SLAVERY

[Hercules Ross of Rossie Castle, Forfarshire, friend of Lord Nelson, Jamaican merchant who later denounced the slave trade.] Autograph Letter Signed

Author: 
Hercules Ross (1745-1816) of Rossie Castle, Montrose, friend of Lord Nelson, Scottish merchant in the Jamaican slave trade, who later denounced slavery to parliament and called for its abolition
Publication details: 
‘Rossie Castle Montrose 19th. June 1804.’
£120.00

See the entry on his son Horatio Ross (1801-1886) – named after his father’s friend Lord Nelson who was the boys godfather and died the year after the writing of this letter - in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. Twenty-two lines of closely and neatly written text. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, with strip of paper from mount to one edge. With fold lines. The recipient is addressed as ‘My dear Sir’ and not named, and the letter signed ‘H. Ross’. Written in a spirited style.

[British Guiana and Sir Henry Barkly, 1850.] Nine pages of cuttings from The Times and the Globe, by ‘NIGER’ - identified herein as Sir James Robert Carmichael - and ‘Jacob Omnium’ (Matthew James Higgins), on Governor Barkly and slavery.

Author: 
British Guiana; Sir James Carmichael-Smyth (1779-1838), governor; Sir James Robert Carmichael (1817-1883); Sir Henry Barkly (1815-98), governor; Matthew James Higgins ('Jacob Omnium') (1810-68)
Smyth
Publication details: 
The Times and the Globe, London. Four letters by 'NIGER' to the Globe dated 29 and 30 January, 9 February and 2 March 1850. Four letters to The Times (two apiece from 'NIGER' and 'JACOB OMNIUM'), dated in October and November [1850].
£280.00
Smyth

A contemporary manuscript note to the present item reveals for the first time the identity of ‘Niger’, one of the two correspondents of whose letters it consists. (And minor manuscript corrections to the last of the four letters would seem to suggest the involvement of the author.) This is Sir James Robert Carmichael (1817-1883), 2nd Bart, who was intimately connected with British Guiana through his father Sir James Carmichael-Smyth (1779-1838).

[Ralph Bernal, Whig politician, slave owner and art collector.] Autograph Signature to frank addressed to William Smith, with postmark.

Author: 
Ralph Bernal (1783-1854), Whig politician of Sephardic Jewish extraction, archaeologist, slave owner and art collector
BERNAL
Publication details: 
‘London January twenty nine 1831’.
£28.00
BERNAL

See his entries in the Oxford DNB and History of Parliament. Frank cover, laid out in the customary fashion, on 12.5 x 7 cm panel cut from front of envelope. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper. Usual red frank postmark: ‘FREE / 29JA29 / 1831’. Reads: ‘London January twenty nine 1831 / Willm. Smith Esqr. / at Smith Wright’s Esqr / Kempston / Loughboro Notts / per / R Bernal’. See Image. On reverse, in contemporary hand: ‘R. Bernal. MP for Rochester / Chairman of the Committee / of the House of Commons / on the Reform Bill.’

[William Manning, Governor of the Bank of England, West Indian merchant, slaveowner.] Autograph Letter Signed to Francis Freeling of the Post Office, regarding a 'communication' indicating 'the delusion which prevails in the public mind' on a subject

Author: 
William Manning (1763-1835), Governor of the Bank of England, West Indian merchant, slaveowner, Tory MP, father of Cardinal Manning [Francis Freeling (1764-1836), Secretary of the General Post Office]
Publication details: 
‘Bank of England, / April 28th. 1818.’ London.
£50.00

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.

[Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, merchant banker, major beneficiary of the slave trade.] Autograph Letter Signed, inquiring for information about journey times between Jamaica, Havannah and Vera Cruz.

Author: 
Sir Francis Baring (1740-1810), 1st Baronet, merchant banker, founder of one of the leading London houses, said to have made a fortune from the slave trade by the age of sixteen
Publication details: 
‘Bath 27. decem. 1803.’
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged; piece of card from autograph album laid down on part of the reverse. The card bears the following pencil note (concerning another lost item), in a Victorian hand: ‘This is not an autograph. / But it is a most amusing & interesting letter and so finds a place in this book / F H A’. Baring’s letter, to an unnamed recipient, reads: ‘My dear Sir / I will thank you for an answer to the following questions as to the number of days each voyage will require.

[Lord Mansfield, Scottish jurist whose judgments reformed English law on slavery.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mansfield') [to the Earl of Liverpool] regarding his recovery from ill health and recuperation at Mount Ephraim.

