MACKWORTH

[Sir Humphry Mackworth, politician, and industrial entrepreneur.] Manuscript Draft Petition from Mackworth's partners to the Lord Chancellor, claiming that 'mismanagement' of interests in Neath (Wales), and New York, will leave them 'entirely ruined'

Author: 
Sir Humphry Mackworth [Sir Humphrey Mackworth], Tory politician and dubious industrial entrepreneur in Neath, Wales, and New York [Company of Mine Adventurers of England]
Publication details: 
[High Court of Chancery, London.] Circa 1721.
£350.00

Mackworth was a flamboyant character, but whatever his flaws he played a major and innovative role in energising Welsh industry in the late Stuart period. For information on him and his dubious ventures, see his entries in the Oxford DNB (where his first name is spelt 'Humphry') and the Dictionary of Welsh Biography (where it is spelt 'Humphrey').

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[A. C. Swinton of Land Nationalisation Society, friend of Alfred Russel Wallace.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to the 'Misses Shore' [poet Louisa Catherine Shore and sister], on their brother in Australia, spiritualism, other topics inc. Wallace

Author: 
A. C. Swinton (d. c.1905) [Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), naturalist, co-conceiver with Darwin of Theory of Evolution; Louisa Catherine Shore (1824-1895), poet; her sister Arabella Susanna Shore]
Publication details: 
ONE: 31 December 1891; The Vine, Sevenoaks, Kent. TWO: 14 August 1893; Parkfield, Haslemere.
£500.00

The context is explained in Wallace's 'Island Life' (1880), in which he discusses 'a fragment of a well-formed stone axe' that his 'friend A. C. Swinton, Esq.' found, 'while working in the then almost unknown gold-field of Maryborough, Victoria, in January, 1855'. Later in the book Wallace refers to the brother of the recipients of the letter, 'Mr. Mackworth Shore', i.e. Mackworth Charles Shore, as 'one of the discoverers of the gold-field, before any rush to it had taken place'. See the Oxford DNB entry on one of the two recipients of the letter, Louisa Catherine Shore.

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[Margaret, Lady Rhondda.] Autograph Card Signed ('M. R.') to 'Dear John', apologising for 'having been so rude to my fellow guest' at a lunch, and admitting that she is 'ridiculously [...] touchy' about her magazine 'Time and Tide'.

Author: 
Margaret, Lady Rhondda [Margaret Haig Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda] (1857-1958)], suffragette and nfounder of the magazine Time and Tide
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 'Time and Tide', 32 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1. 10 December 1952.
£80.00

Written over 13 lines on both sides of the 9 x 11 cm card. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. 'Dear John, | I do feel ashamed of having been so rude to my fellow guest yesterday - It was a dreadful thing to do! The fact is I am, I suppose, very touchy about Time & Tide - ridiculously so really - I don't think he had read it - but after all why should he, poor man - I really wasn't very fair - | Please forgive me - except for feeling that I had behaved abominab[ly], just at the end, I thoroughly enjoyed my most excellent luncheon'.

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