Thomas Sutton commonplace book

manuscript notebook

A commonplace book kept by Thomas Sutton starting on 5 November 1819 in which he records anecdotes, quotations, epigrams, drinking toasts, many directly related to his home Nottingham and indicate the pride he feels in its history and people. He begins with a passage from John Blackner’s “The history of Nottingham” (1815) extolling the virtue of Nottingham men with a passage recounting an episode during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, followed by several passages from a range of sources in praise of Nottingham and its men, prominent political figures — Lord Grafton, Lord Dundas, Thomas Paine — and stories of local personalities. Nottingham ale warrants several pages of discourse. He provides a lengthy account of a canal boat accident, which is illustrated with a line-drawn plan followed by an extract from Christian Ignatiyus Latrobe’s Journal of a visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816 about the destruction done by wolves at Groenekloof and the attempt of the missionaries and the native people to hunt them down and a confrontation with a tiger. Also included are copies of four letters sent by his uncle Charles Peck relating to his volunteering for an expedition to the Congo with Major Peddie, his trip along the River Gambia to Senegal, and a letter from Sierra Leone announcing his uncle’s death with a discussion of the money due him from the expedition. The remaining bulk of the volume contains excerpts from The Nottingham Review, toasts, poems by Pope, Thomas Paine, Robert Burns, Thomas Moore; comical stories as well as political events including the death of King George III. He provides a detailed, alphabetic list of the towns, boroughs, and remarkable villages in England and Wales. He relates a story about a wager laid by Colly Cibber and Pope; a woman named Jenny Hickling of Nottingham, bedridden for 61 years and other stories that piqued his attention. His interest in Africa continues in 1823 when he copies several pages from Campbell’s Travels in Africa.

  • Author: Sutton, Thomas, author.
  • Title: Thomas Sutton commonplace book : manuscript.
  • Production: Nottingham, England, 1819-1826.

Catalog Record

LWL Mss vol. 266

Acquired July 2021

Puzzled which to choose!!

“An African chief displays to a naval officer three black women, who stand together (right), grinning and coy, and absurdly squat and obese, with huge posteriors like those of the Hottentot Venus (see British Museum satire no. 11577). The officer, Lieut. Lyon, bows in profile to the right, right hand on his breast, staring with humorous and wary appraisal at the women. The chief, who smiles blandly, seated on a low slab, wears a huge nose-ring, a plume of ostrich feathers, and a sword for which his left ear serves as hilt. Immediately behind him is a bodyguard of four warriors holding tall spears on each of which a skull is transfixed. Two grin, one looks with sour possessiveness at the women. All the Africans are very negroid, and naked except for small aprons. Behind the women are more Africans, much amused. Behind Lyon stand an astonished naval officer and two amused military officers; all are in dress uniform. Behind these are grinning sailors and on the extreme left the tips of the bayonets of the escort, with a Union flag.”–British Museum online catalogue.

  • Printmaker: Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, printmaker.
  • Title: Puzzled which to choose!! or, the King of Timbuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. — {anticipated result of [the] African Mission} / [anchor] ; G. Cruikshank, sculpt.
  • Publication: London : Pubd. Octr. 10, 1818 by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James’s Street, [10 October 1818]

Catalog Record

818.10.10.01+

Acquired October 2017