A.D. 1755
This year is remarkable for the number and variety of the collections with which, during its course, the Library was enriched, comprehending those of Rawlinson, Furney, St. Amand, and Ballard.
On April 6 died Richard Rawlinson, D.C.L., a Bishop among the Non-jurors, notwithstanding that he passed in the world as a layman. From the time of Bodley, Laud, and Selden, he was the greatest benefactor the Library had known; and his only rivals since his own day have been Gough and Douce. In point of numbers, his donation of MSS. far exceeded all. From the short autobiographical notice of himself, given in his own collections for a continuation of the Athenæ Oxon. (where he has inserted a small portrait of himself, engraved, without his name, by Van der Gucht), we learn the following particulars. He was born Jan. 3, 1689/90, in the Old Bailey, his father being Sir Thos. Rawlinson, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1706. On March 9, 1707/8 (having been previously at St. Paul’s School and Eton), he was matriculated as a commoner of St. John’s College; but in consequence of the death of his father in the same year, he became a gentleman-commoner in 1709; B.A., Oct. 10, 1711220; M.A., July 5, 1713; Governor of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, 1713; F.R.S., 1714; ordained (among the Non-jurors) Deacon, Sept. 21, and Priest, Sept. 23, 1716221. He then travelled through the whole of England, except some of the northern parts, and in 1719 went into Normandy, where, while staying at Rouen, he received from Oxford the degree of D.C.L. by diploma of June 30. Thence he went to the Low Countries, where, in Sept., he was admitted into the Universities of both Utrecht and Leyden, and returned into England in Nov. On June 12 in the following year, he started on a longer journey, which he extended through Holland, France, Germany, the whole of Italy, and Sicily, to Malta; and returned on the death of his elder brother Thomas, also a well-known book-collector, in 1726. During his six years’ travels, he had seen, he remarks, four Popes222. Admitted F.S.A. May 10, 1727. On March 25, 1728, he was consecrated Bishop, by Bishops Gandy, Doughty, and Blackbourne, in Gandy’s Chapel223. Appointed a Governor of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in March, 1733. He resided at London House, Aldersgate, so called from having been in early days a mansion of the Bishops of London. During his lifetime he was a constant benefactor to the Library; in the years 1733-4-5-7-8-9 and 1750, he is entered in the great Register for special gifts of coins, books, and pictures. Some hundreds of printed books, now in the gallery called ‘Jur.,’ and elsewhere, were given by him at these times; while many of the Holbeins and other valuable portraits in the Picture Gallery came from him224. A few MSS. also came from him during his lifetime which are now placed in the general Bodley collection. But at his death all his collections came en masse225; collections formed abroad and at home, the choice of book-auctions, the pickings of chandlers’ and grocers’ waste-paper, everything, especially, in the shape of a MS., from early copies of Classics and Fathers to the well-nigh most recent log-books of sailors’ voyages226. Not a sale of MSS. occurred, apparently, in London, during his time, at which he was not an omnigenous purchaser; so that students of every subject now bury themselves in his stores with great content and profit. But history in all its branches, heraldry and genealogy, biography and topography, are his specially strong points. The printed books bequeathed by him in selection from his whole library (of which those in quarto and smaller sizes are still called by his name) amounted to between 1800 and 1900227, but the MSS. to upwards of 4800, besides a large number of old charters and miscellaneous unsorted deeds.
The staff of the Library being very small at the time, as well as ill-paid228, and such an accession being completely overwhelming, the officers appear to have contented themselves with duly entering the printed books, while leaving the MSS. entirely neglected. About the beginning of the present century some steps were taken towards a Catalogue, and a portion were arranged and numbered; still later, considerably more was done. But it was only on the accession of the present Librarian to the Headship, that the full extent of Rawlinson’s collections was ascertained. Every corner of the Library was then thoroughly examined, and cupboard after cupboard was found filled with MSS. and papers huddled together in confusion, while, last not least, a dark hole under a staircase, explored by the present writer on hands and knees, afforded a rich ‘take,’ including many writings of Rawlinson’s Non-juring friends. The whole number of volumes thus brought to light amounted to about 1300.
