Historical Collections by John Rushworth of Private Passages of State, Weighty Matters in Law, Remarkable Proceedings in Five Parliaments. Begining The Sixteenth Year of King James, Anno 1618, and ending at the Death of King Charles I in 1648. London. Printed by J.A. for Robert Boulter [and others] from [1680] to 1701.
A STUNNING SET IN FULL CAMBRIDGE PANELLED BINDINGS OF RUSHWORTH'S HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS: THE FIRST DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR AND A SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE ON THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
WITH DISTINGUISHED PROVENANCE (below)
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John Rushworth was a very important figure during this historical period in England. Rushworth, influenced by John Pym's 1640 speech, documented key battles during the Civil War. He later served as Thomas Fairfax's secretary, chronicling events around Charles I's capture, trial, and execution. Rushworth aligned with Oliver Cromwell, aiding in drafting plans for an English Republic. He held various governmental roles, including Registrar of the Court of Admiralty and as Member of Parliament for Berwick.
After Oliver Cromwell's death, Rushworth supported his son, Richard Cromwell, but power shifted to the Council of State. He became Secretary of the council during negotiations for the return of Charles II. Upon the monarchy's restoration, he was appointed Treasury Solicitor. Accusations tied him to the regicides, but he professed ignorance. Despite not being re-elected, he still served as Berwick's agent. He later became secretary to Sir Orlando Bridgeman and represented the Massachusetts colony, albeit with minimal impact.
Elected to multiple Parliaments, Rushworth's final years were marked by financial troubles and imprisonment. He passed away in 1690, leaving behind these extremely influential writings which found great favour in America where they served as a source of inspiration for Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson bought a copy of Rushworth's Historical Collections for use in his own library and he often quoted from them. His views of Charles I as a king who had declared war on his own people, were later echoed in words by Thomas Jefferson and others when writing about the reign of George III in the Declaration of Independence.
This set has the 1680 second edition of the first volume with the other volumes all in first edition format, following the exact same as a set of this work which sold at Sotheby's in 2009 for £6,000 (GBP) [reference below]. This is an exceedingly rare set to find and rarely sees the open market. Here is a fantastic opportunity to acquire the first edition of the most important historical account of this period of English history.
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Provenance:
Armorial bookplate with the motto "Aequo Animo" which is from the collection of the Pennant family, formerly at Penrhyn Castle. This probably belonged to Richard Pennant (1737–1808), MP for Liverpool, and the first Baron Penrhyn, who established Penrhyn Castle as the family seat. He campaigned against the abolition of slavery and owned and operated slave plantations in Jamaica with over 600 enslaved African peoples from which he invested the profits into North Wales, UK, building slate mines, schools, churches, roads, railways, etc - also the huge 300 room Penrhyn Castle which still stands today and is where this set of books would have been kept.
Between 1780 and 1790 Pennant made over thirty speeches defending the slave trade against abolitionist attacks, and became so influential that he was made chairman of the West India Committee, an informal alliance of some 50 MPs dedicated to opposing abolition.
Mark Purcell, in his 2019 study, The Country House Library, describes the library at Penrhyn Castle as "not just gargantuan, but exotically and astonishingly opulent." Haslam, Orbach and Voelcker consider the library the precursor for a long subsequent history of "masculine rooms [for] millionaires". The room still contains the basis of a "good gentleman's library", despite sales of some of the most important and valuable books in the 1950s. We can assume this set was sold prior to that as we have an ownership inscription dated to 1925 in volume one.
A.D.R. Canoe, Cambridge, March 1925 (ownership inscription).
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Size: 212 x 322 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[frontis, A1-B4, *1-**4, foldout, pp.1-691, pp.1-57]; [t.p, a1-b2, pp.1-884]; [frontis, t.p, pp.885-1358, pp.1-315, *A-*D2]; [frontis, t.p, a1-a2, pp.1-788, 5d1-5f4]; [frontis, t.p, pp.1-988, 6e1-6g2 (advertisements)]; [frontis, t.p, i-xvi, pp.1-42, foldout, 43-656, 4p1-4q2]; [t.p, pp.731-1431, 8v2-9a2 (advertisements)].
A few pages mispaginated, but the set textually collates as complete through volumes 1-5 and 7. Volume 6 lacks the final leaf of the table at the rear but otherwise collates as complete. A few blanks are replaced with modern endpapers. Volume 1 dated 1682 [but actually printed in 1680], volumes 2 and 3 dated 1686, volumes 4 and 5 dated 1692, volumes 6 and 7 dated 1701. Many joints cracked/split and many boards insecurely attached, but all are attached by the pastedowns. Rear joints of third volume split with the board held only by the pastedown, and thus attached. Front joints of the third volume cracked, board held by the pastedown at the top, thus attached, many others similar. Rubbing and wear to extremities etc with occasional loss to the leather. Shelf wear. All spines historically rebacked, probably circa the early 19th century, but attractively so with all volumes showing very well indeed on the shelf. Gilt to spines is generally bright and legible to all volumes. All volumes are bound identically in a Cambridge panelled manner. Very clean through each text block with some very mild toning. No foxing throughout. Some occasional marginalia affecting approx 5 leaves throughout the entire set, some of which is trimmed at the margins. There is a small amount of wormholing in the margin of the fifth volume not affecting the text.
[ESTC T195706; Wing R2317-R2319, R2334].
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