Memoranda kept in Merlinus Liberatus: Being an Almanack
Overview
Printed book containing manuscript memoranda regarding legal and financial matters, family, cattle, etc. Volume was kept by John Stocker of Somerton, England. The volume includes 7 printed preliminary pages (title page, dedication to Dering on astrology, tables of tides, sunrise, terms, sovereigns, poem denouncing the Jacobites); pages for January-December (each month consists of 2 facing printed pages: the left contains a table of the calendar, with saint's days, times of ascension (?), and weather; the right contains lunar aspects, and prognostications; both contain a running anti-Jacobite prophetical verse); and 17 printed pages of back-matter (A Short Chronology [verse], tables of astrological houses for London, politics for the coming year divined by astrology, anagrams on Gulielmus Tertius and Jacobus Secundus, verses on the taking of Namur, eclipses, impudent.
Dates
- Creation: 1697
Creator
- Stocker, John, active 1697 (Person)
Language of Materials
English; a little Latin
Conditions Governing Access
No access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.
Extent
1 volume : Pagination: Printed book (containing 24 unpaged leaves), interleaved with 21 unpaged blank leaves on which the memoranda are written, in the following order: Manuscript pages [1-8]; 7 printed pages (title page and preliminary matter); January-December (each month consists of 2 facing printed pages with 1 inter-leaf between them); Manuscript pages [9-10] in January, [11-12] in Feb, [13-14] in March, [15-16] in April, nothing in May, [17-18] in June, [19-20] in July, [21-22] in August, [23-24] in September, [25-26] in October, [27-28] in November, [29-30] in December; 17 printed pages (back matter); Manuscript pages [31-32, stub, 33-42]. Material: Paper. Script: near-secretary hand. ; Volume measures no taller than 15 cm.
Scope and Contents
Printed Title Page: Merlinus Liberatus: Being an Almanack For the Year...1697...And the Eighth of our Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Government: But the Second from the Horrid Popish Jacobite-Plot. In which is contained...Astrological Observations... referred to the Meridian of London... By John Partridge, Student in Physick and Astronomy, at the Blew-Ball in Salisbury-street in the Strand, London. London: Printed by R. Roberts for the Company of Stationers.
Handwritten items in the volume include Stocker's notes as legal agent, regarding fees, expenses, conveyancing notes, "disbursements for clients," appointments, notes taken at "Com Cur," etc. The fees often trace the stages of a Bill and are dating from 1685-1694. Stocker marks the monthly sittings of the "Com Cur" (perhaps the County Court of Somerset, sitting at Ilchester, 5 miles from Somerton.) Stocker mentions the Six Clerks' Office, "causes," and "bills" -- terms often connected with the Court of Chancery. Documents Partially Recited: August 13, 1692. This bill firmly bindeth me John Reling of Barton David... (p.18) 5 Aug 3 James [1687]. Hen. Bull, Peter Rogners of Westharply & R. Mandrell did enfeefe Sr Halsowell Lynts... (p.38) January 22, 1685. That I John Joanes of She_____, C. Somersett, within named being the present tenant... (p.39) Judith Dawes of New Sarum by her Will dated May 6, 1694 did give... (p.41)
There are legal notes, including a list of titles of Acts; statute requiring all land-transactions to be in writing; plan to bargain with Mr Day the steward over rent; memos to search wills at Wells and at Sarum; reports of lands held.
There are also notes of financial transacations to which Stocker served as a witness; holding silver for others; paying for others. Also in the volume are medicinal receipts (p. [14]: Brother Pettitts Medicine to bring the Flegme out of his Stomach (receipt using ground-ivy); Mr Bridgers old friends Remedy For the gout (receipt using colewort), and personal accounts (petty cash, Frances' scarfe, Betty's knotts, etc.; cattle bought; expense of journey to London). Lastly, there are general notes kept by Stocker, including a list of dimensions of windows and record of renewals of lease 1686-1697.
Physical Location
MS A11
Custodial History
The name "Henry Hildebrand" is inscribed in a different and formal hand on page. 42 (inverted).
- Title
- Guide to the John Stocker Collection
- Subtitle
- Memoranda kept in Merlinus Liberatus: Being an Almanack
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by alh, 1986; revised by ksc, 2006. Finding aid encoded by skt, 2006.
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Finding aid written in English.
- Finding aid permalink
- http://hdl.handle.net/10407/7883959093
- Preferred citation
-
Memoranda kept in <emph render="italic">Merlinus Liberatus: Being an Almanack</emph>, MS A11, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Kansas. Kenneth Spencer Research Library Repository