William Hutchinson’s extra-illustrated Durham

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Introduction

	Biography
	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material - here
	Related material - elsewhere
	Bibliography

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Catalogue

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Biography

William Hutchinson, topographer, literary author, and freemason, was born and spent his boyhood in Durham, but later set up practice as a solicitor in Barnard Castle, and also held the office of clerk to the lord lieutenancy. His legal practice failed to flourish, leaving abundant time for pursuit of his historical and other interests. His Excursion to the Lakes in Westmorland and Cumberland appeared in 1774, and his A View of Northumberland, with an Excursion to the Abbey of Mailross in 1778-9, after which he and Thomas Pennant, the antiquary and travel writer whose portrait is among the extra-illustrations in these volumes, agreed not to compete with each other in publishing tours of the northern counties. Hutchinson became a friend of George Allan of Blackwell Grange, who made available to him the extensive collections he had accumulated towards a history of Co. Durham. The first volume of Hutchinson’s History … of Durham, was published in Newcastle in 1785, and the second in 1787; the third, after a dispute with his Newcastle publisher, Hodgson, appeared under a Carlisle imprint in 1794. He also published a history of Cumberland, an account of antiquities in Lancashire, and a work on freemasonry which went through several editions. Poems, plays and tales also poured from his pen, only some of which ever found their way into print.

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Contents

William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated set, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, 1785-94: 3 bibliographical vols (lacking part of vol. 3), bound in 5 physical vols. The ms additions to the text, all in Hutchinson’s hand, are largely transcripts of sources to which he had referred in the printed text (apparently mostly transcribed from copies among George Allan’s collections, rather than from originals). The numerous extra-illustrations are predominantly topographical and architectural drawings and engravings, but also include several maps, several portraits, and an election cartoon. Many of the drawings (probably including some that are unsigned) are by William Hutchinson himself. Some are by John Bailey (1750-1819, topographical painter, draughtsman and engraver), who was responsible for many of the published illustrations in Hutchinson’s works. Several are by Robert Hutchinson (d.1773), William’s brother, who also helped to illustrate William’s Excursions to the Lakes (published London, 1774), but died mid-way through its preparation. Other artists and draughtsmen represented among the extra-illustrations include George Nicholson (d.1793), architect and clerk of works to the Durham Dean and Chapter, John Lambert, Durham artist active in the city in the late 18th century, the amateur etcher Richard Wallis, rector of Seaham, and F. Gibson F.A.S.

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Accession details

Not recorded.

Previous custodial history

Lozenge-shaped pressmark labels on the spines of the volumes indicate that, after their acquisition by the Cathedral Library, they were located for a time with the C manuscripts, but not assigned numbers in that sequence.
James Raine gives an account of the early history of these volumes in a note to his edition of George Taylor’s A Memoir of Robert Surtees (Surtees Society xxiv, p. 363). Raine says that one set of the History was struck off on folio size paper, interleaved and bound in six volumes. After Hutchinson’s death, this set (with one volume already missing) came into the possession of a Richmond bookseller, Mr. Bell, who offered it to Robert Surtees in 1815 for £50, but Surtees declined it. Bell later sold the set to Sir William Chaytor of Croft, who in turn sold it to Leonard L. Hartley (1817-84) of Middleton Lodge, Middleton Tyas, Yorkshire, at the sale of whose books, c.1850, it was acquired by a Bristol bookseller, who advertised it in his catalogue as Hutchinson’s History of Durham, prepared by its author for a new edition, whereas in Raine’s opinion “the MS. Additions consist almost entirely of nothing more than authorities at length, to which a reference had been made in the text by the author”. Inscriptions by Leonard L. Hartley in the volumes confirm that he bought the set from Sir William Chaytor, Bart, of Croft Hall on 19 September 1845, and indicate that he apparently sold it at some later date, and then repurchased it from Mr Allis, a bookseller in Covent Garden, 21 December 1865 (inscriptions in Sel.11).

Conditions of access

Open for consultation.

Copyright and copying

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Librarian and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material

Arrangement

The added matter is (for the most part) written, pasted or bound into the printed text at points appropriate to the subject matter, but occasionally the connection between an extra-illustration and the adjacent printed text is obscure.

