Showing 105 results

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Woodbridge, [Suffolk] to Peter Clare of Manchester, 21 Apr 1826. Thanking him for details of a successful petition: 'Yours indeed is a great triumph, when you consider the opposition, if I may so call it, of the Boroughreeve ... It was much the case at Glasgow, where the hireling [James] Macqueen, the Editor of a Glasgow paper [?Glasgow Herald], and pensioned by two of the West Indian legislatures, and a host of W. India planters owners of West Indiamen and coopers, mechanics working for that employ resided ... There is ... something so good in our cause [the abolition of slavery], that it must always make its way among a moral people.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach of 11 Downing Street, Whitehall, London to Dr Swayne [?Walter Carless Swayne], 18 Mar 1898. 'I cannot say that I have any special knowledge of the matters that are proposed to be dealt with by the London University Bill. But the Bill has been introduced by the Duke of Devonshire, as the head of the Department which is concerned with it, on behalf of the Government I cannot do anything in opposition to my colleague. I will, however, take steps to bring your views under his consideration ...'. Autograph, with signature.

(1) Letter from William Ross of Charing Cross, [London] to David Thomson, Esq, of Edinburgh, 28 Apr 1840. (2) Letter from William Ross of Dibden, [Hampshire] to David Thomson, Esq, of Edinburgh, 27 May 1840.Both letters concern the claim of a brother and sister, Mr and Miss Wilkinshaw, to an estate occupied by a Mr Dow, whose own claim on the estate had not been satisfied. Autograph, with signature.

(1) Letter from Sir James Robert George Graham of the Admiralty to John Spottiswood, 14 May 1834. Concerning the postpoining of the second reading of the Leith Harbour Bill in the House of Commons.

(2) Letter from Sir James Robert George Graham of Whitehall to James Loch, 30 Nov 1842. Urging him to serve on the Poor Law Commission for Scotland.

(3) Letter from Sir James Robert George Graham of the Admiralty to James Loch, 19 Jun 1853. Discussing works on harbours in Alderney, Guernsey, Dover and Portland, and the training of pilots for the Channel Islands.

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Playford Hall [near Ipswich, Suffolk] to Henry Hope, 'at the Bank', Wells, Somerset, 9 Jan 1826. Printed circular letter, asking for support for the petition to Parliament to urge them to carry out a plan for the improvement of the condition of the slave population. An addition in MS asks Hope to promote petitions in Wells, Shepton Mallet, Bruton and neighbouring towns. A note in another hand has been added to the dorse of the second leaf. A newspaper cutting Extracts from the new Jamaica Slave Code accompanies the letter.

Letter from Thomas Clarkson of Bury [St Edmunds, Suffolk] to Rev M Maurice, [1807-1816]. Urging him to restore the committee at Southampton to promote a petition to Parliament in favour of a plan for the improvement of the condition of the slave population.

Letter from Sir Robert Peel to Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8 Jan [1846]. Making an appointment to discuss the Corn Laws.

Autograph, with signature.

Manuscript volume containing notes in the hand of Rogers Ruding, Vicar of Malden, [1817-1818], consisting of extracts from legislation relating to coinage, and used in Ruding's Annals of the coinage of Great Britain (Nichols, Son, and Bentley: London, 1817-19). The extracts are marked 'used' or 'not used'. Includes a list of sources.

Collection of manuscripts relating to bankruptcy, 1850-1851, comprising answers to questionnaires circulated by the Committee for the Improvement of the Law of Debtor and Creditor from business firms in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA. Many of the replies are on printed questionnaires addressed to the Chairman of the Committee, William Hawes, MP.

Volume containing a miscellaneous collection of legal documents relating to Kent and Sussex, 1588-1814, mainly comprising printed bonds completed in manuscript, with a small number of articles of covenant, abstracts of title, letters of attorney and quitclaims. Includes a letters of 1691 to Mrs James Iggelden of Benenden, Kent, and papers relating to her family, 1691-1730.

