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The original joint manuscript travel diary, from 1835 to1840, of Mr. and Mrs. Hermann and Adelheid Garlichs, who settled in America and became founders of the Evangelical congregations. 8vo. 50 pages in manuscript. In addition, inversely there are 18 pages in manuscript by the same two writers, the first entry with a date as early as 1796 and possibly made by Adelheid's mother. The center of the volume contains 6 pages of recipes written by a family member in 1873, the year of Adelheid's death. All text is in German. Black paper boards, with floral cameo surrounding Adelheid's initials A.v.B. and the year 1835 tooled in gilt to front. With the stamp of the Steinlacke von Borries family library to front pastedown. Volume measures approximately 20 x 17,5 x 1 cm. Some wear to boards, otherwise in very good condition, an important primary source account of emigration to Missouri. Hermann Garlichs (1807-1865) was a German theologian and pastor, first arriving in America in 1833. He founded the first Protestant congregations west of the Mississippi and was the first president of the "German Evangelical Church Association of the West" in the USA. He was married to Adelheid von Borries. The couple's life became the subject of emigration research. In Anglo-Saxon literature, his name is sometimes seen as to Herman Garlichs, or Garlich. He grew up in Bremen in a wealthy Protestant family home, his father being a merchant. After completing his doctorate in philosophy, he was employed as an educator on the Steinlake estate of the district administrator C. L. Philip of Borries, and fell in love the administrator's daughter of the house, Adelheid von Borries (1815-1873). In 1833, when Garlichs was invited to go to America, miss Borries was only 16. As such, he emigrated there without her, but with Meller and Westerkappelner emigrants. Garlichs was inspired by Gottfried Duden's well-known descriptions of the good conditions in Missouri at that time. Duden was a Prussian lawyer who visited St. Louis, Missouri, in 1824 in search of land tracts for German settlements. Both Duden and his traveling companion, Ludwig Eversmann, purchased farms about fifty miles west of St. Louis. Duden spent nearly three years in the United States, reading, exploring the country, and writing letters while the Americans that he hired cleared his land and ran his farm. Duden returned to Germany in 1827. The result of this experiment was Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America [Bericht u¨ber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika's], which was published in Germany in 1829 to convince Germans to immigrate to Missouri. Duden described the advantages of moving to Missouri, and further provided advice on how to successfully create a new life in the United States. Duden's book was one of a large number of German books about America, but his was one of the most widely read. Germans faced many problems at home, including corrupt rulers, high taxes, and a lack of available land, thus Duden's account of the spacious expanse of Missouri plains sound very enticing to his fellow countrymen. Together with a few other missionaries who would become notable in the history in America, he made the voyage and settled in Missouri. Garlichs founded the first Protestant congregations west of the Mississippi in 1833 before he was ordained, i.e. as a lay preacher, in the small towns of Femme Osage and St. Charles. Originally known as the Deutsche Evangelische Kirchegemeinde, it was the first Evangelical congregation west of the Mississippi River. It still stands today, and has two church cemeteries, the first dating back to the 1830's and located next to the present-day school. Femme Osage was the mother-church for six other congregations: Friedens (St. Charles, 1834), Harmonie (Warrenton, 1842), St. Peter (Washington, 1844), Immanuel (Holstein, 1839), St. John (Cappeln, 1857), and Bethany (Schluersburg, 1844). In 1835 Hermann Garlich returned to Westphalia, married Adelheid von Borries, and was ordained a priest in Bielefeld. He subsequently went back to Femme Osage with his new wife. Unlike most immigrants to Missouri at the time, in 1835 the Garlichs travelled to America as privileged passengers. Apart from the expected rough seas now and again, and Adelheid missing her family, the voyage was a pleasant one. The newlywed couple had a first class room, and dined with the captain. The ship carried only 119 passengers. They reported that the ship was supplied with 100 chickens, 2 pigs, 2 geese, pigeons and ducks for fresh meat. Adelheid studied English and discussed theology with her husband. Hermann entertained the other passengers by playing the violin. Their joint diary records a theatrical performance by the steerage passengers. Initially, the couple, like the other settlers, lived in very simple conditions in a wooden hut five miles from the town. The more elaborate Garlichs house, at Femme Osage, St. Charles County, MO, is now listed as a Historic American Building. Hermann Garlichs is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Kings County, Brooklyn, New York. He died at the young age of 58. The famed but elusive original volume - this is the joint diary of Hermann Garlichs and his wife Adelheid, made in their original hands, describing the voyage overseas, their arrival in America, settling in the unmissionized wilds of Missouri in hopes of a better life, and glimpses of daily life as it was for their first five years as founding evangelists in this vast land of opportunity and hope.
.....Compiled from Papers and other Materials of the Right Honourable George Lord Anson, and Published under his Direction, by Richard Walter, M.A. Chaplain of His Majesty's Ship the Centurion. SUBSCRIBERS COPY OWNED BY SUBSCRIBER LISTED IN BOOK AND WITH ADDITIONAL MANUSCRIPT LEAF SIGNED BY ANSON. First Edition. Quarto, measuring approximately 260mm x 210mm. 34, 420 pages, with 42 engraved folding plates and maps. Bound in a contemporary full calf binding. Bound without the directions to binder leaf, otherwise a stunning and very clean copy of this book. WITH THE SIGNATURE OF HENRY PENNYMAN ON THE TOP OF THE TITLE PAGE WHO IS LISTED IN THE LIST OF SUBCRIBERS AND THE BOOKPLATE OF JAMES PENNYMAN. IN ADDITION THERE IS A MANUSCRIPT LEAF - A RECEIPT FOR LOAN IN SALT - SIGNED IN THE ORIGINAL BY ANSON IN MAY 1752. This is the official account of Anson's voyage. England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America, for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. The Spanish fleet sent out to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Anson continued taking prizes during 1741-42, off the Pacific coast, and in June, 1743, captured the Manila galleon containing a vast treasure in Gold and Silver. Cox I, p. 49. Hill 1817. National Maritime Museum I, 109. Sabin 1625. Manuscript
Manuscript record of the unexpected arrival of the British HMS Mariner led by Commander Charles Mitchell Mathison in Japan, in 1849, with interest in making surveys around Edo (Tokyo), four years prior to Commodore Perry's arrival, and during Japan's period of isolation (Sakoku) during which most foreigners were prohibited entry in to the country and locals prohibited exit; containing also a description of Japanese castaway Otokichi who was on the British vessel, disguised as a Chinese to evade capital punishment, who later assisted Admiral James Stirling in establishing the 1854 Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty. Text is in Japanese. 8vo. 44 pages in manuscript, plus title page, on 23 unpaginated double leaves. Traditional karitoji binding ("semi-bound" meaning title page and contents without a book cover) string-stitched at spine, fukurotoji style ("bound-pocket" with folded leafs bound into spine), and opening from left to right. Complete in a single volume, measuring approximately 24 x 17 cm. A scant few ink marks to rear leaf margin, indication of some burrowing, unobtrusive to legibility, otherwise in very good condition, beautifully preserved, clean and bright, an exceedingly scarce work. Certainly an assertive manoeuvre, for the British to show up unannounced in the harbour of Edo, Japan was in the state of Sakoku ("locked country"), the isolationist foreign policy of the Tokugawa shogunate under which relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and nearly all foreign nationals were barred from entering Japan, while common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. The long-standing policy had been in place for over two centuries, since 1603, and would last a few more years after the departure of HMS Mariner. It was Commodore Perry in 1853, and his equally brazen arrival with his American Black Ships, that would force the opening of Japan to American trade through a series of treaties called the Convention of Kanagawa, ultimately ending the island's declaration of Sakoku, and facilitating other trade relations with Western nations. On 14 October, 1854, the first limited Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty was signed by Admiral Sir James Stirling and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu). Yamamoto Otokichi (1818-1867), who was onboard HMS Mariner disguised as a Chinese interpreter during the ship's attempted entry in Japan, later played an instrumental role in establishing this treaty, providing Stirling with intel on language and culture during the negotiations. On 26 August 1858, the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed by the Scotsman Lord Elgin and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate for Japan, after the Harris Treaty was concluded. Britain obtained extraterritorial rights on Japanese with the British Supreme Court for China and Japan, in Shanghai. A British iron paddle schooner named Enpiroru was presented to the Tokugawa administration by Bruce as a present for the Emperor from Queen Victoria. A scarce compilation of records from the Japanese perspective on a pre-Perry interaction between Bakufu authorities and a British ship, with references to Otokichi. This manuscript collates four Japanese reports of the British ship the HMS Mariner, which arrived in Japan from Shanghai in May of 1849 to make a topographical survey of the area around Edo (modern-day Tokyo), led by Commander Charles Mitchell Mathison, who had entered the Royal Navy on 5 August 1819. The event marks a very early British appearance at Japan, also pre-dating by four years the imposing arrival of Commodore Perry and his American Black ships also intent on making surveys. The first record briefly describes the layout of the Mariner and the aim of its visit to Japan. It also mentions the considerable Japanese language abilities of the Chinese interpreter on board who explained things in a way that is easy to understand, he in fact being the Japanese castaway Yamamoto Otokichi (1818-1867). The second section records foreign ship sightings from daimyo with guardhouses on the Miura Peninsula. [daimto were the most powerful landholding magnates holding the largest sections of land] The third report describes the meeting of Commander Mathison and the Bakufu intendant Egawa Tarozaemon (1801-1855), a dispute over a map of Japan, and Japanese observations of the ship and the crew. The last report is a copy of Isenokami Abe's (Masahiro Abe: 1819-1857) message to the bugyo (magistrates) and metsuke (censors/inspectors) in which, with HMS Mariner in mind, he expresses concern about the increase in the number of foreign ship arrivals in recent years and the abandoning of the Edict to Repel Foreign Ships. Abe notes that if the edict is enforced again, while there is no illegality on the part of the foreign ships, a dispute could arise, thus cautioning the noble families on the coast to prepare defenses. [Only a few years after the arrival of HMS Mariner, Isenokami would play a major role in the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa, as a result of pressure from the Perry Expedition.]
