Owners of the Manuscript

Owners of the Ellesmere Manuscript

Who were the earliest

owners of the Ellesmere Chaucer,

and—more frivolously—which

of them scribbled in the

preliminary flyleaves,

“Margery seynt John

ys a shrew”? (Robertson, p. 5)

By looking at the owners of the Ellesmere manuscript, one can begin to see why it was valuable, the people who cherished it, what the text is worth, and the location in where it was housed. All of these aspects are parts of the book’s history. There is not much evidence for early owners of the manuscript, but in Herbert Shultz’s book The Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, there seems to be speculation as to the identity of possible early owners of the manuscript. Beginning in the early 17^th century, the manuscript comes into the possession of different royal families and neighbors in high classes—dukes and earls.  

1.)   There is a poem written on flyleaves 2 to 4, written as a tribute to the De Vere family, the earls of Oxford (Shultz, p. 46).

2.)   On the first flyleaf of the Ellesmere Chaucer are the names Sir Robert Drury, of his sons, William and Robert, and of his daughters, Anna, Bridget, and Ursula. Also on the same page is written the name of Edward Waldegrave (Shultz, pg. 47).

3.)   On folio 130, there is an inscription “per me Henricum Payne” which refers to Henry Payne, a wealthy lawyer.  Payne was a friend of the Drurys, and had inherited properties from Robert Drury.

4.)   In Payne’s will, a grandson from Ursula Drury Alington, named Sir Giles Alington  to whom Payne bequeathed “my Chaucer written on vellum an illumined w golde.” This is the first reference from sources outside the manuscript itself relating to ownership of the Ellesmere Chaucer (Shultz 48).

5.)   The manuscript then passed into the Egerton family, earls of Bridgewater. On a flyleaf at the beginning of the volume is the handwriting of the first earl—Sit Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley.

6.)   Sir Thomas was the founder of the Bridgewater Library—the oldest large family library in the United Kingdom. The books, manuscripts, and paintins wichi had been houses there were bequesathed to the third duke’s nephew, George Gower, second Marquess of Stafford, along with other estates including the Bridgewater House-Library. The future home of the Ellesmere became Bridgewater house and was known as the Stafford Chaucer. Stafford’s decendents continued possestion of the Bridgewater House Libraryuntil the first World War. During this time, the Earl of Ellesmere in 1914 aold the books and manuscripts to Sotheby & Co. to pay off taxes.

7.)   In 1917 Henry E. Huntington decided to purchase the entire Bridgewater Library, including the Ellesmere Chaucer. Huntington was developing his own library, which is know as The Huntington Library and is located in San, Marino, California. The Ellesmere Chaucer has been on exhibition for the public, inside the Huntington Library ever since it was purchased. It rests near another famous book—the Guttenberg Bible.

Thus the owners of the Ellesmere Manuscript were of royalty, so the manuscript must have been valuable because of its design. As mentioned, there were many textbooks being made during the Middle Ages by scribes for students in universities.