CIRCULATED IN MANUSCRIPT BEFORE PUBLICATION
A Treatise concerninge ArchBishopps, Bishopps, Deanes, Chapters, Parsons, Viccars, Curats & other Ecclesiasticall personsm wth theire Confirmation, Consecration, Investure, presentation, Inductions & Institution with all things incident thereunfo. Devided Into sundry Chapters the contents whereof appeareth in the Table anneced to this Treatise. Written Anno Nono Caroli Regis. Annoq. Domini 1633.
[s.i.].
[s.n.], 1633.
Folio.
Manuscript on paper. [7], 127ff, [5]. With five terminal blank leaves. Contemporary polished calf, panelled in gilt and blind, with initials 'N P' impressed in blind to both boards around central gilt decoration. Rebacked to style, corners consolidated; a trifle rubbed, lacking ties. Occasional light marking, generally internally crisp and fresh. With the partially removed library blind- stamps of Hull Public library, and ink stamp to verso of title.
A Caroline compilation of ecclesiastical law - and specifically the rights, titles and interests of 'Patrons, Ordinaries and Incumbents to Ecclesaistical Dignities, Spiritual Promotions, Churches, and Benefices with Cure' - produced during a time of episcopal consolidation of the clerical hierarchy, and circulated in manuscript for some seven or eight years prior to publication as The Parson's Law (London, 1641).
Compiled by translator and legal writer William Hughes (1587/7-c.1663), who studied at St. Alban Hall, Oxford - later absorbed by Merton College - and was admitted to Grey's Inn in November 1606, the extended title of the printed version explains the work's sources; 'Collected Out of the whole body of the Common Law, and some late Reports'. Whilst the first printed edition was issued without introduction, the author's dedication, dated 1662, 'To all the Reverend Clergy of the Kingdom of England' which precedes the second (London, 1663) explains that before the publication of the work, he had 'delivered several Manuscript Copies' to 'some Eminent men of the Clergy, in An. Dom. 1634' and 'also to many other Honourable and Worthy persons...for their private use'. He continues that in 1636 'I delivered a perfect Manuscript Copy of it to the Right Honourable, then then Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench, to overview it, and have his Approbation'. Lord Bramston, we are told, 'finding it so much to concern the Church and Church-men in their Temporals...recommended it to the Right Reverend Father in God, William then Lord Archbishop of Canterbury', who in turn 'Transmitted it to some Learned Doctors of the Canon and Civil Laws, to consider whether there was any thing in that Manuscript, which might be prejudicial to the Church'. Upon receiving their approval that 'what was written...was for the Benefit and Advantage of the whole Clergy in general, and no ways against the Laws or Liberties of the Church', Laud is reported as having returned the manuscript to Bramston and 'not only gave his License, but laid his Command upon me, for the Imprinting and Publishing of it for the publick good'.
This manuscript copy, dated 1633 to the title leaf and on paper watermarked Cockatrice (very similar to Heawood 846, but with crozier above cyper and three balls), with titles and chapter headings in gothic or chancery cursive and the main body of the text in neat secretary hand, would appear to be one of the very earliest examples of the work which circulated in manuscript, preceding the first printed edition. Its composition in 27 chapters determines that the manuscript most definitely precedes the second and third editions of 1663 and 1673 (which were 'Reviewed and much enlarged by the Author' contained 29); but two textual differences between this copy and the printed edition of 1641 suggest this manuscript predates the latter: here f.119r refers to a case 'now depending' and f. 122r to a case 'now a...suite dependinge', whilst in the 1641 published edition the same matters are referred to as 'lately depending' (Hh8v) and 'late a question depending' (Ii2v). The same differences are present in the manuscript copy in Lambeth Palace library.
