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Thomas and David Pennant manuscripts
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Arctic zoology,

An imperfect copy of Thomas Pennant: Arctic Zoology. Vol. I. Introduction. Class 1. Quadrupeds (London, 1784), wanting pp. xxi-xxii, xxv-xxxii, lxxvii-lxxx, and xciii-xciv. Corrections and additional notes, in the hand of David and Thomas Pennant, appear in the margins, on fly-leaves, and on pages or pieces of paper, inset or added at the beginning and end of the volume. An undated letter from Captain Macbride to Mr. [Thomas] Pennant (in third person), enclosing notes on turbot fishing, has also been inset.

Thomas Pennant, David Pennant and others.

A Tour in Wales,

Four volumes, each one lettered on the spine 'Tour in Wales', and each containing a section of the text (pre 1810 editions) of Thomas Pennant: A Tour in Wales, with manuscript emendations and additions (marginal and inset) by Thomas and David Pennant. 12709C: A Tour in Wales, vol. I (London, 1784), containing only the first part, pp. [i-viii, 1]-238, of the volume, i.e., the account of the journey from Downing, via Holywell, Flint, Northop, Hawarden, to Chester, and thence to Holt, Bangor, and Overton. On a fly-leaf at the end of the volume is a corn return, February 1796, for the parishes of Whitford, Holywell, Northop, Caerwys, Halkin, Skeiviog, and Flint [co. Flint]. 12710C: The Journey to Snowdon (London, 1781), pp. [i-iv, 1-192]. The text corresponds to that published [as Part 1] of A Tour in Wales, vol. II (London, 1784), rather than to that published separately in 1781, or [as Part I] of A Tour in Wales, vol. II (London, 1783). The ten supplemental plates to the Tour in Wales, together with the notes thereon, have been bound in at the end of the volume. 12711C: A Tour in Wales, MDCCLXX, vol. II (London, 1783), containing only the first part, pp. [i-iv, I-184], of the volume, i.e., the account of the journey to Snowdon. Nine of the ten supplemental plates to the Tour in Wales, and the notes thereon, have been bound in at the end of the volume. 12712C: A volume containing pp. 184-487, and the last eight unnumbered pages, of [A Tour in Wales, vol. II (1783)], i.e., 'Continuation of the Journey', 'From Downing to Montgomery and Shrewsbury', Appendices I-XVII, and the index. In addition to the usual notes by Thomas and David Pennant, inset are notes by Hugh Davies [botanist], a holograph letter from Ar. Blayney, from Gregynog, to Thomas Pennant, at Downing, 1782 (personal, forwarding ? a letter from Sir John Pryce [5th bart., of Newtown, co. Montgomery], the said Sir John's three marriages, genealogical information re the writer's ancestors), and a table giving an 'Estimate of the population of Anglesey in the year 1795, by J. W. Prichard of Plas y Brain', together with the population figures according to the census of 1801.

Thomas Pennant and others.

Miscellanea,

Sixteen miscellaneous manuscript items extracted from NLW MS 12706E, including three separate sheets each containing an English poem (the third entitled 'Gun Powder Treason'), and each one endorsed, in the same hand, '(verses) wrote by my son', 1740, 1741, and 1742 respectively; an English verse translation of Horace: Odes, Book 1, Ode XXII, endorsed 'June 1743'; a draft copy of a loyal address by the gentlemen, freeholders, and mine adventurers of the county of Flint, to [George III] on his accession to the throne [1760]; a certificate of election of Thomas Pennant as a member of the American Philosophical Society, 9 May 1791, signed by Dav[i]d Rittenhouse, president, and John Ewing, William Smith, and Th[omas] Jefferson, vice-presidents; an elegy by W[illia]m Henry Groves entitled ' Lines wrote on the lamented death of Thomas Pennant, Esqr'. [1798]; an eight-line stanza, ? in the hand of David Pennant, headed 'Verses written by the late Mrs. Piozzi, on the report of my Father's death in 1797 or 1798'; a holograph letter from Th[omas] Mostyn, from Bodysgallan, to ? David Pennant, undated (the death of Mrs. Pennant, ? Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Mostyn, 4th bart., of Mostyn, 2nd wife of Thomas Pennant); a note from Sir Edw[ard] Mostyn, Will[iam] Stanley, Hen[ry] Blundell, and Phil[ip] Jones, from Talacre, to Tho[ma]s Penant [sic], at Downing, 14 June [ ] (informing recipient that the three first named would 'attend him to Dublin', and desiring the favour of his company at Talacre the day prior to setting out); copies (undated) of 'A Prologue Spoke by one of the Scholars att Wrexham, at ye Acting of ye Siege of Damascus', and of an epilogue spoken on the same, or a similar, occasion; and copies or drafts of four items already noted as part of the manuscript content of NLW MS 12706E, viz., the memorial inscription to John Norman, in Newmarket church, the oration delivered by Sam[uel] Forster, when presenting Thomas Pennant for the honorary degree of LL.D., at Oxford, 11 May 1771, the letter by 'Laicus' referring to the state of the clergy (the present copy is dated April 15th, 1785), and the note of the death at Bychton, ? 13 November 1796, of Mr. Williams, tide waiter.