The classes into which the whole collection of MSS. is now divided are the following:—
1. Class A: 500 volumes, chiefly of English history, with a few theological books. Amongst these are the Thurloe State Papers, in sixty-seven volumes, of which all of importance were published by Birch, in seven vols. folio, in 1742. These papers were found after the Revolution concealed in the ceiling of garrets in Lincoln’s Inn, which belonged to the rooms formerly occupied by Thurloe; and they still bear too evident marks of the damp to which they were there exposed. They passed through Lord Somers’ and Sir Jos. Jekyll’s hands into those of a bookseller, Fletcher Gyles, from whom Rawlinson obtained them in 1751, and who, as Rawlinson says, asked at first an ‘immoderate price’ for them. Another series is that of Miscellaneous Papers of Sam. Pepys, in twenty-five volumes, containing his correspondence, collections on Admiralty business, &c.229 These, together with many other volumes which belonged to Pepys (including many curious dockyard account-books of the times of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth) were ‘redeemed from thus et odores vendentibus230.’ Of another acquisition Rawlinson writes thus:—
‘There was lately an auction here of Mr. Bridgeman’s books, curiosities, and MSS., who was formerly clerk of the Council to K. James II, and register to the Ecclesiastical Commission. Here I laid out some pence, and picked up some curiosities; the original minute-book of the High Commission, the proceedings every session with the names of those present, by which it appears that Bp. Sprat was not so innocent as he would persuade us in his letter to the Earl of Dorset to think, and that notwithstanding all his shiftings he sat to the penultim. Session of that Court;’ [Letters canvassing the nobility, gentry, justices of the peace, &c., in favour of the repeal of the Test;] ’3 letters from the D. of Monmouth, two to the King and one to the Queen, desiring an audience in which he would give them such satisfaction,... very pathetic, and deserved at least some attention231;... several volumes of treaties,... instructions to ambassadors. Very remarkable are those to Lord Castlemain on his going to Rome, the King’s two letters to the Pope, a third of revocation, all personal and complement, but no embassy of obedience. Copy-books of letters, private and public, wrote by K. Charles and K. James II, from which might be collected such a fund of true tho’ secret history, that the prize is not to be valued232, and will, I hope, be a standing monument of great events, and preserved in Bodley’s repository, with the papers of Bp. Turner and other great men at and since the year 1688233.’
There are also some papers in this class and in Class C which belonged to Archbp. Wake, about which Rawlinson writes, on June 24, 1741234:—
‘My agent last week met with some papers of Archbp. Wake at a chandler’s shop; this is unpardonable in his executors, as all his MSS. were left to Christ Church. But quære whether these did not fall into some servant’s hands who was ordered to burn them, and Mr. Martin Folkes ought to have seen that done. They fell into the curate’s hands of St. George, Bloomsbury.’
2. Class B numbers 520 volumes nominally, but really, including double numbers, 534. They comprise heraldry and genealogy (including MSS. of Sir Richard and Sir Thos. St. George, W. Wyrley, Guillim, Ryley, Glover, Le Neve, and other heralds) English and Irish history, and topography, including several monastic chartularies. Among the genealogical MSS. is a remarkable collection of pedigrees, in twelve volumes, which the present writer ascertained to have been compiled by Thomas Wilkinson, Vicar of Laurence Waltham, Berks, between about 1647 and 1681. They are arranged alphabetically, as far as the letter P in tolerable order and regularity, but thenceforward only in a rough and incomplete state. Unfortunately the handwriting is far from clear, and the ink has often made it worse. Among the volumes relating to Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., are twelve or thirteen which belonged to William Holman, a voluminous collector for the first-mentioned county, who incorporated the gatherings of Rev. John Ousley and Thos. Jekyll. Morant, the historian of Essex, obtained the larger portion of Holman’s books; some are in the British Museum; and the remainder (‘the refuse,’ says Morant) were bought by Rawlinson in 1752 for £10235. Besides the above-mentioned volumes, there are a large number of Holman’s MSS. which are kept distinct, and which have been recently bound in fourteen folio volumes, eleven quarto, and five octavo. Under London are some nineteen or twenty volumes of Diocesan papers which belonged to Bp. John Robinson. They formed (with one volume in Class A and several in Class C) a mass which are described by Rawlinson, as follows236:—
‘I lately rescued from the grocers, chandlers, &c. a parcel of papers once the property of Compton and Robinson, successively Bps. of London. Amongst those of the first were original subscription and visitation books, letters and conferences during the apprehensions of Popery amongst the clergy of this diocese, remarkable intelligences relating to Burnet and the Orange Court in Holland in those extraordinary times before 1688237, minutes of the proceedings of the Commissioners for the Propagation of the Gospel, and a great variety of other papers. Amongst those of Bp. Robinson, numbers of originals relating to the transactions at the treaty of Utrecht, copies of his own letters to Lord Bolingbroke, and originals from Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Oxford, Electress and Elector of Hanover, Ormonde, Strafford, Prior, &c.; letters from the Scots deprived Bishops to Compton, and variety of State papers. They belonged to one Mr. [Anth.] Gibbon, lately dead, who was private secretary to both the afore-mentioned prelates.’
Under Bucks are Rawlinson’s own collections for a history of Eton College, and under Middlesex and Oxon. his parochial collections for those counties. The Irish MSS. include many of great antiquity and value which formerly belonged to Sir James Ware, e.g. Tigernach’s Annals, Annals of Ulster, Lives of Saints, Dublin Chartularies, Arms of Irish families, Irish poems, &c. Among them is the often noticed Life of St. Columba by Magnus O’Donnell, written in 1532, which was bought by Rawlinson at the Chandos sale for twenty-three shillings.
Of these two classes a Catalogue, in one volume quarto, was printed in 1862, which was compiled by the writer of this volume238. A full index to the contents of all the MSS. has been made, which remains at present unprinted, but may possibly at some time appear in conjunction with a volume describing the contents of the succeeding class.
