An anthology of witticisms and anecdotes predominantly concerning notable figures and events of the eighteenth century, with selections pertaining to the Jacobite Rising of 1745, The French Revolution, Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift, and the American polymath Benjamin Franklin. With an engraved frontispiece depicting the interior of a bustling coffee house: Coffee House companion or rare news!’. Signed: Rt. Newman sculp.
Title: The lounger’s pocket- book : being a selection of the best observations, bons-mots, anecdotes historical and entertaining, of the distinguished characters in this and the last century. To which are added some remarkable pieces of poetry / by J.M. Esq. officer in the army.
Manuscript account book of Thomas Tipton of Brislington near Bristol. Detailed record of his purchases of haberdashery and fabrics being particularly extensive. Improvements to his garden and house, including disbursements to different builders, masons and carpenters, rental income from a property in Mary Port Street in Bristol and other locations, loans, investments in shares in the Kennet and Avon Canal, clothing, medical expenses, school fees, and his purchases of food and wine are present, in many instances together with the names of Bristol residents and tradespeople. Interspersed are a variety of miscellaneous jottings, including poetry, births and deaths of family and acquaintances, and snippets of news on local trials.
Title: Thomas Tipton accounts and memoranda book : manuscript
A collection of approximately 215 invoices and receipts made out to attorney Charles Wren or his wife Mary, dated 1793-1796, issued primarily by tradesmen and businesses in London and Newcastle, that document the personal and household expenses of a prosperous provincial lawyer and his family. Business was transacted with London tradesmen including tea merchants Richard & John Twining, law book publisher Joseph Butterworth, and jeweler Robert Makepeace of Serle Street. Also includes a letter from Mr. Morley thanking Wren for an introduction Revd. Mr. Ellison and promising the delivery of goods in a “tea chest”. Wren was a member of the Newcastle “News Rooms” as evidenced by his subscription receipt dated 1795. From a local bookseller he purchased, among other titles, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and James Cook’s Voyages. The records include a lengthy estimate and invoice for repairs to Wren’s carriage by the coach builder and ship owner Caleb Angus (1743-1831), and an invoice from a saddler Edmund Robson. Other invoices document Wren’s stays at inns and a wide range of expenses for the maintenance of his property including wallpaper and carpentry, kitchen supplies and equipment, cleaning of marble fireplace, expenses for medicines, coals, the purchase of wine, brandies and other provisions, and amounts paid for tailoring and haberdashery, for fabric for his wife, shoes and boots, and the school fees for his stepson. The invoices and receipts are nearly all autograph manuscripts; there are no illustrated billheads in the collection. There are no receipts dated 1792.
Title: Charles Wren financial papers, 1774, 1785 -1796.
Frontispiece: The Royal procession of Queen Elizabeth to visit the Rt. Honourable Henry Carey Lord Hunsdon … from an original painting. Horace Walpole’s copy, with his engraved armorial bookplate
Title: Memoirs of the life of Robert Carey, Baron of Leppington, and Earl of Monmouth. / Written by himself, and now published from an original manuscript in the custody of John Earl of Corke and Orrery. With some explanatory notes.
Author: Monmouth, Robert Carey, Earl of, approximately 1560-1639, author
Title: A narrative of the mysterious and dreadful murder of Mr. W. Weare : containing the examination before the magistrates, the Coroner’s Inquest, the confession of Hunt, and other particulars previous to the trial, collected from the best sources of intelligence : with anecdotes of Weare, Thurtell, Hunt, Probert, and others, and a full report of the trial, and subsequent execution at Hertford.
A manuscript purporting to be the ancient history of a secret society dedicated to the founded by four friends “on a Winter Ev’ning, at Gravesend” devoted to the worship of the ‘Squa’ (the word used here to mean not a woman or wife but her sexual organs). Written in pen and pencil on vellum, largely in an italic hand, with some pages suggest several contributors, in a brushed leather volume, bound in the middle of the volume preceded by and followed approximately 20 leaves of laid paper. Attributed to Francis Webb based on internal evidence” Frank quickly took the pen.” Other identities from internal references to the members, George, Will, Tom and Frank, correspond to contemporary pencil notes on last page — George Cooper, Dr. William Perry, Thomas Masterson, and Francis Webb — three of whom either lived in Gravesend or had some connection.
Title: On the origin, antiquity, mature and obligations of the ancient and honorable Society of the Squa’s : manuscript.
Creator: Webb, Francis, 1735-1815, attributed name
A chapbook of riddles in verse, comical questions, and merry tales, probably printed by J. Drewry. Includes 24 woodcut illustrations, including two each on the front and back wrappers.
Title: A new riddle book, or, A whetstone for dull wits.
