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Harley MS 991

Record Id:

040-002046820

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046820

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001f1

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 991

Title:

Historical anecdotes of Richard Symonds

Scope & Content:

Collection of historical anecdotes about prominent people during the reign of King Charles I, the Long Parliament and the Protectorate, in particular stories against Oliver Cromwell. Written in a mixture of Italian and English by Richard Symonds. Includes an incomplete name index (ff. 1-3), genealogical tables. At the end of the volume is a sketch of a boat in red chalk (f. 49).

Includes, among other material:

f. 4: Valuation of the King Charles I’s pictures and movable goods at £200,000; his generosity to those that abused him; how the Queen of Bohemia and her daughter were obliged to act through fear.

f. 5: Use made by Oliver St John, later Chief Justice, of the King’s writings on government against him.

f. 7v: Vanity, pride and beggary of a certain Clapham, one of the Gentlemen-Pensioners of Oxford.

f. 8v: That Colonel Wheeler was the Duke of Buckingham’s natural son.

ff. 9v, 12, 13v, 46v-47r: Instances of the treacherous dissimulation of Oliver Cromwell.

f. 10-14r: Various anecdotes against Oliver Cromwell, including:

Ceremonies at the start of his Protectorship (f. 10).
Compliments paid to him, with part of his pedigree (f. 11r).
His procession to London, at the invitation to dinner of Vyner, Mayor of London, and a stone of six pounds weight being thrown at his coach on his return journey (f. 11v).
Anecdote about his wearing a crown in a play at Cambridge (f. 12v)
That he required £1,900,000 to be settled on him for the support of his government, higher than sums settled for the King (f. 12v).
His behaviour at his Daughter’s marriage-feast (f. 13).
How he opened the King’s coffin after his beheading to see the King’s corpse for himself, with one Bowtell of Suffolk (f. 13v).
That in his prosperity he had once repaid a considerable sum of money to Mr Compton, whom he had formerly cheated of it at plat (f. 14r).

f. 13v: The Duke of Buckingham’s liberality to Mr Nicolas Lanier.

f. 19: Insolence and Malice of Carr, Earl of Somerset, towards Queen Anne whom he hated; with a commendation of the noble nature of Prince Henry.

f. 20: Genealogy of Reynolds of Chesterford.

f. 24: Sir Joscelyne Percy and others who desired to be reconciled to Catholicism, and died before they could effect it.

f. 29: How Lady Ashfield, wife of Sir Richard Minshall, unsuccessfully sued her son for his inheritance of £2000 a year, claiming that he was not her former husband’s son, lost her case and was fined £500.

f. 31: Cornelius Bee, the great bookseller.

f. 31: How Benjamin More, by means of the Earl of Warwick and Holland, got warrants from the King for baronets, and made a great profit.

f. 33: Family tree of the Poole family.

f. 34v: Family tree of the Freschvile descendants, dated 1658.

f. 36r: Of the loyalty of a ship crew to Prince Rupert, who put him in safety when their boat sank.

f. 36v: Gallant answer sent by Archbishop Chichely to King Henry VI who, as the Archbishop thought, had reflected on his low birth.

f. 36v: How Hugh Peters became distracted upon the dissolution of the Protector’s government.

f. 37: Family tree of Jermyn of Suffolk.

f. 38: Trick used by one Tasborough, an officer in the Exchequer, for gaining a rich widow.

f. 39: Epitaph for Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.

ff. 40-41r: Partial account of the dissolution of the Long Parliament, 13 Oct. 1659.

f. 41r: A false prophesy concerning Oliver Cromwell’s death and his successors, in favour of Catholicism.

ff. 42v-43r: Family tree of Honeywood.

f. 43v: Sharp answer of a gentleman to Henry Cromwell, who desired to borrow his coach and horses.

ff. 44v-45: The King’s escape from the Battle of Worcester, as told by Lady Wood, who heard the King tell it to his mother.

ff. 46v-47: That Oliver Cromwell’s policy in only allowing army officers with lands in England to have power in Ireland proved the ruin of his son Henry’s affairs there. Because when Lambert and Fleetwood had turned out Richard, those officers dared not move in fear for their English estates.

f. 37: That Cromwell was poisoned; and that his Secretary Thurloe narrowly escaped.

f. 48: Cromwell’s answer to the jeering superscription of a letter sent by one ... Farre to Haynes Deputy-Major-General to Fleetwood.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046820", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 991: Historical anecdotes of Richard Symonds" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046820

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 991 : Historical anecdotes of Richard Symonds

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0991]/040-002046820

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1650

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

2nd half of the 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 165 x 130 mm.

Foliation: 49 folios.

Binding: British Museum half leather binding.

Custodial History:

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (1694-1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Former owner: Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1688), Bishop of Worcester.

Compiler: Richard Symonds (1617-1692?)

Finding Aids:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 991.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 316, 322.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)