13 December 2016 - Rare Book Sale

#0294

Lot 414/10022

SOLD Hammer price €130

Return of Captain James Stewart’s TroopIrish Military interest: Single manuscript page dated 1768, headed, General Return of Captain James Stewart’s Troop of H.M. 2nd Rgt. of Horse commanded by the Hon. Lt. Gen. John Fitzwilliam. The 2nd Regt. of Horse had formed part of the Irish Establishment since 1746 and contained many Irish soldiers; in 1788 it became the 5th Regiment of Dragoon Guards. Capt. Stewart is listed as absent “attending elections.” As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 415/10022

SOLD Hammer price €170

Lease of Property in Cashel, 1772Co. Tipperary: Indenture on vellum dated 1772, the Mayor &c of Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and John Wogan of the Commons of Cashel, gent. A renewal for 99 years of the lease of the premises known as Alderman Morgan Wogan’s Lott”. Gives some topographical detail. Signed by Richard Pennefather, Mayor. Endorsements to the effect that the lease was renewed in 1784 to Paul Phelan and that this document was produced in evidence in the case of the Attorney General v William Pennefather, 1844, as a m/ss. (1)

Lot 416/10022

SOLD Hammer price €140

Dublin Brewer Leases Lands in Rathfarnham, 1785Co. Dublin: Two indentures, both dated 26 April 1785, from Thomas Franks, gent, to Edmond Byrne, Brewer, both of Dublin. The first is a lease for £100 of part of “Cammage” in the parish of Rathfarnham, containing some 20 acres. The second is a lease of two fields, giving details of the bounds. Both are leases for three lives, renewable for ever, the lives being different in each case. A m/ss., w.a.f. (1)

Lot 417/10022

SOLD Hammer price €230

The Troubles of an Irish Official in India, 1795Co. Clare interest: Letter dated 8 March 1795 from Bengal, Calcutta, by Lambert Molony, to “my dear Watt” (his brother Walter), 6pp manuscript. As a m/ss., w.a.f.Thanks him for his offer to accept bills for more money, but declines: “I am very deep in the mire” owing to bad speculation, illness, a quarrel with the Resident, “the natives cheated me as they thought fit”, and a drop in trade owing to the war in Europe. Begs him to look after his eight-year-old son if he dies. Offers to procure a cadetship for Anthony Weldon (their cousin). Has asked his brother Arthur to send out some mares – he may have given up gambling, cards etc but not racing. Lambert Molony, senior merchant on the Bengal Civil Establishment, was a younger son of James Molony of Kiltanon, Co. Clare. He did not, as he feared, die or go bankrupt; he lived to become Judge of the Zillah of Chittagong, from which post he was dismissed in 1805.A curious and unusual insight into the personal affairs of an Irishman in the service of the British in India at the end of the 18th Century. As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 418/10022

SOLD Hammer price €380

First News of Nelson’s VictoryLaw (John), Bishop of Elphin. Important ALs from John Law, Bishop of Elphin, to Bishop Percy of Dromore, dated 17 April 1801, giving first news of Nelson’s victory at The Battle of Copenhagen. ‘I have just time to inform you that Admirals Parker & Nelson have taken five Danish Ships of the Line, sunk two, & burnt tow, in all nine. This news was brought to London by Captain Otway, Admiral Parker’s Captain, & immediately forwarded to Lloyd’s Coffee-house. When the Captain left the Fleet, Copenhagen was in flames… it is added too that there is a Revolution in Sweden. Them Emperor Paul is certainly dead… The English stocks rising rapidly.’ 2pp with cognate address page, black seal, postal markings, in a paper folder. Rare.* A dramatic letter, written at a time when the future of Europe lay in the balance. (Nelson attacked the Danish fleet to prevent a coalition hostile to British interest. he was created a Viscount after this engagement. Bishop Percy was the editor of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 419/10022