New York City, Frankfurt, Stockholm, etc., 1961-1966. Substantial archive of documents concerning the publication and production of several notable literary works and theatrical plays by Peter Ulrich Weiss, including correspondence, draft agreements, contracts signed with leading publishers and producers, as well as some programmes and peer reviews, being the working files of his New York agent, Joan Daves. Together with 3 LP record box sets of the first and complete Broadway original cast music recording for the Marat/Sade play. Octavo and Folio documents and letters, ranging in size and number of pages, some signed in the original. Most are in English; some are in German; the lot neatly contained in four ring binders. The vast majority of the documents date to the 1960s, with a scant few being later including a letter regarding a special television production in 1979 with NBC. Occasional wear to extremities, otherwise in very good condition, beautifully preserved, clean and bright. A generous and comprehensive archive chronicling the work and partnership of a leading literary agent in the rise of German-American publishing, and one of her notable German writers. Provenance: From the desk of Weiss' literary agent for the US, Joan Daves. Joan Daves (1919-1997) was a leading literary agent with her own agency in New York, whose client list boasts six Nobel Prize winners including Martin Luther King, Jr. Daves had a profound effect on the very existence of German literature in America. Born Liselotte Davidson in Berlin, she escaped Nazi Germany by fleeing to Paris and England before emigrating to the United States in 1940. Her agency, established in 1948, handled the original works of several American authors. She handled Martin Luther King, Jr.'s literary property from 1957 until her death. Of great emphasis with her firm was the representation of several major German publishers, such as Suhrkamp, Piper, S. Fischer Verlag and others. It was the prime time of German writers such as Peter Weiss, Uwe Johnson, Max Frisch, Heinar Kipphardt, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Hermann Hesse. In the mid-1960s, communication with German publishers was quite different from today. A shipment of galleys was prepared with a 'by sea mail' label. When the New York Times printed the date and time the next ship would leave the harbor, delivery of the parcels of documents to that specific ship was requested. Peter Ulrich Weiss (1916-1982) was a German author, playwright, and experimental filmmaker, who gained celebrity fame on Broadway in the 1960s. He is particularly known for his plays "Marat/Sade" of 1963/65 which is largely represented in the present archive and which was enormously successful, for "The Investigation" of 1965, and for his later novel "The Aesthetics of Resistance" (1971-81). In the 1960s Weiss also embraced and promoted politically controversial groups, standing for revolutionary Cuba, standing against US intervention in Vietnam, and joining Sweden's eurocommunist party. Manuscript
Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Chita, Sretensk, Blagoveshchensk, TransBaikal villages, 17 May 1861 - 23 September 1880. Two manuscript journals of an English Engineer in Russian Far East, contracted to test and repair some of the pioneering steamships on the Rivers Amur and Shilka, and other important works in the Trans-Baikal region, beginning his work some 24 years before the founding of the Eastern Siberian Inland Navigation Company, and interacting several notables who were involved in the development projects. 8vo. The earliest volume comprises 113 pages of manuscript entries dating from 17 May 1861 to 22 July 1861 and then a few pages from and then from 1 January 1868 to 22 May 1870, with a tipped-in folding map of the Amur River. The subsequent volume contains 135 pages in manuscript and dates from 14 August 1876 to 23 September 1880. Cloth over marbled boards. Volumes measure approximately 19 x 24 cm and 17 x 20 cm, respectively. Map measures approximately 46 x 20 cm. Wear to boards, hinges loose, otherwise internally clean, an exceedingly scarce and early primary source account of early developments of steam navigation in the Far East of Russia. This account is very early for the region, particularly the inner reaches of the Amur river and its tributaries, where there were scarce inhabitants or even visitors, and thus are even fewer surviving manuscript accounts. It pre-dates the founding of the important "Eastern Siberian Inland Navigation Company" which would be founded in 1885, twenty-four years after the writer began his pioneering work. It also pre-dates the Trans-Siberian Railway which would be built between 1891 and 1916 under the supervision of Russian government ministers personally appointed by Tsar Alexander III and his son, the Tsarevich Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas II). The writer's arrival occurs only three years after the Aigun Treaty in 1858, through which the area north of the Amur belonging to the Manchu Qing dynasty since the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk was suddenly ceded to Russia. The Amur River has formed Russia's border with China since the 1858 Aigun Treaty and the 1860 Treaty of Peking. A folding map compiled in 1858 according to contemporary Russian sources, delineates the winding route of the Amur River throughout the Russian-Chinese borderlands, from Lake Baikal, to the mountainous Transbaikal region, to the Sea of Okhotsk snd the Strait of Tartary. Manuscript
Beirut, Damascus, Hama, Bhamdoun: 28 February 1900 - June 1901. Lot of 5 manuscript letters written and signed by Harvard anthropologist Henry Minor Huxley, concerning anthropological work performed for the Howard Crosby Butler Archaeological Expedition to the Middle East, as well as a noteworthy archaeological discovery of an ancient and curious stone inscription, its location guarded with secrecy by the few expedition members having this knowledge. 8vo. double-leafs varying in size. 24 pages combined, each letter signed in the original. Two letters are on hotel stationery. Occasional light creasing, otherwise in very good condition, clean and bright, a fascinating and candid primary source account. Writing to a trusted source, his mother, Huxley's reveals the discovery of an ancient inscription carved into an overturned stone, in a language possibly not yet identified, stating that he took the first photograph of it, and that only a select few expedition members are privy to knowing its location. His commentary on experiences with the local civilians and officials are straightforward and occasionally blunt. Henry Minor Huxley, A.M. accepted the offer to join the American Archaeological Expedition led by American archaeologist Howard Crosby Butler. The first part of the archaeological work took place from mid-October to mid-December 1899, and a second trip was made for continued work from March to June, 1900. In the summer of 1900, he was devoted to acquiring a working knowledge of the vernacular Arabic. Huxley's work, however, involved a broader scope. During this second trip, he was also tasked with the study of physical anthropology, as is apparent in the present correspondence. This work proved so valuable that Huxley, owing to the patronage of New York businessman and archeological enthusiast B.T. Babbitt Hyde, remained for another year to further these anthropological observations, independently. What does not appear to be officially documented in publications, but is highly fascinating, is what Huxley writes in his last letter of the present lot. That is, in June 1901, just prior to returning to America, he alone returned to the site of a stone inscription discovered during the earlier part of the expedition (presumably in 1899), to copy it, photograph it, and turn it back face down so that no others would see it. This would increase the likelihood that he and one other would have a better chance of being the first to decipher it.
