1614–1687
The Cambridge Neo-Platonist philosopher Henry More appears to have left no autograph manuscripts of any of his formal writings. Neither can any other notable manuscripts of any works by him be recorded except possibly for an unfinished and unpublished treatise called The Sure Guide ascribed to him in a verse miscellany (my whole study of Books whether printed or Paper-Books, except Dr [Samuel] Collins works Dr of Physick in two volumes wch I bequeath to Dr Clark of Grantham once my pupil
, as well as my Picture draw[n] in black lead by mr Loggens
. It is not known, however, what became of this legacy.
Instead, a considerable number of original letters by More — usually discussing religious and philosophical matters — are known to survive, as well as letters addressed to him by members of his influential circle. By far the greatest collection is that among the Conway Papers in the
It is also recorded, in R.W.B. Crocker's An Intellectual Biography of Henry More (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Oxford, 1986), that a collection of letters and papers exchanged between More and various correspondents, including F.M. Van Helmont and C. Knorr von Rosenroth, relating to More's contribution to Kabbala Denudata (Frankfurt, 1684), including his autograph manuscript of his article before it was translated into Latin for the publication. This collection is reported as being in the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany (Cod. Guelph 30.4). (For this information I am indebted to Ron Heisler.)
More's old college of Christ's, Cambridge, possesses (MS 21) thirty-seven original letters addressed to More between 1651 and 1686 by, variously, Anne, Lady Conway (9), Edmund Elys (14, plus one to Dr Davies), Henry Hyrne (2), Henry Hallywell (6), Ann Mallett, Giles Aleyn, Dr John Covel, Edward Fowler, Walter Garrett and William Stone. This collection was originally sold by Sotheby's, 21 July 1831 (William Hamper sale), lot 492, to Thorpe.
In addition, copies of some of More's correspondence with Henry Hyrne, between August 1671 and 11 March 1671/2, are found in a contemporary quarto notebook in
An autograph letter to More by Joseph Glanvill, from Bath, 13 March [1666/7], is at copious Annotations
was offered in the sale catalogue of Willis and Sotheran (1862), p. 223.
A printed exemplum of More's Philosophical Poems (Cambridge, 1647) bearing on the flyleaf a four-line verse inscription on Harry More
beginning Thro sundry ages that afore did pass
, was offered in Maggs's sale catalogue No. 550 (1931), item 1097.
More's old college, Christ's, Cambridge, possesses (MS 20) the original manuscript, on 146 folio pages, of Some Account of Dr. More's Works, the unpublished second part of a Life of More by his friend Richard Ward, the first part of which was published in 1710.
An anonymous manuscript life of More, written on fourteen octavo pages as a letter to Sir Robert Southwell, from Farley Castle, 14 January 1687/8, was offered in Quaritch's sale catalogue English Books before 1701 (October 1983), item 33a. The concluding five lines of verse on the transmigration of souls (beginning In hidden ages wch long since did pass
) also occur in a version beginning Through vnknown ages yt of old did pass
on a slip of paper at the
Some notes on Henry More by the Rev. Joseph Hunter (1783-1861) in his Chorus Vatum Anglicanorum (Volume IV) are in the
First published in Democritus Platonissans (Cambridge, 1646). Philosophical Poems (Cambridge, 1647), p. 306.
See
First published in More's Philosophical Poems (Cambridge, 1647).
Copy, headed A Hymn on the creation: By Dr More: wth some Additions
and beginning When God ye ferst Foundations laid
, on two conjugate quarto leaves.
A folio composite volume of correspondence of the Rev. Richard Roach (fl.1697-1727), Fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and Rector of Hackney, in various hands, 408 leaves.
Copy, by Elizabeth Rowe, headed A Hymn by Der Henry More
.
A quarto volume of autograph poems by Elizabeth Rowe (née Singer, 1674-1737), 306 pages, in contemporary vellum boards.
A tipped-in letter by Thomas Stevenson, Cambridge bookseller, to J.A. Wickham, 2 August 1841, says this volume came to him with other books from the Rev. J.W. Berry, vicar of Foxton. A note inside the front cover by one M. J.
also records his purchase of this Valuable book
from Mr Kerslake
.
Sotheby's, 21-22 July 1980, lot 552, with a facsimile of p. 82 in the sale catalogue.
Unfinished and unpublished treatise, beginning That short but weighty Prophecy of the Prophet Malachi, ch.4. v.2
But unto you that fear my name...
Copy on 29 pages, rectos only, with a preliminary two pages of The Contents of the ensuing Discourse. Chap 1st-3d
by C. B.
; headed The Copy of a M.S. Treatise penn'd by that Great Man the truly Learned Dr.Henry More, which he left unfinish'd at his Death
, and subscribed N.B. The foregoing Treatise is Part of what Dr. More intended to have intitul'ed, The sure Guide wherefore I can't but heartily Lament the unspeakable Loss which the world has sustain'd, by our Author's being prevented by Death from the farther Prosecution of this his great and charitable Designe C. B.
An octavo volume principally of verse, in a single hand, unpaginated, in contemporary calf.
Entitled Poems on Several Occasions written By Sr Wm. Dawes Barnt. An: Dni. 1692do Ætat. suæ 20mo...Transcrib'd from the Original. by C. B.
: i.e. by Charles Blake, whose name, dated 1692, appears on the flyleaf.
Dobell's sale catalogue The Literature of the Restoration (1918), item 1241. Item 33 in an unidentified sale catalogue of Autograph Letters and Manuscripts
.
