University of Virginia Library

THE MANUSCRIPTS OF SIR HENRY
MAINWARING'S SEA-MANS DICTIONARY
by
AMY BOWLES

IN the early 1620s, the naval commander and newly appointed Lieutenant of
DoverCastle Sir Henry Mainwaring (or Manwayring, 1586/7–1653) compiled
a detailed dictionary of nautical terms titled A Brief Abstract, Exposition and Demonstra-
tion of all Parts & Thingsbelonging to a Ship, and the Practique of Nauigation. He presented
several manuscript copies to his personal patrons and to high-ranking naval officials;
the dictionary only found its way into print in 1644, as The Sea-mans Dictionary: or, an
Exposition and Demonstration of all the Parts and Things belonging to a Shippe (London, G.
M. for John Bellamy). In his preface, Mainwaring expressed his concern that 'very
few Gentlemen (though they be called Sea-men) doe fully and wholy understand
what belongs to their Profession: having onely some Scrambling Termes & Names
belonging to some parts of a Ship' 1 The rise in 'gentleman commanders' - men
appointed to naval positions due to their influence at court rather than any practi-
cal experience of seamanship - had long been an irritation to professional seamen 2
The Sea-mans Dictionary provided novices with definitions for around six hundred
naval words and phrases, listed alphabetically, with an index of terms.

The scribe employed by Mainwaring to copy his dictionary was Ralph (or
Raph) Crane (fl. 1589–1632) 3 Eight surviving manuscripts of the Parts andThings
belonging to a Ship, including five produced as presentation copies, were transcribed
by Crane 4 A further twelve copies are extant, attesting to the dictionary's wide

manuscript circulation during the twenty years before its print publication 5. The
survival of a considerable number of manuscript copies, many of which have been
reproduced or paraphrased from others, suggests that the dictionary was a popular
work and that its exposition ofnaval terms was of widespread value. This article
will examine these twenty surviving manuscripts, indicatetheir relationships, and
comment on the scribal circulation of the dictionary.

I

Mainwaring dedicated and presented manuscripts to at least five people: his
employer, Edward, Baron Zouche, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (manu-
script sold at Sotheby's, 2015, current location unknown); to the Lord High
Admiral, the Marquess of Buckingham (manuscript sold at Christie's, 1974, cur-
rent location unknown, MS 9 in the Navy Records Society edition); to the Sec-
retary of State, Sir Robert Naunton (Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/
E48); to the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot (Lambeth Palace MS 91,
MS 6 in the Navy Records Society edition); and to Sir John Egerton, first Earl
of Bridgewater (Sutherland Collection, Mertoun House, Roxburghshire). These
copies, all transcribed by Crane, share the same type of watermark, have similar
luxury presentation bindings with silk ties, and all but one have the same title-
page border with illustrations of navigational instruments 6 Crane also made
three further copies, which were not explicitly produced on Mainwaring's be-
half. One of these, National Maritime Museum CairdLibrary MS LEC/9 (MS
8 in the Navy Records Society edition), which is likely to have belonged to
Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland, conforms to the uniform style of
Mainwaring's presentation manuscripts, with the same fleur-de-lis watermark
and lavish title-pageborder 7 By contrast, the other two undedicated Crane
copies - one now in the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House, prob-
ably originally owned by Sir William Cavendish, second Earl of Devonshire
(1590–1628), and one now held by the University of Illinois andonce owned
by the diplomat William Trumbull (1576/80–1635) - containa different, pillar

watermark, and a variant style of title-page decoration which is more charac-
teristic of Crane. The title pages of both manuscripts explicitly identify Crane
as the scribe 8.

Five manuscripts of the dictionary survive which are not associated with
Mainwaring or Crane's initial circulation of the text, but which retain the dic-
tionary's original title. BL Sloane MS 207 (MS 2 in the Navy Records Soci-
ety edition) is a transcription of the copy presented to Zouche, and reproduces
Mainwaring's dedication to him 9 This manuscript was owned by Henry Mervyn
(1583–1646), Admiral of the Narrow Seas. BL Harley MS 6268 (MS 4 in the
Navy Records Society edition) is titled An Abstract and exposition of all things per-
taininge to the practique of Navigation, bears Sir Robert Harley's (1579–1656) arms,
and was written by at least three scribes. Another undated copy of the dictionary,
in a single hand, survives in the State Papers (MS 5 inthe Navy Records Soci-
ety edition), while a further copy in at least two hands is now a loose bundle of
folios held in the National Library of Wales. 10 Owned by Edward Herbert,first
Baron Herbert of Cherbury, it may have formed part of his collection of material
associated with the Duke of Buckingham's 1627 siege of Rhé. 11 Lastly, BL Add.
MS 48165 (Yelverton MS 177, MS 11 in the Navy Records Society edition) is the
first of two manuscripts of the dictionary that once belonged to Henry Yelverton
(1566–1630). Though it shares a binding style and watermark with the other
Yelverton manuscript, Add. MS 48157 (Yelverton MS 169, MS 10 in the Navy
Records Society edition), the copies are written in different hands. 12

