Letters and papers of Rev. George Harbin, non-juror, chaplain to Bp. Turner of Ely...

Letters and papers of Rev. George Harbin, non-juror, chaplain to Bp. Turner of Ely and subsequently to Thomas, 1st Viscount Weymouth.

His own letters are drafts or copies in his handwriting. The letters to him include three original letters from John Anstis, Garter King of Arms.

The contents of the volume are as follows.

1. Rev. George Harbin: (a) to the Earl of Oxford, sending "Mr Brown's Book" which "seems to partake of the infirmity of his age, which is apt to be guilty of unnecessary repetitions". - Thanks Lord Oxford for his favour which he deprecates as being unworthy, especially to have had his portrait painted by Mr Dahl which he only submitted to "out of pure obedience to" "his Lordship: undated. f.1. (b) to [George Carteret, 1st] Baron Carteret, concerning "Cleora" for whose sake Lord Carteret has threatened to give up Greek and Latin: London, 16 Feb. 1709[10]. f.4: (c) to his "niece Bampfield" on the loss of the writer's sister, Mrs Bampfield: 7 Mar. 1718[9]. f.6: (d) to Lady ------, denying a report that he is about to marry "somebody in Dover Street": undated: f.9: (e) to a Lady who had lately left Golden Square for Chobham: f.10: (f) to the Duchess of ------, undated. f.11: (g) to "Mrs Pendarves" on her marriage and mentioning the death of Lady Granville's daughter, and a defeat of the French by the English: undated. f.12: (h) to the same, mentioning Lady Granville, "Lady Dysart [Grace, daughter of John, Earl Granville and wife of Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart] and her sister Miss Carteret", etc. f.14: (i) to J. Howe, that "Lord Weymouth's name is at your service at the christning of your son" and Lady Weymouth wishes £10 to be spent "upon that occasion in His Lordship's name", etc. 14 Feb. 1715[6]. f.23: (j) to------ on (the 2nd) Lord Weymouth's behaviour when a boy, to his governor Mr Ince, to Lord Carteret, etc. 30 July, 1724. f.27: (k) to ----- Bampfylde, on the death of his two daughters: n.d. f.29: (1) to Thomas, 2nd Viscount Weymouth, remonstrating with him on his behaviour: 17 Oct. 1724: f.30: (m) to Lady Howe, on the death of her husband Sir R. Howe: [July, 1730.] f.33: (n) to Mr Conyers(?) on the misdoings of Sir H.P. towards his wife a Conyers: 11 March, 1730[1]. f.34.

2. Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth to Lord Carteret: 18 May, 1721. Copy in George Harbin's handwriting. f.25.

3. John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, to Rev G. Harbin: (a) returning the Register of Carisbrooke, and enquiring concerning Quarr Abbey: n.d. f.90: (b) relating to the title of Lord Hertford, etc. Putney, 11 Dec. 1722. f.91: (c) regretting that he has not yet returned the "Register of Canon Legh" and the volume of Martene, and on other monastic MSS.: Mortlake, 9 Dec. 1736. f.92.

4. Gi[lbert Burnet, Bishop of] Salisbury to Rev. Thomas Baker of John's College, Cambridge, relating to the History of Hereditary Right: London, 29 June, 1714(5). Copy. f.104.

5. James Usher, Archbishop of] Armagh to [Henry Bourchier] Earl of Bath on literary matters, his own book "De Britannicarum Ecclesiarum primordiis", etc. Dublin, 28 May, 1638. Copy. f.130.