Manuscript volume containing a law compendium, [1619-1628], compiled for the use of a Justice of the Peace, with notes under headings arranged alphabetically, giving references to Elizabethan and Jacobean statutes. It contains references to alehouses, archery, armour, artificers, assault, sadlers, drovers, bastardy, brewer, burglary, butchers, captains, soldiers, churchwardens, clergy, clerks of the market, cloth and dyers, witchcraft, constables, correction houses, coopers, coroners, counterfeiting, extortion, fairs and markets, forcible entry, forgery, goldsmiths, guns and crossbows, hawking, highways, bridges, horses, the hue and cry, hunting, husbandry, indictments and presentments, informants, enrolements, jurors, juries and inquests, labourers, servants and apprentices, larceny, liveries and retainers, manslaughter and murder, masons, matrimony and bigamy, mortuaries, Parliament, petty treason, plague, plays and games, preachers and ministers, prison and prisoners, bail, rape, recusants, restitution, riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, robbery and theft, sheriffs, transportation, treason, treasurers, trespass, vagabonds, usury, watch and ward, weights and measures, wines, wool and yarn.

The manuscript cites early editions of Ferdinando Pulton A Kalender, or Table, comprehending the effect of all the statutes that have been made and put into print beginning with Magna Charta...(Company of Stationers, London, 1606) and Michael Dalton The countrey justice, conteyning the practice of the Justices of the Peace out of their Sessions. Gathered for the better helpe of such justices...as have not been much conversant in the studie of the lawes of this realme (Company of Stationers, London, 1618).

Counterpart indenture of a marriage settlement, dated 6 Aug 1678, whereby Scarborough Chapman, of Lyncombe and Widcombe in Somerset, in consideration of his intended marriage with Anne Brinsden, widow, of Bristol, and the sum of £400 received from her, conveyed to Humphrey Little, goldsmith, of Bristol, Samuel Price and Arthur Hart, merchants, of Bristol, a messuage in Lyncombe and Widcombe, near the church of chapel there, formerly in the occupation of Robert Fisher the elder and Robert Fisher the younger, both deceased, and now of John Weekes the younger and several others, for the term of the lives of Chapman and his future wife and their heirs male, and then to Little, Price and Hart for the term of 1000 years. Signed and sealed by Humphrey Little, Arthur Hart; the third seal is unsigned.

Bond in £40 by Sir John Dawnay, of Sessay in Yorkshire, to Jane Younge, otherwise Kyneston, widow of York, payable by 16 June next. Signed and sealed [seal wanting] 25 March 1585. With a note of payment in the margin.

Five fragments of Latin mediaeval manuscripts, formerly pastedowns, details as follows:

1. Fragment of a leaf containing part of a legal tract entitled Judicium Essoniorum relating to the procedure at assizes, dating from the 13th century. The text has variants and is in places abbreviated from that printed in G.E. Woodbine Four thirteenth century law tracts (New Haven, 1910). The text corresponds to the pp 119-20 of Woodbine's edition, where the composition of the work is attributed to Ralf de Hengham and the date of the composition put at 1267-1275.
2. and 3. Two consecutive leaves containing extracts from Part II of Gratian's Decretum, comprising Causa XXVI, quest. VII 16, to Causa XXVII, quest. I 19, on penance and the marriage of those who had sworn chastity. There is a glossary in a different hand and ink, with each section preceded by a symbol corresponding to one in the text. The leaves are possibly Italian and 14th century.
3. Leaf, foliated 109, in a late 14th century hand, containing part of Lib. XLII, 8, 1-10, of the Digestum Novum, relating to restitution to deceived creditors. With a glossary and marginal and interlineal annotations in several 13th-14th century hands. The fragment is probably English.
4. Fragment from the head of a bifolium, containing part of a commentary on Aristotle's De Anima Book III, heavily glossed and annotated in several 13th century hands. The fragment is probably English and early 13th century.

Four wills, details as follows:

1. Probate copy of the will of William Batte of Shoreham, Kent, making 'my loving master John Baker' the overseer of his will, 27 Dec [1615]. Lacking letters of probate and seal.
2. Probate copy of the will of Joseph Wright of Maidstone, Kent, 'practitioner of physick', 12 May 1701. Lacking letters of probate and seal.
3. Copy of the will of John Streatfield of Maidstone, Kent, 12 Apr 1766, with a note of probate on 4 Nov 1768, 'Extracted from the registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. The will mentions bequests to the Charity School of Maidstone and monies to be distributed to the poor of the parished of Maidstone, Hever, Mayfield (Sussex), Tonbridge and Penshurst.
4. Copy of the will dated 11 Oct 1777, with a codicil of 28 Mar 1781, of Robert Streatfield of Burwack [Burwash], Sussex, with a note of probate on 19 Mar 1782. The will was extracted from the registry of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

