MOLESWORTH

[‘I abominate woman in politics’: Sir George Birdwood, Indian administrator and naturalist.] Autograph Letter Signed to [Fagan?], regarding his foundation of Primrose Day, dislike of the Primrose League, and political predictions.]

Author: 
Sir George Birdwood [Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood] (1832-1917), British administrator in India, naturalist and author [The Primrose League]
Publication details: 
23 October 1906; 119 The Avenue, West Ealing [London].
£90.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 11pp, 12mo, with three of the pages written lengthwise. On three bifoliums. In good condition, folded once. The hurried loose handwriting of this long letter presents a considerable challenge: even the signature (‘Geo Birdwood.’? ‘Gen Birdwood.’?) and the name of the recipient (‘Fagan’?) are doubtful. The letter begins with a reference to the ‘extract from Lady Dorothy Nevills - Reminiscences - given in the cutting from the Globe of yesterday enclosed in your kind note of today’.

[Sir William Molesworth, Radical politician and journalist.] Autograph Letter Signed ('W Molesworth') to 'Merivale' [i.e. Herman Merivale] of the Colonial Office, about a report on 'exploring Central Africa' and other matters.

Author: 
Sir William Molesworth (1810-1855), Radical politician associated with John Stuart Mill, co-founder of London Review, editor of Westminster Review [Herman Merivale (1806-1874), civil servant, etc
Publication details: 
Office of Works [London]. 8 December 1853.
£150.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded once. Endorsed on reverse of second leaf. At the time of writing Molesworth was serving as First Commissioner of Works in Lord Aberdeen's coalition government. (In the year of his death Aberdeen would appoint him Colonial Secretary.) The letter begins: 'My dear Merivale | Last November I moved for the enclosed return and since then I have spoken to ]Pal?] [i.e. Viscount Palmerston?] about it who promised that it should be made.

[Lord Grenville, Prime Minister.] Autograph Signature ('W: W: Grenville') and seal, with those of Samuel Estwick, Richard Molesworth, Philip Deare, John Wigglesworth, to document appointing Isaac Phipps paymaster of British forces in West Indies.

Author: 
Lord Grenville, Prime Minister [William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (1759-1834)]; Samuel Estwick (c.1736-1795), Member of Parliament; Richard Molesworth; Philip Deare [West Indies]
Publication details: 
No place. 8 January 1784.
£250.00

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to an edge. Folded once. At bottom right are Grenville's signature ('W: W: Grenville') and a good impression of his seal in red wax. Twenty-line document, written in a secretarial hand, with two embossed tax stamps at head.

[ Sir William Molesworth, Radical English politician: 'I'll give you a beginning, which I hope you'll finish'. ] Autograph Note Signed ('W. M') to 'W.' (the editor of a journal), stating that he cannot 'do an article'.

Author: 
Sir William Molesworth (1810-1855), Radical English politician
Publication details: 
No place. 1 December 1837.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Clearly addressing the editor of a journal, Molesworth writes: 'Dear W. I cannot do an article, but I give you a beginning, which I hope you'll finish. | I'll attend to what you say. | Yrs. | W. M'. The note is accompanied by an engraved portrait of Molesworth, orating with right hand held high, captioned 'Sir William Molesworth, Bart., M.P.', from the Illustrated London News.

[ Mrs Molesworth, children's writer. ] Autograph Signature ('Louisa Molesworth') on valediction to letter.

Author: 
Mrs Molesworth [ Mary Louisa Molesworth, née Stewart; M. L. S. Molesworth; 'Ennis Graham' ] (1839-1921), English children's writer
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£25.00

On one side of a 2.5 x 11 cm slip of paper, cut from the end of a letter. Reads 'Yours very sincerely | Louisa Molesworth'.

[ Sir George Birdwood, Anglo-Indian naturalist. ] 14 Autograph Letters Signed (12 of them 'George Birdwood') to H. B. Wheatley and Sir Henry Trueman Wood of the Royal Society of Arts, with reference to Sir William Lee-Warner and Sir Thomas Holdich.

Author: 
Sir George Birdwood [ Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood ] (1832-1917), Anglo-Indian naturalist, colonial official and author [ Sir Henry Trueman Wood; H. B. Wheatley; Royal Society of Arts ]
Publication details: 
Five letters from 1901, four of them on letterhead of the India Office, Whitehall; one from 33 Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill. Nine letters from 1913, all from 5 Windsor Road, Ealing.
£220.00

The 14 letters total 72pp. The collection is in good condition, lightly aged. Most items docketed and with the Society's stamp. The correspondence relates to Society business, from a strongly Anglo-Indian viewpoint. Letters of 26 May and 2 June 1913 are each 12pp. Long, and concern the relative merits of Indian colonial official Sir William Lee-Warner (1846-1914) and the geographer Sir Thomas Holdich (1843-1929), to be chairman of the Society.

[Pamphlet.] Travel as a Factor in Education. (Presidential Address, delivered before the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society on October 6th, 1902, and re-printed from the Transactions of the Society, Vol. VII., Part III., January, 1903.)

Author: 
Rev. J. H. Molesworth [Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society]
Publication details: 
Leicester: Thornley and Waddington, Victoria Press, Bowling Green Street. [1903.]
£60.00

15pp., 12mo. Stapled. In blue printed wraps. With stamps, shelfmark and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, otherwise in good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

Autograph Note Signed ('George Birdwood') of the British colonial administrator in India, George Birdwood, informing the recipient that he is sending the addresses of various individuals.

Author: 
Sir George Birdwood [Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood] (1832-1917), British colonial administrator in India, naturalist and author
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the India Office, Whitehall. 19 June [no year].
£32.00

2pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper with light staining (affecting the signature). In a difficult hand. He is sending 'the addresses of the friends & relatives of the <?> Brownes, Bunny, & Cassidy', but 'cannot get those of <?> or Higginson'.

Autograph Signature ('Wm Molesworth'), on a frank, of the Radical Member of Parliament for Southwark.

Author: 
Sir William Molesworth (1810-1855), 8th Baronet, Radical Member of Parliament for Southwark, editor (with John Stuart Mill) of the Westminster Review
Publication details: 
London. 4 May 1839.
£23.00

On piece of paper cut from front panel of envelope, 7 x 12.5 cm. In fair condition, with hole in paper made by seal or wafer (not affecting text). Red circular government postmark: 'FREE | 4 MY 4 | 1839'. All in Molesworth's hand, and reading: 'London May four 1839 | H H. Molesworth | St John Coll | Cambridge', with the signature as usual at bottom left: 'Wm Molesworth'.

Financial Reform Tracts. Nos. 11 and 12. Speech of Sir Wm. Molesworth, Bart., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, 25th July, 1848, On Colonial Expenditure and Government.

Author: 
Sir William Molesworth [The Financial Reform Association, Liverpool]
Publication details: 
[Financial Reform Association, Harrington Chambers, North John-street, Liverpool, March, 1849.] Printed at the Office of the "Standard of Freedom," 335, Strand, London.
£65.00

8vo: 32 pp. Pamphlet. Bound in modern marbled boards with paper label. Fair, on aged paper with top outer corner of last few leaves slightly dogeared and with reverse of last leaf a little grubby. An important speech, another edition of which exists, published by Ridgway in 1848. A reply by John Towne Danson was also published by Ridgway in 1848, going through two editions.

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