Author: 
Lord Mansfield [William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705-1793)], distinguished Scottish jurist whose judgments reformed English law on slavery [Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808)]
Publication details: 
'Mount Ephraim [near Tunbridge Wells, Kent] 2d Septr. 1784'.
£220.00

1p, 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded once.. A neatly-written letter of fourteen lines. The recipient is not named, but is Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1729-1808), whose country seat was Addiscombe Park in Surrey. Mansfield served in the First Pitt Ministry with Liverpool (then Lord Hawkesbury), the former as Lord President of the Council, and the latter as President of the Board of Trade.

[Badly beaten on the Senate floor: Charles Sumner, abolitionist, United States Senator for Massachusetts.]

Author: 
Charles Sumner (1811-1874), American abolitionist, United States Senator for Massachusetts, badly beaten on the Senate floor in 1856 by fellow-senator Preston Brooks
Sumner
Publication details: 
Dated by another on reverse: ‘M.S.S. 22d. Apl 1853 / Massachusetts’.
£120.00
Sumner

On 13 x 7.5 piece of paper, cut down from the label of a packet containing a manuscript (see the annotation on the reverse). On discoloured paper, with glue staining from mount on reverse. Sumner's signature 'C. Sumner' is at top left, with the top of the S slightly cropped. The address, by Sumner, reads 'W. S. Law Magazine / New York / N. Y.' Annotated in pencil on reverse: 'Charles Sumner / M.S.S. 22d Apl 1853 / Massachusetts / Lawyer'. See Image

[John Venn, Anglican cleric, abolitionist and central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers.] Autograph Signature to the conclusion of a letter.

Author: 
John Venn (1759-1813), Church of England clergyman and abolitionist, a central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers
Venn
Publication details: 
‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.
£56.00
Venn

Venn features in the Oxford DNB article on his father Henry Venn (1725-1797). In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two rectangles cut from a letter, laid down on one side of a 14 x 5.5 cm piece of thicker paper. The first rectangle, 12.5 x 2.5 cm, carries the conclusion of the letter: ‘[...]ain are truly I am my dear / your ever faithful & affect Friend / J Venn’. At the foot of the slip, in pencil in a Victorian hand: ‘X (Son of “Complete duty of Man”). Beneath this slip is the second one, 9 x 1.5 cm, which gives the date: ‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.

[West Indian Slave Trade; rum; sugar.] Eighteen manuscript documents (most from Lewis Simond & Co, New York Merchants) regarding slave trader and Jamaican plantation owner William Atherton and his Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish.

Author: 
West Indian Slave Trade: William Atherton (Wikipedia) (1742-1803), slave trader & owner of Jamaican sugar plantations, including the Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish [Lewis Simond, NY merchants]
Publication details: 
One item from 1777, from Bounty Hall Estate, Jamaica; three items from London, 1800 and 1801; fourteen items from New York [Lewis Simond & Co.], 1803 and 1804.
£1,500.00

All 18 items are in very good condition, with slight signs of age and wear. Items One and Eighteen are letters (Eighteen being a ‘triplicate’), the other sixteen items are accounts, with items Five to Eighteen relating to the firm of the New York merchant Lewis Simond. Items Seven, Nine and Twelve are copies (i.e. written out afresh but containing the same text) of Items Six, Eight and Eleven. ONE: Henry Hough (overseer of the Bounty Hall estate, Jamaica) to ‘William Fairclough / Green Park’: Autograph Letter Signed.

[Sir Edward Baines, editor of the Leeds Mercury and Liberal MP.] Autograph Letter Signed to James Silk Buckingham, regarding whether the latter’s son might lecture in Yorkshire, and Buckingham’s ‘immense service’ to ‘the Total Abstinence cause’.

Author: 
Sir Edward Baines (1800-1890), editor of Leeds Mercury, Liberal Member of Parliament, nonconformist, abolitionist [James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855); his son Leicester Silk Buckingham (1825-1867)]
Publication details: 
15 March 1853; Leeds.
£65.00

An interesting letter linking two similar individuals (like Baines, Buckingham had also served as a Yorkshire Member of Parliament, in his case for Sheffield as a radical between and 1835; and both men were newspaper proprietors). See the entries for Baines, with those for Buckingham and his son, in the Oxford DNB. 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and folded for postage. Addressed to ‘J. S. Buckingham, Esq’ and signed ‘Edw Baines’. He begins by saying that he will try and promote Buckingham’s ‘son’s introduction to this part of the country, as a Lecturer’. (According to L.