Pennant's tour in Wales,

An annotated list, drawn up by Thomas Pennant, of prints, water colours, coats of arms, and other illustrations for inclusion in an extra-illustrated set of A Tour in Wales.

Thomas Pennant.

Poems,

A lady's album containing miscellaneous poems and transcripts of poems, some of them by or relating to members of the Downing, Wynnstay, Bodrhyddan, and other North Wales families.

Flintshire Roads,

Papers of David Pennant relating to turnpike and other roads in Flintshire and including details of an assessment on the inhabitants of townships in the parishes of Whitford, Caerwys, and Tremeirchion towards repairing the high road in those townships.

Evan Evans ('Ieuan Brydydd Hir'),

Copies of Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards translated into English ... (London,1764) and The Love of Our Country, A Poem ... (Carmarthen, 1772), both of them by Evan Evans ('Ieuan Brydydd Hir'), and four letters, 1768-1787, from him to Thomas Pennant; a letter from Robert Williams (Rhydycroesau) to David Pennant; and prospectuses of printed publications by Evan Evans, Robert Williams, Thomas Lloyd Jones ('Gwenffrwd'), etc.

Evans, Evan, 1731-1788

Pennant (of Downing) papers,

Papers connected mainly with the activities of David Pennant of Downing, Flintshire, son of Thomas Pennant. They include material relating to affairs in Flintshire and north-east Wales in general and the Holywell district in particular and consist of letters from Henry Chambers, Edward Jones (David Pennants secretary or agent), F. R. Price (Bryn-y-pys), C. Oldfield (Perthyterfyn), Henry Parry (vicar of Llanasa), J. Oldfield, David Edisbury, D. Scott, etc.; drafts and memoranda by David Pennant; papers relating to The Charity for the Relief of the Poor Widows and Orphans of Clergymen who officiated in the diocese of St. Asaph, Flintshire and Denbighshire parliamentary elections and political affairs, parliamentary reform, poor-law relief, soup kitchens, canals, collieries and colliery strikes, public celebrations, the Holywell Loyal Volunteers, church schools, clothing clubs, eisteddfodau, auction sales, the Flintshire Dispensary, the Holywell Annual Vestry, the Holywell Hunt, etc.; a Latin poem; etc.

