PARLIAMENT

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Although Windham was elected as member for the county of Norfolk in the general election of 1806, the election was declared void on petition. In fair condition, lightly aged, attached to neatly-trimmed border of windowpane mount. With creases from folding. Reads ‘Dear Sir, / I should have apprized you earlier that the Ballot for the Norfolk Petition is appointed for to day, when, I hope you may be able to make it convenient to you to attend / Your’s with great truth’.

See her entry, and those of Robey and her husband, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. With two folds. Addressed to ‘Geo Robey. Esq. C.B.E.’ and signed ‘Margaret Lloyd George.’ She gives details of a concert she is having at Downing Street the following month, ‘in aid of the Electrical Industries Association’, and has been asked by its committee to ‘invite your kindly assistance’.

See Astley's entry in the History of Parliament (he was created a baronet at the end of the year in which this letter was written). The ‘Lavender’ mentioned in the letter is Bow Street Runner Stephen Lavender (fictionalized in a series of books by Karen Charlton), who was leaving to take up the position of Deputy Chief Constable at Manchester.1p, 4to. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Verso of second docketed: ‘Chas. Humphreys / recomn to be an Officer’ and in another hand ‘Dugdale Asteley [sic]’. In good condition, lightly aged, with reverse of second leaf slightly grubby.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Strip of glue from mount adhering to one edge of the blank reverse. Folded for postage. Addressed to ‘J M Hare Esqr’. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / I have to acknowledge the receipt of the Patent you have kindly sent me, pray accept my thanks for your attention / I am dear Sir / Yrs faithfully / S. Morton Peto’. In Victorian hand at foot: ‘M P. Norwich 1851’.

With Thomas Carlyle recognised by the Victorians as one of their two greatest historians. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. On grey wove watermarked paper. In good condition, lightly creased and aged. Folded twice. Reads ‘Dear Miss Richardson, / I am extremely sorry that I have an engagement which will make it impossible for me to have the pleasure of dining with you on Wednesday fortnight / Very truly yours, / T B Macaulay’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item was enclosed in a letter from Serjeant Shee (the future Sir William Shee), offered separately, sent from the House of Commons on 17 February 1854, in which he writes: ‘I enclose Mr. Cobdens own handwriting to send to the Papers -’. Attached to a corner at the head of the first page of the present item is a cutting from the Morning Herald newspaper, 18 February 1854, reproducing the details in the manuscript.

According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, Shee entered the House of Commons as Member for County Kilkenny in 1852, and promptly took charge of the Irish Tenant Right Bill. ‘On 16 February 1854 Shee brought in a bill which, with the exception of three clauses, was the exact counterpart of Sharman Crawford's bill of the previous session, but it met with little encouragement.’ Shee’s speech is reproduced in his ‘Papers, Letters, and Speeches in the House of Commons, on the Irish Land Question’ (London, 1863).

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the 1840s Peto had thirty-three railway contracts worth £20 million, the largest number held in the kingdom; according to Brunel he was the largest contractor in the world.’ 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Begins: ‘Sir Morton Peto presents his Compliments to Lady Hooker and begs to acknowledge the receipt of her not of the 9th. Inst. on his return from the Continent’. He regrets that ‘it will not be in his power to assist the Case of Dr.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB: ‘In the 1840s Peto had thirty-three railway contracts worth £20 million, the largest number held in the kingdom; according to Brunel he was the largest contractor in the world.’ 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Begins: ‘Sir Morton Peto presents his Compliments to Lady Hooker and begs to acknowledge the receipt of her not of the 9th. Inst. on his return from the Continent’. He regrets that ‘it will not be in his power to assist the Case of Dr.

See his brothers’ entries in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Folded once. In good condition, lightly aged, with slight rust spotting at head of last page. Erroneous attribution to Earl Brassey in small type at the head of the first page. Addressed to ‘B. Hobbie Esq’ and signed ‘Albert Brassey’. He doubts whether you will be able to attend the public meeting at Oxford on 28 May.

