eg: “Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke! (Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke).” (Alexander Pope: Moral Essays, Epistle I). The move to wool away from linen proved particularly contentious owing to its disregard for the popular Christian tradition of burying oneself in linen, emulating the burial of Jesus.

These affidavits were notarized at the height of strict adherence to the ‘Buried in Woollen’ act, with the seals of both witnesses found upon each one. Until 1710 almost all affidavits in Oxfordshire had the signatures and seals of two witnesses, after 1710, “seals are rarely found”, and after 1740 “it is rare to find any witnesses recorded”.

Though the acts were repealed in 1814, adherence had already waned hugely during the latter half of the 18th century and the law was rarely enforced.

The authority of the parliamentary act is inscribed into these manuscripts, which wield the aesthetics of bureaucracy through their formalised and standardised text, red wax seals and, sometimes, illustrations. The participants are then co-opted into this process by being required to sign as witnesses. However, as the authority of the Buried in Woollen acts declined, so too did the production quality of their associated documents.

The hallmarks of the inscription of authority, in the form of wax seals and witnesses, were rarely found on the page after the mid-18th century.

These nine affidavits, which extend over two decades, offer material evidence of literacy and social structures in a small area of rural England. They illustrate how the application of authority through bureaucratic means finds expression in its paperwork, and how that bureaucracy was used to impose authority upon an often-unwilling population. The documents are an illuminating illustration of the controversial acts which, though intended to stimulate the domestic economy, did so to the cost of the ordinary citizen.

CONTENTS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER [1] Manuscript. Single sheet. Folio (305 mm x 197 mm). Two red wax seals (one broken). Edges spotted. Written in a clear hand.

“Emma Moose of Great Kimble in the County of Bucks Maketh Oath That Mary King the daughter of Thomas Knight … lately deceased was not wrapped or Wound or buryed in any Shirt Shift Sheete or Shroud made or mingled with fflax Hemp Silke haire gold or Silver or other than Sheeps Wool onely … [16th April] 1683. / Sealed & Subscribed by We who were put & Wittnesses to the sweareing of the abovesaid Affidavit / Sarah Widdowes / Eliz: Eldridge / I Gervase Widowes of Minster of Princes Risborough …

Ger: Widowes.”

[2] Manuscript. Single sheet. Folio (296 mm x 189 mm). 2 wax seals. Edges slightly spotted.

“Bucks / Jane Buckney of ye. p[ar]ish great kimbyll … yt. Margarett Aiony Ioney an infant of ye. p[ar]ish … lately deceased was not put in, wrapt … but sheeps woll only … [14 June] 1683. / Sealed & Subscribed … Fran: Ligo / Susana P^enny / I Evan Penry of Stoke Mandevile...”

[3] Manuscript. Single sheet. Small quarto (194 mm x 153 mm). 2 black wax seals. Lightly waterstained.

“Bucks ss. / Dorothy Kikly of kimbel … yt. Frances Russel … late of Kimbel was not wound or wrapt … any other material save of Sheeps wool only … [21 December] 1688. This affidavit was made in ye presence of Robt Wallis/ Katherine Sparry /... Car[twright]: Wilmer Rector of Ellesborough”

[4] Printed document, accomplished in manuscript, woodcut of a skeleton to upper left margin.

Single sheet. Small quarto (234 mm x 183 mm). 2 black wax seals. Loss to blank corners.

“Bucks / Joyce Oxley –” of the Parish of “Aylesbury –” … “Great Kimbel” … [11 March] “1692/3.” Sealed and Subscribed “Sarah Edmonds” / “An: Lodington” / I do hereby Certifie “I: Lodington” [5] Printed document, accomplished in manuscript, woodcut of a skeleton to upper left margin.

Single sheet. Small quarto (220 mm x 180 mm). 2 black wax seals. Poor condition, water and glue stained, frayed and torn with large areas of loss, laid down on linen. “[M]arth fflaxman of the parish of leetel kimbelle / Mary Gurney –” of the Parish of “Stone –” … “the Daughter of William Kingham dying unbaptized” … [20 September] 16“93.” [S]ealed and Subscribed “Car[twright]: Wilmer / Anne-Chapman” I do hereby Certifie “Tho: Chapman Rectr of Little Kimbille” [6] Printed document, accomplished in manuscript, woodcut of skull and crossbones and a skeleton to upper left margin. Single sheet. Small quarto (234 mm x 188 mm). 2 red wax seals.

Torn and frayed with loss to margins and significant loss to woodcut of skull and crossbones.

“Hannah Ford –” of the Parish of “Great Ki[mble]” … “John West an Infant” … [15 June] 16“97.” Sealed and Subscribed “Anne-Chapman / the mark of Anne Lamb[ert(?)]” I “Tho: Chapman Rectr of Little Kimbille” do hereby Certifie …”

[7] Printed document, accomplished in manuscript, woodcut of skull and crossbones and a skeleton to upper left margin. Single sheet. Small quarto (234 mm x 200 mm). 2 black wax seals. Torn and frayed with loss to margins, final words of printed text and signature, and significant loss to woodcut of skull and crossbones.

“Bucks ss. / Jane Procter widd[ow] –” of the Parish of “Aylesbury” … “Millberry Mayne widdow late of Aylesbury aforesaid; Buried” of the Parish of “Great Kimble –” [10 August] 16“98.” Sealed and Subscribed “R: Beford / Mary Whitney” I do hereby Certifie ... “I: Lod[ington]” [8] Printed document, accomplished in manuscript, woodcut of a skeleton to upper left margin. Single sheet. Small quarto (227 mm x 175 mm). 2 red wax seals. Poor condition, water and glue stained, frayed and torn with large areas of loss, amateurishly laid down on paper (not acid-free).

“Mary C[ox]” of the Parish of “Great Kimble –” … [29 December] 16“99.” Sealed and Subscribed “R Mayo / Sarah Mayo” I “Cartwright Wilmer of the Par Rectr of Ellesborough” do hereby Certifie.

[9] Manuscript. Single sheet. Small quarto (200 mm x 191 mm). Trace of 2 red wax seals. Waterstained.

“Bucks ss. / Elizabeth Saunders of Macsh in the p[ar]ish Greate Kimbell … Joseph ffigg of Greate Kimbell … was not buryed in any other materiall but what was made of Sheeps Wool … [30 June] 1702. Sealed & Subscribed … Hugh Horton Jnr / The mark of Elizabeth [mark] Millson / I Hugh Horton Esq doe hereby Certifie …”

£3,500 Ref: 7932

1. https://collation.folger.edu/2018/03/imagining-18th-century-jane-doe/

2. TIME CAPSULE WHARTON, George, Sir (1617-1681) Calendarium Carolinum, or, A new almanack after the old fashion for the yeare of Christ 1665 being the first from bissextile : to which is added Gesta Britannorum, or, A brief chronology from the year 1600 till the present 1665.

London: Printed by J. Grismond, 1665. Rolled octavo. Closed tear to title page, crudely repaired with paper, tear and small hole to leaf C8, with loss of a couple of words. Pagination [6 (of 37)], 42 (bound without most of part 1). [Wing, A2656]. ESTC locates 7 copies in the UK, and 2 copies in the USA. Provenance: from the library of Lord and Lady Parmoor. Ownership inscription of “John Higgins” to vellum sheet, together with numerical jottings. Note to frontispiece, recto: “mondee the 20: of Augutt. 1677”.

¶ While this almanac has fewer pages than are called for in ESTC, to call it incomplete would be to misdescribe it: clearly, as far as its original user was concerned, it had just the right number of pages. They have selected only what they required and then bound that text into a rather unusual homemade form; in doing so they have created a strikingly tactile artefact which begs to be picked up, held, and carried around.

This ‘hacked’ binding is clearly the work of an amateur for personal use.

They have cut a piece of vellum (252 mm x 53 mm), stitched the requisite section of almanac to one end, and inserted a cord to the other, making a neatly rolled codex. To the inside cover, they have inscribed their name “John Higgins”, surrounded by a forest of numerical jottings (probably records of money). The original stitching is intact and there is no evidence of any subsequent pages having been removed, so it seems reasonable to assume Higgins bound in those parts of the text he required, namely: the title page, frontispiece, and gatherings C-E8, i.e. the second part: Gesta Britannorum, or, A brief chronology from the year 1600 till the present 1665 (which incidentally includes two leaves from part one which are printed on leaves C1-2).

Exactly why Higgins needed or wanted to carry a chronology of just the 17th century is not clear. One obvious possibility is that he was a teacher and used it for reference, perhaps as part of a larger didactic ‘toolkit’. But the name John Higgins is not unusual, so it is difficult to say with certainty. What is more certain is that the intentional aspect of this artefact makes us question whether we think it is complete – its original owner certainly appears to have thought so.

£1,750 Ref: 8007

3. SMITH’S SWIFT SWIFT, Jonathan (1667-1745); annotated by Elizabeth SMITH. Travels into several remote nations of the world. In four parts. By Lemuel Gulliver.

London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street. M,DCC,XXVI [1726]. FIRST EDITION, Teerink’s ‘B’ edition, with engraved frontispiece in second state with vertical chain-lines. [Teerink 291(B); Rothschild 2108].

Bound in early 19th-century tree calf, volume 1 upper joint split and upper cover loose, spine ends chipped, light rubbing to edges. Some manuscript annotations (circa 1806) in the margins have been slightly cropped by the binder’s guillotine, so the binding must be later. Rugby School label to pastedown of volume 1. Occasional light marginal worming, light foxing and occasional browning.

Collation: A-K8, L3, M-X8, Y1. A3, B-K8, L5, M-Aa8. 4 parts in 2 volumes (continuously paginated), pp. viii, [4], 148, [6], 149-310; [6], 154, [8], 155-353, [1], collated and complete with the frontispiece and 6 engraved plates.

Annotations: dated ink ownership inscription to title page of both volumes (“Elizth. Smith / June 7th. 1806”), occasional stubby-fingered manicules or text emphasised through use of square brackets, marginal annotations to 24 pp., and the relevant printed text usually marked in the margins with a “+”. (A complete transcription of the annotations will be included with the book).

Also included (but not originally with this set) is a theological text attributed to Elizabeth Smith (1776-1806).

Quarto, single sheet. Text to both sides. It is inscribed at the end “Miss Elizabeth ^Smith of Coniston – given to S L by her mother”. Bought for the purpose of comparing the hands, it shall now be sold with it.

¶ This first edition of Gulliver’s Travels has been annotated by a knowledgeable and highly intelligent woman reader. She has inscribed the title page of each volume: “Elizth. Smith / June 7th. 1806”. Were this simply to claim ownership of the books, this inscription might be of little import, but Elizabeth Smith’s confident and analytical engagement with the text makes it akin to an act of intellectual agency.

Elizabeth Smith is clearly well read and makes reference to Plato’s Republic, Homer, Virgil, the Book of Job, More’s Utopia, Pope’s Dunciad, Whiston’s New Theory of the Earth, Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. She also identifies some contemporary references and is generally effusive in her praise of Swift’s work. But how close can we get to identifying her?

One possible candidate for our intellectual annotator is the scholar and translator Elizabeth Smith (1776-1806), a prodigiously intelligent and largely self-taught woman. She died on 7 August 1806, just two months after these volumes were inscribed.

According to the ODNB, “[i]n 1794 she began learning Arabic and Persian from her brother's oriental dictionary; in 1796 she studied Hebrew from a Bible belonging to Henrietta Bowdler's mother. Between 1795 and 1799 she learned Spanish, German, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, some Syriac, and Erse, as well as music, mathematics, and astronomy.”

Her posthumous publications include Fragments in Prose and Verse (1808); Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock (1808); her translation of The Book of Job (1810), edited by Francis Randolph; and A Vocabulary, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian (1804), edited by John Frederick Usko, who thought this the first systematic collation of these languages.

However, while there are similarities in her scholarly interests, there is some uncertainty in this attribution. We have compared the hand of these annotations to Elizabeth Smith’s original manuscript translation of The Book of Job (completed in 1803) held at the Ruskin Museum, Coniston, Cumbria. We also acquired a 2-page theological manuscript attributed to Elizabeth Smith (1776-1806), which we will include in the sale of this book. The latter begins “It is presumed we have now refuted the argument, if arguments they may be called, of those who dispute our being bound to observe the sabbath”. An inscription at the end of the first page reads “Miss Elizabeth ^Smith of Coniston – given to S L by her mother”. Comparison of these two manuscripts with the annotations raises some questions about the attribution of our annotator. Although the hands are similar, Elizabeth Smith only occasionally crosses her ‘t’s in her translation of Job or in our 2-page theological manuscript, whereas the Elizabeth Smith who annotated this copy of Gulliver’s Travels usually does so.

Another possible candidate is Elizabeth’s mother, Juliet, who like her daughter, was noted for being highly intelligent and well-read. An inscription in Juliet’s hand to the front of Elizabeth’s translation of Job reads “To the Right Reverend Thomas Lord Bishop of St David’s. This manuscript is most respectfully offered by his Lordship’s much Obliged & most Obedt Servant Juliet Smith –”. Juliet’s hand is very similar to the annotations, one of which strikes a suggestively parental tone: on p. 103, she places a “+” beside the text “Their Parents are suffered to see them only twice a Year; the Visit is to last but an hour” and annotates below “+ this is rather too little; something more should be allow’d to ye fondness of Parents”.

Hardly conclusive, and while the annotations would shine a fascinating light on the relationship between the mother and daughter, it would also create a conundrum: why would Juliet inscribe the books “Elizth. Smith” rather than in her own name?

Whether the annotations are by the scholar Elizabeth Smith, her mother Juliet, or an as-yet unidentified Elizabeth Smith, there can be no doubting the intrinsic interest of these annotations, which evince a woman with a lively intellect, well-read in science, literature, and philosophy. She is alert to Swift’s allusions: for example, on p. 73, beneath: “Whereupon the Emperor his Father published an Edict, commanding all Subjects, upon greater Penalties, to break the smaller End of their Eggs. The People so highly resented this Law, that the Histories tell us there have been six Rebellions raised on that account”, she notes a connection with Alexander Pope: “+ This seems to be an allusion to the wars in England anciently, abt the right time of celebrating Easter. That once was Britain – Happy! had she see[n] no fiercer Sons, had Easter never been. Dunciad, B. 3.” We find Pope referred to again in the second volume, “+ How keen the war, if Dulness draw the sword! Dunciad, Book, 3. ver. 120.” (p. 217).

On p. 94, immediately beneath “There are some Laws and Customs in this Empire very peculiar”, she compares major philosophers: “+ This whole account of ye Lilliputian Polity is extremely fine, & vastly superior to y e Republick of Plato, or Sr Thos More’s Utopia. there are many things in both their systems so very refin’d as to border on y e chimerical: whereas these Laws & Customs are agreeable to the”. Sadly, the final word has been trimmed, but her familiarity with the works of Plato and More is captivating and her confidence impressive, as she downgrades two of the greatest utopian visions in favour of Swift’s satire on the diminished state of English politicians.

Smith also demonstrates a familiarity with the grammarians: pp. 22-23. “The Word, which I interpret the Flying or Floating Island, is the Original Laputa, whereof I could never learn the Etymology. Lap in the obsolete Language signifieth High, and Untah a Governour, from which, they say, by Corruption was derived Laputa from Lapuntah. But I do not approve of this Derivation, which seems to be a little strained. I ventured to offer to the Learned among them a Conjecture of my own, that Laputa was quasi Lap outed, Lap signifying properly the Dancing of the Sun-Beams in the Sea, and outed a Wing; which, however, I shall not obtrude, but submit to the judicious Reader.” “+ his own, to be sure is much more natural. the great Bochart deals very much in Etymologies of this kind; & I partly suspect he is here intended.” This is probably a reference to the biblical scholar and etymologist, Samuel Bochart (1599-1667). In a note on p. 151 of volume 2, she demonstrates (again) her wide-ranging reading, but this time extending to Latin “+ -- ad caelum jusseris ibit graeculus esuriens --” from Juvenal’s Satires.

Elsewhere, she asserts her considerable scholarly skills in the field of science, as well as her familiarity with some of its institutions. Swift’s discussion of a “Load-stone of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a Weaver Shuttle.” (p. 37) is interpreted as “a ridicule upon Halley’s Hypothesis, wch acco[unts] for the motion of ye Earth from a Central Magnet.” And next to “Schemes of putting all Arts, Sciences, Languages, and Mechanicks upon a new foot. To this end, they procured a Royal Patent for erecting an Academy of Projections in Lagado” (pp. 57-58), she knowingly remarks “+ this is a very fine satire upon ye Royal Society; let any one read their Transactions, & then judge whether this description is not tr just.”

Her cultivated eye continues to trace the comparison between the “the Grand Academy of Lagado” (p. 62) and the Royal Society: “Projects of a piece with these are to be found in y e Philos: Transactions.” And in slightly different ink, she displays again her wide range of reading “see Hill’s History of ye Royal Society.” This probably refers to John Hill’s (1714?-1775) A review of the works of the Royal Society. (London, 1751). But although she joins Swift in mocking some of the pretensions of the early Royal Society, the sometimes-outlandish theories of figures such as Halley (mentioned above), and the abstractions of mathematics (“+ A fine stroke of ridicule upon all others (as well as Mathematicians) whose abstraction of mind absorbs all their senses”), it is not science itself she has in her sights, only certain scientists. On p. 30 of the second volume, “Whiston’s Theory is here perstring’d” we find also that “a much greater man, Sr Is. Newton, is hinted at, in this description of y e Comet.”

Some of the detail of her intellect emerges in the arrangement of her notes: on one occasion (Vol. II. p. 62) she waits until she has finished a chapter before returning to its beginning to give her thoughts (“+ In this & ye following Chapter the ridicule is inimitable”), indicating a methodical approach that involves revisiting passages and considering how one relates to another. As to her intellectual confidence previously remarked upon, only once do we find Elizabeth Smith displaying any uncertainty, but even here she swiftly proffers a theory in which, as well as conjuring Homer and Virgil, she tantalisingly refers to Job. Remarking upon the assertion in volume II p. 293 that “In Poetry they must be allowed to excel all other Mortals; wherein the Justness of their Similes, and the Minuteness, as well as the Exactness of the Descriptions, are indeed inimitable.”, she writes: “+ I cannot tell what he means by this encomium of their Poetry, unless it be this: that as themselves are the subjects of it, their Poetry must necessarily be sublime; as appears from those three Descriptions of them in the Book of Job, Homer, & Virgil, where the utmost efforts of Poetry are executed. perhaps he alludes to these.”

Whether these erudite annotations are by the scholar Elizabeth Smith, noted for her translation of the Book of Job, we cannot say for certain, as the hand, while close, also differs from extant manuscripts known to be hers and is perhaps even closer to her mother’s hand. The name, of course, was a common one, then as now; but our Elizabeth Smith is certainly uncommonly gifted – proficient in languages, extremely well read, possessed of a lively and confident intelligence, and clearly revelling in all of these as she engages with this first edition of Swift’s classic novel.

£7,500 Ref: 7917

Right: Elizabeth Smith’s theological text.

4. MONARCHIC MNEMONIC [MANUSCRIPT MNEMONIC] Concertina Manuscript Succession of the Monarchy ‘Royal Tables’.

[England. Circa 1765]. Seven interlinked cards, each measuring 200 mm x 130 mm, to create an overall length of 1040 mm. Executed in coloured inks on both sides of each card, joined with material to create a long strip. One side depicts a ‘family tree’, which comprises 27 (of 29) cut-out shapes containing brief historical details of monarch and pope, the obverse comprises details of royal houses.

¶ The creator of this remarkable artefact has used an elegant and imaginative method for learning, with mnemonic shapes and colour coding. The scribe appears to have been a child tasked with learning the “kings and queens” version of English history. In doing so, and with how much guidance is hard to determine, they have fashioned a striking piece of social history.

The manuscript presents a complete history of the line of succession of kings and queens of England from William the Conqueror to George III (omitting only William Rufus), using the time-honoured symbolism of a family tree; each royal house is arranged within a segment. The arrangement across seven separate, double-sided cards manages both to acknowledge the ruptures in succession and, by joining them together with green fabric strips, to create an impression of continuity – neatly reflecting the labyrinthine contortions England, and later the United Kingdom, has undergone to preserve its sense of itself as a nation with a coherent lineage.

The family branches are colour-coded, and the monarchs are numbered in order of their reign from one (“William 1st”) to 32 (“George 3d”). The numbering is carried over to the reverse of the cards, where the monarchs are arranged into their royal houses, together with other contemporary information (Popes, Kings of France, etc) each of which is assigned its own – apparently arbitrary – colour and neatly cut-out shape.

The card edges are reinforced with green cloth, and the manuscript is preserved in its original homemade leather pouch, giving further emphasis to the impression of a tidy, well-ordered history. The front cover bears a title written in white paint, but unfortunately, this has been heavily rubbed; the name and final numeral are only partially discernible, but it appears to read: “Henry -- (?) / Royal Tables / 1765”.

Two loosely inserted manuscript slips (95 mm x 64 mm), continue the mnemonic method, but this time using rhyming couplets to help the pupil retain the order.

William the 2d Ric.d ye 1st to Brothrs left ye throne.

Henry y 6th. Edwd. ye 4th may murder’d offspring mourn, Stephn. from Maud usurp’d, but he usurps in vain, And Richd the 3d or 2d had Issue none to reign, Sixth Edwd. young last Chas he childless died And James the second’s son by Law denied, Childless 3 Queens, resign’d the weight of state Nor was an heir apparent 3d William’s Tale

Of Regal Names, the numbers to rehearse, Henry 8, may glide along your Verse, Wms and Rich.ds join with Georges three: Jas & Charles two of each must be.

Mary, Bess, & Ann as Single Names you fix Of Edwards regal Monarchs reckon Six, To usurper In.a place usurping Stephen, From the Conquest thirty two are given.

£1,750 Ref: 7965

Such classroom ephemera have a fascinating place in social history: rugged enough to withstand a pupil’s possibly careless treatment for at least a few months, but clearly not intended to outlast the child’s school career, this singular aide-mémoire nevertheless survives as an example of a learning strategy – exploiting a child’s easy engagement with colour, shape, and texture – that is still familiar to us today.

5. EVANS VELLUM [EVANS, Family]. Manuscript Miscellany of Recipes, Remedies, and Book Collection.

[London. Circa 1710-77. Dated from text, watermark, and bookseller’s label]. Quarto (206 mm x 162 mm x 20 mm). Lacking some leaves.

Pages numbered: 3-6, 23-56, 59-62, 65-116, 119-142, 153-172 (inc. blanks). A total of 121 recipes and remedies on 81 text pages (42 pp. remedies, 35 pp. recipes, 4 pp. book list), plus a few brief scattered notes, and 2 loosely inserted leaves (1 remedy, and 1 acrostic poem).

Contemporary vellum, soiled, wear to edges, boards very warped. Text browned, stained, some leaves loose, and fraying at the edges.

Watermark: Coat of Arms (Haewood 364, which he dates to circa 1710).

¶ Like many of his colleagues, the London bookseller Joseph Marshall produced vellum-bound blank notebooks. These ubiquitous factotums were put to a variety of uses including ciphering, commonplacing, and recipe books. This early 18 thcentury example tells a story of booksellers, book buyers, users, and readers.

Joseph Marshall is listed on the British Book Trade Index as trading at Newgate Street, London between 1707-1734. There is a period of overlap with his father William Marshall from 1700-1725 (his father is recorded at these premises from as early as 1669), where both their names appear together in some imprints, while others have only Joseph’s name. Like his father, who is recorded as being a bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer, Joseph ran a multifaceted business. Indeed, his fine engraved trade label pasted to the rear endpaper of this volume suggests he was even more enterprising: All sorts of ye best shop Books Pocket Books Letter Cases Ink Cards & also Paper Hangings Wholesale or Retale. Japan Ink. All Sorts of Bibles & Dr. Marwood Ink powder. Sold by Ioseph Marshall at the Bible in Newgate Street.

Facing this book label on the final leaf is the manuscript inscription “Mrs Evens in Northumbelant Aley Mantimaker”. This may be a misspelling of mantle maker, or cloak maker. Above this we read “Willam Coleman was An unwise Boy to fuell Away his money At so fuelish A rate” – a little jeu d’esprit on the name Coleman. We also find a loosely inserted acrostic poem which spells out the name Anthony Evans (see background illustration overleaf). This poem is probably mid-18th century, so presumably a younger member of the Evans family. Its inclusion of the line “To Midwifery yr Inclination bend”, may indicate his profession, or at least his professional aspirations. The inscription by “Mrs Evens” is the same hand as several of the recipes and a list of books near the end of the volume dated “April ye 15 1724”.

The majority of the recipes precede Mrs Evans’s 1724 inscription and may confidently be dated circa 1710-20. This earlier scribe, who may or may not have been a member of the Evans family, was likely the original purchaser of the volume from Joseph Marshall. They contribute approximately 72 recipes organised into discrete sections (18 medical, 53 culinary, 1 for ink) separated by around 50 blank leaves. There were almost certainly more remedies, but these have since been torn out or simply lost (see pagination notes above).

These recipes vary from a few lines to over a page in length, and include “A Good Receiptt Againstt the Rheumatism” which was “Approued by Cos. Churchall”; “Doctor Kittleby his Receiptt for the Euill”, and “His Clearing Medicine for one thatt has there Spiritts Sunk & Uery Weak & Lowe”. Reaching back into the 17th century, Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) makes several appearances: “For the Piles Sr K: Digbey”; “Sr K: Digbey’s Plaster For ye Back”; “Sr K: D: Cordiall Poppey Water for Surfeits”.

Culinary recipes do not seem to follow any particular order. A recipe “To preserve Rasberry’s” is immediately followed by “To Make Friggasee”, then by “To Collor Eales”. Other recipes include “To Make Shrowsbury Sugar Cakes”; “To Make Wafers the Dutch Way”. Preserved food includes “To Pickle all Sorts of Flours”, “To Pickle Musharooms”, “To Pickle Small Harty Choaks” and other hearty fare including “To Make Strong Broath” and “To Make Dutch Beaff” with the recommendation that “the Best way to Eatt itt Cold & Sliced thin, & Eatt on bread & butter”.

Following this earlier single-owner section, the abovementioned Mrs Evans is joined by another scribe, and they start to use the volume simultaneously. They add approximately 36 recipes which overlap each other over a period of several decades and are occasionally joined by “guest contributors” who add perhaps another 10 recipes.

Remedies by Mrs Evans include: “For a Grate flux or Loosness when thay Blood uoid”; she often includes remedies attributed to medical professionals,

for example, “for ye Green Sickness Docr Banberys”, and Luke Andrews To Make Pills”. “The Anti Pestilential Preseruatiue” is a single-page remedy ending with the prolixious commendation, “this recate Come from a Physician in the Duck of Barwicks army in the Uniuersity of Montpelier – haue approued it and from Expereance it has been Neauer to fail aney of those who when Earely & reaguler Used it but Preserued them from the Destemper thou they Ware Daly Conuersent with the worst of the malignancy”. She makes several references to John Quincy’s Pharmacopoeia officinalis & extemporanea: or, a compleat English dispensatory (first published 1718, and reprinted throughout the 18th century), including “Elixir Proprietatis Tartarizatum ^out of Quincy”. But there are additional notes on quantities which do not appear to be in the printed editions, which illustrates how recipes in printed texts were often used and adapted by their readers (“or as some do the Quantity of Tincture may be Diuided into 3 parts and the seueral Ingredients Digested separately … for Grown Persons the Dos from 20 Drops to 60 or more to be Continued it is gude against the Greene Sickness”).

“Doct

Her contemporary also displays a similar trust in medics (“Doctr Turners Vomit”, “The ^Doctr Electuarie”). They include the patented “Grana Angelica or Dr Anderson right Scotch Pills”. This popular 17th-century remedy was marketed by the physician Patrick Anderson. Following his death around 1660, his daughter, Katherine, sold the pill formula and manufacturing utensils to a Thomas Weir, a surgeon who obtained royal letters patent in 1687. Our scribe has annotated the recipe, “This is the Right Receipt of the Scotch pills from Katherine Anderson”. This note may be an overly cautious attempt to circumvent the patent or perhaps a claim to the authenticity of the pre-patent original.

Curiously, despite the available blank leaves separating the medical from the culinary, both Mrs Evans and her contemporary disrupt the existing order by adding remedies to the end of the culinary section. Indeed, only two of the 55 culinary recipes (“To Pickle Oynions” and “To Dress a Pig”) appear to be post-1720.

As we reach the end of each section, recipes become intertwined with contributions by later users. These varied sections include such things as “Mrs Lomas’s Receipt for Looseness”, “madam Clarkes receipt”, and a note that “J Berry Apothecary in Mount Street Berkeley Square by permission of his Uncle Wm. Hill Esq of Omskirk Lancashire sells his medicine, a Certain Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog”. An advertisement for this cure appeared in The London Chronicle (March 27-30, 1773) and a scribe has annotated “To be had no where else in London.” A page-long recipe “To make Mrs Heals Baume” is followed by no fewer than three pages detailing “The virtues of the Baum”. Other recipes include “Hysteric Pills – not to be taking by woman with Child”, and “Pills to promote ye menses... not to be taken by women with child”. We also discover that the remedy “To Cure the Mange in Dogs & Cats” has the added benefit that “The above Tobacco Liquor is very good to cure the Buggs”. And what early modern book of remedies would be complete without “Lucatellus’s Balsam” and “Daffies Elexer”?

Near the end of the volume there is a list of 35 books in Mrs Evans’s hand. Unfortunately, one of the pages is torn with significant loss (approximately four titles), but it is still highly informative. This brings us back to the Marshalls’ bookshop, as several of the titles recorded were printed by William Marshall or sold at the shop. For example, the entries for “A Discourse

by Mr Cole on Regeneration” and “A discourse of Imputed Righteousness” may be matched to the imprint in Wing C5029aA, which reads: “for Will. Marshall, and sold at the Bible in Newgate-street, and at the Bible in Grace-church-street, where is likewise sold Mr. Cole of Regeneration, faith and repentance. Price bound 2 s, likewise his Incomprehensibleness of imputed righteousness. Price bound 6 d.” An edition of “Christ Alone Exalted” by Tobias Crisp was printed by William Marshall in 1693 (Wing, C6916). “4 Catholick Books” and no fewer than “5 Bibles” are included alongside Puritan theology, which makes up around half the list, with seven works by Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) and 10 titles “all Here by John Bunyen”. Some John Bunyan publications could be obtained from Marshall’s shop, but others they presumably acquired elsewhere including the now-rare “Countrie Rimes for Children”, published in 1686 (Wing, B5489), as well as the never-out-of-print “The Pilgramans Progress”.

This volume, which was probably purchased from Marshall’s bookshop around 1710, gathers recipes from a variety of manuscript sources (“Cos. Churchall”, “Mrs Heal”, “Doctor Kittleby”), and printed texts from the likes of Sir Kenelm Digby and John Quincy. Mrs Evans’s tastes in theology ranged from 17 th-century Puritanism to Catholicism and her household required not one but five Bibles. Consequently, we learn something of the physical, spiritual, and cultural diet of an earlymodern London family – much as we might have done by browsing in a bookshop of the sort that produced and sold the vellum-bound ‘tabula rasa’ for this intriguing miscellany. £5,000 Ref: 7952

6. COMMYNES & GOINGS COMMYNES (or Commines or Comines), Philippe de (1447-1511). The historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton.

Imprinted at London: by Ar. Hatfield, for I. Norton, 1596. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Folio. Pagination pp. [16], 396, [2]. Signatures: A⁶ a² B-X⁶ Y⁴ Z⁸ Aa-Ll⁶, chi1. [Pforzheimer 190; STC 5602].

Modern full calf with contrasting title label. C4 with short tear to lower margin just touching text, closely shaved touching manuscript notes.

Where the close cropping has resulted in the loss of letters, these are recorded in the transcriptions using italics enclosed in square brackets.

¶ This profusely annotated copy of the first English edition of Philip de Commines’s ‘Memoirs’ provides a fascinating insight into the mind of an Elizabethan pen-in-hand reader who displays a quite remarkable memory as they repeatedly traverse the text to connect threads across time and space.

Philippe de Commines was a statesman, historian and writer whose memoirs amount to a political history of Europe between 1464 and 1498. They are notable for several reasons: in a career that brought him into close association with figures such as Henry VII and Edward IV of England and Louis XI of France, he was well placed to observe and analyse the period’s events and personalities; and commentators seem to agree that Commines was unusually insightful and gifted in his analytical skills, and something of an innovator in the late-medieval practice of history.

Our spidery annotator certainly approaches this volume with a seriousness of purpose that conveys a deep respect, as well as a determination to engage with the text most thoroughly. The result is an elaborate web of inky connections.

They appear to have initially read the book through sequentially, annotating almost every page with usually between two and six marginal notes. These come in the form of summaries (“bookes unfit co[n] templated”, “the marshal of Burgund[y] implie”), comments, and additions (“K. Lewis lykes to say, when Pryde marcheth before, Shame wch da-mage followeth”). Having satisfied themselves that they have completely absorbed – even internalised – the text, they return, again with pen in hand (though this time with paler ink), to map the numerous connections they have discovered, taking us on their textual discoveries which traverse the pages in turns and returns throughout the book.