SOLD Hammer price €170

Caustic Comments on the Politicians of 1803Holograph letter (1 p.) from Whig Politician Thomas Creevey to Liverpool doctor James Currie, 5 November 1803.Thomas Creevey (1768-1838), a native of Liverpool, had recently become MP for Thetford in Norfolk and had married a wealthy widow. Thanks to his intellectual and social skills, the patronage of his stepson William Ord, and his friendship with Charles James Fox, he became a significant figure in the British establishment. His journals and correspondence, published in 1903, “give a lively and valuable picture of the political and social life of the late Georgian period”.James Currie (1756-1805) was a Scots physician, best known as the biographer of Robert Burns but perhaps more memorable for his pioneering use of water in the treatment of fever. After an adventurous few years in America he settled in Liverpool, where presumably he knew the family of Thomas Creevey.In this letter, Creevey passes typically outspoken comments on a number of the most famous personalities of this colourful period, including George III, the Prince of Wales, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, and Earl Grey of the tea.Typescript copy included, as a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 420/10022

SOLD Hammer price €140

Dublin Indenture of 1804Weldon (James) Printed Indenture on vellum dated 4 January 1804, whereby James Weldon of Dublin, tin plate worker, grants premises in Westmorland Row, Ranelagh, to George Oakley of the same, gent. A lease for two lives of at a rent of £32. Bounds and dimensions given. Sketch map of the property attached. As a m/ss. (1)

Lot 421/10022

SOLD Hammer price €160

A Commission to Command the Condemned!Nicholson (John) Two commissions to John Nicholson, gent, (1) to be 2nd Lieutenant in the Regiment of Major General William Ramsay, 26 March 1806, and (2) to be Captain in the York Chasseurs, o/c Major General Andrew Hay, 6 Nov 1813. Signed by Viscount Sidmouth, Home Secretary.General Ramsay’s regiment was the 80th Foot, which was serving in India at this time. Nicholson was less fortunate in his second commission: the York Chasseurs were formed on 13 November 1813 from the “Better Class of Culprit and Deserter”; its members were confined aboard Isle of Wight military prison ships, and then dispatched to survive or die in the “pestilential islands” of Barbados, St Vincent, Jamaica, Grenade, Tobago and Guadalupe, where 26% successfully deserted and 30% perished. The regiment was disbanded in 1819. (1)

Lot 422/10022

SOLD Hammer price €440

Slavery: Edgeworth (M.) A complicated but fascinating lengthy double-paged postal communication from W. Taylor, attorney of Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Maria at “Edgeworth Town,” Sept. 1822; received Dublin Nov. 1822; with signed memo from Maria indicating that she replied to Taylor in Feb. 1823. The letter was charged 6 / 4– 5 / 2 to Dublin + 1 / 2 onwards to Maria, double the single-page Irish postal rate of 7d for 52 Irish miles to Edgeworthstown. (The postal charge of 6 shillings and four pence was roughly equivalent to the wages of a fully employed Irish labourer for about 2 weeks of work.)The main content is a draft Power of Attorney authorising Taylor to sell, nominally on behalf of Gerald Mulloy, 4 female slaves in Jamaica, plus their prospective offsprings. Those were Mary an African aged about 50 and 3 of her children all of mixed race, Betty aged about 17, Nelly about 10 and Sarah about 8.An attached draft Affidavit pertains to 3 Mulloy brothers who, effectively were apparently Maria’s agents or nominal heirs to agent: Thomas the eldest formerly of Jamaica, deceased; James late HM Lifeguards, died c. 1819; and Gerald Mulloy a farmer resident at Kilderreen, Parish of Clonbroney, Co. Longford. The Jamaican draft Affidavit was prepared for Gerald, as heir to the slaves under Jamaican law, to sign, as a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 423/10022

SOLD Hammer price €750

Famine in Ireland,1822A Carefree Aristocrat Escaping from “Poor Starving” IrelandClanmorris (Lord) Letter dated 8 July 1822 written from London by Lord Clanmorris to his mother in Bristol. He apologises for not writing sooner, but he had been distracted by “all the fascination of this charming village”. He plans to go to winter at Naples, but “since you left Ireland I have been vegetating in that poor starving country in the same old humdrum way, viz racing, hunting, shooting, fishing &c &c &c.” Urges her to be gay – “there is no use in throwing away ones time in this life depend upon [it] the only way is to enjoy it while you can.”·Charles Barry Bingham, second Baron Clanmorris, was aged 26 when he wrote this letter. He had recently succeeded his father, who had received a peerage in return for his support for the Act of Union. Said to have been the handsomest man in Ireland, he was already married but had no children and died aboard his yacht Watersprite in 1829. His mother, to whom he wrote, was the daughter of the infamous Barry Yelverton who had first promoted the independence of the Irish parliament but then supported the Act of Union, for which he had been created Viscount Avonmore. She survived her son by many years, dying in 1865 just short of her 90th birthday.·1822 was a year of famine in Ireland, owing to rain damage to the potato crop; about a million people came to depend on state aid. This does not seem to have unduly worried the young lord. As m/ss. (1)