The Literary Life of Thomas Pennant, etc.,

A folio volume lettered on the spine 'Pennant's Literary Life', and containing transcripts or printed copies of miscellaneous compositions mainly by, or relating to, Thomas Pennant. The first and main item is a variant manuscript version (62 pp.) of The Literary Life of the Late Thomas Pennant, Esq., by himself (London, 1793), with printed title-page and advertisement inlaid. The text of this manuscript version is substantially the same as that of the published edition, with certain variations in wording and phrasing, and minor omissions or additions. Occasionally, however, the manuscript text contains passages which do not occur in the printed work, e.g., (a) the additional information (p. 41) relating to the author's pamphlet entitled American Annals . . ., viz., that some one hundred copies had been printed, and sent by post to members of parliament, and that 'the friends of the Howes endeavored all they could to suppress them, by borrowing them . . ., and never returning them again', (b) the comments (pp. 42-3) relating to the trial [1783-1784] of the Reverend- William [Davies] Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, for seditious libel, (c) references (pp. 46-7) to the critical review of the author's book on London [Of London (London, 1790)], which appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine [vol. 60, part 1, 1790], 'a paper too subservient to the malice of its principal manager, Mr. Richard Gough', and to the Dublin 'pirated edition', and the German translation of the said book, (d) the comments (pp. 49-50) on the financial difficulties of John Reinhold Forster [naturalist], during his stay in England, his lack of gratitude towards his benefactors, and his ultimate return to the continent, (e) the information (p. 56) that Thomas Roden of Denbigh, 'a most admirable binder, and so extremely elegant in his trade', had been responsible for binding the [manuscript] volumes of the author's Outlines of the Globe, which had already been written, etc. Other manuscript items, in the order in which they occur, intermixed with printed material, include a copy of a letter addressed by ? Thomas Pennant, under the pseudonym 'Laicus', to the editor of an unspecified newspaper, undated (comments on the acceptance into Holy Orders of persons totally unsuited to such a calling, occasioned by seeing a satirical print entitled 'The Church Militant', a copy of which is reproduced); an unsigned, draft copy of a letter, in the hand of Thomas Pennant [and possibly from Thomas Pennant, to Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th bart., of Mostyn, co. Flint, and Leighton, co. Chester], April 1784 (political differences between the writer and recipient) (inlaid); an incomplete, draft copy, in the hand of Thomas Pennant, of a request to the sheriff of co. Flint, to summon a meeting of the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders of the county, to meet at Mold, ? 1780, with a view to petitioning Parliament to make a scrutiny of 'useless places, sinecures and pensions', etc. (mounted); a draft copy of a petition to be presented by the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders of co. Flint, to the House of Commons [1780], calling for the elimination of wasteful expenditure, and the application of the money saved to a more vigorous prosecution of the war against the Bourbons (mounted); an autograph letter from R. Kenyon, from Cefn, to ? Thomas Pennant, February 1780 (suggested alterations in the aforementioned draft petition) (inlaid); a copy of the oration delivered by Samuel Forster, in Convocation at Oxford [University], 11 May 1771, when presenting Thomas Pennant for the honorary degree of LL.D. (Latin); a ? holograph letter from J. P. Andrews, from Brompton, [co.] Midd[lese]x, to T[homas] Pennant, 1791 (the recipient's book on the 'history of the Capital' [Of London (London, 1790)], observations on opinions expressed by recipient in connection with mail coaches) (mounted); a copy of a memorial inscription to John Norman, attorney at law, in Newmarket church; a note of the death at Bychton, parish of Whiteford, ?13 November 1796, of Mr. Williams, tidewaiter; and occasional marginal and other annotations in the hand of Thomas Pennant. The remaining items in the volume, apart from the illustrations, consist entirely of inlaid or mounted printed material. Under a running title Miscellanies, and paginated [1]-25, though intermixed with other items, are found copies of two poems [composed by Thomas Pennant] entitled 'Ode occasioned by a lady professing an attachment to Indifference' (Chester, 1769), and 'On a lady chosen on the same day patroness of a book society and hunting meeting' (Chester, 1771) (for a reference to both see Literary Life, p. 32); two letters written by [Thomas Pennant, under the pseudonym] 'Camber', from Hawd y lam [sic] and Old Bond Street, 1781 (the first, published in the Chester Courant, dealing with the fashion amongst ladies of wearing riding apparel, even when not intending to ride, and the second with the possible dangers resulting from flirtatious behaviour on the part of married women. See Literary Life, p. 32); and two pamphlets [by Thomas Pennant] entitled American Annals or Hints and Queries for Parlement Men, and Flintshire Petition. Other printed items, in the order in which they occur, include copies of pamphlets, etc., by Thomas Pennant called Of the Patagonians. Formed from the relation of Father. Falkener, a Jesuit, who had resided among them thirty eight years. And from the different voyagers, who had met with this tall race (Darlington, 1788), A Letter from a Welsh Freeholder to his Representative (Chester, 1784), Free Thoughts on the Militia Laws . . . addressed to the Poor Inhabitants of North Wales (London, 1781), To the Poor concerned in Mineral Counties (1773), A Letter to a Member of Parliament on Mail-Coaches (London, 1792) (some pages misplaced), Flintshire Association, and Catalogue of My Works (1786); a Navy Office certificate of exemption from the attentions of the press gang, with personal details filled in by Thomas Pennant, 1755; copies of two Latin poems, 1786 and undated, by Richard Williams, in praise of Thomas Pennant; an English translation of the second of the aforesaid poems, by the author; newspaper cuttings containing poems headed 'Verses to Mr. Pennant on the writer's being apprized of his intention to make a visit into Cornwall', and 'To the memory of Thomas Pennant, Esq., ob. 1798'; a copy of the advertisement or preface contributed by David Pennant, son of Thomas Pennant, to vols. III and IV (two in one) of his father's work Outlines of the Globe, published posthumously, 1800; and a copy of a short biography of Thomas Pennant, with a bibliography of some of his works, listing the plates in each work. The volume has some sixty-seven illustrations (some duplicated). A few of these consist of miscellaneous original drawings, chiefly in water-colour, but the majority are engravings, mostly portraits in line. To the former group belong two self-portraits (the second, 1811), by Moses Griffith. The first of these faces p. 12, at the foot of which page is a short, biographical note relating to the birth, baptism, and early schooling of the painter. This, according to an additional, pencilled note, in another hand, is in 'M. G's own hand'. To this first group also belong a water-colour sketch of the 'Approach to Pont St. Maurice' [Switzerland], and sketches for, or copies of, satirical prints relating to the trial of Dean William Davies Shipley (see above). To the second category belong the prints called 'The Church Militant' (see above), and 'The Triumph of Turbulence, or Mother Cambria possessed' (the Shipley trial), and the portraits (in the order in which they appear in the text) of Thomas Pennant, Mrs. [Hester Lynch] Piozzi [authoress], Sir Cha[rles] Linneus [botanist], G[eorge] Edwards [naturalist], John Ray [naturalist], [Francois Marie Arouet] de Voltaire, Solomon Gessner [Swiss poet and engraver], Conrad Gesner [naturalist], Christoph Jac[ob] Trew [German naturalist], Albrecht v[on] Haller [Swiss physiologist], Christoph Gottlieb von Murr [German scholar], [Daniel Charles] Solander [botanist], Sir Joseph Banks, George Allan [antiquary and topographer], and William Hutchinson [topographer] (together), Francis Grose [antiquary and draughtsman ], Benfamin] Stillingfleet [naturalist and dilettante] (with ? autograph), the Rev[erend] John Lloyd [ rector of Caerwys, and Thomas Pennant's companion], [the Honourable] Daines Barrington [lawyer and antiquary], the Reverend W[illiam] D[avies] Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, Charles I, William Seward [biographer], [the Reverend] W[illia]m Coxe [archdeacon of Wilts.], Sir Roger Mostyn [5th bart., of Mostyn, co. Flint], Richard [Howe, 1st viscount Howe of Langar, and] earl Howe, Charles [Cornwallis, 2nd] earl Cornwallis [and 1st marquess Cornwallis], General [George] Washington, and General [Horatio] Gates. The text of the 'Literary Life', and of certain other manuscript sections of the volume, such as the Oxford doctorate oration, was possibly transcribed by Thomas Jones, son of Roger Jones, parish clerk of the parish [of Whitford, co. Flint], who had been engaged by Thomas Pennant in 1791 as his secretary, 'to copy my several manuscripts' (see Literary Life, p. 39).

