Showing 3535 results

Paginated manuscript, with an index, bound in tooled leather covers and embossed on the front cover Abstracts & Copys of Records, Relative to the Sexton, Casey, & Stackpole Familys. The manuscript comprises abstracts and copies of seventeen documents relating to the Sexten family; eight relating to the Casey family; and two to the Stackpole family. The documents relating to the Sexten family include a memorandum of a decree in favour of George Sexten in a dispute against James Roche concerning a title and possession of a store house (17 October 1531); grant to Edmond Sexten to be Chief Sewer of County Dublin (2 September 1532; in Latin); warrant to pass a grant of the monastery of St Mary’s House in Limerick to Edmund Sexten (24 September 1537); grant to Edmond Sexten of the fee farm of Limerick, with a release of all arrears then owing (1 August 1542; in Latin); free pardon to Edmond Sexten of all offences committed by him (14 December 1545); certificate by the Sheriff of County Limerick of Edmond Sexten having entered into security for his good behaviour (14 December 1545); grant of the office of Gauger and Searcher of Limerick to Humfry Sexten (10 June 1548); a protection to Humfry Sexten (23 April 1555; in Latin); grant to William Sidney of the custody and wardship of Stephen Sexten, brother and heir of Nicholas Sexten deceased (13 September 1558); grant to Edmond Sexten (son of Stephen Sexten) of the livery of his estate and lands (1 June 1559; in Latin); letter of King James I of England on behalf of Edmund Sexten’s favour (7 February 1608/9); grant to Edmond Sexten, his heirs and assigns for ever of several lands in the County and City of Limerick (10 July 1609/10; in Latin); abstract of an inquest held by Edmond Sexten in 1614 which proves that he was that year High Sheriff of County Limerick; abstract of letters patent showing that the wardship of John Gold, son and heir of Thomas Gold, deceased, was granted to Edmond Sexten (4 February 1623/4); inquisition taken at St Francis’s Abbey in County Limerick following the death of Edmond Sexten (22 January 1638; in Latin); inquisition (for which see P51/1/1/6) taken at the Tholsel of Limerick City in 1639 after the deaths of Edmond Sexten and his son Nicholas (9 October 1639; in Latin and English); and an inquisition taken at St Francis’s Abbey in County Limerick in 1639 after the deaths of Edmond Sexten and his son Nicholas (9 October 1639; in Latin and English). The documents relating to the Casey family include abstracts of letters patent creating William Casey Bishop of Limerick (23 October 1551); letters patent granting the wardship of Thomas Thornton, son and heir of Sir George Thornton Provost Marshal of Munster to James Casey and his assigns (5 June 1605); letters patent granting a pardon of alienation and mesne rates of lands in County Cork to James Casey and Ulick Roche (8 March 1629); letters patent granting special livery to Thomas Casey (18 November 1633); inquisition taken at Kilmallock after the death of Thomas Casey of Rathcannon, incorporating a family settlement made by Thomas Casey, his will, and a variety of other matters (12 March 1637; partly in Latin); inquisition taken at Newcastle, County Limerick after the death of Thomas Casey (10 July 1638; in Latin); bill filed in chancery by the Rev Stacpole Pery and other against Lord Vere Bertie and others relative to the Casey estate and family (25 January 1735); and Lord Bertie’s answer to the same bill (15 February 1737). The documents relating to the Stackpole family include a grant to Bartholomew Stacpole of Stacpole Court and several other lands in County Clare with liberty of keeping annual fairs (17 July 1676); and a deed of feoffment by way of family settlement made by Bartholomew Stacpole (3 November 1685).

Paginated manuscript, with an un-paginated table of contents, bound in tooled leather covers and embossed on the spine Historical Notices of the Sexten Family & City of Limerick. The contents constitute a copy in copperplate script of P51/1/1, lacking the pedigrees.