A separate group of manuscripts gives the dictionary a different title. Lambeth
Palace MS 268 (MS 7 in the Navy Records Society edition) is headed Nomenclator
Navalis or an exact Collecion and exposition of all words and tearmes of Arte belonginge to
the Partes, quallities, Condicions, proportions, Rigging, ffittinge, manageinge, and saileinge
of Shipps with other Necessaries to be knowne in the Practique of Navigation; Alsoe inclu-
deinge soe much of the Arte of Gunnery as Concernes the use of Ordenance at Sea. It is in a
single professional hand and contains neither a dedication nor a title page. This
manuscript belonged to George Carew (1555–1629), earl of Totnes, whose arms it
sports, and survives in its original binding. Four more copies also use the Latinate
title. BL Add. MS 21571 (MS 3 in the Navy Records Society edition) is elaborately
written in a distinctive rounded hand, in black, red, and gold ink. It is the only copy
produced in a pocket-friendly octavo format, and retains significantwater dam-
age, possibly acquired during its direct consultation at sea. One of the few dated
versions, its index concludes with a paraph containing a note of the year, 1625. It
has no dedication, but its binding is stamped with the Earl of Denbigh's arms. BL
Harley MS 2301 (MS 1 in the Navy Records Society edition) is in the hands of

two scribes, one of whom also appears to have copied Add. MS 21571. They swap
stints between the dictionaryentries for J and K, halfway through L, and during
P, but the watermark remains the same throughout the manuscript. The second
Yelverton manuscript, BL Add MS 48157, is written in a single, unique hand,
contains no dedication, is dated 3 September 1633, and retains its contemporary
vellum binding and blue silk ties. The latest of the Nomenclator Navalis versions, BL
Add. MS 76660 is an 1820s copy in a single hand. Though its paper, script, and
dedication to William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh (1796–1865) from an unknown
'HN' are all of the nineteenth century, it is interesting that the manuscript is bound
in a seventeenth-century style, with panelled calf and gold tooling.

Finally, two more manuscripts of the dictionary, now both in the Caird Li
brary of the National Maritime Museum, contain significantly altered versions
of the dictionary. An undated copy written in two hands,MS SMP/3 reproduces
selected rearranged entries, while a greatly abbreviated 4-page version of the
dictionary survives as part of MS AND/25. The index of MS SMP/3 is laid out
in the same style as in Crane's manuscripts, with central headings and ruled-off
sections. The scribes responsible for the copy did not attempt to reproduce one
another's handwriting; rather, one scribe repeatedly identifies his own dictionary
entries with a trefoil paraph. MS AND/25 is bound with two unattributed hand-
coloured prints of ships, sections of which have been labelled alphabetically. The
labels correspond to the brief index of the abbreviated dictionary, suggesting that
the roughly copied manuscript was once used for the personal study of ships'
terms and parts, rather than for presentation or a gift. 13

II

By recovering these witnesses of the Parts and Things belonging to a Ship and
placing them alongside one another, their textual and material affinities emerge.
Some scribal similaritieshighlight links between otherwise diverse copies: the
copyist of BL Add. MS 21571 took care to produce a highly decorative portable
copy, but at another time wrote more workmanlike portions of BL Harley MS
2301, a larger, plainer version, as one of a group of hands. The manicules pres-
ent in BL Harley MS 6268 and BL Sloane MS 207 appear in identical locations.
The textual content of these two manuscripts is also very similar, suggesting that
despite their different owners, scribes, and bindings one was produced using the
other, or both were copied from the same source.

Figure 1 indicates the textual relationships among the surviving manuscripts.
Dashed lines denote a slight, but noteworthy, degree of influence or similarity

[Description: FIGURE I.Textual relationships among the surviving manuscripts of Mainwaring's Parts and Things Belonging to a Ship. ]

between witnesses that appear otherwise unrelated. This data has been gathered
through a textual comparisonof the witnesses, in combination with a consid-
eration of material similarities and factors such as dating and provenance. All
the manuscripts' dictionary entries were collated, including their order. 14 The
comparison does not include the lost copy dedicated to Buckingham,but it
does include the copy dedicated to Zouche, using the microfilm reproduction in
the British Library. 15 It also includes the 1644 printed edition, which follows a
similar textual pattern to Crane's manuscripts. The results provide an account
of the transmission and alteration of the Parts and Things belonging to a Ship fol-
lowingits initial presentation, based on the textual and material nature of its
surviving witnesses.

