number of newspapers or pamphlets, and the latter are regularly dated by Thomason himself.

On the 11th Dec., 1656, Robert Bostock, one of the most important booksellers of the period, died, and his copyrights, fifty-seven in number, were transferred to Thomason.

The notes with which Thomason frequently annotated his books seldom relate to his own person or fortunes. The four which I give here are the only ones which can be said to be autobiographical :—

On the 7th Feb., 1657, he writes on the fly-leaf of a pamphlet, "The day of my sad accident."

On the 24th March, 1658, he writes on a blank leaf :

"This day I did cease my elaborat collection, because the number was so exceeding few and inconsiderable and not now worth my labour, and the year 1658 beginning to-morrow I did prefer to put an end to my great paynes and charges."

Fortunately Thomason repented of his despairing resolution and continued to collect as carefully, or nearly as carefully as before.

Owing in part to the more efficient exercise of the laws against unlicensed printing under Cromwell's rule he was justified at the moment in considering the pamphlets issued few and inconsiderable,' but in the years of anarchy and expectation which followed the death of Cromwell the flow of pamphlets increased rapidly, and the years 1659 and 1660 are among the fullest and most interesting periods of the entire collection. On page 221 of Vol. II. will be found a MS. in Thomason's handwriting entitled, Some things relating to the thirtie Tyrants of Athens, with the addition of the names of some of the chiefe Traytors and Tyrants of England. The MS. consists of extracts from Raleigh's History of the World with a list of the Regicides' and a note reading: :-"Which with these aditions of mine, I was very desirous to have published, but noe printer then durst venture upon it. Anno 1658. Geo. Thomason." It will be observed that this note also has been added to the original text after the Restoration.

Among the pamphlets issued in 1659 is a broadside entitled Six New Queries, dated by Thomason 29th Oct., and bearing also a note in his handwriting which reads “N. B. G. T." I think that it may be taken as at least probable that he himself is the author of these queries which tersely express the opinions of a Presbyterian or moderate Royalist keenly desirous of the suppression of the army, and of the free election of a new Parliament. The first query, which may be taken as summing up the contents of the other five, reads "Whether or No, any rational man in England can or may expect any good from a Parliament when an Army is in power at the same time in the Nation."

On the 21st Nov. 1664, Thomason signed his will. His wife Katharine had predeceased him and was buried in the South Aisle of the Church of

St. Dunstan's in the West, 12th Dec. 1646. He had also lost a daughter, Elizabeth, whose funeral sermon, preached by Edward Reynolds, Vicar of St. Lawrence, Jewry, after the Restoration Bishop of Norwich, will be found in the collection under the date 11th April, 1659.

When Thomason made his will he had six surviving children. His eldest son George graduated at Queen's College, Oxford, in 1655, was afterwards ordained, became a Prebendary of Lincoln in 1683, and died in 1712. His eldest daughter Katharine was married to William Stonestreet. To these two, Thomason leaves only small legacies, explaining that they had on their respective marriages "a liberall and plentifull portion" of his property.

To his four younger children, Edward, Grace, Henry (who succeeded his father in his business, and for some years carried it on at the Rose and Crown), and Thomas, he bequeaths the greater part of his estate to be divided equally amongst them. To his daughter Grace, in addition to her share in his estate, he bequeaths the sum of £600 to be paid to her within twelve months after her marriage. He leaves also a number of legacies to servants and to the Stationers' and Haberdashers' Companies, and endowments for sermons at St. Paul's and St. Dunstan's. He appoints as his executors his son Henry and his son-in-law William Stonestreet.

Finally he disposes of his collection of pamphlets in these terms :— "And whereas I have a collection of Pamphletts and other writeings and papers bounde up with them of severall volumes gathered by me in the tyme of the late warres and beginning the third day of November A.D. 1640 and continued until the happie returne and coronacion of his most gracious Maiestie King Charles the second, upon which I put a very high esteeme in regard that it is soe intire a work and not to be pararelled and also in respect of the long and greete paynes, industry and charge that hath bin taken and expended in and about the collection of them, now I doe give the said collection of Pamphletts unto my honoured friends Thomas Barlowe, Doctor of Divinitie and now Provoste of Queenes Colledg in Oxon,* and Thomas Lockey, Doctor of Divinitie and principall Keeper of the Publicke Library in Oxon,† and John Rushworth of Linconenes upon trust to bee by them sold for the use and benefitt of my three Sonnes Edward, Henry and Thomas to be paid unto them equally and proporconably parte and parte alike."

