George Cavendish

1494–c.1562

Introduction

George Cavendish, erstwhile gentleman usher to Cardinal Wolsey, is celebrated for his Life of Wolsey, written during the reign of Queen Mary. His autograph manuscript still survives (*CvG 4). So also do at least forty-seven sixteenth- and seventeenth-century manuscript copies (CvG 4-9, CvG 11-16, CvG 18-20, CvG 24-28 , CvG 30-44, CvG 46-57), all apparently deriving from a textual tradition slightly different from the autograph manuscript. The majority in non-professional hands, and possibly copied mainly in Catholic circles, they bear witness to the popularity and extensive manuscript dissemination of this biography, which was not published until 1825. The copies are also supplemented by manuscript extracts (CvG 17, CvG 21-23, CvG 29, CvG 45), as well as an annotated printed text (CvG 10).

A less widely circulated work by Cavendish is his series of verse lamentations known as Metrical Visions, which also exists in his autograph manuscript (*CvG 1).

Abbreviations

Edwards: A.S.G. Edwards, Unrecorded Manuscripts of George Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, N&Q, 254 (December 2009), 513.
Singer: George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (Chiswick, 1825).
Sylvester: The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, EETS, orig. ser. 243 (London, New York and Toronto, 1959).

Verse

Metrical Visions ('In the monyth of Iune / I lyeng sole alon')

A series of poetical lamentations, comprising 2425 lines, on the deaths (the majority by execution) of Cardinal Wolsey, George, Viscount Rochford, Sir Henry Borris, sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, Henry Pole, Baron Montague, Catherine Howard, her lover Culpeper, Viscountess Rochford, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Henry VIII, Thomas Seymour, Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Miles Partridge, Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, and Queen Mary.

First published in George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (London, 1825). Metrical Visions by George Cavendish, ed. A.S.G. Edwards (Columbia, SC, 1980).

*CvG 1

Autograph

Autograph, the leaves bound in the wrong sequence (the correct order being ff. 94r-112v, 128r-9v, 134r-47v, 130r-1v, 114r-27v, 132r-3v, 113r-v, 149v-51r, 148v-9r), untitled, recorded in the colophon as finished le xxiiii^er jour de Iunii annus regnorum Philippi Rex et Regine Marie / iiii^th and v^th [i.e. 24 June 1558].

Edited from this MS in Singer and in Edwards. Also discussed by A.S.G. Edwards in The Author as Scribe: Cavendish's Metrical Visions and MS Egerton 2402, The Library, 5th Ser. 29 (1974), 446-9, and in his The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2.1 (Winter, 1978), 3-62.

Autograph MS volume of works by George Cavendish, 154 small folio leaves in all.

c.1556-8

Owned in the 17th/18th century by Clement Rossington of Dronfield, Derbyshire, possibly acquired from the family of William Burton (1575-1645), Leicestershire antiquary. Later owned by the genealogical collector Thomas Lloyd; by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector; and by the Rev. Thomas Corser (1793-1876), book collector. Sotheby's, 13 December 1876 Corser sale), lot 453. Cape's & Co.'s, Manchester, 18 December 1876 (9th part of the Corser sale).

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 2402 ff. 94r-151r)

CvG 2

Copy, headed diuers Elegiecall Poems upon sundry persons, transcribed from British Library Egerton MS 2402 or a transcript of it, with four stanzas omitted but including an additional stanza, p. 279.

This MS recorded in Edwards and in his The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2.1 (Winter, 1978), 3-62, as also in Sylvester, with the additional stanza edited, p. 279.

A folio composite volume of state and heraldic tracts, in various professional hands (including that of the Feathery Scribe), 370 leaves.

Assembled, annotated, and copiously indexed by Sir William Dugdale (1605-86), antiquary and herald. Inscribed (f. 8v) Thomas Longman.

Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 254-5 (No. 87), with facsimiles of ff. 145v and 178r on pp. 99 and 98.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Dugdale 28 ff. 228v-64)

CvG 3

A three-leaf fragment of a MS copy of the work, comprising verses 2279-2425, in the hand of Thomas Lloyd, headed An Epitaph on our late Queen Mary and here beginning Descend from hevyn O muses Melpomene, subscribed Finis et compile le xxiiij jour de Junij a^s. regnor philip Rex et Reg Mariæ iiij & 5 p le Auctor GC, transcribed from Egerton MS 2402, on three quarto leaves. Early 19th century.