3. Class C comprehends 989 MSS. of very miscellaneous character, but chiefly consisting of law, history and theology, with a few medical works. Among the theological portion are papers of John Dury, the zealous labourer for union amongst Protestants in the time of Charles I, papers of Bedell and Usher, some volumes of John Lewis of Margate239, and some interesting Service-books of English use, including a Pontifical given to Salisbury Cathedral by Bp. Roger de Martivale between 1315-1329, and an early Oseney book. Several volumes consist of papers of Dr. Chamberlaine (author of Notitia Angliæ) and Mr. Henry Newman, secretaries of the Societies for the Propagation of the Gospel, and Promoting Christian Knowledge, which, Rawlinson mentions in a letter, dated April 28, 1744, (Ballard MS. ii.) that he had then recently purchased. Some seventeen or eighteen volumes came from the library of Bp. Turner of Ely (together with others in the classes called Miscellaneous and Letters), containing papers of himself and his brother, Dr. Thomas Turner, Dean of Canterbury. These were obtained by Rawlinson in 1742, who in them became master, as he says, of a considerable treasure for ten guineas240.’ Early English poets are represented by Lydgate, Rolle of Hampole, William of Nassyngton, and others241; and one volume contains a few Welsh verses. A catalogue exists in MS. The volumes relating to English history in classes A and C are noticed in the return printed in the Record Commission Report for 1800, pp. 348-353.
4. The class entitled Miscellaneous numbers about 1400 volumes, and includes the greater part of those which were discovered in 1861. They are so entirely miscellaneous that it is impossible to give in a few lines a real idea of their nature. History, travels, biography, and religious controversy largely prevail. There are papers of Sir Thos. Browne, Dr. Dee, Maittaire, Peter Le Neve, Ashmole242, John Dunton, and Bagford, with a very large mass of Hearniana. Of the Non-jurors, there are papers of Grascome, Gandy, Spinckes, Hickes, Fitzwilliams, Howell, and Dean Granville. Some nine or ten volumes are occupied with the accounts of the Royal Surveyor of Works from 1532 to 1545. The Church-wardens’ accounts of Sutterton, Lincolnshire, from 1493 to 1536, and of St. Peter’s, Cornhill, from 1664 to 1689, are also found here243. There is a large series of Italian MSS. (amongst other foreign books, chiefly French) which bear on English history, as containing copies of reports made to Rome by Papal agents and to Venice by ambassadors, together with the proceedings at many conclaves. These were bought by Rawlinson at Sir Jos. Jekyll’s sale of the Somers’ MSS. in 1739, for £3 15s.244 There is also a mass of papers of J. J. Zamboni, Venetian Resident in England, and a friend of Maittaire. A considerable number of autograph signatures, barbarously cut out from various books, by Thomas Rawlinson, were found in loose papers; these have now been mounted and bound in two volumes. There are not, however, many of interest among them, except several of Ben Jonson.
5. In Letters there are upwards of 100 volumes, comprising all the multifarious correspondence of Hearne with Anstis, Bagford, Baker, Barnes, Dodwell, Smith, &c., the correspondence of Rawlinson, Dr. Thomas Turner, and Bishop Francis Turner, Philip Lord Wharton, and Sir Edm. Warcupp. One volume contains a few letters by Dryden, Pope, Edw. Young, &c. There is also a series of letters in three vols. relating to Dr. John Polyander, of Kerckhoven, Professor of Divinity at Leyden, and eight or nine volumes of Vossius’ correspondence, being the originals from which the folio volume published at London in 1691 was printed.
6. The class of Poetry contains 221 volumes, including Chaucer, Hoccleve, Lydgate, Capgrave (Life of St. Catherine), and Rolle of Hampole, with Piers Plowman and the Romance of Parthenope of Blois (both imperfect). The majority are miscellaneous poems and plays of the seventeenth century. One volume, containing the words of anthems with the composers’ names, is supposed to be the Chapel-book used by Charles I.
Of the three last-mentioned classes, a brief MS. list was drawn up with great neatness and accuracy by Dr. Bliss, in 1812 (reaching in the case of the Miscell. only as far as No. 407); an index, in continuation, to all the later additions is now in process of formation.
7. Of Sermons there are about 200 volumes; many of which are by Non-jurors, including three by Rawlinson himself. Ten volumes are by Dan. Price, Dean of St. Asaph, 1696-1706; and one volume is said to contain unpublished sermons by Leighton, apparently from notes taken by some auditor at the time of delivery. These have been copied for publication in a proposed new edition (under the care of Rev. W. West, of Nairn, N.B.) of Leighton’s whole works.
8. A selection of Biblical and Classical MSS., with a few others, amounting to 199, are placed in the case marked ‘Auctarium,’ G. Amongst these are a few Greek volumes, with critical Adversaria of Maittaire, Josh. Lasher, and J. G. Grævius. Early copies of Statius, Ovid, Virgil, &c. form part of the classics; while among the Biblical MSS. is a grand eighth-century copy (written in rounded minuscules, in the same style as the Rushworth book) of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, and a beautiful eleventh-century Psalter with the commentary of St. Bruno. One other fine book is a Psalter written for Ch. Ch. Cathedral, Dublin, by the care of Stephen Derby, Prior, about A.D. 1360-80, with remarkable miniatures illustrating Psalms xxxix, liii, lxix, lxxxi, and xcviii.