[A Lancashire slaver and his coach.] Two itemised manuscript receipts for work on a coach from the London coachmaker Thomas Thorpe to the Lancashire slave trader William Atherton of Prescot Hall, one signed by Thorpe.

Author: 
Thomas Thorpe, London coachmaker [William Atherton (1742-1803) of Prescot Hall, St Helens, Lancashire, slave trader and owner of plantations in Jamaica]
Publication details: 
1799 and 1801. [Thorpe & Co., Coachmakers, 210 Holborn, London.]
£280.00

An indication of how slavers spent the fruits of their slaves’ labours. With the advent of slavery studies William Atherton has been the subject of a deal of interest, reflected on his Wikipedia page. Thorpe and Lee are listed as coachmakers at 210 Holborn in 1791; in 1803 the firm is named as Thorpe and Co at the same address. The two items are written out in a secretarial hand, each on a long strip made by cutting a folio leaf in half vertically. Both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Each with slight damage from the breaking open of the wafer.

[Charles Richard Weld, author.] Printed notice of the election of ‘the Council and Officers of the Royal Society’ and ensuing dinner, signed by Weld, and addressed by him to W. Vaughan. With the Society’s seal in red wax.

Author: 
Charles Richard Weld (1813-1869), historian of the Royal Society, London [William Vaughan (1752-1850), West Indian slave owner and co-founder of West India Dock, London]
Publication details: 
‘From the Apartments of the Royal Society [in Somerset Place, Strand], November 21st. 1844’.
£90.00

Weld and Vaughan both have entries in the Oxford DNB. The notice is printed in copperplate on the recto of the first leaf of a 4to bifolium. In fair condition, aged and lightly worn, with short closed tear to one edge, and slight damage to the second leaf from the cutting of the seal, which is present on the verso, with a good impression, in red wax, together with two postmarks and the address, in Weld’s hand, to ‘W. Vaughan Esq - [F.R.S.] / 70 Fenchurch Street / [Royal Society.]’ The notice, signed ‘C. R.

[Lord Grey and immigration to British West India Colonies, 1850.] Two printed Colonial Office circular dispatches: on ‘Coloured Emigrants from United States’, and ‘Immigration’ of ‘Coolies’, ‘Kroomen’ and Africans taken from captured Slavers’.

Author: 
Lord Grey [Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey] as Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1850 [Colonial Office; slavery; the United States]
Publication details: 
ONE: ‘Coloured Emigrants from United States’, Downing Street, 16 October 1850. TWO: ‘Immigration’, Downing Street, 30 October 1850.
£150.00

Two interesting items from the period leading up to the American Civil War. Both items are scarce: no other copy of either traced. In good condition, lightly aged. Disbound from a volume and paginated in manuscript.Both printed in copperplate font. ONE: Printed ‘Circular’ dated from Downing Street, 16 October 1850. Headed in manuscript ‘Colonial Emigrants from United States’. In manuscript at end (not in Grey’s hand) ‘/sd/ Grey’. 2pp, 8vo. Paginated in manuscript 239-240.

[Jane Elizabeth Hornblower, poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool abolitionist William Roscoe.] Holograph Manuscript of ‘Sonnet / written in a young lady’s album’, signed ‘J E R.’

Author: 
Jane Elizabeth Hornblower [née Jane Elizabeth Roscoe] (1797-1853), poet and novelist, daughter of Liverpool connoisseur and abolitionist William Roscoe (1753-1831)
hornblower
Publication details: 
No date or place, but before her 1838 marriage to Rev. Francis Hornblower.
£100.00
hornblower

1p, 12mo. On recto of first leaf of bifolium of pink patterned paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The sonnet, which does not appear to have been published, begins: ‘Midst the young eyes that on this book shall shine / Kindling with genius or with feeling bright, / Lit up with all youth’s visions of delight, / There yet shall gage no dearer ones than thine!’ Signed at end ‘J E R.’ See image.

[James Stephen; book] The Dangers of the Country by the Author of War in Disguise

Author: 
Anon. [James Stephen (1758 – 1832), principal English lawyer associated with the movement for the abolition of slavery, grandfather of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen and Sir Leslie Stephen.]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for J. Butterworth, Fleet Street; and J. Hatchard, Piccadilly, 1807.
£60.00

pp.iv.227, 8vo., grubby pages, first few stained, last page damaged but complete, text clear and complete, rebound (modern) grey boards, fresh endpapers. He elaborates on his sense of the threat of a Napoleonic Invasion, but there's also a section on the evils of the slave trade and insights into the events leading to the 1812 War. See text in Google Books.