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Processing

Catalogued by Beth Rainey in WORD in 2008. Uploaded to XML by Michael Stansfield in May 2013.

Related material - here

Prints and Drawings Collection; George Allan Manuscripts (which Hutchinson used extensively in preparing his History), Sharp MSS 8-10 (Sir Cuthbert Sharp’s extra-illustrated set of Hutchinson’s History), Surtees MSS 23-25 (Robert Surtees’s extra-illustrated set of Hutchinson’s History).

Related material - elsewhere

Durham University Library Special Collections Old University MS E.I.13 (precedent book belonging to Hutchinson); Add. Mss 346, 1007, 1020 (letters to, from and about Hutchinson and his antiquarian interests); Add Mss 571-576, 1559-1562 (mss of literary works by Hutchinson).
Newcastle Central Library MS L920-H978 (correspondence of George Allan, predominantly letters to him from William Hutchinson).
Bodleian Library, Oxford MSS Gough.gen.top.43, Don.d.88 f.349-52, Eng. Misc.d.149-150, 152, 154, and Eng.lett.c.279 f.86-9 (letters to and from Hutchinson).

Bibliography

John Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, v. 1 (London, 1817), pp. 421-464 (memoir of Hutchinson and extracts from his correspondence)
J.C. Hodgson, “William Hutchinson, F.S.A., the historian of the three northern counties”, Archaeologia Aeliana, 3rd ser., 17 (1916), 166-183
C.M. Fraser. “Hutchinson, William (1732-1814)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb.com/)
William Hutchinson, The Spirit of Masonry (Wellingborough, 1987), facsimile reprint of the 1775 ed., with new introduction and bibliography of Hutchinson’s works by Trevor Stewart
; Pictures in Print (online database of pre-1866 printed maps and topographical prints of County Durham, http://www.dur.ac.uk/picturesinprint/)