Four manuscript court documents pertaining to an American merchant ship captured in 1801 by a Spanish Privateer while on a voyage to Barcelona and Malaga with valuable cargo, the subsequent recapture by the American crew, and claim for compensation from the salvage of her cargo. Three folio, one octavo, all single-leafs. Two documents are split at folds, one of which has very minor loss to text, otherwise the lot in very good condition, clean and legible, a most interesting record of the event and proceedings in the Admiralty Court. The American Brig Eliza, formerly Schooner Maria, whose homeport was Charleston and master was Captain Joseph Michael, was destined for Barcelona and Malaga in June 1801, with a cargo belonging to an American merchant named John Seamy. Near Tarifa, in Cádiz Province, on 10 July she was seized by Spanish privateers and ordered to the Port of Algeciras. While at anchor there, Captain Michael, with the help of his crew, in particular a Benjamin Hubble, managed to re-take the ship from the Spanish. They immediately proceeded across the Bay to Gibraltar with the intention of selling the ship and cargo for personal gain. Refusal to acquiesce to the Spanish privateers would have resulted in extreme retribution for the American captain and crew if they had not succeeded in their escape, as mentioned in the documents as a reason to disallow the captain of any monetary gains for the recovered vessel. There was also intense fighting around Gibraltar, involving the French, Spanish, and British, therefore the Spanish were well-positioned and well-armed. It was the Battle of Algeciras Bay taking place, having begun only 4 days earlier on 6 July 1801. (It would end on the 12th). Adding to the eminent danger for the Americans, when the United States had declared independence, British diplomats were quick to inform the Barbary States that U.S. ships were open to attack. In May 1801, some 6 weeks before the incident described in the present documents, the First Barbary War had begun, a war between the alliance of the United States and several European countries, against the Northwest African Muslim states known collectively as the Barbary States. Prior to independence, American colonists had enjoyed the protection of the British Navy. The British no longer offered protection. The Mediterranean Sea was now a precarious place for Americans to sail. On 4 December 1801, four members of the crew, Benjamin Huddle, Robert Sherington, Thomas William, William Sesten, engaged a proctor to recover the ship and her cargo. His compensation would be half of the value of the salvage. Following the recovery voyage, accusations flowed freely and, a few months later, in December 1801, a trial in the Admiralty Court ensued. The proctor presented his case for the claimants. The result of the trial is not identified herein, but can be assumed in favour of the claimants, based on the final document, which is a "release of all claims" by the ship's new captain, Nathan Ells, who was a mate under Captain Michael, employed on the ship during the event in question.
Primary source account of the Belenzada Affair, by a British marine serving on HMS Cornwallis (1813) and participating in the event at Lisbon, describing daily and hourly actions taking place during the counter-revolution begun by Queen Maria II. Annotated by a contemporary transcriber who seems to be a friend of the diarist and presumably the recipient of the original letter, to front upper margin: "Extract Private letter" and to the end leaf: "Novr. 3d 1836 Revolution at Lisbon Copy of Wms Report of it". 8vo. 7 pages in manuscript. Two double leafs measuring approximately 21 x 26,5 cm. Occasional creasing, very minor loss to first leaf, not affecting legibility of context, otherwise in very good condition. The Belenzada, also known as the Belém Affair, was an attempted coup in November 1836 by Queen Maria II of Portugal and her husband Prince Ferdinand II, to remove the liberal government which had been established by the September Revolution, and to reinstate the Constitutional Charter of 1826. Despite enjoying diplomatic support from the United Kingdom and Belgium, the attempt was frustrated by the determination of the National Guard, the regular army and the general population of Lisbon. This primary source document provides a superbly detailed chronical of events of one counter-revolution in Imperial Portugal, initiated by Queen Maria II herself, as a response to the uprising of the Setembrismo and Cartismo movement to end the political "devorismo" ('devourism') as it was termed at the time. The event is all-but-forgotten by Western historians, albeit said to be one of the three most important of conspiracies or plots executed during this period of unrelenting political conflict. Manuscript
Twenty-four (24) letters, 29 December 1934 - 11 April 1940, written by French priest Jacques Grignon while in South China working to establish a seminary for the Catholic Church, feature firsthand accounts of Communist movements and attacks, of the Japanese threat, and the general state of affairs during the first part of the Chinese Civil War. All text is in French. Twenty letters are typescript, signed "Jacques" in manuscript and feature occasional manuscript annotations by the author; four letters are in manuscript and signed in the same manner as the latter. Together with one envelope addressed in typescript to the writer's brother Jean Grignon in Paris, to whom all of the letters are addressed. 8vo. 23 pages altogether, on single leaf delicate tissue writing paper, ranging in size slightly, the smallest leafs measuring approximately 13,5 x 21 cm, the largest measuring approximately 19 x 25 cm. Envelope measures approximately 13 x 8 cm. Tear to upper margin of one letter, unobtrusive to text, otherwise the lot in very good condition, excellent primary source content. Letters written by a Parisian civilian sent to China in a time of global economic turmoil contemplates Communism, economy, and morality, showing notable concern towards the plight of France during the ongoing Great Depression, while describing the equally unsettling state of affairs in China during the Chinese Civil War. The writer, Jacques Grignon was a French priest, who arrived in China in 1934, evidently not long before the first letter, to join three others in establishing a seminary in Yunnanfu (present-day Kunming) in southern China. Little else is known about him, although he had family in Paris. His letter of 6 February 1936 also reveals that he had just celebrated his 42nd birthday, as such being born circa 1894. A learned and intellectual man, with a rather liberal perspective at times, considering his chosen vocation as he mentions political events and severe social problems, he also considers certain injustices that had brought about the crisis to substantiate his unique approach. Specific events discussed while in China include the movements of Communist insurgents, the revolt of Zhang Xueliang [The Xi'an Incident of 1936] and the subsequent release of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek who had been captured, and Japanese troops positioned in Peking for what would become the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin [25-31 July 1937]. Interesting anecdotes describe the lackadaisical manner of progress made by the Chinese in construction, the beginnings of official systemization for street names and house numbering in Yunnan [Kunming,] as well as general challenges with ammenities and travel in China. Manuscript
Manuscript signed discourse written at the onset of the Panic of 1837, concerning the ethics and obligations of the Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Bank in Trenton which had been established less than three years earlier, by respected Trenton attorney and Whig politician William Halsted (1794-1878) who had recently been elected a Member of the United States Representatives to represent New Jersey, signed and dated in the original by the author. 8vo. 8 pages in manuscript, penned recto and verso, each leaf affixed to the next with two spots of glue to upper margin, measuring approximately 20 x 25 cm, and featuring an embossed cameo of a three-masted barque. Some creasing, otherwise in very good condition. At the request of the Directors of the Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Bank of Trenton, from a legal standpoint, Halsted answers three specific questions regarding the bank's refusal (inability) to redeem paper currency into specie (silver or gold coins). His erudite assessment surely resulted in careful deliberation by the members of the board, while it provides for us now a scarce period perspective of the historic financial crisis. Halsted's discourse is dated 8 June 1837. A financial assessment of the Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Bank in Trenton was reviewed at the Legislature's General Assembly of 24 October 1837. Following the publication of a detailed banking statement, as seen in the volumes of the Legislature, the State Gazette of 22 December 1837 published this remark, "The condition of The Mechanics Bank is now before the Community and it is proved to be worthy of great confidence." William Halstead (1794-1878) was an American Whig Party politician who represented New Jersey at large in the United States House of Representatives from 1837-1839. Halstead was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-Fifth United States Congress (4 March 1837 to 3 March 1839). Manuscript
Rudolf Diesel's retained copy of his own signed manuscript letter to Samuel Breslauer, concerning the installation of a gas engine. Text is in German. 4to. Two single leafs, 2 pages of text on onion skin paper measuring approximately 30 x 24 cm. Minor age-toning, otherwise in very good condition. In this correspondence, Diesel describes alterations being made to the design of his first prototype, making comments on the compressor, transmission, and the lighting system (ignition), among other things. The second prototype, described here, would be built by October the same year. The specific plan for this engine model is noted in the upper margin: Plan F.B.930. Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (1858-1913), needing no introduction, was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is world-famous for having invented the Diesel engine. At the time of this letter, Diesel was diligently working on altering and perfecting his 1893 engine design. This design would later be known as the diesel engine. The first prototype Motor 150/400, had been completed 12 July 1893. Initial tests proved it to be a successful concept. By October 1895, after the first prototype had been converted into the second prototype Motor 220/400. After testing, and always seeking to improve, again it was decided that a completely new engine had to be designed from scratch. On 20 February 1896, Krupp, Maschinenfabrik Augsburg, and Diesel, decided to start the development of the new engine. The new engine was supposed to be a 250 mm bore engine with a 400 mm stroke. On 5 March 1896, Diesel filed a patent application for supercharging; on 26 March, it was decided to build the new engine with a supercharger. In order to improve the efficiency of the development process, a new design bureau was built directly into Diesel's Augsburg testing laboratory. Several young engineers worked there, including Imanuel Lauster. On 30 April 1896, after Lauster had completed the drawings, the workshop at Augsburg began making parts for the engine. The first successful Diesel engine Motor 250/400, designed by Rudolf Diesel, was officially tested in 1897 by German industrial engineer Moritz Schröter. Schröter concluded, "we are beholding a quite marketable machine that has been thoroughly designed with great attention to every single detail." At this time, several firms bought licences for building legal copies of the Motor 250/400. It is now on display at the German Technical Museum in Munich. The recipient of the correspondent is Samuel Breslauer (1870-1942), a lawyer, journalist and editor, who rose to be head of the Politics department for the Berlin newspaper "Berliner Lokal Anzeiger", a daily newspaper with one of the highest national circulations of its time. Breslauer is remembered as one of the numerous Jews who were captured and deported camp during the holocaust. Surely his public role would have made him an immediate target by the German extremist leader. In August 1942, Breslauer and his wife Bertha were taken to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where they both died, she within four days.
Manuscript diary with several drawings, kept by an Englishman who travelled with his family to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland from 29 May 1867 - 15 June 1867, then to France from 1 June 1873 - 12 December 1874, relocating them for these 15 months to Normandy. Contains approximately 36 drawings, one which is a double-leaf scene pasted within, and a few botanical specimens mounted within. Accompanied by a travel itinerary with colour map detailing part of the first journey to the continent in 1867. 8vo. 2, 136, 156 pages. Brown leather boards, tooled front and back. Volume measures approximately 10 x 15 x 2 cm. Map/itinerary leaf measures 18 x 12,5 cm. Wear to boards especially at spine, front hinge delicate, otherwise in very good condition, an interesting Victorian diary. The writer is John Davis Britton, born on 28 December 1832 as revealed within the diary when he celebrates his 41st birthday at home in Vire. He is travelling with his wife Kitty, and children, at least five of whom are named - Lizzie, Aline, Ethel, Diddy, Dick. The delightful two-week travel to the continent features accounts of Lucerne at the dawn of tourism before most of today's historic hotels were even built, and highly favourable descriptions of Freiburg im Breisgau which has nothing short of enamoured the visitors. Manuscript
A numbered (278) and printed document granting financial compensation to a slave owner in Suriname, by the Dutch government, signed in the original by numerous parties including the Gouverneur de Kolonie Suriname [Governor of Suriname] Van Lansberge, the Administrateur van Financienvan Het Ministerie van Kolonien te s-Gravenhague [Finance Administrator for the Ministry of the Colonies, at The Hague], and the recipient of the funds who is not only a slave owner but well-known chirurgeon A.D. Charlouis. Text is in Dutch. With steel engraved colonial coat of arms, official ink stamps, the embossed stamp of the "Klein Kolonie Suriname" government. Single leaf measuring approximately 26,5 x 13 cm. Very good condition, beautifully preserved, a scarce and historical slavery document with notable signature. The present document is interesting, as is was made almost two years after the official abolition of slave ownership in Suriname, which reveals the lengthy time period over which this process was stretched. The government's primary concern was not the freedom of the enslaved people; it was the preservation of the plantation economy, lest there be a mass exodus of workers leaving the plantations. The latter was cited as the reason and justification for the mandatory employment contract which accompanied 'free status' of a slave. Chirurgeon Andries Daniel Charlouis (Emden, Lower Saxony 1820 - Paramaribo, Suriname 1880) is the recipient of this compensation. Historical evidence reveals that he had more slaves than what is represented with this document, and that he released them gradually. He was well-known in the field of medical science, particularly for his studies on medicinal matters and the indigenous people of South America; his name appears in numerous medical journals of the period. Reinhart Frans Cornelius van Lansberge (1804-1873), whose signature authorizes this document, was the Governor-General of Suriname from 1 August 1859 to 29 June 1867. Slavery was abolished in the Dutch West Indies during his governorship. Previous to this post, he was Governor of Curacao from 1855 to 1859, and formerly Dutch Consul-General Venezuela. Doctor Charlouis, whose original signature is found to verso, received 1935 guilders with this promissory note effective 15 August 1865. This figure represents the release of approximately 6 slaves. A manuscript annotation to upper left margin, penned in a West Germanic language, refers to the abolition act: "Opheffing der slavernij... 1863" [Elimination of slavery... 1863]. Red ink annotations reveal that this document was registered on 16 September 1865, and signed by a Geregistreerde referendaris J.C. Jaunen [registered secretary]. Additional annotations to the upper margin suggest that the funds were cashed in on 16 October 1865 "Betaalbaar te Amsterdam" [paybale to Amsterdam]. Also interesting to note, two of the signed annotations to verso, those of Charlouis and a witness, make reference to German plantation owner, banker Wilhelm Eduard Ruhmann at Paramaribo. As such, this transaction was most likely transacted at Surinaamsche Bank which had been founded earlier the same year, and the funds dispatched from there to the Dutch government in The Netherlands. The Netherlands abolished the Atlantic slave-trade in 1814. However, localized slavery continued for over half a decade. Slavery was finally abolished in Suriname and the Dutch West Antilles on 1 July 1863 with the Emancipation Act. On that day, about 35,000 slaves in Suriname and 12,000 slaves on the Dutch islands in the Caribbean were given their freedom, or rather a modified version of freedom. Freed men in Suriname come under state supervision for ten years with a mandatory employment contract on the plantations. The slave owners received financial compensation from the government upon releasing their slaves to this system. The Dutch government paid 300 guilders per slave to the owner for the "lost property". (In the Dutch East Indies, payments were far lower, 50 to 350 guilders depending on the age of the slave). The abolition of slavery was referred to as 'emancipation'. Parties were organized in which King William III was presented as a key figure and benefactor of the freed slaves.
