Add MS 4958-4975

Heraldic MSS., of which all except 4959 had been the property of Richard Wallis, painter stainer of London, some having previously belonged to Samuel Waker, another painter stainer, with whom Wallis was closely associated. Many of these MSS. are in the autograph of Waker or Wallis, or both, while others bear their annotations or marks of ownership. Some bear as a frontispiece a form of summons to the Court of Assistants of the Painter Stainers Company, very likely belonging to Wallis, who became a member of the Court of Assistants in October 1682 (Guildhall Library MS. 5667/2, p. 275). The plates can be dated 1689-1715. Wallis became free of the Company by servitude on 3 Mar. 1665 (Guildhall MS. 5668). He was Upper Warden of the Company 1684-1685 and Master in 1691 (see W. A. D. Englefield, The History of the Painter-Stainers Company of London, 1923, pp. 224-225). He died on 10 April 1726, aged 86 (see Survey of London, vol. viii, The Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, pp. 106-107, and plate 32). For a catalogue of his library see Manipulus Librorum: Being a Catalogue of One Hundred Books; ... of Mr. Wallis of Hoxton, lately Deceas'd, 1727, in which 4958, 4960-4975 can be identified. The majority of the MSS. bear a number in a ? 18th cent. hand (noted below in the descriptions) but these numbers do not correspond to the numeration in the above mentioned catalogue. It is possible that they were purchased by Hewer Edgley Hewer, formerly Edgley, F.R.S., whose bookplate appears in 4966, f. 1. Hewer, who d.s.p. 1728, was married to Elizabeth, sister of Sir Simeon Stuart, and it is likely that the MSS. passed to her brother on her death.