The whole tone of this will is that of a thriving and prosperous man of business, but the two codicils attached to it show that within a few months after its execution Thomason was suffering from grave and growing anxieties concerning his pecuniary position, especially with regard to the sale of his collection.

In the first of these codicils, dated 20th Jan. 1665, he writes :"Now not knowing how my estate may fall out after my death according to my Will lately made in case it shall fall short, Then I doe give to my two deare

* Bodley's Librarian from April 1652 to Sept. 1660.

From Sept. 1660 to Nov. 1665.

i.e. of Lincoln's Inn.

children, my daughter Grace Thomason and my sonne Thomas Thomason That full summe of money that my collection of Pamphletts shal be sold for to bee equally divided betwixt them both for their advancement, which collection is in the hands of Doctor Thomas Barlow . . . who is now in treaty with me about them for the publique Library and I doubt not but neere a conclusion which being concluded then shall I intreate and desire my good friend Mr. Matt. Goodfellow to be assistant to my sonne his servant in that perticular which I have no cause to doubt of."

The second codicil, dated the 22nd May, 1665, is written in an even less hopeful tone. After appointing his son Thomas as a third executor, Thomason writes :-

"As for the six hundred pounds in money bequeathed to my dear daughter Grace if the accustomary parte fall shorte as I feare it maye then that the said summe be paid her out of that money which the Pamphletts shal bee sould for. And the like somme of six hundred pounds issueing out of the sale of these Pamphletts I bequeath to my deare sonne Thomas . . . and the remaynder thereof to my sonne Henry and his brother Edward."

Like most of the events of his life the exact date of Thomason's death is uncertain. In his will he directs that he should be buried in St. Dunstan's in the West as near as possible to the tomb of his wife Katharine Thomason. In the Burial Registers of the Church I find the two following entries:-" Mrs. Katherine Thomasin wife of George Tompson buried (in the) Church, 12 Dec. 1646." "George Tompson statōner was buryed in the Upper Churchyd, 13 Febuary 1666 (N.S.)."

There was, it is true, a bookseller named George Thompson who had a shop at the sign of the White Horse, Chancery Lane. But it seems to me highly improbable that he can be the person to whom this entry relates. It will be observed that the spelling of the name Tompson is identical in describing Katherine Thomason's husband and in the later entry. There could in fact be no room for doubt that George Thomason was buried on the 13th Feb. 1666, were it not that in the Obituary of Richard Smyth, being a catalogue of all such persons as he knew in their life from 1627 to 1674 (Sloane MS. 886, edited for the Camden Society, 1849), the following passage appears: "10th April, 1666, Geo. Thomason, bookseller buried out of Stationers Hall (a poore man)."

Richard Smyth is well known as a collector of valuable books, and had probably had dealings with Thomason. His statement bears all the marks of authenticity, and the reference to Thomason's poverty is in accordance with the fears expressed in the codicils to his will. Mr. C. R. Rivington, Clerk of the Stationers' Company, who has been so kind as to take a personal interest in the matter, tells me that the Court Minutes for 1666 were destroyed in the great fire; that there is no separate book in which entries were made of the funerals which were frequently celebrated from Stationers' Hall; and that there is no reference to the cost of any funeral in the Wardens' Accounts for the years 1665

to 1667. From the Probate Registers I find that Thomason's will was proved on the 27th April, 1666. Thus, while there can be no doubt as to the year of his death, the exact date must rest an open question.

The pamphlets remained at Oxford in the custody of Barlow and his co-trustees, thus escaping destruction in the great fire of Sept. 1666. On the 27th June, 1675, Barlow was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, and in the next year when he left Oxford he addressed the following letter to George Thomason the younger, who was not pecuniarily interested in the sale of the collection bequeathed to his younger brothers. It was printed for the first time in Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, 1807, Vol. II. pp. 251-52, and subsequently with some slight variations in Notes and Queries, 1857, Second Series, Vol. IV. 413.

Oxon. Feb. 6, 1676.

