Lot 271
Etherege, Sir George
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 11 July 2006 at 12:00 BST
Description
An early vellum document signed, being an indenture for the sale of the manor of Thomlins (or Tomlyns) in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, by Richard Stydolfe of Norbury, Surrey, to Sir William Drake of Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire. Dated 1 November 1657, approx 43cm wide, signed (and with pendent seal) by Richard Stydolphe, and on the verso as witnesses by George Etherege, George Gosnold and three others, minor dust-staining
Footnote
Note: Early examples of Etherege's signature are extremely rare. None (but for one of 1670) dating before the mid-1680s is recorded in the Index of English Literary Manuscripts (Vol. II, Part 1, 1987, pp.443-59). The present deed-from the important Shardeloes archive of the Drake family (now preserved chiefly at University College London)-relate to the obscure period of Etherege's life when the twenty-one-year-old future poet, dramatist and diplomat was apprenticed as articled clerk to the attorney George Gosnold, at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.