Paginated 17th-century manuscript in secretary hand, bound in 19th-century tooled leather covers and embossed on the spine Historical Notices of the Sexten Family & City of Limerick. Pages 1-15 contain an additional set of pagination, which runs from 47 to 61. The manuscript comprises primarily transcripts made by Edmond Sexten the younger (1595-1636) of letters and petitions (mostly in English, with some items in part or fully in Latin), which his grandfather Edmond Sexten the elder (1486-1555) had collected in order to defend himself against allegations that ‘my service to the kinge majestie is deemed... not to be such as did deserve the bountifull remuneration of his heighnes unto me’ and to prove that ‘my service was freely doone without receavinge wages or hire of the king majestie as others dothe’. In addition to letters and petitions, the transcribed items include a narrative of the costs and charges incurred by Sexton in the King’s service; a list of havens, rivers, creeks, places of importance, territories and lordships with their landlords ‘from Lupes head which is the further land a seaboord by north the river of Limerick as also within the said river’; a declaration of the proportions of Ireland; and King John’s, Queen Elizabeth’s and King James I’s charters to Limerick. To the abovementioned transcripts, Edmond Sexten the younger has added copies of letters and petitions relating to his own disputes with Limerick Corporation, primarily concerning the immunity of the lands of the dissolved abbeys of St. Mary’s and St Francis’s, which had come into his grandfather’s possession in 1537, and whether Sexten alone, or the parish generally, was responsible for the upkeep of the church of St John the Baptist, Limerick, whose tithes were appropriate to St Mary’s. In addition to transcripts of formal documents, the manuscript contains a list of books in the possession of Edmund Sexten the younger, grouped under the headings of 'Divinyty', 'History & other bookes of morallyty', 'Scoole bookes', and 'Lawe bookes'; a list of lord deputies and governors of Ireland, and of the mayors, bailiffs, and high sheriffs of Limerick from 1154 to 1636; and pedigrees of branches of the Sexten family descending from Denis Sexten and Simon Sexten, and of the Golde, Comyn, Mortagh, White, and Arthur families of Limerick. To the list of lord deputies mentioned above has been added a short account dated 22 May 1641 by Edmond Sexten’s son Christopher Sexten relating to the deaths and funerals of his father, daughter Jean (who died of smallpox), and eldest son Stephen, and the burning of his tenements in St Francis’s Abbey in Limerick, all of which events occurred in 1636.

List of six generations of Bishop William Casey’s direct descendants and their spouses. Originally inserted between the pages of P51/1/3.

List of wardships, leases, licences and offices granted to George Sexten between 1605/6 and 1623. A comment at the bottom of the page notes that ‘being doubtful that the above named George Sexten was of the family of Edmond Sexten of Limerick this sheet was omitted to be bound in the collection relative to the said Edmond.’ Originally inserted between the pages of P51/1/3.

Manuscript bound in vellum, written in secretary hand and by the same hand as P51/1/1, so presumably Edmond Sexten the younger (1594-1636). The manuscript is in two parts. The first part, dated 1629, is paginated from 1 to 504 and comprises lines copied from the Bible, with the relevant book, chapter, and verse provided at the start of each line. The copied texts are arranged under various headings, such as 'Abraham & Sarah', 'Bees', 'Ezra', 'Fraillty', 'Fraude', 'Free Will', 'Hezekiel', 'pride', 'purgatory', 'Sabath', 'Titus', 'Visitations' and 'Youth'. The headings appear in no particular order in the main body of the text but have been collated into an alphabetical index of six un-paginated pages at the start of the book. The second part, dated 1627, is paginated from 1 to 287 and is similar in content to the first part. An index for the headings has been begun at the end of the book, but only extends to entries for the letter A.

Inquisition bound in vellum concerning the lands of Edmond Sexten, who died 10 March 1636/37, acknowledging that he died possessed in fee tail of the site of the dissolved monastery of Blessed Virgin Mary and St Edward (also called Holy Cross), and various lands in Limerick city, of which the inquisition gives details. The ownership passed to his eldest son Nicholas, who died 1 January 1637/38. The inquisition further acknowledges that the lands now belong to Christopher Sexten, Edmond Sexten’s second son. For an abstract of this document, see P51/1/3.