This MS recorded in Edwards and in his The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2.1 (Winter, 1978), 3-62 (pp. 59-60).

A large folio composite volume of heraldic and state papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 112 leaves, in 19th-century half brown calf.

Collected by Thomas Lloyd, London wine merchant and collector of genealogical materials. His library sale (final portion), at Sotheby's, 14 October 1843, lot 193, to Thomas Rodd (1796-1849), bookseller. Purchased from him 14 October 1843.

This MS recorded in Edwards.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 10000 through 14999 (Add. MS 14410 ff. 100r-2v)

Prose

The Life of Cardinal Wolsey

First published in George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (Chiswick, 1825). The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, EETS, orig. ser. 243 (London, New York and Toronto, 1959).

*CvG 4

Autograph

Autograph, lacking the first leaf of the prologue.

Edited from this MS in Singer and, with a facsimile example of f. 88v, in Sylvester. Facsimile example of f. 90r in Petti, English Literary Hands (1977), No. 22.

Autograph MS volume of works by George Cavendish, 154 small folio leaves in all.

c.1556-8

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 2402 ff. 4r-93r)

CvG 5

Copy, headed The Life of Cardinal Wolsey written by M^r Banister his gentlem-ush^r, subscribed Vpon the 30^th day of June towards the evening in y^e yeere of Christ. 1609. I began to copie out this booke, & vpon the 0. 3. day of July next following I ended it. R b' t Sprakeling.

A folio volume of historical tracts, in several secretary hands, 167 pages, in modern purple calf.

c.1609-20s

Bequeathed by Dr George Coningsby, 1766.

Balliol College, Oxford (MS 270 pp. 1-146)

CvG 6

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall, his life and death, written by George Cavendish his gentleman vsher, with some additions (after f. 71) copied in a later hand from the printed edition of 1641, 235 quarto pages, in vellum (a recycled legal document dated 1705).

c.1600

Inscription largely obliterated by ink Erat ex libris prenoblis Georgii Berkley.

Sylvester, No. 8.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, other shelfmarks (MS Rawl. D. 104)

CvG 7

Copy, untitled.

This MS recorded in Sylvester, p. 278.

A double-folio-size composite volume of historical tracts and papers, many relating to state arraignments, in a single professional secretary hand up to p. 527, xxiv + 552 pages (plus blank pp. 553-684), in red morocco elaborately gilt.

c.1610 [with addition to c.1630]

Presented to the Bodleian in 1620 by Sir Peter Manwood (1571-1625), judge and antiquary.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Bodl. 966 pp. 93-189)

CvG 8 1578

Copy, with gilt decoration and a series of pen and ink illustrations (a procession, coloured, f. 52v; battle scene, f. 57r; procession, f. 58r; executed head, f. 61r; delivery of a seal, coloured, f. 71r; King's visit to the sick Cardinal, f. 76r; Cardinal's burial, f. 91r); inscribed (f. 93r) Copied forthe by S. B [i.e. Stephen Balman] An^o 1578 the first daye of September &c.

Sylvester, No. 2, with the first page (f. 48), missing in British Library Egerton MS 2402, used as his copytext. Two illustrations reproduced in Singer, I, 181 and 221.

A large folio formal miscellany of verse and prose, in a single accomplished hand, that of Stephen Batman, DD (d.1584), 146 leaves, in half-calf gilt.

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce 363 ff. 48r-93v)

CvG 9

An abridgment of the work.

Sylvester, No. 3.

A folio composite volume of state and heraldic tracts, in various professional hands (including that of the Feathery Scribe), 370 leaves.

Assembled, annotated, and copiously indexed by Sir William Dugdale (1605-86), antiquary and herald. Inscribed (f. 8v) Thomas Longman.

Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 254-5 (No. 87), with facsimiles of ff. 145v and 178r on pp. 99 and 98.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Dugdale 28 ff. 220r-8r)

CvG 10

Extensive emendations and deletions to the text in a printed exemplum of Cavendish's The Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey (8vo, London, 1667), in contemporary calf.

