Sir Robert Naunton

1563–1635

Introduction

Sir Robert Naunton had a somewhat chequered political career, including a not entirely successful period as Secretary of State and a Privy Councillor. He is now chiefly remembered, however, for a single prose work, his Fragmenta Regalia, a series of character sketches of prominent courtiers and public figures in the time of Queen Elizabeth, a number of whom he had known personally. This was written, or at least completed, in 1634, during the lengthy period of illness which led to his death a year later. Although not published until 1641, the work enjoyed a huge circulation in manuscript copies, most of it evidently produced by commercial scribes, but possibly initiated by his family or someone else in his immediate circle. Today at least 41 manuscript copies are known. Without a formidable degree of collation it would be difficult to determine the quality of these texts, although one, owned by Robert S Pirie (NaR 31), has a claim to special attention because it was clearly prepared for presentation to Charles I and includes marginal commentary for him not found in any other text. Whether it was actually presented to the King is not known. In any case, it failed to restore him to Charles's favour and Naunton's patent as Master of the Court of Wards was revoked just weeks before he died.

During his political career Naunton wrote numerous letters, besides official documents signed by him, many of which survive in the Public Records and in various libraries and collections, including the British Library, Folger, Huntington, Yale, and New York Public Library. Examples also surface occasionally in booksellers' and auction catalogues. These documents have not been given entries below.

A curious item ascribed to Naunton and which was last recorded in the eighteenth century is a quarto manuscript apparently entitled Opuscula Academica, Epistolæ, Orationes, Carmina, &c. per Dom. Rob. Naunton. This was once owned by Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725) and was sold at auction by Ballard, 4 March 1733/4, lot 539, to L. C.

A printed book in the British Library apparently owned by Naunton is recorded below as *NaR 42.

Abbreviations

Cerovski
Sir Robert Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia or Observations on Queen Elizabeth, Her Times & Favorites, ed. John S. Cerovski (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., etc., 1985).

Prose

Fragmenta Regalia

Fragmenta Regalia (or, Observations on the late Q. Elizabeth, her Times and Favorites), first published in London, 1641. Edited by John S. Cerovski (Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C., etc., 1985).

NaR 1

Copy, in a probably professional secretary hand, with a title-page and Table of contents in different Roman script, ii + 80 quarto leaves, in contemporary calf gilt.

c.1630s

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

NaR 2

Copy, in two professional secretary hands, on ff. 1v-76v of 86 folio leaves, in mottled leather gilt.

The title (f. 1r) added in another hand, and ff. 77r-86v containing notes on the King's officers in yet another secretary hand.

c.1630s

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

NaR 3

Copy, with a title-page.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A square-shaped folio volume of antiquarian and state tracts, with a table of contents (ff. 374r-7v) and occasional engraved borders by John Sudbury and George Humble, 377 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

In a single calligraphic hand, employing various scripts, a scribe identified or associated with one Henry Feilde.

c.1640s

Later owned by the Rev. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), antiquary and book collector. Sotheby's, 21 August 1858 (Bliss sale), lot 140.

This MS discussed in Van Strien.

NaR 5

Copy, on versos only.

An octavo volume of transcripts of state tracts and letters, iii + 227 leaves (including blanks) in all, in calf.

Mainly in three hands, with later additions in c.1683-99.

Inscribed names including Anthony, Thomas and John Marshall, Jonas Ramsden, Jenkinson, Thomas Maleverer, and Lawson. Owned c.1670s-90s by the family of Sir Thomas Seyliard, third Baronet (d.1701), of Delawarre, Kent. Later note: Bought this Manuscript at Montague's Book warehouse near Queen Street Lincoln's Inn Fields Tuesday Feb: 12 1739. Later armorial bookplate apparently of the Appleyard family of either Yorkshire or Norfolk. Phillips, 20 March 1998, lot 467, to Quaritch.

The British Library: Egerton MSS (Egerton MS 3876 ff. 45v-110v)
NaR 8

Copy, in the hand of the Feathery Scribe, beginning at the sixth character, on 71 folio pages, imperfect, lacking the first part.