9. Of Missals, Horæ, and other Service-books, there are (besides those which are scattered in Classes C and G Auct.) about 130. These (most of which are of French origin, bought out of the library of Nic. Jos. Foucault245, of Flemish, or of Italian) are now incorporated with a large collection of Liturgical books, which are called Canon. Liturg., from their having formed part of the Canonici collection purchased in 1818.
10. A small collection of Statutes, comprising sixty-five volumes, is kept distinct. They consist of the Statutes of various Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, of the Cathedrals of Lichfield, Hereford, Worcester, Chester, Manchester, Canterbury, Exeter, and the Abbey of Westminster; of the Order of the Garter (various copies); of Hospitals at Croydon, Chipping-Barnet, and Chichester; of the Gresham Charities, together with the Charters of London and Bristol; Statutes made by the Chapter of Paris for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there in 1421, and an eighteenth-century transcript of the Statutes of the College at Bayeux. But the volume of most interest in this class is the rare printed volume of the Statutes of Thame School, issued in 1575. Of this, only five other copies are known, one kept at the School itself, a second in the custody of the Warden of New College (the Visitor of the School), a third in the Royal Library, Brit. Mus., and the fourth and fifth, both on vellum, in the possession of the Earl of Abingdon and in the Grenville Library, Brit. Mus. Rawlinson’s copy, which wants the title, has in it the book-plate of John, Duke of Newcastle.
11. Of the MSS. of Dr. Thomas Smith, the Non-juror, of Magd. Coll., Oxford, there are 139 volumes, which (with the exception of a few bequeathed by Smith himself) came into Rawlinson’s hands together with the rest of Hearne’s collections. They are noticed above, under the year 1735.
12. Besides the multitude of books, scattered throughout every class of Rawlinson’s library, which belonged to Hearne or were written by him, there are about 150 small duodecimo volumes of Hearne’s daily diary and note-books, commencing in July, 1705, and ending on June 4, 1735, the last actual entry being on June 1, and his decease occurring on June 10. The character of this diary is well known from the two volumes of Extracts published by Dr. Bliss in 1857, with the title, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ. But it must not be supposed that these volumes comprehend all that deserves publication; the diary throughout is full of like curious personal history and anecdote, antiquarian gleanings and amusing gossip, mixed, of course, with a good deal of occasional acrimony against those with whom Hearne came in collision either from differences in academic or literary matters, or from their being friends of the ‘Elector of Hanover.’ There is scarcely a subject falling within its writer’s scope of observation on which this Diary may not be consulted; and as it is written in his usual plain and neat hand, with an index to each volume, it is fortunately easy for reference. Hearne bequeathed all his MSS., and books with MSS. notes, to Mr. William Bedford, son of the well-known bishop among the Non-jurors, Hilkiah Bedford; the legatee died on July 11, 1747, and Rawlinson bought them of his widow for £105. Hence it was that they came finally to the place where Hearne would himself have rejoiced to see them deposited. The autobiographical sketch of Hearne’s own life, which Huddesford published in 1772, in conjunction with the lives of Leland and Wood, is preserved among the Miscellaneous MSS. Of this Rawlinson says, in a letter dated June 19, 1740246: ‘Tom’s own life was so low and poor a performance that I recommended it to Bedford to burn.’ On account, probably, of the numerous reflections which the Diary contained on living persons, Rawlinson ordered in his bequest that it should not be open to inspection until after the lapse of seven years. He laid also the same restraint upon the use of his own papers noticed in the next paragraph.
13. Large collections were made by Rawlinson for a continuation of Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. These contain much valuable biographical information, derived in very many cases from the actual information of the persons noticed, letters from many of whom are inserted. There are, in all, twenty-five volumes, folio and quarto; among the folios there are two series of notices arranged alphabetically, and one volume (also alphabetical) of notices of Cambridge men admitted ad eundem; the quartos contain 1331 notices, numbered but not arranged in any other order, with one general alphabetical index. These collections, together with Hearne’s Diaries, and Rawlinson’s Non-jurors’ Papers, and notes of his own Travels, were included in a fourth and last codicil, dated Feb. 14, 1755, which directed that all these papers should be kept locked up during a period of seven years. By the same codicil also were conveyed numerous engravings by Vertue, portraits of Englishmen, some paintings, and a collection of Roman, Persian, Italian, and English medals247. Some of the Italian medals, particularly a fine set in copper of the members of the House of Medici, are now exhibited in a case in the Picture Gallery248. By a codicil of June 17, 1752, Rawlinson had previously bequeathed a series of medals of Popes, of which he remarks, ‘as they are, I take them to be one of the most complete collections now in Europe;’ together with twenty shillings per annum for enlarging and continuing the set249.
