Album Amicorum of Richard Burdekin of York

Album Amicorum compiled by Richard Burdekin, bookseller and Wesleyan Methodist of York, and his family, spanning sixty years and containing some 200 autograph entries from eminent Wesleyan ministers, missionaries and authors, many collected on the occasion of district meetings and conferences, together with engravings and printed ephemera.

Those represented in the album include:

• Jabez Bunting, Wesleyan Methodist minister: verses, 1828 (p. 36); and his son William, Wesleyan Methodist minister, verses, 1830 (p. 79);
• Elihu Burritt, peace campaigner and American consul: 'God is love: love to our human brethren is the earthward reflection of the heart filled with the light and life of the love of God...' (p. 204 and facing);
• Adam Clarke, Wesleyan Methodist minister and scholar: autograph note and engraved portrait (p. 447 and facing);
• Titus Close, Wesleyan-Methodist minister and missionary: religious quotes, 1828 (p. 26);
• Samuel Dunn, Free Church Methodist minister and religious journalist: prose piece, 1835 (p. 118);
• James Everett, Wesleyan Methodist minister and religious writer: verses, 1828 (p. 29);
• Robert Goodacre, schoolmaster and lecturer: prose piece, 1833 (p. 102);
• George Hudson, 'the Railway King', railway promoter and fraudster: brief letter, 1847 (p. 249);
• Daniel Isaac, Wesleyan Methodist minister: quotation and engraved portrait, 1826 (p. 12 and facing);
• Theophilus Lessey, Wesleyan Methodist minister: prose piece, 1827 (p. 20);
• George Marsden, Wesleyan Methodist minister: prayer, 1829 (p. 56);
• William Martin, eccentric and self-proclaimed philosopher: several poems and a ticket to one of his lectures in 1850 illustrated with a pen and ink sketch of a lion (pp. 77-78);
• William Naylor, Wesleyan Methodist minister: prayer and engraved portrait, 1828 (p. 30 and facing);
• Gideon Ouseley, Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher: verses, 1828, letter, 1830 (pp. 30, 183);
• Henry Perlee Parker, portrait and genre painter: declaration that he has appointed Burdekin as agent for subscriptions for his painting of Wesley rescued from the fire at his father's house at Epworth, 1839, with a later photographic print of the portrait (p. 152);
• William Scoresby junior, Arctic scientist and Church of England clergyman: verses, 'Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not', 1827, and engraved portrait (pp. 17-18);
• Robert Southey, poet and reviewer: autograph address panel and signature, 1834 (pp. 35, 118);
• Robert Spence, bookseller and Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher: biographical letter and portrait engraving (facing p. 28);
• David Stoner, Wesleyan Methodist minister: verses and engraved portrait, 1826 (p. 5);
• John Wesley, Church of England clergyman and a founder of Methodism: printed Methodist ticket endorsed 'Nov 1755/ Ann Lepitre' depicting an angel carrying the text 'Now is the Accepted Time' (p. 35), engraved portrait (p. [xi]).

There are several contributors from overseas such as Kahkewaquonaby (Peter Jones), missionary and Ojibwe chief of Upper Canada: engraved portrait and verse 'While I was lost in the woods, Jesus found me...' (pp. 85-86); William Fisk of Connecticut, verses, 1836 (p. 126); Edward Fraser, freed slave and missionary from the West Indies, verse, 1837 (p. 130); and Alexander Dherma Rama, former Buddhist priest and Christian convert: engraved prayer and engraved portrait, 1820-21 (between pp. 87-88).

Other items include: a printed broadsheet, 'A Negro Woman's Lamentation', sold by Joseph Phillips with manuscript verses entitled 'Negro Slavery' pleading 'the injured Negro's cause', written on the reverse by Phillips 'late of Antigua' (facing p. 88); two manuscript lists of subscribers and subscriptions received by the York Methodist Society as at 3 October 1775, raising money to build side galleries in the Peaseholme Green Chapel (the first Wesleyan Chapel in York where Wesley himself preached in 1759) and a list of works undertaken (pp. 54-55); various printed ephemera of religious and local interest ('An Evangelical Dialogue', 'An Address from the first "High" Sherriff of York to his "Low" Sherriff' (p. 248), minutes of meetings, uplifting texts, tickets etc.); and newspaper cuttings.

In addition to worthies of the church, Burdekin seems to have been particularly interested in Jonathan Martin, a former lapsed Wesleyan preacher and arsonist, who set the fire that destroyed large parts of York Minster on 1 February 1829 (pp. 41-46). Burdekin appears to have visited him in the York City Gaol, while he awaited trial, as the album contains three pages of religious ramblings written directly into the book and dated 15 March 1829, shortly before his transfer to Bethlem Hospital where he died in 1838; '...may the Lord grant that these fue simpler remarks may have a Blessing to all that need them the Lord will not despise the Day of small things your sincere Friend and Brother in the Lord.' Martin was also known prior to his arson attack for attaching strongly-worded notices denouncing the clergy on various ecclesiastical buildings and one of these, written at Lincoln in October 1827 is included in the collection: 'O clergyman', he writes, 'I right to warn you to repent... Father's right Hand luks down upon you with Dridful Gillisey and he like a clap of Thunder and as quick as lighting... and you go down & live into the Dridful pit of Hell to be turmenteed with the firey Tigers and Lions of Hell...'