A folio composite volume of three tracts, each in a different hand, 110 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

The second item (ff. 46r-81r) given in 1719 by John Anstis (1669-1744), antiquary, to Robert Harley (1661-1724), first Earl of Oxford, politician and book collector.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 245 (No. 60).

NaR 9

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (ff. 21r-34v, 35r-53v respectively). Mid-17th century.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A large folio composite volume of state papers, tracts and speeches, in various professional hands, 312 leaves.

In various professional hands, including those of Ralph Starkey (c.1568-1628), antiquary, and the Feathery Scribe.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 245 (No. 61).

NaR 10

Copy, in a small secretary hand, as By Sr Rob. Naunton Master of the Court of Wards. c.1630s.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A quarto composite volume of four tracts, in different hands, i* + 210 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

NaR 11 c.1630s

Copy.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A folio composite volume of letters and state papers, in various professional largely secretary hands, ff. 80r-160v an imperfect single unit, 346 leaves, in modern half red morocco gilt.

c.1630s

Inscribed (f. 3r) Sum Ed: Umfrevile Janrio 1727: i.e. Edward Umfreville (1702?-(1702?-86), collector of legal manuscripts.

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 238 ff. 162r-241v)
NaR 12 c.1630s

Copy, in a professional cursive secretary hand.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A folio composite volume of political, legal and antiquarian tracts, 500 leaves.

In various professional hands, including that of the Feathery Scribe.

Briefly described in Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 245 (No. 62).

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 254 ff. 225r-51r)
NaR 13

Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, with a title-page Fragmenta Regalia / Supposed Sr Rob Nantons Mr of ye Court of Wards & Liuerys.

c.1630s

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87

NaR 14

Copy, in a professional hand, 77 folio leaves, plus (ff. 78r-83v) an inserted index in another hand on octavo leaves, in modern half crushed morocco gilt.

c.1630s

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

NaR 15 c.1630s

Copy, in at least three professional secretary hands, with a title-page.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A folio composite volume of state tracts, in various professional hands, 211 leaves, in mottled leather.

Bookplate of Algernon Capell (1654-1710), second Earl of Essex, Privy Councillor, 1701.

The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 161 ff. 156r-211v)
NaR 16

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with some alterations in another hand, complete with a title-page, on 69 small folio leaves, in modern calf gilt.

c.1630s

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

NaR 17 c.1640s

Copy, with a title-page, in a professional predominantly secretary hand.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A folio volume of tracts and of heraldic and genealogical material, written from both ends, with (ff. 3r-6r) an alphabetical index, 118 leaves, in modern morocco.

Inscribed (flyleaf) John Holland No 28 and (f. 2r) Jefferies of Derbyshr.

The British Library: Stowe MSS (Stowe MS 619 ff. 1r-56r (118v-62v rev.))
NaR 19

Copy, on 66 leaves, the title-page later inscribed This treatise never printed, as Mr Bowles says-- Feb. 1721/2. B.G.

A folio volume of state tracts, in a single professional predominantly secretary hand, with a few later annotations in an 18th-century hand, 213 leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Sotheby's, 16 February 1938 (Clumber Library sale), lot 1341. Sotheby's, 14 December 1994 (Lord Fairfax of Cameron sale), lot 29, unsold; 13 December 1994, lot 539, sold to Quaritch.

NaR 20

Copy, in at least two professional secretary hands, with a title-page, 50 folio leaves, in a paper wrapper.

c.1630s

Among papers of Sir John Marsham, first Baronet (1602-85), of Whornes Place, Cuxton, Kent, Clerk in Chancery and antiquary, and his successors, later Earls of Romney.

NaR 21 c.1638

Copy, in a professional mixed hand, a title-page (p. 3) dated Ano: Dni: 1638.

Edited principally from this MS in Cerovski.

A quarto volume comprising two independent works, in two different hands, 66 pages, in modern boards.

Mid-17th century

Thomas Thorpe, sale catalogues for 1835, item 228, and for 1836, item 216. Afterwards in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 10134. Sold in 1895 to Tregaskis. Item 89 in an unidentified sale catalogue. Formerly Folger MS 163.1.

