[Rarebooks] fa: BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA 1747-57 - ExLibris Bluestocking MARY HAMILTON (DICKENSON)

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 18. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y6juu7vd

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Biographia Britannica: or, The Lives of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest Ages, down to the present Times: collected from the best Authorities, both Printed and Manuscript, and digested in the Manner of Mr Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary. London: Printed for W. Innys, W. Meadows, [et al], 1747-1757. Four volumes (only). Tall, heavy folios (37 cm; 14.5 in) in later, but not recent, half morocco, with gilt-lettered spines, endpapers renewed; xvi, 2877 pp. ESTC T139262.

The first four volumes, covering "Aaron and Julius" (martyrs) through "Knox, John"; a fifth would be published in 1760 and a sixth (in two parts) in 1765-66. Modest wear to the bindings; faint evidence of bookplates removed from the front paste-downs and a few, very occasional light inkstamps in the margins, text blocks a little toned and dust-soiled at the top edge, occasional mild browning, damp-staining and spotting, but generally very clean and sound, firmly bound.

From the library of a well-known "bluestocking" of the period, with her early signatures as Mary Hamilton (of) St. James's Palace, and afterwards as Mary Dickenson (of) Leighton House, Bedfordshire, and Taxal, Cheshire. A brief biography of the woman is provided by the website Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers, created by the Rylands Library at the University of Manchester, where her papers now reside: "Mary Hamilton (1756-1816) was one of the most well-connected and highly cultured women in eighteenth-century British polite society... As a young woman, she was recruited as a royal governess by Queen Charlotte, who showed great trust in her – despite the fact that Mary was pursued amorously by the young Prince of Wales, with whom she managed to maintain a chaste friendship. After leaving Court in January 1783, Hamilton became a member of the Bas Bleu (Bluestocking) circle; she counted Hannah More, Frances Burney, the Duchess of Portland, Mary Delany and Eva Maria Garrick among her literary friends. She dined frequently at the houses of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Horace Walpole and met Samuel Johnson on several occasions. Throughout this time, she maintained a meticulously detailed diary, recording her daily activities, conversations and private thoughts. She had lifelong friendships with a number of female friends, and a fond and mutually supportive relationship with her uncle Sir William Hamilton, ambassador to the Court of Naples, an art collector possibly best known for his second wife's relationship with Nelson. In 1785 Mary Hamilton married John Dickenson (c1757-1842), only son of John Dickenson of Birch Hall, near Manchester. Mary's husband was quickly accepted into her social circles. They had one child, Louisa, born 1787, and lived variously in Taxal (near Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire), Leighton Buzzard, and London. Mary Dickenson (née Hamilton) fell ill and died in 1816."