Rare 17th Century Gaol Records Sell for £11,000

A hand-written set of 17^th century Records of Prisoners at Stafford Gaol sold for £11,000 in Tennants Auctioneers’ Books, Maps & Manuscripts Sale on 22^nd August (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). Early manuscript calendars of prisoners are exceedingly rare, and the lot comprised forty-two lists, dated between March 1661 and August 1688, which provide a fascinating insight into life in Stafford. They listed the details of prisoners and their charges, examples of which included: 'Elizabeth Woolley alias Bell of Elford in ye County of Stafford upon suspicion of having two husbands', and ‘Ann Daybanck charged with murdering her daughter Dorothey Daybanck' as well as four men accused of being Popish Priests, and charges of burglary, highway robbery, stealing livestock, counterfeiting coins and more.

Selling for £8,000 was a manuscript journal or commonplace book executed by Sir John Ross (1777-1856), a Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer. The book was composed of ink sketches of ships at sea, copied verse, and vignette sketches of figures and places, and had been passed by descent through the Ross family. Sir John Ross was born in West Galloway, and joined the Royal Navy aged just nine years old before a long career serving in the Navy, the merchant navy and the Swedish Navy. In 1818, he embarked on the first of three expeditions to the Arctic, on one of a number of attempts by the British Admiralty to find the North West Passage; having sailed around Baffin Bay and made their way into the Lancaster Sound, a rare mirage known as an iceblink led him to believe there was a range of mountains blocking passage, thus they returned home. Once this mistake was realised, his reputation was tarnished until a second perilous expedition which saw them trapped in ice for months on end; forced to explore the area, they gathered important geographic, ethnographic and scientific information and established a rapport with the Innuit people.

Further highlights of the sale included a three-volume set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings published by George Allen in 1955 (sold for £4,400), a Bound Collection of Ten Chapbooks (small booklet-style publications) dating from the late 18^th and early 19^th century including rare works published by Ann Lemoine, one of the first independent female publishers in England (sold for £2,500), an 1858 first edition of Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (sold for £1,100), and a late 18^th century volume of Thomas Bankes A Modern, Authentic and Complete System of Universal Geography…The Whole Forming a Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (sold for £1,300).

The sale achieved a total hammer price of £95,360 for the 135 lots, and a sold rate of 95%.

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