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Catalogue

Sel.11
William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated copy, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 1 (1785), up to p.300.
Ms additions to the text on p.xix-xxviii, xxx-xxxi, xxxiv-xxxvi, 1-3, 5-36, 38-50, 54-69, 71, 74, 76, 78-9, 115, 122, 128-35, 247, 249-52, 254-60, 266-68. 272, 278-79, 282, 284-91, and 299, and on three additional leaves, one bound in after p.60 and two after p.62.
Lacks the engraved portrait of Bishop Egerton (to whom the book is dedicated), which is normally bound as a frontispiece facing the title-page, but a copy is bound at the end of Sel.12, facing p.588. Also lacks the “Episcopatus Dunelmensis” map which normally faces leaf A1, and the plate of Lindisfarne priory ( “Lindisfarn. N. Aspect”) which normally faces p.29. The engraved vignette at the head of A1, showing a monk holding a map of St Cuthbert’s patrimony with Durham cathedral in the background, is pasted in, rather than printed on the page. The plate of the east façade of Durham Cathedral, which normally faces vol. 2, p.225, is here bound facing vol. 1, p.181. Another copy of it is bound in Sel.13, after p.170.
Extra-illustrations:
Sel.12
William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated set, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 1 (1785), pp.301-592.
Ms additions to the text on pp.301, 304-6, 313-4, 365, 396-7, 401-7, 413, 417-8, 424-5, 428, 441-2, and 463.
Lacks the engraved plate entitled “Durham coinage” which normally faces p.444. Also lacks the engraved vignette of the seal of Bishop James on p.481. The empty space on the page has a pencil note “to paste here”. Some other plates are bound one or two pages before or after the standard position. The engraving of Bishop Egerton normally bound as frontispiece to vol. 1 here follows p.588.
Extra illustrations:
Sel.13
William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated set, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 2 (1787), p.1-300.
Ms additions to the text on p.61-88, 90-100, 119, 263, 270-71, 290, 296-7, and 300, and on four additional leaves bound in after p.80, and another after p.92.
Lacks the engraved title-page with its vignette of “A view of Durham from Castle Chair”; the engraved folding plate of Bishop Puiset’s Durham city charter and its confirmation by Pope Alexander, which normally faces p.13; and the engraved vignette on p.248 of “The Chest in which St Cuthbert’s Body was deposited”.
The plate of “Durham Abbey from admeasurement by G: Nicholson Archt 1780”, which normally follows vol. 2, p.224, is here bound facing p.62. The original drawing for this plate is in Sel.11, after p.150.
The plate of the east façade of Durham Cathedral which normally faces vol. 2, p.225 is here bound after p.70. Another copy is bound in Sel.11, facing p.181.
The plate of Old Durham which normally faces vol. 2, p.308 is here bound facing p.14.
The plate of Roman stones from Glannibanta (Roman station near Lanchester) which normally faces vol. 2, p.360 is here bound before p.63.
In this vol. engraved vignettes and engravings in the text (on p.1, 91 and 104) are actually printed on the page, as standard in the published volume, rather than pasted in.
Extra illustrations:
Sel.14
William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated set, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 2 (1787), p.301-616.
Ms additions to the text on p.302, 318-34, 324-5, 328, 357-8, 371, 435-6, 448, 453-4, 466-7, 470, 472-6, 491, 497, 506-8, 512-4, 540-2, and 549-52, and on three additional leaves bound in after p.390, and one after p.508.
Lacks the plate of Old Durham and Maiden Castle which normally faces p.308, but a copy is bound in Sel.13, facing p.14.
Lacks the plate of Roman stones from Glannibanta (Roman station near Lanchester), which normally faces p.360, but a copy is bound in Sel.13, before p.63.
Lacks the plate of Gibside, which normally faces p.452, and the plate of Hylton Castle which normally faces p.508.
Lacks the plate of Houghton Hall which normally faces p.540, but a copy is bound in Sel.15, facing p.177 [i.e. misplaced in the section on Haughton-le-Skerne].
The plate of Lumley Castle which normally faces p.399, and the plate of Chester-le-Street parish church which normally faces p.391, are here bound before p.387.
Some other plates are slightly misplaced from their standard positions.
Lacks the engraved vignettes of Monkwearmouth Church at head of p.501, Sunderland Parish Church on p.516, and Thomas Leaver’s memorial brass in Sherburn Hospital chapel on p.584. The engraving of the seal of St Edmund’s Hospital, Gateshead, on p.459 is pasted in, rather than printed on the page. The engraved vignettes of Bishopwearmouth parish church on p.511 and Houghton-le-Spring church on p.538 are also pasted in, rather than printed on the page, and are without captions. Other engraved vignettes and engravings in the text are printed on the page as standard.
Extra illustrations:
Sel.15
William Hutchinson’s annotated and extra-illustrated set, on large paper, of his own work, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 3 (1794), up to p.264, plus part of the appendix of pedigrees.
The only ms additions to the text in this vol. are a transcript from the Gentleman’s Magazine about Greatham Hospital, bound in after p.92, and marginal notes on p.107-108. The appendix of pedigrees, which is normally bound between p.522 of vol. 3 and the index, is here misbound after the last page (p.xvi) of the preface to the volume, with p.xvii-[xxxii] of the appendix [confusingly also numbered using small roman numerals] preceding p.i-xvi of the appendix, and with all leaves of the appendix after p.[xxxii] lacking. Adding to the confusion, p.1-8 of the main text are misbound after p.i of the preface. Quires p (pp.113-20) and x-y (pp.161-76) are on ordinary rather than large paper. The rest of vol. 3 [i.e. p.265-522 and the index] were presumably bound in the sixth physical vol. of the set, which was already missing when the set first changed hands after Hutchinson’s death.
Lacks the plate of Barnard Castle church which normally faces p.245. The engraved plate of St Hilda’s Church, Hartlepool and rocks at Hartlepool, which normally faces p.33 is here bound facing p.28. The engraved plate of Houghton Hall which normally faces p.540 of vol. 2, in the section on Houghton-le-Spring, is here misbound facing vol. 3, p.177, in the section on Haughton-le-Skerne. The engraved plate of objects associated with Barnard Castle church, which normally faces p.243, is here bound facing p.232, with an erroneous pencil note that it does not appear in the ordinary paper edition of the work. The plate of Raby Castle which normally follows p.264, is here bound facing p.262. Lacks the engraved vignettes of Sedgefield church on p.49 and Egglescliffe church on p.137. The engraved vignette of Barnard Castle church on p.229 is here pasted to the page rather than printed on it. Other engraved vignettes and engravings in the text are printed directly on the page, as standard.
Extra-illustrations: