University of Virginia Library

Sir Thomas Browne: Early Biographical Notices, and the Disposition of His Library and Manuscripts
Jeremiah S. Finch

At the time of his death in 1682 Sir Thomas Browne had in his possession a great many of his own papers, some rather uncommon MSS, and a remarkable collection of books. Few men in England had touched so many aspects of the cultural and scientific life of seventeenth-century Europe. Such names as Sir Kenelm Digby, John Evelyn, Sir William Dugdale, Elias Ashmole, John Aubrey, Henry Oldenburg, Arthur Dee, Guy Patin suggest the

variety of his acquaintances and the range of his interests. His was one of those wide-searching, ample minds which turned with perfect ease from laboratory experiments to antiquarian studies or rich and imaginative expression in verse or prose. But as the century drew to a close, the cooler heads and more discriminating judgments of the new age were less and less concerned with the lives and achievements of the preceding generation. Even during Browne's lifetime Religio Medici had "grown stale",[1] and thirty years after his death memories had so faded that a brief Life prefixed to his Posthumous Works contained only scanty details. The few biographical accounts that have survived are therefore of some importance, and a word about them and the disposition of his library may be of interest.

The essential documents are these: two letters from Browne to John Aubrey in 1672 and 1673, Anthony à Wood's account in Athenœ Oxonienses (1691-92), an anonymous biography prefixed to the Posthumous Works (1712) which included John Whitefoot's "Minutes for the Life of Sir Thomas Browne," and a copy of a letter in the handwriting of Browne's daughter, Elizabeth Lyttleton. These are in addition to a signed pedigree drawn up in 1664 and later amplified by a Norfolk antiquary, the several posthumous publications of Browne's writings, and the Catalogue of the library of Sir Thomas and his son, Edward, sold at auction in 1711.

Browne's letters to Aubrey seem to have been replies to inquiries by Aubrey and Anthony à Wood about persons in Norfolk and Oxford, as well as about his own life. Browne mentions Aubrey's "courteous Letter and therin Mr. Woods his request."[2] Presumably Wood made use of Aubrey's materials in Athenœ Oxonienses (1691-92), supplementing the two letters Aubrey had obtained with information available at Oxford.

Thus far it is plain sailing, but with the anonymous Life prefixed to the 1712 volume of Posthumous Works, uncertainties arise. This account follows Wood in part, but it also includes some new details about Browne's early life as well as the "Minutes" by his old friend, the Reverend John Whitefoot. The question is: whence these additions? We know that the 1712 publication was a hastily gathered collection of Browne's miscellaneous papers, brought out by Curll, the publisher, probably to capitalize on the public interest aroused by the auction sale of Browne's library the year before. Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Tanner wrote to Dr. Charlet:

According to a note in a copy of the book in the Bodleian Library, the editor was John Hase, Richmond Herald, and the preface states that the manuscripts for the publication were supplied by Owen Brigstock, Browne's grandson by marriage. But the author of the Life is not identified, nor are his sources of biographical information.

Nearly a century later a document came to light which reveals the basis for the additions to Wood's account. This was a copy of the letter by Elizabeth Lyttleton, published in the European Magazine in 1801. It was printed as a communication to the editor, and signed "C. D.", who explained that it was found in a copy of Browne's works in the handwriting of Dr. White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, with the following prefatory note:

Thus, we have a copy by "C. D." of a copy by Bishop Kennet of a letter by Elizabeth Lyttleton which contained a copy of Whitefoot's "Minutes".

John Whitefoot, but five years younger than Browne, was for thirty years his intimate friend, and his name appears frequently in Browne's correspondence. He intended to write a full-length life of the physician, but apparently never produced more than the "Minutes", which Mrs. Lyttleton obtained at his death in 1699. In his prefatory note to Browne's Miscellany Tracts (1683), Thomas Tenison mentioned that "there is on foot a design of writing his [Browne's] life; and there are already, some memorials collected by one of his ancient friends."[5] Presumably the "ancient friend" was Whitefoot, and we may surmise that when the materials for the 1712 publication were being gathered, Curll, or Hase, the editor, naturally sought out the sketch Whitefoot was known to have drawn up.

The author of the 1712 biography had access to still other information.

