Egerton Manuscripts

Country

GB

Name of institution (official language of the state)

British Library

Language of name of institution

eng

Contact information: postal address

96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB

Contact information: phone number

0044 (0)1937 546060 (Customer Services)

Contact information: web address

https://www.bl.uk/subjects/manuscripts-and-archives#

Contact information: email

mss@bl.uk

Reference number

Egerton MS

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (official language of the state)

Egerton Manuscripts

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

Francis Henry Egerton

Language(s)

heb

lat

spa

Extent

c. 3,800 manuscripts

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

The Egerton manuscripts collection is comprised of the manuscripts bequeathed to the British Library by Francis Henry Egerton (1756-1829) and of thousands of other manuscripts purchased then after. This collection is especially remarkable for its holdings of Irish and Spanish origin. Among the latter, there can be found some scattered materials relating to Jews and New Christians in Spain, particularly regarding the purity of blood statutes. Of particular interest are the following documents:
Egerton MS 1875: Collection of correspondence, chronicles, and essays relating to the history of Spain and theological matters. Folio 8 contains briefs of popes Benedict XIII (1328-1423) and Gregory IX ( c. 1145-1241) regarding the Jewish people.
Egerton MS 415: Collection of manuscripts and printed papers relative chiefly to the statutes of the Church of Toledo and the nobility of Spain. Folio 67 includes a record of the measures taken by Pedro Sarmiento against the Jews of Toledo in 1449.
Egerton MS 1881: Collection of papers relating to the church of Toledo. Folio 364 includes a dissertation by Fr. Agustin Salucio (1523-1601) on the justice of the purity of blood statutes.
Egerton MS 1832: Correspondance and papers of the Council of the General Inquisition of Spain, relating to the New Christians, Moors, and Jew of Segovia, Valencia, and Aragon, 1510-1589.
Egerton MS 338: Collection of printed and manuscript papers relating to the interior government of Castille, Italy, and the West Indies, 1595-1686. Folio 239 includes a treatise on the purity of blood statutes.
Egerton MS 344-345: Collection containing original papers and reports of the Inquisition, particularly in the case of the Portuguese Jews, 1613-1626.
Egerton MS 1131: Collection of papers of the Council of Portugal during the time of its annexation to Spain (1580-1640). Folio 275 contains the record of a report from Enrique Sinel, a Flemish resident in Oporto, Portugal, regarding the role of the New Christians in the loss of Bahia, Brazil, dating from September 1624.
Egerton MS 343: Collection by Isassi Idiaquez of printed and manuscript papers relating to the interior government of Spain. This collection includes memoranda regarding the New Christian question, presented to King Filipe IV of Spain in the 1630s.
Egerton MS 2395: Collection of official papers relating to the English settlements in America, 1627-1699. It contains a description of the privileges granted to Jews going from Holland to Brazil and the "Wild Coast" (Guiana coast) in the 17th century (fol. 46). See Oppenheim (1907) and Cohen (1973).
Egerton MS 2227: Letter-book and memoranda of David Mendes da Costa, contractor for the supply of waggons for the commissariat service in the army in Germany under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, June 1757-January 1759. Many of the letters give details of events in the war. In the end, the volume contains a diary by David Mendes da Costa in 1758.

Archival history

The origins of the Egerton Manuscripts collection date back to the donation of 67 manuscripts bequeathed by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater, on the occasion of his death. In his will, Egerton also left £12,000 to establish a fund for purchasing manuscripts. In 1838, his cousin, Charles Long (1760-1838), 1st Baron Farnborough, established the Farnborough Fund with a bequest of £3000 to supplement the Egerton collection further. In the 175 years since its foundation, the fund has purchased more than 3800 manuscripts. It is one of the open collections of the British Library.

(source: British Library — The open-ended collections)

Administrative / Biographical history

Francis Henry Egerton (1756-1829) was the younger son of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, and Anne Sophia Grey, daughter of Henry, Duke of Kent. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on March 27, 1773, at age 16, and took his B.A. in 1776. He transferred to All Souls College, Oxford, taking his M.A. and holy orders in 1780, and was presented to the Rectory of Middle in Shropshire in 1781 and that of Whitchurch in the same county in 1797. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1780 and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1791. On the death of his elder brother in 1823, he became Earl of Bridgewater. When he died he left a considerable amount to be employed on the Bridgewater Treatises, a series of books on the goodness of God as manifest in the creation, a subject on which he himself had written. Additionally, Egerton bequeathed to the British Museum 67 manuscripts and £12,000 to establish the Bridgewater Fund for purchasing manuscripts.

(source: University of Toronto Libraries — Egerton, Francis Henry, 8th Earl of Bridgewater)

Access points: locations

Aragon (Spain)

Bahia (Brazil)

Porto (Portugal)

Portugal

Recife (Brazil)

Segovia (Spain)

Toledo (Spain)

Valencia (Spain)

Spain

Surinam