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Notes
The Library, 3rd series, 2 (1911), 228n. The essay is reprinted with minor revision, as well as additional notes by the editor and Arthur Brown, in Greg's Collected Papers, ed. J. C. Maxwell (1966), pp. 48-74. This revised issue takes no notice of the existence of the catalogue.
Bibliotheca Warburtoniana: A Catalogue of the late John Warburton, Esq., Somerset Herald, F.R.A.S., sold by Samuel Paterson at Essex House . . . 19 Nov., 1759. Copies of this catalogue are now held by Houghton Library at Harvard, the Grolier Club, the British Museum (two copies, in the Departments of MSS. and Coins and Medals), and the estate of the late Dr. A. N. L. Munby. The disposition of this copy has not, at the moment of writing, been ascertained. None has the buyer's name against the literary material, although Dr. Munby's copy has prices and the Grolier Club copy includes an invoice for various lots sold to Philip Carteret Webb. It is incorrectly indexed in the British Museum's List of Catalogues of English Book Sales, 1676-1900, Now in the British Museum (1915) and is unaccountably omitted from the huge British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books (1960-1966). For notice of these copies of Warburton's Sale Catalogue I am obliged to W. H. Bond, A. N. L. Munby, and H. M. Nixon.
The College of Arms, organized by Richard III, included the Earl Marshall, three Kings of Arms, six Heralds (of which Warburton was one), and four Pursuivants. The purpose of the College was to regulate the use of arms; this power was often abused, especially in an era of a new social mobility and economic change. Heralds were appointed by the Monarch, for life. Warburton's title, "Somerset," reflects the historical origin of his position; he always resided in London, in apartments at the College of Arms (L. G. Pine, The Genealogist's Encylopedia [1969], pp. 198-200).
See J. Collingwood Bruce, The Hand-book to the Roman Wall, p. 2. The two most recent editions of this classic guide-book, edited respectively by two of the great names in British archeology, R. G. Collingwood (1933) and Ian Richmond (1952), are united in their regard for Horsley and scorn of Warburton. A copy of Horsley's book was among those sold at Warburton's death in 1759 (lot #102).
[J. W. Clay], "Journal in 1718-19 of John Warburton," Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, XV (1898), 61-84.
Diary, II, 410. I am not certain whether this is a polite rejection of inferior material or simply a reflection of Wanley's very poor health at the time (31 March 1726). He died on 6 July 1726.
There is one apparently dissident voice: the remark of William Hutton (another contributor to the literature on the Roman wall) on Warburton's "veracity" (The History of the Roman Wall, 1802, p. x), is cited as character witness in the DNB article on Warburton, and is repeated by John Freehafer, p. 158. But Hutton is no proper judge; his is not an antiquarian book, but a record of a walking tour, and it is apparent from his one other reference to Warburton (p. 325) that he simply regards him as dull and academic ("a dry husk"). Since he apparently never realized that Warburton was simply reprinting Horsley in a changed order, his special commendation of Warburton simply points up his ignorance.
Cited by Nichols, VI, 142n. Noble (1754-1827) cannot have known Warburton, but no doubt knew many people who had.
Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, Life of William Earl of Shelburne, second edition (1912), I, 216-218. This life is in fact closer to a political history, and unfortunately for our purposes makes virtually no reference to Lansdowne's collecting interests.
He served in the battles of Minden (August 1759) and Kloster Kampen (October 1760), and was probably abroad between these times as well (Life, I, 82).
Cited by Malone, Shakespeare (1790), I, ii, 71-72n. There is a notation on the flyleaf of the Lansdowne volume, "Rec'd 1803," which must reflect some aspect of the volume's history during Lansdowne's ownership, but what I cannot say. For the identification of the correspondence see Lancashire, pp. 242-243.
Until Parliament voted these funds it was intended that the collection of MSS would be sold, and Leigh and Sotheby had already printed their sale catalogue (Bibliotheca Manuscripta Lansdowniana) in the early spring of 1807. Warburton's volume figures there as lot #849. The sale was postponed, and the money was paid in October 1807 (Greg, Collected Papers, p. 50, n.2).
Dr. A. N. L. Munby kindly provided me with prices from his copy of the Warburton sale catalogue.
Many of the lot numbers are duplicated, with asterisks, presumably to accommodate items that came to hand late. As a result there are significantly more than 764 lots in the sale.
Although quarto format is unusual for pre-Restoration play manuscripts, it is far from unprecedented. Other dramatic manuscripts in quarto include Tancred and Ghismonda (c. 1600), five MSS of Middleton's Game at Chess (1624-5), Middleton's Witch (1620-7), Lord Harlech's MS of Fletcher's Demetrius & Enanthe (1625), Wilson's Swisser (c. 1631), Cavendish's Country Captain (c. 1635), The Cyprian Conqueror (c. 1640?), and Wild's Benefice (c. 1641). The last is, of course, included in the Lansdowne volume and thus was presumably once part of Warburton's collection. See Greg, Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (1931), pp. 356-365.
The Duke of Buckingham is, of course, a misunderstanding of "G. Buc.", signature of George Buc, Master of the Revels in 1611, whose license stands on the last leaf of this manuscript.
Stevens, who flourished from 1695-1726, was a Spanish scholar and translator as well as an antiquary of considerable learning and reputation. He wrote or translated several dozen books.
On 5 July 1799 there was a second sale of Warburton material by Thomas King, this almost forty years after Warburton's death. The catalogue describes the collection as a "Heraldic Library." It comprised 464 lots, sold on two days; 1-405 are printed books, 406-432 manuscripts, 433-455 Warburton's own manuscripts, and 456-464 maps (I am obliged to Mr. Godfrey Davis of the British Museum's Department of Manuscripts for notice of this catalogue, the only one known). I have not seen this 1799 catalogue, which came to my attention after the research for this study was completed, and so am unable to determine whether the sale represents new material, or material from the 1759 sale being resold. There is also a puzzling tradition of still another sale, in 1766. This date is given by Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, III [1812], 618), who elsewhere gives 1759 as the date of the sale, and he has been followed (apparently) by the editors of Humfrey Wanley's Diary. Further, the article in Literary Anecdotes which gives this date, "The Progress of Selling Books by Catalogues" by Richard Gough, is a revision of an account which appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine, LVIII (1788), 1065-1069, where the same date is given. This could all be a mistake, but since library holdings of early auction catalogues are far from complete, we cannot decide the matter with confidence.
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