Frustratingly, the recipient of this copy is not identified in the text, and has not inscribed his name to the work. The only clue provided is by the initials on the binding, 'N P.'. Yet no English bishop of the period held these initials; the only partial lead that we have been able to trace is that another bound manuscript of a similar period, now held at the McLennan Library of McGill University (MS 85) and featuring the initials 'N.P .' to the boards is conjectured, as recorded by CELM AndL 49, to have been the property of Nicholas Preston, presumably the 6th Viscount Gormanston (1608-43).
Other manuscript copies of this work are known, including those held by BL (Hargrave MS 168), Harvard Law School Library (dated 1637, HLS MS 5111), Lambeth Palace (MS 311), New College Oxford (MS 329) and Trinity College Dublin.
Provenance: recently dispersed from the library of David Stather (1940- 2022), English solicitor and bibliophile. Previously in the reference collection of Hull Public Library.
£ 8,500.00
Antiquates Ref: 28248
Compiled by translator and legal writer William Hughes (1587/7-c.1663), who studied at St. Alban Hall, Oxford - later absorbed by Merton College - and was admitted to Grey's Inn in November 1606, the extended title of the printed version explains the work's sources; 'Collected Out of the whole body of the Common Law, and some late Reports'. Whilst the first printed edition was issued without introduction, the author's dedication, dated 1662, 'To all the Reverend Clergy of the Kingdom of England' which precedes the second (London, 1663) explains that before the publication of the work, he had 'delivered several Manuscript Copies' to 'some Eminent men of the Clergy, in An. Dom. 1634' and 'also to many other Honourable and Worthy persons...for their private use'. He continues that in 1636 'I delivered a perfect Manuscript Copy of it to the Right Honourable, then then Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Kings Bench, to overview it, and have his Approbation'. Lord Bramston, we are told, 'finding it so much to concern the Church and Church-men in their Temporals...recommended it to the Right Reverend Father in God, William then Lord Archbishop of Canterbury', who in turn 'Transmitted it to some Learned Doctors of the Canon and Civil Laws, to consider whether there was any thing in that Manuscript, which might be prejudicial to the Church'. Upon receiving their approval that 'what was written...was for the Benefit and Advantage of the whole Clergy in general, and no ways against the Laws or Liberties of the Church', Laud is reported as having returned the manuscript to Bramston and 'not only gave his License, but laid his Command upon me, for the Imprinting and Publishing of it for the publick good'.
This manuscript copy, dated 1633 to the title leaf and on paper watermarked Cockatrice (very similar to Heawood 846, but with crozier above cyper and three balls), with titles and chapter headings in gothic or chancery cursive and the main body of the text in neat secretary hand, would appear to be one of the very earliest examples of the work which circulated in manuscript, preceding the first printed edition. Its composition in 27 chapters determines that the manuscript most definitely precedes the second and third editions of 1663 and 1673 (which were 'Reviewed and much enlarged by the Author' contained 29); but two textual differences between this copy and the printed edition of 1641 suggest this manuscript predates the latter: here f.119r refers to a case 'now depending' and f. 122r to a case 'now a...suite dependinge', whilst in the 1641 published edition the same matters are referred to as 'lately depending' (Hh8v) and 'late a question depending' (Ii2v). The same differences are present in the manuscript copy in Lambeth Palace library.
Frustratingly, the recipient of this copy is not identified in the text, and has not inscribed his name to the work. The only clue provided is by the initials on the binding, 'N P.'. Yet no English bishop of the period held these initials; the only partial lead that we have been able to trace is that another bound manuscript of a similar period, now held at the McLennan Library of McGill University (MS 85) and featuring the initials 'N.P .' to the boards is conjectured, as recorded by CELM AndL 49, to have been the property of Nicholas Preston, presumably the 6th Viscount Gormanston (1608-43).
Other manuscript copies of this work are known, including those held by BL (Hargrave MS 168), Harvard Law School Library (dated 1637, HLS MS 5111), Lambeth Palace (MS 311), New College Oxford (MS 329) and Trinity College Dublin.
Provenance: recently dispersed from the library of David Stather (1940- 2022), English solicitor and bibliophile. Previously in the reference collection of Hull Public Library.