Rare: The BL has a copy (not annotated) and there's a copy on JISC at Reading, with the entry stating that consists of 104pp, rather than the 231pp of the present copy. See Elton’s entry in the Oxford DNB. He first served as a Conservative MP for Somerset in 1884-5, and the present item was composed during his second term, 1886-92. No title-leaf: drop-head title. At foot of first page: ‘A 55729. 30.?1/89. Wt. 6590,’. Introductory section credited on p.30 to 'Charles Elton. / B. F. C. Costelloe, / Assistant Commissioner.' Folio, 231pp.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium. Fifty-eight lines of text. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded three times. Minor traces of grey-paper mount adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf. Addressed to ‘George Anderson Esq / M.P. / House of Commons’, and signed ‘W. G. Dickson’. Two annotations in a contemporary hand, one beneath the signature. The first paragraph reads: ‘My dear Sir / I have to thank you for the copy of your bill “to extend the jurisdiction of Sheriff Courts in Scotland,” which I received this morning.

See his entry, and Freeling’s, in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Aged and worn, with nicks and closed tears around the edges, but not near the valediction ‘Yours very faithfully / W: Manning.’ Addressed to ‘Francis Freeling, Esqr.’ Begins: ‘My dear Sir, / Your Letter of yesterday I have just received & am exceedingly obliged to you for the communication it contains - it is quite distressing to see the delusion which prevails in the public mind on this subject -’. He is ‘submitting the Extract of the Norwich paper sent by Mr.

See his entry, and that of his father the civil engineer, in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. On separate letterheads. The recipient is not named and there is no salutation (though the letter is complete). Signed ‘Brassey’. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Begins: ‘I have two maxims for [hourly?] use. / I do the little I can do and leave the rest to thee / What thou livest live well. The rest commit to Heaven / Nor should the last message of the greatest sailor since the world began ever be forgotten / England expects that every man this day will do his duty’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The identity of the recipient is unclear. Written on one side of a small (12 x 9.5 cm) plain card. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one vertical crease. Reads: ‘Dear Walter / Enclosed is, as you may see, addressed to Speaker Court. I opened it & think it may be for Miss Erskine. If not, will you send it on to Lady Ilbert. Nothing is known of it here. / Yours sincerely / James W Lowther’. Lady Ilbert was wife of the Clerk of the Commons, Sir Courtenay Ilbert, from whose papers the item derives.

An unusually forthright communication for the period. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing, Fitzgerald was President of the Board of Control under Sir Robert Peel. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and ruckled. Signed ‘Vane Londonderry’. Begins: ‘My Dear Ftizgerald / I had not an opportunity to thank you as I would in the H of Lords for all your kind attention to my wishes.

Written while Clerk of the Commons. See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Joyce Violet Ilbert (1890-1957) was the youngest of his five daughters. 8pp, 12mo. Two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to ‘My Dear Joyce’ and signed ‘Yr. loving father | C. P. I.’ Begins: ‘I wish for my sake that you were on board the Cedric - for I miss my [?]-valet-secretary very much. If you were here, you would be hoping that the voyage would never come to an end’. They have had ‘almost perpetual sunshine since we left New York’. ‘The ship is extremely comfortable.

See his entry, and that of his elder brother, in the Oxford DNB. From the collection of Irish nationalist autographs of Miss Burgess of Norwich. On 16.5 x 7.5 cm piece of paper, cut down from a larger document. In fair condition, lightly aged and spotted. Folded three times. Written in a large bold hand: ? ?One in name, one in fame / Are the Sea-divided Gaels.? / A. M. Sullivan / St Patricks Day / 1884?. See Image.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present item is from a collection of Irish nationalist autographs assembled by Miss Burgess of Norwich. 1p, 8vo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded for postage. Addressed 'To Miss Burgess' and signed 'Alfred Webb'. Date and location in another hand, the rest in Webb's autograph. Begins: 'Dear Madam, / Those autos. you have of our MP's are some of which I have most. Unfortunately others you want I have only of a private character, & I do not like cutting off the signatures.' He is sending those of J. E.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged. On first leaf of a bifolium of wove paper. Folded for postage. Signed ‘Tho. Hughes’. Begins: ‘My dear Ponsonby / Let me introduce the bearer, Mr. Selway, [i.e. William Robbins Selway (c.1822-1893) of Walworth] who was vice Chairman of my Committee in Lambeth, & is one of the most influential & trustworthy men in the South of London’. Selway wishes to see Ponsonby ‘about a building in the Surrey Gardens which certain persons are proposing to convert into a Theatre’.