Two textual traditions emerge: the early Parts and Things belonging to a Ship
text (labelled in roman type), and the modified Nomenclator Navalis text (labelled
in italics). The Parts and Things belonging to a Ship tradition derives from Crane's
early cluster of similar copies which share textual characteristics common to all
other copies, suggesting that at least some of these were repeatedly recopied
texts. These manuscripts are the Sutherland Collectioncopy, National Maritime
Museum Caird Library MS LEC/9, the Devonshire Collection copy, National
Library of Wales Herbert of Cherbury MS E4/2, and SP 16/127. The three
Crane copies (the Sutherland Collection copy, Caird MS LEC/9, and the De
vonshire Collection copy) are textually identical, except that Caird MS LEC/9
lacks the entry 'wast' ('betweene the maine-mast and the fore-castle'), and the
Devonshire collection copy enters 'harpings' ('the breadth of [the ship] at the
bowe') in a different location. Similarly, SP 16/127 introduces the new entry
'girdling' ('to double plancke [...]aboue the water lyne'), and National Library of
Wales Herbert of Cherbury MS E4/2 relocates 'the runner' ('a roape which [...]
doth belong to the Garnet'). Because of these variations, it cannot be assumed
that these copies were directly copied from one another, but it is clear that they
formed, or are related to copies that formed, an early group of witnesses. None
of these manuscripts containsa date, but several can be estimated: Herbert of
Cherbury's interest in Buckingham's naval expeditions appears to have begun in
the late 1620s and early 1630s, and the State Papers copy isdocketed as enter-
ing the Office in 1628. Caird MS LEC/9 in particular contains a text found in
a number of other copies.

Crane's Lambeth Palace MS 91 (MS 6 in the Navy Records Society edition)
and Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/E48 share all the dictionary en
tries found in Caird MS LEC/9, of which four have been relocated (sprit-sail-
top-mast; shore; halliards; quarter-deck). It is probable that Crane produced
Lambeth Palace MS 91 and Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/E48 to-
gether. Although the manuscripts are not dated, Robert Naunton, described
in the Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/E48 dedication as 'one of his
Majesties most honorable priuy Coun-
sell', was suspended from the Privy Council from January 1621 until January 1625, so the manuscript's production must
have pre-dated his disgrace or post-dated his return. 16 Caird MS LEC/9 is also
very similar to the transcription of Mainwaring's dedicated copy to Zouche, BL
Sloane MS 207. BL Sloane MS 207 shares all of Caird MS LEC/9's entries,
but relocates eight of them ('shore'; 'former'; 'further'; 'furthering lines'; 'hale
or over-hale'; 'sheer hookes'; 'taught'; 'chase'). Most similar to the lost Zouche
copy and BL Sloane MS 207, however, is BL Harley MS 6268. Only one entry
becomes displaced during the copying of BL Harley MS 6268 ('passarado' - 'any
roape where with we hale-downe the sheate-blocks'), and the presence of shared
manicules indicates that BL Harley MS 6268 could feasibly have been copied
directly from the lost Zouche copy or from BL Sloane MS 207. Again undated,
this chain of manuscripts is likely to have been produced in the late 1620s.

The early presentation manuscripts are equally similar to BL Add. MS 48165
as they are to to BL Sloane MS 207, with BL Add. MS 48165 also relocating eight
entries ('standing ropes'; 'holesome'; 'way of the ship'; 'draught'; 'dregg'; 'drift-
sail'; 'keenke'; 'sprit-sail-top-mast'). Lastly, also resembling Caird MS LEC/9,
the 1644 printed Seamans Dictionary moves four of Caird MS LEC /9's dictionary
entries ('cocks'; 'sheere-hookes'; 'fish'; 'sheevers'), divides 'calm and be-calming'
into two entries, and omits 'boate' (used 'to carry-forth and waigh the sheate-
anchor'). The printed text continued to provide a basis for the later editions of
1666, 1667, and 1670. 17 That a copy so like the early dedicated manuscripts was
available in 1644 is a testamentto the persistence of this version of the Parts and
Things belonging to a Ship, which appears to have generated copies for over twenty
years, including more than half of the surviving manuscripts of the work.

Within the Parts and Things belonging to a Ship title tradition, variations be-
tween witnesses primarily arose from the relocation of entries, rather than from
the introduction of new definitions or the omission of previous ones. By contrast,
textual variations in the Nomenclator Navalis manuscripts are characterised by the
adaptation of text through the addition or exclusion of content, rather than its re-
ordering or retitling. The Nomenclator Navalis tradition emerged when a Parts and
Things belonging to a Ship text, which was similar to Caird MS LEC /9, was copied
with a new title and a number of new entries. BL Harley MS 2301 is an early
version of the resulting manuscript tradition, recognisable by the changed title,
and a greater variation of entries. BL Harley MS 2301 contains four terms absent
from the Parts and Things belonging to a Ship group ('dredge'; 'cunting'; 'garland';

'running-rope'), omits Caird MS LEC/g's 'sillender' (the 'hollow concaueof a
peece of ordnans'), relocates'breaming' ('when a boate [...] is brought a-ground
to be trimed'), and separates 'buoy' ('a peece of wood [...] which floates right
over the anchor') from 'buoyant' ('when any thing is apt to ffloate'). Although
BL Harley MS 2301 is undated, further Nomenclator Navalis copies derived from
this version were produced at relatively early dates, suggesting an immediate
contemporary desire to augment or alter the dictionary for further use. 18

The greatest number of seventeenth-century additions to the text occurred
between the Caird MS LEC/g group and BL Harley MS 2301, but small varia-
tions also arose between other Nomenclator Navalis copies. Lambeth Palace MS
268 alters the text of BL Harley MS 2301 by exchanging 'hale or overhale' ('pull-
ing a roape')for 'hale or hailing' ('calling to [a ship]'), while BL Add. MS 48157
adheres to BL Harley MS 2301's text, only omitting 'floane' ('when any of the
sheates are not haled-home') fromthe list of terms. This unique omission, as well
as BL Add. MS 48157's 1633 dating, suggests that it was produced separately,
and at a later time than the chain of Nomenclator Navalis texts represented by the
manuscripts BL Harley MS 2301, Lambeth Palace MS 268 and BL Add. MS
21571, a manuscript which contains all the alterations of BL Harley MS 2301
and Lambeth Palace MS 268, but also adds the term 'bay' ('when two pointes
or head lands lie soe farr of [...] that there ys made [...] a hollownesse'). The
final manuscript in this chain of texts is the nineteenth-century copy BL Add MS
76660. This version embodies all the alterations of BL Harley MS 2301, Lambeth
Palace MS 268 and BL Add. MS 21571, but omits many entries ('wast'; 'carvel
work'; 'case'; 'caskets'; 'crow trees'; 'lee'; 'skegge'; 'stern sheets'; 'the strap'; 'wash
a ship') and shortens 'entring ropes' ('the roapes which hang by the side of the
ship') to 'entring'. It is notable that this final Nomenclator Navalis copy in the chain,
despite being produced around two centuries later, omits obsolete terms, but
does not noticeably update or contribute to the remaininginformation.

One remaining manuscript occupies an unusual position with respect to this
model of transmission. Crane's 1626 undedicated manuscript University of Il-
linois MS 0211 resembles an adapted version of BL Add. MS48165, sharing the
earlier manuscript's unique locations of 'keenke' ('a litle turne [...] in a cabell')
and 'sprit-sail-top-mast' ('vide
top-mast') and adding the new entry 'jocant' ('vide
buoyant'). However, its first 38 folios, constituting the majority of A to C, do not
follow BL Add. MS 48165, and instead resemble BL Harley MS 2301, Lambeth
Palace MS 268 and BL Add. MS 21571 of the Nomenclator Navalis tradition.

III

Several conclusions can be drawn from the model of transmission offered
here. Most of the surviving manuscripts were produced during the 1620s and
early 1630s. The appearance of these copies was rapid; all but one of the con-
temporary Nomenclator Navalis manuscripts were produced within two years of

Mainwaring's first presentation copies. The key versions of the text are found in
two manuscripts: CairdMS LEC/9 and BL Harley MS 2301. Caird MS LEC/9
represents the text of an early, similar cluster of manuscripts which became a
source for twelve further manuscripts and the 1644 printed text. The text found
in one of these manuscripts, BL Harley MS 2301 went on to influence the entire
Nomenclator Navalis tradition. There are several points at which surviving manu-
scripts could feasibly have been copied from one another: BL Harley MS 6268
copies the manicule locations of BL Sloane MS 207, while Crane's Lambeth Pal-
ace MS 91 and Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/E48 are indistinguish-
able, both textually and in their presentation. BL Sloane MS 207 was copied
from the manuscript of the text given to Zouche,since it retains the presentation
copy's dedicatory address. University of Illinois MS 0211 resembles both the BL
Harley MS 2301 Nomenclator Navalis tradition and the BL Add. MS 48165 Parts
and Things belonging to a Ship text, while the Lambeth Palace Sion College MS
L.40.2/E48-Lambeth Palace MS 91 and BL Sloane MS 207-BL Harley MS
6268 pairs share an otherwise unique relocation of 'shore'. Despite their variant
producers, owners, and physical properties, the texts contained in the extant
manuscripts are strikingly interlinked, often drawing upon one or more other
copies of the dictionary.

