This manuscript was created for Sir William Brereton in 1628-1629 or later. It was presumably inherited on his death in 1661 by his only son, Sir Thomas Brereton, who died childless in 1673. Somehow the manuscript subsequently came into the hands of Henry Richardson, whose letter dated August 5, 1732 and addressed to William Wright, Esqr, at Offerton is attached to the front endpaper. Richardson offers the manuscript to Wright, saying “You have a sort of title to it, for it came formerly from Hanford, & now returns to the Owner of that Place.” Handforth (aka Hanford) Hall, a manor house in Cheshire, had been built in 1562 for Uriah Brereton, and Sir William Brereton lived there when in Cheshire. In about 1673 Handforth Hall was sold to Thomas Legh of Adlington, Cheshire. The Legh family sold it in 1716 to William Wright, and it belonged to the Wright family until at least 1880. In 1795 one of Brereton’s letter books (ending July 17, 1643) belonged to J. Wright of Stafford. Other Brereton manuscripts may have remained in the possession of the Wright family. Somehow during the mid-twentieth century this manuscript came into the hands of an unidentified bookseller, whose catalog description is pasted to the front endpaper. Eliot S. Berkley (1924-2012) purchased the manuscript from an unknown source during the second half of the twentieth century. It was the favorite item in his personal library, also including sixteenth-to eighteenth-century printed books that he accumulated during four decades of book collecting. The Eliot S. Berkley Collection, given to Kenneth Spencer Research Library in 2011-2013, includes this manuscript and more than 400 printed books. The topics of the books, reflecting his interests, include religion, philosophy, military and political history, geography, biography, social commentary, and science. A Kansas City native and Princeton University graduate, Dr. Berkley taught history and government at the University of Kansas City (now the University of Missouri-Kansas City) and social science at the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design, where he also served as vice president for development (1960-1961) and dean of the college (1961-1965). He was active in educational and social-action organizations, and founded the International Relations Council in 1954 with the aim of fostering understanding of international affairs among citizens of the greater Kansas City area.