RECORDER

[Lyme Regis, Dorset.] Autograph Letter Signed from ‘Wm Curtis’ [William Curtis] to ‘Mr Wh[encon?] / Town Clerk / Lym’, regarding legal action with ‘Mr Preston’ (‘Mr Recorder’) who ‘Threatens to play the very Devil’ with him.

Author: 
Lyme Regis, Dorset: William Curtis of Lym [Richard Preston ('Mr Recorder') of Marino; Lowton of the Temple]
Publication details: 
‘Lym July 1 / 1795’. [Lyme Regis, Dorset.]
£50.00

Neither Curtis nor the 'Mr Recorder' named Preston mentioned in the letter feature in G. Roberts’s ‘History of Lyme Regis’ (Sherborne, 1823). Preston may be ‘Richard Preston Esq.’ of ‘Marino’ named as living near Barnstaple in Cary’s New Itinerary, 6th ed, 1815. The recipient’s name is not decipherable. Six years previously a parliamentary committee had examined ‘Mr. Follett, the town clerk of Lyme. He said, he had held that office fifty years.’ (Luders, Reports, 1789) 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium, the reverse of the second leaf being addressed to ‘Mr Wh[encon?] / Town Clerk / Lym’.

[The 'Apostle of Liberalism': Sir James Mackintosh, Scottish historian and Whig politician.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to Rev. Thomas Maurice of the British Museum, on topics including Anglican ordination and a visit to Christie's auction house.

Author: 
Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832) of Kyllachy, Scottish historian, jurist and Whig politician [Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, orientalist
Publication details: 
ONE: ‘Serle Street Lincolns Inn August 13th. [no year]’. TWO: ‘‘Charlotte Street / Monday Eight OClock P.M.’ [No date.] THREE: ‘Wednesday’. [No date or place.]
£180.00

Although he later repudiated his position, Mackintosh is notable for having defended the French Revolution from Edmund Burke's strictures. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. With regard to Maurice's oriental studies, it is worth noting that Mackintosh was Recorder of Bombay, 1804-1811. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn and folded for postage. The last two show slight evidence of the breaking of the wafer, and the last has minor traces of brown paper mount. All three are bifoliums, and all are signed ‘James Mackintosh’.

[Samuel Warren, Victorian novelist and barrister.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel Warren') to the editor of the Courant newspaper, regarding his 'charge' to the grand jury at Hull, and a planned '“Reformatory School” for juvenile criminals' there.

Author: 
Samuel Warren (1807-1877), novelist, barrister and Member of Parliament, Recorder of Hull [nineteenth-century reformatory schools; juvenile criminals in Victorian England]
Publication details: 
Vittoria Hotel, Hull. 29 October 1854.
£120.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly creased. Folded twice. Addressed 'To the Editor of the Courant'. Having been made Recorder of Hull in 1852, Warren begins his letter from that place: 'Sir, | Some friend has sent to me your paper of Thursday, last, containing a very kindly notice on my late Charge to the Grand Jury here.

[ Carl Dolmetsch, classical musician, leading figure in the revival of the recorder, and Director of the Haslemere Festival. ] Autograph Signature ('Carl Dolmetsch') on part of typed letter.

Author: 
Carl Dolmetsch [ Carl Frederic Dolmetsch ] (1911-1997), classical musician, leading figure in the twentieth-century revival of the recorder, for 56 years Director of the Haslemere Festival
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£15.00

Signature on an irregular piece of paper torn from the bottom right-hand corner of a leaf. The valediction to a typed letter. Reads: '[...] gards from us all. | [...] ncerely, | Carl Dolmetsch'.

[ William Fuller Boteler, Recorder of Canterbury. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W F Boteler.'), regarding 'Mr Peels present Bills', the prison population, and the erection of new prisons in the 'corporate Towns' of Kent and elsewhere 'in the Kingdom'.

Author: 
William Fuller Boteler (1777-1845), judge, Commissioner of Bankruptcy and Recorder of Canterbury, Kent [ Sir Robert Peel, Tory prime minister ]
Publication details: 
Lincolns Inn [ London ]. 25 March 1824.
£220.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. With a number of emendations, indicating that the letter is a draft. The recipient is not identified, but is presumably a senior Home Office official such as the Principal Private Secretary to Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. Beginning: 'I find that the list which I sent you, of the number of Prisoners in the Gaol of the City of Canterbury, at the times of holding the General Sessions, for the last quarter years, did include the Debtors & Prisoners under the Mutiny Act.

[ Ruth Ellis Messenger, hymnologist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Ruth E. Messenger') to 'Mr. Wilshire' [ Frederick Allen Wilshire ], thanking him for providing her with an 'open sesame' to the Inns of Court in London.

Author: 
Ruth E. Messenger [ Ruth Ellis Messenger ] (1896-1993), American hymnologist [ Frederick Allan Wilshire (1868-1944), Recorder of Bridgwater ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, London W1. Undated, but marked as 'Rec[eive]d 17 . 7. 39. [ 17 July 1939 ]'
£120.00

4pp., 12mo. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with minor rust marking from a paperclip. She writes that she and her sister have that day 'worshipped at the Temple Church and enjoyed to the full all the delights that were spread before us, in that rare environment'. His cards have 'proved an "open sesame" wherever we went', and they have 'enoyed the Hall with its associations, and indeed, every bit of the section. Just to look at the courts and walls was an experience not to be forgotten'.

[John William Mellor, Recorder of Grantham.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Jno. Mellor') to fellow-barrister Samuel Danks Waddy, regarding a 'Slave circular', 'a new opportunity for Grantham', the Cust family, and the North-Eastern Circuit.

Author: 
John William Mellor (1835-1911), English barrister, both Recorder of Grantham and Liberal Member of Parliament for that place [Samuel Danks Waddy (1830-1902), barrister and Liberal M.P.]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 16 Sussex Square, Hyde Park, W. [London] 4 February 1876.
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly worn and aged, with minor trace of mount on second leaf. Waddy's letter 'fortifies' his own opinions, and he would 'certainly not neglect a new opportunity for Grantham which is manifestly attended with real uncertainty owing to the local influence of the Custs'. He feels that rather than being 'given up', Grantham should be 'seriously attended to'. He next endorses the North-Eastern circuit: 'each place is good!

Stanley Morison 1889-1967 [The Monotype Recorder, vol. 43, no. 3, Autumn 1968].

Author: 
James Moran
Publication details: 
Sine loco. The Monotype Corporation Limited. 1968.
£25.00

32 pages, 4to. Unbound and stitched in original mustard-coloured printed wraps. 8 plates and numerous illustrations in text. Good only with some heavy creasing and a few pencil annotations.

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