Lease, 7 Aug 1776, made by Samuel Adams, builder, to Thomas Williams, carpenter, both of the parish of St Marylebone, of property (plan included in document) on Duke Street, St Marylebone, for 96¾ years at a rent of £8 payable after the first two years, with covenants against certain trades being practiced on the premises. Includes details of leases of property between Duke Street, Bentinck Square, and Berkeley Square (giving measurements) to Adams by the trustees of Peter William Baker, son of William Baker, deceased. The trustees named were Henry W. Portman, baker, of Bryanston, Dorset; John Littlehales, of Greek Street, in the parish of St Ann, Westminster; James Clitherow, of Boston House, Hanwell; Rev. William Sellon, of the parish of St James, Clerkenwell; and James Dunne, of the parish of St Marylebone. Signed and sealed by Samuel Adams.

Copy of the will of Robert Thomas de Veil, 22 May 1747, addressed to Catherine, wife of Philip De La Port. Includes applied seal.

Letter from Sir Philip Magnus of Tangley Hill, Chilworth, Surrey to Sir William [Job] Collins, 22 Jun 1926. Expressing his opinion that the Bill for the reform of the Senate of London University should be dealyed, and that a depuation on the matter should be received by the government.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from William Cobbett of Botley, Hampshire to Mr Akerman of 183 Fleet Street, London, 15 Mar 1830. 'I beg you to pay particular attention to every part of this letter. It is a matter of the greatest importance.' Detailed instructions follow for the preparation of the petition against [Sir Robert] Wilmot-Horton's Emigration project, which appeared in the Register on Saturday 20 Mar 1830.

Autograph, with signature.

A contract to publish music from the opera Macbeth, 1847.

Certificate of burial in wool, 1738, for Mary Wilbey of the parish of St Benedict, Cambridge.

Letter from James Stephen, Master in Chancery's Office, London to James Cropper Esq of Liverpool, 7 Nov 1825. 'I have just recd. a letter from our friend [?Zachary] Macaulay informing me of an intended publication of the Liverpool anti-slavery society of which he supposes a copy has been also sent to me. I have not received it, but from what he says of its contents, am afraid of losing a post in saying to you that I earnestly request its publication may be at least suspended, till we can submit to the consideration of your Society the remarks we have to make on it ...' [no such tract was published by the Liverpool Society of the Abolition of Slavery around this time, perhaps due to Stephen's letter]. Discussing current aspects of the problem of emancipation and concludes that direct legislation by parliament is 'the only means by which anything good for the slaves can or will ever be effected. My hopes I lament to say of any early adoption of such means are very faint indeed, but it is nevertheless our duty to call for them ...'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Burn of Orton, [Westmorland] to Thomas Cadell [the elder] Esq, 'bookseller, Strand, London', 26 Mar 1792. 'I have by the coach this day sent you Barry's Justice [i.e. E Barry Present practice of a justice of the peace (1790)] & in the margin have marked the vs & pages in our Justice [i.e. R Burn The justice of the peace and parish officer (1755 and many susbequent editions)] from which he has copied. I may safely say there is not one hundred pages, put the whole together of his 4 volumes, which is not copied from my father...'.

Autograph, with signature. Franked: 'Appleby'[-in-Westmorland].

Letter from Richard Cobden to Mrs Drummond, 16 Shamrock Place, Edinburgh, 12 May 1845. Thanking her for a present to his young daughter. Referring to [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, who 'is now I fear a little under the shade, in consequence of his Maynooth vote, with some of his constitutents', and to the bazaar given by the National Anti-Corn Law League at Covent Garden.

Autograph, with signature. With the original envelope (with a decorative border in the form of wheat ears), bearing the seal of the National Anti-Corn Law League.

Letter from P K Seaman of HMS Wolverine, docked at St Helena, to his father, 1 Jun 1851. '... I have already told you that we have caught 3 slavers ...'.

Autograph, with signature. 4 sketches of vessels captured by the Wolverine are pasted to the second leaf of the letter.

