'Affair of Honour': A Second Duelling Letter Identified

[Apologies for the long silence. I was away attending a conference towards the end of October and the last fortnight has been pretty hectic!]

On 26 January 2012, I published a post about the gentleman George Payne's touching final letter to his wife, written on the eve of his ill-fated duel with one Mr. Clarke on 6 September 1810. For a time, this was thought to be the only letter concerning a duel held in the Reed collection, Dunedin City Library. A second letter, however, has recently been identified.

The letter reads:

My dear Sir William

I have been so unwell in consequence of the wound I received I could not write to you previously.

I write this to state to you I am much better. I came here to obtain the benefit of good advice. Carmichael is attending me and says I am doing well.

James Browne of Brown Hall and I met near Chester. We exchanged two shots each. On the second his ball passed through my thigh.

Yours most sincerely

R. Dillon Browne
Dublin
January 29 1838

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The scene of Browne propped up in bed, his wounded leg raised and supported, with a small writing table resting on his lap, can be readily imagined. It is fair to say Browne's shaky handwriting can be blamed on his condition, the medication administered to dull the pain, or a combination of the two.

The duel between the two Brownes did not go unnoticed. The following appeared in the 27 January 1838 issue of the Times:

'AFFAIR OF HONOUR.-(From a Correspondent.)-A meeting took place near Chester on Wednesday last, in consequence of a political misunderstanding, between Mr. [Robert] Dillon Browne, M. P. for Mayo, and Mr. James Arthur Browne, of Browne-Hall, in the same county; the former attended by Mr. Somers, M. P. for Sligo; the latter by Mr. Fitzmaurice, of Lagaturn, county of Mayo. At the second exchange of shots, Mr. James A. Browne's ball passing though his antagonist's thigh, the matter was amicably arranged. We are happy to say that the wound is not dangerous, although it may confine Mr. Browne for some time'.

Confine Browne it did. So much so, that he did not know there had been a warrant issued against him by a gentleman named Sievers. According to the Times for 6 February 1838, Sievers applied to the magistrates of Marlborough Street police office for a warrant against Browne charging him with assault. The officer, however, was unable to meet the accused and execute the warrant. 'Since that time', the article continues, 'a statement has been made that Mr. Browne was wounded in a duel in Chester ... and [Browne] states that he will not be able ... to attend before the magistrates to meet the charge [of assault] for some time'. The magistrates later sided with Sievers and fined Browne £5.

It is probably clear by this point that Browne was of a hot-tempered disposition. His meeting with J. A. Browne was not his only duel either. The Landed Estates Database (part of the National University of Ireland, Galway website) notes that Browne was a well known duellist. He carried a pistol at all times, though his choice of firearm was not to everyone's liking. In the Personal Recollections of the Late Daniel O'Connell, M. P. (London, 1848), William John O'Connell, who requested of Daniel a 'friend and case of pistols' for a duel, wrote, 'If Dillon Browne was in Dublin ... [he] would come down here if you called him. I do not like his pistols, they are saw-handled ‒ I like the round-handled best' (298).

A search on Google and in The Times Digital Archive turned up three other duelling challenges involving Browne, though all were settled without violence. One year after his meeting with J. A. Browne, his name appeared in the Times for 24 January 1839 in connection with a challenge issued by a Col. Gallois in Paris. Browne had apparently 'made use of certain dastardly calumnies relative to [Gallois]', which were published. Gallois demanded satisfaction. Browne accepted, and Gallois sailed for Ireland and their appointed meeting. Browne's associates, however, convinced him to retract the statements, and the matter was dropped.

Towards the end of 1840, the 12 December issue of The Spectator reported two incidents involving Browne. In the first, he reportedly sent a 'hostile message' to the Honourable Mr. Cavendish over a matter of monies owed by Browne, who had a weakness for alcohol and was often in debt as a result. The disagreement had been addressed days earlier in the 5 December issue of the Times, in which Cavendish, when confronted by one of Browne's friends regarding the arrangement of a duel, sensibly replied, 'it is not my inclination to hazard my life by meeting that gentleman, and it would militate too much against my own interest to shoot him, in as much as I hold his bond for the sum exceeding 250l. including interest'.

