Harley MS 7517 - Two biographies

GEMMS Manuscript ID
GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT- 74
(old series: GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-1290)
Title
Two biographies
Shelfmark
Harley MS 7517
Creation Date
ca. 1657 - 1700
Repository
Contents Note

This manuscript contains two biographies, written c. 1699-1700. The first concerns the life of the clergyman Thomas Pierson (c. 1573-1633); this is followed by a transcription of one of his sermons (ff. 43r-82r) and an extract from Excellent Encouragements Against Afflictions (London, 1647) (ff. 83r-87v). The second focuses on the landowner John Packer (1572-1649) (ff. 88r-101v). Following this shorter biography, there is a tract which centres on the relief of the poor in Holland 'and the other Protestant Provinces of the Low-Countries' (ff. 102r-108v). Two sermons by Thomas Watson, delivered in October 1657 and written in an earlier hand, complete the volume (ff. 110r-133r).

Material Features

Quarto. The present cataloguer has followed the modern pagination (in pencil).

Acquisition

The Harleian Library was founded by Robert Harley, First Earl of Oxford (1661–1724). According to Cyril Ernest Wright, Robert Harley ‘was primarily interested in English historical and political material and in volumes of sermons and theological controversy, sharing in the latter the taste of his Harley ancestors’. See Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), p. xxxiv.

Source of Data

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972); A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum (1808), Vol. III, pp. 533-34; Jacqueline Eales, 'Thomas Pierson and the Transmission of the Moderate Puritan Tradition', Midland History, 20 (1995), 75-102; Hannah Yip.

Other Note

According to Jacqueline Eales, the biography of Pierson is 'a typical example of the genre of the puritan 'godly life'', being 'a blend of the conventional mixed with recognisable personal details'. See Eales, p. 79.

Sermon Reports Contained
GEMMS record created
March 4, 2020
GEMMS record last edited
July 15, 2024