Letter from Mordaunt Martin of 'Burnham' to Dr [John Coakley] Lettsom, Sambrook House, London, 8 Mar 1801. Stating that he has despatched to Lettsom a parcel of mangelwurzel seeds. Explaining that he was prevented from answering Lettsom's letter of 3 Jan by an attack of gallstones, since relieved by pills of soap and rhubarb. Discussing the 'Brown Bread Act' [probably 41 Geo.3.c.16] to which, he says, Lettsom was in some degree accessory; quoting Lettsom and Horne Tooke on the Act; Martin prefers brown bread for his breakfast, using his own wheat 'sifted in the coarsest hair sieve', but deprecates the 'indiscriminate use of it'. Attacking at length the Potato Premium Bill, which had just been rejected, according to 'the paper of this night'; claiming that such a bill would force by premiums an unnatural produce on land which the occupiers could use for more profitable crops. Adding that his and Lettsom's 'hearts will beat in unison' on reading pages 109-110 of the 2nd edition of [Robert] Fellowes's Christian Philosophy [1799].

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from George Balfour of the House of Commons (embossed heading) to C G Williams, Leigh House, Lower Heath, Hampstead, London, 16 Nov 1934. Replying to a query about Public Acts [of Parliament] passed since the National Government came in [in 1931]: 'There are some 170 Acts ... But in over fifty Acts where some distinct question of political principle enters I can find some half-dozen Conservative Acts, three times as many Socialist Acts, while the remainder are a mixture of the two with Socialism predominant ... As I have frequently said ... it is time for Conservatives to consider in what direction we are going.'

Signed by Balfour. Marked: 'Personal and Confidential' in MS.

Letter from Henry Blain to Joseph T Pooley of 5 Church Court, [c1842]. Discussing the corn laws (with reference to Blain's pamphlet on the subject) and proposed duties [taxes]. Autograph, with signature ('H.B.'). Dated 'Sunday night'.

Letter from Richard Griffiths Welford of 6 Chancery Lane, [London] to [William Pleydell-Bouverie,] Earl of Radnor, 20 Mar 1843. Explaining that he has 'ventured to direct' his publisher to forward a copy of his 'tract upon the agricultural view of the corn law question' to Lord Radnor; giving his reasons for doing so.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Henry Warburton to Francis Place, 27 Apr 1821. Discussing the bill on usury laws and asks Place to find 'small tradesmen' who support the bill to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee which the government has undertaken to consider their reform.

Letter from Samuel Heathcote to an unknown recipeint, 19 Oct 1697. 'Sr I have considered those objections you thought would be made against Establishing by Act of Parliamt. Such Companys of Merchants as I propos'd And have set them Downe here below in their full strength as neare as I could remember, with my Answeres to each'. Heathcote refers to a long previous letter giving his proposals in full.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Richard Oastler of Fixby Hall, Huddersfield, [West Riding of Yorkshire] to John Foster, Esq of 1 Vincent Square, Westminster, 23 Jun 1833. Chiefly relating to the Ten Hours Bill. Lord Althorp had advocated 2 sets of 8 hours as the maximum for children under 14 to work. 'The news came just in time for your Hudd meeting - one hour before we began - & thus before 15,000 to 20,000 people I had the opportunity of blowing the whole scheme to rags' [referring to a speech Oastler made at a meeting on 18 Jun 1833. Urging the London section not to yield a single point: 'If they yield they disgrace themselves and give us another year's excitement and in my opinion hurry on a bloody revolution'.

Autograph, with signature. With Oastler's black seal, bearing the motto: 'The Altar, the Throne and the Cottage'.