The second event which appeared in The Spectator, just below the note on Browne and Cavendish, was first recorded in the Mayo Constitution. The paper briefly mentioned a report that 'Mr. R. Dillon Browne and Colonel Fitzgerald had gone out to fight a duel'. The cause was an offensive letter written by Browne that appeared in the Mayo Mercury. On 15 December 1840 it was reported that Browne was killed by Fitzgerald, but this was proven to be only a rumour. In truth, Browne withdrew the offending part of the letter and expressed regret at having written it. Fitzgerald also expressed his regret for 'having given an opinion which may have been cause of annoyance to Mr Browne'.

Browne lived for another ten years, dying in bankruptcy in 1850. He was remembered in An Irish Gentleman: George Henry Moore; His Travels, His Racing, His Politics (London, 1913) as 'one of the ablest and most polished speakers in the House of Commons, but ... also one of the most dishonest of politicians, always ready at the nod of a minister to defend any cause, however contrary to the pledges he had given or the interests of his country' (150-151). No doubt Browne would have asked Moore to find himself a second and name the time and place in response to such a remark.

Canterbury Tales (Of A New Zealand Variety)

The University of Canterbury and Canterbury Museum have joined forces to create a collaborative exhibition called 'Canterbury Tales', which explores the early history of the Canterbury Region and its settlers though books and documents. The physical exhibition closes early next month, but an informative on-line version is available and certainly worth the visit.

Lead curators were Chris Jones, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Canterbury, and Sarah Murray, Curator of Canterbury Social History, Canterbury Museum.

This seems the perfect opportunity to also promote 'Canterbury's King James Bible', the digital version of an exhibition curated by Chris Jones and Bronwyn Matthews, Special Collections Librarian, as part of the 2011 King James Bible quadricentennial. The site contains a wealth of information on the history of the Bible in English and the research into the Canterbury copy of the 1611 KJB, which is one of just two copies of the 'Great He' printing in Australasia. The other is held by the Heritage Collections, Dunedin City Library.

Major Ornament Study Digitized And Freely Available

[The following was posted to Exlibris-l by Shef Rogers, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Otago]

Samuel Richardson by Mason Chamberlin

The Department of English at the University of Otago and Dr. Keith Maslen are delighted to announce that Keith's book, Samuel Richardson of London Printer: A Study of his Printing based on Ornament Use and Business Accounts (Dunedin, 2001; ISBN: 0-473-07760-4), has been deposited in the OURArchive as a freely available PDF.

The book is released along with a free PDF of Dr. Maslen's recent supplementary study identifying further works printed using Richardson ornaments, "Samuel Richardson of London, Printer: Further Extending the Canon," published last month in Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Both items are published under a Creative Commons Attribution–Non-Commercial–No Derivatives license. Any queries, additions or other thoughts will be gladly received by Dr. Maslen (contact details).

A few (c. 5) printed copies of the book remain available for purchase via the English Department at Otago. An order form and details are to be found on the web.

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My congratulations to Keith and the University of Otago for making these resources freely and widely available.

'An Unknown Vision of Middle-Earth'

Paul Tankard, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Otago, has published a piece in the Times Literary Supplement on previously unknown illustrations by Mary Fairburn for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Read the full article.

Announcement on the University of Otago website.

Interview with Paul Tankard on Radio New Zealand.

Congratulations, Paul!

Exhibition: Dunedin and Antarctic Exploration

Next Stop Antarctica: Dunedin's Role in Polar Exploration

Reed Gallery, Third Floor, Dunedin City Library

6 September to 2 December 2012

2012 is the centennial year marking the death of Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) and his party during the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition. The mission was the second of Scott’s Antarctic ventures to depart from Port Chalmers, New Zealand, following his Discovery Expedition in 1901–1904. These expeditions were neither the first nor the last such undertakings to launch from Port Chalmers. Indeed, the aptly named ship Antarctic, which carried the first men to claim setting foot on the Antarctic mainland, departed from the port town on Dunedin's south east coast in 1894. To this very day, Dunedin, of which Port Chalmers is now a part, has maintained a connection to the exploration of the Antarctic. ‘Next Stop Antarctica’ explores and celebrates the first half of this nearly 118-year history with Scott at its centre.

