[ENGLAND]

Very attractive, unsophisticated copy of this pocket-size edition of the ‘Magna Charta’ and statutes, printed by Richard Tottel, with numerous early annotations. ‘The small edition of the ‘Antiqua Statuta’, first printed by Pynson in 1508, and afterwards frequently reprinted, contains Magna Charta, Charta de Foresta, the Statues of Merton, Marlbridge, Westminster, 1 and 2, and other statutes previous to 1 Edw. III. in Latin and French respectively’ (Cooper ‘An Account of the Most Important Public Records of Great Britain’). The preface states that it contains ‘the most necessary of those old Statutes and diverse and new Statutes most convenient to be had, perfect and ready, not only by all Students of the law for their private studies, readings, moots, bolts, cases, and other exercises, but also by practises of the same for their daily affairs & causes’. There were also revisions based on ancient ms copies, and a direct cross-referencing with Rastell’s printed collection of statutes, for easier consultation.

The early owner of this copy was George Vavasour, who was accused of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. His father was a much-valued servant of the Tresham family, prominent Recusants in Northamptonshire. After Sir Thomas Tresham’s death, his son Francis Tresham (conspirator and funder of the plot) inherited the substantial estate and continued to employ George and his brother William. George’s education was highly encouraged: he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1592 and was admitted to the Inner Temple in November 1596. As, effectively, personal assistants to Francis Tresham, their duties included transcribing religious texts of a treasonable nature, which were clandestinely circulated amongst Catholics.

Speculation continues to surround the writer of the anonymous letter addressed to Lord Monteagle on October 26, 1605. The letter, presumably written by a fellow Catholic and allegedly handed to him by an “unknown man of a reasonable tall personage,” urged him not to attend the opening of Parliament. Unfortunately for Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators, Monteagle reported the letter and the plot was revealed. In William Parker’s detailed account of the events leading up to the plot’s discovery, including an analysis of the Vavavsours’ handwriting, he holds William Vavasour to be the author of the letter.  Lord Monteagle married one of Francis Tresham’s sisters, and Muriel Vavasour, George and William’s sister, was “gentlewoman without livery” to Lady Monteagle. This may explain why Tresham was adamant that Monteagle be warned of the plot. Given the nature of the brothers’ work for Tresham and their entanglement with the Monteagle family, George would have undoubtedly been privy to the conspiracy and may even have been directly involved, though the extent of this remains unclear.

Given these circumstances, the text and annotations in this volume can be seen in a wholly different light. Vavasour has jotted down a quotation by St Augustine on how good laws can repair evil. He also marked the monarch under which each statute was made, noting that ‘Here are none of Ed.3 Ri.2 H.4 Ed.4 Ri.3 statutes’. A few times, he cross-referenced with more recent cases, such as ‘the Ratcliffs case’ under Elizabeth I, the Chudleighs case, from the 1560s, regarding enfeoffment, and the 1588 Manwood case concerning Assumpsit. He glossed systematically throughout highlighting the subject of each statute, from leases to superstition. A long final note comprises the titles of a few statutes added to a more recent edition of the ‘Magna Charta’, e.g., ‘errors in records of attendees of High Treason’ (1586), ‘against abuses in election of scholars’ (1589), and an act for awarding legal costs to successful defendants. A good copy with the most interesting provenance.

Oliver Huckel bears the same arms as the Earle Wentworth Huckel (b.1888) from Germantown, Pennsylvania, recorded in Bolton’s ‘American Armorial’. Perhaps the congregationalist minister Oliver Huckel (1864-1940).