In the small italic hand of Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726), scholar and librarian, for an intended new edition, some notes on slips of paper pinned or tipped in, the alterations transcribed from one of the early manuscript sources (comprising 74 leaves, probably British Library Harley MS 428), a list of seven MSS known to him supplied at the beginning.

c.1676

The front free endpaper inscribed W^m: Herbert 1773 [i.e. William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and print seller] and The corrections in this book are made from one of the MS. copies…Mary Coney her Booke 1676. Among the collections of Richard Gough, FSA (1735-1809), antiquary and topographer.

Sylvester, No. 4 (and see note on p. 288).

Bodleian Library, other MSS (Gough Oxford 22)

CvG 11

Copy, untitled, in a professional hand, 196 folio leaves, in contemporary vellum gilt.

c.1630

Among collections of the Rev. Henry Jones (d.1707), nonjuror.

Sylvester, No. 5.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Jones 12)

CvG 12 Early 17th century

Copy, in a professional hand, subscribed by him Finis Per me Thoma Woodcock: i.e. the printer Thomas Woodcock (d.1693).

Sylvester, No. 6.

A folio composite volume of ecclesiastical tracts, iii + 356 leaves, in half-vellum boards.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Jones 14 ff. 1r-97v.)

CvG 13

Copy, in the professional hand of the notary public William Langham, 128 folio leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf, the initials W L stamped in gilt on the cover.

Subscribed (f. 128r) Ex manuscripto Rogeri Manwood [i.e. Sir Roger Manwood (1524/5-92), judge] olim Capitalis Baronis de Scaccario dnæ Elizabethæ nvper Reginæ Angliæ fideliter extract Per me Gulielmu Langham Notarium publicum.

1613

Inscribed variously (f. i^r) Willmus Langham me Jure tenet Ann^o Dni 161[3]; (f. ii^r) Willmus Vaughanis me Jure tenet Anno Dni 1613; and (f. 1r) Liber Guil. Laude Archiepi Cant et Cancillarij Vniuersit Oxon. 1636. Among collections of William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury.

This MS recorded in Sylvester, pp. 280-1.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Laud misc. 591)

CvG 14

Copy, in a single calligraphic hand, 154 leaves.

In the hand of Edward Norgate (1581-1650), miniature painter, musician, writer on art, and Windsor Herald.

Early 17th century

Sotheby's, 21 June 1960, lot 467, to N.J. Barker.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 2).

Brigham Young University (MS: Vaults Collection Quarto 091 C315)

CvG 15

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (A: ff. 3r-11r; B: ff. 11v-186v), a third cursive secretary adding the last seven lines of f. 49v, 186 folio leaves.

Early 17th century

Owned in 1759 by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian (his notes on f. 2r misidentifying the author).

Sylvester, No. 9.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 4101 through 4999 (Add. MS 4233)

CvG 16

Copy, the heading (Thomas Wolseyes the Cardinalls liffe and deathe written by George Candishe his gent vsher) and first six lines of the prologue in the hand of Robert Beale, the rest in one or more professional secretary hands; followed (ff. 175r-82v) by notes in a similar hand, entitled by Beale The Supplementes or defectes in the booke of Cardinall Wolseys life and fall made by Georg Candish. Late 16th century.

Sylvester, No. 10.

A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in several professional secretary hands, 374 leaves, in contemporary limp vellum, with ties.

Yelverton MS 72, among papers of Sir Henry Yelverton (1566-1629), Justice of the Common Pleas, and his family, including papers descending from Robert Beale (1541-1601), Clerk of the Privy Council.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 45000 through 49999 (Add. MS 48066 ff. 90r-165v)

CvG 17 1641

Extracts relating to Anne Boleyn.

A composite collection of miscellaneous papers, now divided into two folio volumes (Part 1, ff. 1-199; Part 2, ff. 200-487), in various hands and paper sizes, originally in vellum, now each part in modern half-morocco.

Volume I of the papers of the Wyatt family, of Allington Castle, Boxley, and Quex, Kent, including (ff. 332r-58v) quarto booklets of verse, in a rounded italic hand, possibly compiled, c.1630, by Sir Francis Wyatt (1575-1644), Governor of Virginia (although according to an uncertain note on f. 358v all the hand writing of S^r H Wiat).