14. Finally (as regards MSS.), Rawlinson left a mass of ancient charters, five hundred of which were catalogued by Mr. Coxe some years ago, and of vellum deeds and documents of all kinds, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He left, also, all the copper-plates containing engravings of some of his ancient documents and other curiosities, as well as a large number of impressions from these plates. Many of these impressions were sold at the sale of Bodleian duplicates in 1862. The copper-plates were added to his bequest by a second codicil, dated July 25, 1754, in which he desired that impressions should be taken from them, to be sold in one volume for the use and benefit of the University. A last item in Rawlinson’s miscellaneous gifts (besides various bas-reliefs, figures, a Jewish vessel, Muscovite cup, &c.) was a large collection of matrices of ancient conventual and personal seals, chiefly foreign; together with impressions of seals, ancient and modern, in metal and wax, ‘most of which,’ it is said in the Will (p. 4), ‘were of the collection of Mr. Charles Christian, the celebrated seal engraver.’ The wax impressions are now exhibited in the Picture Gallery.
Distinct from Rawlinson’s other printed books is a curious series of Almanacs, in 175 volumes, extending from 1607 to 1747, which were sent to the Library in 1752. Some volumes in continuation, from 1747 to 1768, were given by Sir Rob. H. Inglis, Bart., in 1846250. Another series, between 1571 and 1663, is in the Ashmole collection.
By his second codicil, of July 25, 1754, Rawlinson bequeathed a fee-farm rent of £4 per annum to the Under-librarian, in consideration of his taking charge of the MSS., but clogged with the strange conditions that he should not be a doctor in any faculty, married, or in Holy Orders251. The receipt of this sum is entered in the Accounts for 1756, but in no subsequent year.
The following is an alphabetical list of the principal libraries from which Rawlinson’s MSS. were collected, with the dates (so far as ascertained) at which these libraries were dispersed:—
Acton (Oliver), of Bridewell Hosp.
Bacon (Thos. Sclater), 1737.
Bridgeman (Will. & Rich.), 1742.
Chandos (Duke of), 1747.
Clarendon (Henry, Earl of). Through Chandos.
Clavell (Walter), 1742.
Compton (Bishop). See p. 175.
Foucault (Nic. Jos.), ‘Comes Consistorianus252,’ 1721.
Gale (Samuel), 1755.
Graves (Rich.), of Mickleton. Through Hearne.
Halifax (Montagu, Earl of), 1715.
Hearne (Thomas), 1747.
Holman (William). See p. 174.
Jekyll (Sir Joseph), 1739.
Le Neve (Peter), 1731.
Maittaire (Mich.), 1748.
Mead (Richard, M.D.), 1754-5.
Murray (John), 1749.
Oxford (Harley, Earl of), 1743-5.
Pepys (Samuel). See p. 172.
Pole (Francis), 175-.
Powle (Henry), in 1689 Speaker of House of Commons.
Rawlinson (Thomas), 1734.
Robinson (Bishop). See p. 175.
St. George (Sir Thomas).
Somers (Lord). Through Jekyll.
Spelman (Sir Henry).
Spinckes (Rev. Nathan), 1727.
Turner (Bishop). See p. 176.
Usher (Archbishop). Through Hearne.
Wake (Archbp.). See p. 174.
Ware (Sir James). Through Clarendon and Chandos.
Whiston (William).
On July 15, a bequest of printed books and MSS. was received from Rev. Richard Furney, M.A., Archdeacon of Surrey (who had been schoolmaster at Gloucester, 1719-1724, and who died in 1753,) by the hands of the Rev. John Noel, of Oriel College. The printed books (nineteen in all) consisted almost entirely of early editions of classics. The MSS. (six folio volumes) are thus described in a list made by the Librarian, Humphrey Owen, at the time of their receipt:—
’1, 2, 3 and 4 contain collections relating to the history and antiquities of the city, church and county of Gloucester. 5, 6, a fair copy, seemingly prepared for the press, of the history and antiquities of the said city, church and county, by the Arch-deacon himself, or some friend of his from whom these papers came into his hands.’
The gift comprised also two ancient brass seals, and eighteen original deeds, amongst which is the original confirmation charter granted to Gloucester Abbey, by Burgred King of Mercia, in 862. This remarkable deed (which is not printed in Kemble’s Codex) is in admirable preservation, is written in seventeen lines, with five lines containing seventeen signatures, and measures sixteen inches in width and ten and one-third in length. There are also original grants to the abbey from Hen. II and Stephen, and a confirmation, 29 Edw. I, of Magna Charta, which has a magnificent impression of the beautiful great seal. The deeds are noticed in the Report on the Public Records for 1800, p. 354.
By the death on Sept. 5, 1754, of James St. Amand, Esq.253 (formerly of Lincoln College), a bequest of books, MSS., coins, &c. which had been made by a will dated Nov. 9, 1749, accrued to the Library, being received in the year 1755. The books consist chiefly of the then modern editions of the classics, and of the writings of modern Latin scholars; such of them as the Library did not need, were to go to Lincoln College. The MSS., sixty-eight in number, comprise various papers relating to the history chiefly of the Low Countries254, together with notes and indices by St. Amand himself to Theocritus and other Greek poets, Horace, &c. They are described by Mr. Coxe, in vol. i. of the Catalogue of MSS., cols. 889-908. The main part of the residue of his property was bequeathed to Christ’s Hospital, together with a picture of his grandfather James St. Amand, done in miniature and set in gold, with the singular proviso that the picture should be exhibited, and the part of the will relating to these bequests be read, at the first annual court of the Hospital, and also that the picture be shown annually to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, if required. Should a refusal to show the picture be persistently made, or any of the conditions of the will be avoided, then all the residue was to be given to the University, first to increase the stipend of the chief Librarian to £120 and of the second Librarian to £70, but only so long as both of them were unmarried, and then to be devoted to the purchasing of books and MSS., specially of classic authors.