Lot 424/10022

SOLD Hammer price €120

Royal Patent of George IVLarge (65cms x 70cms) Document on vellum, dated 22 January, 7th George IV (1827), granting to John Carey Esq. the post of “Clerk of Pleadings and Affidavits in our Court of Common Please in Ireland.” With attractively decorated borders and illustrated with royal portrait, arms and emblems. Large seal attached (diameter 16 cms). As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 425/10022

SOLD Hammer price €320

Co. Kilkenny, Land, Violence, Murder: In the 1840s, Lord Frankfort (Lodge-Raymond de Montmorency) owned virtually all the lands in the large townland of Coolcullen in NW Kilkenny – Major Diamond was his local agent there. This lot consists of five postally used letters, Dec. 1844 – July 1845, to Frankfort’s Dublin agents. (Four from Diamond, the 5th from Michael Brennan). They complain of intimidation and violence re land, against Michael Brennan by another tenant on Coolcullen, and the murder of Michael’s brother Matthew, followed by arrests and necessary police protection of Michael. (The field in which the murder tool place is still known to some locals). An unusual and very interesting lot, as a collection, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 426/10022

SOLD Hammer price €1100

Letters of a mid-19th Century Donegal MerchantBallyshannon, Co. Donegal: A collection of 40 documents written by William Allingham of Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, to his son John Allingham of Capel St., Dublin, 26 June 1829 to 25 Jan 1847. The last letter, later than the rest and dated 29 March 1865, is personal and nostalgic.William Allingham of Ballyshannon, merchant and bank official, was father of the poet William Allingham and the antiquary Hugh Allingham. The correspondence deals with the firm’s overseas trade and finances, problems with debtors and creditors, damage to ships, and losses due to poor harvests. There are occasional references to local events: “Poor James Britton of White Hill met with an awful and sudden death yesterday. He was overseeing an excavation of earth for an embankment, and the earth gave way and overwhelmed the poor fellow! How truly uncertain is the life of man!”The father frequently gives his son advice on whether to give credit or press for payment: “I enclose you Tottenham’s account, and a receipt for the money. Call on the old lady yourself and work it out of her as well as you can. You may tell her it was very hard for Mr Blair to pay me, as I never yet spoke to the man in my life, besides it was Miss Tottenham herself when she was living at Bundoran and got all the wine ad she knows right well that I have not been paid for it. If you find she will not pay you at the time promised, get an attorney to write to her, as there is no use in letting it run on any longer.” As a m/ss collection, w.a.f. An unusual and fascinating insight into the relationship between a father and son involved in trade at this significant period, before and during the Great Famine. (1)