My Reverend Friend, I am about to leave Oxford (my dear mother) and that excellent and costly collection of bookes which have so long beene in my hands; now I entreat you, either to remove them, or speake to my successor that they may continue there till you can otherwise conveniently dispose of them. Had I money to my minde I would be your chapman for them, but the collection is soe great, and my purse so little, that I can not compass it. It is such a collection, both for the vast number of bookes and the exact method they are bound in, as none has, nor possibly can have, besides yourselfe. The use of that collection myght be of exceedinge benefit to the publique (both church and state) were it placed in some safe repository where learned and sober men might have accesse to, and the use of it. The fittest place for it (both for use and honor) is the King's, Sr. Tho. Bodleies, or some publique library, for in such places it might be most safe and usefull. I have long indeavoured to find benefactors, and a way to procure it for Bodleie's library, and I doe not despaire but such a way may be found in good time by

Your affectionate friend and brother,

THOMAS LINCOLNE.

No exact record of what befell the collection immediately after the date of this letter exists. It is probable that the books were returned to London, and certain that they passed shortly afterwards into the hands of Samuel Mearne, the celebrated bookbinder, who held the office of Stationer to Charles II. The petition from Mearne's widow, which I give below, shows that negotiations were entered into between Mearne and Sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State, and for some years Keeper of the Royal Library at Whitehall, for the purchase of the collection by the King, but nothing is known as to the terms on which it was offered or the cause of the failure to dispose of it. There can be little doubt that the printed advertisement now preserved in the Library was issued by Mearne. It ran thus:

"A Complete Collection of Books and Pamphlets Begun in the Year 1640 by the Special Command of King Charles I. of Blessed Memory, and continued to the happy Restauration of the Government, and the Coronation of King Charles II.

46

There hath been very much Mony disbursed, and great Pains taken, and many Hazards run in making an exact Collection of all the Pamphlets that were publish'd

from the Beginning of that Long and Rebel-Parliament, which began Novemb. 1640 till His late Majesties Happy Restauration and Coronation, consisting of near Thirty Thousand several Sorts, and by all Parties.

"They may be of very great Use to any Gentleman concerned in Publick Affairs, both for this Present, and After-Ages, there being not the like in the World neither is it possible to make such a Collection.

"The Collection contains above Two Thousand bound Volumes all of them uniformly bound, as if they were done at one Time, and all exactly Marked and Numbered.

"The Method that has been observed, is Time, and such punctual Care was taken, that the very Day is written upon most of them, when they came out.

"The Catalogue of them fairly written is in Twelve Volumes in Folio; and though the Number of them be so great, (when the Books are set in their Order according to the Mark set upon each of them), the smallest Piece, though but one Sheet of Paper, being shewn in the Catalogue, may be found in a moment; which Method is of singular use to the Reader.

"In the whole are contain'd near one Hundred several MS. Pieces that were never printed, all, or most of them on the King's behalf, which no man durst then venture to publish without endangering his Ruine. But the Peruser now may by them be let into the Knowledge of many Occurences in those Times, which have pass'd hitherto unobserv'd.

"This Collection was so privately carried on, that it was never known, that there was such a Design in hand; the Collector designing them only for His Majesties Use that then was: His Majesty having occasion for a Pamphlet, could no where compass the Sight of it but from him, which His Majesty having perused, was very well pleas'd with the Design, and commanded a Person of Honour to restore it with his own Hands, and withal express'd His desire of having the Collection continued: This was the great Encouragement to the Undertaker, who had otherwise desisted prosecuting so difficult and chargeable a Work, which lay a heavy Burden upon himself and his Servants for above Twenty Years.

"To prevent the Discovery of them, when the Army was Northwards, he pack'd them up in several Trunks, and by one or two in a Week sent them to a trusty Friend in Surry, who safely preserv'd them; and when the Army was Westward, and fearing their Return that way; they were sent to London again; but the Collector durst not keep them, but sent them into Essex, and so according as they lay near Danger, still, by timely removing them, at a great Charge, secur'd them, but continu'd perfecting the Work.

“And for a farther Security to them, there was a Bargain pretended to be made with the University of Oxford, and a Receipt of a Thousand Pounds given and acknowledg'd to be in part for them, that if the Usurper had found them out, the University should claim them, who had greater Power to struggle for them than a private Man.

"All these Shifts have been made, and Difficulties encounter'd to keep the Collection from being embezel'd and destroy'd; which with the great Charges of collecting and binding them, cost the Undertaker so much, that he refused Four Thousand Pounds for them in his Life time, supposing that Sum not sufficient to reimburse him."

This advertisement is an abridged and corrected version of a manuscript formerly affixed to the first volume of Thomason's Catalogue. entitled "Mr. Thomason's Note about his collection," which was printed in full in 1857 in Notes and Queries, Second Series, Vol. IV.