Later owned by Bradford Denne Hawkins, vicar of Rivenhall, Essex; by Lionel Oliver, of Hencham, King's Lynn; and then in 1872, by Charles Marsham (1808-74), third Earl of Romney. Formerly Loan MS 15/Part 2 (Wyatt Commonplace Book).

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 60000 through end (Add. MS 62135 Part 1, ff. 96r-7v)

CvG 18

Copy, in a professional mixed hand, headed The Discourse of the life and death of Cardinall Woolsey, unascribed, imperfect, lacking the ending. Early 17th century.

This MS believed by Humfrey Wanley to have been corrected from British Library, Harley MS 428: see his notes in Bodleian, Gough Oxford 22.

Sylvester, No. 11.

A folio volume of state tracts, in various professional hands, 522 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 1 through 999 (Harley MS 35 ff. 342r-51r)

CvG 19

Copy.

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed The discourse of the lyffe & deathe of Cardinall Woolsey, inscribed written by one of his servants, Cavendish added in another hand, 74 folio leaves (plus numerous blanks), in quarter-calf marbled boards.

Late 16th-early 17th century

Later owned by John Strype (1643-1737), ecclesiastical historian and biographer, who obtained it from Mr. Woodward.

Sylvester, No. 12.

The British Library: Harley Collection, numbers 1 through 999 (Harley MS 428)

CvG 20

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (A: ff. 1r-92v, 103r-11v; B: ff. 93r-102v), 111 folio leaves, imperfect, lacking all text up to the middle of Chapter V and all text after the beginning of the last chapter.

Early 17th century

Sylvester, No. 13.

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 904)

CvG 21

Extracts, headed The Life of Tho. Wolsey. Arch bishop of York.

A quarto commonplace book of extracts from theological and historical works, largely in a single minute hand, 116 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

c.1673

Inscribed (f. 10v) Gaue these Book to M^r Norman to Couer.

The British Library: Sloane Collection (Sloane MS 719 f. 56r)

CvG 22 Early 17th century

Extracts, in an italic hand, headed Tho: Wolsey card: life & death by Cavendysh his gent: vsher:.

Sylvester, No. 14.

A quarto composite volume of miscellaneous works and memoranda, in several hands, 32 leaves, in modern quarter-morocco gilt.

The British Library: Sloane Collection (Sloane MS 848 f. 14r-v)

CvG 23

Various extracts, incorporated in materials for a life of Fisher.

Sylvester, No. 14a.

A folio volume of documents relating principally to John Fisher (c.1469-1535), Bishop of Rochester, Catholic saint, 313 leaves, imperfect.

Mid-16th century

The British Library: other MSS (Arundel MS 152 passim)

CvG 24

Copy, among other texts on a sheaf of long narrow ledger-size leaves.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 1).

A folio miscellany of tracts, letters, plays and verse, for the most part in a single secretary hand, partly on inserted sheaves of long narrow ledger-size leaves, written from both ends, 248 leaves, in contempoary vellum with metal clasps.

Compiled by a University of Cambridge man.

Early 17th century

Inscribed at the end Josephus Diggins me possedit: i.e. by Joseph Diggins, of Clare Hall, Cambridge (matric. 1607, d.1658). Christie's, 5 December 1973, lot 84, to Hofmann & Freeman.

Cambridge University Library, Additional MSS 7000 through end (MS Add. 7958 ff. 160v-124r rev.)

CvG 25

Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, with a title-page, The Life and Death of M^r Thomas Wolsey Arch=Bishop of Yorke and Cardinall. Written by George Cavendish his Gentleman Vsher, 86 folio leaves, in quarter-calf marbled boards.

Early 17th century

Inscribed (f. 1r) Tho: Nott [? Sir Thomas Nott (1606-81), of Pembroke College, Cambridge, royalist army officer] and (on a flyleaf) From the library of Richard Holdsworth, D.D. [(1590-1649)], Master of Emmanuel College. 1664.

Sylvester, No. 23.

Cambridge University Library, shelfmarks M through end (MS Mm. 3. 6)

CvG 26

Copy, in a single professional hand, headed after the Prologue The life and death of Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall, written by George Cavendish his gent.vsher, 172 folio leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

Copy, 172 folio leaves.

c.1630

Sylvester, No. 15.

