Rare Books and Manuscripts

The Library of John Loveday of Caversham (1711-1789), John Loveday, Jr., of Caversham and Williamscote (1742-1809), and James Merrick of Caversham (1720-1769)

In 1968 the Pennsylvania State University Libraries purchased a relatively intact 18th-century library, numbering nearly 2,500 bound volumes, five or six hundred pamphlets, and about thirty manuscript volumes. It had been assembled principally by John Loveday (1711-1789), philologist and antiquary, who lived at Caversham in Oxfordshire. John Loveday, Jr. (1742-1809), Doctor of Laws, removed the library to Williamscote House near Banbury and added much to it. The library, rich in theology, was strengthened in the classics by the inheritance of the library of James Merrick (1720-1769), the poet and scholar.

The tantalizing comment in the Dictionary of National Biography for John Loveday the elder ("He laid the foundation of the family library which still survives intact at Williamscote, near Banbury") was once all that was known of the Loveday library to scholars and collectors. It said nothing, however, of the library's unusual strength and, perhaps, uniqueness in England: that it was the combined working library of three classical scholars and antiquaries over two generations who had the time and means to acquire the works that they needed to pursue their interests. One would expect to find such a collection surviving in either an institution that formed or was given the collection--for example, an Oxford or a Cambridge College--or in one of the grandest aristocratic houses like Chatsworth, where the library of the scholar Thomas Dampier survived intact as just one treasure among many, but not in a quintessentially middle-class domestic environment where an interest or passion rarely passes from one generation to the next.

Since then a comprehensive biography of the first John Loveday, John Loveday of Caversham 1711-1789, The Life and Tours of an Eighteenth-Century Onlooker (1984), has been written by his descendant Sarah Markham, based on his own diaries and correspondence. This reveals the story of a serious but modest scholar, always eager to help friends and colleagues but never seeking thanks or acknowledgment, and contributing much to the work of many leading scholars and antiquaries. He published little himself, although a number of essays and papers appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine under various pseudonyms. Sarah Markham quotes a letter from Thomas Warton, Oxford Professor of Poetry, Poet-Laureate, and historian of early English poetry, which sums up Loveday: "I know not how to thank you sufficiently for the many useful Corrections and excellent Hints, which you have so repeatedly communicated. I only wish you would give me Permission to take the first opportunity to acknowledge this kindness in a public Manner. The public have a right to know by whom they have been obliged."

His eldest son, John ("Jack") Loveday, Jr., was a lawyer by training (he became a Doctor of Civil Law at Magdalen College, Oxford) but, like his father, a scholar and antiquary by inclination. As a young man he compiled the indexes to Chandler's edition of the Marmora Oxoniensia (1763) a catalogue of classical inscriptions and sculptures at Oxford. He ceased to practice the law in 1777 and devoted the rest of his life to his books and research, publishing many articles, like his father, in the Gentleman's Magazine.

The Rev. James Merrick was a semi-invalid classical scholar and poet from a Caversham family. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, but ill health forced him to spend most of his time at home in Reading. He is best known for his metrical version of the Psalms, published in 1765. In his long absences from Oxford he was allowed free use of the nearby Loveday Library at Caversham, and in gratitude bequeathed his own books to them.

Books from the Loveday Library are recognizable at a glance by their distinctive shelf marks and annotations on the end leaves. Many are marked with the place and date of acquisition and the price paid. They are notable for their fine condition and handsome but simple bindings. A full manuscript catalog of the library, completed in 1772, is also in Rare Books and Manuscripts. The Williamscote Library was not a library of special copies and fine bindings; it was a working library, not a connoisseur's cabinet. The books were utilitarian and utilized. Copious notes are frequently found, and there is much evidence that John Loveday's reputation as an antiquary was well earned; he read his books. As such it is a rare survival in the history of the private library in England.

With exception of a few minor sales and the sale of 216 miscellaneous lots at Sotheby's in 1953, the Loveday Library remained undisturbed at Williamscote until 1966 when, apart from a group of travel and other books sold to the British firm of Maggs Bros., and a small section sold to James Stevens-Cox, the bulk of the library (mainly the English literature and theology) was sold en bloc through Blackwell's to Penn State. A small residue of books remained in the family, some of which were acquired by Maggs Bros. in 1980.

It was the late Charles W. Mann, chief of Rare Books and Special Collections until his death in 1998, who purchased the books from Blackwell's. It was a dream of his that other Williamscote books might eventually find their way to Rare Books and Manuscripts's shelves. It is bittersweet to announce that since Charles Mann's death all of the books sold to James Stevens-Cox in 1966, as well as the small group of books still remaining in stock at Maggs Bros. from their 1966 and 1980 purchases, have been purchased from Maggs Bros. and added to Penn State's Williamscote Library inventory. Charles Mann would have been immeasurably pleased to see these new books join the others on our shelves.

In October of 1994, Charles Mann delivered a paper on the Loveday Library for the meetings of the East-Central American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies held at Penn State.

In The CAT, Penn State's online catalog, researchers can now do a keyword anywhere search for Williamscote to retrieve all Williamscote books containing the provenance statement, "Formerly part of an 18th-century library in Williamscote House near Banbury, England; assembled by John Loveday (1711-1789), philologist and antiquary, who lived at Caversham in Oxfordshire and removed to Williamscote House in 1799 by John Loveday the second (1742-1809), Doctor of Laws."

 

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