NaR 22

Copy, in two professional secretary hands, with a title-page, ii + 114 pages, in a paper wrapper.

c.1630s

From the papers of Sir Nathaniel Bacon (1546?-1622), politician, of Stiffkey, Norfolk, and his family, later owned by Marquess Townshend and sold in London 14 July 1924. Purchased from Frank Marcham in October 1925. Formerly Folger MS 1472.2.

Edited in part from this MS (erroneously cited as MS G.b.20) in Cerovski.

NaR 23

Copy of a slightly abbreviated version, in a professional secretary hand, subscribed ffinis Gloria Trinyni Deo in Æternum i640.

Edited in part from this MS (erroneously cited as Folger MS 21) in Cerovski

A folio volume of tracts, coats of arms in trick and other historical materials, in several cursive hands, one predominating, with later additions up to c.1858, written from both ends, 112 leaves, with an index, originally in calf with stamped initials I. P., now in 19th-century half red morocco.

Mid-17th century

Inscribed (f. 3r) John Holland No. 29 (18th-century herald painter, whose collections are principally among the Stowe MSS in the British Library); bought of Mr Faiy July 30th 1805; and William Thorn 1836 (i.e. ? the army officer and cartographer (1780-1843)).

NaR 25

Copy, in a professional hand, ii + 93 quarto leaves, in calf gilt (rebacked).

c.1630s

This MS recorded (as Unnumbered MS) in Cerovski, p. 87.

Harvard, other MSS (MS Eng 705.1)
NaR 26

Copy, in a single professional hand, 28 folio leaves (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary limp vellum with traces of ties.

Mid-17th century

Bookplate of James P.R. Lyell. Given to the library in 1939 by Thomas W. Lamont.

This MS recorded (as Unnumbered MS) in Cerovski, p. 87.

Harvard, other MSS (fMS Eng 705)
NaR 27 c.1630s

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with a title-page.

A folio composite volume of state tracts, in several professional secretary hands, 171 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

Inner Temple Library (Petyt MS 538, Vol. 50 ff. 125r-71v)
NaR 28 c.1630s-40s

Copy of Naunton's account of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, headed Sr Rob. Naunton Fragmt. Regal. S Cecill, on the first two pages of two conjugate folio leaves.

A folio guardbook of independent Jacobean state papers, stamped foliation 1-129.

National Archives, Kew (SP 14/69 f. 73r-v)
NaR 29

Copy of the first part, up to the section on Mountjoy, with a separated title-page, imperfect, lacking various pages and the last part.

A folio booklet of discourses, in a single secretary hand, 42 pages, in modern stiff paper wrapper.

Lacking pages after p. 26 and p. 32, some of which are now National Library of Wales, Carreglwyd II. 595.

c.1640

Among papers of the Griffith family of Carreglwyd, Anglesey, including papers of John Griffith of Gray's Inn, private secretary to Henry Howard (1540-1614), Earl of Northampton.

National Library of Wales (Carreglwyd MS I. 9 pp. 1-32, 41)
NaR 30

Copy, in a secretary hand, title-page + 72 numbered folio pages (plus a few blanks), in modern morocco gilt.

c.1630s

Bookplate of James W. Ellsworth. Gift in 1980 of John F. Fleming (1910-87), of Larchmont, New York, bookseller.

NaR 31

Copy, in a single secretary hand, in columns, 86 oblong quarto pages (plus blanks), in brown morocco elaborately gilt and bearing the Royal Arms with initials C R.

In the hand of Thomas Lord, one of Naunton's two secretaries, and prepared as a presentation copy for Charles I, the left column on each page throughout reserved for Naunton's commentary made specifically for the King (and unique to this manuscript).

[1634]

Bookplates of Brigadier-General Sir Herbert Conyers Surtees, DSO, CB, CBE, MVO (1858-1933), of Mainsforth Hall, Co. Durham, and Hans Fürstenberg (1890-1982), German book collector.

Edited from this MS, with a complete facsimile, by Roy E. Schreiber (Roxburghe Club, London, 2002).