Wood had asserted that Browne had settled in Norwich to begin medical practice by the persuasions of Dr. Thomas Lushington, his former tutor.[6] In the 1712 account, which follows Wood fairly closely up to this point, Lushington's name is omitted, and in its place is the statement that "by the Persuasions of Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Gillingham, Sir Justinian Lewyn, and Sir Charles Le Gross of Crostwick, he [Browne] retir'd to the City of Norwich."[7] Suspiciously, these three names appear at the top of a cancel sheet. The compiler of the biography must have had good grounds for this last-minute substitution, perhaps additional information from Elizabeth Lyttleton. Bacon, Lewyn, and Le Gross were contemporaries of Browne at Oxford, and in later years were his old and respected Norfolk friends. On the other hand, Wood, in mentioning "the persuasions of Tho. Lushington," may have been reporting faithfully information given him at Oxford. Lushington had gone to Norfolk with Bishop Corbett, and may well have had a hand in the arrangements.

From all this it would appear that the 1712 account may be accepted along with Wood's as fairly dependable, since the information in both seems to go back to Browne's own family, friends, or associates in Oxford.

Browne's Books and MSS

Browne's books and MSS passed into the hands of his son, Dr. Edward Browne, the author and traveler whose reputation as a physician exceeded that of his father, though his writings reveal little of the imaginative power or stylistic brilliance of Religio Medici or Urn-Burial. On Edward's death in 1708, the library became the property of his son, Thomas, the "Tome" whose doings at his grandfather's house enliven the family correspondence.[8] In two years this Thomas, the last male heir, died, and in January, 1711, Thomas Ballard sold the library at auction. The Catalogue printed for the sale, listing well over two thousand items in various languages, is now a very rare book, only four copies being known to exist.[9] In each of the copies are check marks, presumably indicating items the purchasers wished to bid for, but there is no record of the successful buyers at the auction.

The fate of Browne's papers and MSS is more definitely known. The title page of the sale Catalogue mentions "Choice Manuscripts," indicating that they were sold at the same time as the books, though individual items are not

listed. Curll had succeeded in buying the papers printed in Posthumous Works from Owen Brigstock, who also presented Richard Rawlinson with a copy of Browne's diploma from the College of Physicians.[10] Bishop Tanner possessed a MS of Repertorium, now in the Bodleian Library.[11]

The MS of Browne's Christian Morals, which was known to exist, was for some time in the hands of Thomas (later Archbishop) Tenison, having been loaned to him in a box with other MSS by Edward Browne. When the box was returned this MS was missing, and was not found until a special search was made in the presence of the Archbishop. In 1716 it was printed, with a dedication signed by Elizabeth Lyttleton.

Some other MSS found their way into the Bodleian Library through the medium of Dr. Thomas Rawlinson, but Wilkin in 1836 could not discover "how or when he obtained them." One item in the Rawlinson group is a "Catalogue of MSS. &c." listing those formerly in Browne's possession and probably drawn up just before they were sold.[12]

However, the bulk of Sir Thomas Browne's MSS was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, the physician and bookman whose collections were brought together with the Cottonian and Harleian libraries to form the British Museum. "Sr. H. Sloan has all his [Browne's] & Sons MSS," noted William Stukely in his Commonplace Book.[13] This is not quite accurate, but Sloane did indeed acquire a great many, comprising over a hundred volumes. That he also secured some of Browne's specimens and antiquities is indicated by Curll's having printed, in the Posthumous Works, an engraving of an urn with the acknowledgement: "A Roman Urn . . . Now in ye Possession of Dr Hans Sloane."

Tempted by the possibility that Sloane might have purchased, in addition to MSS, some of Browne's printed books and that they might therefore be in the British Museum, the present writer in 1939 tried to run down some of the marked items in the Museum copy of the Browne sale Catalogue, on the chance that they represented Sloane's purchases. The copy of the Catalogue did prove to be Sloane's, and by good luck in the process of the search part of Sloane's own catalogue of his printed books was discovered.[14] But since the recovered portion of Sloane's catalogue contains few titles acquired as late as 1711 (the date of the sale of Browne's library) and since Browne does not seem to have been in the habit of putting his name in books, none of the

items examined could be positively identified as his. One suspects that a number of volumes now quietly resting in the British Museum were once to be found in the Browne residence in Norwich and were lovingly read by Sir Thomas and perhaps by his son and grandson—but so far, like the ashes in the funeral urns of which the old physician wrote so movingly, their identity remains obscured by the iniquity of oblivion.