See his long entry in the Oxford DNB. On one side of a 12.5 x 6.5 cm piece of laid paper, embossed with a tax stamp. In fair condition, lightly aged and discoloured. Very neatly written and set out: ‘Jan 31 . 1794 / No. 370. / Received of Wm. Phillips / fourteen shillings for the third volume of / EPEA PTEROENTA, or, The Diversions / of Purley. John Horne Tooke / £2. 2. 0’. See Image,

Interesting items, casting light on the nitty-gritty of Victorian constituency politics. Both are signed 'W. S. Robson' and addressed to 'B. Piffard Esq'. Both in good condition, lightly aged, with the second a little spotted. Each on a bifolium. ONE (26 May 1885): 3pp, 12mo. He has been informed 'that it is now the wish of the Watford (or Divisional) Association that I should visit the Division & address meetings there.

A scarce piece of naval ephemera. Six copies on COPAC: Chetham’s Library, Lambeth Palace, NLS, Oxford, Society of Antiquaries and BL. According to ESTC, the journals of the House of Lords state that it was ‘presented to the House on 17 January 1705, and ordered to be printed 5 February 1705’. In landscape on one side of a folio sheet of watermarked laid paper, folded into a two-page bifolium.

See Bloomfield’s entry, and that of Norton, in the Oxford DNB. The fragment of the letter bearing his signature is 5 cm x 4.5 cm. It is dated at one corner ‘1845’, and reads ‘R. Bgham / Bloomfield’. It is laid down on one side of a 4to leaf extracted from an album and paginated 58.

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. The present item is on one side of a 21 x 8.5 cm piece of wove paper. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with one fold. Minor traces of two red wafers from previous mounting on blank reverse. Written out by Harding in his attractive hand (he was a stylish fellow: his obituary in the Annual Register stated that ‘no one had a finer choice of words and few a more graceful delivery’), the note reads: ‘Received May 4th.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Under Gladstone Burt served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, 1892-1895. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son of the editor of the economist Thorold Rogers, and written while Rogers was Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department (a sort of public relations department), a position to which he was appointed in November 1891. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Signed 'Thos Burt'. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once for postage.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the papers of Philip Dosse (1925-1980), proprietor of Hansom Books, publishers of several arts magazines. Presumably acknowledging payment for a review in ‘Books and Bookmen’. On plain ‘House of Commons’ postcard. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with crease to one corner going through the final flourish of Grimond’s signature. Reads: ‘4 Aug / Many thanks for cheque for £20 already acknowledged / J Grimond’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Elegant signature: 'J Enoch Powell.' He thanks him for his letter, and explains that, as '[t]he reprint or reproduction of the St Lawrence Jewry addresses is hanging fire’, he is enclosing ‘a photocopy of the first, which I think is the one you have in mind’. He hopes it will reach him ‘in time’. The recipient’s address at the foot of the letter reads: ‘H. V. Shooter, Esq. / 225 Makepeace Mansions, / Makepeace Ave, / N.6.’ At the head of the letter, presumably by the recipient: ‘From: The Rt.

The address from which this letter is sent is said to have been 'the English home of Louis Kossuth and Garibaldi'. 1p, 12mo. On aged paper, and with strip of discoloration from glue along the inner edge, the detaching of the item from its mount having caused a little wear to a couple of words of text. Reads: ‘Dear Sir, / Northampton is the only Constituency I have represented in Parliament - I am not [last word underlined] the author of the work you allude to / Yours truly / C Gilpin’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Under Gladstone Burt served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, 1892-1895. From the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son of the editor of the economist Thorold Rogers, and written while Rogers was Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department (a sort of public relations department), a position to which he was appointed in November 1891. The four items, all addressed to ‘Dear Mr Rogers’ and signed ‘Thos Burt’, are all bifoliums in good condition, folded for postage. ONE (2 June 1892): 2pp, 12mo.