Most notably, the reproduction of this text almost always involved the re-
location of dictionary entries and often included the addition or omission of
content. Although the popularity of the dictionary testifies to the need for a book
explaining nautical terms to 'gentlemen commanders', its ownership amongst
already experienced naval figures indicates that it also represented the combined
knowledge of the naval and military figures among whom it circulated, including
Mervyn, Carew, Denbigh, and Northumberland. The manuscript circulation of
the text helped to produce a living collection of nautical definitions which re-
flected and informed current usage.

COPIES OF SIR HENRY MAINWARING'S

PARTS AND THINGS BELONGING TO A SHIP

                                                 

Manuscript	Scribe	Date	Text	Owner	Navy Records Society Reference
Sotheby's, December 4—5, 2015 (lot 534); location un-known. Reproduction in the British Library (MS RP 5197)	Crane	1620—3	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Dedicated to Edward, Baron Zouche, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
Christie's Dec. 5, 1974 (lot 302); location unknown	Crane	1620—3	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Dedicated to the Marquess of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral	NRS-9
Lambeth Palace MS 91	Crane	1620—3	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Dedicated to George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury	NRS-6
Collection of the Duke of Sutherland, Mertoun House	Crane	1620—3	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Dedicated to John Egerton, first Earl of Bridgewater
Lambeth Palace Sion College MS L.40.2/ E48	Crane	Post-January 1625	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Dedicated to Robert Naunton, Secretary of State
National Maritime Museum Caird Library MS LEC /9	Crane	Pre-1642, likely much earlier	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Arms of the Earl of Nor-thumberland	NRS-8
Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House	Crane	Unknown	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Devonshire Collection
University of Illinois MS 0211	Crane	1626	Partially Nomenclator Navalis	Trumbull Collection
BL Sloane MS 207	One hand	Before 1646, probably before 1623	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Henry Mervyn	NRS-2
BL Harley MS 6268	Three or more hands	Unknown	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Arms of Robert Harley	NRS-4
State Papers Domestic 16/127	One hand	Entered the State Papers Office in 1628	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Unknown	NRS-5
National Library of Wales Herbert of Cherbury MS E4/2	Two or more hands	c. 1628	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Herbert of Cherbury
BL Additional MS 48165 (Yelverton MS 177)	One hand	Unknown	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Yelverton Collection	NRS-11
National Maritime Museum Caird Library MS SMP/3	Two or more hands, one also of BL MS Stowe 180	Unknown	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Unknown
National Maritime Museum Caird Library MS AND/25	Two hands	Pre-1671	Unknown	Thomas Fairfax
Lambeth Palace MS 268	One hand	Pre-1629	Nomenclator Navalis	George Carew	NRS-7
BL Additional MS 21571	One hand, also of BL Harley MS 2301	1625	Nomenclator Navalis	Arms of the Earl of Denbigh	NRS-3
BL Additional MS 48157 (Yelverton MS 169)	One hand	3 September, 1633	Nomenclator Navalis	Yelverton Collection	NRS-10
BL Additional MS 76660	One hand	1820s	Nomenclator Navalis	Papers of Sir Robert Cavendish Spencer (Althorp papers)
BL Harley MS 2301	Two hands, one also of BL Add. MS 21571	Unknown	Nomenclator Navalis	Unknown. NRS-I Mathematical note of Charles Cavendish bound in, in a different hand	NRS-1
Copy owned by William Freke	Unknown	Pre-August 1625	Referred to as 'S[i]r Henery Maynewaring's exposition of sea termes'	William Freke
Copy owned by Robert Devereux	Unknown	Pre-1646	Referred to as 'Nomenclator Navalis a manuscript'	Robert Devereux
Copy owned by Erasmus Norwich	Unknown	Pre-1697	Referred to with the Parts and Things belonging to a Ship title	Erasmus NRS-12 Norwich	NRS-12
The Sea-man's Dictionary (London, 1644)	None	I644	Parts and Things belonging to a Ship	Printed by G. M. for John Bellamy. Licensed by John Booker