Scribleriana Transferred, 2014: Manuscripts and Rare Printed Works, Mostly Irish

• • Peter Harrington listed on AbeBooks in April 2014 an autograph letter signed (ALS) “Jonath: Swift” to “My Lord” (Lionel Sackville, first Duke of Dorset, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), dated Dublin, 15 April 1735, 2 pp. on a bifolium (224 x 181 mm.), “docketed on the terminal blank” (then c. $34,473; now c. $33,000). The letter was reprinted in Ball’s and Williams’ editions, and the manuscript was traced by David Woolley to Mr. L. G. Stopford Sackville of Drayton House (The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D, IV: 90-92); Harrington notes the most recent owner was “Mrs. Stopford-Sackville” of Drayton House. The letter principally has a witty request that Michael Aldrich, son of Alderman William Aldrich, “have the Mastership of a Barrack at Kinsale,” prompted by the request of Dr. Richard Helsham. Peter Harrington illustrates the first page and transcribes at length from both sides. That transcript has some variants from Woolley’s text, but, on examining the original kindly reproduced by the dealer, I find Woolley’s to be correct in almost all variant readings. However, at the start of the second paragraph, where Woolley’s text reads “desire that You,” the original letter has no “that,” reading “desire You.” My collation of the photographs against Woolley suggests that the original may have commas missing in Woolley’s transcription after “consequently” (p. 91, line 17), and after “large one” (p. 91 l. 5 fb.) also, that “shilling” and “soon” (p. 91 lines 4 and 3 fb.) are arguably upper case; and that the punctuation after “soon” may be a semi-colon, not a comma.

• • Richard M. Ford Ltd. of London lists an autograph letter signed “Whit: Bulstrode,” London 16 November 1724 (“Hatton Garden Monday Night | 16 November”), to “My dear Son,” 4to bifolium with one-page of text (22 lines), addressed on verso of second leaf “To Richard Bulstrode Esqr at Littleton near Sunbury in Midd[lese]x” (c. $523). Whitelocke Bulstrode (1650–1724), a Whig lawyer and justice of the peace for Middlesex, wrote An Essay of Transmigration in Defence of Pythagoras (1692) and several popular anti-Catholic and anti-Jacobite works—he is not to be confused with his father’s cousin (and his namesake) Bulstrode Whitelocke, with surname spelled “Whitlocke” by ESTC (1605–1675 or –1676), the author of Memorials of English Affairs (1682, 1709). Although Ford does not sell it as such, this letter, concerning family finances and property, could find Bulstrode settling his final affairs, for he was writing his only son shortly before dying on 27 November 1724 in Hatton Garden, London (date from William E. Burns in the ODNB), signing off “Yr most affectionate Father.” Bulstrode indicates that he has received a letter from James Norris, an accountant, noting that, four years having now expired, rent was “Due last month” to “ye Chapr at Canterbury”; Bulstrode says that he has written Norris back that “I had given you my Vaux Hall Estate, as part of ye portion, in Marriage; & yt as for ye Rent, you would take Care to pay it, as Directed, If not, I would lay it downe for you.” Bulstrode complains that the “Tithe” is “half as much more, as usual to be paid” and so has replied to Norris with a question about the debt, thus hoping to “procure you [his son] some abatem[en]t.”

• • Alastour Rare Books of Lymington, Hants., lists an autograph letter addressed to “Mr. [John] Nourse, Bookseller, near Temple Barr, London,” from Richard Shepherd, a sheet folded and stamped “Preston Nov 10 1739.” A former owner had headed the document with the year “1709” and it was first so listed, but, on examination, mindful that Nourse was not freed until October 1729, James Eaton of Alastour thinks that “0” is likely to be a badly impressed “3.” The letter thanks Nourse for a parcel of books, declines “a Universal History,” and inquires about a Roman history and other works (Abebooks, c. $196). Nourse’s first imprint in ESTC for The Lamb without Temple-Bar is 1732, about the time the Universal History...