Manuscript Volume. A manuscript notebook of observations on religion, circa 1655

Manuscript Volume. A manuscript volume of legal notes on laws and regulations relating to Non Conformists, Conventicles [unlawful religious meetings], Quakers, and the Militia, apparently compiled by Nicholas Estoelle, a professional clerk in Piccadilly, London, on behalf of Thomas Penyston, son of Sir Thomas Penistone of Cornwell, Oxfordshire, circa 1663, 41 pages of manuscript notes in brown ink, each page numbered (the final page 41 titled but otherwise blank), numerous blank leaves thereafter, with a full-page coat of arms of Thomas Penyston in a different hand at the front of the volume, in brown ink, bearing the motto: virtus invicta viget, signed Thomas Penyston, Brill 1655 below, and with the clerk's name and address with red seal to the inside rear vellum cover: 'Mr Nicholas Estoelle at one Lecons next done to the Lion in the Wood in picudille', also loosely inserted at rear a contemporary handwritten account (possibly by Nicolas Estoelle or Thomas Penyston) of moneys owed: 'A note of money due to me this quarter Dec; 25', which includes sums from the 'publique account', Mr Knollys, etc., with further accounts to verso possibly in a different hand, contemporary limp vellum with yapp fore-edges, original vellum tie attached to upper cover, some soiling and light wear, small 8vo (textblock 138 x 90 mm)

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Provenance: Thomas Penyston, son of Sir Thomas Penistone (1591-1644), of Cornwell, Oxfordshire.

Sir Thomas Penistone was among a large number of gentleman in the retinue of the third Earl of Dorset – “one of the seventeenth century’s most accomplished gamblers and wastrels” according to Robert Cooper in The Literary Guide and Companion to Southern England (Ohio University Press, 1998) taken from Acts of Parliament.

The Lion in the Wood may be a public house that existed in Wilderness Lane near Dorset Street in London.

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