Collection of transcripts, [1560]-1624, mainly relating to Privy Council matters, notably a petition presented to King James I by Sir Robert Heath, Solicitor General, 1624; a survey of the Forests and Chaces [Chases] of Bringwood, Mocktree and Darvell, with the Manor of Buriton, 1604; a letter from King James I to the Peers of England and the Privy Council concerning the composition of the Privy Council and the replacement of the ailing Lord Chamberlain by Thomas Howard, Lord Howard of Walden, 1603; copies of documents relating to the French conquest of Guiana, South America, including commissions granted by King Henry IV of France to Renée Marie, Lord Mountbarrot, and Daniel de la Touche, Lord of Raverdiere, for the conquest of Guiana, 1605 and 1609, the appointment of Robert Le Brette, Lord Dubosc, as Raverdiere's lieutenant in Guiana and other parts of America, including Brazil, 1609; the commission of Sir John Digby, Vice-Chamberlain, to negotiate a marriage between Prince Charles of England and the Infanta Maria, daughter of King Philip III of Spain, 1615; a letter written by Captain Charles Parker, one of Sir Walter Raleigh's company at Guiana, to Captain Alley, 1607; a declaration of proceedings in the Star Chamber against John Wrenham, who charged the Lord Chancellor of injustice against the King, 1618; a discourse of marriage written by Charles Blount, Earl of Devonshire, in defence of his wedding to Penelope, Lady Rich, [1605]; a discourse written by Dr Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Ely, against second marriage following a divorce, 1601; a discourse made by merchant adventurers on the occasion of a bill preferred to the High Court of Parliament, requiring free trade to all kingdoms and countries, [1610]; a consideration of the office and duty of a herald in England by John Dodridge, the Solicitor General, 1605; proceedings in the Star Chamber against Mary Countess of Shrewsbury for her refusal to give evidence against Arabella Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, 1618; an Act of Council upon the proceedings against James Whitlocke and Sir Robert Mansell for speaking against the King's Commission for reform of the Navy and also against the King's power and prerogative, 1609; speeches, and a memorandum on the union of England and Scotland, by Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, 1617; a copy of 'The present state of things as theye nowe stand, betweene the three greate kingdomes, France, England and Spayne, [1623], and 'A breviarie of the historie of England from William I, intitled the Conqueror, both written by Sir Walter Raileighe, Knight'; a speech by John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln and Keeper of the Great Seal of England, on the occasion of the collecting of the subsidy, Aug 1621; two versions of instructions by William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Lord Treasurer to his son, Robert Cecil, 1561 and [1598]; letters from Sir Henry Sidney to his brother and to his son, Phillip, [1560]; a treatise entitled 'Toucheinge the Antiquities of Baronies delivered in the College of Antiquaries', [1600].

Manuscript volume containing a report by Sir Edwin Sandys on behalf of the parliamentary committee on free trade, entitled 'Instructions touching the Bill for Free Trade'. The report was read to the House of Commons by Sandys on 21 May 1604. Catalogued by Reginald Rye, Goldsmith's Librarian of the University of London, as the original manuscript. The manuscript contains material which was not printed in the Journals of the House of Commons.

Contains the following legal items: ff 1-14. 'Ordinances made by the Lord Chancellor for the better and moore reguler administratyon of iustice in the Chancery to bee duly observed saving the prerogatives to the Court. Tempore Bacon cancellarii', 1619; ff 14b-16: 'Addiconall Rules for the better governinge of the Court of Chancery and the Greate Seale published in open Court 31 October', 1620; f 33: An ordinance of 26 June 18 James I [1620], concerning the incompetence of certain Commissioners; ff 34-38: William [Dr John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln] Lord Keeper's speech in Chancery the 1st daie of Michaelmas terme [6 Oct] 1621; ff 39-47: 'Ordinances made by the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Coventry lord keeper of the greate seale of England with the advice and assistance of the Right Honourable Sir Julius Ceser knight Master of the Rolls in the terme of St. Michaell ' ... in the xith yeare of the Raigne of ... kinge Charles [1635] for the Redresse of sundry Errors defaults and abuses in the high Court of Chancery'; ff 57-60: Baron Bromley his Charge att Wenlocke 9 September 1615.

A roll with printed oaths of allegiance and supremacy with signatures and addresses of the Land Tax Commissioners of the City of London for 1779.

Draft of a bill 'for the more effectual prevention of the use of false and deficient measures', 1815, with proposals including Justices of the Peace to appoint persons to examine the measures within their districts; a penalty of 5-20s on conviction; proper measures according to the standard made by the Exchequer to be purchased out of the general rate and deposited with the clerks of the peace; some form of conviction to be given. The draft is endorsed '9 March 1815. Copy to Mr [Samuel] Whitbread [M.P. for Bedford] per post'.

Transcript of the laws relating to French colonial banks, entitled 'Loi sur les banques coloniales des 25 Avril, 26 Juin et 11 Juillet 1851'.

Counterpart of a lease, 6 Dec 1716/17 made by William Thomas, citizen and clothworker, of the Parish of St Anne, to Thomas, Lord Howard of Effingham, of a messuage 'with all the furniture, goods and untensills' , on the west side of Greek Street, Soho, now in the occupation of Howard, for 7 years at a rent of £110 a year. Inventory included.

Two counterparts of leases, 25 May 1691, made by Elizabeth Fortrey, widow of the parish of St Andrew, Holborn, to Leonard Cunditt, innholder of the parish of St Paul, Covent Garden, of a piece of ground in Hog Lane (later renamed Charing Cross Road) in the parish of St Giles in the Fields, the first for 'the second ground plott or new house built or intended to be built', and the second for 'the fourth house'. Both leases were for 99 years at a rent of £3 a year. Plan annexed. Signed and sealed by Leonard Cunditt.