Estate of Robert S Pirie, New York ([Fragmenta Regalia MS])
NaR 32

Copy, in a single professional predominantly italic hand, iv + 87 small quarto pages, in contemporary limp vellum gilt.

c.1630s

Inscribed in a 19th-century hand (f. ir) Found at Poundisford Park to which it was brought by the Daughter of Robert Tristram Esq Merchant of Barnstaple who died about the year 1700, Tristram's daughter Jane being married in 1737 to Isaac Welma (b.1710) of Poundisford Park.

Somerset Heritage Centre (DD/SAS/C/795/SX/28)
NaR 33

Copy, the title-page only in the secretary hand of the Feathery Scribe, the rest in another professional secretary hand.

Beal, In Praise of Scribes, p. 222 (No. 17A.2).

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).

NaR 34 c.1630s

Copy, in two or more professional secretary hands, with (f. 137r) a formal italic title-page, preceded (f. 136r) by a note in a cursive italic hand This is written By Sr Robert Naunton secretary to King James.

This MS recorded in Cerovski, p. 87.

A folio composite volume of state papers, tracts and speeches, in various hands, 298 leaves (plus blanks), in old reversed calf.

Old pressmark N. 2. 12.

NaR 35

Copy, in a professional rounded secretary hand, with (p. 119) an index, 119 octavo pages, in half-calf.

c.1630s

Bookplate of Francis Blomefield (1705-52), Norfolk topographer, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk 1736. Signature (inside front cover) of Thomas Martin (1697-1771), of Palgrave, Suffolk, antiquary and collector. A tipped-in letter about the work by T.R. Maynard, from London, 2 October 1845. Among the collections of Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, MP (1837-1914), Baconian scholar and book collector.

NaR 36

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (the second on ff. [18r-19v]), with two leaves (ff. [2r-v, 4r-v]) in a much later hand to supply missing text, 50 leaves, the first leaf imperfect, in old calf.

c.1630s

Bookplate of the Hon. James Brydges, of Wilton Castle, Herefordshire. Among papers of the Galway family, Viscounts Galway, of Serlby Hall.

NaR 38

Copy.

A folio volume of state tracts and speeches, 380 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt, now disbound.

Early-mid-17th century

Includes arms and genealogy of Helsby Cherleton & Acton Co. Lestr and of The Lords of Hatton Co. Lestr. Inscribed Thomas Helsby Lincoln's Inn London 1855.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 23 ff. 1r-48r)
NaR 39

Copy, the title-page (p. 21), pp. 23 to the top of p. 51, most of p. 65 to p. 66 in the hand of the Feathery Scribe; the rest of p. 51 to the top of p. 65 in a second professional hand, and pp. 67-114 in a third scribal hand.

A folio composite volume of state tracts, in professional hands, including that of the Feathery Scribe, 605 pages (including blanks), in 17th-century calf.

c.late 1620s-30s

Once owned by Sir Richard Grosvenor (1585-1645). Later owned by the Duke of Westminster, Eaton Hall, Cheshire (bookplate, XXI no. 20). MS 25. Sotheby's, 20 February 1967, lot 265, sold to Dobell.

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 215. A microfilm of the MS is in the British Library (RP 83).

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 40 pp. 21-114)
NaR 40

Copy in a secretary hand.

A folio volume of state tracts, sermons and other texts, in at least four hands, 89 leaves (including some blanks), in contemporary calf gilt.

c.1640

Probably associated with Oxford. Armorial stamp on the cover of a Duke (?of Devonshire). Sotheby's, 5 July 1955 (André De Coppet sale), lot 952.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 41 ff. 63r-80r)
NaR 41 c.1630s

Copy, with a title-page added (f. i) in a non-professional hand and other late-17th-century minor additions.

A folio volume of two works, each in a different professional hand, bound with two printed tracts, in modern red half-morocco.

A flyleaf inscribed John Rose Christmas 1895.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 43 ff. 1r-60v)

Books Inscribed by Naunton

Giraldi, Giglio Gregorio. Historiæ poetarum tam Græcorum quam Latinorum Dialogi decem (Basle, 1545)
*NaR 42
Autograph

Inscriptions, probably autograph, Naunton (cropped by binder) and Robert Naunton præt 3s 4d on the title-page, in the first octavo volume of this work (the second volume, 1161.b.2, not inscribed).

Late 16th-early 17th century