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Association Copy #2 - Religion and Policy

· Fine Book Collecting,Association Copy,Religion,Policy,John Carter

As I did earlier with Found Novelists, I thought that I would do some Association Copies. Let’s start with the definition of an association copy. I have mentioned the great bookman, John Carter, author of many books about books in previous musings so let us use his definition. He defines “Provenance” (in his classic reference guide ABC for Book Collectors) as “The pedigree of a book’s previous ownership.” While it’s not necessary for a book to have had distinguished previous owners to be rare or valuable, volumes that enter the realm of “Association Copy” because of a previous owner’s connections to the author are very highly prized. The degree of association can vary, with a "Presentation Copy" given by the author to a friend or contemporary and inscribed with a note from the author, at the top of the heap. Carter defines the association copy thusly:

"a copy which once belonged to, or was annotated by the author; or which once belonged to someone connected to the author or someone of interest in his own right; or again, and perhaps most interestingly, belonging to someone peculiarly associated with its contents."

The first article of Association Copies featured a book where the author presented the book back to the publisher, which is quite uncommon.

This week the association is driven by ownership/provenance as evidenced by bookplates. The book is Religion and Policy and the Countenance and Assistance each should give to the
other, with a Survey of the Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope in the Dominions of Other
Princes
by Edward Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, and Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The 2-volume set was published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, MDCCCXI. This was a later printing of a work written in the seventeenth century.

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Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609 – 1674), was an English statesman, diplomat and historian, who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to his son from 1660 to 1667. In April 1640, Hyde was elected Member of Parliament for both Shaftesbury and Wootton Bassett in the Short Parliament and chose to sit for Wootton Bassett. In November 1640 he was elected MP for Saltash in the Long Parliament. After Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, he was appointed Lord Chancellor, while his daughter Anne married the future James II, making him grandfather of two queens, Mary and Anne. These links brought him both power and enemies, and he was charged with treason after the 1665 to 1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War.

He left England to travel in Europe, where he remained until his death in 1674. His periods of exile were spent completing The History of the Rebellion, now regarded as one of the most significant histories of the period, covering the First English Civil War from 1642 to 1646. He served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1660 to 1667, which was when he most likely wrote this book.

The association with this powerful politician and his very political work comes more than a hundred years after his death, but as often is the case, books can influence decisions and readers for an extended period of time.

This set of books contains the bookplate of W. E. Gladstone.

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William Ewart Gladstone (1809 – 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times.

Lord Russell retired in 1867 and Gladstone became leader of the Liberal Party. In 1868 the Irish Church Resolutions was proposed as a measure to reunite the Liberal Party in government (on the issue of disestablishment of the Church of Ireland—this would be done during Gladstone's First Government in 1869 and meant that Irish Roman Catholics did not need to pay their tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland). When it was passed Disraeli took the hint and called a General Election. Religion and Policy – hmmmm.

Gladstone was a lifelong bibliophile. In his lifetime, he read around 20,000 books, and eventually owned a library of over 32,000. In 1895, at the age of 85, Gladstone bequeathed £40,000 (equivalent to approximately £4.65 million today) and much of his library to found St Deiniol's Library in Hawarden, Wales. It had begun with just 5,000 items at his father's home Fasque, which were transferred to Hawarden for research in 1851.

So, how did these volumes end up in the library of Frederic Baron Wolverton? How did this book get to Germany is what I first thought? But nope!

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Baron Wolverton, of Wolverton in the County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1869 for the banker George Glyn. He was the fourth son of Sir Richard Carr Glyn, 1st Baronet, of Gaunt's House, Lord Mayor of London in 1798, himself the fourth son of Sir Richard Glyn, 1st Baronet, of Ewell, Lord Mayor of London in 1758. Lord Wolverton was succeeded by the eldest of his nine sons, the second Baron. He was a Liberal politician and served under William Ewart Gladstone.

Wolverton was elected to Parliament for Shaftesbury as a Liberal in 1857, a seat he would hold until he succeeded his father in 1873 and entered the House of Lords. In 1868 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury in William Ewart Gladstone's first administration, a post he held until 1873, when he was also admitted to the Privy Council. The Liberals lost office in 1874, but when Gladstone returned to power in 1880 Wolverton was appointed Paymaster-General. He retained this office until Gladstone resigned in June 1885 and the Conservatives came to power under Lord Salisbury.

The same year, the Liberal Party split over the issue of Irish Home Rule. Wolverton supported Gladstone and was rewarded when he was made Postmaster General in February 1886, when Gladstone became Prime Minister for a third time.

And Gladstone threw in a couple of books, too.