Many of his books have a book-plate, which the author has ascertained to be that of Dr. Arthur Charlett; being the initials A. C., interlaced with the same repeated in an inverse way, surrounded by piles of books, and with the motto, ‘Animus si æquus, quod petis hîc est.’
By the bequest of George Ballard (the author of the Memoirs of Learned Ladies), who died on June 24, the Library became enriched with forty-four volumes of Letters, chiefly addressed, by ecclesiastical and literary personages of all ranks, to Dr. Arthur Charlett, Master of University College, between the reigns of James II and George I. For the biographical and bibliographical history of the time these letters possess great interest and value; it was from them that the Letters by Eminent Persons, published in 1813, by Rev. John Walker, M.A., Fellow of New College, were chiefly drawn. No printed catalogue of them has yet appeared, but the Library possesses a MS. index to the contents of each volume, and a more complete and minute index has been recently commenced255. Besides the Letters, Ballard bequeathed some other MSS., in number twenty-three, among which is a volume of various voyages and expeditions, 1589-1634; Sir Edm. Warcupp’s autograph account of the treaty in the Isle of Wight;256 a dialogue between a tutor and his pupil, by Lord Herbert, of Cherbury; the second book of the Supplication of Soules, by Sir Thos. More, a precious little volume of 103 closely-written duodecimo pages, entirely in the handwriting of the great Chancellor; the Universitie’s Musterings, by Brian Twyne; collections by Ant. à Wood; a small volume of Gloucestershire notes, supposed by Guillim; and several volumes written by Mr. Elstob and his sister. An extract from Ballard’s will, with a list of his MSS., is in the Register marked ‘C.’
Ballard was originally a stay-maker or mantua-maker at Campden, Gloucestershire; but, following the study of antiquities with great ardour, became well known and highly esteemed amongst all of like pursuits. At the age of forty-four he was appointed one of the eight clerks of Magdalen College, being matriculated Dec. 15, 1750, but never took any degree. He bequeathed to the College Library some of his books which were there wanting. The fullest account of him will be found in vol. ii. of A Register of St. Mary Magd. College, by J. R. Bloxam, D.D., pp. 95-102, 1857. Some letters from him are printed in Nichols’ Lit. Hist. iv. 206-226.
The very valuable MS. of the letters of Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London (which are of great importance for the illustration of the history of Thomas à Becket), now numbered E. Musæo 247, was given by Sir Thomas Cave, Bart. It is described in the Benefaction Book as ‘liber rarissimus; per totam Angliam unum hoc tantum modo exstat exemplar.’ The letters were first printed by Dr. Giles, together with the Lives of Becket, in his series of Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, in 1845.
This leaf is one of two copies executed for Cecil and Q. Eliz. Two, probably unique, ‘red-letter’ books are also among the rarities of Rawlinson’s printed collection. The one is a Sermon on Ps. iv. 7, preached before Charles I at Oxford by Josias Howe, B.D., of Trinity College. It is printed entirely in red, and has no title. It was bought, included in a volume of miscellaneous sermons, out of Dr. Charlett’s library, by Hearne, who says in a MS. note that only thirty copies were printed. A description of it is given by Dr. Bliss in his Reliquiæ Hearn. vol. ii. pp. 960-1, where Hearne’s note is printed in full. The other is a volume entitled, The Bloody Court; or, the Fatal Tribunal, being an account of the trial and execution of Charles I. The lengthy title is printed by Dr. Bliss, ubi supra. Some few of Rawlinson’s printed books came to the Library among Gough’s, in 1809.
Notes
220 This date is from the Register of Graduates; Rawlinson says, Mich. Term, 1710.
221 By Bishop Jeremy Collier, in Mr. Laurence’s Chapel on College Hill, London. (See a communication from the present writer in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, iii. 244.) He appears to have endeavoured to conceal from the world his clerical character. In a letter to T. Rawlins, of Pophills, Warw. in 1736, he requests him not to address him as Rev. (Ballard’s MSS. ii. 6.) Some volumes of Sermons in his handwriting are among his MSS. His writing is of a very broad, rude, and clumsy character; and it is singular that his brother Thomas wrote a hand very similar. Richard usually signs only with his initials, separated by a cross, ‘R + R.’
222 The small note-books kept on his journeys, containing epitaphs, inscriptions, accounts of places visited, &c., are preserved (but, unfortunately, in an imperfect series) among his Miscellaneous MSS.
