A Quebec coda

This blog has gone silent of late, as I have been diverted from cataloguing by an endeavour to list what is where in the stacks, in the hope that we can find things when people ask to see them! But among the books bequeathed to the College by the novelist and Egyptologist Amelia B. Edwards is a copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern, on the front cover of which is lettered in gilt "Quebec Chapel. Not to be taken away". So it's possible that Amelia Edwards (1831-1892) attended the Quebec Chapel during the time of the Revd Henry Alford, of whom I wrote in March 2012.

Premature death of a learned daughter

Long gap since my last post -- during which I've been trying to get the books catalogued, instead of getting distracted by going off at tangents investigating their provenance, and also sort out the ones which were hurriedly moved out during building works and then moved back in with no chance to keep them in any sort of order!

We recently received a large bequest from Patricia Norman, who studied Modern Languages at Somerville 1939-1942. The collection was mostly modern copies of English, French and Czech literature, but it also included a copy of Emblems Divine and Moral: Together with Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man, written by Francis Quarles and published in London in 1777. On the front fly-leaf is an inscription: "Jane Norton Bayley - Feb. 14th 1794 - The Gift of her Father the Revd C. Bayley DD Minister of St James's Church Manchester". I tried Googling "Bayley St James Manchester", not expecting to find much, but discovered that he was one of those distinguished but obscure clergymen of whom the old Dictionary of National Biography  was rather fond, from an interesting period in English religious history when Methodism was becoming distinct from Anglicanism. His father had been a Methodist, his mother an Anglican; he himself became a Methodist preacher, but was then ordained into the Church of England, although he continued to preach for the Methodists for a few years. He was himself responsible for the building of St James's, of which he was the first incumbent; he was a popular preacher, and also a noted Hebrew scholar. So then I tried Googling "Jane Norton Bayley", and discovered an obituary of her in The Christian Guardian  for January 1811: she had died the previous October, aged only 23, and is described as having been a student of the Scriptures in the original languages -- "was considered by those who knew her well, as a critic in the Hebrew, and could read the Greek Testament, with ease and fluency." So it seems entirely appropriate that she should be connected with a Somervillian who read Modern Languages.

The stout yeoman and (among others) the father-lasher and the coney-fish

A History of British Fishes, by William Yarrell; the third edition, edited by Sir John Richardson. 2 vols, 1859.

Mr Yarrell having died in 1856, this edition includes a memoir of him, in which he is described thus: "His aspect was that of a stout yeoman ... his mild but fearless eye, and his open forehead, showed, even to a stranger, a man at peace with himself and with his fellow men." His portrait does indeed show a man with an open countenance, and an intent gaze, as if he is considering what the species and characteristics of the portrait-maker might be. He was a great collector and student of natural history specimens, and his History of British Fishes was first published serially in 1835-36; according to the Oxford DNB, in this work "he paid particular attention to species that were a source of food, and he would often eat the specimens he collected to test whether they might be added to those known to be fit for the table." He also seems to have been a careful collector of vernacular fish-names -- my eye was caught by the long-spined sea bullhead, also known as the father-lasher, rock dolphin or lucky proach; the ocellated blenny, or butterfly fish; the great pipe-fish or needle-fish, known in Scotland as the tangle-fish; the twaite-shad; and the burbot or eelpout, "sometimes called the Coney-fish, from its habit of lurking and hiding itself in holes like a rabbit."

A linguistic pioneer

In a series of reprints of French historical documents comes L'éclaircissement de la langue française, by Jean Palsgrave, published in Paris in 1852. That's interesting, I thought - a Frenchman with what looks like an English surname. Then I came to a facsimile of the title page of the original (published in 1530), where he is described as "maistre Jehan Palsgraue Angloys natyf de Londres" and to the main text, which is in English (albeit Tudor English - "The true soundynge of the french tonge resteth in gyvyng to every frenche worde by hymselfe his naturall frenche sounde, and in soundynge frenche wordes, as they come to gether in sentences, lyke as the frenchmen use to do" - and some of it somewhat technical - "In the thyrde accident, that is to say, circumlocutynge of the preter tenses they differ moche from verbes actives"). So I looked up Palsgrave in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and found John Palsgrave, died 1554 - an interesting man, who was tutor to Henry VIII's sister Mary prior to her marriage to King Louis XII of France, and later to Henry's illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. His great work on the French language was a pioneering endeavour to enable speakers of English to converse fluently in French as it was spoken at the time, which he did by means of in-depth linguistic analysis of the vernacular of both languages, making him a fascinating source for the history of both languages.