Account and commonplace book, bound in vellum, kept and compiled by Colonel Edmund Pery between 1671 and 1681. The first part of the book contains brief memoranda of financial transactions, mainly monies lent to and borrowed from various individuals, and more complete accounts under headings such as ‘An Acount of All receits of my Cousin Sextens Interest since his death’; ‘Disbursements likewise on the same Account’; ‘An account of what moneys I payed my uncle att my being in London 1679/80’; ‘Receits since my returne from Kinsaile December 1681’; ‘Receits for the use of my uncle Mr Nicholas Batteley since the death of my Cousin Sexten being 23 of November 1671’; ‘Disbursements on the same account Feb the 20th 1671’; and ‘Due to my uncle since accounted for when in England last then owing him £56’. Upside down from the back are further memoranda of sums on money borrowed or lent. In addition to accounts, the book contains ‘A Collection of Several things fit to be knowne’. These include notes on weights and measures; a list of foreign coins and their value in pounds, shillings, and pence; various conversion tables; and a list of the countries of the known world and their acreage. There are several pages of explanations of terms of scientific nature, particularly relating to geography, topography, astronomy, physics, and mathematics. These are followed by instructions on how to ‘Know the Age of the Moon’, ‘know when the Moon is at the South by which you may know what tyme of the night is is [sic] by the Moon on a Sun Dual [sic]’; ‘find when it will be new moon in any given Month’; and ‘find Shrove Sunday’. There are also notes relating to orthography and the pronunciation and usage of English, and a table of the symbolic significance of various colours. Fifteen pages of the manuscript have been dedicated to instructions about horses. These include tips on how to identify a good horse, how to tell its age, and how to keep one in good condition, with further notes on equine ailments, and recipes for salves and potions for their treatment. These are followed by recipes for ‘A Liquor for Bootes’; ‘How to make a Cement which lasteth like marble & resisteth aier or water without disjoyning or uncementing’; ‘To make Iron or Steel exceeding hard’; ‘To make a Candle burne & continue 3 tymes as long as otherways it would; ‘To keep Wine fresh in the heat of summer tho carryed on horse back & exposed to the sun; ‘How to melt mettall quickly yea in a shell upon a little fier; ‘To make quart of good Inck’; ‘To make shott’; ‘To make Iron strong & look like silver’; ‘To make steel cutt Iron as it were Lead’; ‘To make Red Inck’; ‘To make Letters that cannot be read without the paper be put in water’; ‘To make letters that cannot be read but at the fier’; ‘To make Mellons or Cowcumbers ripe before their season’; ‘To keep Grapes fresh all the winter’; ‘To make the hands white’; ‘To take a spot of Oyl out of Cloath’; ‘To keep young Children from having pain in breeding Teeth’; ‘To mak hair not to grow’; ‘To keep flyes from flesh’; ‘To kill fleas’; ‘To take away the Tooth ach’; ‘To renue old & woren letters’; ‘To cure the sting of waspes or Bees’; and ‘To make Hair Curle’. The book concludes with a gardener’s calendar with advice on farming and gardening activities for every month of the year, and ways to predict ‘Dearth or Scarcity, Plenty, Sickness, Heat, Cold, frosts, snow, winds, Rain, Hail, Thunder &c’ from nature. To Pery’s observations have been added sheep, cattle, and butter accounts for 1724, 1725-1726, and 1729 by a different hand, possibly by Pery’s son, the Reverend Stackpole Pery.

A bound manuscript compendium of statutes, orders and decrees relating to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Covering the period 1585 to 1661, the contents reflect the physical and curricular expansion of the College during its first 75 years of existence.