223 See Notes and Queries, 3rd series, i. 225.
224 Two beautiful miniature portraits of James Edward, son of James II, and his wife Clementina Sobieski, which could not, probably, at the time be safely exhibited, have recently been exhumed by the Librarian from the obscurity to which they had been consigned, and are now hung in the Picture Gallery. In Feb. 1749/50, Rawlinson sent Kelly’s ‘Holy Table,’ a marble slab, covered with astrological figures (engraved in Dr. Dee’s Actions with Spirits), which, he says, had been subsequently in the possession of Lilly. It is now in the Ashmolean Museum.
225 By the terms of his will, dated June 2, 1752, and printed in 1755, he bequeathed all his MSS. of every kind (excepting private papers and letters) to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University, to be placed in the Bodleian Library, or in such other place as they should deem most proper, for the use and benefit of the University, and of all other persons, properly and with leave resorting thereto with a view to the public good; and to be kept separate and apart from every other collection. With these he gave also all his books printed on vellum or silk (of which latter kind there are two or three small specimens), all his deeds and charters, and all his printed books containing any MSS. notes, together with various antiquities and miscellaneous curiosities. His MS. and printed music he bequeathed to the Music School. Of the Musical library preserved in this room, a MS. Catalogue was made a few years ago by Rev. Robert Hake, M.A., then Chaplain of New College, now Precentor of Canterbury.
226 Apropos of log-books, it may be mentioned that whereas it appears from the eighth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Records, p. 26, 1847, that the earliest log among the Admiralty Records is of the year 1673, there are several of about the same date and a little earlier to be found in Rawlinson’s collection.
227 Among the printed books are two copies of Archbp. Parker’s rare De Antiq. Eccl. Brit., 1572. One of these is the identical copy described by Strype in his Life of Parker, and which was then in the possession of Bp. Fleetwood of Ely; the other (which was given to the Library by Jos. Sanford, B.D., Balliol Coll., in 1753) was presented to Rich. Cosin by John Parker, the Archbishop’s eldest son, Jan. 5, 1593. Owen, the Librarian, notes on the cover that Dr. Rawlinson tells him this copy was bought at the sale of the library of his brother, Thos. Rawlinson, by the Earl of Oxford, for £40. A collection of the original broadsides proclamations issued during the whole of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in beautiful condition, forms a remarkable and splendid volume; the collection is complete, except that a few proclamations, of which printed copies are wanting, are supplied in MS. As far as the year 1577 they are printed by Richard Jugge, sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with John Cawood; thenceforward they are printed by the two Barkers, first by Christopher, and afterwards by Robert. They appear to have been collected in the reign of James I. A printed chronological table of contents is prefixed, together with a portrait of the Queen, engraved by Fr. Delaram, with six lines of verse by ‘Jo. Davies, Heref.’ At the year 1559 a leaf is inserted containing the arms of Q. Mary of Scotland quartering those of England (the assumption of which by Mary gave irreconcileable offence to Q. Eliz.), beautifully painted, with the note, ‘Sent out of Fraunce, in July, 1559,’ and these lines below:—
‘The armes of Marie Queene Dolphines of ffraunce,
The nobillest Lady in earth for till aduaunce:
Off Scotland queene, and of Ingland also,
Off Ireland als, God haith providit so.’
228 The salaries being miserably insufficient, the recognised duties of the officers appear to have been simply the cataloguing the few books that were received in ordinary course, and attending upon the readers. Consequently for any other work, for arranging or cataloguing any new collections, &c., special payments were always made. A somewhat amusing instance of this occurs under the year 1722, when the Librarian craved payment for making with his own hand certain new hand-lists, &c., but was refused. However, he carried on his claim from year to year until it was admitted to the amount of £5 15s. 6d. in 1725. And as the funds were insufficient to defray in this way the extra cost of cataloguing such a collection as Rawlinson’s, hence, doubtless, came the neglect which it experienced. Such work was so clearly understood to form no part of the Librarians’ regular duties, that Rawlinson says, in a letter to Owen, Apr. 15, 1751 (MS. C. 989), ‘I think large benefactors should pay the expense of entries into the Bodleian, as their books are useless till so entered.’
229 It was chiefly from these that the two volumes published in 1841 under the title of Life, Journals, and Correspondence of S. Pepys were compiled. Unfortunately the editor, or his copyist, appears to have been sometimes unable to read the MSS., and at other times very careless; his book therefore abounds with errors. The following is one of the worst, as it libels the memory of a statesman who deserved better treatment: Sir R. Southwell is represented as saying in a letter to Pepys (vol. i. p. 282) that he has lost his health ‘by sitting many years at the sack-bottle,’ whereas the poor man had lost it by sitting many years ‘at the inck-bottle.’ A line or two farther on, Southwell’s occupation with ‘some care and much sorrow,’ is changed into ‘love, care and much sorrow.’ Certain ‘Novelles,’ or newspapers, which Mr. Hill sends to Pepys are explained (vol. ii. p. 135) to have been the Novellæ of Justinian! Throughout the book proper names are frequently made to become anything but proper to their owners.