The instances of cross-referencing include one with a note (among several others) on p. 21; being in lighter ink, it captures our attention. The scribe has underlined the printed text “yet was the matter so labored, that many yeeres after the marriage was accomplished” and made the marginal annotation: “quere. fol.. 65. et. 188”. If we turn to these pages, on 65 we find the phrase “The Duke had married his sister” underlined in the same lighter ink and annotated “quere. fol. 21.”; and on p. 188 we have the note “[Do]wager of Bur[gu]ndy . quere . fol.”, with another which takes us in a different direction. This second note begins in darker ink reading “[Th]e king prac[tic]e to breed stur-(?) Gaunt”, then continues in lighter ink, “for this Duchesse becam[e] enimie. fol. 210”. Page 210 includes several annotations, one of which directs us to p. 190 and back to 188.

Picking up on the direction to 190, we again find the text discussing “The Dowager of Burgundie”, which is annotated “Lady of Burg[un]dys, double de[al]ing discovered …” and back to “fol. 210”.

A similar ink trail begins on the first page of the introduction, with the reference “fol. 263” where we find among the annotations, directions to pages 252 and 259, which in turn take us to 263 and outwards again to 211, 229, 274, and 230.

Taking the first of these, the annotations read, “maximilion stormed at the marriage, for [she] was p[ro]mised to [his] sonne.

211.” The fact that 211 is crossed out refers to the annotations on that page which are written in the predominant darker ink, but partly crossed out in lighter: “the Lady of Bu[r]gundy promise[s] to marry the Em sonne. but afte[r]ward she marrie[d] Charles. 8. the [-?] fol. 259.”

We can see our scribe returning to his closely interactive reading over several sittings, and he displays a prodigious memory as he darts repeatedly back and forth across large sections of text. He then disrupts the initial sequential reading and replaces it with his own web of connections – an act of criticism, possibly, or a demonstration of his own gifts.

Commines was acclaimed as a groundbreaker in his use of critical and philosophical approaches to contemporary history; our annotator is no slouch either, constructing a kind of alternate map of the memoir’s material that almost reads like a precursor of hypertext. £2,250 Ref: 7974

7. A TIME IN STITCH MATTHEWS, Ann (later URMSON) (1771-?) Three 18th-century embroidered samplers: two oval samplers with moral texts together with a rectangular ‘Perpetual Almanack’ .

[Walton School, nr Liverpool. Circa 1790]. A group of three samplers: one rectangular (“Perpetual Almanack”) which measures approximately 320 mm x 395 mm and two oval samplers which each measure approximately 190 mm x 155 mm. All three are framed and glazed. Pasted to the reverse of the “Perpetual Almanack” is a notice of incorporation for the “Hill Pottery Company” (Liverpool. Circa 1862). One of the small oval frames (“Modesty”) has the printed label to the back of “Jeffrey, Morrish, and Co.” of “Compton House, Liverpool”. The label is completed in manuscript: “Mrs Urmson / 31 Movia St”.

¶ Embroidered samplers are invaluable witnesses to the education of girls in the early modern era. They range from the basic (letters of the alphabet and numbers from 0-9) to more complex textual compositions, often of moral or biblical quotes, usually adorned with patterns and figures.

By this method girls would learn reading, writing and needlework, and would absorb moral virtues, all within a neatly circumscribed space.

This unusual group of samplers comprises an embroidered perpetual almanac (of which examples are rare) and two accompanying moral texts (“Modesty” and “Religion”).

Perpetual almanacs are notably different from other samplers in that they need to be directly engaged with: whereas a child could conceivably (albeit probably not) copy the shapes of the words of a biblical quote without needing to understand exactly what is being said, for a perpetual almanac to serve any purpose the

user must actively interact with it; the child must understand its function in order to calculate from its precise mathematics.

These samplers were all created by the same young woman who has carefully inscribed each one “Ann Matthews fecit Walton School 1790”. The reverse of one of the samplers bears a framer’s printed label with the customer’s details completed in manuscript: “Mrs Urmson / 31 Movia St”. We can trace and tie together the names of Matthews and Urmson, and even the address, as follows: Ann Matthews was born in 1771 at Eccles, Lancashire, and on 29 Jan 1797 she married Robert Urmson (17641837) at Saint Nicholas, Liverpool, Lancashire. He is recorded as a “book keeper, Liverpool”.

They had three children: Jane Anne Urmson (1797-1854); William Newport Urmson (1801-?); and Charlotte Urmson (1817-?). On his death certificate, Robert is recorded as residing at 31 Movia Street, West Derby.

As to what prompted Mrs Urmson to take the work of her younger self to the framers, we can only speculate; but we would imagine a certain (understandable) pride was involved.

By an unusual stroke of fortune, a perpetual almanac from the same school is held at the V&A (accession number: T.75-1925). Theirs is inscribed “Elizabeth Knowles fecit Walton School 1787” and, apart from the difference in initial dates of the almanac, it is almost identical. They do not have the accompanying textual samplers, but nonetheless we can be confident that all the girls at the school were taught to read and write proficiently and would have reached a level of mathematical competence in order to use the perpetual almanac. But how much scope was there for creativity? Here again the comparison is informative: both almanacs follow a clear pattern with only the slightest variation in the surrounding decoration and, in ours, an additional line of text.

Exactitude and conformity seem to have been the guiding principles at Walton School – and perhaps nowhere more so than in the moral education of girls.

This group provides a remarkable insight into 18th-century schooling for girls and young women.

The existence of a second example of the almanac offers a unique opportunity to understand these artefacts through comparison. The accompanying samplers speak of the moral virtues Ann Matthews and her fellow pupils were expected to follow, and the provenance gained through the chance survival of the framer’s label offers a glimpse of how she herself treasured these artefacts – and may well have wished to enshrine them as examples for her own children. £2,500 Ref: 8013

References.

Browne, Clare and Jennifer Wearden, eds. Samplers from the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1999. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70381/perpetual-almanack-sampler-knowles-elizabeth/

8. PETER PREACHER PACKED A PUNCH [PETER (or PETERS), Hugh (ba. 1598-d. 1660)] Scribal manuscript copy of an unrecorded sermon on Isaiah 25.6.

[London, Christ Church. Circa 1643. Dated from watermark an text]. Small quarto (181 mm x 142). 5 text pages, 3 blanks. Disbound with evidence of stab-stitching, stitching and traces of leather from it having once been bound into a larger volume.

Written in clear scribal hand. Watermark: Eagle. Matches Haewood 1303, of which he dates, “Amsterdam 1644”.

A complete transcript of the text will be included with this manuscript.

¶ Hugh Peter was a highly industrious and controversial figure who played a pivotal role in the English Civil War and was a significant force in the New England colonies. His grisly end following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 befitted such a vocal advocate of the Parliamentary cause. This scribal manuscript of a sermon he delivered at London in 1643 is apparently unrecorded and unpublished.

Peter was the son of a merchant of Fowey in Cornwall. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1618, then moved to London around 1620 to become a teacher. Here he was ordained deacon in 1621, but he returned to Cambridge to pursue an MA in 1622. He led a controversial life as a master orator of Puritan sermons and spent much of his time traversing the globe to further the Puritan cause.

The mid-17th century was a time of great upheaval in England, marked by a bloody civil war, British expansionism, and regicide – and Peter had notable involvement in all these. Charles I stoked religious tensions due to his perceived partisan support of Catholicism, introduction of a new prayer book and dissolution of parliament in 1629. The first Civil War began in October 1642 and divided the country for the next four years.

Meanwhile, British expansionism overseas was underway from the early 17 th century. Puritan emigrants (Pilgrim Fathers) founded 13 American colonies, seeking religious freedom. These colonies acted as a conduit for the proliferation of Puritan religious beliefs, and their isolation from Europe engendered a more severe and rigorous theology. Hugh Peter played a key role in these developments.

Upon his arrival in New England in 1635, Peter became involved in the affairs of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He worked to improve the local economy through fishery and shipbuilding, served on the colony’s committee to create a law code and became one of the first governors of Harvard. He was a popular minister at Salem, driving the effort against the Antinomian or free grace theology of the Hutchinsonians.

In this manuscript sermon he uses lines from Isaiah 25:6 (“In this Mountaine shall the Lord of hostes make unto all people a ffeast of ffat things; a feast of Wine on the Lees, of fatt things full of ~ Marrow, of wine on the Lees well refined…”) as the basis of his message, beginning with an allusion to the colony he had recently left (“This Mountaine is Gods Church; and I feare God hath but few Churches in the World; he hath one in New England”). He also references his visit to the West Indies (“how thinke yee will God deale with you then; why hee’l forsake you too; (me thinks I see him stand on London bridge ready to take water to the West Indies, whence he and I came”).

Peter was known as an “inspiring preacher”, one who could “chat and jest with the soldiers, and yet could seize an opportunity to slip in a word on higher matters.” (ODNB).

This sermon shows his skill at weaving lines from his chosen Biblical text into his address, and working in some colourful phrases of his own: “This weeke God p[ro]vided a great deale of good Victualls for you, and invited you (Brethren an Sisters) to a fatt ffeast: […] in the former weeke I heard the dishes clatter in Gods kitchin, such a feast as you never had in yor Lives before & such fatt Sermons full of Marrow, and wine on the Lees, as never were dresst in London before…”

Peter’s powerful preaching was a huge asset to the Parliamentary cause, rousing emphatic support from soldiers and civilians alike. As we see in this early manuscript, his sermons were often a call to arms of his Puritan followers against the Royalists: “The Lords battaile us begunn in yor Land, fight couragiously, goe on victoriously, lend more monyes, send yor servants, and comfort one another with these words, puritane, rebell, Roundhead, for at the generall day when ye shalbe called by these names be sure to make answere, and ye shalbe sure to goe to Heauen.”

The sermon was delivered by “Mr Peters” on “Aprill the 7th 1643” at “Christ Church”. We learn from internal evidence (e.g. “yor boyes and girles, I, and yor old ffolkes too, runn to Islington, and Pimlico, to surfett on Ale and Cakes; and leaue the best meate here behinde at Christ Church”) that this was Christ Church, London. 1643 was a pivotal year of the Civil War. The King had retreated to Oxford, and after the Battle of Edgehill in late 1642, it became clear that the war would not be ended with just one battle. This sermon would have been vital in helping sway favour to the Parliamentary cause and recruit more ‘Roundhead’ soldiers in a years-long conflict. He appears to have been a successful persuader and a useful asset: two years later, he became chaplain to the New Model Army.

Peter here repeatedly takes aim at the Royalist ‘Cavaliers’ (e.g. “Then either starve yor selves, or the Cavaleires take you and picke yor bones”) and mocks their Catholic religious traditions (“to wallow still in yor popish ceremonyes, to admire yor Priests: hoods and Surplices, and B[isho]ps. fower cornerd capps that looke (as they say) towards the foure windes, oh the Vanity of those foolish fopperies”), their iconographies (“yor Comon prayers those popish and blasphemous reliques are dayly read, every Wednesday and ffriday morne, yor old doreing men and woomen trawle out of their bedds at 12 of the Clocke to such masse and thinke they doe God good service enough”) and their sermons, which he claims are

“stuft with the ffagend of an old poet, blended with misty traditions of mouldy and hereticall expositors, and they must be sainted too forsooth.”

He also inadvertently draws attention to his misogynist views, as he warns of the Royalists’ intention to attack the women and the devastating effect this will have on their husbands (with no acknowledgment of the traumas to be suffered by the female victims): “This is iust as the popish Army would have it, of those Cust and mand Cavaleires; that if they come among you (as they are nigh at hand) will leave you nothing; sucke yor blood, rape yor handsome wives and defloure yor sweete Virgins”.

Possession of women is the central subject here; he uses the crowd’s fear of trespassing on their male property to his advantage. Not content with this, he compounds matters by adding “but you that have ugly wives and daughters you shall escape better”.

In true Puritan style, he criticises the pomp and flair of religious traditions, and denounces those who celebrate religious holidays and enjoy material objects: “they putt on theire gold Chaines, and theire pearlependents; tripping it, and frisking it, (like light huswives) curld and purld, and in theire Silkes, and Sattins, and painted petticoates, in honour (forsooth) of Madam Easter”. He contrasts the rich metaphorical feast of God he provides through his sermons with the worldly “Ale and Cakes” preferred by the masses. Puritans were known for their dislike of dancing, but it is interesting to hear him not simply condemning Morris dancing, but laughing at it: “and another garment hanging downe to his codpice with bells and pomegranants fengling and fangling (like our Morris dancers) to the Laughter of the boyes in Israell.”

The scribe often punctuates the text by the use of brackets, e.g. “(Brethren an Sisters)”, “(I assure you)”, “(beloved)”, “(and belieue me I feare it)”. Such bracketed text does not appear in his printed sermons and appears to be an attempt to convey the vivacious, direct character of Peter’s style of preaching.

In a peculiar section near the end, Peter refers to a rumour: “As I walke the streets I heare many foolish people talke that I haue gathered up a number of Children to carry over wth me to New England, and there to sell them into bondage and slavery”. I have not found the source of this rumour, and its inclusion is intriguing and worthy of further research.

This climactic sermon captures Peter’s unique brand of preaching and penchant for dramatics at a crucial juncture in the First English Civil War. He combines a heavily expounded disgust for Royalists and his position as a divine representative of the Puritan cause to execute this call to arms against the King and his followers. His ability to rouse a crowd and change the tides of support in favour of the Puritans earnt Peter a formidable reputation as an influential preacher – until the restoration of the monarchy ensured his place on the scaffold. This sermon, seemingly unrecorded elsewhere, shows Peter’s vaunted skills in oratory, along with some less admirable traits. £2,500 Ref: 7935

9. CUT DOWN TO SIZE [SHIP’S SURGEON] 18th-century manuscript record of the sick of H.M.S. Bristol.

[Shipboard. Circa 1782. Dated in manuscript]. Octavo (224 mm x 140 mm x 2 mm). 24 text pages (including covers), plus one folded sheet (4 text pages) loosely inserted. Stitched along spine. Dust soiled, marks, one corner torn away with apparent loss of a few words.

¶ H.M.S. Bristol was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1775. It served in the American War of Independence and returned to England in 1782, at which point this manuscript begins.

This ship-made artefact has been fashioned out of old printed sheets which have been roughly cut into shape by a ship’s surgeon. These were undoubtedly originally made for use on a ship; they include columns for ‘Venereals’, ‘Neglect’, ‘Cloaths in Quarantine’, ‘Dead Mens Cloaths’, etc. The surgeon ignores these, instead heading each page “Bristol, Spithead.”

He goes on to record name, malady, and treatment of two or three dozen sick sailors through the months of August and September 1782. Typical entries include “Laurance Folley Cough Infus sem Lini”, and on “Die Saturni Augt 24th 82”, one “Jas Turner. Dycentery: of 3 Days standing”. The next day we find “Jas Turner: The Purging a little abaited since he had then Antimonl: Mist Ant: Cont: Mist Ant. Infus Tim Lin:” and on the following day he is “On Recovery Sal: Cathart Un—(?)”. By the 27th his condition is described as “Dycentery abaited: but troubled with a severe Cough Infus Sem”. Two days later “Jas Turner: Conts Infus sem Lini” but the cough, too, diminishes and by the 31st he is “On Recovery”. While many physicians believed antimony cured dysentery, its emetic qualities were more likely to weaken the patient. Although James Turner appears to have survived, his chances would have been even greater had the disease been let to run its course. The unfortunate “Jas Nelson” (coincidentally, the famous Horatio Nelson sailed on the Bristol in 1778) has an “Ulcerated Penis” which continues for several days apparently untreated until he is administered with “Oil φ (?) G Infus sem Lini”, but we do not learn whether this cured his unenviable condition. Other patients include “Joseph Taylor Ulcerated Mouth” and “Thos Ryder Inflam’d Eye”, which is treated with an “Emplaster”; the treatment appears to have worked and we do not see any further entries for him.

Shortly after this, the Bristol escorted a convoy of merchant ships to India. By 1787 it had been converted into a church ship.

After further conversion into a prison ship in 1794 it served instead as a hospital ship until it was broken up in 1810. This manuscript, itself a conversion from scrap paper, escaped destruction to serve as evidence either of a poorly-equipped vessel or of the age-old undervaluing of essential workers. £750 Ref: 7874

10. HAMPER OF GOODIES [THURLOW, Edward Lord Thurlow (1731-1806) (later owner)] Manuscript scribal copy of accounts and record of warrants issued during the years 1728 to 1733.

[London. Circa 1728-33. Dated from watermarks and text]. Folio (375 mm x 238 mm x 23 mm). [1, contents leaf] 116 numbered pages, ruled in red throughout.

Fine 18th-century black morocco, gilt-tooled spine in panels, elaborate gilt-tooled borders to front and rear, red morocco label to front board stamped in gilt ‘Hanaper’, edges worn, all edges gilt, green silk.

Watermarks: endpapers are horn with IV countermark (Haewood notes several with this combination but the dates 1696-1790 are too wide to be helpful) and text pages, fleur-de-lis with IV countermark (similar to Haewood 1702, 1706, and 1713-4 which he dates circa 1720-43).

Chandos's papers are held at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

¶ The Hanaper Office was responsible for the sealing of charters, patents, and certain writs under the Great Seal. The office dated back to the 13th century, but its actual work gradually became the responsibility of the lower ranks and the Clerk of the Hanaper became a sinecure position for ‘gentlemen’ wishing to move into the political realm. It was lucrative: the Clerk was paid fees and commissions for the sealing of documents and allowed generous expenses.

The office took its name from a hanaper, a basket containing a hanap (a goblet with a foot or stem), similar to the wicker basket used to keep writs and other documents. From it we derive the word hamper, a wicker or rush basket used for carrying game, fish, and wine. It seems an appropriate word for a position characterised by plenty of goodies and little effort.

This beautifully written and handsomely bound manuscript records payments for purchases by the Hanaper Office from the period 1727-33 – though not chronologically – and was probably compiled in the mid-1730s. Apart from a warrant issued in 1727, this covers the period that James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos (1673-1744), was financially benefitting from being Clerk of the Hanaper. “He bought the office in 1715 for his life and those of his two sons, the grant maturing on 30 July 1728.” (Dickson and Beckett The Finances of the Dukes of Chandos p.320). His Deputy is named, in a claim for stationery made at Michaelmas 1732, as one Thomas More. Later records of the Hanaper from 1752 to 1830 are held by the National Archives, Kew; Chandos’s manuscripts form part of the Stowe Papers, now held at the Huntington Library.

Later in the 18th century, this manuscript came into the possession of Edward Thurlow (1731-1806), lord chancellor of England from June 1778 to April 1783 and from December 1783 to June 1792. Thurlow’s ownership is attested by several loosely inserted sheets, one of which reads “1816 This book was found by Mr Forster ^ Junr amongst Lord Thurlows Papers”, and two receipts pinned together, “The Right Honourable Edward Lord Thurlow Baron Thurlow of Ashfield [...] 31 days from the 3rd day of June 1778 to the 5th day of July following Incs --- £108.16.8 [...] Deduct Civil List [...] His Lordships Dividend [...] £104:2:2” and “Dividend Fees Due” [...]”. These receipts date from Thurlow’s first year in office, so this is probably the date that he acquired this volume.

The contents are recorded on the first page of the manuscript as: Lord High Chancellor’s annual Allowances ~ Folio- 1. 2. 3. 4. ~List of Warrants sign’d b the Rt Hono:ble the Lord High Chancellor of Great Brittain with References to the Copy’s thereof Copies of the several Warrants referr’d from No.- to Folio No: Demand for Which no Warr:ts has been deliver’d to the Hanaper Office Folio No: Abstract of the Hanaper Acco:t so far as it can be assertaind Folio. - 14. 15. 16. Nestled within this seemingly dry account of officialdom are insights into the physical instruments of government and a wealth of curious incidental details (e.g. “Mary Hayes Widow & ffea:s Green Partners Embroiderers for a Rich Embroider’d Purse for the Great Seal of Great Brittain a Velvett Bag to Carry the said Purse in upon Occasion of Travelling into the Country and a Box to Keep the said Purse [...] the Sum of ffifty ffive pounds, and three pounds”). We learn how highly valued certain records were (“For Ten Books with Morocco & finely Gilt of the preceedings of the said Coronation and Attendance there --- 71|10|-”).

Expense allowances may not reflect realistic actual costs, but they are interesting for all that. We find the Lord High Chancellor’s allowances per term, itemised (e.g. “Diet & ffees --- 100|1|-”, “Annuity --- 75|-|-”, “Extra Attendance --- 50|-| -”, “of Gascoigne Wine by ye Y:r --- 24|-|-”, “For the like in Lieu of Impost thereof --- 6|6|-”, And for Wax --- 4|-|-”), and it seems that, depending on the time of year, he would also be allowed either “For his Winter Robes --- 26|13|4” or “For his Summer Robes --- 13|6|8”. There is also an allowance for “Gascoigne Wine” (to fill his personal hanap?).

Most striking is the voracious appetite the office had for books and stationery. For example, in the section for the “Clerk of the Crowns Stationer’s Warrant” we are informed that “Paper Parchment, Ink Quills & Pens, penknives, Red Tape, Paper-Books, Sand, Standishes, Wax Wafers Baggs Cuttle-bones, Rulers Ink, Glasses, & other Necessaries” totalling “£ s d / 71.17.6” are to be paid to “Anne Conningsby Stationer”. Other stationers include Robert Elver and Edward Castle who also supplied numerous instruments of writing including “6 Ream sup fine Horne --- 6|-|-, 1500 best Dutch penns --- 4|10|-, 1 ffine Turkey Leather Trunk as Usual 5|-|-”. Elsewhere, “[T]he House of Peers” places an order for “12 ffine Almanacks 3|10|-” and the “Councill Office” requires a substantial “Fifty Volumes of Almanacks in Turkey Leather gilt & Labelled. 40||- Six read Almanacks bound in Turkey Leather finished Extraordinary with Silver Clasps & 4 Riders [...] 5|11|- Six Oxon Almanacks of which One fram’d & one pasted on a Board --- -|15|-”, demonstrating the continued popularity of almanacs across the whole spectrum of society.

Writing materials for the “Use of the Great Seal” are all supplied by Jacob Tonson, who is perhaps best known for editions of Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden, and as the founder of the Kit Cat Club. The elder Tonson was living in retirement at this date, but his business was being continued by his almost equally enterprising nephew, Jacob Tonson the Younger. Tonson’s dues are recorded monthly over no fewer than six pages, yet when totalled for the year, they come to “£99|15|-”, not

significantly greater than Edward Castle’s bill, which in a single page totals “£77|14|-”. The Hanaper’s insatiable appetite for stationery is also served by Henry Weston, Thomas Woodford, Vigerus Edwards, Thomas Martin, Samuel Hetherington, Henry Bendish, and others, their bills listing page after page of “Supfine Writing Paper” (or similar), “Bag sand”, “Seling Wax”, “Pencills”, “Shining Ink”, and, every month, several hundred “Best Dutch Penns”. Scattered amongst these unflagging requirements are numerous single and often quite specific items: “Pewter Chest Standish”, “large Penknife Tortoishell Handle”, “One Shagreen Inkhorne”, “One note Book bound blue Turky silver clasps”, “One Tin Box for the Great Seal”.

Parchment is used at a consistently high rate, and rather than being billed by individual stationers, “His Grace the Duke of Chandos or Keeper of His Maj:s Hanaper in Chancery leaves the Usual Allo:ce of Parcht” including 24 rolls to the “3 Clerks of the petty Bag”, “12 Rolls to the two Auditors”, “three Rolls for the Hanaper”, each roll costed at “1|4|-”.

All of this scribal activity happened within buildings that need cleaning (“Sweeping the Rolls Chapell --- -|9|-”), maintenance and repairs (“Carpenter’s Worke --- 28|8|10”; “Glazier’s Worke --- 4|11|4”), and places to sit (“Chair Maker 24|3|-”); and of course the Hanaper Office needs a “Baskett Maker --- 1|4-” as well as, apparently, a “Herbe Woman --- 8|2|-”.

The flows of power and money must be regulated and controlled; and these processes must be recorded by a succession of scribes with their ink, paper, and parchment, in turn creating a gargantuan demand for stationery and other supplies.

Meanwhile, a host of officials circle and feed, many (such as the profligate Chandos) siphoning off some of the flow to their own advantage. This manuscript, with its beautifully composed pages, its crisp, clear hand, and its meticulous details, belies the mundanity of its bureaucratic origins to become an exemplar of the official scribe’s art. It shares with its contents the beauties of an object borne of necessity but executed with the utmost care and attention. Its incidental attractions quietly settle in beside its prosaic intent to reveal a rich basketful of goodies.

£2,500 Ref: 7880

11. LISTER’S SECRETS [LISTER, Anne (1791-1840)] Social and Political Life in Halifax fifty years ago: Social Extracts from the Diary of a Halifax Lady.

[Circa 1888]. Extracts pasted into an octavo volume. Approximately 214 pages. Unsympathetic, but sturdily rebacked, with printed paper label to spine. Provenance: inscription to the front paste-down reads “Late Mrs Turner’s” and beneath this is the simple homemade bookplate of James Graydon.

¶ This singular artefact is an act of curation in the name of convenience. It contains the earliest publication of the diary of Anne Lister aka “Gentleman Jack”, and appears to have been created by a Mrs Turner (an inscription to the front paste-down reads “Late Mrs Turner’s”), who has clipped newspaper columns containing the serialised diary of Anne Lister published in the Halifax Guardian from January 1888 onwards and pasted them into volume II of Nathan Bailey’s New Universal Etymological Dictionary (1761). These clippings comprise parts 1-59 (but lacks part 33) of the diary. There seems to be no relation between these two texts, rather she has simply repurposed the printed volume by tipping her own collection of newspaper clippings into the more convenient format of the codex, aligned centrally on each page. Owing to the narrower dimensions of the columns, each page of the ‘host’ volume is still partly visible on either side of the pasted addition. These aspects, and the rather crude removal of more than a few of the printed pages here and there, reflect the artefact’s nature as a triumph of convenience over aesthetics.

Anne Lister’s diary was brought to public attention by her distant cousin, John Lister. He had discovered some of her journals hidden behind panelling at the Lister family’s home, Shibden Hall, and began publishing articles in the local newspaper, the Halifax Guardian, under the heading ‘Social Life in Halifax: Some extracts from the diary of a Halifax lady’. Anne had written parts of the diary in a secret code, which, when John Lister and a friend cracked it, revealed her transgressive sexual life as a lesbian. On discovering this he published no more extracts, but fortunately for us, he kept them within the family archive, and the diaries have recently been decoded and published.

Anne Lister is sometimes (somewhat glibly) referred to as the first modern lesbian, and has recently been celebrated with a Blue Plaque and by the BBC drama Gentleman Jack. The lives of women, and especially of ‘transgressive’ women, were still relatively obscured beneath the mainstream in the 19th century; this compelling volume symbolically reverses the situation by overlaying an ‘orthodox’ published text with Anne Lister’s self-written narrative.

£850 Ref: 8016

12. GAME, THREAT & CATCH [BROWN, Samuel] Seven printed and manuscript documents concerning a persistent poacher.

[West Riding of Yorkshire. Circa 1782-4]. Seven documents (five part-printed documents, each measuring approximately 195 mm x 160, and two handwritten letters). The documents relate to poaching carried out by one Samuel Brown, a labourer of Shepley. They include two manuscript letters and five part-printed documents, accomplished in manuscript. The first paragraph of each of the printed documents is specific to the area of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the remainder is generic.

¶ In this group of seven documents, we see how a poacher, Samuel Brown, is ensnared by the bureaucratic trappings of the legal system. We learn that he was initially given a verbal warning, but the transience of a spoken caution proved ineffective, leading to an escalation that invokes the permanence and authority of the written (and then printed) word. The sequence of documents forms a brief narrative of crime and punishment, complete with handwritten ‘prologue’ and ‘epilogue’.

The earliest piece is a letter dated “Saturday Nov. 9” (which would make the year 1782). It records the verbal warning and demonstrates the importance for ‘law and order’ of putting this and the threat of future actions onto paper.

Sam: Brown I find you had the impudence to be shooting in the Manor of Emley again only two days after I saw you. I sent to S r Thos.

Blackett when I got home, but he not being at home, I apply’d to Mr Elmsall of Thornhill, and he desired me to convey his Letter to you. I shall see [S]r Thos. as soon as possible, and you ma[y] depend upon it you will hear further from him or S r. G. Savile or both very soon. We shall take care to have some persons upon the Watch for you, and I can assure you, you will not be spared.

H. Elmsall.

So begins the process of transmuting a seemingly subjective admonishment into the objective authority of the game laws. The law remains the same in each case, but the transition from this stern handwritten note to generic printed forms depicts the hapless Brown being fed into the machinery of ‘justice’.

The first of these forms (printed, with particulars entered in manuscript) is dated 28 November 1782, and is a summons requiring the Constable of Shepley “and more especially to William Pinder of Barkisland” (a Yorkshire village) to instruct “Samuel Brown” to appear at “the House of Mr. Hunsworth Inn Keeper in ^Rippenden”. Manuscript additions also note information given by “John Ellis” a “Weaver – Clothmaker” from Barkisland, who reports that Brown “use[d] a certain Engine called a Gun and a certain dog called a setting Dog both for the Destruction of Game.” This is signed “J. Horton”, as are most of the others.

The next document jumps forward almost two years to 13 September 1784, suggesting either that the gears of the judicial machine have turned slowly or that Brown has fallen into recidivism.

This is another summons, its details similar to the first except that Brown is required to appear at “the House of Mr. Samuel Bains Inn Keeper in Rippenden”.

The collection’s fourth piece bears the same date and very similar contents, except that the miscreant’s name is given as “John Brown” (presumably an error rather than a relation).

The fifth document dated 21 September 1784 (evidently from the trial) is a record of the examination of “Thomas Taylor …

Gamekeeper” giving evidence against Brown (again printed with details added by hand); and the sixth, a printed notice of conviction from the same day, completed in manuscript, to “Samuel Brown of Shepley Labourer” who is fined “five pounds” with a repetition of the charge. “J. Horton” once more signs.

The seventh and final item returns to the handwritten, and cannot help but strike a plaintive note: we inadvertently gain a glimpse of our poaching labourer’s education as he pens a short letter to “To Mr Robert Lumb Balehouse (presumably Bail House) Wakefilld”: “Sir William Newton; and my went to the justice house verry Neare But the justice is Gine to the soon Spows and we are Not to Go till we year more about it and we do not know wether will be at home till Next Week” signed “I’m hb Sert. Samll. Brown” and dated “Novembr. 8 1784 Shepley”.

Although we never learn Samuel Brown’s motivation for poaching (whether for entertainment or sustenance), these documents capture the workings of officialdom in suppressing a persistent poacher, along with the sorry trajectory of the latter, who at least has the final word, and in his own hand. As a record of a bureaucratic process, the collection yields insights through its incidental details as well as the satisfying sense of a story having been told. £750 Ref: 7927

13. MARSHALLING EVIDENCE NISBET, Alexander (1657-1725); annotated by Ralph SPEARMAN (1749-1823) An essay on the ancient and modern use of armories; shewing their origin, definition, and division of them into their several species. The Method of Composing them, and Marshalling many Coats together in one Shield. Illustrated by many examples and Sculptures of the Armorial Ensigns of Noble Families in this and other Nations. To which is added, an index explaining the Terms of Blazon made use of in this essay. By Alexander Nisbet Gent.

Edinburgh: printed by William Adams Junior, for Mr. James Mackeuen, and sold at his Shop opposite to the Cross-Well, Anno Dom, M.DCCXVIII. [1718]. First edition.

Quarto (229 m x 171 mm x 24 mm). Pagination pp. vii, [7], 224, [16], collated and complete with the 7 engraved plates. [Moule, CCCCXXXVI]. Contemporary calf, pitted and worn but sound, title page laid down and with sliver neatly grafted to lower margin, worming (Q4-T1 and 1 plate), short marginal tear (2B3), remnants of a modern bookplate to rear pastedown, clipped armorial to pastedown and two clipped coats of arms pasted to verso of two plates.

¶ This copy of Nesbit’s heraldic classic was annotated by the antiquarian Ralph Spearman, who, it is claimed, served as the model for one of Sir Walter Scott's finest characters, Jonathan Oldbuck (aka ‘Monkbarns’), in his 1816 novel The Antiquary.

Whether Spearman was in fact the prototype for Scott’s character (several contenders including Scott himself have been suggested), he apparently played the part of the great antiquary – if anything, perhaps a little too fancifully. Whether, like Scott’s hero, he remained a bachelor due to a disappointment in an early love affair, he certainly remained unmarried and without progeny, which itself provides an interesting twist to his interest in the “science” of heraldry.

Cadwallader Bates, in Archaeologia aeliana, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity (1886), casts doubt on the Monkbarns connection but is informative about the fictional persona that Spearman seems to have constructed for himself: “vanity led him to endeavour to trace his descent and name from the ‘lords of Aspramont, a castle and county on the confines of Lorraine and Bar.’ His new hall at Eachwick was built entirely for show: being three stories high, with gingerbread battlements, and of great length, though only one room thick […] Seen from a distance, it quite deceives a stranger by its palatial appearance. Mr. Spearman was so far successful that the neighbourhood still believe that Eachwick belonged to his family for generations.”

For all Spearman’s desire to claim a long bloodline, he died without children and left his property to his steward, a Mr Hunter, and his elder son, on condition they took his surname: so much for heraldry being a science! It is perhaps not coincidence that we find him exploring the legality of passing on arms to an adopted child in the following section of p. 114. The printed text reads “When a Noble Person adopts an Ignoble one, the Question is, whether the Ignoble by Adoption become Noble … generally all the Lawyers are for the negative … the Ignoble cannot succeed more to the Honours of their adoptive Fathers, than Bastards to their Fathers, and regrets that such a Succession in England, where many, of a base and ungentle State, as adopted Sones, to inherit the Names, Possessions, and Arms of their adoptive Fathers” but Spearman manages to pluck what he needs from the text, stating in the margin “Adopted sons in England inherit the Arms as well as estates of the Family they are adopted into.”