Manuscript volume containing an historical treatise on the office of Admiral and the jurisdiction of the Admiralty entitled 'Mare Clausam', [1700], and an abridgement in English of fifteen chapters of Mare Clausam (1635) by John Selden, [1635]; details of proceedings of the Court of King's Bench in the case of William Shaw versus Catherine Weigh, 1728; a transcript of the judgements of Sir George Treby, Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and Sir John Holt, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in the case of Joseph Hardy (the 'Bankers Case'), 1696.

Indenture of bargain and sale of 17 Jun 1602 by Henry Newdegate of Hampton, Middlesex, to George Cole of Petersham, Surrey, of the manor of Ashstead, otherwise called Little Ashstead or the Pryor's Farm, Surrey. Consideration £500. Signed by Henry Newdegate; seal wanting.

Tripartite indenture made 13 June 1679 between Thomas Jameson, vicar of the parish church of St John, Hackney, the Wardens and Commonalty of the Goldsmiths' Company of London, and Josiah Williams, blacksmith, and Josiah Ebrell, merchant, churchwardens of the said parish, whereby Jameson entrusted the Company and the churchwardens with £100, the interest of which at 5% was to finance two annual sermons (on Good Friday and Ascension Thursday) to be delivered in St John's by its vicar, and alms for the poor.

One folio of a Latin treatise on canon law, containing part of sections headed 'De prebendis et dignitatibus' and 'De monachis'. The form is that of a 'Summa Summarum' with reference to the gloss rather than to substantive law, and with discussion of the views of particular glossators and doctores. Marginal subject headings and running titles have been added by the scribe responsible for the text. The manuscript was probably written in Italy during the 14th century.
The fragment was formerly used as fly-leaves in a binding of a printed edition of the statutes of 1589, Anno XXXI Reginae Elizabethae, At a session of Parliament holden...the fourth day of Februarie...untill...the XXIX of March...were enacted as followeth (London, 1589).

Papers of the Gordon family of Letterfourie, Banffshire, Scotland, relating to their merchant interests and financial matters, 1735-[1800], comprising, including a bond in £250 of 1735 discharged in 1751 by James Gordon and his son Patrick to John Gordon; two letters from Strauss & Schmidt, Lisbon, to James Gordon, 1763; an invoice and bill of lading, dated Oct 1770, for goods shipped on the Hambro Packet from Hamburg by order of Alexander Gordon & Co., Madeira; a letter from C. Grant, Edinburgh, to James Gordon, 7 Dec 1785; two receipts of 1799 for money paid by a Mrs. Gordon; and a letter from James and Alexander Gordon at school to their parents in Letterfourie, [1800].
The collection also contains material not apparently relating to the Gordon family: accounts of John Scott, vintner in Portsoy, 'for Letterfouries servants and horses when sundry times in Banff', 22 Dec 1798-3 Jun 1799; a 'Certificate of the term of payment of Lady Fraiser [of Durris]'s annuities, 19 Nov 1776, signed by the town clerk of Aberdeen; and a receipt of 1780 for payment for goods bought from E. Fielder, stationer, London, by a Mr. Ruddick. The connection between the Gordon items and the last two items is unknown.

Contract, dated 28 Dec 1670, containing an undertaking by John Brown to repair the stables he rented from Thomas Panton, and to stop up the water course from the horse pond in Round Mill Yard. Signed and sealed by John Brown.

Draft of an assignment of a patent for an unnamed invention, originally procured by B.E. Clark in 1878 as agent for Almet Reed of New York. Almet Reed assigned the patent to John van Dussen Reed of New York. Signed by B.E. Clark.

Letter from Richard Doddridge Blackmore to B C Pugh, Esq, 11 Jan 1892. 'I cannot pretend to say what will be the effect of the new Copyright Act and I have thought very little about it'. Autograph with signature.

Letter from Sir Joseph Banks of Soho Square, London to Lord [?Sheffield], 10 Feb 1815. In favour of a Corn Law. 'We ought, however, to consider that by purchasing foreign Corn, we ... hazard the horrors of Famine by becoming dependant [sic] on our natural enemies for our food ...'. The first paragraph appears to be in Banks's own hand and the remainder in that of an amanuensis or copyist.

Letter from John Chapman of 1 Albion Street, Hyde Park, [London] to George Grote, 17 Nov 1858. Regarding the copyright of the Westminster Review.

Autograph, with signature.