A folio composite volume of some 150 autograph letters signed by Henry More, to Anne (née Finch), Lady Conway, as well as five by him to her husband, Edward, Lord Conway, and two to Mrs Elizabeth Foxcroft.
Edited, with related Conway letters from other sources, in Nicolson, with a facsimile of More's letter of 18 April [1653] after p. 80. Three of More's letters to Lady Anne, on ff. 302r-7v, which were omitted from Nicolson are edited and discussed in Alan Gabbey, Anne Conway et Henry More: Lettres sur Descartes (1650-51), Archives de Philosophie, 40 (1977), 379-404.
Five autograph letters signed by More, to Frances Finch (afterwards wife of Clifford Clifton), all undated but before 1650.
Recorded in HMC, 55, Various Collections, VII (1914), p. 428.
Autograph letter signed, to Richard Baxter, from Hampton Court, 23 June [1662].
Edited in Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae, ed. Matthew Sylvester (London, 1696), Book I, part ii, pp. 382-3. Reprinted in White Kennett, A Register and Chronicle Ecclesiastical and Civil (London, 1728), p. 714. Bliss, pp. 242-3 (from Kennett). Printed text quoted in Darwin, pp. 192-3.
Extracts from three letters by More, to Dr John Worthington, dated respectively 24 January and 7 February 1664/5 and 10 May 1665.
A small quarto volume of miscellaneous collections relating to Gresham College, compiled by John Ward, 168 leaves.
Extracts from three letters by More, to Dr John Worthington, dated respectively 24 January and 7 February 1664/5 and 10 May 1665.
A composite volume of biographical collections made by or for Thomas Birch, in various hands, 283 leaves.
Volume III (M-S) of Birch's biographical collections.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Dr John Pell, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 23 May 1665.
A folio composite volume of papers and correspondence of John Pell (1611-85), mathematician and political agent, in various hands.
Pell Papers (1st series), Volume II.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Robert Boyle, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 5 June 1665.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Robert Boyle, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 27 November [1665].
Edited in The Works of the Hon. Robert Boyle, VI (1772), 513. Edited from thence in Nicolson, p. 264.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Sir George Rawdon, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 6 May 1672.
Recorded in HMC, 78, Hastings II (1930), p. 379. Facsimile in The Huntingdon Papers (London, 1926), IV, Plate XX.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Sir George Rawdon, 20 September 1673.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Dr Simon Patrick, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 5 October 1673.
A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in various hands, 225 leaves.
Autograph letter signed by More, to William Penn, in the hand of an amanuensis with More's autograph marginal additions, signature and substantial postscript, on altogether sixteen folio pages, from Ragley, 22 May 1675.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Sir George Rawdon, 5 September 1676.
Recorded in HMC, 78, Hastings II (1930), p. 385.
Autograph letter signed by More, to G. Clark, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 19 March 1678/9.
Autograph letter signed by More, to William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 2 January 1679/80.
A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, 151 leaves.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Dr John Sharp, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 16 August 1680.
A folio guardbook of letters and papers of Ralph Thoresby (1658-1725), Yorkshire antiquary and topographer, in various hands and paper sizes, 225 leaves.
Volume III (M-S) of the Thoresby Papers.
Acquired by Thomas Birch in 1764.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Richard Baxter, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 25 September 1681.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Richard Baxter, from Christ's College, Cambridge, 10 February 1681/2.
Facsimile in IELM, II.ii (1993), Facsimile IV, after p. xxi.
Letter, in the hand of an amanuensis and signed by More and other fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge, to Sir John Finch, [October 1682].
Edited in HMC, 71, Finch II (1922), pp. 179-181.
Autograph letter signed by More, to Sir George Rawdon, 18 October 1683.
Autograph supplicats signed by More, 1 April 1636, and again in 1637 and 1638.
Supplicats volume of the 1630s.
An autograph inscription, in Greek and Latin, signed by More at Christ's College, Cambridge, on an oblong octavo leaf detached from the album, or liber amicorum, of one Johannus Gezeldus.
An autograph signature of Henry More, cut from a document dated 1673.
A folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers, 161 leaves.
Autograph last will and testament signed by More, 12 June 1686.
A registered copy of More's last will and testament of 12 June 1686, proved 2 [or 22] October 1687.
Edited in Nicolson, pp. 481-3.
Some Annotationes in Casp: Bartholimi Metaphysicam majorem
entered as Tutoris Mori Camb.
A sextodecimo notebook of Latin tracts and miscellaneous memoranda, 48 leaves.
Extracts from, and notes on, Henry More's writings.
Extracts from Dr Henry More's Philosophical Collections
.
A duodecimo notebook.
Extracts, headed Principles Containing the true Grounds of Faith in matters of Religion, taken out of Dr. Moor's Dialogues of the Kingdom of God. Vol IId
, on 86 pages.
A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in English, Latin and French, in several hands, written from both ends, 360 pages (the majority blank), in old calf.
Inscribed (p. [41 rev.]) J. Tyrell
and compiled at least in part by James Tyrrell (1642-1718), historical writer and friend of the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), a poem by whom (ff. [16v-17r]) he dockets as By my dear Friend Mr J. Lock
.
Later in the library of Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-85), first Baron Houghton, author and politician, and his son Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes, afterwards Crewe-Milnes (1858-1945), first Marquess of Crewe, politician.
Extracts, headed Dr More's Immortality of ye Soule An: Do: 1675
.
An octavo commonplace book of prose extracts, many under subject headings, written from both ends on rectos only, in contemporary calf.
Inscribed, evidently by the compiler, Henry Harpur An: Do: 1674
.