The first half (folios 1-43) contains the Latin text of the College’s first statutes as provided by its founder Sir Walter Mildmay. The second part of the manuscript (folios 44-81) comprises orders and decrees primarily in English concerning such matters as the borrowing and buying of books from the college library, stipends, rent rates for chambers and rules of the use of the college tennis court. In 1630, one of the decrees ordered that no student ‘shall size bread and beer anywhere but in the Butteries, nor have Dyett provided for them constantly out of the College’ (p. 63). The onset of a plague epidemic eight years later also features prominently. Scholars and fellows of the College were permitted to ‘have free leave to betake themselves thither, where they shall be able best to provide for their own safety, and that notwithstanding the same, they shall receive in the time of their absence the allowance from the College…’ (p. 68) In 1651, misbehaving students were threatened with fines and imprisonment when it was discovered that some of them ‘not regarding their own birth, degree, and quality have made divers contracts of marriage with women of mean estate, and of no good fame in the town to their great disparagement, the discontent of their Parents and friends, and the dishonour of the government of that our University’. Students were strictly forbidden to ‘resort to such houses and places as are mentioned in the said Statute to eat or drink or play or take tobacco, to the misspending their time and to the corrupting of others by their ill example, and to the scandalizing the government of our said University.’ (pp. 71-72)

The volume is most likely from the library of William Shaw (1688-1739) of St John’s College, Cambridge, Rector of Akenham and antiquary. Among the Clarendon Papers held at the Bodleian Library are two further manuscripts from the collection of William Shaw, namely an eighteenth-century commonplace book (MS. Clar. dep. c. 413) and an eighteenth-century volume of ‘Extracts of Records &c. relating to St John’s College in the University of Cambridge’ (MS. Clar. dep. c. 414). The Emmanuel College volume has an eighteenth-century numbering on the inside front cover (No. 47). The two manuscript volumes in the Bodleian Library bear identical numbering, respectively nos. 100 and 46, placing the latter just next to our volume, also relating to a Cambridge college.

The inside cover of the volume contains the bookplate of Charlotte Villiers, Countess of Clarendon (1721-1790), formerly Lady Charlotte Capell, heiress to the wealthiest branch of the Hyde family and wife of Thomas Villiers, Baron Hyde and later 1st Earl of Clarendon (both titles acquired through his marriage). The family seat, The Grove, the name of which appears on the bookplate, was located near Watford, in Hertfordshire. It was acquired in 1753 by Thomas Villiers and turned into one of the most fashionable country homes in England.

Manuscript letter book bound in vellum, containing copies of letters sent by Thomas White. The letters are mostly concerned with land transactions, the collection of rent and other matters relating to the management of White’s extensive portfolio of properties. His concerns in Ireland feature prominently, particularly his attempts to find new tenants for his Limerick estates and an agent to collect their rents. One Irish tenant, George Evans, proved exceptionally troublesome. When their long-standing dispute over unpaid rent was finally resolved, White rushed to praise Henry Dallway ‘for the services you have don [sic] me in my affair with Coll Evans, we have gained a glorious victory over a difficult Enemy’ (17 Jul 1707, p. 106).

White was very particular about his money, complaining in one instance of a remittance being a shilling short (4 Dec 1708, p. 139) and pointing out to his Irish agent Christopher Tuthill that ‘You are not very exact in your accounts as I can perceave [sic] by the mistakes you had made to your own disadvantage’ (25 Jan 1708/9, p. 145). Yet, he was no miser. In a letter to his aunt, White notes that ‘It is far from my Temper to pinch Servants in their allowance, I should rather take a pleasure to see them thrive.’ (11 Sep 1711, p. 240). When building a new barn, he instructed the contractor William Wright to ‘doe every thing well, and lett all your work be very Substantiall and the materialls good, & if you wrong me in any thing lett it be only in the price’ (23 December 1710, pp. 216-217). Likewise, although an astute businessman who had no hesitation to resort to the long hand of the law when required, White was also quite reasonable in his dealings. In 1709, he accused a Mr Peartree for abusing and mismanaging his woods and threatened the man with a law suit, expounding that ‘in case it comes to a Tryall I shall then expect whatever is awarded me besides the Costs, & there I hope it will be considered not what Benifitt he has don [sic] to himself but what prejudice he has don to me & those that come after me. The punishing him I reckon a price of justice due to mankind, That other persons may be discouraged from the like practises & that future Generations may not Suffer for want of Tymber’. However, when Peartree capitulated without recourse to a trial, White immediately and willingly accommodated his request to defer the payment of damages from midsummer to Michaelmas (2 June 1709, p. 165).