Although he was to live another 14 years beyond this annotation, he would have been around 60 years old at this time and aware perhaps of his mortality and that the proverbial end of the line for him would mark the end of his cherished bloodline, which he evidently considered worth preserving even if only in name.

Despite Cadwallader Bates’s barbed remarks above, Spearman is often mentioned favourably.

For example, the Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland (1825) calls him “a celebrated local antiquary, and … gifted with an excellent memory”, and says that “Mr. Surtees observes, ‘almost the sole depository of a vast mass of oral and popular tradition.’ Though not distinguished for discrimination or accuracy, his MS. notes are numerous and valuable. He was most liberal in his communications; and his correspondence with other antiquaries would, if collected, be extremely curious.” In The Bishoprick Garland (1834), Cuthbert Sharp remarks that Spearman “frequently mentioned a latent intention to arrange the recollections of a long life spent in the acquisition of antiquarian and legendary lore; but it is to be lamented, that he has left no work behind him to perpetuate that extensive local knowledge of which he seemed to be the sole depositary.”

Spearman records his numerous interactions with the text, from single-word annotations, underlining, and manicules which occur on approximately 50 pages, to longer, more detailed annotations to approximately 20 pages as well as all 7 plates of shields (usually with the names of their bearers), and the third and fifth plates also have additional engravings of arms to rectos. There is no definite way of sequencing his reading, but the presence of two inscriptions (“Ra. Spearman Preston 1807” to the pastedown and “Ra: Spearman 1809” to the title page) suggests repeated readings, an impression reinforced by the presence of a brief review to the front pastedown written by Spearman after he had read the book: “This is the best Book of Herdaldry, I have met with and As a sistem that throws some Appearance of Science on it, superior to the larger and later Editios tho with more numerous Examples of Arms: far superior to All the Quaintness and pious Jargon of Guillim and Morgan &c –” and at the end of a few of his annotations, he adds “R. S. 1810.”

He makes notes relating to his own family (“thus Clarenceaux adds 3 Bells to Spearmans Chevron”), and, on p. 138, to his aspirational connection to the “lords of Aspramont”: “+ The Family of Counts Asperemont Princes of Roman Empire Seated on the sixteenth Seat of the Bench of Westphalia in the Imperial Dicts (edicts?) gave the same Arms Gules A Cross Argent”.

Here we also learn of his sources as he states “see Battle Abbey Roll Rymers Fœdera, Bodin of A Commonwealth, Thuano Historia, Pitsius, de Temptoribus Anglicus, Moreris Dictionary, History of England, and the War 1742. Travels thru Germany, French Army list 1788 &c. State of Europe, Life of Dukes of Loraine Maps &&c” as well as inscriptions from Westminster Abbey (e.g. “+ there is an elegant Monument of this Lady Sophia Fairholm Marchioness of Annandale in Westminster Abbey also of Lord William Johnstone her younger Son”), although these may have been copied from printed sources.

Elsewhere, his reading also reveals his political leanings, when apropos only of a name in the text (“Anne Clarges, Wife to General Monk”) he adds “+ Ludlow with his Usual Republican Spite stiles her A sale(?) woman, - and Burnet who is as apt to make ill natured remarks on such as he does not like says she sold every thing that came to her hands: their hate proceeded from Monks active part in the Restoration.” (p. 137). In the abovementioned note on p. 138, he mentions “Pitsius, de Temptoribus Anglicus”. I have been unable to locate a work of this name. Samuel Pitsius contributed to the 1685 edition of Q. Curtius Rufus de rebus Alexandri Magni, and some works in manuscript are located in institutional collections, but nothing with this title nor even the more likely de Temporibus Anglicus, so he was perhaps working from manuscript sources as well as printed.

While adding genealogical notes on the family of Weilycleugh on page 42, he makes the following incidental observation: “they had his Oval Watch which shut up like a Hunting Watch, decorated with scripture History on the lid &, it was silver, the Rim & Spring brass, in the inside of the lid his Achievement, motto, and Title: the Miss Hudsons Milliners are Daughters of said Hudson last named. R.S. 1810.

The Celebrated Dr Ramsay of Newcastle, MD. has this watch AD. 1812. given him by a Person who saved it from a Silver Smiths melting it.”

Such anecdotes remind us that random occurrences might befall any object – including this volume – on its journey through time and how tiny matters of chance can seal its fate.

£2,750 Ref: 7947

14. DIALECTICAL FREEDOM BENSON, John Two early 18th-century English manuscript schoolbooks.

[England, Muncaster. Undated. Circa 1710-4]. Two small quarto volumes, each approximately 200 mm x 160 mm.

¶ These unusual manuscript volumes offer privileged access to the educational provision of the so-called lower classes in provincial England. Their sometimes-contradictory elements give us an insight into the cross-currents of intellectual thought in the early modern period. Here we find earlier scholastic didacticism nesting within Enlightenment ideas of broader access to education.

The volumes were produced by one John Benson who embeds what he has learned through his organised presentation which develops across two quarto volumes.

The earlier volume is bound in contemporary sprinkled sheep, with plain ruled boards. The first leaf is inscribed to the recto, “Unus e libris Johannis Benson pretium 3[s]—6[d]-0[qs] Cene valet” and to the verso “Exercitia Scholastica in usum I: Benson Conditoris”, both pages with calligraphic flourishes.

Pagination: 1 (blank), 2 (inscriptions), 127 text pages, followed by 21 blank leaves at the end. The plain sheep binding and the presence of blank leaves at the end suggests this was a stationer’s book bought for the purpose. The pages are neatly laid out with some borders, and the text is written in a clear and legible sloping, with occasional calligraphic flourishes. It does not appear to be a workbook, rather it has the appearance of a copybook bringing together the best of this student’s work.

The second volume is predominantly devoted to the art of writing, including dialogue, rhetoric, and especially poetry, and integrates some of the poems from the first volume. The layout of the material is clearer and more organised, making for a more attractive artefact. It is bound in full calf, which again appears to be a stationer’s book but this time a contrasting label has been added to the spine which reads “Scolastick Exercises I * B”.

The front paste-down and first leaf are inscribed “Liber Johannis Benson” across the two pages, with calligraphic flourishes and floral patterns.

Pagination: 272 pages (including 3 divisional blanks); this text comfortably doubles the earlier volume. There are several stubs at the end, but the text ends with the word “Finis”. The text is double-ruled in red throughout, with some horizontal double lines to earlier sections and decorative pen strokes in red to the remainder of the text. We have a strong sense of a student taking what he has learned about spatial organisation and bringing it to bear upon his second attempt at a final copybook.

Benson attended a free school in the northern parish of Muncaster. It was built in 1706 with capacity for around 40-50 students. In 1696, Richard Brocklebank left the sum of £160 in his will, to form an endowment for the free education of the children of those parishioners who also contributed towards the erection of a school in the parish. The sum of £100 was donated by Sir William Pennington (though he himself was educated at Oxford, as were his descendants), and various smaller amounts by local parishioners. The school took 1s 6d per quarter from its ‘free’ students, whilst other students may have been asked to pay a higher quarterage, but it later became completely free. The first page of Benson’s manuscript includes an encomium to Richard Brocklebank entitled, “In the Remembrance of one Richard Brockbank, found r. of a free school, the place of my Education. Salve!”

The school was founded in the period when the wider intellectual currents of Puritan and Enlightenment ideologies of universality and broadening of access to education were resulting in the creation of ‘charity’ and ‘free’ schools. Both Puritan and Enlightenment schools advocated a degree of educational reform. Puritan reformists such as Samuel Hartlib and John Milton advocated for a complete reorganization of the educational system, a complete destruction of scholasticism, and a universal state-funded education system. The Puritan school sought a trans-class education with the aim of increasing Bible readership among the poor. Simultaneously, Enlightenment thought came to dominate the formation of early modern educational theory, with John Locke proposing that the universality of human sensation should be reflected in the universality of human education, as for Locke knowledge was obtained through sensation. However, in Locke’s seminal treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693), he writes that “a Prince, a Nobleman, and an ordinary Gentleman's Son, should have different Ways of Breeding”, proposing that whilst all deserve an education, the rigor of such education should be differentiated according to class.

Such were the conditions in which Muncaster School was founded. Yet this intriguing manuscript shows that, despite strong Puritan and Enlightenment distaste for “traditional Aristotelian scholasticism”, the school strongly adhered to scholastic methodology.

These volumes show Benson tackling rigorous exercises in dialectical reasoning, which required the student to argue the case for a given topic and to then provide the opposing argument. If that were not enough, the student had to do this in English, Ancient Greek and then Latin (or a combination of two of these). It is perhaps understandable, then, that preceding the exercises is the appropriate maxim “Non omnia possumus omnes” (we can’t do everything).

The first exercise in the manuscript serves as a useful example of the overall structure: ‘Tis better to be a souldier yn. a Scholler.

Why shou’d it seem strange, Iuditious Auditours, that I your mean Oratour, wanting a Souldier’s bold & dareing presence, s d. here attempt to espouse his part, & vindicate his Honour, you will own your selues oblig’d, to the successfull Conduct of this present War. This discourse continues for a page and a half concluding: Come then Bellona, I’ll now thee adore, I’ll fight for Honnour to my knees in Gore, I’ll be a sneaking Scholler here no more.

It is then translated into Latin as: Toga cedit Armis / Cur uobis sit Miram Aurilissimi Auditores, quod ego Oratorculis uestor, cui Audacia Militis deest, attamen illum … and into Ancient Greek.

Benson then composes the argument from the opposite position: Tis better to be a Scholler &c. I am now most Candid Auditours to appear before ye in the behalf of Learning & learned men, Of Learning I say, which in my Opinion & I hope also in your’s has the Prefference to a military Life, tho’ floridly set out by our warlike Oratour. For why? pray resolve me, is it not Schollershipp that exalts you to the Stars, gives you a prospect of the World’s wealth, & without you are below the worst of Animalls.

Again, this is translated into Latin and Ancient Greek.

Similar exercises include “Brutus did ill in expelling Tarquin the King out of Rome”. As in the previous example, the discourse argues the case for approximately one-and-a-half pages and is followed by the Latin “Malefecit Brutus qui Tarquinium Regrem e Roma expulit” translation (but this time not Greek). This is followed by the opposing “Whether Brutus did well &c” which is again translated into Latin.

An education of this kind could have arisen from the more humanist educational values of the Renaissance which enshrined scholasticism and laid value on the classical languages of Ancient Greek and Latin. But such a focus on the classics contradicts the anticlassical views of Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke, Doddridge and Bacon. The existence of a free school with such a rigorous curriculum would have further contradicted Locke’s notion of a simple education for the poor.

As to Benson himself, he seems to have been a lively and intelligent pupil. The exercises in the book are most likely to have been set tasks, with all the impersonal aspects that this implies; but these are interspersed with deeply personal poems which show that Benson was capable of a certain intimacy and originality.

Take, for example, a poem of 47 lines, on the loss of his father entitled, “An Epicede on the Death of my honour’d Father W: Benson”, which begins: Adone my sobbing Muse stop stop this Flood Of Tears, for why? alass! they’ll do no good.

Other elegies include “An Elegy on the Death of my beloved school-fellow J:J:” and “An Elegy in Remembrance of my belov’d Anne E. Frears in (1704) expired.” A long poem of 64 lines, it begins “Look how the Sun his Race fullfilld descends / And Labour fully done; ith’ Evening Ends” And concludes: “Our childish passions; she triumphs while we / In sorrow mourn her Death, She’s Sorrow free.”

On a lighter note, we also find “Mr. Willim. Lilies Rules of School behavir. done in English measured Paraphrase.” This long poem (195 lines) is composed in rhyming couplets, with the exception of three rhyming triplets.

Cum Pupil who to Pallas camp’s inclin’d Deeply ingrave these Morrals in yor. Mind. [...]

What I dictate; describe yet each thing right,} Let no disgracefull Blots come to my sight,} Lest I severely show you how to write.} Ye. Precepts to loose Paprs. don’t commit, To transcribe them in Books ‘tis much more fitt [...]

Yor. Books, & all your things in order keep, You will thereby great satisfaction reap. [...]

And if you cou’d a Diadem possess, And yet illiterate, you are but an Ass. Hence let rude youth yn. labour wth. the Pen, Strive to be learn’d, for they’re the only Men.

Other pieces include “Raven=glass in Burlesq.” (as the title suggests, a humorous poem on Ravenglass, a small village near Muncaster, for which Benson also provides translations into Latin and Greek); and “To the worshipfull Jos: Pening: Esqr.” which offers an encomium to Joseph Pennington whose family owned nearby Muncaster Castle and contributed to the financing of the school.

The second volume adds substantial sections including “A DIALOGUE betwixt A and B about D making a Colloquie.” In this, he practices the art of the colloquy through various subjects beginning at A and working through the alphabet: “A Colloquy about Gram[m]ar betwixt A & B; A Colloquy about Husbandry betwixt C & D”, taking in “Hawking”, “Hunting”, “Fighting”, “Shooting”, “solliciting”, “Weaving” and finally “A Colloquy about Teaching between Y & Z”. Other exercises include “A Fable”, and “A DIALOGUE shewing how to make an Epistle”.

There are occasional pieces copied from other sources, for example John Oldham’s “A Character of a Quack upon a Man that loves Women of all sorts & Seizes”. But surprisingly, “Everyone to his Humour” turns out not to be a play on the name of the play by John Benson’s more famous spoonerism, but an original piece by Benson.

Whilst this school was not strictly religious, the skills Benson was taught would have been of use to an embryo clergyman. And we do find a John Benson mentioned in the Subscription Book for Clergy and Schoolmasters (1717-1725) held at the Lancashire Records Office (ARR/6/4). The place and dates tally nicely, but we have not found any further corroborating (or contradictory) evidence to be able to state conclusively that it is the same person.

Enlightenment philosophy questioned what is taught and to whom and helped to create the conditions in which free schools were not simply started but were acclaimed as a moral good. But this manuscript captures the paradoxes and incongruities of the new educational system by offering us a pupil’s-eye view of the curriculum that resulted. Its contents reflect conflicting, or at least overlapping, notions of the kind of authority that should be disseminated through the structures of education.

Benson’s manuscripts show the remarkable degree to which the old scholastic methods, with their reliance on classical authorities, could still be found in some corners of the new Enlightenment world of education. Whether young minds like Benson’s benefitted from the demographic expansion of learning that ensued from the new egalitarianism, should perhaps be placed within the wider question he himself raises:

£6,000 Ref: 7892

15. HAY POLLOI [HAY, William (1695-1755)] English 18th-century manuscript entitled ‘A Collection of the Coat-Armours of Diverse of the Nobility and Gentry of England, &c. disposed under their proper Heads, or respective Bearings. Extracted from Books, containing such Ensigns of Honour: from Funeral Monuments, Escutcheons, Seals, & other such like Authorities.

By W H.’ [England. Circa 1750. Dated from watermarks and references in the text]. Folio (407 mm x 165 mm x 59 mm). [2, blank leaves], [6, title and list of contents] 556 numbered pages (including some blanks and a 100 page index).

Watermark: Pro Patria with a countermark IV. Similar to Haewood 3696, which he dates circa 1724.

Contemporary vellum, spine title in manuscript reads “VI FR Heraldry WH”.

Provenance: small bookplate to paste-down which reads “From the collection of Joan Corder, F.S.A.”. She bought the manuscript from Bernard Quaritch, whose typed catalogue notes are tipped onto rear endpaper, dated in pen “29, April 1965”. Corder’s collection was acquired by Claude Cox. Joan Corder (1921-2005) was a writer on heraldry, whose best-known work is probably A Dictionary of Suffolk Crests: Heraldic Crests of Suffolk Families (1965). Interestingly, her work is referred to as a “Dictionary, so-called because it is not only an Ordinary of crests but also contains an index of names”, a description that could also be applied to this manuscript which includes a substantial 90-page index of names at the end.

The Quaritch catalogue note suggests that William Hay may have been the compiler of this manuscript. Recent comparison with a manuscript in William Hay’s hand at the British Library (MS 32687-32992) supports the view that our manuscript may indeed be attributed to Hay.

¶ This innovative 18th-century manuscript ordinary precedes Papworth’s famous Ordinary of British Armorials (1874) by over a century and offers elegant solutions for organising a complex array of material. Yet for all the grandeur of purpose, it was created using an 18th-century accounts ledger – a rather humble artefact, but an “honest” and efficient form for such a vast project of antiquarian interest.

Heraldic ordinaries have been in existence since at least the 14 th century. Among the most important and influential examples are those by Glover in the 16th century and Vincent in the 17th century. However, these works essentially group together types of shields and illustrate by painted examples. They were extremely useful, but no attempt had been made to create a complete ordinary. Certainly, such an object was needed, because without a comprehensive reference work, heralds could not be certain, when granting new coats to the ever-increasing number of bearers, that a particular pattern had not already been granted.

Papworth earned his reputation as an innovator by arranging his material according to blazon rather than by name, and his system, including his bulky “beast” and “bird” categories, continues to this day. Yet this notable manuscript pre-empts Papworth’s trailblazing work with an elegant 18th-century attempt to arrange heraldry according to blazon.

In 1707 the Deputy Earl Marshall (Lord Bindon) ordered that the Clarenceaux Norroy should complete and present to him complete ordinaries of the arms of the gentry in the respective provinces. This would enable a coat to be found by design and thus identify what coats of a given pattern type already existed. But the task of recording all the names and charges appears to have been too great, as no such collection appears to have been officially produced.

Nonetheless, Bindon’s call was evidently answered in a private capacity, hence this comprehensive and systematic ordinary of arms, with all the blazons recorded along with the names of families to which they belong. The work may be confidently ascribed (as mentioned in the notes above) to the author and politician William Hay, of Glyndebourne, Sussex, who was an MP from 1734 to 1753. He was a committed parliamentarian and devoted himself to the reform of the poor law. He held the sinecure of Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London from 1754, which may have been the source for much of the material in this volume. The Quaritch catalogue note also observes that the manuscript contains a reference to some genealogies by a member of the Hay family: “Fragment of some old Mss Genealogies, drawn up in 1590, wherein ye. Arms of each person are depicted in Colours: said to be done by some one of ye. Family of Hay, & now in ye. Possession of R. L. Chambers” and we learn from another reference that Chambers lived in the same county as Hay (“A Mss. Visitation of Sussex, in 1634. In ye. Possession of R. Lovelace Chambers of Burwash, Sussex”).

He published political works including Essay on Civil Government (1728) and Remarks on the Laws Relating to the Poor (1735), as well as poems and a work on religion and morality: Religio philosophi (1754).

This latter seems to have been part of a burst of creative activity in which he produced his pioneering book, Deformity: an Essay (1754). This discussion of his own physical disabilities is one of the earliest memoirs of living with a disability and argues that people with disabilities deserve to be treated with full human dignity. The present manuscript burnishes his reputation as a pioneer still further.

Hay has arranged the material under three main headings: “Part 1. Things peculiar to the Science”, which includes “Coats consisting of some one Metal, Colour, or Fur alone”, “Bearings of Chiefs alone”, “Pales, Pallets, & Endorses”, “Escutcheons, Inescutcheons”, “Flasques: Flanches: Voiders”, “Bordures: Orles: Tressures”.

“Part 2. Things Natural”, includes “Angels: Cherubins”, “Spheres: Stars”, “Fruits: Flowers”, “Wheat-Ears: Wheat-Sheaves, or Garbs”, “Fleurs-de-Lys”, “Tygers”, “Phenix: Pelicans”, “Martlets”, “Men. (1.

Mens Heads. 2. Mens Hearts. 3. Mens Hands. 4. Mens Arms & Legs.

5. Men whole: & their parts not before mentioned.)”, “Amphibious Creatures; as Bevers: & Others: &c.”, “Bigenerous Creatures; as, Mules: Leopards: &c.”, “Monstrous Creatures. (1. Griffons. 2. Wyverns: Dragons: Cockatrices: Mermaids: &c.)”.

“Part 3. Things Artificial”, includes “Crowns: Coronets”, “Books: Letters: Pens: &c.”, “Musical Instruments: Celestial Signs”, “Catherine -Wheels”, “Things belonging to Linnen or Woollen Manufacture”, “Keys”, “Cups”, “Domestick Implements, & Furniture”, “Buckles: Fermaulxes.”

He includes a short “Appendix” which comprises “The Royal Ensigns: in what Manner, by what Persons, & with what Differences born” giving explanatory details of “2. Lions rampant. 1. Lions rampt. born single, & alone. 2. Lions rampt. born single, together with Ordinaries or other Charges. 3. Lions rampt. born more yn. one, & alone. 4. Lions rampt. born more yn. one upon or beside ordinaries. 5. Lions rampt. born more yn. one, together with other Charges.”

Hay also adds a comprehensive index entitled “Alphabetical Table of the Names of the Nobility and Gentry, whose Coats are blazoned in the foregoing Collection”, which, even though it is arranged in double columns, still occupies a hundred pages.

He meticulously records the sources used in a table placed at the beginning of the main text, entitled “The Abbreviations, or Marks (made Use of in referring to the Authorities, from whence y e. following Coat-Armours are collected) explained”, which lists some 21 titles with initials or contractions. For example, G.H. A Display of Heraldry; by John Guillim, Pursuivant of Arms. The sixth Edition.

I.C. The Irish Compendium: &c. The 2d. Edition.

Sup. to I.C. The Supplement to ye. foresd. Irish Compendium.

U.S. A Mss. Visitation of Sussex, in 1634. In ye. Possession of R. Lovelace Chambers of Burwash, Sussex.

Ad. to US. Additions to ye. foresaid Ms. Visitation in another Hand-writing.

Hay. Fragment of some old Mss Genealogies, drawn up in 1590, wherein ye. Arms of each person are depicted in Colours: said to be done by some one of ye. Family of Hay, & now in ye. Possession of R. L. Chambers.

Mon. West. Monumenta Westmonasteriensia, wth. all ye. Epitaphs &c. Henry Keepe. London printed, 1683.

Despite his diligence, Hay’s attempt to list all his sources proved unequal to the enormity of the task, and we find further works listed within the text itself. For example, the first entry for “Ermyn” references “Bossewell’s Armory of Honour. f 121”, which matches both editions of Bossewell’s VVorkes of armorie, (London. 1572 and 1597); and on p. 6 against “Arragon” he has annotated “See Plate in Ashmole 711. No.162” which matches the reference in Elias Ashmole’s The institution, laws & ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter (1672). Bossewell and Ashmole are both frequently cited, along with other authors not mentioned in the table.

A work of the size and complexity of this manuscript would have taken most people several decades to produce. Even if we allow for preparatory studies, we can be confident that Hay accomplished the task in a matter of only a few years. The table of sources includes “Warb. London & Middlesex illustrated: By Jn. Warburton, Esqr. Somerset Herald. Printed, 1749” and Hay died in 1755, so this work must have been part of the creative explosion which also produced his major works, Religio philosophi and Deformity.

Hay has chosen a very humble form in which to house his immense undertaking. But the simple ledger book is a model of efficiency and provides a parsimonious structure in which to organise this storehouse of knowledge. Even though we do find overspill in some sections, the information has been gathered and collated with the utmost efficiency and mental organisation.

It is hard to be sure whether Hay – a prosperous man – chose this format because of his familiarity with its layout or through some influence of its principles on his thinking about how to organise this complex information. But what we can say with certainty is that it provides an ideal format for him to adapt to his needs. We can see this from the very first page: he uses the existing left-hand column for annotations, the wide central column for details, and, by blind-inscribing an additional vertical line on the right, he has created a wider column for family names.

Following the ordinary of arms, Hay gives a general overview of heraldry, transcribed from Guillim and others. He then completes his mammoth task with a 90-page index at the end which comprises some 10,000 names. The work is then embellished with a list of crests and another of mottoes written near the end of the volume. By including the extensive index which links each name to its blazon, Hay has lifted the ordinary out of its earlier illustrative form and created an ingenious textual tool which could be employed by anyone with a working understanding of heraldry. £4,500 Ref: 7936

16. STRONG MINT [ROYAL MINT] Manuscript sheets from the Royal Mint.- Goldsmiths' Company and the Trial of the Pyx. [London. Circa 1681. Dated from text and watermark]. Folio (292 mm x 190 mm). 20 text pages on 10 sheets. Browned, edges chipped with losses to margins, but only occasionally affecting text. Occasional corrections and deletions. 1 of the documents (number 8 in the list below) has 2 lines deleted and annotated “entered on the Gold Side”, indicating that these are the original sheets rather than copies.

Watermark: Horn. Similar to Haewood 2667-84, which he dates between 1664-1707.

¶ This group of documents, produced during a turbulent time at the Mint, contains details of the large quantities of gold and silver being delivered for coinage and the people involved in the processes, including an unusual record of the Trial of the Pyx. Here and there are hints of a royal institution cautiously regaining stability after an unsettled period.

The “crisis which rocked the Mint”1 had begun a few years before. In 1679, the assistant weigher and teller, William Taylor, had given an address to the Lords of the Council, denouncing the Mint’s “irregularity and abuses” 2. In July 1680, the Mint’s master-worker, Henry Slingsby, had been suspended for irregularities; the warden, Sir Anthony St Leger, retired in the same year. At the time of these documents, the Mint was overseen by commissioners fighting to defend the principle of free coinage against a rear-guard attack to reinstate seignoirage, by which the government took the difference between the face value of coins and their production costs.

The entries for gold and silver in these documents run concurrently in an unbroken sequence from 2 nd July to 29 December 1681, with the date of each trial recorded; and they include several recordings of the Trial of the Pyx, which checked the quality of coinage in circulation.

Gold 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Silver r. July the 2d. 1681 v. July the 6th. 1681 - 7th, 9th, 11th r. 11th, 13th, 14th v. July the 14th. 1681 - 15th r. July the 20th. 1681 - 21st v. July the 16th. 1681 - 18th r. July the 23th. 1681 – 25th , 28th v. July the 30th the 1681 r. July the 30th. 1681, August 2d. 1681 v. August the 6th 1681 - 8th

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

r. July the 2d. 1681 v. July the 6th. 1681 - 7th, 9th, 13th, 14th r. July the 16th. 1681 - 18th, 23rd, 25th v. July the 29th. 1681 - 30th, August the 2d. 1681 r. August the 6th. 1681 - 8th, 10th, 10th or 11th v. August the 13th. 1681 - 15th, 24th, September 16th 1681 r. September the 21st. 1681, October the first 1681, Novembr.

24th 1681, December the 6th 1681 v. 1681 Nouember Nihil in Coyned Moneys, December the 12th 1681 r. December the 17th. 1681, 20th, 23rd, 29th v. December the 12th. 1681 14th, 15th

The first group of five leaves contains entries for “gold monyes recieued” (recorded by weight in pounds, troy ounces, pennyweights, and grains), and the second group comprises five leaves of “Siluer monies receiued”.

There are repeated entries throughout for a number of members of the Goldsmiths’ Company (usually for gold and silver “monies receiued”) who are listed in Heal, The London Goldsmiths (1972)3. These include “ffrancis Kenton” (goldsmith and banker; King’s Arms, Fleet St, Angel Lombard Street), “John. Sweetaple” (Sir, goldsmith and banker; Black Moor’s Head, Lombard St), “Peter Percivall” (goldsmith and banker; Black Boy, Lombard St), “John Temple” (goldsmith; Three Tons, Lombard St, — described by Pepys as “the fat blade”), as well as three individuals who do not appear in Heal: “John Vaulaire”, “Henry Griffith”, “Edward Boueree”.

The documents include recordings of the gold and silver delivered “to the Monyers” of the Mint, and we have the distinct sense that they were still grappling with past irregularities. Leaf 9r contains a note referring to an earlier oversight which, although they let it pass at the time, they will not now do so unremarked: “October the first 1681. sta. Monyers Supply - 10.7.3.16 Memd That allthough this be allowed now unto the Monyers; yet the same was brought in the 13 th. of August last, and was not then entred.”.

These documents record the bullion deposited in the Mint for coining. There are several references to the melting of gold and silver “Deliuered to melt in gold [- allay, ij pott, scissell]” (Scissell is the remainder of gold or silver after a coin has been cut from the sheet; it is remelted for future use). There are often large amounts of material involved. Entries are frequently recorded between 100 – 300 pounds, but in December 1681 exceptionally high quantities were apparently required: “Jn. Temple & compr” record no fewer than 3,379 pounds of silver on the 12 th. At the time these documents were written, the quantities of gold imported from Africa could probably easily have met the Mint’s requirements. But this was not the case for silver, so these large amounts may reflect this need to utilise internal supplies of silver for coinage.

Following the disturbances at the Mint, it is perhaps reassuring (and may have been intended as such, given its timing) that we find a record of the Trial of the Pyx. This ceremony, which probably dates from as early as the 12 th century, was designed to ensure that newly minted coins conform to required specifications. One or two coins would be taken from each production run and put into a boxwood chest, called the pyx (from the Greek, πυξίς, ‘pyxis’ meaning wooden box), which was then locked by three Mint officers. Periodically these coins were taken out of the box to be counted and weighed to determine the average deficiency of coins in weight. To check the gold content (‘fineness’), a handful of coins was assayed against a special trial plate.

At the time of these documents, it was presided over by the Lord Chancellor with a jury of assayers from the Goldsmiths’ Company.

There are numerous sidenotes referring to “pix”. These record the number of coins taken for the purpose of testing the consignments. On “5th. Augusti 1681” the “Triall of the Pix” was conducted for gold (5r) and silver (7v).

The Trial of the Pyx is now an annual event, but in the 17th century it was conducted only intermittently, so its inclusion in these documents is an unusual occurrence. Given the crisis still resounding in the Mint at the time, this trial would have been of more than passing significance, and the ostensible dryness of the statements in these records only superficially masks the anxieties of a financial body straining to get its house in order.

£2,000 Ref: 7953 References: 1. Challis, C. E. A New History of the Royal Mint. (1982). p. 357.

2. Craig, John. The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948. (1953). p. 406.

3. Heal, Ambrose. The London Goldsmiths, (1972).

17. EATS, SHOOTS & NEEDS THEOBALD, John (d. 1760); CADOGAN, William (1711-1797). A Healthy Sammelband of Three Printed Books & a Collection of Manuscript Horticultural Notes & Remedies.

Octavo. Modern half calf, marbled boards. Text soiled and heavily damp stained.

The volume comprises: [1]. THEOBALD, John. Every man his own physician. Being, a complete collection of efficacious and approved remedies, for every disease incident to the human body. With plain instructions for their common use. Necessary to be had in all families, particularly those residing in the country. By John Theobald, M.D. The fourth edition, improved. London: Printed and sold by W. Griffin, in Fetter-Lane; R. Withy, in Cornhill; and G. Kearsly, in Ludgate-street, MDCCLXIV. [1764]. Pagination pp. [8], 50. complete.

[2]. THEOBALD, John. The young wife’s guide, in the management of her children. Containing, every thing necessary to be known relative to the nursing of children, from the time of their Birth, to the Age of Seven Years; together with a plain and full account of every Disorder, to which Infants are subject, and a collection of efficacious Remedies, suited to every Disease. By John Theobald, M.D. Author of Medulla Medicinae. Compiled at the Command of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. London: Printed and sold by W. Griffin, in Fetter-Lane, R. Withy, in Cornhill, G. Kearsly, opposite St. Martin’s Church, in Ludgate-Street, and E. Etherington, at York, MDCCLXIV. [1764]; FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Pagination pp. [6], 49, [1] (final leaf bound in reverse).

[3]. CADOGAN, William . An essay upon nursing, and the management of children, from their birth to three years of age. By William Cadogan of Bristol, M. D. In a letter to one of the governors of the Foundling Hospital. Published by Order of the General Committee for transacting the Affairs of the said Hospital. The fourth edition, with additions. London: Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane, MDCCL. [1750]. Pagination pp. 38.

Please note: A4 is badly torn with loss of approximately half of the leaf, and several other leaves torn with small areas of loss and tape repairs.

[4]. [MANUSCRIPT] 18th-century Manuscript Remedies and Horticultural Notes. [nr Scropton. South Derbyshire? Circa 1771-2.

Dated within manuscript]. 25 pages.

¶ From “Scorbutic Humor” and “Flatulent Spasm” to raising children by analogies with dough, this collection of printed texts with manuscript remedies and horticultural notes forms a comprehensive household medicine cabinet of texts.

Upon opening this cabinet, we first come to John Theobald’s important 18th-century work of medical popularisation. Every man his own physician was as radical as it was pragmatic, providing health care for the home in the form of practical remedies with clear instructions for their use by non-professionals. This is followed by Theobald’s Housewife’s Guide in the Management of her Children which, again in the spirit of egalitarianism, promises to provide “everything necessary to be known relative to the nursing of children, from the time of their birth to the age of seven years”. In the preface he proposes the curious argument that “[c]hildren like dough, are susceptible of all impressions, and an infant well formed at its birth, may become weak, and sickly, thro’ the improper management of the nurse … and on the contrary, the most tender and sickly infant may become strong and robust, by a careful attention to the rules laid down in this Pamphlet.”

Our compiler then adds William Cadogan’s Essay upon Nursing, based on Cadogan’s experience as medical attendant of the London Foundling Hospital for abandoned babies. Despite the author’s off-putting opening remarks that “[nursing] has been too long fatally left to the Management of Women, who cannot be supposed to have proper Knowledge to fit them for such a Task”, the book has much to commend it. His advocacy of breastfeeding as early as possible to increase colostrum intake, although not original, was highly influential, and marked a watershed in nursing practice. Against the middle-class practice of swaddling children, he advised they be allowed to roam free, breath fresh air, and exercise to strengthen their limbs.

Unfortunately, either a careless reader or the heavily nourished hands of a child have torn several pages leading to the loss of some text.

We next come to the manuscript additions, which take us from the sphere of printed guidance to the more localised, ‘grassroots’ world of the personal and the social. The writings are anonymous, and their reflexive references (as well as their being bound together with books on childcare) are suggestive, but inconclusive: “A Temporary Relief for ye Pain in My Breast”; “A Diet Drink to take away ye Cause of ye Above Complaint. N.B. Dr. Butler Prescrib’d ye above for My Case, May 20th.

1771”. But it’s in observing the social interactions that we find the manuscript opens up. For example, the abovementioned “Dr. Butler” appears in several capacities: as medic (“Good for warts. Dr. Butler”, “he order’d an ounce of Sena Leaves to be added to ye diet drink”), as fellow horticulturalist (“The Rose Campion or as Dr. Butler Calls it Chiranthus”, “4 plants which I Sent to Derby to Dr. Butler”) and even as authorial sleuth (“Dr Butler Says Mr Astis is ye Author of ye Bath Guide”).

Further medical advice is drawn from other professionals (“An Oyntment for a Pain in ye Face. Dr. Chambers”), from printed texts (“ye above Receipts were taken out of a Book Call’d The Family Pocket Book wrote by Peregrine Montague”; “An Easy Cure for ye Gravel, extracted from Dr. Hill’s Pamphlet on ye Virtues of British Herbs”) some of which are local publications (“A Remedy for ye Hooping Cough, & also Very Beneficial for Coughs & Shortness of Breath. - Derby Paper for Jan. 10.

72.”), from hearsay (“Nicholas Cook ye Tole-Man in Derby was Cur’d of a Dropsy”) and from the compiler’s social connections (“Pain in ye Stomack. Mrs Clare”; “Mr Dawson of Weston his Receipt for ye Rhumatism”; For a Dry Cough. Mr Taperel”; “Mrs. Dawson of St. Peters Parish”).

Dr Butler’s green fingers have already been alluded to above, but our compiler also mentions finds in their own garden (“Stramonium or Thorn Apple. in My Garden”; “Lapathum, Monk’s Rhubarb. N.B. ye Seed Shd. be Sown Soon after Ripe. in my Garden”; “Felix weed or Flux weed, a Species of y e Sisymbrium. Got before My Door”), and that of others (“Lithospermon or Bars seed ye Plant Mr Hepworth’s Brother shew’d me”; “Greek Valerian or Polomonium in M r Brown’s Garden”), and some hedgerow discoveries (“Great Cyprus Grass, 3 Square Leaves, Mr Crumpton’s Lane”). The authority of the “father of modern taxonomy” is also invoked in a passage on classification: “The English Names of Some Plants, with ye Genera Classes & orders they are Rang’d Under by Linnæus”.

Through its frequent topographical references we learn that our compiler likely lived near the Derbyshire village of Scropton. A remarkably specific reference to “Reseda, ^ Wold or weld Diers Weed, ye Plant with Pyramidal Yellow flowers in ye hedge near ye Basket Makers going to Scropton” suggests they were local, as does a plant “Dodecandrai Trigynia” found “at Tutbury”, a village located near Scropton.

They also take suggestions from nearby city dwellers: “Mrs Throckmorton of Derby Cures ye worms in Children by giving them ye Powder of Fern Roots”. These roaming sources are at one point matched by a peregrination in topic, as an entry relaying advice from a local schoolteacher, a “Mrs Wood Schoolmistress ^in Uttoxeter”, jumps from “Receipt for a Pain in ye Breast, Stomach wormes [and] almost all manner of Sores” to the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and surprisingly specific biblical references: “The above woman Said She heard two Sermons Preach’d at Derby whilst y e Rebels were there. The Texts. Ezekiel Chap. 21. Vers. 25, 26, 27. Joshua Chap. 22 Ver. 22.” So familiar and universal are the quirks of social interaction that one can imagine this abrupt change of subject occurring during the same conversation, but this is of course impossible to know.

Through the combination of texts on children’s health and wellbeing, together with manuscript notes, this bucolic collection informs our understanding of the health concerns – and occasional digressions – of a rural village in Northern England.

£1,500 Ref: 7976

18.TOEING THE LINE [MAYNWARING (or MAINWARING), Arthur (1668-1712)] Manuscript entitled ‘The History & fall of the Conformity Bill being an Excellent new Song to the Tune of the lady’s fall &c.’

[Circa 1704. Undated]. Folio (313 mm x 193 mm). Two bifolium sheets, text to 5 pages. Written in a neat scribal hand.

Watermark: Quartered shield (dagger in one quarter; Arms of London). Countermark: H. Which matches Folger L.f.649 which they date circa 1699.

¶ This is a scribal copy of The History & fall of the Conformity Bill, a satirical poem usually (though by no means always) attributed to Arthur Maynwaring.

The poem was circulated in manuscript in the early months of 1704. According to CELM, there are anonymous copies in Bodleian (MSS Rawl. D. 360, f. 62r; Rawl. poet. 169, f. 29r; Firth b. 21, f. 51r) and elsewhere. A manuscript copy, dated January 1703/4 and subscribed ‘Certainly written by Mr. Congreve’, is in the British Library (Add. MS 40060, ff. 41r-5r). The poem is ascribed to Robert Wisdom in Bodleian (MS Locke. c. 32, f. 44r) and British Library (Add. MS 7122, f. 6r). In agreement with these last two, ours is inscribed at the end: “Sic Ceri vit Robert Wisdome”.

It first appeared in print as an anonymous broadside entitled The history and fall of the conformity bill. Being an excellent new song to the tune of The ladies fall (1704). (Foxon, M32; N8689). ESTC records only one copy, which is located at Harvard’s Houghton Library. It was also included in A New Collection of Poems Relating to State Affairs, from Oliver Cromwel To this present Time (London, 1705), pp. 557-61, where it is set to “to the tune of Chivy Chase”. The text in Alexander Pope’s exemplum of this publication (British Library, C. 28. e. 15) is annotated by him ‘Certainly written by Mr Congreve’. It was, however, attributed to Arthur Maynwaring (who, like Congreve, was a member of the ‘Order of the Toast’ or ‘Punch Club’) by John Oldmixon in his The Life and Posthumous Works of A. Maynwaring (London, 1715), p. 40.

These printed versions all have the names of characters redacted and the 1705 printed version also redacted “arse” (see below). The earliest printed version with all the names included I have located occurs in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1785). Our manuscript copy includes all the original names and expletives including: Even Harley’s Self I would say would Scarce Be made a Smithfield’s Martyr For proof clap Faggots to his Arse You’l find You’ve caught a Tartar

The poem sits at an interesting watershed in Maynwaring’s political thought, marking the point at which he turned fully to the Whig cause. According to Ellis in his Arthur Mainwaring as Reader of Swift’s ‘Examiner’ (1981), it is the “earliest of Mainwaring’s poems to defend the ideals of the Revolution […] The practice of occasional conformity by which a dissenter could take communion in the Church of England once a year to qualify himself for public office, military or civil, was particularly offensive to Tory high churchmen”.

The purpose of the Conformity Act was to prevent Nonconformists and Roman Catholics from taking “occasional” communion in the Church of England in order to become eligible for public office under the Corporation Act 1661 and the Test Act. As the poem puts it, “Dissenters they were to be pressed / To goe to Com[m]on Prayer”.

Ellis neatly sums up both the purpose and tone of the poem: “In Mainwaring’s fanciful conceit the bill becomes a hasty pudding, cooked up in the House of Commons and served up to the Lords to sample. But Burnet stirring it with his grimy toe makes it unpalatable to the peers (who in fact rejected it upon the second reading on 14 December 1703 by seventy-one votes to fifty-nine)… The physical repulsion aroused by the thought of eating something stirred by someone else’s dirty toe is a powerful vehicle for Mainwaring’s own feelings about the bill to prevent occasional conformity.” As before, our version retains the names of the characters in this unappetising foot-in-mouth feast of parliamentary compromise that ended up being sent back to the kitchen.

But as a hasty Pudding is soild If there does fall some soot in’t Or if Burnt=too soe this was soiled

By Bishop Burnet’s Foot in’t

£1,000 Ref: 7884

19. FAUX’S ART FAUX, Gregory Mid-18th century manuscript mathematical school and workbook. [?Norfolk and London. Circa 1748-1761.

Dated in text]. Manuscript on paper. Small 4to (187 x 55mm).

240pp. Some browning and minor staining in places. 18th-century sheep-backed marbled boards (corners and boards heavily worn and rubbed, numerous pen trials on the endpapers).

Provenance: A similar manuscript by Gregory Faux entitled Nature Displayed (including 35 full-page sepia drawings of animals, fish, butterflies, plants etc and dated 1748) was sold at Sotheby’s in 1953. It is now at the University of Kansas, Kenneth Spencer Research Library. The present manuscript was part of a group purchased by Maggs at Sotheby’s in 1966, the property of C. E. Kenney, Esq.

¶ This is a compelling example of early modern praxis following the career trajectory of one Gregory Faux. It begins with the mathematical exercise book of an 18th-century schoolboy who is learning the practical aspects of mathematics, but what makes this a particularly informative manuscript is the evidence we find of its compiler putting those skills to use in beautifully graphic form.

We have been unable to positively identify the compiler, Gregory Faux, but it seems fairly clear from the carpentry commissions recorded in this manuscript, and from another manuscript by Faux at the University of Kansas (see notes above), that he was born and raised in

Thetford, Norfolk. He may have relocated to London at some point in the 1750s, whilst still retaining ties with Norfolk.

Faux takes the title of his manuscript from William Pickering’s The Marrow of the Mathematicks (first published 1686, with three further editions in 1696, 1710, and 1724), with the first two pages copied almost verbatim from that text. However, the remainder of text reveals itself as a composite assembled from various sources. For example, the section in Faux’s manuscript entitled “Of Mensuration of Round Timber” is taken from William Hawney’s popular text, The Complete Measurer (ESTC records 19 editions between 17301798), together with other material presumably supplied by his teachers.

A vocational education is clearly the purpose of this manuscript, as the subjects covered are tailored towards the practical application of mathematics. Together with the usual general topics (“Addition of Decimals”, “The Rule of Three”, “Mensuration of Superficies”), they include “How To Measure Carpenters Work” and “Of Bricklayer’s Work”. Such specific skills would equip a student to find useful work in the future (which indeed they did for Faux), but they would perhaps also circumscribe the student’s options by confining that future within the ambit of a craftsman. While liberal education was intended to expand the mind and raise one’s gaze to higher realms, a practical education keeps the student’s eyes down on their work and reinforces their station in life.

Evidence of such a practical education contrasts with the liberal arts education offered to upper-class men in the 18th century.

This kind of vocational manuscript would likely have been inadvertently influenced by the educational philosophy of John Locke, whose Some Thoughts Concerning Education (first published in 1693) exercised an enormous influence over 18 th-century pedagogy. Although Locke was only addressing the aristocracy – as Peter Gay says, “as for the poor, they do not occur in Locke’s little book at all” – his ideas had a wider influence. Locke’s belief in the mind as a tabula rasa entailed that all are capable of benefitting from an education, a tenet which resulted in a broadening of access. But in practice the type of education on offer varied according to social status. Gentlemen of the upper classes, and some members of the “middling sort”, received a broad introduction to the liberal arts, covering foreign languages, mathematics, sciences, and humanities.

Those of a lower class were offered a practical education which perpetuated their station in life. Various institutions open to those outside of the upper classes – such as charity schools, unendowed academies, and schools of industry – offered the kind of vocational education Gregory Faux appears to have received.

It appears the volume was kept over several years: its title page is dated “June ye 14 1748” and an inscription on the rear endpaper reads “Gregory Faux / May 28 / 1751”, and there are several later entries also dated 1751.

The second, and most unusual, part of the manuscript includes a series of ink and wash drawings for carpentry commissions, at first in Norfolk and later in London. This section begins with a list of “prices of Carpenters & Joiners Work”, which includes “prices of Work by Strickland Holden surveyors” and “prices &c by Giles Pulton”. This pricing structure is then used to create a long, itemised estimate for extensive carpentry work entitled “The particulars of an Estimate of Joyners Work made about 100 miles from London. Mens traveling charges & Masters Journeys to be allow’d for”. Towards the end there is a section entitled “This Marginal Carpenters Work done for Mr Hamley at his house at Stretham pr Grm. Burton Valuation by Mr. Herris senr.” This appears to have been specialist work as it is given its own section but is included in the final total.

At some point the text block has broken away from the binding and then been crudely reinserted. It does not look entirely comfortable, and the repair is unlikely to have been the work of our scrupulous Mr Faux. However, the front paste-down bears the inscription “Gregory” as well as various calculation and pen trials, all in the same hand as the manuscript text, so they were almost certainly originally bound together before constant use broke them apart.

There follows a highly detailed estimate which lists some 48 items for “the Carpenters Work of the Stair Case at Mr Joseph Gills Thetford”. This elaborate and apparently expensive structure, costing just over £60, is then illustrated in a page of detailed drawings. Gill was a prominent merchant in Thetford, and we assume he was happy with the work and the quote because, slightly later in the manuscript, we also find a drawing for “Mr Gills Garden Seat”.

Nonetheless, Faux seems to have been a willing student: his later drawings are carefully measured and beautifully drawn, and overall his manuscript speaks of a man who cared about what he was doing and took great pride in his craftsmanship.

A “Mr Defour” figures several times (Faux seems to be unsure of the spelling as other drawings are for “Duffour” or “De For”), in commissions including elaborate frames for a mirror, an “Italian moulding” for a cornice, and a “chimney Shelf”. This is followed by a detailed plan for a “circular table for the Surgeons Hall”, a remarkable, horseshoe-shaped piece which can be adjusted using metal rails to accommodate more people.

The manuscript continues with a series of drawings for a staircase, cornicing and a highly elaborate Rococo-style “Glass frame in ye Musick room in Dean street, Soho”, which is flanked by anthropoid candlesticks. This is presumably the music room which opened in 1749/50 at 21 Dean Street and was used by Handel for many performances of his music.

Towards the end of the volume is a drawing for a number of fan sashes including a note of one for “Mr Pitts in Arlington Street A sash over door between 2 rooms...”. This probably refers to George Morton Pitt (1693-1756) who was next-door neighbour to Horace Walpole in both London and Twickenham. Henry Benjamin Wheatley recounts in his Round about Piccadilly and Pall Mall (1870): “In 1752 Govenor George Morton Pitt’s house in Arlington Street was broken into, and Horace Walpole, then living next door, headed a party who sought for the robbers. They found one, and Walpole, wishing to share his glory with his friend, sent to the club for Selwyn, to whom the drawer delivered the message in a hollow trembling voice: ‘Mr Selwyn, Mr Walpole’s compliments to you, and he has got a housebreaker for you’”. (p.150).

Other designs include sashes for “Dr. Conyers”, (i.e. the apothecary George Conyers of Bennett Street St James), “Mr Wilkinson Lothbury London”, and a “Mr Jones, Surveyor” for Georgian-style sashes with fine tracery.

This manuscript offers us an unusual insight into how ciphering books were taught and how their principles were then put into practice. We see how the vocational education offered to the young Gregory Faux helped to expand but also, arguably, to restrict his future career. It is beautifully illustrated, but there can be no doubt that these illustrations were included primarily for their practical application rather than aesthetic considerations.

£2,500 Ref: 7925

20. ENGLISH MUSTERED [ASTLEY, Sir Jacob (1579-1652)] Manuscrupt entitled ‘A muster booke, of the Kyngs Majesty's army’.

[England, Ripon. Circa 1641. Dated in text]. Contemporary limp vellum, some staining, insect damage to lower section of covers.

Manuscript title to front cover “Muster Book of the Kings Army / 1641”. Folio (298 mm x 203 mm x 10 mm). Title, 83 text pages, blank interleaves to some sections.

Provenance: From the library of Lord Cottesloe. Loosely inserted invoice to Cottesloe from Davis & Orioli, dated 1961.

¶ If the purpose of a muster is to gather forces together, then this remarkable document, written on the brink of the First English Civil War, is the inscription of an illusory unity. For here in these pages, standing shoulder to shoulder, are soldiers who would soon be mortal enemies.

This manuscript is a small folio volume, bound in limp vellum. It is written in secretary hand and provides protocols and a full muster of the troops. The hand is neat and legible, with the muster section laid out in a rubricated grid system. The effect is of information clearly delivered, which despite its immense importance is accomplished without ostentation.

It is inscribed to the front endpaper, “To the Right worll Sr Jacob Asteley knight sargiant Maior genrall of the kyngs Mats: army.” Sir Jacob Astley (1579-1652) was a distinguished Royalist military commander who played an important part in the English Civil War.

Interestingly, this muster was “taken the 25th of March. 1641”, the month of the first “army plot”, an alleged conspiracy by Royalist officers to coerce Parliament in which Charles I lost his closest ally, the Earl of Strafford (who makes a posthumous appearance in the pages of this manuscript).

The title page is both comprehensive and informative: “A muster booke, of the Kings Mats: army, expressing the names, of all the Collonells, Leiutennant Collonells, Sergiants Maiors, Captaines of ffoote, and horse, and ther Leiutennants, Ensignes, Cornitts and qter M rs: in the same army, : as also the number of soldiers, led Horsmen under enye Captaines com[m]aund, taken the 25th of March. 1641. As also the names of the seuerall Counties, charged wth Conductors, Canters, and Horses, in the Artillurye, and the number of them, as they were likewise musterd. And also the number of officers, and ordinaure, in the Artillurye, upon this expression, with directtons, and Consideracons, from Sr. Jacob Asteley, knight, sargiant Maior genrall, of the said army, unto the Collonells, and Com[m]anders in the same.”

Preceding the muster itself are nine pages of introductory material which present something of a conundrum. They begin with protocols issued by the Earl of Strafford who, at the time this manuscript was written, had already become one of the first victims of the nascent Civil War. His instructions are issued directly to Astley: “Instructons and directions, for Sr. Jacob Asteley Knt:, sargiant Maior generall, of the kyngs Mas: army, to be obserued, in the gouernment of the army, during the Cessacon.” These are enumerated in ten sections over four pages (“1. you are to see that his Mas: direcion to me […] eyther in raising them in armies, or otherwise, you are to reporte to S r Edward wrightington knight […] And if ther be any occasion, for the yorkshire Troopes to rise, Collonell Aston, is to be sargiant Maior of them”, “2. you are to giue warrants for payment of ther regyments”, “4. The ordinarye charge for the Trayne of Artillarye, you are to giue warrants, for payment”, “7. you are to appoint the physitions, Apothecaries, and the thre Surgions, of the hospitalls”). It is subscribed “Geuen under my hand, and seale at Armes, the fift daie of Nouember. 1641. Strafforde”.

Such were the vicissitudes of this era of English history that this key ally of Charles I had, by the time this manuscript was written, declined from an authority figure of supreme importance to an expendable – indeed, recently executed – character. Its inclusion is a curious feature. The answer may be a prosaic one (a scribal error) or perhaps indicates that while the man himself was expendable, the rules must still be adhered to, even if only in appearance.

Following Strafford’s posthumous instructions, we come to copies of two documents by Astley written at a pivotal moment in the events leading the Civil War: “Consultacons, from the Srgt: Maior, genall for the mustring of the foote” and “Direcons, from Sr: Jacob Asteley, to be obserued, to the genall Colonells, of foote, wthin the Army”. These protocols are subscribed “Rippon, 12th: January. 1640” and “Rippon. 23rd : Nouembris. 1640.” The Treaty of Ripon was agreed on 26 October 1640.

Charles I had been defeated by the Scots in the Second Bishops’ War and forced to agree to humiliating terms by which the Scottish army remained in Northumberland and Durham and exacted an indemnity of £850 per day from the English to reimburse the costs of their occupying army.

This, together with the need to maintain his own army in the north in case of a resumption of hostilities, left the King in desperate need of money and with no alternative but to call another Parliament.

We then come to the muster itself: “Hereafter followe, the sevall regyments of foote, in the army, musterd the 25th of Match, 1641 . by Com [m]aund from the house of pliament, together wth the names, of such deputies Com[m] isaries, and Country gent: , as were appointed to muster the same, that day”, which includes details of 16 infantry regiments (e.g. “Lo: Generalls regyment”, “Lo: Marquis Hamiltons regyment”, “Sr: Jacob Asteley his regyment”, “Sr: Tho: Culpeppers regyment”) and five cavalry regiments (“Gen[er]all of the horse his regyment”, “Sr: John Conyers Lt: gen[er]all of the horse, his regyment”), including the names of officers and the numbers of men, in addition to the officers and specialists in the artillery train (from one tent-keeper to 11 bridge-makers).

The armed forces of “the Kyngs Majesty's army” – Royalists such as Jacob Astley and George Goring alongside prominent Parliamentarians like the 10th Earl of Northumberland (“Earle of Northum: Cap:”) – were gathered and apparently unified through the act of inscription upon the surface of the pages of this “muster booke”. Yet within just a few months, these collected forces would be riven by the forces of history.

This manuscript with its mixture of clarity, disparity, and internal conundrums neatly holds in suspended animation the crosscurrents running through the country that would soon disintegrate into conflict and chaos. £8,000 Ref: 7838

21. SCOUSER SCRAPS NAPOLEON [DUNCAN, William MacMurdo (1772-1853); Helen DUNCAN (1799-1881)] Napoleonic-era Liverpool scrapbook.

[Liverpool? Circa 1795-1816]. Octavo (272 mm x 230 mm x 33mm). Approximately 40 pages with clippings and broadsheets and equivalent number of blanks, plus loosely inserted scraps and 2 manuscript poems and a single-page manuscript list of books at end.

¶ This scrapbook includes newspaper clippings and broadsides (some unrecorded) relating to the city of Liverpool and the Napoleonic Wars, together with a manuscript list of books.

The ownership of this volume seems to have been contested within its household, if the competing claims on the front endpaper are anything to go by. In order of appearance these are: “Helen Duncan”, which has been crossed out in pencil and replaced with the pencilled inscription “W. M. Duncans”. Beneath this, a second, longer inscription has been scribbled out in ink. The following is discernible: William McMurdo Duncan ---(?) Nov. 28th one thousand seven hundred & ---ty(?) five Mary Anne Tobin ---(?) May 26th one thousand seven hundred & ---ty(?) three(?) 1779. And underneath in pencil: “H. MacDougall 1837”.

The defaced inscriptions refer to: William McMurdo Duncan (1772-1853), born at Lochrutton, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, who became a merchant in Liverpool in 1853; and Marianne Tobin (1776-1860), born at Kirk Braddan, Isle of Man. The couple were married in 1798 and had at least 3 children together, one of whom was Helen Anne (born 1799), who signs herself “Helen Duncan” and later “H. MacDougall”. Helen Anne Duncan was born at Liverpool. In 1823, she married Duncan MacDougall (1800-1837) and they had 5 children together.

The volume was probably begun in 1799, to judge by its earliest entry, a manuscript list at the end giving 66 titles of “Books Belonging to William McMurdo Duncan 10th Feby. 1799.” These include: “Encyclopaedia Britannica 18 vol:” (presumably the third edition, 1797); “Farces 5”; “Shakespeares Plays 9”; “Scottish Poets 2”; “Scottish Ballads 1”; “Smart’s Horace (English & Latin) 2”; “Telemaque (in French) 1”; “Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments 2”.

William MacMurdo Duncan was a Liverpool merchant, so it is no surprise to find his attention is frequently drawn to matters of trade and the Napoleonic Wars, but he also finds time for other topics. Printed scraps include: Extracts from the act to provide more effectually for the collection of duties imposed… 1790; Bath Chronicle 1805; Remarkably Handsome Donkey Pig, only two years old; Dreadful accidents in the ice; The Observer [Sunday, October 29. 1815], which includes A descriptive sketch of the Island of St. Helena, and a large engraving of the Island of Saint Helena (folded to fit in the volume); French Court Calendar; Royal Academy Lectures; Executions.

Among the lighter content are some loosely inserted manuscript poems, one of which is dated “March 14th. 1816” which begins “Alas! what things we dote upon / A blde, a leaf, a flower” and includes a reference to “Miss Helen”, presumably Helen Duncan.

Several broadsheets are included; the following are unrecorded: From the office of the corporation of the Royal Exchange Assurance, Established by Charter and confirmed by Act of Parliament, for the Assurance of Lives, Granting and Purchasing Annuities. Rates of assurances on lives. This is similar to ESTC, N44796 (one copy in the National Archive), which they date 1790? Close trimmed with slight loss to final letter of several lines.

A general bill of mortality, for the town and parish of Liverpool. Comprising an annual and a monthly table of the births, burials, and marriages, ...

From the 25th of December, 1796, to the 25th of December, 1797. ESTC records only one, slightly later issue of this broadsheet at the British Library. Theirs is: From the 25th of December, 1798, to the 25th of December, 1799.

Further Particulars of Gods Wrath on John Brammal. [Kiernan, printer, Liverpool.] [Circa 1815.]

The Surrender of Bonaparte. [Liverpool.] Printed by Wright and Cruikshank, Castle-Street. [Circa 1815.]

To add to the sense of a miscellany with more than one owner and more than one story hinted at, there is also a printed form, completed in manuscript, from New College Manchester, dated “May 1st. 1797”, for a Norwegian student, “Mr Kield Moestre” (1776-1805). It gives his grades for two months (“March & April”) of lectures in the subjects of languages, mathematics, and natural philosophy, at a time when no less a tutor than John Dalton was teaching mathematics and natural philosophy at the College.

Taken together, the scraps and the manuscript list of books provide an interesting picture of the reading habits and political concerns of a Liverpool merchant family – with a couple of pleasantly intriguing digressions.

£1,500 Ref: 7945

22. HEALTH & WELBYING WELBY, Mary (1682-1759) Early 18th-century manuscript book of recipes and remedies.

[Denton Manor, Lincolnshire. Circa 1712. Dated in text]. Folio (322 mm x 203 mm x 35 mm). Pages inconsistently numbered. First 19 leaves numbered to rectos, thereafter, numbered to both sides up to page 260. Of these, 93 pages contain recipes, and there is an index of 8 pages at the end.

Watermark: Lion. Similar to Haewood 3136-3144: all late 17th-century Dutch and English papers, but no exact match. Countermark: ‘DP’; probably Dirk Pieterzoon de Jong of the ‘De Wisser’ mill, whose paper carried the mark ‘DP’.

Contemporary vellum. Stain to outer margins of later leaves. Faded inscription to front board reads, “Recipes Books / of all Kinds”.

Provenance: inscribed to front endpaper “Mary Welby 1712” within flourishes. This manuscript was bought at Sneinton Market in the mid20th century. The previous owner was told it been written by Mary Welby who resided in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire.

A list of all the recipes is available on request.

¶ Mary Welby’s folio manuscript entitled “Recipes Books of all Kinds” is a superb example of the dayto-day maintenance of a busy household. It provides often detailed examples of the health and sustenance of an affluent rural household in early modern England. Through the plentiful remedies and culinary recipes, we learn of their primary health concerns, but we also gain a glimpse into their leisure interests through the highly unusual inclusion of instructions for producing reverse glass painting.

The Welbys of Denton Manor were a wealthy Lincolnshire family. Mary Welby, née Towers (16821759), was the daughter and heiress of Thomas Towers of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire. In 1705, she married Richard Welby (1656-1713) of Denton Manor. At the time of her marriage, she would have been around 21 years old and her husband would have been 49. In the 6 years of their marriage, they had 5 children together.

Her husband died, according to Mary, “after a tedious

sickness which he bore with exemplary patience”.

A year after the death of her husband she erected a magnificent memorial to his memory in nearby Denton Church. This impressive monument was sculpted by Thomas Green of Camberwell (c.

1659-c. 1730). It features a bold, free-standing, life-size statue of Welby below which she listed his virtues, calling him “Ye Best of Husbands”.

Mary Welby also appears to have had a strong social conscience and a belief in the importance of broadening access to education beyond the likes of her own prosperous family. In 1715 she endowed a local school for 30 pupils from less affluent members of the community. The building, which was completed in 1720 and still stands today (although it is now a private residence), bears an inscription above the door: “Learn to know God and Thyself”. Although this act of beneficence was not in itself unique at the time, it is interesting to note that the school was open to girls as well as boys (albeit at a ratio of 6 to 24 in boys’ favour).

The majority of the manuscript appears to have been written by Mary Welby, who writes in a neat, sloping, italic hand. One cannot be entirely certain whether it is her hand that changes over time or there is another hand that comes in later; she writes most of the first section of 73 pages, with a few additions to the lower sections of pages in a different hand. This second hand starts the next section which, after a gap of over 30 blank pages, begins on page 106. From this point on, they write consecutively, although still with the overwhelming majority by Mary Welby, who contributes approximately 200 recipes and remedies overall, while the second scribe adds around 18 (a complete list will be included with the manuscript).

Among the many complaints and ailments treated, at least eight are for “Dropsey” and a similar number for “Scurvey”. We see the persistence of the idea of the four humours (“This Ale taken as abovesd. will Clenge yr. body of all ill and Corrupt Humours… making ye. Countenance cheerfull, the body lightsome and will purge no longer then Superfluous humours do abound”) and the notion of balancing a supposed temperature of the constitution is also attended to: “in a hott Constitution more Temporate Dyett Drink may be thus prescribed”. If this seems too irrational, one could always rustle up “An Anti-Hysterick Medicine”.

Other nostrums include “A Receipt for Yellow Jaundice” which recommends “A Gentle Vomit is proper before ye. Medcine be taken”, and “A Cordiall Bole to be taken 5 days after ye. small Pox comes out or sooner if they do not come out kindly”. There are several recipes for ‘Snail Water’ including one “To make the Great Snaile Water”, which,

for those who’ve ever wondered how to prepare a worm, tells us “The best way to Slitt the worms is to Spitt them on a Scuer so they will be best to Cutt”, also ensuring that you “make ye. hearth of ye. Chimney very clean”. There are four remedies “For a Cancer”, one of which explains “How to use the receipt. If ye. Breast be broake it only gives Ease if not it seldom fails cureing provided the patients be carefull of their Diet not to eat any thing Salt, Sower, or two Sweet its also necessary they should bleed Spring and fall”.

Panaceas are scattered throughout. Apparently “A green Oyntmt.” will “cure any Ache or Pain” and another (green again) is just the ticket for “Ulcers Fistula, Bruises or any old putrified Sores wt.soever about any part of ye. Body, Except ye. Belly” (and is “one of ye. best Oyntments yt. is made for all manner of Wounds, it cleanseth if it be never so foule or infected w th.

Dead fflesh, or proud Spung is Naughty fflesh; it carmifieth & healeth abundantly, it draweth forth Nails, Thorns, and Splints or Scales of Bones, or any Such things yt. Nature would Expell.”). “Daffy’s Elixir”, a ubiquitous cure-all of the time, is included here with dosages and most unusually, a complete tally of costs: “To Make Daffys Elixer. £ s d Two Gallons of Æquavite 0|0|0 8 Ounces of Lignam Guiacum 0|2|6 8 Ounces of Sinna clean picked 0|0|4 5 Ounces of Annis Seeds 0|2|6 5 Ounces of Coriander Seeds 0|0|4 4 Ounces of Liquorice 0|0|4 2 Ounces of Manna 0|0|4½ 2 Drams of Rubarb 0|0|2½ 1 Dram of saffron 0|0|6 2 Ounces of Sweet Fennel Seeds 0|1|4 1 Dram of Scuchinele 0|0|4 1 Ounce of Juniper Berries 0|0|3 1 Ounce of Cardimoun Seeds 0|0|1 4 Pounds of Raisins Ston’d 0|1|8 e y . Sum £ 0:10:9 Put it into a bottle of ye. Equavite, and Lett t stand Eight and fforty Hours, shaking it twice a Day, after you have Raked it off, you may throw any small Liquor upon ye. Drugs, and let it stand, for Man or Woman take three Spoonfulls, and for Child one.”

Plague had waned by the 18th century, but its ravages were clearly still on people’s minds. On p. 34 we find a remedy “Against the Plague, call’d the Vinegar of Thieves.

Take of Rue, Mint, Rosmary, Wormwood, & Lavender each an handfull, infuse them in a Gallon of white Wine Vinegar, put the whole into a stone pott, closely covered up upon warm Ashesm for 4 Days, after which strain the Liquor through a Flannel, out it into Bottle, & into every quart Bottle, put a quarter of an Ounce of Camphire, keep it, close stop’d, -With this rub, & wash you Mouth & Lips, rub your Loins, and your Temples every day, snuff a little up your Nostrils, when you go into the Air, & carry about you a Spunge dipp’d in it, in order to smell to, when near any Infected Person or Place.”

Several stories attach to the myth of four thieves who created a vinegar to protect themselves from plague. One tells the story of four thieves who, when stealing, protected themselves with a special vinegar, and upon being captured they exchanged their secret recipe for their freedom, while another suggests that upon capture their punishment was to load plague-ridden bodies upon carts and they hastily developed a vinegar to protect themselves.

These and many other medicinal remedies are mixed together with culinary recipes, with some grouping but no overall arrangement. There is some spatial organisation, perhaps hinting at an attempted plan, but this never comes together into a structure, and as new additions were acquired they were simply added to available spaces. However, organisation is achieved through a comprehensive index at the end with spaces left between letters, making it perfectly suited to such ad hoc additions.

This index is grandly entitled “A Cattalogue of all the Receipts in the aforesaid Book Being set and places as followeth”, and very neatly arranged in alphabetical order and has clearly been added to over time.

Culinary recipes include an even mix of sweet and savoury dishes, together with wines and other beverages. Some are grouped together, suggesting that they were copied in from another source or were part of an initial attempt at organisation. About a dozen recipes for types of wine are grouped at the beginning of the volume. These include “Orange”, “Quince”, “Elder Berry”, “Clary Wine”, “Rhenish anglice Clary”, “Cowslip”, “Jilly-Flower”, interspersed with “Balme”, “Ratefee”, “Strong Mead” and “Lemon Brandy”.

Meat and fish dishes include: “To two large Flitches with the Hams. Mrs. Ellis’s recpt.”, “Rabbits a brown Fricasey”, “To Dress Carpe”, “A Comport of Pidgeons”, “Stakes Alamode”, “To Surprise a Couple of Rabits”. And if it proved too much for the constitution, “For Disgestion of Meat & Stay Vomitting.”

Sauces include “To make Catchop for Sauce”, and instructions “To dress Maccaroni. Take your Maccaroni & boil it in water with a small piece of butter an onion & a slice of fat Bacon, till it is quite tender, then lay it on a sieve to drain, when dry put it in a stew pan with some Butter, & Cream, & season it with pepper & salt to your tase, thicken it with Cheese which must be grated fine lay it in your dish, strew bread crumbs over it, & brown it with a Salamander. – NB: Two ounces of Maccaroni will make a sufficient quantity for a side dish, Cheshire Cheese or Parmezan is the best to put in it, but any other good Cheese will do. –” There are two recipes titled simply “To make a Cake”. Others are slightly more specific, including “To make a Seed Cake”, and “To make Little Coffee Cakes” (which do not contain coffee, so are perhaps to be served with coffee, although this is not mentioned either).

Other sweet dishes include “Bath Biscuits”, and “To make Wigs”, also apparently a type of biscuit (“Take a beer quartern of fine fflour, and 3 Quarters of a pound of Butter melted in half a pint of skim’d Milk, it must be no warmer then Milk’d from the Cow…Caraway Seeds … Sugar, … beat with your hand an Hour, the roul y e. Wigs up…”).

Where fruit is mentioned, it is usually preserved. These include “White Currants”, “Peaches in Brandy”, “Gooseberrys”, and the cosmopolitan “To Pickle Mellons the India Way”, with instructions to “Wipe your Mellons clean, cut a piece out of their side, & scope out the seeds, then lay them in a strong Brine of salt & water 24 Hours, after which stuff them with white Mustard bruised, Garlick sliced, Ginger boyled tender in Vinegar & sliced, mixt together with a large spoonfull of Oyl & as much Termarick as wll make it as thick as a stiff Paint, to each Mellon, then tie in the side Piece & pour on them scalding hot Vinegar, boyled with Ginger, Pepper, Jamaica Pepper & a large quantity of salt.”

As is frequently the case in early modern recipe books, more knowledge was required than might be found on the page. But this manuscript also includes some unusually detailed recipes. For example, “To make a Rich Plumb Cake”, which occupies most of a page, is arranged in three discrete sections (ingredients, instructions, icing), and must have been enormous (“4 Pounds of Butter”, “1 quart of Cream”, “12 pounds of Currants”, “2 pounds of single refined sugar”, “Mace Nutmeg Cinamon”, “thirty Eggs”).

Baking times and instructions vary from the specific (“put them into the oven Immediately, Half an Hour will bake them”), to the vague (“Putt them into the Oven”), to the subjective (“bake it in a pretty quick Oven”).

There are numerous ascriptions to both recipes and remedies. Some are probably aspirational (“ye. Dutchess of Graftons Receipt”, “The Dutchess of Rutland’s Receipt”), others professional (“Dr. Browns drops agt. Convulsion fitts”, “Dr. Rattcliffs prescription”). Some are probably from wider social circles, e.g. “Mrs. Lowdens Receipt to help Urine”, and “The Sower Fish Sauce for Salmon” which comes from a “Mrs. Wills’s”, while a “Major Benj: Bromhead” supplies a “Fish Sauce to keep a Year”. A few appear to be local, including “The Womans receipt of Kinsey Lodge” and Mary Welby’s neighbour, “Lady Thorold [of nearby] Cranwell”. Others are clearly very close to home (“Mrs Welby’s Sert. Recpt.”), or quite personal (“dear Motrs. ret.”, “My dear Mothers”).

Ingredients include “ffigs”, “Orranges”, “Quince”, “Mallaga Raisins”, “Lemons”, plenty of eggs, milk, and flour. Herbs and spices include “Mace”, “Nuttmegs”, “English Liquorice”, “saffron”, “Angelico”, “Solandine”, “barefoot”, “Egrimony”, as well as the occasional peculiar additions like “horse Dung” or the aforementioned “worms”. Utensils mentioned along the way tend to be quite basic: “Earthen pott”, “flannel”, “well glaced pot or Jugg”, and even “bricks”, “stones”, and “pebbles”.

There can be no mistaking the affluence of the Welbys: they can afford to be particular in their tastes and demand exact ingredients like “Jamaica Pepper”, “True french Brandy”, “a Gallon of ye. best Nants Brandy”; and how could one make a “Golden Cordiall” without the addition of “a Leaf of Gold to every Pinte Bottle”?

Sugar is sprinkled liberally throughout this manuscript as a component both of culinary recipes (including one for “Sugar Paste”) and of remedies. We find it added as a humble “Lump or two of hard Sugar”, as well as expensive “double refined sugar”, “white Sugar Candy”, and “fine Sugar”. The increasing popularity of sugar in the early modern period drove a massive increase in production in the West Indies with ever more horrific consequences, as the true costs of the nation’s sweet tooth was paid not by British consumers, but with the lives of enslaved people.

Towards the end of the volume there is an extremely unusual section giving detailed instructions on reverse glass painting, a technique that involved transferring a print (usually mezzotint as it contains rich, deep shading) onto a sheet of glass, and then painting the resulting image in oils (which then appeared through the glass). It was a fashionable pastime in the 18 th century, but surviving recipes, especially as detailed as this one, are scarce. The recipe and instructions appear to be either unpublished or so personalised as to elude identification. It is entitled “Receipt for Painting Messitincture Pictures” and instructs the budding artist to:

Take your Pictures and soak them 12 hours in water, then spread your Glass over with Venice Turpentine […] the Picture may appear on the other side when their dry they are fitt for Varnishing.” This is followed by “How to make Varnish” and, to give the picture its full effect, “How to mix your Colours for Painting”, which includes details of which features to apply each colour (e.g. “Linnen Colour { For the linned Colour, and white of the Eyes”; “For the Lips”; “Eye Balls { For a Black Eye Ball, Burnt Umber, and a touch of Ivory Black; for a Gray Eye Ball”; “Yellows { Yellow Ortment, for the Glory of our Saviour … for a Gold Colour”).

Mary Welby’s household manuscript is imposing in its size, but intimate in its contents. It shows a strong concern for the health and wellbeing of her family, but the inclusion of such unusually detailed material on 18 th-century reverse glass painting makes it all the more illuminating.

£9,000 Ref: 7911

23. PERIPHRASTIC PLEBEIANS WATTON, Thomas Unusual 18th-Century Ciphering Book entitled ‘A Familiar and Easie Introduction to the Most useful parts of the Mathematicks.’

[England. Circa 1773. Dated in text]. Contemporary vellum. Duodecimo (134 mm x 85 mm x 23 mm). 112 leaves, text to both sides and continued onto rear paste-down making 225 text pages (including title and preliminary pages). Written in a neat cursive hand with inset diagrams and tables.

¶ This is a visually appealing 18th-century mathematics book. The majority of ciphering books from this period are works copied by pupils, but this manuscript offers us the view from the side of the teacher; one who believes that potential ability lies within us all, irrespective of class differences. Education, he clearly believes, is something that can be taught and learned, it is not solely the province of the wealthy.

The volume is inscribed to the first leaf “Thomas Watton His Book 1773”. It is bound in full contemporary vellum, in the style usually associated with stationer’s bindings, but much smaller format than the more usual quarto. As such, it offers a satisfyingly compact example of the genre, with the added and unusual dimension of being written from the teacher’s perspective.

Watton uses the analogy which is usually attributed to Michelangelo, but which he attributes to Aristotle, of the sculpture hidden within the block of marble to demonstrate his belief that whatever a person’s social station, ability may lie latent within and it is the job of the educator to draw it out: “I consider a human Soul without Education like Marble in a Quarry, which shews none of its inherent Beauties Till the Skill of the Polisher fetches out the Colours makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein, that runs through the Body of it. Education in the same manner when it works upon a noble Mind, draws out the View every latent Virtue and Perfection, which without such Helps are never able to make their Appearance. Aristotle says that a Statue lies held in a block of Marble; and that the Art of Statuary only clears away the superfluous Matter and removes the Rubish. The Figure is in the Stone, the Sculptor only finds it. What Sculpture is to a block of Marble Education is to the human Soul.”

Unfortunately, his chosen approach to illuminating his pupils is a wordy didacticism, which rather than awaken the warm glow of

understanding is more likely to have had them craving the cold comfort of the marble block.

This seems, however, to be a genuine attempt to engage the student’s understanding by using relatable examples and awaken in him a desire for learning. His wellintentioned methods seem to arise from a real passion for knowledge: “From Art and study time contentment flow, For it is a God-like Attribute to know, He most improves who studies with Delight, And learns sound Morals while he learns to Write.”

And a belief that education should be available across a wider spectrum of society, for he says, “The Philosopher, the Saint and the Heroe, The Wise the Good or great Man, very often lie hid and concealed in a Plebian which a proper Education might have dis-intered and brought to light”. The level of instruction seems to be aimed at children in their middle years, but whether for use at a school or in-home tutoring is not immediately apparent from the contents. This adherent to the adage “why use two words when ten will do” wraps all his mathematical problems in periphrastic prose.

“I shall now shew with ^ the same Numbers the True reason of carrying the tens.”

“By this example it may be seen that I Divided the the (sic) square 144 in the following manner, first I pointed it as directed and finding that it consisted of two parts, ... I first found the square of the first point and placed it ...”

It begins with “An Explanation of some Algebraick Signs or Characters”, which, over 28 pages, defines simple geometrical shapes and how to calculate areas (square roots; cube roots, etc). This is followed by, “Decimal-Arithmetick” which includes “Timber Measurement”, “Lineal Measure,” “Multiplication”, “Tables of Time”, “Algebra”, “Rule of Three”, “Geometrical Proportion”, etc. The volume concludes with 19 problems set out in the discursive manner loathed by most schoolchildren.

Watton’s argument continues to sit at odds with his execution: he maintains that “There is no necessity of being led through the several fields of Knowledge. It will be sufficient to gather some of the fairest fruit from them all, and so lay up a store of good sense, sound reason and solid virtue”; his pupils must have wondered whether this Horatian harvest really had to involve so much verbose roughage. £1,500 Ref: 7890

24. SHARP EYES SHARP, Granville (1735-1813) Remarks concerning the encroachments on the river Thames near Durham-Yard.

Addressed To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Worshipful the Aldermen, and the Common-Council of the City of London.

London: Printed by G. Bigg, in the year MDCCLXXI [1771]. SOLE EDITION. Octavo. Pagination pp. xvi, 42, [6]. Complete.

19th-century morocco-backed boards, rubbed and worn, upper cover detached, lower margins clumsily trimmed, but not loss of text.

Provenance: Armorial bookplate of Cornelius Walford (1827-1885), an English writer on insurance. Extensive annotations in a neat and legible 18th-century hand.

¶ In 1768 the Adam brothers commenced work on a splendid series of houses in London known as the Adelphi. This ambitious project was developed on the site of the dilapidated Durham House Estate in the Strand beside the Thames. Their plan to level the site by erecting arches on ground that sloped towards the river met with opposition from several quarters, not least the City of London Corporation who claimed the City’s right to the riverbed.

Among the detractors was Granville Sharp, an author, civil servant, and abolitionist whose writing, though not easily accessible, was well researched and influential. His rigorous studies into the legal status of enslaved persons living in England led to Lord Mansfield's celebrated judgment in the case of James Somerset (1772), widely interpreted as stating that any enslaved person setting foot in England immediately became free. While many abolitionists condemned the conditions under which enslaved people were kept, Sharp argued that the act of enslavement itself was morally wrong.

This copy of Sharp’s Remarks concerning the encroachments on the river Thames appears to have been annotated by a contemporary reader. The hand is commensurate with the period, and at one point he remarks “Let the author fairly set forth the particular of this & other cases, in the next Edition” which strongly suggests that he was annotating in the 1770s, while the controversy still raged, and that he fully expected a second edition to follow (although in this he was to be disappointed). This rules out the possibility that Cornelius Walford, whose bookplate is on the paste-down, was the annotator, as he was not born until 1827.

Sharp argues that the developers should not dump rubbish into the Thames, and that their encroachments are a form of trespass which has effectively been sanctioned by the City of London. Our annotator agrees with this, but questions the City’s right to the river, claiming that the rights belong to the individual owners along the Thames. On page iv of the introduction, where Sharp discusses the “Property of the City of London”, our scribe underlines “Property” and says “+ The city have no property in the River, but only a Trust, to preserve the Navigation & fishery, for the benefit of the public” and should not benefit financially from selling the rights to land they do not own. On page xii, by the printed text: “The Office of the Water Bailiff … has been hitherto, … a means of authorizing Encroachments, than of preventing them”, our scribe again questions their right: “+ The power vested in the City, doth not authorise them or their officers, to sell or let out any part of the River, as if it was their own private property”. He rails against the City Officers who, instead of preserving the public’s rights, “take hush-money for overlooking real nusances, and openly endeavour to extort annual payments and presents from them, who only use their own ground, and do not harm on the River.”

Sharp consistently argues against “the enormous Encroachments”, but our annotator protests “+ The Author calles it an Encroachment because it was done without paying the City for it. – Hinc illæ lachrymæ.” (p. 27). On p. 37, the text reads “[the] protection of the Public, would equally answer my private Advantage”, which receives the complaint: “+ The Author wilfully confounds private property with the City Conservancy for the public benefit of the Navigation.”

Where Sharp concedes the “Taste and Skill” of the Adam brothers (p.17), our annotator retorts: “+ This Taste & Skill has been unfortunately applied, to spoil one of the best spots of ground in the whole Town.” But the historical record suggests that the area, although conveniently situated, had fallen into disrepair, so talk of spoiling was a moot point.

By the time Cornelius Walford came to own this book, it was a matter of antiquarian interest. The development had been completed – albeit after yet more controversy – and was a celebrated feature of the London cityscape. But for all Walford’s interest in the Adelphi, most Victorians neglected it; the area gradually fell into disrepair and was demolished in the 1930s.

£1,200 Ref: 7931

25. REFLEXIVE RECIPE BOOK [HOUSEHOLD RECIPES] Manuscript book of culinary, medicinal and domestic receipts.

[England. Circa 1800. Dated in text]. Contemporary wrappers with engraved illustration to front cover, rubbed and worn, covers working loose, text browned. Quarto (191 mm x 165 mm). Approximately 44 text pages, plus 4 blanks.

The engraving to the cover was “Printed for Carington Bowles, No 69 St. Paul's Churchyard, London.” It is recorded in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum: Division I. Political and personal satires, which gives the following details: “5265 MY-SELF [i Feb. 1774] Printed for Robert Sayer, N° 53 Fleet Street. Engraving. A reissue with a different publication line of a plate published by Darly and dated as above which was No. 10, vol. 3 of the series issued 1772-4. A fashionably-dressed young man, smiling fatuously, walks towards the spectators down a straight grass ride cut through trees. Beneath the title four lines of verse are engraved, beginning, As I walked by myself, I talk'd to myself; and thus myself said to me”.

¶ Of all the 18th-century stationer’s books, perhaps the most fragile and prone to disintegration were paper-bound volumes.

And of all the volumes produced, cookery books were, through frequent use, the most likely to disintegrate. This volume provides us with an unusual example of both these features in one volume, together with the additional ingredient of an engraved cover illustration. The engraving was “Printed for Carington Bowles, No 69 St. Paul's Churchyard, London”, which suggests that Bowles produced cheap notebooks as a side-line and added various engravings as quick, readymade decoration, without even bothering to burnish away the plate number from the upper right corner.

Our engraving is annotated in manuscript within the image “You are a fine old Fellow.”

This volume has been used to combine 78 recipes and household remedies all together, and in no discernible order at one end, with eight recipes (mostly for wine) at the opposite end.

It begins in a clear and legible hand until about halfway through where it transitions quite quickly to a second, neater, and more practiced hand. This latter takes us to the end of the manuscript but is occasionally punctuated by the earlier hand. The first part includes recipes and remedies for cakes and puddings including, “To make a common Cake”, “Shrewsbury Cakes”, “green Cakes”, “Rice Pudding”, “rasbery Cream”, wines (including raisin, elder, cowslip), preserved foods (“to Pickle Cowcumbers”, “Preserve Apricots Green”, “To Pickle Oysters”, “Damsons”), and remedies (“For Bad Eyes”; “For P The Piles”; “A receit for a Consumtion”; “A Receit for the Eagae”, “Water for the Eyes”, “for the Head Aake”, “Putrid Fever”, “For the Shingles”).

Although the hand changes, the recipes are similar to the earlier section. These include: “The Rhubarb cordial Mixture for pains in the Stomach and Bowells”; “Medicine when the Gums are Eaten away, or for a sore Mouth”; “Herbs to make British Herb Tea”; “To make Ginger Wine”; “A Recipe for a Bilious Fever & Complaint”; “To make Green Pea Soup without Meat” (this recipe is then slightly adapted “To make Winter Soup, use Endive”); “Malago Wine”; “Ginger Wine”; “Ginger Beer”; “Typhus Fever”. At the opposite end we find different recipes for the same types of wine (“To make Currant Wine”, “Ditto Cowslip”; “Elder Wine”), preserving apricots and Barberries, and the recipe: “Of Jellies”.

Both writers appear to have devoted sessions to copying down batches of recipes: for example, on “January 1 1801” they list five different “Receipts for the advantageous Use of Rice with Certain Mixtures”. However, in an instance of

the collection’s loose approach to chronology, the next page is dated “January 5 1800”, where we find: “The Famous American Receipt for the Rheumatism”.

There are two recipes to deter flies (“To prevent to the “Fly” destroying Turnips” and “A Recipe for keeping Flies out of apartments and Stables, and driving them away from Horses”). Recipes vary in length from a single page to a couple of short sentences. The recipe “To pickle Walnuts an Olive Coulour” is prudently annotated with a recipe at the end “you make exceeding good Catchup of the Alligar that comes from the Walnuts by ading a Pound of Anchovies one ounce of Cloves” with other ingredients including pepper and garlic which “will keep a long time”.

The recipe “To Preserve Apricots Green”, is quite specific about the use of particular implements (“run a penknife in where the storcks grows out … set them on a slow fire in a bath mettle or Brass pot”), and gives equally precise instructions (“cover them close down keep them at a distance not to do to fast till they be quote green… just make them simmer & do so three Times be careful not to bruise them & not make them too tender”). This recipe has at first been ascribed to “Eliz Hedges”, but afterwards crossed out. The terse nature of this kind of manuscript means that, unfortunately, we do not learn whether she had offended the scribe or it was a mistaken attribution.

£850 Ref: 7868

26. BOURBON DOMESTICS [SPANISH COMMERCE] English manuscript entitled ‘A Brief Description of the Spanish Commerce in General with some few Remarks thereon’.

[England(?). Circa 1720. Dated from watermark and text references]. Bifolium (paper size open 447 mm x 339 mm). 4 pages. Folded.

Provenance: Townshend Heirlooms: Historical Papers (of Raynham Hall, Fakenham), lot 635.

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge: London, Catalogue of valuable printed books, autograph letters, and historical documents: comprising the Townshend papers, forming part of the Townshend heirlooms (sold by order of the court), Monday, July 14th-16th, 1924.

Watermark: Colbert Coat of Arms. Similar to Haewood 688 and 690 which he dates 1686 and 1689 respectively.

A complete transcription of the manuscript will be included with the original document.

¶ After generations of inbreeding, the Spanish Hapsburgs had disproved the theory of eugenics, leaving the country without a successor to the throne and its economy in a state of decline. This triggered the War of the Spanish Succession and the beginning of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty. Philip V, the first in the new line imported from France, was intent on expanding Spain’s economic activities, both domestically and in its overseas empire. This manuscript addresses exactly these concerns.

The four-page document presents an overview of the Spanish economy (“a very pleasant & delicious Country capable to produce every thing necessary for humane life not only to serve itself but other Nations”), beginning with domestic matters by listing the country’s chief produce, including: “Ext Sherry Wines, Sweet & Dry Malaga”, “Brandy Fruit of all Sorts & Oyle Exc t Wool Olives Sugar”, “Cocheneele Safron”, “Quik Silver Liquorish”, “Ex t Fish with which Its Seas abound especially in Pilchards Atun and Anchovies.”

It then looks outwards, with an overview of the key Spanish ports, starting with Cadiz, “the Principal and most Famous Port of Spain […] from whence the Galeon’s Flottas Azoguez aduice Boates & Register Ships go and come to and from the West Indies”. The other ports are summarised (including “Sevil St Lucar Pt St Marys Bilbao & St Sebasteans Malaga Alicant & Barc:a”), with lists of the goods exchanged there (including “Cochneele Indigo Rich Balsams Sarsaparilla Sassafras Jesuits Bark Jallop Lapis Contrayerva Gums and other Apothy Druggs Benelloes Caias Suguar Hydes Snuff and Tobacco”).

There follow brief details of Spain’s European trading partners. France comes first, although it “did not Employ so many ships as the English nor any other Nation”, but remained important, not least for its recent monarchical connection. Goods exchanged with the French include Spanish “Linnens”, “Brocades Tissues Silks Ribbans Stockens Hatts […] Besides all manner of Quinquaillery and Mercury and that in Return they carry’d away their Gold and Silver”. By contrast the English “carry’d on a Vast Trade thither in all manner of Woolens and Provisions Chiefly Such as fine and ordinary Cloath Bayez

Haunscotts Sempiterns Calimanioes Kerseys Tannins flannells & Norwich stuffs and sev: al others Hats Stockens Pewter Plates Lead”, and buy “not only the Growth and Manufacture of the Country […] But also the Product of their Dominions”.

Similarly, the Dutch “Return not only the Natural Product & Manufacture of Spain But that of y r Dominions”.

Italy (“Chiefly the Genouiz”) is praised for “the order and method which that Politick & Prudent Reypublick observed to render their Commerce Easy Secure & Profitable”; and shorter paragraphs cover “Swedes & Danes” and “Scots & Irish”, again with lists of goods sold to Spain (“Stockens Some ordinary Cloaths & Stuffs Sanges & Challoons”, “Cheese Candles Tallow and Tannd Leather (as well as Some Woolens Notwithstanding of the Prohibition)”). In exchange “they Generally bring away Wine fatt Oyle & fruit besides some ps & Cochneele and Indigo As well as other Spanish and West Indie Effects”.

The text yields both queries and clues: the final paragraph states “That the Spaniards had few or no Shipping of their own Employd in other Forreign or Domestick Trade during the Late former War Except some which they bought of English French Dutch and Italians”, but it is difficult to identify a war in this period which did not involve conflict with at least one of these countries.

Of the clues to its date of composition, the first is an amendment: “Frutos are Chiefly Loaded for England ^G:t Bn”, so this must surely date from after the 1707 Acts of Union. The second is “2 Ships which only touched in the Bay of Cadiz about the year 14 or 15” which, though conceivably referring to 1614/15, more likely takes us into the 18 th century.

The strong flavours of early modern internationalism (including “Peru” and the “West Indies” although “Turks Jews & Infidels are forbid […] the Privilege and liberty of Trading”) can be detected in the language (the use of the French word “quinquaillery” for hardware) and the use of French paper. The watermark, perhaps not coincidentally, bears the Colbert Coat of Arms, a reference to the French statesman, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), whose economic and political doctrine, known as Colbertism, is often considered synonymous with 17th-century mercantilism.

£750 Ref: 7962

27. CRANE’S EYE VIEW CRANE, John (1731-1800) A collection of surveyor’s manuscript notebooks and supporting material.

[Berkeley and Norton, Massachusetts. Circa 1748-1796. Dated in text].

The collection comprises: [1]. Manuscript ciphering book. [Circa 1748]. Octavo (178 mm x 120 mm x 5 mm). 58 pages (including 1 blank), some leaves excised at end. Home-made booklet of uneven leaves stitched together.

[2]. A series of field books. [Circa 1769-1796]. Stout octavo (165 mm x 100 mm x 35 mm). Numerous quires and booklets stitched together in sections.

[2a]. The first field book comprises 110 pp. (including 5 blanks). “Taunton May ye 10th. 1769” to 1773.

[2b]. The second book is a series of quires (some stitched together into booklets) totalling 236 pp. from “July the 17th 1780” to “April 4th. 1792”.

[2c]. A new booklet (32 pp.) is started almost two years later. It runs from “January 21st 1794” to “March 26th.

1796”.

[3]. Manuscript map of the boundary of Norton, Massachusetts. [Circa 1770]. (404 mm x 342 mm). Folded.

[4]. Manuscript copy of a selectmen’s meeting. Taunton, Massachusetts. [1784] (303 mm x 190 mm). Folded. The meeting was held to divide up some parcels of land near the “Great Cedar Swamp” which bordered Norton (where Crane was a selectman) and Mansfield, Massachusetts. This appears to be in John Crane’s hand and was presumably for his own use.

¶ This collection offers a panorama of the education and career of a New England surveyor named John Crane. But for all its scope, this is a life observed solely through practical text and calculations. Only very rarely does the book become a diary, but even then, the details are superficial (“At Dartmouth December the 3rd: 1769: + pleasant and warm”). It is humbling to hold in one’s hand almost the entire record of a person’s existence on Earth in a few simple volumes, and yet for their traces to be so devoid of subjective experience. But this very absence of self-importance may tell us how Crane saw himself and his station in life.

The collection chiefly comprises the original schoolbook and later surveyor’s field books of John Crane, one of eight children born to Gershom Crane and Susanna Crane (née Whitmarsh) of Berkeley, Massachusetts. The manuscripts make it clear that John attended the local school at Berkeley. In 1754 he married Rachel Terry from nearby Freetown, Bristol, Massachusetts.

They lived in Norton, Bristol, Massachusetts, and had six children together. He became a selectman of Norton in 1770 (included in this collection is a circa 1784 manuscript copy of a selectmen meeting held at Taunton, Massachusetts).

The collection begins on “September ye 4th Anno – 1748” with a modest ciphering book of “Deep questions in Arithmetick hear are and when the future Grateful age shall see That by accomplishments those Dost Inherit A Double portion of thy masters Spirit.” It was written when Crane was 17 years of age and a pupil at his local school at Berkeley. Despite its grand title, the exercises are in fact quite elementary (“The Day of the Mounth for which the Moons age is Required”; “Rule of three”; “Interest”; “Annuities”; “The Rule of Fellowship”; “Barter”). However, they evidently proved sufficient as the basis for a lifelong career.

Crane’s perception of elementary mathematics as advanced is significant. The ciphering method (copying mathematical rules, cases, and examples from pre-existing books) was imported into the North American settlements from Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, and dominated mathematical education; its often-mercantile emphasis was useful to boys wanting to become (for example) clerks, navigators, or surveyors, like John Crane. But its prevalence had mixed results. A lack of resources and mathematical knowledge among teachers in early settlements hampered progress, and students often struggled to follow the European programme. Furthermore, New England boys only attended school in the winter months, which limited their ciphering education to a total of 16 months over 4 years.

There is a hiatus in this archive between Crane’s leaving school and his first entries in the field books; I have been unable to ascertain what he was doing in the interim. The field books detail his various surveying jobs, both public (road and boundary surveys) and private (probate work). Another gap occurs between 1773-1780, when he served as a Captain in the 3rd Regiment and fought in the Revolutionary War. Allowing for these gaps, we have an almost unbroken run of manuscripts which cover most of his working life until four years before his death in 1800.

The earliest field book begins: “Taunton May : ye. 10th. 1769” … “Laid out Land for Richard Luscomb begining at a heap of stons for a Cornor Lying on the East side that Leads from Paul Drotts”. A typical entry gives a flavour of the material and its author: “September the : 8th: 1770 Run Line for Mr. Job Hodges Beginning at an old stump said to be the N:W: Cornor of Land formerly Blaks – thence E: 6: N:87½:r to a Cornor thence S 6 E 39r. to Morys Cornor the E ^ N Line fall 2r Soth if John Kings Line and 7 or 8r.

Soth from where ye wood was Cut – then we Run from the stump S 6:E 107r: to 6 feet a Nother Cornor of Blaks Land then we Run the breadth of a Lott Called Reith Kings N.6W 39:r and ½r – then for the third Lottt N6 W28:r to the N.W. Cornor stump of Blaks Land.” Other entries include: “May 16th: went to Benajah Woodward to divid the moveables but the Heirs did not: agree so we did nothing”; “the Jornal of piece of Land of Mr. Samuel morey: March the 29th 1770 Beginning at a White Oke tree marked for a Cornor of the Land of John Hodges Deceased thence”; “November the 2d: 1770 then meet with the Select men of Maryfield with the Select men of Norton and preamulated the Line first: We begune at a stone due W:” After the final entry in the first book, “Taunton february the 12th: 1773”, there follows a hiatus of seven years before we pick up again at “Norton July the 17th 1780” and continue in a series of quires, some stitched together into booklets, in an almost unbroken run of 236 pages (including a few blanks) till “Taunton April 4th.

1792”. A new book (32 pages) starts almost two years later at “Taunton January 21st 1794” and continues in two quires to “Taunton March 26th. 1796”.

Unsurprisingly for a surveyor’s field book, one could reconstruct the areas described and exactly who lived where (e.g. “Anno Domini 1771 Berkeley february the 13th Jornal Continued … north E of Mr. Gavens house then South 68’ W 44:r to and in Ebenezer franks orchard then a turn N 87 ½ W 32 r to the Cornor of the Revernd Mr Samuel Tobeys stone wall”). But for confirmation, the collection includes a

manuscript map of the boundary of Norton, Massachusetts, drawn circa 1770; entries on the map match names and places in the field books (e.g. “Capt Job Hodges House”). The “road by George Cranes” presumably refers to the house of a relation.

Considering the exactitude required of his profession, Crane’s surveys often use surprisingly moveable objects as the starting reference point. Although distinctive trees are sometimes used (the map uses “a Ceder tree a Corner of Attelboroug” and “a Chestnut tree called Abels tree the north West Corner of Taunton and allso a Corner of Reheboth”), stumps often feature; and the most frequent example is “a heap of stons”. Even when there is a disagreement to settle, they make their appearance: “June the 2d. 1772. then Run a dispued Line or Lins for daniel Briggs and Benjamin Woodward. we began at a post in the fence thence N 61 ¾ E 19r. and 2 feet to a stake and heap of stons”. Perhaps the local ground required a lot of clearing before it could be used – but if these cairns were so ubiquitous, and given the ease with which piles of stones may be made and moved, they seem an odd choice.

Crane created these volumes using various sheets of paper, stitched together to make crude booklets. This follows the tradition of New England ciphering books in the 18th century, which, unlike their vellum-bound counterparts in Britain, often have simple paper covers. These books, interestingly, remained in their paper wrappers, suggesting that Crane had either minimal funds for such luxuries as binding or little interest in aesthetics.

This almost lifelong collection offers us an insight into the education and working life of John Crane, a record which tracks his footsteps around Massachusetts, but from which he notably omitted his personal life or subjective views. It is an unusually comprehensive example of how European mathematical traditions were used in the New World, and of the strong mercantile application of ciphering books that led John Crane, with only elementary ciphering knowledge, to his fruitful career.

£2,500 Ref: 7943

28. PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP GLANVILL, Joseph (1636-1680); WILKINS, John (1614-1672); WHICHCOTE, Benjamin (16091683), et al. Seasonable reflections and discourses in order to the conviction, & cure of the scoffing, & infidelity of a degenerate age. [Bound with] manuscript notes and sermons by Tillotson, Sharp, Wilkins, Cave, Hickman, Whichcote, Bacon.

London: by R[obert]. W[hite]. for H. Mortlock. 1676. FIRST (SOLE) EDITION. Contemporary panelled calf, all edges gilt, sometime neatly recased and headbands added, spine and label chipped with areas of loss.

Pagination pp. [18], 214, complete with the initial and final blank; with 148 manuscript pages (including 14 blanks) in a contemporary hand bound at the end. [Wing, G830]. Watermark: Fleur-de-lis. The mark is in the gutter making exact identification difficult, but it is similar to Haewood 1785-7 which he dates 1670-1690. Manuscripts in the same neat italic hand throughout.

THE CONTENTS IN BRIEF: 1. Joseph Glanvill. ‘Seasonable reflections’. Printed 1676.

With the following works in manuscript: 2. [TILLOTSON, John (1630-1694)] Manuscript Sermon on “3d: Titus 2d. v”. 15 pp.

3. [SHARP, John (1645-1714)] Manuscript Sermon on “4 Proverbs 23d v”. 13 pp.

4. [WILKINS, John (1614-1672)] Manuscript Sermon on “12 Heb: 16. v.” 43 pp.

5. [CAVE, William (1637-1713)]. Miscellanea. 2 pp.

6. [HICKMAN, Charles (1648-1713)]. Notes from sermons. 27 pp.

7. [WHICHCOTE, Benjamin (1609-1683)] Manuscript sermon on “26 Isaiah 9:” 26 pp.

8. [BACON, Francis (1561-1626)] Manuscript prayer. 6 pp. ¶ This volume, unassuming at first sight, brings together a constellation of eight texts associated with the Latitudinarians and the Cambridge Platonists. Although these thinkers were never formalised into groups, they were connected through their rejection of theological dogma in favour of tolerance and reason. As such, this sammelband of printed and manuscript texts encapsulates the flow of ideas within the social community of influential thinkers associated with St Lawrence Jewry, London in the late 17th century. The manuscript texts have been written in the same clear hand throughout. There is no indication of the scribe’s identity, but this was clearly a choice made by the scribe and does not diminish its importance as a fascinating document produced during a transitional period in the merging of two related theological movements.

The interconnected and overlapping threads in these schools of thought find apt expression in a richly textured, heterogeneous mixture of print and manuscript culture. The result is an interplay of several kinds of textual transmission: the printed book, manuscripts apparently copied from printed texts or other manuscripts, and manuscript texts digested or written up from shorthand notes and otherwise unrecorded.

The collection was probably bound circa 1700 at a time when these ideas were still evolving. The act of bringing them together into a single volume captures these transitions by elucidating them in material form. The binding is a good quality black morocco with gilt-tooled panel to boards, typical of Bibles and other Christian books of the period. The spine is in five panels with horizontal double fillets to the centre of

each panel. A spine label has been pasted over the second upper panel. It has since chipped, revealing the horizontal tooling, indicating that the label was probably added slightly later.

The church of St Lawrence Jewry, London was an important focal point in the development of the ideas of the Latitudinarians and the Cambridge Platonists; and this volume, while not directly mentioning this edifice, directs us towards its doors.

John Wilkins, the celebrated natural scientist and an important Latitudinarian thinker, was vicar at St Lawrence Jewry between 1662-1668. Immediately after that, Benjamin Whichcote, one of the leading Cambridge Platonists, was vicar between 1668-1683. The church itself was destroyed in the 1666 Fire of London and was rebuilt between 1670-1687 as part of Sir Christopher Wren’s great redesign of the city. Significantly, two of the sermons in the volume date from the period when these two influential thinkers were at St Lawrence Jewry (Wilkins 1664, and Whichcote 1671).

The inclusion of works by Francis Bacon, Joseph Glanvill and John Wilkins, whose ideas resonated with those of the Cambridge Platonists and the Latitudinarians, illustrates how these schools of thought merged during the late 17th century, and how relatively porous the borders between them were. The key impressions are of communication, transmission, and transformation, and the

printed and manuscript texts capture this transformation in a series of ‘frozen moments’.

Taking the texts as they are arranged in the volume, we have: 1. GLANVILL, Joseph (1636-1680). Seasonable reflections and discourses. London: Printed by R[obert]. W[hite]. for H. Mortlock at the Phonix in St. Paul’s Church-yard, and the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall. 1676. Only edition.

Glanvill was a prominent Church of England clergyman, sceptical philosopher, and early member and champion of the Royal Society. According to the ODNB, he “was a prominent and untiring advocate of the new philosophy in science and of an Anglican church tolerant of a broad range of opinion within itself but intolerant of dissenting churches.

He was an equally zealous opponent of Aristotelianism and materialism. Glanvill embodied many of the features of the eighteenth-century latitudinarian compromise in the Church of England” and like them, he emphasised morality rather than theology.

2. [TILLOTSON, John (1630-1694)] Manuscript Sermon on “3d: Titus 2d. v”. 15 pp.

This text is an abridged version, or a digest of: A sermon preached before the King and Queen at White-Hall February the 25th, 1693/4. Being the first Sunday in Lent. By John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Published by Their Majesties special command. London: printed for Brabazon Aylmer, and William Rogers. [1694].

[Wing, T1249]. The wording is either the same or very similar but with large sections omitted. The scribe takes the salient point from each section and makes occasional changes in organisation (e.g. on pp. 18-21, he inserts “2ly”, where no such division occurs in the printed text). He omits Tillotson’s expansions, illustrations, and Biblical references. It is not clear whether he is transcribing from the printed text or from another manuscript version. The latter seems plausible, especially when viewed in the context of sermons by Wilkins and Whichcote below which show evidence of scribal circulation, but the wording is often so close to the printed text that it suggests the scribe may be digesting the substance of the sermon from the published text.

3d: Titus 2d. v To speak evil of no man.

1st. The nature of this Vice and wherein it consists.

2ly. The due Extent of this prohibition to speak evil of no man.

3ly. I shall shew the evil of this practice both in the causes and Effects of it.

4ly. I shall add some further Consideration to disuade men from it.

5ly. I shall give some rules and directions for the prevention and cure of it. concluding I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my tongue, and then (with St: James) if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.

3. [SHARP, John (1645-1714)] Manuscript Sermon on “4 Proverbs 23d v”. 13 pp.

This is a shortened version of: A sermon about the government of the thoughts, preach’d before the King & Queen, at White-hall, the 4th of March, being the 2d Sunday in Lent, 1693/4. London: printed

by Tho. Warren, for Walter Kettilby. [1694]. [Wing, S2982, and later editions]. As with the Tillotson sermon, our scribe ruthlessly expurgates entire paragraphs and joins sentences to make shorter, more concise paragraphs. There are also occasional small but interesting departures. For example, on page 17 of the manuscript the scribe writes “Heart” instead of “Thoughts” (p. 8 line 2 printed text).

4 Proverbs 23d v Keep thy Heart with all dilligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

By heart here wee are to understand the Inward thoughts, and motions and affections of our souls and spirits … this undoubtedly is the Scripture of the heart. concluding so long as wee consist of Bodies and Souls Wee cannot allways be thinking of Serious things, they are the wisest that thinks most of them; but it is dangerous to attempt to think of them allways least wee make our Selves unfit for thinking at all to any good purposes.

We now come an unpublished sermon by John Wilkins.

This is significant both for its being previously unrecorded and for the mode of its transmission.

4. [WILKINS, John (1614-1672)] Manuscript Sermon on “12 Heb: 16. v.” 43 pp transcribed from shorthand.

12 Heb: 16. v.

Or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsell of meat sould his birth right.

These words do containe in them and earnest dehortation from the sine of profaness 33 pp, concluding hatred contempt and shame wch. is due to every vicous course and more especially to this Sin this is a punishment wch. every private man may, and should inflict. I have don.

Our scribe notes at the end “This is the Substance of a Sermon of a Sermon (sic) preached by Do: Wilkins in Anno 1664 taken in short hand”. This is a fascinating illustration of manuscript transmission transcribed from the shorthand of an attendee at Wilkins’s sermon. Unfortunately, we do not know whether the scribe themselves attended or whether they were copying from another manuscript. The sermon presumably lay in shorthand form (apparently since lost) from the date of its recording in 1664, till it was transcribed into this volume in the 1690s.

This sermon by Wilkins is unrecorded and, had it not been safely nestled within the covers of this volume, would most likely have become another text lost through the vague and contingent nature of the extant archive.

5. [CAVE, William (1637-1713)]. Miscellanea. 2 pp.

Begins: “The Jews tell us of some particular Commands” which is taken from William Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicae, the Apparatus, p. III. This is followed by “The Principles of Naturall Religion” in a series of precepts. It appears to be unpublished, but like the earlier sermons by Tillotson and Sharp, the scribe may be summarising what he found in several sources.

6. [HICKMAN, Charles (1648-1713)]. Manuscript Notes from Sermons. 27 pp.

This appears to consist of notes taken from several sermons

by Charles Hickman. The sections chosen are arranged like a series of aphorisms which emphasise morality over theology. It is as if the scribe has plucked what he needed from the high churchman and transformed it into something more closely aligned to the moral reasonableness of latitudinarian philosophy.

It begins with: “28 Job: 28: v And unto man he said the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding.” It then leaps across several sections to the summary: “1st The fearing of God. 2ly A departing from evil. This fear of God consists in a certain Medium and due proportion between two extremes, and they are Superstition and profaneness”. This leapfrogging continues, taking us through “1st. The Rationall fear of God is the most proper means to secure us from superstition” … “2ly. The fear of God guards also from profaneness” … “He that is openly profane, like a Robber upon the Road, sins only to the damage of private

men : but the secrett Hypocrite, like a Traytor to his Country, offends against the whole Constitution, undermines the very foundation of Godlyness, and brings Religion it selfe into disgrace.”

Secondly, the date assigns this particular sermon to Whichcote's period in London at the time when St Lawrence Jewry was being rebuilt, helping us to contextualise the substance of his sermons within the timeline of his thought.

7. [WHICHCOTE, Benjamin (1609-1683)] Manuscript Sermon on “26 Isaiah 9:” 26 pp.

The following leaf begins “To” but whatever else was to be copied in continues no further.

Next, we come to a sermon by Benjamin Whichcote which begins with “26 Isaiah 9: Verese / When thy Judments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the World will learn righteousness”. Whichcote sets a decidedly learned tone, referencing Aristotle and Tully, but is not overtly intellectual; and although he asserts that we should comply “with the dictates of Naturall Conscience or doeing those things w ch are grounded or founded in reason” we should “In our speech and expressions Truth and honesty and to take care yo speak so, that another may understand our meaning”.

Nonetheless, Whichcote is certainly a rationalist in his religious belief: “the relation that is between God and man, these are grounded in the Capacity that man is made to be a rationall intelligent and voluntary agent these are rooted in the intelectuall nature”. In sum, morality and belief are grounded in rationality; we should be “governed by the dictates of sober reason, and understanding”.

The volume is then inverted with the following final text arranged dos-a-dos, creating a physical loop round to the earlier influence of Francis Bacon:

This sermon appeared in Whichcote’s Several Discourses (1701. vol. 2. p. 211), and in Works (1751. vol. 2. pp. 51-62). The texts of all the sermons in the 1751 volume differ from the earlier editions, because they combined the printed, oral, and shorthand sources. The wording in this manuscript is different to all of the extant printed sources, indicating that it was transmitted through scribal circulation. Furthermore, the scribe has annotated at the end: “This is the substance of a sermon preached by Do: Whichcote 17th Septemb 1671”.

This is significant for several reasons. Firstly, none of the printed texts make any mention of a date (indeed, there are very few dates recorded for any Whichcote sermons).

8. [BACON, Francis (1561-1626)] Manuscript Prayer. 6 pp.

The earliest printed edition of this prayer appears to be in The Works of Francis Bacon. London, 1841. However, the text in our manuscript differs somewhat from the later printed version. In this sense it provides another interesting example of scribal transmission of Bacon’s work and demonstrates its relevance to Latitudinarian thought. It begins, “O Most gracious Lord God, my mercifull Father, Creator my Redeemer, my Comforter, Thou Lord, Soundest and Searchest the depths and Secrets of all Hearts, Thou acknowledgest the upright in heart, and thou judgest the hypocrite … Vanity and Crooked and cannot be hid from thee.” It concludes: “Let none of us fall short of the grace of God but grant that an abundant Enterance may be administred to us into the everlasting Kingdom of thy dear Son, in whose blessed name and comprehensiue words I further presume to pray saying Our Father &c.”

The inclusion of a previously unrecorded sermon by John Wilkins is an exciting find, especially as it is bound with other related works by Whichcote and Bacon, which were circulated in manuscript, together with others apparently edited by our scribe. Further interest comes from incidental recordings of dates, and the different modes of textual transmission add texture to our understanding of events and remind us of the contingent nature of textual survivals.

For all its broad inclusiveness, this is not a random miscellany. The collection is fluid and its boundaries porous, but it’s unified by the pluralism that characterises the outlook of the Latitudinarians and Cambridge Platonists. Its diverse quality reflects their embrace of the variety of human experience, and their trust in the power of reason to make sense of an existence that – like this collection – contains multitudes.

These broad-minded schools of thought have never lost their relevance, and this polyvocal collection is remarkable for its ability to capture, in both form and content, the lively and optimistic approach of these thinkers to Christian doctrine and practice. It is a timely reminder for our age of the importance of rationality and tolerance.

£5,000 Ref: 7894

29. THE LOBE RANGERS [EAR MARKS] Manuscript entitled ‘A Book of Records of the Ear Marks and Brands of Cattle &c. Belonging to the Inhabitants of the Township of Cortsville County of Trumbull’.

[Cortsville, Trumbull County, Ohio. Circa 1807-1824 and 1844]. 6 x 7¼ inches. 10 pages, illustrated throughout. Loss to lower blank corner of first leaf, loss to inner edges (affecting some letters), suggesting the sheets may once have had a rudimentary binding.

¶ At a time when Ohio was a new frontier state, and before any kind of official order had been established, it was down to the settlers themselves to devise their own methods of coexisting. This could lead to some novel and inventive solutions, of which this manuscript record of earmarks is a visually appealing example. It describes and illustrates 40 earmarks, notches or slits cut into the ears of farm animals to mark ownership for “Inhabitants of the Township of Cortsville County of Trumbull”.

Earmarking had a very practical purpose. A nineteenth-century history of early Trumbull County describes how cattle and other livestock were pastured in fenceless woods and were sometimes kept together to protect them from predation by wolves and bears1. The manuscript probably served as a quasi-official township record to identify ownership of cattle that had been kept together, had wandered or had been driven to a public market or sale.

The earmarks mostly date from 1807 to 1824 (and two later exceptions which raise puzzling questions). They each occupy a line in a four-column grid that gives the date, farmer’s name, a description in two to four lines of the earmark, and finally (with one exception described below), a stylized ‘top-down’ cattle head illustration, crudely but winningly rendered, depicting the individual earmarks for each farmer’s livestock. For example, on “May 6 1816” the ear mark denoting “Saml. McBride” is described as “A Square crop of the left Ear and a slit in the right with a halfpenny out of the under side”; and on “May 8th 1822” the cattle belonging to “William Potter” are identified by “A square crop off the end of the right ear and a half crop underside of the left ear”.

A few different hands are in evidence, but not so many as to suggest that each farmer wrote and illustrated his own entry. It is possible that the hands are those of the people who actually cut or ‘marked’ the animals’ ears; it may be more likely that the scribes acted as official witnesses for the township, going from farm to farm to record and document the cattle ear marks.

One record entry – the only one without an illustration – suggests that, whoever the record-keepers were, they were familiar with the varieties of local ear marks: for “October 1, 1823”, next to “George Capada” and “A square crop off the end of the left Ear and a slit in the same”, with a vertical note in the ‘name’ column: “this wrong because David Jackson’s was the same”.

The two outlying entries both date from the first half of 1844.

The first is at the bottom of the final page and was made 20 years after the previous entry; the second and final entry was made on the back of the title page, leaving room for possible subsequent entries. This suggests that the manuscript is complete – but leaves us with a puzzling 20-year hiatus before the final two entries in 1844.

This rare survival from the early days of white settlement in Ohio is an example of the strenuous efforts of frontier communities to establish consensus and prevent disputes in an environment that already gave farmers and their families enough to deal with. £1,500 Ref: 7946

References: 1. History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties. Cleveland 1882. p60

30. BEYOND RESTORATION? [SHEFFIELD, John Duke of Buckingham (1647-1721)] 17th-century manuscript entitled ‘A Short Character of Charles the Second King of England’.

[Circa 1690]. Folio (323 mm x 208). Page dimensions: 293 mm x 193 mm. Text to 5 leaves, plus 1 blank.

Watermark: Horn with letters AJ beneath. Similar to Haewood 2686-90 (which he dates, 1680-93) but none of these have AJ beneath.

According to Haewood, AJ is probably Abraham Janssen. See Haewood: 409, 453, 2718, which he dates 1680-90.

The binding is a 20th-century remboitage. It is bound in early 18th-century blind-panelled calf, with gilt-blocked royal arms of King George I on each side. It has been recently rebacked, with a new spine label and endpapers added. The paper was originally folded and a near contemporary paper spine titled in manuscript. It is mostly hidden in the fold but appears to read “A Character his Mai of”.

¶ Scandal and controversy were bywords for King Charles II’s reign, and this manuscript, which would have been handed around like a little morsel of gossip, does nothing to restore his reputation. Perhaps the most solemn moment comes at the beginning which “according to custom” states “his Religion, which since his death hath made so much noise in the world, I yett dare Confidently affirme it, to have beene onley that which is vulgarly tho’ unjustly counted none att all, I mean, Deism”.

Here, the scribe addresses rumours of King Charles II’s Catholic sympathies. But rather than infer any strong faith, he says the King’s beliefs were arrived at languidly, through a “carelesness of his Temper then either Reading or much Consideracon”, and although he ascribes to him a “quickness of apprehension”, it was “his natural lazyness” which guided his opinions, lest “he should be troubled with examining which was best ~”.

In an amusing conceit, the writer draws an analogy between himself as Raphael and the King as the sitter, hoping that any compositional flaws “be recompensd in the agreeableness of the subject, which is sometimes enough to recommend a Picture, tho’ ill drawne, and make a face ^one likes, oftner looked on, then the best piece of Raphaell”.

Our ‘Raphael’ presents a mixed and sometimes unflattering picture of his sitter in an easy, familiar tone. We learn that the King was “Full of disimulacon and very adroit, at it, yet no man easier to be imposed upon”. He was also “Easy and good natured to all people in tiffles, but in great affaires sever and inflexible”. The scribe frequently alights upon the King’s dilettantism (“His understanding was quick and lively in little ^ things and sometimes would soar high enough in greate ones, but u^nable to keepe it up with any Long attention or Applycation”) and lingers on his sexual proclivities (“there was as much of Laziness as of Love in all those houres he passed among his Mistresses, who, after all, only serve to fill up his Seraglio”); but, in a bid for even-handedness, we are told of his “setting his whole heart on the faire sex, yet neither angrey with Rivals”.

Before its publication in 1696, this text circulated in manuscript, or as the introduction to the first edition says, “many Coppies” of it were “handed about”. Only with its 1725 reprinting was it revealed as “Written by John Duke of Buckingham, Lord President of Her late Majesty’s Privy-Council”.

John Sheffield, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby, was a statesman, poet, essayist and patron to Dryden and Pope. He is perhaps best remembered for his Essay on Poetry (1682). The ODNB says he was “probably the author of the Essay on satire which circulated in manuscript in 1679 and attacked prominent figures at court including the king and Rochester; Dryden was blamed and physically assaulted, but the friendship between patron and poet survived.” It is not clear whether he deliberately suppressed his authorship of the Short Character… in his lifetime.

Eliding the introductory material, the most notable difference in the publications is the addition of a final paragraph in the later editions. This is also in our manuscript; but rather than indicating ours was copied from the printed editions, we suggest the reverse to be the case.

The 18th-century editions claim to have been “Printed from the Original Copy” – a phrase probably intended to imply that the reprint is more authoritative than its predecessor.

But several “originals” existed, as the 1696 edition attests, and our manuscript appears to be one of these.

Manuscript copies in library collections:

The physical features also point towards this being one of the pre-publication circulated manuscripts. It has been folded for posting, or, as the 1696 edition puts it, “handed about”, and the final sheet (part of which has been wrapped around to “bind” the text together) contains the now partially obscured inscription “A Character his Mai of”.

National Library of Scotland: ‘A Short Character of Charles the Second &c’: I have pitch’d upon the Character of King Charles the second … tho’ he found his Error in this, but I confess, of little of the latest. Unsigned; [?late seventeenth century]. ff. 238-9.

Cambridge University: A short character of Charles the Second King of England by someone who knew or served him 17th cent (Add 9322).

One is also recorded in an old bookseller’s catalogue: ‘A Second catalogue of Manuscripts. John Cochran. 1837.’: 436 Charles II. The Earl of Mulgrave's Short Character of Charles the Second in the year 1688. Manuscript, neatly written. Quarto, 10s. 60 .

Printed editions:

Unfortunately, the manuscript has been “pimped” by a modern owner. They have used two early 18th-century blind -panelled calf boards, with gilt-blocked royal arms of King George I on each side, which they have rebacked in calf.

Although this creates an impressive-looking artefact, the binding does not match the size or the date of the manuscript, resulting in a misleading remboîtage which, although it diverts our attention from the way the manuscript would originally have been circulated, is itself a fact of book ownership and the long history of books.

First published anonymously as: The character of Charles II. King of England.

London: by Richard Baldwin. 1696. [Wing, B5336].

ESTC records three reprintings under the new title, A short character of Charles II. King of England.

Two reprints in 1725, recorded as the sixth and seventh editions; a 1729 without edition statement.

£1,500 Ref: 7957

31. EXPANDING HER PUPILS [BARKHAM, Margaret (d. 1654)] A 17th- and 18th-century manuscript minute and account book recording the foundation of a Somerset school still in existence [Wells. 1660-1735]. Folio (320 mm x 205 mm x 75 mm). Approximately 370 leaves including numerous blanks (see below for foliation details).

Bound in contemporary reverse calf, with brass clasps, and gilt stamped to the reverse “MRS MAGARETT BARKHA[M]” (the final letter has been lost when the clasps were repaired). The lettering to the reverse board seems strange, but it is undoubtedly how the book was used because the spine has gradually recessed through repeated usage.

¶ The unusual arrangement of this artefact presents, at first glance, something of a conundrum: why do sections written in 1679 precede those written in 1660? However, if we take the sequence of events as our guide, we find that they make sense when considered in the order in which the texts were entered. They also help us understand how this early free school itself developed into a more organised and stable institution.

At the centre of that development is one William Westley, who joins the school’s board of feoffees (trustees who hold and administer an estate for charitable purposes) and, apparently almost single-handedly, brings order and structure to the struggling school – a transformation aptly reflected in this book’s evolution from incongruity to coherence.

The contents are as follows: Front endpaper with initials “DT” to upper margin.

[1]. [Circa 1679]. ff. 1-9 (17 pages) “A Copie of M:rs Barkhams Feoffment relating to her Schoole in Wells”. [*]. ff. 10-30, blank leaves.

[2]. [Circa 1679]. ff. 31-52. Copy of a document summarising Margaret Barkham’s will, appointing feoffees, recording their actions in the first days of the school’s foundation. Also details of the first intake of “Schollers”, the “Lawes and Ordinances” of the school and records of the year 1659. [*]. ff. 53-55, blank leaves.

[3]. [Circa 1660-1735]. ff. 56-157. Accounts, actions, and other notes. [*]. ff. 158-370, blank leaves.

Section [1] copies a document from 1654 but appears to have been entirely written by William Westley in 1679 when he adds a dated note and his signature (illustrated overleaf).

Section [2] is written in a scribal hand. This section documents events from 1656 to 1660 but was probably copied into the volume in 1679 at the instruction of William Westley.

Section [3] commences in 1660 and continues through to 1735. It is written in a variety of hands.

Although the accounts [3] begin on f. 56, they are evidently the earliest section of the manuscript. So why do the earlier pages of section [3] predate sections [1] and [2], and why are they separated by a large blank section? It seems clear that the explanation is as follows.

The original feoffees read Margaret Barkham’s will and worked directly from their knowledge of it. Although aware that it was expected, none of them wanted the chore of copying into the volume these extensive legal documents whose contents were already so familiar to them, so they left a number of blank pages for someone else to fulfil this onerous task.

The workings of time and mortality caused some of the founding feoffees to be replaced. One new arrival was William Westley, whose diligence did much to bring order to the accounts. We learn from these meticulous records that Westley was appointed a feoffee in 1679.

Westley is first recorded as keeping an “accompt to our Lady day last) the summe of 11li : 6 : 11” and, further down the page, as one of three signers on the “2d / day of Aprill 1679:”, and he continued in this role for many years. He evidently took his responsibilities very seriously, and knowing that copies should be kept in this book and to save future feoffees the trouble of referring back to the original documents, he did what should have been done at the outset: he copied in the originals and signed them off.

Accordingly, Westley has annotated the first document [1] at the end: “A true copie Exd- with the Originall Deed /of ffeoffmt the 15o Sept 1679 / By me Wm: Westley”. We assume that Westley himself copied this, as it is consistent with his other entries later in the volume.

The second document [2] is written in a neat – probably professional – scribal hand. This section is not dated, but does refer to the preceding document: “which deede is entred and recorded in this present Booke” (f. 31r). It includes details of the events from the execution of Margaret Barkham’s will until the first accounts.

It seems likely that Westley, having laboured to copy in the first document, employed a professional scribe to bring the volume fully up to date.

Westley’s actions should not be underestimated: in bringing stability to a still uncertain institution he contributed, in his small part, to the development of a more cohesive administrative basis for the embryonic English education system. His work as an individual foreshadows the wider institutional efforts needed for the education of the poor to become more than an ad hoc, well-intentioned but scattershot business.

17th-century English schooling The influence of Renaissance humanism, coupled with that of the Protestant Reformation, did much to expand the provision of formal schooling. However, its effects were felt mostly by the so-called ‘elite’; even the rapid establishment of grammar schools, which were often endowed by merchants or others who had prospered, catered mainly for those who could afford the fees. The education of poor children was a much more haphazard affair: they had to rely on the ‘petty schools’, which were often held in the teacher’s house and offered basic literacy and a smattering of arithmetic. But these would spring up under the auspices of a local clergyman or other educated individual, and then close when they moved away or were no longer able to continue the work; and even the petty schools could be too expensive for poorer families.

Free schools most closely resembled these petty schools but removed the barrier of fees.

Exactly how common free schools were by this period is unclear, but it seems probable that Margaret Barkham and her husband Ezekiell were somewhat ahead of the curve – particularly in also providing a stipend for indentured apprenticeships.

Ezekiel (or Ezechiel) Barkham married Margaret (née Harris) in 1624; he died in 1641, leaving a will, quoted early on in this manuscript book, in which he explains that he and his wife have some land “which wee both had really intended to settle unto some pious Use after our own deceased”. The rentals from the land should be “setled upon such Trustees in trust as by the Councell of my wife shall be advised”; then after her death, “Twenty pounds a year ^ thereof bee bestowed upon some honest and Religious School-master Conformable to the Church of England for the teaching and Instructing of so many poor Children in the Town of Wells and Parish and Saint Cuthberts in Wells aforesaid (whose parents are not able to breed them up to Schoole by reason of poverty)”. These children are to be “tut^ored & brought up by the said Schoolmaster untill they shall be able to Reade write and Cast Accompt very well”, after which they should be apprenticed.

The Barkhams’ motivation can only be surmised: Ezekiel and Margaret do not appear to have had any children, and as pious Christians may have found sufficient motivation in their wishing to accomplish good works. A further spur might have been what the historian Keith Wrightson calls ‘local patriotism’ – a desire, commonly observed in studies of the period, to raise the profile of one’s community in the national picture.

Meetings, inspections, accounts The minutes of the feoffees’ meetings are recorded in formal language of high seriousness, constantly invoking the terms of Mrs Barkham’s original stipulations (“according to the mind intent order and appoyntment of the said Margaret Barkham deceased also expressed and declared in her deede of ffeeofment”, etc).

At the inaugural meeting, dated 29 March 1656, the five founding feoffees come together “in the said Parlor of the said Ann Watts her said dwelling house scituate in Wells”. The minutes record their appointment of “Mr ffrancis Standish Clerk now Master of the old Almshouse in Wells aforesaid to bee the present Schoolmaster for the breeding upp tutring teaching and instructing of the Childring”, a post he may occupy “soe long as hee shall carry and demeane himselfe in all particulars”.

Standish is reported as “humblie accepting of this our election”, and is granted “the Annuitie or Stipend of Twentie Pownds a yeare”. At the same meeting, the names of the first fourteen pupils and their parents are given, together with the principal parent’s trade or social status.

At a meeting on 2 April 1657, a tragedy all too common is met with the pragmatism of the age: Standish reports “That Nicholas Morgan one of the ffowerteene Schollers … is since deceased and soe one schollers place is voyd”, prompting the ffeeoffees to “elect Georg Howell aged twelve yeares or therabouts Sonne of Georg Howell of wells aforesaid blacksmith ^ & a verie poore man that hath five Children to bee Scholler in the said Morgans place”. Similarly, the deaths of feoffees are sometimes mentioned but only as a preface to the election of their replacements.

The feoffees clearly understood the importance of standards and accountability. There are school inspection visits, for example on 19 October 1657, when the feeoffees “did trie and examine the Schollers present how an in what manner and how farr they had profited by their said Schoole Masters teaching and instructing them.” From 1660 there are also accounts, which include payment for “a booke to enter all our proceedings” – presumably the present book, which cost 10 shillings.

Bumps in the road The minutes make clear that the school’s early years were not easy. A recurrent problem was absenteeism: at the meeting on 1 May 1658, the schoolmaster reports “that Steven Wearing one of the Schollers … had not byn at Schoole for neere a yeares space”; furthermore, “Christopher Trott and Thomas Reade … came seldome to the Schoole.” The feoffees instruct the master “to correct them and all other neglectors”, and to convey to the parents that, if such behaviour continues, “wee … intend to expell them from the schoole and take in others in their Place”. This proves no idle threat: “on 16 October 1658”, the feoffees find that Trott “had byn the greatest Neglecter … and soe hath continued untill this present”, and “gave order to the said Schoolemaster to receave him noe more into the said Schoole.”

At the latter meeting, the feoffees also learn “That Thomas Wearing one other of the Schollers … had with his ffathers consent deserted the Schoole” – a probable instance of a boy forced by family need to abandon his education. This sadly common occurrence opened up a space for other boys, but not, it seems, for all of them. At this same meeting, the feoffees are petitioned by the parents of two more boys, “William Richards” and “Thomas Davis”, to take on “their said two Sonns”.

But the school is full, and the parents are ordered to “give their farther attendance in that behalf” in case there are subsequent vacancies. Since neither boy reappears in these records, we must conclude that either they didn’t, or there weren’t. Such is the inconsistent nature of educational opportunities for the poor during this period.

The regular monitoring of the school ensured a continuity, if not consistently high standards. Indeed, from as early as 1659, the feoffees express concern at the quality of teaching (“examined the Schollers … but fownd manie of them to have but little profited since the last meeting ther, And the reason therof was given to them by the Schoolemaster that manie of the said Schollers had been often absent”). In 1662, Standish is again challenged, and he again blames the “Schollers for their great negligence is coming to the Schoole”. Thereafter the standard of teaching improves, and in the report for 1665, Mr Standish is praised (“the Schollers beforenamed uppon due Examination were found very well taught”) (f. 76r). However, in 1672 he is replaced by a Mr Beaumont, who by 1677 is found wanting and threatened with being “discharged of his place” if matters continue (f.

86r). He is “ again admonished” and “promised amendent.”

It is not until 1680, when “Mr. Anthony Walkly having been shortly after the death of Mr Thomas Beaumont late shoolmaster [was] nominated by us to succeed him” (f. 91v), that the situation really seems to improve. Henceforth, things seem to run relatively smoothly, although they are still underfunded.

The cash flow problems mostly arise from the cost of placements for the boys. In 1685, the feoffees resort to a loan of “sixteen pounds for ye placing out of ye sd boyes” from “Mr Richd Healy, which sd summe shall be payd to him out of ye rent of ye Lands”; and they are forced to delay placements (“Howell, Evans, Bakehouse, James, & Harvey, who were admitted into the Schoole in ye yeare 1685 shalt not be put out to Apprentices by the Feoffees til the yeare

1690, That so ye sd monies borrowed for ye uses aforesd may be the better raised out of sd Lands”).

The matter is finally addressed at a meeting in April 1691, when it is acknowledged that, since “the yearly rent of ye Estate belonging to ye said Schoole is now much less than it has formerly been … the largness of ye Salary paid to ye Schoolmastr” – having been “for some years past 15li : 10s” – leaves “very little for the binding out of such poor Children as by the Constitucion of ye said Schoole are qualified for that Charity”. The feoffees therefore agree that “henceforth the sum of Tenn pounds yearly & no more shall be paid”.

Whether the shock of having his wages so severely cut dealt a mortal blow to Mr Walkley, or whether the feoffees had noticed he was ill and took advantage of the moment, we find on the same page, written in a different hand: “At a meeting of the Trustees aforesd the nineth day of April May 1691, Upon the death of Mr Anthony Walkley late schoolmaster … They the Trustees aforesd did choose M r Thomas Webb to succeed in that place, as school-master, during their pleasure under the conditions & limitations above-written …”

By these and other means, the school reached a surer footing, and the Barkhams’ foresight in providing for apprenticeships bore notable fruit. This book allows us to trace how the education of the poor in one provincial parish radiated outwards to form networks and help sow the seeds of social and educational change.

Paper trails: measuring success The entries detailing the binding of “schollers” as apprentices add a new dimension to the school’s story, just as they evoke the expanding horizons of each pupil. Examples include: “pay 4li ... Apprentice for the space of seaven yeares to learne the trade and mistery of a Tayler”; and “for putting out John Pauly Apprentice to Thomas Parfit Joyner --} 05-00-00”. Among other trades represented are “Cordwinder” and “Vitler” (presumably a victualler). Most of the apprentices are placed within the local area – some don’t even get to leave home (“Henry Rowden in consideration of his being very sickly & infirm … shall be put out Apprentice to Frances Rowden, Plaisterer, his Father”) – but others expand their horizons to the cities of Bristol (“for putting out George Plaister Apprentice in Bristol --} 05-00-00”) and London.

Among those travelling to the capital, several pursued the more unusual choice of training to become Barber-Surgeons (“for appointing Thomas Helps to a Barber Surgeon in London -- } 5 : 00 : 00”; “Agreed to put out Samuel Fuller an Apprentice to Mr Robt Studdier of ye City of London Barber-Chirurgion, with ye Summ of Five Pounds”). To make the London placements, the school took advantage of what we might call an “old [poor] boys network”. For example, on f. 122v. “pay to Mr Wm Baron five pounds for placing binding out Wm Lane a poor boy an apprentice to John Rose Linnen Dyer & Citizen of London late of this school”. William Baron is recorded in the apprentice records: “Baron Wm. s Wm., Wells, Som, gent. to Edw. Cooth 12 Nov 1658; F 19 Apr 1678; A 1680-4.” 1 Here Baron acts as an “agent” for the school in placing Lane with Rose, who is himself a former pupil at the school. This network also appears to have been useful to the families of feoffees themselves. For example, it appears a relation of one of the original feoffees, “Arth: Mattocke”, can be traced to a London apprenticeship placement: “37830 Matocke, Art. s Chas. Wells, Som, gent. to Jn. Spering, 15 May 1689. 17/180v.” 2 The eventual success of the Barkham School, although small-scale, is all the more exceptional for taking place during a time when growing opportunities for social advancement barely reached the poorer levels of society. Where education was concerned, as Wrightson puts it, “[t]he mass of the poor were excluded”, and “the transition to mass literacy had barely begun”. 3 Another notable aspect of the manuscript is the attitude of respect towards Margaret Barkham herself, at a time when women’s voices were often marginalised. It is her school and her “Charitable intencion” which brought it into being. It reverses the usual patriarchal prioritising of the male (Ezechiell is mentioned in relation to her as the “late husband of the said Margaret Barkham”), and it is to Margaret’s words and wishes that the feoffees consistently refer.

Primary sources for the history of education and schooling in this period are severely lacking; this volume concentrates on the administrative aspects of Mrs Barkham’s School, providing rare and robust evidence of the contexts, challenges, and practical business of setting up and running a free school in early modern England. The fact that this invaluable document is itself marked by an initially puzzling discontinuity is a perfect reflection of the school’s own journey from faltering beginnings to a sound and well-organised institution that continues to this day. £17,500 Ref: 7970 1. Scott, Michael (ed). Haberdasher’s Company Membership Records 1500-1800: 2020. (p. 89) 2. Scott, Michael (ed.) The Merchant Taylor’s Company of London: apprentices 1583-1800. 2019. (p. 755) 3. Wrightson, Keith. English Society 1580-1680. 2004. (p. 232).

32. HIVE OF INDUSTRY [BAYLEY, Elizabeth (d. 1657/8)] A fine manuscript ‘Inventory of the goods & chattells of Elizabeth Bayley late of Oakehanger in the County of Southt widdowe’.

[Oakhanger, Hampshire. Circa 1658]. Single, long vellum strip (150 mm x 750 mm). Framed and glazed (but can be removed if buyer prefers). A transcript of the inventory will be included.

¶ Rural life in mid-17th-century England was a spartan existence for most of those below the level of the gentry: household possessions were generally limited to items serving the necessities of sleeping, eating, and sitting. This fine manuscript – an inventory of the “goods and chattels” left by a Hampshire widow named Elizabeth Bayley, written on a single, long strip of vellum – records an exception to this norm.

As the appraisers (“John Alderslade James Bridger and William Christmas”) move through the late widow’s rooms they encounter the usual selection of places sit on or at (“Chayres”, “stooles”, “table”), to sleep in (“one feather bedd & twoe Boulsters one fflocke bedd Coverletts one blankett”) or store things (“one Chest ffower Coffers”), together with basic kitchen utensils such as “one gridiron one tosting iron one frying pann”, and – less basic – a “Spitt”.

None of the items listed suggest that Bayley was a wealthy woman, but she could certainly afford more than the bare essentials one might expect from a small village. Included in the inventory are “one Cowe” and “in the Buttery fower barrells one Butter Churne three formes & sixe milkeing vessells” as well as, unusually, “fower stales [hives] of Bees”.

But what sets her apart is her possession of “three Spinning Wheeles” and a substantial amount of cash (“in money – xll”), a combination predating the similar circumstances of George Eliot’s Silas Marner.

She also lent money to various of her neighbours (“desparett debts– xvijl”), adding to the impression of a functioning mini-economy, or at least an important centre for the community.

Widowhood provided one of the few paths for women to prosper independently; but as this luxury-free inventory demonstrates, practicality always held sway, and even the trappings of the comparatively well-to-do were meagre indeed.

£750 Ref: 8006

33. STAIN’S WINE BRADLEY, Richard (1688-1732) The country housewife and lady’s director, in the management of a house, and the delights and profits of a farm.

London: Printed for Woodman and Lyon. M.DCC.XXVIII. [1728]. Third edition. Octavo. Pagination pp. xi, [1], 187, [1], complete with the engraved frontispiece. [ESTC T184839; Bitting pp.55-56; Maclean pp.11-13; Oxford pp.58-59]. Modern sprinkled calf, holes from where the text was originally stab stitched, occasional spotting and staining. Ownership inscription to title page of “Miss Stain” and loosely inserted leaf of recipes in the same hand, browned and frayed with loss to some words.

¶ As its title states, Bradley’s book is clearly aimed at the rural reader. Its diverse recipes are arranged according to the months of the year, and its Arcadian frontispiece teems with country folk working in the fields and farms or relaxing with a pipe.

However, this copy’s owner, a Miss Stain, appears to have resided in London. She mentions “[a] Lady at Wandsworth” and although she also mentions a “Mr Taylor of Norfolk”, she added the word “Thames” in superscript to another recipe “Twenty Gallons of Cold ^Thames Water” as if indicating that water must be obtained from that river.

Miss Stain has inscribed the title page and included a loose leaf of six manuscript recipes for wines (including “A receipt to make Elder Wine” and “To make a Small Wine”).

Although the book has recently been rebound, it is clear from her handwritten references to Bradley’s text that the manuscript and the book are old companions. Her notes are conversational: “We made our Wine according to this quanti[ty] only wee bruised the raisins stalks […] & then pour’d the Cold Water to them – wee us’d Malaga Raisins”. Some of this conversation is with the book itself: “Our White Wine we made according to the Receipt of Bradley, only wee gently bruis[ed] the Raisins with the stalks, and then pour’d the Hot Water on them – we used Velvedore Raisins”. In a slightly different ink, she adds “Pag 66”. The recipe on page 66, “To make Raisin Wine”, recommends Malaga. Since Miss Stain mentions using Malaga raisins in the preceding recipe, she seems to be experimenting from choice rather than necessity. £1,000 Ref: 7941

34. TRYING HIS HAND [DYER, Thomas (c. 1783-1852)] Original artwork designs for an early group of transformation playing cards.

[England? Circa 1815-20]. 10 cards (each measuring approximately 94 mm x 65 mm), together with a full-length portrait of a Georgian gentleman (82 mm x 62 mm). The latter was painted on an oval piece of paper, since mounted in a rectangular card mount. The 10 transformation cards have been tipped onto brown card with manuscript notes by Longstaffe mounted alongside them. Pen and ink with watercolour washes.

Provenance: From the private collection of William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe (1826-1898).

¶ Card-playing was a highly fashionable activity in Georgian Britain. It was a favourite pastime of the elite and the ‘middling sort’ who would play in card rooms at balls and parties, at gentleman’s clubs, and in parlour rooms across the country. It features in the novels of Jane Austen, perhaps most famously in Pride and Prejudice (1813), in which she uses cards to bring people together and to reveal aspects of their various personalities by describing how they play (or abstain from) card games.

One fascinating offshoot of this parlour-room pleasure was the creation of ‘transformation’ cards by adding drawings to incorporate the pips (suit signs) into a kind of visual portmanteau.

There is some uncertainty as to when transformation cards were first introduced. The earliest published ‘set’ (although it did not contain all the cards required for a pack) was printed in Germany in 1801, with others following in France, Poland, and England in the next couple of years. But it seems likely that it originated with people modifying plain sets by hand with pen, ink, and watercolours, and that the fashion was picked up by enterprising publishers.

This group of transformation cards was created by Thomas Dyer (c. 1783-1852). The Dyer family had many branches and numerous Thomases, but we find an aid to closer identification in several notes, apparently in Longstaffe’s hand, which have been tipped in alongside the cards.

One of these reads “I beg your acceptance of the enclosed. The drawings on the cards are by the late Thomas Dyer caricaturing his family. Charles Dyer to me, 27 Dec. 1852.” Another note reads ‘“I beg your acceptance of the enclosed cards, which I only found this morning. They belong to the former ones I sent. Thomas Dyer gave them to his Aunt Elizabeth, from thence they descended to my aunt Emma.’ Charles H. Dyer to me 5 mr. 1853.”

From this little constellation of personalities, we can deduce that the Thomas Dyer who created these cards is the Rev. Thomas Dyer (c. 1783-1852). His father was William Charles Dyer (1761-1828), whose sister Elizabeth Dyer (c. 1737-1814), born at Marylebone, Middlesex, would be Thomas’s “Aunt Elizabeth”.

The set includes some cards copied or adapted from the NixonFuller set which was published circa 1811. At first glance a couple of them could be mistaken for actual examples of the cards from that set; but pencil guidelines are visible under a magnifying glass, so it seems Dyer has copied a couple of the published Nixon-Fuller cards to ‘try his hand’ at the genre before launching into his own, highly personalised cards.

And it is here we find an unusual take on the genre. Transformation cards create tableaux including ‘types’ or historical figures, and although often highly inventive, they were rarely personal. However, one of the cards in this set adds an additional level of interest: the scene, which depicts two men seated across a table with a candle jug and pipe resting upon it, is adapted from Nixon-Fuller, but according to Longstaffe, it features a self-portrait by Thomas Dyer (smoking) and a portrait of his father William Charles Dyer (either snoozing or contemplating). Longstaffe’s note beside it reads “This is Tommy Dyer himself as I know of other caricatures I have seen of his. His whole life was rendered joyous by fun. The old gentleman in the card is of course his father.” This could be overdetermination on Longstaffe’s part, but either way, it is still a nice example of a transformation card transformed.

Other cards represent a range of subjects: courtroom drama, guardsmen, two seated women (one of whom is reading to the other), a man with a goatee beard, a clergyman holding a baby and a couple standing either side of him (another variation of Nixon-Fuller), and a ‘meta-image’ of two people playing cards.

Just as contemporary writers like Austen used card playing to illuminate the personalities of her characters, transformation cards brought character and novelty to the prescribed format of a popular leisure pursuit that was social by its very nature. This very early set of transformation cards, with an interesting provenance of their own, shows the artist making use of existing cards to create his own personalised variations on this idiosyncratic Georgian pastime.

£1,650 Ref: 8003

35. QUEEN MAB’S BASTARD GILMOUR, Sir Alexander, 3rd Bt. (c.1737-1792), of Craigmillar, Edinburgh. A Collection of 37 Autograph Notes & Letters to Thomas Adams of Alnwick, 1780-83.

[Warkworth, London]. A total of 43 notes and letters (37 written by Gilmour; 5 by his friend John White, and 1 draft letter by Thomas Adams.) A complete transcript of all the letters (barring a few tricky words) will be included with this collection.

¶ The trajectory traced by these letters is a downward one, as their writer tries to evade his creditors, battles gout and arranges for the existence of his lovechild to be kept secret (successfully, it seems, until these letters surfaced to correct the historical record). In the process he importunes a number of friends and acquaintances, leaving a trail of aggrieved individuals, yet still seems to command the loyalty and affection of at least a handful of supporters. This collection has interest as a document of social history and as a source of insight into the pathology of an ostensibly charming but dissolute and devious aristocrat.

Sir Alexander Gilmour was the only son of Sir Charles, Second Baronet of Craigmillar in Midlothian, Scotland. He succeeded to the baronetcy in 1750 and went up to St John’s College, Cambridge in 1753. As an officer during the Seven Years’ War, he was wounded and briefly taken prisoner in France in September 1758. He was appointed Clerk of the Board of Green Cloth in 1765, while pursuing a political career as MP for the County of Edinburgh between 1761 and 1774. The Cambridge Alumni website cites a statement in The Gentleman’s Magazine (1792) that he “married at a very early age and has left at least one son”, adding that this “appears to be incorrect”. While his marital status remains moot, this correspondence is the ‘smoking gun’ concerning the latter.

Gilmour moved in James Boswell’s circle during the 1760s, becoming a rival to Boswell for the hand of one Miss Catherine Blair, though she – an heiress who perhaps had a nose for rakish spongers – evidently rejected them both.

Debts and gifts These letters, beginning in late 1779, are written to Thomas Adams (d. 1813), his solicitor in Morpeth, near Alnwick, Northumberland, who is clearly becoming embroiled in his affairs. The first few notecards and letters are brief and couched in a third-person formal politeness (“Sir Alexr. Gilmour presents his Complimts to Mr Adams”), but the purpose is largely transactional (“the last account clear’d with Mr Warrender”), and sometimes ingratiating (“He wishes much to see Mr Adams, & will take it as a particular favour, if he will either this evening eat a roasted Mutton [or] to-morrow at ½ past two o’clock, which ever is most convenient to himself”).

These blandishments continue: Adams is presented with “Partridges”, before Gilmour cuts to the chase: “The Bailiff who brought the Summons was the same who came here with Mr Hutchinson, so Mr Adams will have an opportunity of writing by him”.

In October 1780, the third-person courtliness is dropped in favour of a rather peremptory tone, as Gilmour’s problems seem to be heating up: “A person just now called on me saying he came to me from Mr Butler, I did not chuse to see him, and he wrote the inclosed letter, to which I made answer that the debt wou’d be discharged before the 1 st of Novr. that you was the person of busyness employed by me here, and wou’d if he called on you speak to him on that subject, which I hope you will do.”

Dalliance and consequence Gilmour’s pecuniary embarrassments are well known; the same cannot be said of another imbroglio that was brewing. In a letter dated 28 October 1780, after gently chiding Adams for some oversight or other, he extends another mutton-themed invitation, adding “I am authoris’d by a Lady now sitting by me to assure you, that you shall have a warm dry Bed”.

This “Lady”, one assumes (though we cannot be completely certain), is the lover he later refers to as “Queen Mab”, probably an allusion to the ‘fairies’ midwife’ referred to in Romeo and Juliet. The second half of the letters is largely taken up with the consequences of this liaison, as Gilmour strives to keep his lovechild secret.

The correspondence yields a likely timeline for the unfolding of this saga. In a letter from London dated 27 April 1781, he thanks Adams “for your attention to those I have left behind me” (perhaps his mistress, or his creditors – or both?) and asks “that you will send the inclos’d Letters to Henry Miners and Mrs Liddel” – both of whom appear to have been engaged as accomplices. From a letter two months later we can infer that Miners and his wife have taken in Gilmour’s pregnant paramour, though things have not gone smoothly: Gilmour addresses “all the complaints against Henry Miners &c”, which has left him “extremely vex’d”. He instructs that, if Adams discovers that the Miners have “in any shape attempted to behave ill to her, I do desire that she may on no account go back to them”. He uses a few choice words regarding “Molly Miners”, whom he considers “a very violent tempered woman”, whereas the man of the house elicits his sympathies: “a good natured honest man, under Petty coat government, and when drunk now and then says things for which he is very sorry for when sober”.

The main collection lacks any mention of the birth, but also included is a draft letter written by Thomas Adams to one Sir John Inglis on 28 May 1782, in which he states that “the Woman who lived with him ^Sir A. G. in this part County was delivered of a male child and the Child who is now at Nurse here, it is a fine little Boy and must be----(?) abt 9 or 10 Months old”, indicating that the baby was born in August or September 1781.

Adams’ draft letter is the only correspondence that survives from the 21 months between September 1781 and June 1783, but from what one can glean of the often-illegible hand, Adams believes Gilmour is attempting to advance himself in London. At some point Gilmour is rejoined by his mistress, for he concludes his letter dated 13 June with “Queen Mab … begs that you wou’d now then send for little Charles to see if he is properly look’d after” (thus giving us the name of their son). In the same letter, he thanks Adams for “the trouble you took about my business with Henry Miners, inclos’d is the Bond to him” – this presumably a formal agreement concerning their guardianship of his son.

On 7 August he informs Adams that “Queen Mab has most graciously pleased to say she will deliver” his letter in person, since “Her Majesty … is gone upon a visit [to] young hopeful”, i.e. baby Charles. “She insists upon his being rechristned, and has made a point with me that I shou’d beg the favour of you, to assist at that Ceremony in the Capacity of God-father in which request I flatter myself you will indulge Her Majesty”.

It seems rather to be Adams that Gilmour is attempting to flatter, as part of a wider campaign of ingratiation and persuasion: back in February 1781 he reminds Adams to take “some steps about ^preventing Mr Saint or his brother Trumpeters from announcing the arrival of your God Son” and underlines the seriousness of the request with a report that “my poor Mother remain[s] exactly in the same melancholy state in which I found her” (Gilmour mentions his mother only twice, on both occasions mostly to elicit sympathy for his own predicament); elsewhere he complains about his gout (requiring “a Shoe large enough to contain the foot of a Patagonian”), his piles and other ailments.

By September 1783, matters have taken a turn. Gilmour writes of “the indispensible necessity of parting with Queen Mab”, though his principal concern is his son’s continued residence in Alnwick, no longer with the Miners but with someone named Hudson: “if you think the Child properly taken care of, and that there may not be some danger, of his contracting some habitudes, and hearing conversations in a public house, which I understand Hudson now keeps, which might not turn out so well for his future Advantage, I can have no objection; but precisely under this proviso, that you can obtain Queen Mab’s consent to it, as I shou’d look upon it, to be the height of cruelty to take the child from her in spite of her Teeth. … I see no necessity for it, till the Child is old enough to be sent to school, from which moment I mean he shou’d be totally under my care and direction, conceiving that from that instant, I am more capable to judge what ought to be done with him, than any Mother in the world can be.” But in a show of what he clearly considers magnanimity, he goes on: “I can see no reason for doing anything harsh or severe … I shall most willingly give my consent, that the Child shall … go with her for the present”.

Around this time, Gilmour confirms his plans for an “Allowance of £50 per ann.” to persuade “Queen Mab” to make a discreet disappearance: “I have no objection to granting her a Bond payable half yearly under the limitations I mentioned to you … she must on no account return to London”.

Shortly thereafter, a dispute arises over her refusal to “comply with my desire of returning to her Mother at Fort-William”, the only option that, Gilmour considers, “can contribute to her own future advantage, as to well as to mine and that of our Child”.

In what is probably a signal of alienation, Gilmour begins to refer to her as “Mrs Moody” (her real name or an epithet?), until the final letter, in late October, when the dispute seems settled and her nickname restored, he pronounces himself “glad that Queen Mab has agreed to set out for Edinburgh”.

The letters tell nothing of the fate of little Charles and his mother, ending before Gilmour’s imprisonment in London in 1784.

After a drawn-out decline in France hiding from his creditors, he died from gout in December 1792, and the baronetcy and main line of the family became extinct.

This collection of correspondence, in contrast, brings back to life a scandal that hitherto only existed as a rumour, and conveys the strenuous efforts that Gilmour took to keep it that way. £3,500 Ref: 7983

36. BOOKS, LINES & INKER BAITSON, William A small archive of manuscript and printed material recording ocean voyages.

[Shipboard, Jamaica, India. Circa 1772-1786].

¶ This wonderfully compact archive of an English seaman contains journals, letters, and related ephemera including a fine manuscript volvelle. While the textual content is quite pedestrian, the reader is swept away by the material eloquence of the collection as a whole, which has somehow survived the ravages of multiple ocean voyages.

The journals, which begin in December 1772, give us glimpses of Baitson’s own fluctuating career as he discharges his duties as midshipman and as a master’s mate. These included oversight of certain disciplinary matters, which Baitson duly relates, if a trifle tersely: “Punish’d Nicholas Mooney Seaman with 24 lashes for Drunkeness and Insolence”; “Punish’d John Burk Alex r Chizholm Edward Kayton and John Drake Seamen with 12 lashes each for Neglect of Duty”.

Life at sea was rarely without incident, and Baitson records a few in the journal from his time with the Defence: on 1 June 1785 he reports bluntly: “Fell over and was drown’d John Thompson Carpenters Mate”; some years earlier, in the Gibraltar-Jamaica journal, on 24 April 1774, he recounts an infraction by the second mate, discovered “embezling Wine stow’d in the after hold the Property of John Ellis Esq, for which I thought it most proper … to put him before the mast”.

The collection comprises: [1]. Hand-stitched sailor’s pouch of coarse linen sailcloth with original gilt brass buttons of a type used by the Royal Navy in the latter half of the 18th century.

[2]. Manuscript journal [Circa 1773-76].

Quarto (210 mm x 167 mm x 20 mm).

51 leaves (some loose, some stubs of excised leaves), most with manuscript columns in ink. Text to approximately 68 pages, drawings to paste-downs.

Bound in contemporary full vellum.

Binding bowed and torn with loss, text heavily damp-stained.

The volume is entitled “The Journal of an Intended Passage from Gibralter to Jamaica”. He inscribes his name: “Wm Baitson of Lancaster” among notes and calculations in which he appears to be learning computational methods (“I would know ye suns true Amplitude ^ at his setting on Tuesday ye 9 day of september ye year of our Lord 1777 in ye Lati 53. 20o his declination being 5. 07. North”; “I obs’d ye sun’s Altitude at noon of ye 20 of July 1772 to be 152. 47 what was ye Latitude of ye place I was in. Ans. 57. 21 N”).

There are several drawings to paste-downs illustrating Gibraltar from 4 and 6 miles distance. These diagrammatic images would have been invaluable visual tools for navigating coastlines.

The journal section begins on the seventh leaf with a ship’s log (“transactions tuesday [December] 14 1772 at ½ past 3 Prestan Island”) for “ye ship John, Jon.Mr. Canten master for the Island of Jamaica”. Baitson records navigational details (“tuesday 29th 1774 All these 24 hours we had a strong gale and squally at 3 PM made the Canery Islands bearing S ½ E at ½ part 6 PM the Peake of teneriff bore NWbW at the same time the West End of the Grand Canery Bore SBE Dist 2 or 3 Leag s At 8 PM hald down steering sails fore and aft at 10 Do handed Main top Gal Sail Close reef the Mesin top sail at 4 AM set Main top G sail and steering sails”) and occasional disciplinary matters. They arrived at Jamaica on “Monday 25th at 5 AM” and sent “in to port morant and lay too till she Came back at 1 Got a pilot on board at 2 Came too with the best bowen in port morant Laus Deo.” We learn nothing of their time in Jamaica. He simply restarts with “A Journal of an Intended Voyage from Jamaica towards Liverpool” and continues his laconic details. Some pages appear to be missing and the notes are quite brief, and it seems likely he was still learning how keep accurate records.

[3]. A fine manuscript volvelle in three sections. [Circa 1780]. Sheet size approximately 215 mm x 195 mm. Ink on paper, small ink splashes to outer section, slightly dusty but overall in remarkably good condition with central pointer and original string fastening intact.

The outer section gives the time. The middle section is arranged into sections and subsections, including: “Before New and Full Moon”; “After the First and Thrd Quarter”; “Before the First and Third Quarter”.

The inner section lists navigable locations, including “Newcastle”, “London”, “Brest”, “Dunkirk”, “Jarsey”, “Coast Flanders”, “Coast of Zeland”.

[4]. Printed broadsheet entitled A plan Intended to assist the Memory, and to facilitate the Computations in determining the Longitude by the Lunar Observations, and the Latitude by Double Altitudes of the Sun, as shewn in Moore’s Practical Navigator. Printed for and sold by John Hamilton Moore, No. 127, in the Minories. [Circa 1781].

Moore’s Practical Navigator was first published in 1772. The sixth edition (1781) appears to be the earliest with Moore’s address at the Minories.

[5]. Five manuscript commendations. [Circa 1780-84]. Sheet sizes vary from 155 mm x 197 mm to 200 mm x 210 mm. All folded.

Each signed by superior officer. Baitson (also spelled “Bateson” and “Beatson”) is recorded as having “served Masters Mate” on the sloop “Volcano” in two commendations dated 1780 and 1781. Thereafter he is recorded as “Midshipman” serving on the “Sultan” and the “Defence”. This latter is the subject of the log following this entry:

[6]. Manuscript journal. [Circa 1785]. Folio (326 mm x 209 mm x 18 mm). 52 leaves (including free endpapers). Text to approximately 34 pages in columns. Some further pages with manuscript columns in ink, some with running title, otherwise blank. Bound in contemporary vellum covered in linen. The protective linen cover has been crudely but efficiently stitched. Linen marked and stained, some marks and spots to text.

Ink stamps to front endpaper and flyleaf which read “His Majesty’s Ship Defence 1785”. The journal begins on Sunday 1 May 1785 “Moor’d in Bombay Harbour”. They sail to England via Cape of Good Hope (17-25 June), with the final entry on 30 January 1786 “At the Chain Moorings in Gilingham Reach”.

As with the earlier journal, Baitson concentrates on navigational details, but he also includes signalling events (“[17th June] Made the sigl. to the squadn. to denote the Defences Longitude by Lunar Observation”; “Made the Sig l.with a gun for a Petty Officer from each ship of the squadn.”) and appears to have been given additional responsibilities (“Wm. Atkins read his Comission to the Ship’s Company on his being appointed 5th Lieutentant”; “[10th June 1785] Punish’d Nicholas Mooney Seaman with 24 lashes for Drunkeness and Insolence”).

[7]. Small pamphlet recording Bearings and Distance at Noon. (Running title). [Circa 1785].

Bound in a piece cut from a vellum sea chart. Text to 6 pp. (2 with manuscript columns but otherwise blank), followed by several blanks.

The manuscript begins “12 Novr. 1785”; columns include “Course”, “Distce.”, “Latie.”, “Longde.”

The brevity and homespun character of this pamphlet suggests it was for self-instruction rather than official record-keeping.

[8]. Two small undated paintings. One is in watercolour and depicts two people fishing beside a ruin. The other is a shipboard view of the island Elephanta, situated off the coast of India close to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Unlike the functional coastline images, these pictures appear to have been created purely for pleasure.

The material in this collection suggests that Baitson was learning the art of coastal and long navigation while at sea. The printed broadsheet [4] would have been used as a template for calculating longitude at sea, while the volvelle could be used to calculate tide times for navigating safely into port. The later journal is more careful and more detailed than its predecessor, demonstrating a gradual progression in Baitson’s abilities. The commendations [5] are slightly perplexing, as he seems to have had an erratic career path, and it is not clear whether his changing fortunes are a reflection of his inconsistent abilities or simply of the turbulent circumstances of a life at sea.

Although William Baitson’s travels take him from England to Jamaica and India, he reports very little of import outside of what he needs to record in his capacity as a master’s mate and midshipman. However, this mutually informing archive tells a story through its material evidence, all of which seems to have survived together and intact because, much like those aboard a soundly constructed ship, it was carried around in a trusty vessel – a rough but resilient cloth sailor’s pouch.

£5,000 Ref: 7971

37. JUICY ENDING [WILLIAM OF ORANGE] Manuscript entitled ‘The Life and Glorious Actions of William the Third, King of England &c. Wrote in 1726’.

[Circa 1726]. Contemporary calf, recently rebacked. Spotting and marks to text, title page with section of upper margin clipped (presumably to remove a previous owner’s inscription) and strengthened with fragment on an old list of expenses.

66 pages (title, dedication to Carteret, pp. 1-107). Engraved portrait of William II William to front paste-down, annotated “The portraits illustrating this work are not only scarce but valuable”, implying that at least one other portrait is now missing.

¶ Were it not for its intriguing denouement, which notably alters the account of King William’s death, this manuscript might be taken for a verbatim copy of The Life and glorious actions of William III. King of England, &c, a rare publication printed at Dublin in 1726 and known by only one surviving copy held at the National Library of Ireland (ESTC Citation No. T219072).

The rarity of the printed book offers an initial, quite plausible explanation for this scribal copy. However, the textual alterations, which give a more detailed and favourable version of the king’s death, demonstrate a more radical intent.

This manuscript was most likely copied from the printed version rather than the other way around. It closely follows the printed text until the closing pages (i.e. pp. 217-231 of the printed text, and pp. 100-107 of our manuscript), at which point the two accounts diverge. This change of tone is also marked by a change in paper and a subtle change in the hand; we are confident that this is the same scribe, but they perhaps added this altered section at a slightly later time.

The source of this alternative reading of the death of William III is unclear. The most plausible explanation is that it was copied from another printed text, but a thorough search of ECCO reveals none that follow the text of our manuscript. A note on ESTC to the 1726 Dublin edition suggests it is “Possibly related to one of the works with a similar title published in 1702.”

However, the 1702 work is significantly shorter (just pp. 16 in 8vo compared to the 1726’s pp. 231, albeit in 24mo), and bears little textual resemblance beyond its subject and title.

Our manuscript closely resembles the 1726 edition until p. 217 line 12 of the printed text, which relates economically the king’s final crisis: “ … On Sunday Morning He supp’d some Broth, and found Himself somewhat easier, tho’ excessive Weak. Thus He continued all the Forenoon, but in the Evening he was very Faint, and in the night had Three violent Fits. Thus he continued ‘till Sunday following, when early in the morning his Majesty finding his Spirits begin to forsake him, with all the signs of approaching Dissolution, He Received the Holy Sacrament.” (pp. 217-8).

Our manuscript agrees that “On Sunday morning he supped some broath”, but this seems to have revived him, and he “found him-self something better”, sufficiently so to send a “Message to parliament recommending the Union of the two Kingdoms in the strongest terms being moved more especially by the declaration of the Earl of Nottingham.” And it was only after “the Royal Assent was given by commission to several bills amongst which one for attainting the Pretended Prince of Wales” that the “King’s case became dangerous.” Our scribe was apparently keen to emphasise the importance of the Union to the dying king – who, we are assured, remained lucid: “The King preserved his senses to the last moment” (pp. 102/3).

In the printed text, the king imparted no final words of wisdom (“He faintly enquir’d for the Earl of Portland, who … tho’ his Lordship plac’d his Ear as near His Mouth as he could, and that His Majesty’s Lips were seen to move, yet he was not able to hear any Distinct Sound”), but our manuscript has him uttering the widely reported: “Je tire vers ma fin”. And of his physician, “Dr Bidloo he enquired “how long” Dr Bidloo replied “perhaps an hour” The king held out his hand saying “I do not die yet”.

The king’s “struggle between life and death” lasted until the morning, when a “Prayer was offered up and as it terminated he drew his last breath in the arms of one of his pages March 8. 1702”. Then a grace note: “On his left arm was found a ribbon with a lock of the Queens hair”.

Both accounts agree that several would-be successors were unmentioned in the king’s will. But where the printed text presents a lengthy encomium, the manuscript is more alert to the preservation of the Union and the continuation of the monarchy, and concludes with the (presumably satisfying) note that “Princes Anne of Dunmark […] the same day was proclaimed Queen of England Scotland France and Ireland.”

£1,000 Ref: 7990

38. THE PENMAN’S PROGRESS [GOODIER, Charles (fl. 1776)] Two fine 18th-century manuscripts in shorthand.

[Manchester. Circa 1776]. Contemporary gilt-tooled morocco bindings. Staining to text in ‘MS A’..

Two bound manuscript books containing sections of the Book of Common Prayer, written by Charles Goodier in John Byrom’s Universal English Shorthand.

MS A: Written before or by 1776.

MS B: Commenced 1776. ¶ The compelling coalescence of form and content in these artefacts supplies a remarkable riposte to the notion that shorthand is solely a utilitarian, interim product to be discarded after transcription into longhand. These are sustained stenographic ‘performances’ of more than mere proficiency – both in handling the systems and in demonstrating shorthand’s visual appeal. True to the nature of performances, they show a progressive improvement and evolution of style, as well as a keen eye for presentation, with the unusual inclusion of hand-drawn illustrations and an attractive finishing in gilt-tooled morocco bindings. Of equal interest are their provenance in Manchester and the hints of a mystery surrounding the scribe’s political leanings.

These manuscripts belong to a wider, as yet little-studied, tradition of transcribing scriptural and prayer book material into shorthand – a practice prescribed by various shorthand teachers since the early seventeenth century as a good (and pious) way of becoming fluent in a system. Successful attempts were sometimes used to advertise particular systems to a wider public: James Weston, for example, publicised his own shorthand system by advertising a display of “the Bible and Singing Psalms written by him in this Character” in several journals during the 1720s.

Our painstaking scribe was neither the “E. Bass 1800” nor the “E.G. Bass 1833 Jul. 6” who appear on a front endpaper in MS B. His identity is half-hidden in the shorthand itself: in MS A at the end of the Commination, in the same style as the preceding shorthand, we find the indented sign-off: “chrls gdr / hng+ing dtch / mnchstr.”; and in MS B, in the final row in the first of the introductory tables of Lessons for Sundays, “chrls gdr. mn chstr. 1776”.

We can be confident that ‘Charles’ is a secure reading of the forename, but gdr suggests candidates such as ‘Gooder’, ‘Goodyere’ or ‘Goodier’. There are reasonably firm grounds to settle on ‘Goodier’: a Charles Goodier was christened on 11 November 1753 at Manchester Cathedral (close to Hanging Ditch)1; Elizabeth Raffald’s Manchester Directory of 1772 lists a ‘Goodier Samuel, Soap-boiler, Chandler, and Linen-draper, Hanging-ditch’; and Charles Goodier’s being in his early twenties at the time of the writing fits the age profile of many users of this system.

The Universal English Shorthand was devised by the Mancunian John Byrom (1692-1763), who also lived in Hanging Ditch and was supervising new shorthand pupils as late as 1760. Goodier seems to have been too young to have learned in person from Byrom, but he very likely knew people acquainted with the Byrom family, if not the man himself.

In any case, these manuscripts’ Manchester origin provides fascinating links to an under-explored world of Byromite shorthand use before the system was published as a manual (in 1767) and, later still, found popularity in the nineteenth century through the textbooks of Thomas Molineux.

Byrom was keener than most to promote the visual ‘beauty’ of his system, particularly the conception of its geometric alphabet shapes. Goodier adheres to this aesthetic and carries it through to the presentation of the books themselves in his beautiful execution of shorthand, illustrations, and handsome bindings. The addition of illustrations really sets these volumes apart.

There are certainly precedents for this: numerous Bibles and books of common prayer of the period included illustrations, and Goodier’s bear a strong resemblance to many of these, but their inclusion in a shorthand manuscript is exceptional.

Unfortunately, we have been unable to identify the publication from which he has copied them, but they are probably not original works: Goodier is not a proficient draughtsman and is unlikely to have attempted the compositions without some guidance. Nonetheless, they add weight to the argument that these volumes were intended to be the (highly) finished article.

While the form is immediately striking, the content yields a further impression. Close study of both manuscripts reveals intermittent evidence of Jacobite allegiance, a stance still provocative – and to some minds still seditious – in the 1770s. For example, in MS A ‘Charles’ is clearly given as the name of ‘our King and Governour’ in the two Collects for the King in the Holy Communion. Simply a slip while copying out an old edition of the BCP published when Charles II was on the throne?

Or a reference to the Young Pretender Charles III, who from 1766 to 1788 was the rightful King in the Jacobite succession?

The latter theory is strengthened by the fact that, in the prayers before the Athanasian Creed, the forenames of the King and royal family are replaced with blank spaces – an omission that could be interpreted as a refusal to acknowledge the legality of Hanoverian usurpers (MS B has similar gaps). Such small scribal gestures, intelligible only to those who can read the shorthand (invented by a Jacobite in a town notorious for Jacobitism), might convey Jacobite sympathies; the evidence is inconclusive, but intriguing.

The two volumes show a progression from basic competence to a more assured, sometimes elaborate, execution of Byrom’s principles.

MS A. Duodecimo (95 mm x 65 mm). ff. 181(text to both sides), plus 10 full-page illustrations.

This manuscript is entirely in very neat shorthand, except for numbers and the very occasional proper noun written in longhand for clarity (e.g. “Elisha”, “Bethpage”). It makes confident use of some of Byrom’s more advanced rules of shorthand, showing that Goodier had already achieved some competence in it.

One interesting feature is the deployment of some minor shorthand formations which diverge from Byrom’s guidelines (and are absent from MS B); this seems to exemplify a common tendency for users of a shorthand system to ‘personalise’ small aspects of it, presumably for their own convenience or from a desire to leave their own ‘stamp’ on their work.

Although not immediately apparent, some material is missing from MS A which Goodier presumably had originally included.

Some earlier quires have evidently come away from the binding at some point and then been bound back in by an amateur.

Roughly 6-10 leaves are lacking (presumably lost in the repair process). The complete Order for Morning Prayer and some preceding sections are missing, and what is present begins part-way through the Order for the Evening Prayer. In the Collects, Epistles and Gospels, there is nothing for the Circumcision of Christ save for a heading (suggesting that the next page was torn out or lost in the repairing stage) and nothing for the Epiphany or the collect for the first Sunday after Epiphany. Material is also missing as follows: between the heading for the 12 th Sunday after Trinity and the first half of the Epistle of the 21 st Sunday after Trinity; parts of St Philip & St James through into St Barnabas the Apostle; parts of St Peter and St James the Apostle; part of Psalm 136, all of Psalms 137-143 and part of Psalm 144. Goodier’s placing of his name at the end of the Commination, rather than after the Psalter, say, suggests that the main part of the book, i.e. the Psalter (and possibly other sections), was conceived and penned as a separate writing exercise from the front material, and the parts subsequently assembled for binding. A more detailed codicological investigation should cast more light here.

These missing parts should be distinguished from material that Goodier definitely excluded from his transcription, presumably intentionally: the Communion ends with the Creed, and thereafter there is none of BCP’s content relating to Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony, the Sick, the Dead and the Churching of Women. In place of the lengthy epistles and gospels for Monday-Thursday in the week before Easter and Monday-Tuesday in Whitsun week, the scriptural citation is given on its own.

MS B. Duodecimo (90 mm x 50 mm). ff. 90 (text to both sides), 1 inset illustration.

Apart from numerals, this manuscript is entirely in shorthand. It is an even more accomplished performance than MS A, with finer penmanship, the use of more extended abbreviation techniques, and overall an enhanced sense of mis-en-page; the justification of the writing to form neat margins, too, is even more crisply worked. All of this suggests that it was written later than MS A. One palaeographically interesting feature is a distinctive device of four circles, used on occasions as punctuation and content demarcation, which is not typical of Byrom shorthand manuscripts.

As in MS A, Goodier deploys a range of many of Byrom’s advanced abbreviation techniques. For example, from the very opening page of the Order for Morning Prayer we find outlines such as “wm” with a dot positioned to show that the shorthand stands not for a single word but rather two words: one beginning with w linked to one beginning m (“wicked man” in this case). But there is far more in MS B than in MS A in the way of advanced fusion of whole phrases, as instanced on the same page in the virtuosic but monstrous contraction “dbb. tsmsnsps.” (=Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places), a mere two ‘words’ in shorthand for ten in longhand. Such techniques were used for space-saving as well as time-saving; they also indicate the manuscript’s purpose as an aide-memoire, and that Goodier (or whoever he wrote the manuscript for, if not himself) was already very conversant with the content – hardly surprising given it was the BCP. MS B achieves much greater concision: for example, many prayers are catered for with just a few introductory words followed by “etc”. Goodier achieves further compression in the section of Collects, Epistles and Gospels where just the Collects appear followed by the scriptural references for the rest. These aspects help MS B to achieve a more condensed format resulting in a more aesthetically pleasing artefact.

Goodier’s volumes confound our ideas of stenography as a transitional form. Their presentation – with illustrations and highquality binding – proclaims their creator’s intention to render them as finished objects with aesthetic appeal; and the two volumes together allow for a comparative study. The fact that they showcase a Mancunian’s personal engagement with a shorthand system quite newly devised in Manchester – and hint at possible Jacobite sympathies – adds a further layer of socio-historical interest.

£1,650 Ref: 7978 References: Timothy Underhill, “The most beautiful hand”: John Byrom and the aesthetics of shorthand. ed. Archer-Parré Dick (2020).

Timothy Underhill, ‘John Byrom and the contexts of Charles Wesley’s shorthand’, Wesley and Methodist Studies, 7 (2015), pp. 27-53.

England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. <http://FamilySearch.org.> With thanks to Dr Tim Underhill for his invaluable research into these volumes.

firsts words : further works 39. ADAMS VENFIELD, John (c.1600-1661) A True & Perfect Inventory of All ye all & every ye goods & Chattels late of John ^Adams otherwise^ Venfield of Bourton on the Water in the County of Glou[cester] Yeoman taken valued & Apprised the xvith of May 1661.

[Gloucestershire, Bourton on the Water. Circa May 1661. Dated in text]. (150 mm x 700 mm). Vellum. 1 ½ skins rudimentarily stitched and clumsily folded.

¶ This inventory begins with the clothes Adams Venfield was lately standing in, “Imprimis his wearing app[ar]ell & his mony in his purse xx-0-0”. We find a John Adams Venfield from Bourton-in-the-Water in Gloucestershire. One of four children, he was born circa 1600, to Giles Venfield and Margaret Venfield (nee Rucke). He married Elizabeth Adams (nee Arkill) of nearby Upper Slaughter, and they had three children.

From the now prone body, the inventory moves through the house room by room, listing goods (“Item two fether Beds & furniture for one bed & bedsteed in his Lodging Chamber 08-0-0”, “Alsoe in the same Chamber one Presse one Red Leather Chayer four Coffers 00-15-00”). Other items include “fiue porengers”, “Three small butter ^dishes”, “Tenn Sausers”, “one Douzen of Spoone”, “one Table board”, “Dripping panns”, “Mault Mill”. We then move outside (“nine Milch Beasts”, “three Mares & three Coults”, “Severall leases”), before arriving at the total value of £686.00. Thus, we learn of the necessities and the absence of luxuries in the world of a 17th-century yeoman.

£600 Ref: 7956

40. BALL, Arabella and Mary Ann Late 18th- or early 19th-century ciphering manuscript.

[USA. Circa 1800]. Quarto (200 mm x 175 mm x 21 mm). Contemporary vellum, worn and chipped, joints cracked, text loosely held by ties, several pages detached. Approximately 118 text pages (lacking several leaves in the centre, stubs remaining).

¶ This manuscript was produced by “Arabella Ball Born the 17 of October 1790” and “Mary Ann Ball Born the 25 of April 1795”. The education of these two girls (presumably sisters) was likely influenced by the Puritan educational philosophy which advocated universal literacy as a basis for religious understanding. During the 17 th and 18th centuries there was a gradual broadening of access to education, although girls were often restricted to times when boys were not using the facilities, and only in the summer months. It was only in the early 1800s, just as these sisters were beginning their education, that girls gained access to year-round schooling.

Ciphering books for girls usually covered elementary rules and computations. There is some repetition in the contents, suggesting the sisters worked at opposite ends of the volume, studying topics such as “Compound Subtraction”, “Time”, “Long Measure”, “Dry Measure”, “Cloth Measure, “Avoirdupois weight” and “Rule of 3”. This manuscript also includes some mercantile exercises (usually the dominion of boys). For example, the problem: “Mr John Thomas Brought of Samuel Green 15 yards of Sattin, 15 yards of flowered Silk ...”. In the centre of the volume, there are 6 recipes. These include: “to pickle walnuts”, “to Make ground rice cake pudding” and “To make Stuffing for Hair”. £650 Ref: 7938

41. CULPEPER, Nicholas (1616-1654) The English physitian: or An astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick, whereby a man may preserve his body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things only as grow in England, they being most fit for English bodies.

London: printed by Peter Cole. 1652. FIRST EDITION. Folio (275 mm x 187 mm x 16 mm). Pagination pp. [14], 92, 189-255, [5], text complete, but lacks the portrait frontispiece. Bound in 19th-century half calf with endpapers renewed, rubbed and worn, loss to spine, front board detached, title laid down, loss to upper right corner touching printed border, text lightly browned throughout.

Provenance: ownership inscription to head of title page: “Winifred Warham”. Note to centre and righthand margin “Requiem to the Ma—(? trimmed) Sun”, and a few pen trials (one dated 1755). 19th-century armorial bookplate to front paste-down of Sir William Grace, Bart.

ESTC locates 5 copies in the UK, and 9 in the USA. Wing C7501; Henrey 53; Norman 541.

¶ The first edition of Culpeper's famous herbal – the most frequently printed English herbal ever published. Culpeper was a radical figure in the 17th-century English medical world. He broke the College of Physicians’ monopoly on knowledge by translating their Pharmacopeia into English, making the remedies accessible to the common people. He followed this with The English Physitian. It is comprised entirely of remedies using only English plants which were freely available to be collected from the hedgerows or obtained at little cost. Furthermore, he deliberately priced his books cheaply to allow the widest possible dissemination of medical knowledge.

“Culpeper's magnum opus was The English physitian (1652). Costing 3d., it provided a comprehensive list of native medicinal herbs, indexed to a list of typical illnesses, using an astrological, rather than Galenic, approach (of the kind still flourishing in popular British culture), and set out in a straightforward and frank style. It sold widely at the time, and there have been over one hundred subsequent editions, including fifteen before 1700. (One edition of 1708 was printed in Boston, Massachusetts; it and the translated Pharmacopoeia, printed in 1720, were the first medical books published in North America.)” (ODNB). £1,000 Ref: 7929

42. CULPEPPER, Nathanael (active 17th-18th century) Culpepper revived. Being an almanack for the year of our Blessed Saviour’s incarnation 1722 and from the creation of the world, according to the best of ecclesiastical history.

London: E. Janeway. 1722. Pagination [40], text complete. Additional blank endpapers and interleaves, manuscript notes to 44 pages. ESTC locates only 1 copy at the BL. Contemporary sheep, wallet style binding with string tie, rubbed and worn. Duty stamp to title page.

¶ The manuscript entries occur on every available blank page as well as a couple of margins. They all date from the year 1722.

The scribe does not identify himself, but he appears to be a farmer. He sells large quantities of meat over this year.

Most of the entries are for animals or meat including, “lam”, “veal”, “bf” (or “befe”) “pigs”, “mot” (presumably mutton), “cows”, together with small quantities of related commodities (“skin”, “Cow hide”) and occasionally malt and “venegear”, and a few payments of “mony”. There is very little of a personal nature in the manuscript notes, although we do learn that “Thomas Bate”, who has a bill for over 120 pounds of “Mot” and “bf”, is apparently mentally unstable: “March ye 8 Tho Bate and I Kirkland Mad Even from ye beg: world to this day. Tho: Bate”. £500 Ref: 7895

43. [DAWSON, Atkins (1677-1711)] A fine manuscript inventory of goods.

[Long Whatton, Leicestershire. Circa 1711]. On 3 long thin vellum stripes (1800 mm x 125 mm), stitched, with turned wooden spindle.

¶ A fine and remarkably long inventory entitled: “A True and Perfect Inventory of all and Singular the goods Chattells and Creditts and personall estate of Atkins Dawson late of Long Whatton in the County of Lescester.”

Atkins Dawson of Whatton married Margaret Dawson (daughter of Giffin Dawson of Thringstone). The Dawsons were a wealthy, armigerous family. Atkins Dawson’s goods are valued at “CCLviij”, but he was “indebted to his uncle Joh Dawson in the sume of one hundred pounds”, which amount is deducted at the end. The highly unusual dimensions, together with the turned wooden spindle, make this an unusually appealing document.

£750 Ref: 8000

44. EGMONT, John James Perceval, third earl of (1738-1822) A small collection of 8 letters to his sister.

[Grosvenor Place, Berkeley Square. Circa 31 June 1799 - 6 June 1813]. 8 letters. All but 1 signed. Approximately 15 text pages. Folded for posting and stamped. Most with address panels and wax seals.

¶ These informal and chatty letters record a loving familial relationship between siblings kept close through “constant communication”. They were written by John Perceval, third earl of Egmont to his sister “Beth” (i.e. Lady Elizabeth Perceval).

They discuss Beth’s running of her household (“You really appear to do everything by volition, otherwise it would have been impossible to have found two cooks ten hours after [...] application, I am delighted with your readiness to accommodate”), and indulge in light gossip about their mutual connections (“from your report we seem partial to Lady Cooper, nor shall we grudge whatever staff she likes to retain for herself”). His letters are peppered with references to literature or lending her books (“I have taken the liberty of sending you a little tract, that I wish you would not only have in your hand but never never to let it out of your sight for a moment”), and Beth appears to be a keen reader (“I know from experience you love to have a book in your hand”). But, while they share a love of books, they differ in their treatment of them; in one letter he requests a book back and laments “I know your throwing it about according to custom will in a very short time certainly destroy it.” £650 Ref: 7762

45. FLANDERS, Philip Manuscript school book of proverbs.

[USA. Circa 1790]. 8 pages, paper wrappers. Stitched. Worn and browned. Inscription to final page reads “Philip Flanders / His Book”.

¶ A handA wonderfully tactile early American schoolbook, with its original wrappers and stitching still intact. It contains proverbs for teaching children about life, love and God. The majority of the proverbs listed in this booklet are from the Bible (e.g. “[1. Pet. 2.17. Mark 12.30] / Duty, and fear, rev’rence, and love, / We owe to God that reigns above, / In duty let it be thy art, / Always to give the lord thy heart.”)

The wrappers were created by from a scrap of penmanship exercise or practice writing. The phrase “Avoid alluring company” is repeated on the outside covers, and “Gods spirit faith impart 1 2 3 4 5 6” is repeated on the inside front over. £350 Ref: 7875

46. [FULLARTON, William (1754-1808)] Manuscript report on the French expedition to Egypt.

[Roehampton. Circa 1798]. Folio (385 mm x 245 mm). 17 ½ text pages on 9 loose leaves (plus 2 blanks). Edges chipped, browned and stained, some splitting along folds. Written in a neat scribal hand.

¶ This unpublished report sheds light on British strategic thinking in the face of the existential threat to the empire posed by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. This is a retained scribal copy with “(Signed) W. Fullarton. -” copied in at the end.

William Fullarton was a Scottish soldier, politician, and colonial governor. He was brought up in Edinburgh, where he also attended University in 1768. He was elected a fellow of the royal societies of Edinburgh and London. He served with distinction in the Second Anglo-Mysore War (1783-4).

Fullarton’s report begins “The following observations are submitted to his Majesty’s Ministers, in consequence of the intelligence, that Buonaparte landed a large force at Alexandria”. He appraises Napoleon’s chances of success and his likely course of action: a straightforward march from Alexandra to Suez, an uncontested passage to India, and the formation of a deadly alliance with Mysore or the Marathas. Referring to his own experience, he describes the vulnerabilities of British defences in India, notably Bombay and the Malabar coast, and proposes a grand alliance with the Ottoman Empire, evaluating in detail the capabilities of the Ottoman military and political establishment, and predicting compliance owing to “the belief already prevalent in Turkey, that Buonaparte having outraged the head of the Catholick Church at Rome, intends a similar insult, to the Mahommetan faith at Mecca”. Fullarton expresses great confidence in British naval commanders including Nelson (“that distinguished officer”), St Vincent, and Rainier. He reckons that the “Establishment in Egypt is essential to the preservation of the English Empire in the East ... It becomes therefore a matter of the highest national importance, to obtain from the Turkish government, such an establishment in the Levant, as may at all times enable the British flag to be triumphant in that quarter”, and concludes with the warning that “a transaction so novel and alarming as the present, if the daring and powerfully combined projects of the French are opposed by old and ordinary rountine, as they have been by the Continental Powers, the Result must be such, as has already disgraced every Nation in Europe, except Great Britain”. £1,250 Ref: 7960

47. [FUNERAL INVITATION] Engraved funeral ticket ‘You are desired to Accompany the Corps’.

[Circa 1700]. Single sheet (292 mm x 220 mm). Framed by Alden & Co. Ltd. 35, Corn-Market Street and 14, Broad Street, Oxford (probably early 20th century). The ticket has been removed from the frame for inspection, and fortunately, the sheet has been pasted to board by the framer. Engraved plate mark, but no watermark visible.

¶ This late 17th- or early-18th-century engraved funeral ticket features the grim reaper, a skeleton, trumpeting angels, and a funeral cortège. The text reads: “You are desired to Accompany the Corps of [blank] to the Parish Church of [blank] on [blank] next being the [blank] of [blank] at [blank] of the Clock in the [blank] precisely, And bring this Ticket with you”. Given the blanks do not have the usual manuscript additions it seems likely this example is from an undertaker’s stock of blanks. £500 Ref: 8015

48. [HORSE FAIR] Manuscript document announcing Summer Fairs and Winter Fairs.

[The Royal Borough of Sutton Coldfield. Circa 1780]. Vellum. Single sheet (365 mm x 260 mm). Folds, later pencilled annotations. Written in a neat scribal hand. This will be sold with another proclamation from the 19th century which omits any mention of a winter fair. A transcript of the earlier document will be included with the manuscript. Provenance: formerly in the collection of Vincent and Helen Holbeche, a prominent Sutton family in the 19th century. Vincent Holbeche was a warden of the town.

¶ This unusual document, proclaiming a fair at Sutton Coldfield, is undated, but is probably late 18 th century. Originally “Granted by King Henry the Eighth”, there were two fairs (“The Summer Fair ... And the Winter Fair”), each lasting three days, in which people could “Meet Trade Traffick Buy Sell Exchange and Barter for all manner of Goods and Chattells in such manner as the Laws of this Kingdom direct Toll Free”. Provision was made for those “who shall Buy Sell or Exchange Horse Mare Gelding Colt or Filley within this Fair” to record their transactions in the “Toll Book kept in the Mill Street or Horse Fair”. And should there be any arguments, they had the “Court of Pie Powder (a court held during markets or fairs) at the Moot Hall in the said Town where any person or persons that shall have any dispute Quarrel or cause of Suit about any thing to be Bought or Sold within this Fair may Repair and take a Speedy Trial”. The scribe completes the document with the names of “The Rt. Honourable Henry Lord Middleton Steward and The Worshipful The Warden and Society of this Corporation”. £600 Ref: 7944

49. [HOUGHTON, John (ed). (1645-1705)] A broken run of 35 issues of ‘A Collection for improvement of husbandry and trade.’

[London]: by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall, and sold by J. Hindmarsh. [1692-1703]. Amateur tape repairs to fore-edges of all sheets.

35 issues between 1692 and 1702. Numbers: Vol. 1: 21, 23; Vol 2: 26-32, 34; Vol 17: 495-496, 498-516, 518-521.

¶ John Houghton was pharmacist and author. He was briefly at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, before being apprenticed to Nathaniel Upton, apothecary He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the Society of Apothecaries. He kept an apothecary's shop and dealt in such exotic overseas produce as coffee, chocolate, and spices.

He published the first trade and agricultural periodical in England: A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, which appeared at monthly intervals from September 1681 to 1683. The second series was entitled, A Collection for improvement of husbandry and trade, was published from 1692 to 1703, ceasing with volume 20, number 583 (24 Sept. 1703). Each number consisted of a brief article by Houghton, with diverse commercial information. He included selections from a round-up of current prices of grains, hay, manure, wool, livestock, and carcases, as well as coal, tallow, glass, metals and sundry manufactures, imports and exports, movements of shipping. Other notable details include prices of East India, Africa, and Hudson's Bay companies’ stock, foreign exchange rates and bullion—effectively the earliest stock exchange figures. He also “included advertisements for a bewildering diversity of goods—brimstone, sago, coffee, spectacles and telescopes, even such specialities as manuscript sermons and advowsons—and extending to book reviews”. (ODNB).

Inscribed several times by “Thomas Royds”, with pen trials and notes including the “Little Wardle” several times as well as “Rochdale, Lancashire.” Also, “Robert”, “Walton”, and “James Royds”. There are two dates: “1723” and “1732”. A Thomas Royds (c. 1691-1757) is recorded as living in Rochdale Parish. He had three brothers: James (d. 1777), John (1693-1731), and Robert (born circa 1697), which makes him a likely candidate (although that does leave the Walton reference unresolved). £750 Ref: 7982

50. [JAMES II] Manuscript entitled ‘An Establishment of His Majesty's Guards, Garrisons, & Land Forces [...] with their full Pay and Entertainement to commence the First day of January in the First year of our Raigne. 1685’.

[England. Circa 1685]. Contemporary black Morocco, gilt border and panel, floral cornerpieces, attractive triangular indents created from semi-circles, rebacked, remains of original clasps. Quarto (200 mm x 150 mm x 10 mm). Title page, 66 text pages (including 1 blank).

¶ Just as his older brother Charles II had done, James II and VII marked the beginning of his reign by mustering his military authority. But as befits a simple updating of his brother’s establishment in 1660 of the nation’s first-ever unified army, this manuscript is a humbler example of the art of calligraphy in the service of authority.

The manuscript is arranged into 22 sections including: “Seven Regimts more Consisting of 240 Soldiers besides Officers un each, In all 1680”; “His Majts First Regiment of Foot Guards consisting of 208 Soldrs in 26 Companies of 80 men in each besides Officers”; “His Majts Holland. Regimt of Foot Guards consisting of 650 Soldiers in 13 Companies of 50 in each besides Officers”; “Pensions to Reformed Office rs. Disabled Soldiers &c.”; and “The Regulation of ye Weekly Subsistence of ye Forces”. There are also summaries of costs in the final pages together with details of allowances.

This second iteration of the ‘Establishment’ survives in several manuscript copies (Army Museum 1968-07-162; BL MS 61316). Though only a fraction of the size of its predecessor, it records a threefold increase in expenditure, from the original’s £223,358, 14s., 10d, to £618,322 17s. 11d.

As is frequently the case with early modern documents, entries range from the general (“One Kettle Drummer”; “Two Trumpeters each 2s. 7d”; “ffifty Soldiers. each 2s. 6d”) to the specific (“Chirurgeon 6s. & One Horse to carry his Chest 2s C Diem”), to the singular (“To 5 Sisters that quitted their Lodgeings in ye Savoy, to make Room for his Majts Foot Guards. 5s C Annum each”). £2,000 Ref: 7840

51. JERMYN, Henry 1st Earl of Saint Albans (1605-1684) Two original letters signed and sealed.

[Paris, 26 March and 9 April’ 1660.] 2 letters. Folded, seals largely intact, some tears and dust soiling. 4 leaves, 2 ½ text pages.

Provenance: H. P. Kraus with his catalogue notes enclosed.

¶ The English politician and diplomat Henry Jermyn was a leading royalist and a favourite of Queen Henrietta Maria, whom he accompanied into French exile after the execution of her husband Charles I. There he campaigned for the restoration of the English monarchy, which succeeded with the crowning of Charles II in May 1660.

These two letters, written a few weeks before this triumph, show him in a less heroic light as he presses the Garter Principal King of Arms, Sir Edward Walker (1612-1677), to expedite two urgent matters bearing on recognition of loyal service to the Royalist cause: the signing by the new King of the patent securing the creation of his title as Earl of St Albans; and the passing of the patent for James Butler (1610-1688), the Irish viceroy, confirming him as the Earl of Ormonde.

The letters are written in English in an untidy, but legible hand. They are both addressed: “Sr: Edward Walker” and docketed

by Walker (one reads “Ld Jermin to me”). £600 Ref: 7933

52. MAYNE, John Tables for use of the Excise-Office. Whereunto is added, An Introduction to Decimal Arithmetick: and a Short Treatise of Practical Gauging. Also The Excise-Man’s Aid & Journal.

London, Printed by W. Godbid, and are to be Sold by Thomas Harris and Edward Buckerfield, Stationers to the Excise-Office; and John Syms at the Kings-Head in Cornhill. 1678.

Contemporary sheep, insect damage to spine, text clean and crisp. Octavo. Pagination pp. [8], 47, [5], 16, [4], 40, [2], [6], 6. Signatures: π4, AH8 (last leaf is blank).

Ownership inscription of “Nathaniell . Churchman” and a few manuscript calculations to endpapers. Not recorded in Wing, ESTC, or OCLC.

¶ John Mayne (fl. 1673–1675)’ ‘Philo-Accomptant’ was a teacher, and writer on mathematics and gauger of the Excise Office.

He made his living by teaching merchants’ accounts. His works were intended to be “so plain and obvious, as that they may be easily apprehended without the Assistance of a living Master”.

His works include Socius Mercatorius: or the Merchant’s Companion (1674), Arithmetick (1675), The excise-mans journal or stock-book (1676), The practical gauger (1676), Vade mecum, or The necessary companion (2nd ed. 1680); all of which are rare.

Mayne did much to disseminate the work of fellow mathematicians by distilling it into a simpler form. He belonged to a group of exponents who “gathered in more formal organizations, clubs and societies, which evidently drew in a diverse range of practitioners, instrument-makers, merchants, seafarers and others involved in the shipping trade, and which contrasted strongly with the more socially closed nature of the Royal Society. Yet like that institution these clubs and societies no doubt served to promote their shared interests, enabling members to learn about the latest developments in mathematics, and to exchange views on the matters that concerned them.” (Beeley, Practical Mathematicians. 2019).

This book appears to be unrecorded in the usual databases. Its contents include: “Tables for the use of the Excise Office”, “Introduction to Decimal Arithmetick”, “Practical Gauging”, and “The Excise-Man’s Aid & Journal”. As with his earlier The Practical Gauger (1675), the book is dedicated to Peregrine Bertie (c.1635–1701). Although the subjects are similar to many of his other publications, the texts have been rewritten, apparently with the aim of creating a work that could be used by “the meanest capacity (capable of Employment)”.

This apparently sole-surviving copy has the following inscription to the endpaper: “Nathaniell : Churchman his Book liueing in draper corte in Losburey : 1694”, together with several neat calculations in the same hand. £2,500 Ref: 7950

53. OVID (43 BCE-17 CE); annotations by Thomas KENYON (1668-1731) P. Ovid. Nasonis metamorphosis ex accuratissimis virorum doctissimorum castigationibus emendata & in lucem edita.

Londini: Pro Societate Stationariorum, MDCLXXVIII [1678]. Octavo. Pagination [2], 5-336 p. Signatures: A⁸(A1 blank) B-X⁸. Collated and complete. [Wing (2nd ed.), O680B].

ESTC records 2 copies of this edition at the Bodleian Library and an imperfect copy at Yale, Sterling Memorial.

Provenance: The Estate of Lord Kenyon, Gredington.

¶ The youthful Thomas Kenyon has embellished this rare edition of Ovid with a wonderful mixture of studious notes and childish drawings and remarks.

Thomas has inscribed the front and rear endpapers, title page, and three of the text pages. Two of these are dated 1682, and another note says “Thomas Dale Not his Booke 1680” so he would have been between 12-14 years old when he was using this book. This perhaps accounts for the several doodles to the endpapers and such remarks as “this is the shape of John Brado groping his chickens”, and “this is the shape of Tom” both of which he has helpfully illustrated (or rather doodled).

But the young student has clearly not ignored his studies, and has annotated approximately 20 pages in Latin and in English.

These notes range from single words to filled margins. He often notes the uses of language (e.g. “periphrasis”) or comments (beside the printed text “Cum Deus inducta latas caligine terras” he says “—with darknes revered:”), or remarks upon the text (“thou hold thy peace”). £1,500 Ref: 7996

54. RIDER, Cardanus; NICHOLLS, Winifried (annotator) Rider’s British merlin: For the year of Our Lord God 1744.

London: Printed by R. Nutt, for the Company of Stationers, 1744. Duodecimo. Pagination pp. 48, plus 7 blank interleaves. Manuscript notes to 11 pages. ESTC locates only 4 copies (Leeds Brotherton, V&A, and 2 copies at the British Library).

Contemporary red morocco, rubbed, clasps broken, lacks front free endpaper.

¶ There are only a few sparse manuscript notes. The front endpaper is missing so the volume begins with a truncated recipe (this is also partly obscured by torn paper remains): “boil it one Quarter of an hour and then put the shugar in […] in one day or too put it in the vessel”. It is attributed to “Winifried Nicholls”, but it is not clear whether she is the scribe or is simply attributing the recipe.

Complete, albeit brief, recipes include: “Turmurweck A Quarter of a Pound for a Gownd let it be clean out it in cold water and let it boil some Time”; “To Make a Pound”; “To make the black plaster” (which includes such delights as “White Led Boyle it in a new Pipkin tell it be Black and the Froth be gone”). This recipe is duplicated on the following two pages in the same hand, but more neatly the second time. £300 Ref: 7928

55. SWEET, John Early 18th-century manuscript entitled, ‘The London Course of Exchanges’.

[London. Circa 1725. Dated in text]. Original paper covers, manuscript title to front: “Exchanges”. Edges chipped, dust soiled. Quarto (240 mm x 197 mm x 5 mm). Leaves numbered to rectos. A total of 56 text pages (lacking 1 leaf).

¶ This manuscript volume maintains careful records of bills of exchange – a non-interest-bearing written order used in international trade that binds one party to pay a fixed sum of money to another party at a predetermined future date. These records were kept by one John Sweet between 10-30 May 1725. The volume begins with a table of exchange rates between London and 15 European cities including “Amsterdam”, “Antwerp”, “Hamburgh”, “Paris” “Cadis”, “Leghorne”, “Genova”, “Lisbon” and “Dublin”. £400 Ref: 7915

56. WILKINSON, Thomas A manuscript appeal entitled ‘A Paraphrase on Hor: Lib: 3. Ode 16’.

[London. Circa 1750.] Original paper covers, edges crudely repaired with tape. Small quarto (165 mm x 210 mm). 4 leaves. Title to front cover, text continues onto rear cover for a total of 5 pages.

¶ This elaborately contrived manuscript appeal – essentially a begging letter couched in classical allusions – is the work of one Thomas Wilkinson. He explains to “The Revd Mr Attwood” in his introduction that he was “Bred to the law” but, after being sued on behalf of a relative, was forced to abandon his position as an attorney in London, leaving his wife in the care of a friend and moving to Cornwall to work as a teacher. His wife having rejoined him, he has returned to London to seek a more remunerative position and makes his appeal to Mr Attwood through a variation on the sixth ode from Book Three of the Odes of Horace.

It seems the two men were not acquainted: in both introduction and verse, he calls himself “A Stranger in Distress”. He concludes his preamble with the hope that the Reverend “will be pleas’d to accept” his “bold Essay” on Horace, which he intends as a compliment to “a Gentleman of your Character and Function; and as a grateful Acknowledgement of such supply as (in Charity and Compassion) you may be willing to afford me under this my great necessity.” To his adaptation of Horace’s sentiment that one should be content with less he appends, rather pathetically, the thought that “if (by better chance) you’ve ought to spare / A Stranger in Distress, become’s your care”. £400 Ref: 7862

I specialise in interesting and unusual manuscripts and antiquarian books that record their histories as material forms, through the shaping of objects and the traces left on the surface, by the conscious and unconscious acts of their creators and users.

Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd 125 York Road, Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5QG, UK +44 7747 188 125

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