?Thomas Jones and others.

Tour on the continent,

A folio volume lettered on the spine 'Pennant's Tour on the Continent . . . 1764', and containing an account of a tour in France, Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and the Netherlands, undertaken by Thomas Pennant, February - August 1765, followed by a table of the 'Itinerary' and an index. The title-page is inscribed 'Tour on the Continent by Thomas Pennant, Esqr.', and, like the spine, bears the date 1764, although the actual tour was undertaken in 1765. An engraved portrait (inlaid) of Thomas Pennant (published post 1793) serves as frontispiece. The volume, as in the case of the preceding and following manuscripts, NLW MSS 12706E and 12708E, may have been transcribed by Thomas Pennant's secretary - copyist, Thomas Jones. Subsequent to its acquisition by the National Library of Wales in 1938, the text of the present work was edited and published, with an introduction and foot-notes, as vol. 132 of the publications of the Ray Society [G[avin] R[ylands] de Beer (ed.): Tour on the Continent 1765, by Thomas Pennant, Esqr. (London, 1948)]. In his introduction the editor states, 'It is clear that the body of the text rests on daily notes made by Pennant during the actual course of his tour', and adds that 'Pennant went over his text afterwards, for many of the elaborations of his narrative refer to books published, or events which occurred, subsequently to 1765'. References, such as those to Voltaire in 1768 (p. 184), to the reported discontinuance of the custom of producing the album or visitors' book at the Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartreuse 'a few years after the time I was there' (p. 127), and to 'the late subversion of all things, wrong as well as right, in the Kingdom of France', and its effects on the monastery of La Grande Chartreuse (pp. 128- 9), are obviously later insertions. So, too, would appear to be the references to works by M. Bourrit (pp. 175, 178) [probably Marc Théodore Bourrit: A Relation of a Journey to the Glaciers in the Dutchy of Savoy. Translated from the French by Charles and Frederick Davy (Norwich, 1775)], and by the Reverend Mr. Coxe (p. 193) [William Coxe, author of Sketches of the Natural, Civil, and Political State of Swisserland (London, 1779), and Travels in Switzerland (London, 1789)].

