The Dispersal of Newton's library

The fate and dispersal of Newton’s library after his death is unfortunately an example of how many private libraries are lost; they get broken up, forgotten, or destroyed. In the case of Newton’s library, initially it was purchased by John Huggins who gifted it to his second son, Charles. 

One may wonder why someone outside of Newton’s family ended up purchasing his library, and there are a few reasons explaining how and why this occurred. Firstly, when Newton died, he was the Master of the Royal Mint. As Master of the Mint, he was held personally responsible for any debt the crown held. So, upon his death, his assets were frozen by the Prerogative Court of England while his affairs were settled. Secondly, none of Newton’s relatives, save his niece, Catherine Barton-Conduitt and her husband John Conduitt, were interested or could afford the bond payment necessary to receive the books. It is unclear why the Conduitts ultimately did not purchase the entire library, though they did acquire six books containing Newton's marginal notes as well as the body of his manuscripts and books they had received from him before his death. The Royal Society lacked the funds needed to purchase the books or the space in which to house them, meaning the books were put up for sale and purchased by a man named John Huggins. The catalogued list of Newton’s library after his death became known as the Huggins List. It is the most reliable guide to the contents of Newton’s library, although it is not without its drawbacks. It was completed quickly, and often lacks details if a volume has multiple works within it. 

John Huggins was an infamous Warden of the Fleet Prison. He let multiple people escape from the prison and extorted money from them as they escaped. Huggins had bought the patronage of the living at Chinnor in Oxford and his son Charles was set to take over the Rectory upon the death of the current Rector. The books were given to Charles who housed them in Chinnor. There is no record that Charles Huggins did anything with the books despite knowing their provenance. He added his personal bookplate to the books and likely added to the growing library himself. 

When Charles dies, the living at Chinnor passed to his older brother William, who gifted it to his future son-in-law, James Musgrave, who also purchased Newton’s library, intending to keep it at Chinnor. 

James Musgrave, unlike Charles, undertook a systematic cataloguing of the books. He was aware of the provenance of the collection, however, it is unclear how well known the presence of Newton’s books in Chinnor was outside of the Musgrave family. Within the catalogue there is no mention of Newton as a previous owner of the books. Jacob Jonas Björnståhl (1731–1779) wrote an account of seeing the library in 1775 but a mistranslation resulted in the popular belief that the library was well known to be housed in Chinnor. A lack of contemporary references to the library, however, makes this difficult to believe. 

After the death of James Musgrave, the books were bequested to his wife, Jane. James had intended for her to sell them to pay a debt, but Jane held onto them. They stayed at Chinnor until she moved to London in 1787, a year before her death. It is unclear how the books made their way to Barnsley Park, where her son, James, was living. Jane’s will, written in 1784, four years before her death, originally stated that the books were to go to her son, James. However, this entry on the will was scratched out before she passed. Jane sold off all the household goods and furniture at Chinnor before she moved, however books were not listed in the sales catalogue that was drawn up from this sale. Possibly, the books were sent to Barnsley Park before Jane moved to London, and she scratched this out of the will as they had already passed into her son’s possession. 

What way the books ultimately made their way to Barnsley Park may never be known for certain, but what is known is that their provenance was forgotten as the years passed. The books were dispersed through the Barnsley Park estate and lay forgotten in cupboards and on shelves until 1919-20, when the Thame Park estate was put up for sale. 

The descendant of Musgrave who resided in Barnsley Park was Wenman Humphrey Wykeham-Musgrave. The Musgrave baronetcy had since gone extinct, but the properties of Thame Park and Barnsley Park stayed in the family. The lesser of the two estates was Thame Park and Mr. Wykeham-Musgrave put it and its contents up for auction in 1920. Old books from Barnsley Park were among the items sold at Thame Park. These books were in poor condition and sold off in bundles without the knowledge that many of them formerly belonged to Sir Isaac Newton. 

It is at this point in time that our edition of Tacitus was separated from the rest of the Newton Library and purchased by the man who added the third bookplate on the inside cover. C. G. H. Dicker’s bookplate notes that he was associated with Keble College and records suggest that his full name was Charles George Hamilton Dicker. Dicker was an artist who was known within the East London Group, a group of artists who worked and exhibited together from around 1928 to 1936. Dicker had trained at the Slade School of Art after his time at Keble College. It is unclear how long Dicker had the book in his possession, as he is not who put it up for sale with Hodgeson House in 1964, but it is unlikely he knew it had belonged to Newton. Records of the book’s sale by Hodgeson House from 1964, when Michael Hatcher purchased it, show it was severely undervalued due to the condition it was in, and Mr. Hatcher himself did not discover its provenance until many years later. However, with the aid of the British Library which houses the auction records of Hodgeson Rooms, a very close line of provenance is drawn from Michael Hatcher’s purchase of the book back through the years to the many places Newton’s library was housed after his death.