Hovering in the background of White’s business endeavours is the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). The letter book reveals the many ways in which the ongoing conflict affected the financial markets and frustrated land transactions. In the wake of rumours of imminent peace in May 1709, White notified Messrs Meade & Copley of his decision to ‘defer sending you the foul Draft of your Lease in confidence of a speedy peace, for Since the Preliminaries are all agreed, & that it is very probable it will be proclaimed & ratified in a short time, I think it better for us both to defer the Leases till then’. (26 May 1709, p. 163). A mere six weeks later, he was forced to write again to regret that ‘The hopes of a peace being contrary to every bodys expectation blown over, ’tis now so uncertain when that happy day will come that I think it improper to defer the Leases till that time’ (7 Jul 1709, p. 167). At least he did not go as far as the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, who ‘were So confident of an undoubted peace that the following Inscription was put upon one of the foundation Stones of the House now building at St Jameses… viz This Stone was laid by John & Sarah Duke & Dutchess [sic] of Malbourough [sic] in the Year of peace’ (14 Jul 1709, p. 168).

Thomas White’s observations are not limited to business transactions. Court gossip and current affairs also feature prominently. White provides a vivid account of the damage done by the great storm of 1703, which claimed the life of Rear-Admiral Basil Beaumont (30 Nov 1703, pp. 24-25), and describes in some detail the harshness of the winter of 1708-09 during which the Thames River ‘has been thrice frozen over’ (1 Mar 1708/9, p. 152). The last-mentioned letter also contains a graphic account of Mr Lythe, ‘the Master of St Dunstans Coffee house’ and his attempts ‘to destroy himself by three severall deaths in the Space of a Quarter of an hour’; and a fight between two men, of whom one was killed, ‘upon no other Quarrel than a dispute which had the most beauty of the 2 maids of honour’. He refers to the vicious attack against Dissenters in a sermon preached by the high church Anglican clergyman Henry Sacheverell at St Paul’s Cathedral in November 1709 and his subsequent impeachment by the House of Commons (21 Feb 1709/10, p. 185; 4 April 1710, p. 188). No fewer than three letters (28 Dec 1710, 13 Jan 1710/11 and 18 Jan 1710/11) mention the death of the wealthy plantation owner Francis Tyssen the younger and the contents of his will, which left his entire estate of £300,000 to his eldest son and only nominal sums to his other six children. In addition to ignoring his offspring, Tyssen gave short shrift to the poor. ‘Most People’, White noted in the second of these letters to his friend and distant relative Sigismund Trafford, ‘are of your opinion that a Gift for the Education of poor Children or Some such Charity would have been a commendable Legacy for a man of his vast Estate’ (p. 219). There are also several letters on the series of state lotteries in 1710-1711 established to raise government revenue for the War of the Spanish Succession and the pandemonium they caused when people scrambled to purchase the tickets issued for sale. White was among the eager participants, but after several disappointing rounds was obliged to concede that ‘I doe not find that I am like to grow rich by Lotterys’ (10 Nov 1711, p. 244).

Many of Thomas White’s letters are addressed to friends and relatives, among them his maternal aunt, Mrs Margaret Crowther, and his friend Sigismund Trafford, whose second wife was distantly related to White. The letters to Trafford, an older and much wealthier man, are simpering and flattering in tone, and refer to Trafford as ‘my noble patron’. Court gossip features prominently in these missives. ‘I have no room to say any thing of the Birthnight Ball’, White reported to his friend on 22 February 1710, ‘only that the Lady Louisa Lennox Daughter to the Duke of Richmond bore away the Ball for Beauty & appeared So charming that her Lover the Earl of Berkly [sic] could live no longer without her, for they were married the next Day.’ (p. 226).