Manuscript accounts ledger kept by Scottish farmer Daniel Collyer, Esq., (1776-1824), and subsequently continued by his widow Elizabeth, concerning a sizeable historical farming estate upon which today stands the old Cormiston Farm Cottage, providing a very detailed record of the setup, daily undertakings, and commerce of an early nineteenth century farmstead. Folio. 317 pages in manuscript, watermarked leafs, with a rough manuscript plan of the farm drawn on the front endpaper, and a second more detailed plan drawn on a separate leaf loosely placed within. Green boards representative, simple red label to spine, original marbled endpapers. In a patented account book made by John Williams of London, stationer to the Royal family, with original bookbinder's label to front pastedown, dated 1806. Front board bowing, partial separation at front hinge, otherwise in very good condition, binding remaining firm, interior crisp and clean, a very thorough record of early Scottish farming practices and rural life. This volume is replete with detail, a treasury of information, not only about the Collyer family connection to historic Cormiston, but also about local activities including trade, market fairs, social interests, nineteenth century households and the workings of Scottish farming practices. On the lands described herein, there still stands today an old farmhouse, now operating as a family run bed and breakfast called "Cormiston Farm Cottage" [Biggar ML12 6NS, some 2 miles from the town of Biggar]. The farmhouse was built in the 1790's and is still retains many of the original Georgian and Victorian features. The house and large Georgian steading to the rear are B Listed (Grade II) by Historic Scotland, identified by the Canmore National Record of Historic Environment as "Cormiston Towers Farm" ID number 47484, site number NS93NE 29. Manuscript
One Original Signed Letter, written Springfield Newnham, Cambridge, Nov 24 [1879]. 2 pages, 8vo. Bi-folium on headed paper with mourning border, "Down, Beckenham, Kent, Railway Station, Orpington S.E.R." Leaf measures approximately 11,5cm x 18cm (4.5 inches x 7 inches), when folded. Very Good Condition, nicely preserved. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. The Letter reads: My dear Frances, I see in the papers that you have lost your dear mother. I remember when you kindly wrote to me by her wish, that she felt herself that her end could not be very distant. I should be very grateful for a line, and I trust you will be able to tell me that she did not suffer very much; but rather that her placid & happy nature remained with her to the last. Believe me , Very sincerely yours, Emma Darwin" Frances Julia "Snow" Wedgwood (9 July 1833 – 26 November 1913) was an English feminist novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic. She was described as "a young woman of extreme passions and fastidious principles" and "at once a powerful reasoner and an inexorable critic of reason” Manuscript
One Original Signed Letter, written ca.1889, 2 pages 8vo. Bi-folium on headed paper, "Down, Farnborough R.S.O, Kent". Leaf measures approximately 11,5cm x 18cm (4.5 inches x 7 inches), when folded. Very Good Condition, nicely preserved. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. The letter reads: My dear Frances, I am anxious to know how your cousin is today, & whether you have hopes of being able to move tomorrow. If you had leisure to come & see me this afternoon for a short time, I should be glad; but only send me a verbal answer at all events. yours very sincerely, E. Darwin, (Mrs. Charles Darwin)" Frances Julia "Snow" Wedgwood (9 July 1833 – 26 November 1913) was an English feminist novelist, biographer, historian and literary critic. She was described as "a young woman of extreme passions and fastidious principles" and "at once a powerful reasoner and an inexorable critic of reason. Manuscript
Manuscript of religious interest, concerning the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland and drawing strictly from the work of reformer and author Johann Zschokke. Manuscript entitled, "Neuere Geschichte vom Beginn der kirchlichen Trennung 1519 bis auf die heutigen Tage. Auszug aus Zschokke. 1833-34." [Recent History from the Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Separation 1519 to the Present Day. Short Excerpt from Zschokke. 1833-1834.] The writer only identifies himself as "Bernhard" on the title page. Text is in German, in a fine hand. 8vo. 129 pages, plus title page. Brown continental boards. Volume measures approximately 12 x 18 cm. Slight wear to boards at extremities, otherwise in very good condition, internally very crisp and bright, a beautifully preserved document. Zschokke is widely remembered for writings of history and fiction. As the present volume transcribes from a religious treatise, it preserves parts of a little-known and more scarce work, while also providing insight into his perspective as a religious reformer. The present volume contains highlights from Zschokke's history of Switzerland during the religious reformation era, a subject of great importance to him as a Protestant reformer himself. Manuscript
The light vessels being the predecessors of the two permanent lighthouses of Ceylon fame, situated some fourteen kilometers apart off the coast of Yala National Park. Two folio documents: April 1869 double leaf true copy of a memorandum on winds and currents at Little Basses; April 1870 single leaf notice to sea captains announcing the temporary lighthouse near the Great Basses, issued by Colonial Secretary Henry Turner Irving (later Governor) and penned in a secretarial hand; both on blindstamped stationery of the United States Commercial Agency of Ceylon measuring approximately 20 x 32 cm. Slight age-toning, otherwise in very good condition, rare documents connected to two offshore lighthouses which are among the most famous in Asia. This fascinating and detailed manuscript lighthouse report, was made prior to the actual lighthouses having been constructed, by a sea captain who lived on the light ship anchored off the Ceylon southern shore for at least seven years, making important observations and providing light for navigators. The first document is an annual report by John Buchanan, master of the light vessel at Little Basses, describing seasonal wind and weather conditions, sea currents, tides, monsoons and storms, over the period of one year. The captain also describes steamships having difficulties making the passage to shore. This document being a true copy of the original made in April 1869 by Thomas Steele, Assistant Government Agent at Hambantota, who took a noteworthy interest in local antiquities and Sinhalese literature. [An admiralty notice based on Buchanan's memorandum, though slightly edited, was published in the London and China Telegraph, Vol. 12, May 16, 1870, and also in The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1870]. Excerpts from Buchanan's lightship memorandum: ".... at Little Basses Rocks, Ceylon, during 13 months as observed from the Light Ship." "January [1869]... It would not be inaccurate to say that a strong current continues throughout January coming from the NNE from the Bay of Bengal setting S.S.W. Sea crossing very rough all the month.... both wind and tide against them...difficult for ships to get to the Northeast. It would be well not to attempt to do so." "February... towards the end of the month the wind becomes much lighter. The northerly current also slacken. Occasionally in the month the Light Vessel swings. In 1868, however, she did not swing until April, while in the current year (1869) she swings in February. During the seven years I have been here, the SW monsoon has not hitherto set in regularly until from the 4th to the 10th of May. This year it has been steady at SW since April 6th. The present year is accordingly an exception to the rule..." "I consider March one of our finest months at the Little Basses... 87º in the shade... Shipmasters going to any part of Burmah need have no cause for hesitation... " "May... the monsoon sets in strong and steady... much rain falls, and thunder and lightning... until about the 20th October..." "June, July, August and September... the S.W. monsoon blows strong and steady... Notwithstanding the extreme difficulty I have been enabled (occasionally at much risk of life and property) to keep up a monthly communication with Pottana Bay [Pothana Bay], and thence by land with Galle." "November... much thunder and lightning... Floating bodies invariably I have observed, set right out to sea, S.S.W. ..." "Summary... There are no regular tides... the N.E. monsoon... during five months without variation. Thus a steamer steering N.N.E., has not only to oppose a three-knot tide opposed to her, but the wind dead against her... some steamers barely make two miles an hour going to the north... When the sun goes to the northward of the Light Ship, there is no more N.E. monsoon... in the event of a vessel making Dondra Head when bound to Galle, which is not uncommon the Master should never attempt to beat to Galle, but recross the line." End Excerpts. "Notice to Mariners, Bay of Bengal. Temporary Lighthouse near the Great Basses" heads the second document, which was issued by Colonial Secretary Henry T. Irving at Colombo in April 1870. Irving became a colonial governor not long after. Here too, prior to construction of a permanent structure, the admiralty anchored a temporary light-vessel upon which was mounted a revolving signal. This announcement came approximately one year before placement of the first stone for the lighthouse, and four years before it would begin operation. Excerpt from Irving's notice to mariners: "... it is hereby notified... that a light-vessel, exhibiting at an elevation of 38 feet above the sea, a red revolving light at intervals of 45 seconds, has been