Christ Church, Oxford (MS 154)

CvG 27

Copy, in a single cursive hand, except for ff. 53-58, 114 tall folio leaves (plus blanks), in old boards, dated on a flyleaf 10 December 1741.

Early 18th century

Transcribed from an ancient manuscript [? CvG 26] at the expence of the Rev. John Blackbourn, MA, of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose widow donated it, via the Rev. Dr Tookie, to Christ Church on 10 December 1741.

Sylvester, No. 16.

Christ Church, Oxford (MS 155)

CvG 28

Copy, in a single hand, headed Cardinall Wolseys Life, on 92 leaves.

Sylvester, p. 286.

A quarto volume of miscellaneous papers.

Donated in 1678 by Henry Howard (1628-84), sixth Duke of Norfolk.

College of Arms (MS Arundel 51 item 2)

CvG 29

Extracts, headed S^r. Willm Cavendish Memoirs of the Life of Cardinal Woolsey, in the Preface.

A folio volume of verse and prose extracts, those on pp. 321-7 headed Observables of a Miscellaneous Nature, those on pp. 367-77 Witty Sentences, in a single cursive secretary hand, 377 pages (including numerous blanks), in reversed brown calf.

Among the family collection established by Christopher Mickleton (1612-69), Durham attorney, and by his eldest son James (1638-93), lawyer and antiquary, which was later incorporated in the collections of Gilbert Spearman (1675-1738), lawyer and antiquary.

1699-1711

Durham University Library (Mickleton & Spearman MS 5 p. 374)

CvG 30

Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, headed Thomas Wolsey Caraman, intituled S^t: Cicelie, trans Tiberim presbiter, & Lo: Chauncellor of England, his lyffe & death written by George Cavendish, on 51 of 52 folio leaves (some other verse and prose on ff. 51v-2r), in contemporary limp vellum.

c.1600

Inscribed on a flyleaf Roger Bradshaigh Booke 1659. Formerly Folger MS 759.1.

Sylvester, No. 27.

The Folger Shakespeare Library: V.b. series (MS V.b.111)

CvG 31

Copy, in a professional cursive hand, with a title-page in engrossed lettering The life of Master Thomas Wolsey Archbishoppe of yorke and Cardinall, written by George Cavendish his Gentleman Vsher, 109 folio leaves (plus blanks), in old calf.

c.1600s

From the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 6930. No 1321 in an unidentified sale catalogue. From the library of Arthur Vicars, FSA, Ulster King of Arms. Acquired in 1946 from George Bates.

Recorded in Sylvester, p. 287.

Harvard, other MSS (MS Eng 764)

CvG 32

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with six lines added in pencil in another 17th-century hand at the foot of f. 36v, untitled, but headed on f. 1r in a later hand Life of Cardinal Wolsey by his Gentleman Usher Sir W. Cavendish, 123 + iii folio leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

c.1600

Both covers stamped in gilt HENRIE FARLEIGH, apparently a writer connected with St Paul's from 1616 to 1622. Later owned by Samuel Weller Singer (1783-1858), literary scholar, and in the library of Bernard Howard (1765-1842), twelfth Duke of Norfolk. Thorpe's sale catalogue (1836), item 201. In the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9796. Sotheby's, 6 June 1898 (Phillipps sale), lot 1145, to Baker. Pearson's Shakespeare catalogue (1899), I, pp. 73-4, item 147. Sold in 1906 to Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935), of Providence, Rhode Island, industrialist, banker, and book collector. Purchased in 1919 by A.S.E. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia bookseller, collector and scholar.

Sylvester, No. 29.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 182)

CvG 33 c.1620s

Copy of a possibly abridged version, in a professional secretary hand, headed Notes of the life of Cardinall Wolsey written by George Cavendish his get vsher.

A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in several professional hands, 302 leaves (plus blanks), in red morocco gilt.

Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 19 ff. 37r-60v)

CvG 34

Copy, untitled.