Lot 427/10022

SOLD Hammer price €1900

Unique 17th Century Broadside AddressTo An Irish Jacobite OfficerCo. Tipperary: Purcell (Col. Nicholas) Baron of Loughmoe in Tipperary. A very rare and important Engraving on silk dated 1686, probably unique, circa 32″ x 24″, with Latin text under an engraved scene showing mythological figures holding the Purcell coat of arms.The Latin text appears to be an Address noting the distinction of the Purcell family, their fortitude in Cromwellian times, their distinction in philosophy and the arts, etc. Evidently it marks the presentation of some official honour or tribute.The Purcell family of Norman origin, is one of the longest established in Irish history. Mac Fhirbisigh traces them back to Charlemagne. The family held important offices in church and state through the 15th and 16th Centuries, but after the reformation it remained Catholic and Jacobite in its main branch, and a Major Purcell was one of the rebels excluded from mercy after the Siege of Limerick. Colonel Nicholas Purcell raised a Tipperary regiment to serve King James, and in 1686 he was invited to join the King’s privy Council of Ireland; possibly this was the occasion marked by the present document. He served at James’s side at the Battle of the Boyne, and was preparing to launch a counter-attack against the Willamette troops when James withdrew, being advised that the battle was lost. A close associate of Sarsfield, he was one of the Irish negotiators and signatories to the Treaty of Limerick: and later he went to France to urge James to remove Tyrconnel from his government after the Flight of the Earls. Thereafter he councelled acceptance of the Treaty and lobbied the government on behalf of Irish Catholics.In view of its early date, the material the document is printed on, and remarkable state of preservation, an item of the greatest importance and interest. (1)Provenance: From the Collection of the famous Co. Carlow antiquary Col. Philip Doyne Vigors (1825 – 1903).

Lot 427A/10022

SOLD Hammer price €130

Lease of Lands to Members of the Elwood Family, 1863Co. Roscommon: Large indenture on vellum (4 membranes) between (1) Robert Viscount Lorton of Rockingham, Co. Roscommon, and (2) James B. Strong and Mary Frances née Elwood his wife, Alfred Jones and Grace née Elwood his wife, Frances Jane Elwood and Anna Maria Elwood. Renewal of a lease for lives of property in Cos Sligo and Roscommon, first granted in 1830. Very detailed. Endorsement dated 1891, as a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 428/10022

SOLD Hammer price €450

Original Drawings of Temperance Hall, SligoCo. Sligo: KILGALLIN (or Kilgallen), Patrick J., Architect – Three Architectural Drawings and a Watercolour Sketch for the Temperance Hall at Sligo (foundation stone laid 1903), signed, with four attractive watercolour drawings for door panels at same, all signed; also a perspective sketch for the ‘New College’ [Summer Hill College, Sligo], 1890, signed, and a photograph of the finished building; with some Kilgallin family documents, memorial cards, (including one of the Architect), a photograph probably of the family home, a postcard from the front (1915), etc.As a collection, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 429/10022

Two 18th Century Italian CertificatesDocuments: A. Engraved plate measuring 37 x 50 cm depicting the Pope, saints, angels, and the four Roman basilicas (St Peter, St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul). MS text in Latin granting the suppliant a plenary indulgence. No signature or date.B. MS certificate in Italian measuring 29.5 x 43 cm with engraved headpiece, whereby Alessandro Mariscotti, commandant of the Castel Sant’ Angelo and commissary general of ships, towers and fortresses, confirms the appointment of Paolo Bellil, Capitano di Marinari, as master of the ship San Carlo, 1767, as m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 430/10022

SOLD Hammer price €130

Account Book of a 19th Century New Ross MerchantCo. Wexford: M/ss Volume, 23cms x 19cms, containing entries of Accounts by Edmund a. Byrne, New Ross, 1820 – 1821, with later entries of 1846-1865. Some loose inserts. As a m/ss, dam., w.a.f. (1)

Lot 431/10022

SOLD Hammer price €800

M/ss Book of 18th-century French Lessons in AnatomyManuscripts: Comprises notes on a course of Lectures in Paris University. The first two sections cover problems associated with “women’s matters” – sexual intercourse, venereal disease, pregnancy, through to post-natal infections; the third (dated 8 September 1765) is a general guide to anatomy. 244 + 267 + 176 pp., cont. full calf.The author, Antoine Petit (1722-1794) was a celebrated, innovative and highly successful professor of anatomy and an authority on surgery and childbirth, who devoted much of his substantial wealth to the provision of medical facilities for the poor. His most famous student was Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, proponent of the method of execution that bears his name, as a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 432/10022

SOLD Hammer price €250

18th Century M/ss in the hand of a Cork PriestCo. Cork: A Philosophical Treatise by the Rev. Professor Briquett of the Collège des Jésuites in Poitiers, transcribed in 1742 by Cork priest Gulielmus (William) Denny and bearing the label of St Mary’s College, Cork. Includes also some pages of printed diagrams, 547 + [17] + [26] ff. As a m/ss., w.a.f. (1)