Gurney Miscellanea I

Scope and Content

The volume contains transcripts by an 'E.A.' (who might possibly be Elizabeth Addington) of the following works:

  • William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More, without title and not quite as full as the text printed by Dr Hitchcock (Early English Text Society, original series, vol. 197): Finis 27 Aug. 1631, E.A. (folios 9-49);
  • The order of the Arraignement of Sir Nich: Throgmorton, Knight, in the Guildhall, 17 April 1554: Finis E.A. 16 Septemb: 1631 (folios 53-86);
  • Leycester's Commonwealth, taken from the work published anonymously in 1584: Finis. 31 August 1633. E.A (folios 88-199v);
  • A Lector of Repentance, viz. the Copie of a Letter penned by R[ose] Thu[rgood]... Written in March 1636: Finis. E.A. 3 March 1637 (folios 201-227v);
  • Three to one, being an English Combate performed by Rich. Peeke, gent., of Tavestock, 1625, apparently copied from the rare tract of that name (folios 228-239);
  • Richard Farnam, his Supplication to King Charles, 30 January 1638 (folios 239v-242v) and of another supplication to the same by Farnam and John Bull, 8 March 1638 (folios 243-246v);
  • Fanatical Reveries by Cicely Johnson (folios 247-274).
Folios 274v-292 are blank. William Roper (1495x8-1578) was the biographer of Sir Thomas More; Sir Nicholas Thockmorton (1515/16-1571) was a diplomat and Member of Parliament, charged with treason in 1554 and later acquitted; Richard Pike, or Peeke (fl. 1620-1658), soldier and adventurer, killed three Spaniards in hand-to-hand combat while in captivity in Jerez; Richard Farnham and John Bull were both self-proclaimed prophets who were imprisoned in 1636 and died of the plague in 1642.

Access Information

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the John Rylands Library, through the London booksellers Maggs Bros, at the Gurney sale held at Sotheby's on 31 March 1936 (Lot 159).

Note

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan and Jo Humpleby, project archivists.

Other Finding Aids

Catalogued in the Supplementary Hand-List of Western Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1937 (English MS 875).

Custodial History

Former owners: Rev. Cox Macro ('No. 98'); Gurney family of Norfolk.

Related Material

The John Rylands Library purchased other manuscripts at the Gurney sale of 31 March 1936: see English MS 874, Minute Book and Documents Illustrative of the Dedham (Essex) Classis, 1582-89 (ref.: GB 133 Eng MS 874), and English MS 880, Gurney Miscellanea II (ref.: GB 133 Eng MS 880).