6. J[ohn] Finch to Rev. G. Harbin on the subject of Medals and other antiquities: Wye, 25 Jan. 1704[5]. f.136.

Among the papers are:-

A. "Poetry - Mr Harbin's Collections" (but not in his handwriting) as follows: "A letter from Artemisia in ye Town to Cloe in ye Country": f.38: - "To Celia for Inconstancy": f.44b: - Song by Severall Hands" and "Ye answer": f.45: - "Phillis be gentler I advize": f.45b: - "To his more than meritorious wife": f.46: - "The Earl of Rochester's letters to his son, and to his Lady": ff.46-49: - "Womans Honour": f.50: - songs beginning "To this moment a Rebell:" and "How happy, Chloris were they free": ff.50b,51: - "Love and Life": f.51b: - Song, beginning "While on those lovely looks I gaze": f.52: - song, "An Age in her Embraces pas'd: f.52b: - "The Advice": f.53b "The Discovery": f.54b: - song, "Absent from you I languish still": f.55b: - "An Allusion" f.57b: - "Part of an Epistolary Essay from M.G. to O.B. upon their mutuall poems": f.58b: - "Dialogue between a Nymph and a Shepherd": f.60: - song, "The utmost grace ye Greeks cou'd show": f.60b: - song, "A young Lady to her Antient Lover": f.60b: "An Natura intendat monstrum ?negatur": by Shuttleworth: f.61: - "On ye Prince of Wales's arrivall": f.62: - "Ant. Alsop in Nuptias amici sui magistri Nichols scholæ West-monast. Hypodidasculi": f.63: - "A Satyre on the Oxford Toast - Dropt in Lynes's Coffee House in June 1707": f.108.

B. Memoirs of Gardening" by G. Harbin. Autograph headed "The following observations I had from Mr Greening'a Gardiner at Brantford, A.D.1719; f.65.

C. "Part of my Lord Guernsey's speech in the Convention, at the Revolution": f.95.

D. "A Petition from ye Assembly of Divines to the Parliament": f.96.

E. "The Petition of the Roman Catholics": f.98.

F. "The particular Test for Priests": f.100.

G. "Questions propounded by the Bp. of Durham with the Answer of his Clergie": f.102.

H. Letter of Reginald Pole to Cranmer on the Eucharist: - "Oratio Joannis Wymslei Archidiaconi Londoniensis" - "Responsum and exhortatio Reverendi Patris Dni Edmundi Bonner, Londinensis Episcopi" - "Concio coram synodo habito per Jo. Harpsfield": Latin. f.114.

J. "Reasons given by some of the Protesting Lords against the Abjuration Oath: "Mar. 1701[2]: f.120.

K. "A Project for bringing the R. Catholicks into the Government A.D. 1719:" f.122.

L. "Epistolæ Doctorum virorum de rebus Ecclesiasticis tempore Eliz. Reginæ quæ continentur in uno volumine penes D. Hale ac Alderley, com. Gloucestr.": f.126.

M. "Transcript of Deed from Mr Heywoods Archives" viz. a grant byHugo de Pyn, grandfather of the wife of Gilbert de Ferrers to the Canons of Plympton in the time of Prior Joel. Undated. f.131.

N. "Notes concerning Somerset, Dorset, Wilts." etc. f.133.

O. "Pedigree of Harbin and Warre": f.135.

P. Collections for the History of the Thynne Family by Rev.

G. Harbin, mostly in his handwriting: viz. (1) Three impressions of seals of Arms of "Mr Botville at Stretton in Shropshire, the same as that of Thynne": f.139: - (2) Short abstracts of the Thynne and Boteville Pedigrees: ff.140, 143: (3) Extracts from Visitations of Shropshire containing pedigrees of Botevile, Thynne and Higgons of Stretton: f.154: - (4) Memoirs of the Family of Thynne ff.157, 159, 160, 164, 170, 181: - (5) "Memoirs concerning my Lord Weymouth's Family": f.182: - (6) Poem entitled "The Gold and Age retrieved, or the 4th Eclogue of Virgil translated" in Harbin's hand. It begins "Sicilian Muse, begin a lofty flight" and the allusions are to prominent persons of the last decade of the 17th Cent. Among the prophecies contained in it, is the following: -

"Archbishop Ken shall from Long-Leate be drawn, while firm Non-Jurors from behind stand crowding for ye Lawn

And thou, Great Weymouth, to reward thy charge, Shalt sayl to Lambeth in his Grace's barge".

f.185: (7) Account of the family connection of Anne Bond wife of William Thynne (father and mother of Francis Thynne Lancaster Herald): f.199: - (8) Inscription of a Monument of the Thynne family, in Longbridge Deverill Church, in the hand of the 2nd Marquis of Bath: f.205.