Another distinctive name

Two dialogues in English, between a doctor of divinity, and a student in the laws of England, of the grounds of the said laws, and of conscience (London, 1687) has an ownership signature of Lupton Topham -- whose name reminds me irresistibly of Lipton's Tea! Do a Google search, and the first result which comes up is the online version of the Victoria County History, for vol. 1 of the history of the North Riding of Yorkshire, entry for the parish of Coverham, from which I learn the following:

"The Fitz Hughs retained Bellerby, and in 1518 Sir Thomas Parr was said to have died seised of the manor of Coverham, although his title was disputed by Lord Scrope of Bolton. The manor probably escheated on the attainder of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, in 1553. From this time its descent is obscure, but it was probably, like the demesne lands of Middleham (q.v.), mortgaged by the Crown and ultimately sold to the freeholders. From the freeholders it has probably been purchased in recent times by the Tophams, Thomas Topham being lord in 1879 and Mr. Lupton Topham Topham of Lutterworth, Leicestershire ... being the present lord."

I am learning miscellaneous heraldic terms, in pursuit of the identification of owners of heraldic bookplates, but I think mastering the technicalities of land tenure terms is probably beyond the call of duty!

The next Google result takes me to ancestry.com, which has records for three Lupton Tophams, the first of whom (born 1702, died 1769) was born to parents named Christopher Topham and Barbara Lupton, but the other two of whom had fathers named William and William Watkinson -- plus a Lupton Topham Topham whose father was Edward Charles Topham. So the name doesn't seem to have passed directly from father to son. There is probably an extremely tedious thesis to be written on the subject of the use of surnames as forenames ... !

More and more Moriers

(or possibly - those of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away now - The More The Morier)

An Enquiry into the Foundation and History of the Law of Nations in Europe (2 vols, 1795), by Robert Ward, has the signature D. R. Morier on the title page. Looking this up on OLIS, the University library catalogue, I found: Morier, David R. (David Richard), 1784-1877. Looking up David Richard Morier in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, I found I'd already looked up his son, Sir Robert Morier, while researching Sir Robert's grand-daughter, who became the Hon. Mrs Cunnack (see entry for 24 May 2012). But the bookplates in Ward's Enquiry state clearly "d.d. The Hon. Mrs Cunnock, 1955" -- given that title and date are the same, and the surname differs in only one letter, I think this must be a lapse in concentration on the part of a predecessing librarian. Next on the shelf is The Law of Natiions, Founded on the Treaties and Customs of the Modern Nations of Europe, translated from the German of Prof. G. F. von Martens and published in 1803. On the title page are three signatures: in the middle, below the title, is that of D. R. Morier; below it, above the imprint, is that of R. B. D. Morier, with the date March 1855 -- that must be D.R.'s son, Robert Burnet David -- and at the top of the title page is another Morier signature, with initials J. P., and in the ODNB is an entry for D.R.'s eldest brother, John Philip. All three Moriers were diplomats, who would have had an interest in international law. Given the coincidence of initials, I think it's certain that the Morier family who owned these books and the Moriers in the ODNB are the same, and that the Hon. Mrs Cunnack (not Cunnock) is the former Hon. Alice Elizabeth Millicent Erskine-Wemyss (although I still don't know her connection to Somerville).

Another exotic-looking name

Bound with the Manuel des consuls de commerce is a copy, published in 1826, of De la juridiction des consuls de France a l'étranger, by the Chevalier Laget de Podio -- about whom I can find nothing, save that a M. Laget de Podio was among those on board the Carlo Alberto arrested during the Duchesse de Berri's failed attempt to restore the Bourbon monarchy in 1832.