placed... at a distance of 3/4 of a mile from the N.E. rock of the Great Basses Reef... The vessel carries two balls vertical at the Mast Head." End Excerpt. Sir Henry Turner Irving, GCMG (1833-1923) was a British Civil Servant and Colonial Administrator. He first served as acting Governor of British Ceylon. In 1873-1874, he served as Governor of the Leeward Islands. In 1874-1880, he served as Governor of Trinidad and Tobago. In 1882-1887, he served as Governor of British Guiana. He was the first Governor of Trinidad to occupy the Government House, now known as the President's House. Notes on the lighthouses that subsequently replaced the "light-ships" described above: Great Basses Reef Lighthouse is an offshore lighthouse in the south of Sri Lanka. Accessible only by boat, it is located on a reef 13 km off the coast of Yala National Park, near Little Basses Reef Lighthouse. The necessity of a lighthouse at this location was acknowledged in 1856, a design of an iron tower on a granite base was suggested and costs began to be incurred without fruition. A new design by Alexander Gordon and Sir James Nicholas Douglass was approved in 1867. The executive engineer in charge was James' brother William Douglass. Two steam vessels were used, each capable of carrying 120 tonnes of stone, and each equipped with the appropriate lifting gear. Each support block weighed 2 to 3 tons. The first stone was laid in December 1870, the last in late 1872 and the light was lit in March 1873. The cost had been £63,000, of which £40,000 had been expended to no effect before Trinity House and William Douglass were involved. Little Basses Reef Lighthouse is an active offshore lighthouse at the southern end of Sri Lanka. It is located on a reef called Kuda Ravana Kotuwa (Fort of Little Ravana), formerly called Little Basses by the British when they invaded Ceylon. It is fourteen km off the coast of Yala National Park and north east of the Great Basses Reef Lighthouse. It was completed in 1878, built by William Douglass using the same steam ships, crew and workers as the Great Basses Reef Lighthouse. Designed by Sir James Nicholas Douglass, Little Basses lighthouse was one of a limited number of lighthouses that were designed to house the large Hyperradiant Fresnel lenses that became available at the end of the 19th century. Four of these lenses were used in Sri Lankan lights, all made by Chance Brothers in England. The lighthouse is close to Daedalus Rock, site of the sinking of HMS Daedalus (1811). The two Basses lighthouses are among the most famous offshore lighthouses of Asia. Manuscript
A collection of manuscript and printed materials by celebrated poet, playwright, lyricist and Consul John Howard Payne consisting of an unpublished, autograph poem, an autograph letter written from Tunis as the resident American Consul dealing with the matter of an insult to the American flag as well as an account of the repatriation of his remains to American home soil from Tunis in Africa to Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. A specially bound volume titled 'John Howard Payne - a Biographical Sketch' by Charles H. Brainard, Coolidge, Washington, DC 1885 providing an interesting Biography and dealing with the repatriation of Payne's remains to Washington 30 years after he died in Africa. The account is very detailed, leaves nothing to the imagination as far as the transportation of the remains are concerned and is accompanied by some photographic plates. Bound in a special full morocco presentation binding, all edges gilt, gilt inner dentelles, silk moire endpapers. A beautifully executed printed work and binding in fine condition. Manuscript
Manuscript letter by Sir Richard Croft, Physician to King George III and the Royal Family, accoucheur (obstetrician), and British peer, describes complications of a pregnancy four years before the "triple obstetrical tragedy" Princess Charlotte which has become his unfortunate infamy. 8vo. 2 pages in manuscript. Double leaf measuring approximately 12 x 18,5 cm, watermarked with the year 1811, with integral address, two postal ink stamps and a lovely red wax seal. Very faint age-toning only to sections of the leaf exposed for mailing, otherwise in very good condition, beautifully preserved and highly relevant to the writer's occupation as a manmidwife and the complications of pregnancy and birthing in the early nineteenth century. "Sir Richard Croft (1762-1818) physician and man-midwife gained notoriety after his involvement in the labor of Princess Charlotte, which resulted in her death. He never shook off the shame of the tragedy, and shot himself three months later." (Oxford DNB). Manuscript signed letter from the Royal Physician and Male Midwife to the late Princess Charlotte, Sir Richard Croft, who is remembered for causing the "Triple Obstetrical Tragedy" of 1817, in which is a primary source account of early nineteenth century complications and precepts surrounding pregnancy and child deliveries. The writer is Sir Richard Croft, 6th Baronet (9 January 1762 - 13 February 1818), English physician to the British Royal Family and the obstetrician to Princess Charlotte, who is famed for his role in "the triple obstetrical tragedy" of her death in 1817. He received his medical training from, among others, his father-in-law, Dr. Thomas Denman, a preeminent obstetrician in London whose textbook on childbirth had been first published in 1788. He graduated with his MD from the University of Oxford in 1789. Croft was appointed the personal physician of King George III. He was also a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and Physician to the Lying-in Charity on Old Burlington Street. He was the primary accoucheur or midwife to Princess Charlotte, granddaughter of the reigning King George III. Manuscript
Manuscript telegraph letter sent from Governor of Hong Kong Sir George William Des Voeux, in cipher, to Colonial Administrator Sir William MacGregor, which offers to the post of Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, on the same day which Colonial Secretary Frederick Stewart died. Together with a manuscript decipherment, and a signed letter from the decipherer of the message, Sir Henry Wylie Norman, Governor of Queensland. 8vo. Single-leaf telegraph on the stationery of the Telegraph Office Queensland completed in manuscript and dated 29 September 1889; Double leaf manuscript letter on the stationery of the Queensland Government House Brisbane dated 1 October 1889; hand trimmed manuscript note measuring approximately 17,5 x 11,5 cm. All three documents fastened together with a brass pin. Some creasing, minor wear at folds, otherwise in very good condition, a fascinating disclosure of of Hong Kong administrative history perhaps previously unknown to anyone but the parties involved. This is a little-known and private correspondence, concealed for delivery with a colonial cipher language, between two important colonial administrators, concerning the title of Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong. A telegraph from Hong Kong reveals that an offer was made to MacGregor to work in China in 1889. The sender does not reveal himself, and the message in written in code, however a contemporary manuscript decipherment fastened with a brass brad discloses the contents. Sir George William Des Voeux, Governor of Hong Kong is the sender. Des Voeux knew MacGregor well from his time as Governor of Fiji from 1880-1885, during which period he worked with MacGregor who was Treasurer then Colonial Secretary of Fiji. Manuscript
Edinburgh, 1893. Letter Book Archive of draft documents made by the law firm Campbell, Martin & Boswell, for private estates and business agreements, neatly preserved in a custom binding, featuring little known details relating to the Dalquharran Castle and Kennedy estate, Scottish investments and links to Australia, and a fascinating connection to the renowned poet Robert Burns by way of a lease made with his descendent for a mansion estate which he, too, had personally visited. 8vo. Approximately 170 documents, most in manuscript and some in typescript, 1166 pages combined, with a scant few integral blanks, plus unpaginated manuscript index listed alphabetically by document type. Very large volume measuring 23 x 35 x 9 cm (WxHxD) and weighing 10 pounds. Quarter calf over brown cloth boards labelled in gilt to spine, original marbled endpapers. Bookbinder's label to front pastedown (Caldwell Brothers of Edinburgh). Very good condition, an excellent depository volume of legal and historical interest. The firm Campbell, Martin & Boswell, consisted of three solicitors, each with the title and privileges of "Writers to the Signet", John Douglas Boswell, W.S.; Patrick William Campbell, W.S.; and Francis John Martin, W.S., the latter of whom became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1892. Their office was at 1 North Charlotte Street in Edinburgh, which was the same address as the Royal Bank of Scotland, and situated very near to Charlotte Square. Scots law and legal proceedings of the late nineteenth century, much of which differ today, are well illustrated in this archive of original working documents executed by accomplished patrician lawyers representing some discriminating and aristocratic clients. Many of the documents deal with property conveyance and estate matters, and represent traditions no longer observed, including the obsolete " Trust Disposition and Settlement" procedure for claiming an inheritance. Other documents include assignations, land conveyances, bond and disposition in security, deeds of assumption and discharges, estate inventories, a search for deeds with the Register of Sasines, leases, loan proposals for purchasing commercial space in Edinburgh, records of monetary investments in Highland Railway (HR), Jamaican plantations, property to let in Scotland, Australian banks, and so forth. So exclusive and intertwined were the upper class and wealthy, perhaps not large in number, but surely powerful in society, some interesting genealogical and business connections can be made from examining these papers. Many clients are also relations to the solicitors who often acted as trustees. In one case, we find a multi-generational connection between the Campbell and Burns families, beginning with the Jamaica sugar plantation owner Patrick Douglas and Scotland's celebrated national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). In addition, these documents shed light on the leasing history of the Dalquharran Castle in South Ayrshire, which included hunting rights for at least one resident, as well as the Kennedy family's monetary investments in Australia. Interesting to note, one of the lawyers from this firm, Mr. Campbell, is related through marriage to the castle's then most recent owner, Mr. Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy (died in 1892). Some items of special interest: • A twenty page lease agreement was issued to a Glasgow coalmaster named Robert Burns (1844-1896), who was the great-great-grandson and namesake of the famous poet and lyricist Robert Burns (1759-1796) - who had visited the very same Mansion House of Garrallan in his day, being a friend of its proprietor at the time, Dr. Patrick Douglas. A fascinating and detailed document, the lessors were concerned with mining royalties, minerals specifically deemed as belonging to the Marquis of Bute, and minerals raised at the mansion house. [Garrallan was owned by the Campbell family until 1676. The Douglas family followed but it became extinct in the male line. Dr. Patrick Douglas, who died 1819, also owned property in Jamaica and in 1786 he offered Robert Burns a position as a bookkeeper in Port Antonio, but the poet declined. Burns was a visitor at Garrallan. Jane Douglas married Hamilton Boswell and this family retained it until 1914 when it was sold to the Stevenson family of Changue, who still own the property.] • Another fascinating document is headed "Notes on Titles of Charlotte Square," now a World Heritage Site situated in Edinburgh. In this we find reference to feudal tenancy and particulars of construction. Excerpts from the document: "Charter by the Magistrates & Town Council of Edinburgh in favour of Alexander Stevens dated 1st June 1803... no buildings are to be erected... on the foresaid back ground... that the area of the square within the line of the street ways was to become a common property for the accommodation pleasure health or other convenience of the several feuars round said square... For the lot of ground in Charlotte Square X the sum of £6. 18/4 3/12 and further paying the sum of £14. 18/4 3/12 upon the entry of each heir and singular successor or disponee to said Lot Houses or Tenements built thereon... For the foresaid piece of ground on Young Street the sum... Disposition of Sir George Hope to Margaret Kyle of Binghill dated 2nd April 1818. Disposition & assignation of the said Rev'd Dr. James Kyle in favour of Alexander Russell dated 8th January 1868. Disposition Settlement by the said George Bruce [Factor and Law Agent, W.S.] dated 10th July 1891 & recorded in the Books of Council Session 27th July 1892." • At least 8-10 documents pertain to Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy (1842-1892) and the Dalquharran Castle which he inherited in 1879 and immediately expanded. The castle, which was built for his grandfather and featured a round bastion tower with a drawing room, piano nobile, and a library above, and an exquisite top-lit spiral central staircase, was extended from 1880-81 by Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy, to accommodate his wife and bedrooms for their nine children. The work was completed at great expense, leaving the Kennedy family almost bankrupt. The family is known to have left Dalquharran for alternative lodgings, and by 1890 they had leased the castle and its lands as a hunting and fishing estate, as seen in this volume. Examples of the papers found herein include: An Agreement of Lease of the Dalquharran Castle as a furnished residence, "excepting the Strong Room retained by the proprietor", to James Paterson of Milton Lockhart, and includes surrounding lands with permission for shooting small game in accordance with the Ground Game Act of 1880. On 24 July 1893, the Scottish Union & National Insurance Company confirming notice of an "assignation" which transfers the estate of Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy, to his second son "John Campbell Kennedy of the Royal Navy." A two page document which itemizes and places monetary value on the "Additional Inventory of the Personal Estate... of the late Mr. Kennedy", including the surrender value of a life insurance of sorts, from which are deducted debts and funeral expenses. A list of debentures, borrowed from institutions in Australia, Canada, and Oregon, also documents relating to his investments with the British and Australasian Trust and Loan Company. Matters concerning his executrix and widow Eliza Barbara Colina (née Campbell) Kennedy. • An agreement permitting a John Ernest Orr to manufacture and sell a certain steam trap which was patented in 1892 by a millwright named John Mackie. As members of the elite society of Scottish solicitors, the Writers to the Signet, and thus holding special signing authorities and privileges, the firm of three attracted some notable clients, some of which were long-standing clients from generations past. A cursory gander through the volume finds these examples: • William Jardine Herries Maxwell (1852-1933), a Liberal Unionist politician in Scotland. Maxwell was elected at the 1892 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire in 1895, but lost it very narrowly when his Liberal Party opponent had a majority of only 13 votes. He regained his seat in 1900, but stood down at the 1906 general election. • William Caven Lockhart-Mure of Livingston in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, Lieutenant in the 4th Bombay Cavalry (Poona Horse), Indian Army, who later rose to the rank of Major, and died in died in 1913. [With a lease herein the lieutenant agreed to a term of five years, letting and maintaining the Livingstone House, gamekeeper's house, garden and orchard in Kirkcudbright. It was owned by Colonel John Stewart (died 1726), a Scottish professional soldier who served in the Scottish Army and, after the Union with England, in the British Army, who also held a seat in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1708 to 1715, and who had inherited the property from his father. • James Oswald (1779-1853), an influential merchant and Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow from 1832 to 1837 , who inherited the estate of his cousin Richard Alexander Oswald (1771-1841), a Scottish Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1832 to 1835. [Again a family connection, his son, also named Richard, married Lady Mary Kennedy.] • Alexander Oswald (1811-1868), a Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayrshire from 1843 to 1852, as well as his father Richard Alexander Oswald, a Glasgow merchant. • Robert Haldane Scott, a Scottish attorney in Jamaica who filed returns for slaves by plantation owners in Trelawny, and his daughter Eliza Scott who married Reverend Edward Holland of New South Wales and died intestate June 1890. [A detailed document assigns a woman named Margaret Jane Wakeford, resident of Falmouth, Jamaica, as Power of Attorney for the estate of the late Eliza Scott.] • William Hume, technical chemist and innovative instrument maker, who was very active in the 1880s and 1890s designing and manufacturing magic lanterns, glass lantern slides, oxy-hydrogen lime-light apparatuses, a cantilever enlarging apparatus, a half-plate camera, rapid rectilinear lenses, and other photographic equipment, from his shop at 1 Lothian Street in Edinburgh. [A loan proposal herein indicates that he also purchased the property of 31 Lothian Street.] • Annabella Alexandrina Campbell Boswell (1826-1914), gentlewoman, born at Yarrows, Bathurst Plains, New South Wales, having a maternal lineage linked to the Campbells. She was a prolific diarist, horsewoman, skilled watercolourist and pianist. In 1849 Annabella met Patrick Charles Douglas Boswell, a free settler from Ayrshire, Scotland, accountant for the Bank of New South Wales (later becoming manager), who was related to James Boswell the biographer, and presumably also Mr. Boswell of this firm. Together Annabella and Patrick returned to Scotland in 1865, where Patrick had inherited the family estate in Ayrshire. • The only actual "will" recorded here is that of Bengal Army Major General Robert Farquhar Webster's widow, Janetta Annan Webster (née Dewar), which bequeaths the estate to her son, and permits the trustee to invest funds and heritable securities into in stocks of Great Britain, any British Colony or Dependency, until such time as he reaches the age of maturity. [Her husband was educated at the Edinburgh Academy before joining the British Army in India in 1843. He retired in 1878 as a Major General in the Bengal Staff Corps.] • Major Archibald Hume of Auchendolly and Spitalside, born 27 Dec 1843, and recognized by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for having presented the museum with a bronze enamelled harness ornament of British Celtic origin. • William Fullarton of Fullarton (1754-1808), a Scottish soldier in the Bengal Staff Corps who participated in the Second Anglo-Mysore War, a statesman, agriculturalist, author, and son of a wealthy Ayrshire gentleman for whom he was named - William Fullarton of Fullarton. • Reverend Samuel Smith, attached to the church and parish of Borgue in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. • Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Maitland (176-1824), a British soldier who served in St. Domingue, and colonial Governor of British Ceylon. Historical Scottish minutiae through and through, with over 170 documents to explore, the opportunity of finding little-known information or unravelling early questions of lineage and heritable rights is indeed great! Dalquharran Castle: In the spring of 1819 Thomas Francis Kennedy (1788-1879) of Dalquharran Castle and Dunure, Ayr, (Whig aristocrat and commissioner of woods, forests, land revenues, works and buildings), succeeded his estranged father to the encumbered Ayrshire estates. The principal properties were the Dalquharran Castle near Dailly, and the coastal estate of Dunure, situated between Dalquharran and Ayr. He died at Dalquharran in 1879 and was succeeded by his only child, Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy (1842-1892). At great expense Francis Thomas Romilly Kennedy made expansions to the mansion, leaving the Kennedy family almost bankrupt. Recent studies suggest that external construction work was finally finished in the summer of 1890, relating this to a note made by Kennedy on documents bearing this date, and existing records regarding the exterior paving and roofing work being completed. The family is known to have left Dalquharran for alternative lodgings, and by 1890 they had leased the castle and its lands as a hunting and fishing estate. The castle had several tenants over the next 45 years, whilst staying in the hands of the Kennedy family. Eventually, the castle and the estate were put up for auction. It was bought by a Timber Merchant from Troon, who set about stripping the timber from the estate and who leased the castle to the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. Dalquharran remained a youth hostel until the Second World War, when the Langside School for the Deaf, evacuated from Glasgow, moved in. During the war, the Castle and lands were sold to one John Stewart, a produce merchant from Girvan, who later moved into Dalquharran with his family, and farmed the estate. The Stewart family co-habited the house with friends, but still the house proved too large and expensive to maintain, and was abandoned. The castle was inhabited as recently as 1967, but was unroofed to allow the then owners to avoid payment of high tax rates. It is now a ruin, with only the masonry shell remaining intact. The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of documents which required to be signeted, but these have since disappeared and the Society is now an independent, non-regulatory association of solicitors. The Society maintains the Category A listed Signet Library, part of the Parliament House complex in Edinburgh, and members of the Society are entitled to the postnominal letters, WS. Wills/Testaments and Inheritance (Scotland): Heritable property, also known as immoveable or 'heritage' property and real estate, included land and buildings. Up to 1868 real estate was automatically inherited by the eldest son (the law of primogeniture) or daughter if there was no son unless there had been a specific disposition or bequest. The law of primogeniture applied to heritage until 1964. This meant that an eldest son might not appear named in the will. Likewise, a wife, who would automatically get the widow's part, may not be mentioned. The right to inherit was established by Retours of Services of Heirs or by a Trust Disposition and Settlement ('deed of settlement'). The actual register of the transfer or other change in ownership was recorded in Sasines. Manuscript
30 January 1868. Manuscript Signed Letter by Sir John Kirk, British administrator in Zanzibar and co-explorer with David Livingstone, in which leading explorers of the Dark Continent are mentioned. 8vo. Double-leaf mourning stationery, measures approximately 18cm x 11cm. Creased, otherwise in very good condition, interesting correspondence on the procurement of significant autographs. The letter reads as follows: "Dear Mrs. Carnegie, Please give to Mrs. Baradaille the enclosed autographs of Livingstone and Du Chaillu. Of Murchison I have not one now but so frequently am in correspondence with him that it cannot be long time before I can add it also. Give her my best regards and believe me I am Yours sincerely. John Kirk" Manuscript
Visitors book for guests of the Hythe Golf Club, founded in 1894, with 78 manuscript signatures penned on 10 leafs. 8vo. Full calf binding, with impressed heraldic seal to front, raised lettering "CCW The Links Hythe" also to front, five raised bands to spine, untrimmed leafs. Volume measures approximately 21 x 26,5 x 2,5 cm. Wear to boards, front bowed slightly, otherwise in very good condition, containing some notable signatures. Members of the British monarchy's household are featured in the volume, with signatures made on 8 August 1823, including Albert, Duke of York, (later King George VI). His new bride, Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later the Queen Mother) evidently accompanied him, he signing on her behalf. Also with them, and signing in the original, was lady-in-waiting Katharine Meade, as well as the Duke's advisor Sir Louis Greig. Sir Clement Anderson Montague-Barlow, 1st Baronet, who at the time was Minister of Labour and a member of the Privy Council, also signed on the same day, as well as six others. Having just been married in April, during the summer of 1923 Albert and Elizabeth, future King and Queen of the United Kingdom, were travelling a fair bit. They first settled into White Lodge, in Richmond Park. They were spotted at the Richmond Show, and shortly after that at the Hendon Air Show. They visited Holyrood House in Edinburgh in July. Their social life was beginning on a grand scale. At the end of the season, they went to stay at Molecomb and attended the races at Goodwood. The present volume reveals a little-known and rather private event at the Hythe Links Golf Course on 8 August 1923. Among other elite visitors whose signatures are present in the volume, we find: - Antarctic explorer Herbert G. Ponting - Sir William Letts a pioneer of the British motor industry and founder member of the Automobile Association - City of London Alderman Sir Maurice Jenks, and family - Sir Samuel George Shead Esq. who was appointed one of the two Sheriffs of London in 1915 - Sir Herbert Benjamin Cohen 2nd Baronet Cohen of Highfield - Colonel J.V. Delahaye, first president of the WOSB. Manuscript
8vo. 32 page German manuscript, a poetic or theatrical composition dealing with California and dedicated to Queen Marie, Consort of King George V of Hanover, during the California Gold Rush. Dedication page, written in French, signed and dated by 'Gontard' who was an affluent art collector and chairman of an elite German art museum, and whom had evidently just met the Queen in person at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Exquisite red morocco binding by Hof-buchbinders Wilhelm Ermold (binder to the Royal Hanover Court), beautifully finished in gilt with a crowned monogram 'M' for Marie, royal blue cloth endpapers, satin bow dividers. Evidence of an imbedded gift-wrapping ribbon to boards, slight foxing to first few leafs, otherwise very good condition, internally clean and bright, a pleasing work in an elegant binding fit for royalty. Title: Die Reise nach Californien. Nach dem französischen bearbeitet von Eduard Suhren. [A Voyage to California. From the French, edited by Edward Suhren.] The ambiguously titled manuscript may be a German rendition of the French theatrical opera by Dondey Dupré titled "Le voyage en Californie ou notice explicative du panorama" which concerned travels across the United States and explorations in the West - by John Charles Fremont, first explorer to cross the Sierra Nevada in winter, foremost US Senator, abolitionist, who prospered during the California Gold Rush. Content includes the explorer's sighting of pines in the Sierra Nevada oak forest at 3500 feet, melting gold, and so forth. Frémont's father was a native of France, who died only eight years after the French Revolution. As such, his gallant endeavours and accomplishments in the New World would certainly garner much attention in France, as with other European nations with colonies abroad. The French opera was first publicly performed 8 August 1850 in Paris, at the Théâtre des Variétés. Gontard, who met the queen, and dedicates this manuscript to her, may have been involved in a German production, performed for the House of Hanover. A full page dedication inscription, in French, is addressed to the Queen of Hanover, by Huguenot descendant Jakob Friedrich Moritz Gontard (1826-1886), chairman and administrator of the Städel art museum in Frankfurt, officially the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie. Queen consort of Hanover from 1851 to 1878, née Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, recipient of this dedicated manuscript, was the wife of King George V of Hanover, the last monarch of the short-lived Kingdom of Hanover. In his dedication, dated Hanover, 12 July 1855, Gontard thanks the monarch for having come to see his panorama at the International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées, stating that her visit inspired the work which forms the volume, and which he humbly offers to her. He references materials which were given to her onsite, which would elucidate the obscure details of the creative piece. The date indicates that King George V and Queen Marie of the short-lived Kingdom of Hanover attended the event in its first eight weeks. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom paid a visit to the Parisian Exhibition in August. Unique manuscript volume, bound in the Royal Court of Hanover, written at the height of the California Gold Rush and featuring historic Americana content. Manuscript