FITZHERBERT FAMILY

Archive of letters, documents and other papers pertaining to the FitzHerbert family of Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, including a letter from George III and much other material

Archive of letters, documents and other papers pertaining to the FitzHerbert family of Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, including:

i) Letter signed and subscribed ("Monsieur Mon Frere/ Votre bon Frere/ George R") to Louis XVI of France ("Le Roi Très Chretien"), in French, confirming Alleyne FitzHerbert as his Minister Plenipotentiary and asking him to trust everything he reports, assuring him of his esteem and enduring friendship, one pages on a bifolium, two red wax seals, marks, torn along fold, 4to (240 x 190mm.), St. James, 27 July 1782;

ii) Notebook titled "Judith FitzHerbert. Afghan War of 1878, 1879", containing transcriptions of letters home from Major Walter Hepburn Melitas FitzHerbert (1842-1930) of the Rifle Brigade during the second Anglo-Afghan war, describing his experiences on the hard march through the Khyber Pass in November 1878, talking of a different style of fighting in Afghanistan ("...Instead of acting like the Romans in a barbarous hill country, or like Cromwell in the Highlands we behave too much as if we were fighting against a civilized enemy... We should have no trouble in quieting the hill tribes if we went about it the right way..."), with copies of newspaper reports, list of officers killed, etc., 40 pages, marbled paper cover, 4to, 1878-1879;

iii) Autograph letters and ephemera, including a manuscript design for a chair for Lady FitzHerbert ("These are the exact sizes of the seat & back frames"); map showing the track of various ships to Canada, 1835; seventeen leaves from an eighteenth-century scrapbook with various newspaper cuttings, engravings, receipts etc, pasted in; historical notes, receipt book of Robert Dove, 1857, other receipts, "Prices of Turkey Carpets at the Levant Warehouse... 1839", "List of Treasures at Tissington Hall, 1896", knitting instructions for a baby's sock and other items, printed playbill advertising The Wife's Secret (with Charles Kean, 1848), printed sermons, advertisements etc., three cabinet photographs and three carte de visite, various envelopes, etc.; with over 25 autograph letters and postcards to and from the FitzHerberts at Tissington Hall and elsewhere from around the world, the majority concerned with family matters, c.80 pages, various sizes, early to mid nineteenth century; four commissions addressed to Richard Henry FitzHerbert, one signed "William R", three signed "Victoria R", on vellum, the last paper, with paper seals and duty stamps, c.290 x 390mm. and smaller, 1833, 1839, 1848, 1856; with three passports (R.H. FitzHerbert, 1836, with European stamps, Richard Henry FitzHerbert and daughter, 1870, Richard Arkwright FitzHerbert, 1907, with stamps for Peking and Russia);

iv) Printed playscript, The Man of the World, A Comedy by Mr Charles Macklin, with manuscript list of subscribers dated 20 February 1794 bound into front ("...Mr Fitzherbert this Book to be kept 4 Days..."), original paper wrappers, 8vo, printed by John Bell, London, 1793; Manuscript notebook containing standing orders for parliament, 186 numbered pages, in ink with red rules, inscribed "St Helens 1803" on first leaf, marbled ends, red calf gilt with cipher of George III on front board, titled 'Standing Orders' on spine, slight wear, 4to, c.1803; Goldsmith's Almanac for 1813 with manuscript notes mentioning Bonaparte and Wellington's victories, dark blue calf, 12mo; Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae. Or the Works of that Great Monarch and Glorious Martyr King Charls the I, manuscript annotations to first leaf, ownership inscription "W FitzHerbert. This book was thus bound & mounted by Annie FitzHerbert His late dear Wife. Tissington Hall. Feb 12 1865", blue velvet with metal edges and clasp, portrait of Charles I on front board, printed by Samuel Browne, Hague, 1650, etc.