[Joseph Chamberlain, statesman.] Autograph Note Signed J. Chamberlain to Sir Richard Temple, administrator in British India and a politician, about a Resolution concermimg the West African Liquor Traffic.

Author: 
Joseph Chamberlain (1836 – 1914), statesman.
Publication details: 
Colonial Office embossed stamp, 28 March 1898.
£56.00

Two pages, 12mo, sl. damaged and stained from being removed from an album, text clear and complete. Text: I have today received your letter of the 25th instant forwarding a copy of the Resoluiton passed at a Meeting at Hampstead on Thursday 24th March on the subject of the West African Liquor Traffic. Note: Before the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade European spirits were among the principal commodities exchanged for negro slaves (article In JSTOR).

[Notable Quakers in Georgian England.] Autograph Album of Lydia Davis of Alstone Green, with 120 contributors including Thomas Pole, Joseph Storrs Fry, Thomas Shillitoe, Joseph Sturge, Jeremiah Holme Wiffin, Christopher Healy and John Wilbur.

Author: 
Lydia Davis of Alstone Green, Gloucestershire [Thomas Pole, Joseph Storrs Fry, Thomas Shillitoe, Joseph Sturge, Jeremiah Holme Wiffin, Christopher Healy and John Wilbur; Quakers; Society of Friends]
Publication details: 
[Alstone Green, Gloucestershire.] Between 1800 and 1862 (mainly between 1820 and 1847).
£850.00

Apart from one contribution dating from 1800, three from the 1850s and two from the 1860s, all manuscript contributions date from between 1820 and 1847. 237pp., 4to, with eight items loosely inserted (including four coloured botanical drawings on card) and three-page partial index of contributors. In contemporary black leather binding, with embossed pattern and gilt border on front board, marbled endpapers, and all edges gilt. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, in rebacked binding, worn at spine, with new label.

[Thomas Gisborne, Anglican cleric and author, leading member of the abolitionist Clapham Sect.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to Archdeacon John Woodhouse, praising his edition of the Apocalypse, and discussing his own on 'Sunday Drilling'.

Author: 
Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846), Anglican cleric, leading member with William Wilberforce and Thomas Babington of abolitionist Clapham Sect [John Chappel Woodhouse (1749-1833), Archdeacon of Salop]
Publication details: 
All three from Yoxall Lodge. 24 February and 2 May 1806; and 25 June 1828.
£220.00

The three letters are in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with minor evidence of previous mounting in an album. ONE: 24 February 1806. 1p, 4to. Signed 'Thomas Gisborne.' The subject of the letter is Woodhouse's translation of the Apocalypse, prefixed by 'a dissertation on the divine origin of the book', published the previous year. Gisborne writes that on his 'return from Leicestershire' the previous Friday, he found Woodhouse's 'very obliging present'.

[3rd Earl Grey; Guiana] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed Grey to Thomas Baring who has requested advice on the latter's eventual petition (3 July 1857) of the immigration of free labour [as opposed to slaves as in the USA) into Guiana.

Author: 
Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey (1802 – 1894), statesman, sometime Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies and later Colonial Secretary.
Publication details: 
Howick, 25 June 1857
£250.00

Six pages, 12mo, good condition. He finds it difficult to give advice because of his being so imperfectly informed as to the present state of the question of immigration into Guiana.

[Alexander Hamilton Bullock, Republican politician and abolitionist.] Autograph Signature ('Alexander H Bullock') to printed card of 'The Governor of Massachusetts', inscribed on reverse as a gift 'For Master Walter G. Webster'.

Author: 
Alexander Hamilton Bullock (1816-1882), Republican politician and abolitionist, who served three terms as 26th Governor of Massachusetts
Publication details: 
[Massachusetts.] Dated by Bullock '1867'.
£56.00

6.5 x 11 cm calling card, with the words 'The Governor of Massachusetts' printed at centred of one side. Above this Bullock signs 'Alexander H Bullock', and below it '1867'. On the reverse Bullock writes: 'For | Master | Walter G. Webster'. In good condition, lightly aged, with the reverse carrying traces of grey paper mount at the four corners.

[Philadelphia Society of Friends (Quakers) and slavery, 1839.] Printed pamphlet: 'An Address to the [...] Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in Philadelphia, By the Committee appointed at the late Yearly Meeting to have charge of the Subject of Slavery.

