Henry Perkins (brewer)

Henry Perkins (c.1777–1855) was an English brewer, known as a bibliophile.

Early life

He was the son of John Perkins (died 1812), and his wife Amelia, John being a partner in the Anchor Brewery, Southwark with the Quaker group of David Barclay of Youngsbury, Robert Barclay, and Silvanus Bevan III, Amelia's relations.[1] The Thrale family were involved in the sale, and Henry and his brother Frederick Perkins (1780–1860) have been identified as the sons of John Perkins who were tutored by Samuel Parr, at the expense of Hester Thrale.[1]

Perkins himself became a partner in the firm of Barclay, Perkins, & Co., brewers.[2] He had a 12.5% share, in what was a lucrative business, but was not very active in its management.[1]

Perkins was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1825, and was also a fellow of the Geological Society and Horticultural Society of London.[2]

Bibliophile

In 1823 Perkins began to form a library at his residence, Springfield, near Tooting, Surrey.[2] His interest has been attributed to the publicity around the sale of the library of John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, which took place 1812/3.[3][4] His collection was considered to have been founded at the 1824 sale of the library of Mark Masterman Sykes. He enlarged it at the sale of John Dent's collection of 1827. His brother Frederick began to collect Shakespearean works around 1825, and his collection was eventually sold by Sotheby's in 1889.[5]

Messrs. John and Arthur Arch of 61 Cornhill, London, were appointed buyers by Perkins, and supplied him with rare and valuable books.[2] The main purchases were completed by 1830.[6]

Later life and death

Perkins moved to Hanworth Park, Middlesex around 1836. He died at Dover on 15 April 1855, and his library went to his son, Algernon Perkins, who died in 1870.[1][2]

Collection

The Perkins library was sold by Gadsden, Ellis, & Co. at Hanworth on 3, 4, 5, and 6 June 1873, the 865 lots producing £26,000, then the largest sum ever realised for a library on that scale. Included were:[2]

  • The Mazarin Bible, two volumes, printed on vellum, purchased for £504, sold for £3,400; another copy, on paper, obtained for £195, brought £2,690;
  • Biblia Sacra Latina, two volumes, printed on vellum in 1462, the first edition of the Latin Bible with a date, bought at Dent's sale for £173 5s., sold for £780.
  • Miles Coverdale's Bible, 1535, imperfect, but no perfect copy known, purchased for £89 5s., brought £400.

Among the manuscripts were:[2]

  • John Lydgate's Sege of Troy on vellum, which cost £99 15s., which went for £1,370;
  • Les Œuvres Diverses de Jean de Meun, a fifteenth-century manuscript of 200 leaves, which brought £690; and
  • Les Cent Histoires de Troye, by Christine de Pisan, on vellum, with 115 miniatures, executed for Philip the Bold, which sold for £650.

Family

Perkins married in 1803 Susannah Latham; they had one son and three daughters.[1] Of the daughters:

  • Matilda married first (Frederick) Oswald Perkins, a first cousin marriage to the son of her uncle Frederick, and after his death, Edward Richard Bagot, son of Richard Bagot.[1][7]
  • Sophia married in 1833 Thomas Paley.[8]
  • Selina (died 1858) married in 1837 John Scriven (1808–1878).[9][10]

The son, Algernon, married in 1835 Sophia Clementina Soltau, daughter of William Soltau.[11] He left no children, and under his will the main beneficiaries, besides his wife who survived him, were his two surviving sisters, and his nephews Raymond South Paley and John Bagot Scriven.[12][13]

House and estate
Hanworth Park House today

The Hanworth Park estate was broken up gradually by Paine & Brettell, solicitors, from 1873. Hanworth Park House, built c.1820, went in 1874 to Alfred Lafone. The lodges, by Thomas Cundy the elder, were demolished. Additions had been made in 1857, the west wing and clocktower.[14][15]

Notes
  1. Spencer, H. J. "Perkins, Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21969. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Perkins, Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. Wheatley, Henry B. (2018). Prices of Books. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 126. ISBN 9783732652624.
  4. Hillyard, Brian. "Ker, John, third duke of Roxburghe". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15452. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Ricci, Seymour de (1960). "English collectors of books & manuscripts (1530-1930) and their marks of ownership". Bloomington,: Indiana University Press. p. 96.
  6. Scott, Sir Walter (1873). The Antiquary. A. and C. Black. p. 259.
  7. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage: Comprising Information Concerning All Persons Bearing Hereditary Or Courtesy Titles, Knights, and Companions of All the Various Orders, and the Collateral Branches of All Peers and Baronets. Dean & Son, Limited. 1902. p. 73.
  8. Burke, Bernard (1879). "A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland". London, Harrison. p. 1225.
  9. The Gentleman's Magazine. R. Newton. 1858. p. 33.
  10. "Scriven, John (SCRN825J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  11. The Spectator. F.C. Westley. 1835. p. 92.
  12. The Illustrated London News. Elm House. 1873. p. 23.
  13. Walford, Edward (1869). The County Families of the United Kingdom Or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland (770 ed.). R. Hardwicke.
  14. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives.
  15. Hibbert, Christopher; Weinreb, Ben; Keay, Julia; Keay, John (2008). The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan. p. 383. ISBN 9781405049245.
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Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Perkins, Henry". Dictionary of National Biography. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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