A folio volume of state papers and tracts, in a professional cursive secretary hand, 346 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

c.1620s-30s

Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 36 ff. 149r-84v)

CvG 35 1598

Copy, in a probably professional secretary hand, headed Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall his life and deathe, Written by George Cavendishe his Gentleman Vsher, inscribed (f. 313v) my book. An^o: 1598. / Pe: Manwood / wrytten by my man Rich J / borrowed y^eoryginall of M^r Iohn Burrowes, & John Stowe: i.e. referring to Sir Peter Manwood (1571-1625), judge and antiquary, and John Stow (1524/5-1605), London historian.

Sylvester, No. 19.

A folio composite volume of treatises, in various hands, 313 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt (rebacked).

Lambeth Palace Library (MS 179 ff. 246r-313v)

CvG 36 Late 16th century

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed The liefe and death of Cardinall Wolsey.

Sylvester, No. 20.

A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, relating to Elizabethan voyages, in various hands, 475 leaves, in modern calf.

The first item inscribed (f. 1r) This boke ys myn / Iohn fford. Among papers of the Carew family.

Lambeth Palace Library (MS 250 ff. 73r-154v)

CvG 37

Copy, largely in the cursive secretary hand of John Stow (1524/5-1606), London historian, 145 leaves.

Alan Thomas, sale catalogue No. 41 (1980), item 57. Afterwards owned by Colin Franklin, bookdealer.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 4).

Meisei University ([Cavendish MS])

CvG 38

Copy, in a single professional secretary hand, headed Thomas Woolsie his Liffe and death Written by George Cauendish his gentleman Vsher, 84 folio leaves (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary limp vellum with ties.

Early 17th century

National Library of Wales (Wynnstay MS 17)

CvG 39

Copy, in possibly several secretary hands, a title added in roman lettering lengthways down the outer margin of the first page The Life of Cardinal Wolsey by Cauendish, incomplete, 121 folio pages, in marbled wrapper.

With some annotations by Christopher, first Viscount Hatton (1632-1706), politician.

Late 16th century

Sylvester, No. 17.

Northamptonshire Record Office (FH 135)

CvG 40

Copy, in a formal secretary hand, 80 unfoliated folio leaves, imperfect, lacking a title and the beginning and many leaves gnawed by rodents, the text followed (ff. [81r-8v]) by copies of five letters by Henry VIII relating to Wolsey in the same secretary hand and one other, disbound.

c.1600

Among papers of the Earls Fitzwilliam and Viscounts Milton.

Sylvester, No. 18.

Northamptonshire Record Office (F(M) Misc 51)

CvG 41

Copy, in a secretary hand, with annotations in the hand of Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor, 134 folio leaves.

c.1600

Sylvester, No. 25.

The Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle (MS 466)

CvG 42

Copy.

Mid-late 16th century

Owned by, and the volume including financial accounts of, the Harbord family, of Warwickshire. Acquired in 1938.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 3).

Stanford University Library (MSS CODEX M0385 CB)

CvG 43 Late 16th century

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, untitled, slightly incomplete.

Sylvester, No. 21.

A folio composite volume of miscellaneous tracts, in several hands, 374 leaves, corners gnawed by rodents, in contemporary calf (rebacked).

Scribbling (f. 321v) including the name Bridgett Hale. Old pressmark B. 2. 12.

Trinity College, Dublin, numbers 1 through 199 (MS 180 ff. 284r-321r)

CvG 44

Copy, in probably three professional secretary hands, with a title-page The Negotiacons of Thomas Woolsey the greate Cardinall of England Conteyninge his Life & Death...Composed by one of his own servntes being his Gentlemⁿ. Vsher.

This MS recorded in Sylvester, p. 286.

A folio volume of state tracts and speeches, in several professional hands, 586 leaves, in old calf.

c.late 1620s-30s

Bequeathed by Sir Jerome Alexander (c.1600-70), Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. Former pressmark G. 4. 9.

Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 222-3 (No. 17A).

Trinity College, Dublin, numbers 200 through 799 (MS 731 ff. 55r-174r)

CvG 45

Extracts, headed Notes from Cardinall wolseies life taken out of George Candish his gentlman vsher.

A quarto commonplace book of extracts from state and legal writings, in a single cursive hand, written from both ends, 118 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

Compiled entirely by William Drake, MP (1606-69), of Shardeloes, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

c.Mid-1630s

Later in the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), psychologist, linguist, and book collector.