Author: 
[American slavery; the slave trade] John Jackson, Benjamin Price, Deborah F. Wharton, clerks, Society of Friends (Quakers), Philadelphia
Publication details: 
Philadelphia: Printed by John Richards, No. 130 North Third Street. 1839.
£50.00

The full title is: 'An Address to the Quarterly, Monthly and Preparative Meetings, and the Members thereof, composing the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in Philadelphia, By the Committee appointed at the late Yearly Meeting to have charge of the Subject of Slavery.' 12pp, 12mo. Pamphlet in (original?) plain brown wraps. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Begins with two pages of extracts from the minutes, 17 May 1839, regarding the setting up of the committee on 'the deeply interesting subject of Slavery', with reference to 'Benjamin Price, Jr. Clerk' and 'Deborah F.

[Samuel Hanson Cox, abolitionist and Presbyterian minister.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Samuel H. Cox.') to Robert Bolton, American minister of Henley-upon-Thames, England, decrying American affairs, 'heresy-hunters, alarmists, & high-church bigots'.

Author: 
Samuel Hanson Cox (1793-1880), American Prebyterian minister and leading abolitionist [Robert Bolton (1788-1857), minister who founded Christ Church, Pelham, New York; William Jay]
Publication details: 
20 July and 3 October 1831; New York.
£220.00

Such was his prominence in the abolitionist debate, that three years after the writing of this letter Cox's house and church would be sacked, and he himself would be burned in effigy, in the Anti-Abolitionist Riots of 1834, causing his removal from New York City.

[William Bullock, Secretary of the Island of Jamaica, Public Messenger, Island Storekeeper and notary public.] Manuscript Document Signed ('W Bullock | Not Pub'), in secretarial hand, regarding plan for 'conveying' a stream of water into Kingston.

Author: 
William Bullock of St Catherine, Jamaica, Island Storekeeper, Public Messenger, Secretary of the Island and Notary Public
Publication details: 
'Done and performed in my Office of Secretary of the said Island [of Jamaica] At Saint Jago de la Vega this 31 day of May annoque domini One thousand Eight hundred and nineteen [1819]'.
£120.00

In 1824 Bullock held the public offices of Island Storekeeper and Public Messenger. He was also Secretary of the Island and Notary Public. On one side of a 32 x 20 cm piece of laid paper, with Whatman watermark dated 1817. In good condition, lightly aged, with parts of the edges cut down. Seal under paper at bottom left. In a secretarial hand, with Bullock only supplying the date and his signature 'W Bullock | Not Pub'.

[ "Education of the Negro Race"; West Indies".] [Printed Parliamentary] Circular. MS title "Education" (Peel's hand), signed "Grey". WITH: [Prtd] Brief Practical Suggestions [full title below]

Author: 
[ Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, sometime Colonial Secretary (from 1846); B. Kay Shuttleworth; Benjamin Hawes; Frederick Peel, M.P. ]
Publication details: 
Item One, "Downing Street, 26th January 1847" AND Item 2, "Privy Council Office Whitehall, 6 January 1847
£500.00

[ Circular] Printed in italics, 3pp., folio (paginated in MS 105-107, extracted from a volume of Parliamentary Circulars with the ownership signature "Frederick Peel", Member of Parliament (from Feb. 1849), dated 1839-1851), very good condition. Bound WITH [Printed] B. Kay Shuttleworth, "Brief Practical Suggestions on the Mode of Organizing and Conductiong Day-Schools of INDUSTRY, MODEL FARM SCHOOL, and NORMAL SCHOOLS, as part of a SYSTEM of Education for the COLOURED RACES of the BRITISH COLONIES, 10pp., folio (also paginated in MS. 109-118), very good condition. ITEM ONE.

[Slavery in Wilcox County, Alabama; LIst ] Manuscript 'Account of Sales of the Estate of Wm. Fisher dec[ease]d.' by Green A. Fisher

Author: 
Slavery in Wilcox County, Alabama; Estate of William Fisher (died 1835); Green A. Fisher
Publication details: 
The State of Alabama, Wilcox County. 21 December 1835.
£450.00

4pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Headed with the date of the sale 'December 4th 1835'. At end: 'The State of Alabama | Wilcox County | Came into open Court Green A. Fisher one of the Executors of the last will & testament of William Fisher decd. who being duly sworn deposeth & saith that the forgoing is a correct account of the sales of said decedents Estate so far as the same have come to his hands | Sworn to & Subscribed in Open Court this 21st Decr. 1835'. Received, with illegible signature, on same date.