The Antarctic has long been a region of interest for intrepid explorers, and so the exhibition begins with a brief look at the voyages made by such men as James Cook, Jules Dumont d’Urville and Sir James Clark Ross, and ends with the United States missions to Antarctica codenamed ‘Operation Deep Freeze’ in the mid-1950s.

On display are more than sixty items from five local institutions. Exhibits include first editions of printed books, including a presentation copy of The South Polar Times given by Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Arctic explorer Sir Allen Young, handwritten and typed letters, issues of Little America Times and the Antarctic News Bulletin, photographs, artefacts (most notably Scott’s typewriter), and memorabilia relating to the American explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd.

An on-line version of the exhibition is available.

Terra Nova in Port Chalmers, 29 November 1910
Photo: Otago Witness

'Omnibus Christi fidelibus': A Sixteenth-Century Deed Uncovered

In my previous post, I mentioned coming across a sixteenth-century document amongst the Reed provenance files. These files generally consist of pages from book dealer catalogues (occasionally with Reed's pencilled marks), old exhibition labels, notes made by Reed or a local academic on a particular item in the collection, and correspondence. It was with some surprise, then, when I opened the folder on the library's copy of a 1551 Bible, that I found a folded piece of parchment with two wax seal remnants tucked into an envelope among the papers inside.

The document turned out to be a deed written primarily in Latin and dated 2 September 1544. Some research on the manuscript had evidently been done, as a typed transcription of the text was found with it. Full of standard legal phrasing, the deed relates to property granted by Henry VIII ('under the great seal of England') to Roger and Robert Taverner in late August. According to the text, the brothers conveyed to one John Merifelde (also spelt 'Meryfeld'), 'porter de le Mercers, London', a tenement situated in Fenchurch Street in the parish of All Saints Staining. 'Mercers' presumably refers to the Worshipful Company of Mercers, formed in 1394 and the oldest of the 'Great Twelve City Livery Companies'. The text continues that the location in Fenchurch Street was once the Monastery of Grace, near the Tower of London, which was disbanded during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In response to my email about the deed, David Pearson described it as 'part of that huge jigsaw of parcelling up of the spoils of ex-monastic properties, with which many up and coming City men made their fortunes and established their families'.

The deed entitled Merifelde to the tenement and 'all and severally the cellars, basements, shops, rooms, stables, outhouses, entries, passages, gardens, easements and other amenities ... pertaining to the same'. The text ends: 'In witness whereof we have attached to this present deed our seals on the second day of September in the 36th year of the reign of Henry VIII by the Grace of God of England, France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith, and in the land of France, England and Ireland Supreme Head' [punctuation is mine]. Roger Taverner's seal, of which just a fragment remains, bears a cipher or monogram. Robert's seal is nearly intact and is that of a man's head.

Who were the Taverners?

Roger Taverner (d. 1572) was an MP, surveyor for the Court of Augmentations, and a writer of tracts on economics. His brother Robert (ca. 1523‒1556) was elected a junior MP for a Cornish borough during the last Parliament of Henry VIII. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, they were two of four sons of John Taverner (ca. 1457‒1545) of North Elmham, Norfolk, and his first wife, Alice. One of his kinsmen was the composer and organist John Taverner (ca. 1490‒1545).

Transactions involving land appears to have been a common practice of the Taverner brothers. According to the History of Parliament website: 

'The first glimpse of [Robert] Taverner is in June 1544 when he acquired property in several counties from augmentations for just over £600. In the following ten months in conjunction with two of his brothers he bought land worth over £4,200, much of which they soon alienated, and he continued to make joint purchases with these two brothers in the closing years of Henry VIII’s life and throughout the reigns of Edward VI and Mary until his death'.

[From The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509‒1558, edited by S. T. Bindoff and published in 1982]

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The two men were the younger brothers of Richard Taverner (ca. 1505‒1575), clerk of the signet and evangelical reformer. Taverner is perhaps best known for his revision of the Matthew Bible (Antwerp, 1537). Taverner's Bible was first published in London in 1539, though replaced that same year by the 'Great Bible', which was considered a superior revision of the earlier Matthew Bible. The 1551 edition held by Dunedin City Library* was the eighth and final edition of Taverner's Bible, known for the infamous note at I Peter 3:7 on marital relationships: 'And if she be not obediente and healpeful unto hym: endevour to beate the fere of God inter her heade, that thereby she maye be compelled to learne her dutye and do it'. The note was not part of Taverner's translation, but is attributed to Bishop Edmund Becke who revised the 1551 edition.