Drake's commonplace books discussed in Stuart Clark, Wisdom Literature of the Seventeenth Century: A Guide to the Contents of the Bacon-Tottel Commonplace Books, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 6, Part 5 (1976), 291-305; 7, Part 1 (1977), 46-73, and in Kevin Sharpe, Reading Revolutions (New Haven & London, 2000).

University College London (MS Ogden 7/11 f. 31r)

CvG 46

Copy, in a secretary hand, 168 oblong folio leaves, in modern vellum boards.

c.1600

University of Georgia Libraries, Athens (MS 1243)

CvG 47

Copy, 128 folio leaves.

17th century

Once owned by John, Baron Somers (1651-1716), Lord Chancellor; by his brother-in-law Sir Joseph Jekyll (1662-1738), lawyer and politician; and in 1738 by Richard Warner.

Wadham College, Oxford (MS 27)

CvG 48

Copy, quarto.

Listed by Humfrey Wanley (in Bodleian, Gough Oxford 22) as a MS in E. Carlisle's Bib. Angliæ 643.33. - 4^to: i.e. presumably in the library of Charles Howard (1669-1738), third Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland and Westmorland.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Carlisle MS])

CvG 49

Copy.

Late 16th century?

Once in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

Recorded, as George Candish, of the lyfe of Cardinall Woolsey, in The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609, ed. Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (London, 1956), p. 144, No. 1139. Edwards (item a).

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Lumley MS])

CvG 50

Copy, quarto.

Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once in the library of Lord William Howard (1563-1640), antiquary, of Naworth, Cumberland.

Recorded, as Cavendish Life of Cardinal Wolsey. On paper 4t^o, in Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle, Surtees Society, 68 (1877), p. 486, No. 19. Edwards (item b).

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Naworth MS])

CvG 51

Copy, folio.

Listed by Humfrey Wanley (in Bodleian, Gough Oxford 22) as a MS of Abr. Pryme, Lincoln. 9042.7. fol^o: i.e. Abraham Pryme (1671-1704), antiquary, who was a deacon and curate in Lincolnshire in 1694-7.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Pryme MS])

CvG 52

Copy, 51 leaves.

17th century

W.H. Robinson's sale catalogue No. 47 (1933), item 18.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 5).

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Robinson/Wolsey MS])

CvG 53

Copy, 194 leaves, slightly imperfect at the end, unbound.

Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once owned by Sir Henry Spelman (1563/4-1641), historian and antiquary; by the Rev. Dr Cox Macro (1683-1767), antiquary; and by Hudson Gurney (1775-1864), of Keswick Hall, Norfolk, banker and antiquary. Later owned by Major Q.E. Gurney, DL, of Bawdeswell Hall, Norfolk. Sotheby's, 30 March 1936 (Gurney sale), lot 90, to L. Chubb.

Recorded in Sylvester, p. 288, n.1, and in Edwards (No. 7).

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Spelman MS])

CvG 54

Copy, the preface subscribed Th: Gainsford, on 176 folio pages.

Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk. Puttick & Simpson, 2 July 1855, lot 561 (unsold).

See Janet Ing Freeman, The Postmaster of Ipswich: William Fitch Stevenson, Antiquary and Thief (London, 1997), pp. 113-14, 160. Recorded in Edwards (item c).

Untraced, miscellaneous ([Tollemache MS])

CvG 55

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, 128 quarto leaves, in contemporary limp vellum.

Late 16th-early 17th century

Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9645. Afterwards in the library of Lawrence W. Hodson, Compton Hall, Nr Wolverhampton. Sotheby's, 13 December 1993, lot 228, to Quaritch.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 6).

John Wolfson, New York ([Cavendish MS])

CvG 56

Copy.

Sylvester, No. 30.

A quarto volume comprising two works, 119 leaves.

Early-mid-17th century

Formerly MS Vault Shelves/Cavendish.

Yale (Gen. MSS Vol. 264 ff. 1r-90r)

CvG 57

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed (in another hand) The life of Cardinall wolsey, 68 folio leaves, in old vellum boards.

Mid-late 16th century

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 68v) Robert Matthew. From the library of Tobie Matthew (1544?-1628), Archbishop of York.

Sylvester, No. 26.

York Minster (MS XVI. D. 1)