[ William Roscoe of Liverpool, historian, art collector and abolitionist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('W: Roscoe.'), giving various instructions to an unnamed London bookseller.

Author: 
William Roscoe (1753–1831) of Liverpool, historian, patron of the arts, and leading abolitionist
Publication details: 
Liverpool. 17 September 1808.
£300.00

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper with spike hole. The recipient is unidentified. He asks him to 'forward the few books which Mr. Clark & I laid out when we had the pleasure of calling on you in London, with my Account including Mr. Clarkes, when I will remit you the balance -'. He asks him to send 'to Mr. Lunn's in Oxford St. for a Copy of D<?>'s Lexicon which I bot. there, & paid for, & which you'l [sic] please to include with the rest of your parcels'. The letter ends: 'I have concluded for the present to keep my own Copy of the Edns;,

[ Edward Harbord, Lord Suffield. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Suffield') to John Richardson of Heydon, containing a splendid assessment of the character of his friend the Lord Chancellor, Henry Peter Brougham, and reminiscences of Lord Eldon.

Author: 
Edward Harbord, 3rd Baron Suffield [ Lord Suffield ] (1781-1835), radical politician and abolitionist [ John Richardson of Heydon; Henry Peter Brougham; John Scott, Lord Eldon; Lord Chancellor ]
Publication details: 
Vernon House [ Park Place, St James's, London ]. 22 September 1831.
£250.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on the blank reverse of the second leaf is a frank (also signed 'Suffield'), addressed to 'Jn. Richardson Esqr. | Heydon | Aylsham | Norfolk' An excellent letter, containing a splendid assessment of Brougham's qualities, and a vivid reminiscence regarding his predecessor as Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon. The identity of the book that is the subject of the letter is unclear. Suffield begins by reporting that Brougham has promised Suffield that he will 'attentively consider' Richardson's book.

[ Thomas Gisborne, abolitionist and member of the Clapham Sect. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('T: Gisborne') offering the unnamed recipient his 'trifling interest' in 'the Staffordshire election'.

Author: 
Thomas Gisborne (1758-1846) of Yoxall Lodge, abolitionist, member of the Clapham Sect, Prebendary of Durham Cathedral [ the slave trade ]
Publication details: 
Yoxall Lodge [ ]. 12 July 1823.
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. With mourning border. In fair condition, but with thin strip lacking along one edge, resulting in slight loss of text. A stylish letter. He finds it 'almost ludicrous' that 'a person whose property, such as it is, lies chiefly in another County' should have anything to say 'about the Staffordshire election', but he 'had wished' that the recipient of the letter 'might fill the present vacancy when I had not ever seen your name connected with it'. He would be pleased to be given 'an opportunity of offering' him his 'vote & the singularly trifling interest'.

[ Cuban slave trade, 1856. ] Document in Spanish, signed by both parties: 'D. Domingo Rodriguez' selling 'un negro nombrado Andres' to 'la Sra. Da. Conception de Velasco de la Forre' for 'cuatrocientos pesos'.

Author: 
[ Cuban slave trade, 1856 ]
Publication details: 
'Habana 28 de Octubre de 1856'. [ Havana, Cuba. 28 October 1856.]
£75.00

1p., folio. On aged and worn paper. In top right-hand corner: 'N. 4.' Twelve lines of text, followed by signatures 'Domingo Rodrigz.', 'Conception de Velasco de la Forre' and 'Pose Ma. de la Forre'. Begins: 'D. Domingo Rodriguez vende a la Sra. Da. Conception de Velasco de la Forre, un negro nombrado Andres de oficio calesero y cocinero [ by trade a coachman and cook ], sano y sin tachas [ healthy and without blemishes ]'.

[ Sir John Jeremie, Governor of Sierra Leone. ] Autograph Note in the third person, inviting '- Payne Esqr.' to dinner.

Author: 
Sir John Jeremie (1795-1841), British judge and diplomat, Chief Justice of Saint Lucia and Governor of Sierra Leone, whose writings contributed to the abolition of slavery.
Publication details: 
Government House, Freetown [ Sierra Leone ]. 10 January 1841.
£25.00

1p., 12mo. On a bifolium, part of the second leaf of which has been torn away, but with address by Jeremie to 'Payne Esqr. | Commanding the G

'. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Reads: 'Sir John Jeremie presents his compliments to Mr. Payne & begs he will do him the favor of dining with him on Tuesday at half past six o'clock.'

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