Letter dealing with private family matters are more serious in tone. White had not yet married at the time the letter book was compiled, and expressed concern that ‘good wives are so scarce that I am afraid I shall live to be an old Batchelour, if the World is so mercifull as not to think me one already.’ He also describes himself as ‘a Batchelour with more than the cares of a married man’ (4 Apr 1710, p. 188). Some of these cares were the consequence of the hardship experienced by his sister whose husband, Bedingfield Heigham, was not only of a violent temper but also careless in his financial affairs. White’s letters reveal that Heigham and his family were evicted from their house at Dalstone and that he subsequently experienced a spell in a debtors’ prison (see 18 Aug 1710, pp. 202-203). White went to considerable lengths to ensure the comfort and safety of his sister and nieces but felt no such compunction towards her unruly husband. ‘Since I wrote you last’, White relates in a letter to his aunt, ‘my Sister & I have had a wonderfull deal of perplexity with the perverse man. He has been as troublesome as he could possibly contrive to be. …our Affairs are now put into Such a posture, that I hope we Shall enjoy more quiet for the future, than We have don of late’ (26 Feb 1711/12, p. 256). All in all, the letter book provides remarkably rich and varied insights into life in the first decade of the eighteenth century.

Thomas White’s correspondents, in alphabetical order, are as follows:

Caleb Avenant, Worcester
Richard Avenant, Worcester (father of Caleb)

Joseph Bandon, ‘at Newcastle near Lymrick’
Jacob Beaufoy, ‘either at Archangle [sic] or Moskow in Russia’
James Boys, Coggesshall, Essex
John Brand
Thomas Bright ‘at Netherhall near Bury in Suffolk’
John Butler

John Carter, Aldermanbury, [London]
Hannah Collins, Shelsley, Worcestershire
John Cooke, ‘Lashleys near Steeple Bumpstead in Essex’
John Copley, Newcastle, Limerick
John Corder, Stoke, near Nayland, Suffolk
[Margaret] Crowther, Thomas White’s maternal aunt

Henry Dalwey [also Dallway], Dublin
Joseph Deavonsheir
John Dickings [?]

William Eaton, Kingsland [London]
George Evans, Limerick
William Glascock, ‘at Hasso Bury near Bishops Stafford in Essex’
James Gould, Marestreet, Hackney

Mr Hargrave
W. Harris, Dalstone, Hackney
Joseph Hull, Stoke, near Nayland, Suffolk
Thomas Hunt, ‘in New Court in Swithins Lane London’

Edward Jackson, Salop

Thomas King, Hackney

Williamson Lloyd, Colchester

Andrew Meade, ‘at Newcastle near Lymrick’
William Molmouth, Lincoln’s Inn

Chester Nance, Trengoff, near Fowey, Cornwall
Robert Nettles, Limerick
John Newton, attorney-at-law in Colchester
Richard Norris, ‘Merchant in Leverpoole’

Charles Odell, Limerick

John Peisson, Stoke, near Nayland, Suffolk
Richard Price, ‘at Ryslipe, near Harrow with in Middlesex’

Valentine Quin, [Adare,] Limerick

[Mary] Ram, Stoke, near Nayland, Suffolk
William Ram, Stoke, near Nayland, Suffolk

Mr Savil, ‘merchant in Colchester’
Joseph Sewell
Benjamin Smythe

Sigismund Trafford ‘at Dunton Hall in Tidd St Mary’s’
Edward Trotman
Christopher Tuthill, Limerick
Hannah Tuthill, Limerick

Alexander Walford
Samuel Weaver
Philip Wheake, ‘at Mrs Frosts near the Colledge Gate in Winchester’
Henry Widenham, [Court, Kildimo,] Limerick
William Wright, Nayland, Suffolk

Jer. [Jeremiah?] Yates

The letter book contains White’s own pagination throughout, but there is an error in numbering, with p. 183 appearing twice.