CONTROVERSIALIST

[‘The Whig Dr Johnson’: Samuel Parr, author, divine and pedagogue.] Autograph Card in the third person to the Mayor of Warwick, ‘Keeling Greenway’ [Kelynge Greenway]. In envelope with red wax seal.

Author: 
Samuel Parr (1747-1825), author, divine and pedagogue, known as ‘the Whig Dr Johnson’ [Kelynge Greenway, Mayor of Warwick]
Parr
Publication details: 
29 November 1820. Hatton [near Warwick].
£56.00
Parr

An almost miraculously legible example of Parr’s normally atrocious hand. (His entry in the Oxford DNB states that ‘Parr was flogged only once at Harrow, for bad handwriting, and to no effect. His writing remained atrocious all his life, so much so that on an occasion when he wrote to ask for 'two lobsters' his friend read the words as “two eggs”.’) On one side of blank card. In envelope with indistinguishable seal in red wax, addressed by Parr to ‘Keeling Greenway Esqr / Mayor of Warwick’.

[Father Tom Maguire, Dean of Kilmore, Irish Roman Catholic priest, celebrated orator.] Autograph Letter Signed ('T. Maguire') to Richard Montgomery of Coolehill, regarding his gift of a five-year-old pup, 'coursing in Goulan', and 'a great Auction'.

Author: 
Father Tom Maguire [Thomas Maguire] (1792-1847), Dean of Kilmore, Irish Roman Catholic priest, orator, polemicist, controversialist and nationalist [Richard Montgomery of Coolehill]
Publication details: 
19 April 1844. No place, but with one of the postmarks from Ballinamore [Co. Leitrim, Ireland].
£140.00

Maguire was, his entry in the Oxford DNB states, 'one of the most popular orators of his age, and from 1829 until 1843 he addressed huge crowds and packed congregations in churches and at venues throughout England and Ireland'.

[ Herbert Hensley Henson, as Canon of Westminster Abbey: 'I suppose you and your Socialist brethren are getting ready for Armageddon!'. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('H. Hensley Henson') to 'Jim', regarding 'Popish accusants' in the reign of James I.

Author: 
Hensley Henson [ H. Hensley Henson; Herbert Hensley Henson ] (1863-1947), Anglican controversialist, successively Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of Durham
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 17 Dean's Yard, Westminster Abbey, S.W. [ London ] 7 December 1909.
£40.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Aged and worn, with a short closed tear at gutter. He begins by quoting 'Frere's History of the English Church 1558-1625', with regard to 'the number of Popish accusants at the beginning of James I's reign'. He observes that '[t]he returns were made to the Archbishop, & presumably compiled by the clergy: which no doubt justifies some measure of scepticism', while bringing in the 'Church Year Book' for comparison.

Syndicate content