Add MS 34874

GIBBON PAPERS. Vol. I. Six autobiographical sketches by Edward Gibbon, all holograph, being the materials from which Lord Sheffield arranged the "Memoirs" as published in the Miscellaneous Works (quarto ed., 1796, vol. i., octavo ed., with further extracts, 1814, vol. i.). The six sketches are marked A to F, and are preceded by a short account of them (ff. 1-3) by Dr. W. A. Greenhill. The period covered by each and its probable date are as follows;-

A. "The memoirs of the life of Edward Gibbon, with various observations and excursions by himself." This goes no further than an account of the family. Being written before Gibbon saw the article [by Sir Egerton Brydges] in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1788 (p. 698), its genealogy is probably incorrect, but the account of Gibbon's aunts and of Edward Law is rather fuller than in the edited memoir. The date is the fiftysecond year of the writer's age [1788-9]-see the opening of the printed text. The sketch occupies sixteen quarto leaves, and prefixed is a copy of the silhouette (cut by Mrs. Brown in the last year of his life) reproduced in vol. i. of the quarto edition. f 4. B. "My own life"; thirty-two quarto leaves, ending with Gibbon's departure from Lausanne for Italy in 1764. This sketch is obviously intimately related to the two following, which have very little independent value, and Dr. Greenhill seems to be right in determining, on critical grounds drawn from the marginal corrections, that this, the more lengthy version, is the earlier. The date is roughly fixed by the statement that it was "two [on an erasure of "three"] years" Since he received John Gibbon's book (in A, "not two years"), by the mention of Hester Gibbon as still living (she d. June, 1790), and by the description of Necker as "the minister and perhaps the legislator of the French Monarchy" (he was Director-General 25 Aug. 1788, but the phrase would be more natural in 1789). Giving more detail than C and D, B has naturally been largely used by Lord Sheffield. f. 22. C. "Memoirs of the life and writings of Edward Gibbon"; twenty-one folio leaves, of which nearly fifteen cover the same ground as B, the rest (from f. 72 b) continuing the narrative to Oct. 1772. The whole is in three sections, viz.: i. 1737-1758, ii. 1758-1770, iii. (incomplete) 1770-1772. The date is fixed in the life-time of Hester Gibbon as before, as "about three years" after the receipt of John Gibbon's book, and (as after 6 Aug. 1789) by the title of "first minister of finance" given to Necker. f. 58. D. Without title; seven folio leaves, evidently an abridgement of C, covering precisely the same ground in less detail. There is nothing to fix the posterior limit of date. f. 80. E. "My own life": ten folio leaves of text and six of notes. Of these ten two are a yet briefer abridgement of D; the rest continue to 1789, and form the basis of the latter part of the memoirs. Dated Lausanne, 2 Mar. 1791. f 87. F. Without title; forty folio leaves, containing a sketch of the earlier life to a considerable extent independent of the others and nearly all incorporated by Lord Sheffield. It has three chapters on (i) the family, (ii) childhood, (iii) Oxford. The date is after Hester Gibbon's death (see above), but it is unsafe to press the phrase "after the lapse of forty years" used in speaking of Oxford. Gibbon seems to have intended to add notes to this sketch, and the scraps of paper (ff. 124-129) contain outlines from which they were to be drawn up. f. 103. At the end are a few miscellaneous papers, viz.: (a) a fragment of a memoir in French. Holograph. f. 130;-(b) a small scrap of notes or annals of events in Gibbon's life, 1753-1758. Hologr. f. 132; -(c) Original hologr. will, dated Sheffield Place, 14 July, 1788, marked as "cancelled" (see the final will, 1 Oct. 1791, in Add.

34,715, f. 15, and a copy below, 34,887, f. 26); with seal, the signature cut out. f. 133;-(d) Letter of Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Rochester, to Lord Sheffield, dated Bromley House, 19 July., 1807, concerning matriculations at Cambridge, and enclosing a letter from the Rev. Geo. Borlase, Registrary, to the Provost of King's College, with a table of the numbers matriculated yearly, 1759-1807. f. 135;-(e) A similar table for Oxford, 1700-1800; these being apparently intended for a note to the autobiography. f. 138. In the cover is bound up a lock of Gibbon's hair. Paper; ff. 139. Folio.

Edward Gibbon, historian: Autobiography, six sketches: 18th cent.

includes:

• (cover) Edward Gibbon, historian: Locks of his hair.
• f. 1 William Alexander Greenhill, MD, of Hastings: Notes on Gibbon's autobiography: 19th cent.
• f. 133 Edward Gibbon, historian: Will (cancelled): 1788.
• f. 135 Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Rochester and (1808) of Ely: Letter to Lord Sheffield: 1807.
• f. 136 Reverend George Borlase, Registrar of the University of Cambridge: Letter to the Provost of King's College: 1807.
• f. 137 University of Cambridge: Numbers of Matriculations: 1759-1807.