25th Jan, 2023 10:30 GMT/BST
The David Stather Library
175
Stafford Gaol
A Callender of Prissoners in Ye Goale of Staffd wh have binn & are to bee tryd for there Lives att this Assizes held att Staffd ye 17th of July 1684. List of the sixteen cases to be held that day, including 'Wm Sheebens & Jn Crowder charged with robbinge 3 men on ye high way and takeing from them 70 and one pounds', 'Anthony Lynney chargd for stealing severall bookes' etc.
Manuscript on single side of paper, sheet size 399mm x 157mm, title and date verso, multiple folds.
[Before the opening of the Court session, the gaoler drew up a calendar of prisoners and this listing was copied into the Crown Book. Notes were then added recording the fate of the prisoners.]
Sold for £320
Estimated at £80 - £120
Auction: The David Stather Library, 25th Jan, 2023
A single-owner sale of the Library of David Stather (1940-2022)
The library comprises a large collection of early books, pamphlets and manuscripts on English history, focusing on the English Civil War, the ‘Popish Plot’, the Monmouth Rebellion and the Glorious Revolution, early Parliament and the Monarchy of that period, the development of English law, the Reformation, early bibles and prayer books, chronicles of English history and some very early books on witchcraft.
The earliest manuscript dates from 1285, and the earliest book is an incunable from 1486, however the majority date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Interestingly, many are books that contribute to English history rather than just reporting on it, for example the collection includes books reporting the Popish Plot, which were written specifically to create social division through what is now known as ‘fake news’.
The books have been lovingly preserved by David Stather and the auction provides a rare opportunity to purchase books from a very focused collection built up over his lifetime.
Please submit any enquiries for the sale to books@tennants-ltd.co.uk
Viewing
Tuesday 24th January 10am-5pm and the morning of the sale from 8am
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