Pages 255-328 and 335-372 are blank, other than a handful of loose inserts. There is an index of autographs, portraits and engraving, compiled in 1864, on pp. 329-334.

On p. 420 and the 16 subsequent pages is a copy of the account-book or journal for the Methodist society at Osmotherley, North Yorkshire, 1750-1774. It is headed 'Copies from a Book at Osmotherley in the possession of I. Meek by Christian Richardson'. Disbursements include 5s 2d laid out for Mr Wesley, wife and daughter, 27-28 April 1752; 5s 6d laid out for George Whitefield who preached there, 24 August 1753; 5s laid out for John Wesley, wife and daughter, 2 June 1755; 2s 6d laid out for John Wesley and two others, 7 July 1757. The financial accounts end in March 1759 and thereafter there is a list of those who preached at Osmotherley, often with the Bible passages from which they preached, and occasional comments, e.g. John Wesley, 17 June 1768, 'excellent'; 'The Rev'd and pious John Wesley preached here at 11 o'clock in the forenoon from Isaiah 66.8-9, Ex[cellent]', 18 June 1772.

Richard Burdekin (1781-1860) was a highly respected printer, publisher, bookseller and stationer in the city of York. He was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1781, and was apprenticed to a bookseller in Nottingham. At the end of his apprenticeship in 1802 he went to London and worked for a Piccadilly bookseller and at the King’s Printing Office. He then took up a position as a travelling salesman for the booksellers and publishers Wilson, Spence & Mawman of York, and was renowned for riding his favourite horse 30,000 miles in search of orders.

After nine years with Wilsons, in 1813 Burdekin entered into partnership with the bookseller and fellow Wesleyan Robert Spence. Spence and Burdekin traded as booksellers, stationers and medicine vendors, until infirmity obliged Spence to retire and the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on 1 August 1820 (London Gazette, no. 17635, 19 September 1820). Thereafter Burdekin carried on the business alone. He opened two printing workshops, one in High Ousegate in 1822, and a second in Parliament Street in 1834. The former burned down on Christmas Day 1855, but he continued to trade in Parliament Street until his death on 19 March 1860 at the age of 78. The business was continued by his eldest son, Charles Lever Burdekin (1817-88).

According to the Lancashire Online Parish Clerks website, a Richard Burdekin of York, stationer, married Sarah Adamson, aged 21, of the parish of St Mary the Virgin, Eccles, Lancashire, on 4 October 1814. Richard Burdekin’s age is also recorded as 21, but this appears to be a transcription error, as Burdekin was aged 32 or 33 at this date. The marriage is also recorded in The Monthly Magazine, vol. 2, no. 10 (1 November 1814), p. 376, which notes that Sarah Adamson was the widow of a surgeon from Hull.

In the words of his obituary in The Bookseller, 'Mr Burdekin joined the Wesleyan-Methodist Society early in life, and became a zealous local preacher and class-leader in that body. His thorough business habits and integrity secured him a large circle of friends; he was a generous supporter of the numerous charitable institutions in the city of York. As he lived, so he died, a happy Christian, at a good old age.'

Sources:

Anon., 'Obituary', The Bookseller: A Handbook of British and Foreign Literature, no. 28 (26 April 1860), 216.

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks website, https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Salford/Eccles/stmary/marriages_1813-1814.html (accessed 26 June 2020).

William K. and E. Margaret Sessions, Printing in York from the 1490s to the Present Day (York: William Session, 1976).

Available for consultation by any accredited reader.

The manuscript was purchased at auction at Bonhams Knightsbridge on 11 March 2020, lot 50, via Bernard Quaritch Ltd.

Photocopies and photographic copies of material in the manuscript can be supplied for private research and study purposes only, depending on the condition of the manuscript.

Prior written permission must be obtained from the Library for publication or reproduction of any material within the manuscript. Please contact the Head of Special Collections, The John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH.

The album originally belonged to Richard Burdekin. It was added to by family members after his death in 1860 and it remained in the family's ownership until its sale by auction in 2020.

Anon., 'Obituary', The Bookseller: A Handbook of British and Foreign Literature, no. 28 (26 April 1860), 216.

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks website, https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Salford/Eccles/stmary/marriages_1813-1814.html (accessed 26 June 2020).

William K. and E. Margaret Sessions, Printing in York from the 1490s to the Present Day (York: William Session, 1976).