Thomas Pennant.

The History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell,

An imperfect copy of Thomas Pennant: The History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell (1796), containing only the section dealing with the parish of Whiteford (pp. i-vi, 1-172). The title-page is wanting, as also are the 'vignette' on p. I, and plates I-V, VII, XII-XIV, and XVII. Copies of the engraving on the title-page, and of plates VI, VIII-XI, and XV-XVI, without captions (possibly pre-lettering proofs), have been inserted. The volume contains marginal and inset annotations and corrections, in the hand of Thomas and David Pennant, and some six and a half pages of botanical notes at the end, in the hand of Thomas Pennant.

Thomas Pennant and David Pennant.

Zoology,

A volume bearing on the outside, upper cover a label inscribed 'Mediterranean and Indian Fish'. The volume itself is blank, but inset are a page of notes on the flying fish, a few drawings of fish, and copies of plates XXV, XXVIII, and XXIX [from Thomas Pennant: British Zoology, vol. III (1776)], etc.

Thomas Pennant.

Letters to David Pennant, etc.,

Eight holograph letters to David Pennant [son of Thomas Pennant], at Downing, from [the Reverend] T[homas] D[udley] Fosbroke, Walford, near Ross, 1823 (2) (personal, enquiring whether there was a plan of Tre'r caeri in Caernarvonshire amongst the papers of the late Mr. [Thomas] Pennant, the writer being in need of one for his encyclopaedia [? Encyclopedia of Antiquities . . . (London, 1825)], information concerning the Weston family, who held the earldom of Portland [1633-1688], support for the proposed encyclopaedia, thanks to recipient for his promise of a new sketch of Tre'r Caeri), G[eorge] P[erfect] Harding, Strand [London], 1812 (a visit by the writer to the Savoy Chapel, a brief description of some of the monuments there, including those of Sir Robert Douglas, Lady Dalhousie, and ? a countess of Nottingham, and of the brasses in memory of William Chatterby and Thomas Halsey, the raising of the floor of the Savoy Chapel in 1801, an intended visit to St. Stephen's Chapel, portraits copied by the writer during the previous summer, including those of Sir F[rancis] Bacon, Thomas, earl of Cleveland, and Queen Elizabeth (by [Nicholas] Hilliard), at Gorhambury, and of Algernon, earl of Northumberland ('a very fine picture by Vandyke'), and Lady Jersey at Cashiobury), [the Reverend] J[ohn] Jones, the Vicarage, Holywell, 1819 and undated (2) (unrest amongst the colliers, threats to use violence against Mr. Clarke and Mr. Storey, and to destroy the Bagillt coal works, the writer's orders to innkeepers not to provide the Bagillt colliers with beer, his belief that parish relief could not be provided, and that it was necessary to summon military aid), Messrs. Longman & Co., London, [18]18 ( a reply to recipient's enquiry concerning his father's Tour in Scotland), Henry Parry, undated (a reply to a query relating to the sheriffs of cos. Denbigh and Flint, sixteenth and first half seventeenth cent., giving occasional biographical detail), and N. Roberts, clerk of the peace [for co. Flint], Mold, 1823 (enclosing a copy of a letter the writer had received from the Rev[eren]d Whitehall Whitehall Davies, from Broughton, 1823, in which he tendered his resignation as chairman of the magistrates, owing to the state of his health); and a holograph letter from [the Reverend] R[obert] W[ynne] Eyton, Llangollen Vicarage, to ? Mr. or Mrs. Pennant, 1824 ( personal, requesting recipient's assistance in finding a person to be responsible for the cleanliness of [St. Winifred's] well at Holywell, money for the purpose having been given by Mrs. Coutts).

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