Some of the deed's provenance is known. Written on the verso is 'Phillipps Ms 28218', which places the document in the vast nineteenth-century collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792‒1872). The next piece of evidence is a letter on file dated 24 July 1937, written by J. C. Pearson of Cleveland, Ohio, whom I've identified as John Calder Pearson, a member of the Rowfant Club of bibliophiles and author of The Rowfant Candlesticks (1959). The letter was addressed to the Honourable William Burgoyne Taverner, who served as mayor of Dunedin (1927‒1929) and as a member of New Zealand Parliament (1929‒1931). 'You will no doubt know', wrote Pearson, 'whether you are descended from this Taverner family ... If you would like the document as a relic of the name and family in England nearly 400 years ago, I offer it for sale for three guineas or $15'.

It is possible that Pearson acquired the deed in one of two Phillipps sales. According to A. N. L. Munby's The Dispersal of the Phillipps Library (Cambridge, 1960; fifth volume in the Phillipps Studies series), Sotheby's held two auctions of manuscripts from the Phillipps collection on 24‒25 June 1935 and 29‒30 June 1936 (Munby 86). Either is close enough in date to Pearson's July 1937 letter to be a potential point of sale.**

The Taverner-Merifelde deed, however, did not warrant sale as an individual lot, and it seems clear that the manuscript was likely sold as part of a large bundle. As Munby wrote: 'The sales of 1936 and 1938 need not detain us long. Both contained many lots of English deeds, which sold for very modest prices; one may instance xxi [the 29‒30 June 1936 sale], [lot] 512, one hundred and forty-four court-rolls on vellum ... extending from 20 Edward III to 25 Elizabeth, fetched £21 or about three shillings a roll' (91).

However Pearson acquired the deed, his suggested ancestry of W. B. Taverner was correct. He was indeed a descendant of the sixteenth-century Taverners, which made purchasing a document related to his ancestors an irresistible prospect. A second letter by Pearson confirms that the deed was bought by Taverner in December 1938. It was presented to the Dunedin Public Library by Taverner's family after his death in 1953.

The deed, and the associated correspondence, have now been removed from the 1551 Taverner Bible provenance file for cataloguing. In light of this find, a systematic check of each folder in the provenance files sequence is in order. I will add a follow-up post should anything else turn up during my search. Stay tuned.

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* The Byble that is to say, al the holy Scripture conteined in the olde & new Testament ... London: Ihon Day dwelling over Aldersgate, 1551; ESTC S107008; Herbert 93. Provenance: From the library of Charles Vere Dashwood, Esq. (b. 1745), of Stanford, Nottinghamshire. The Bible was purchased by the Dunedin Public Library from Thomas Thorp, London, sometime between October 1950 and July 1951.

** Sir Thomas Phillipps's collection numbered more than 100,000 printed books and manuscripts, which took over a century to disperse after his death. For more information, see A. N. L. Munby's Portrait of an Obsession or the relevant pages in Nicholas Basbanes's A Gentle Madness.

Katherine Mansfield in the News

I initially planned to write this week about a sixteenth-century document I happened upon in the A. H. Reed provenance files. This weekend, however, is shaping up to be a rather hectic one, so I will instead keep it short by noting some recent news regarding one of New Zealand's most celebrated literary figures, Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923), to go along with the discovery of a lost Mansfield story reported on The Fine Books Blog and elsewhere late last month.

~ Katherine Mansfield Treasure Trove Comes to the Turnbull
The Alexander Turnbull Library has recently acquired a substantial Mansfield archive previously owned by the family of her second husband John Middleton Murry (1889–1957). Dr Fiona Oliver, Curator of New Zealand and Pacific Publications, believes the collection to be 'the last known collection of Mansfield material in private hands'.

For more information, follow this link.

~ Katherine Mansfield Texts Added to the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
The Journal of Katherine Mansfield and the second volume of The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, both edited by Murry, are now available on-line through the NZETC.

Mansfield, 1913