230 Letter from Rawlinson to T. Rawlins, Jan. 25, 1749/50; Ballard MS. ii. 115.
231 The same volume (now A. 139b) also contains Monmouth’s acknowledgment, written and signed by himself on the day of his execution, that Charles II had declared that he was never married to his mother; witnessed by Bishops Turner and Ken, together with Tenison and Hooper. This is now exhibited in the glass case at the entrance to the Library.
232 In his delight at his new purchase, Rawlinson seems to have exaggerated the interest of these volumes.
233 Letter to T. Rawlins, Feb. 24, 1742/3; Ballard MS. ii. 78.
234 To the same; Ibid. 59.
235 Gough, Brit. Topogr. i. 370, 345.
236 Letter, June 24, 1741; Ballard MS. ii. 59.
237 Including some letters from Ken while Chaplain to Princess Mary. These papers of Compton are in class C.
238 For the description of the contents of three of the Irish volumes, the author was indebted to an experienced Irish scholar, Standish Hayes O’Grady, Esq.
239 A volume of collections by him relating to the early versions of the Bible was bought in 1858 for five guineas.
240 Ballard MS. ii. 87.
241 One curious volume is described by Sir F. Madden in his preface to Syr Gawayne, printed by the Roxburghe Club in 1839.
242 With relation to these Rawlinson says, in a letter dated Feb. 25, 1736-7, that he had bought, about two years since, some of Ashmole’s papers from his heirs, including some of Dugdale’s (Ballard MS. ii. 11).
243 For Parish Registers, see under 1821.
244 Two MS. volumes of the Relations of Venetian Residents in various countries were given to the Library by Will. Gent, in 1600, and Sir Rich. Spencer, in 1603.
245 From this library Rawlinson also obtained some French editions of the Horæ, printed on vellum.
246 Ballard MS. ii. 41.
247 The clock, still in use in the Library, made by Robinson in Gracechurch Street, was one of the items comprised in this codicil, where it is described as a ‘table clock,’ then in the custody of Mr. John King, a bookseller, in Moorfields.
248 These were bought, ‘very cheap,’ at Mrs. Kennon’s sale, Feb. 24, 1755, by a dealer named Angel Carmey, who sold them to Rawlinson for £10 10s. Carmey’s letter conveying his offer of sale is preserved in Rawlinson’s copy of the sale catalogue.
249 It does not appear, however, that this sum was ever paid.
250 A curious, and probably unique, little ‘Almanacke for XII yere, after the latytude of Oxenforde,’ printed in 48o (measuring two and a-half inches by one and three-quarters), by Wynkyn de Worde, ‘in the fletestrete,’ in 1508, was presented by David Laing, LL.D., the eminent Librarian to the Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh, in 1842. The Library also possesses two copies of a sheet Almanack, by Simon Heuringius, for 1551, printed by John Turck, at London; and other almanacs for 1564, 1567, and 1569. A volume containing five almanacs for the year 1589 was bought in 1857.
251 With the same perverse eccentricity he ordered that the recipients of his endowments for the Keepership of the Ashmolean Museum and the Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, should be unmarried (in the former case only M.A. or B.C.L.), not a native of Scotland, Ireland, or the Plantations, nor a son of such native, nor, in the case of the Museum, even educated in Scotland, and not a member of either the Royal Society or the Society of Antiquaries.
252 Autobiographical memoirs by Foucault, extending to 1719, were published under the editorship of F. Baudry, 4o. Paris, 1862, in the French Government series of Documents inédits sur l’Histoire de France. The editor remarks in the preface (p. xli.), ‘On ignore en quelles mains la bibliothèque de Foucault passa après sa mort [1721]. Le P. Le Long nous apprend seulement qu’elle fut vendue, et probablement dispersée.’
253 A record of his birth and baptism is entered in a family register kept by his father on the fly-leaves of a splendid copy of the folio Prayer-Book of 1662. He was the second son; born in Covent Garden, Apr. 7, 1687; bapt. Apr. 21, by Dr. Patrick, the sponsors being Major-Gen. Werden, Sir Peter Apsley and the Countess of Bath. Prince George of Denmark was one of the sponsors to his elder brother, George. He had also a sister, Martha.
254 Amongst these is a large collection of MS. news-letters written from various places abroad about the years 1637-1642; one of these, containing particulars of movements of the Swedish and Imperialist armies, is printed, as a specimen, in Letters by Eminent Persons, 1813, vol. i. pp. 15-17.
255 References to many particulars relative to Thoresby, Bishop Gibson, White Kennett and Hickes (with a few others) are given in J. Nichols’ notes to the Letters of Archbp. Nicolson (2 vols. 1809), an interesting and varied biographical miscellany, but which is guilty of the capital crime of omitting an index.
256 This ought, apparently, to have reached the Library much sooner, through the hands of Dr. Charlett; since it has the following inscription on the fly-leaf: ‘Given by the Honble. Sr. Edmund Warcup (being all writ wth his own hand at ye Isle of Wight at ye Treaty) to the Public Library in Oxford, to be placed there when I thought fitting. ‘Ar. Charlett. ‘Univ. Coll. Nov. 25, 97.’