Vincent Holbeche (2 results)

Loose as Issued. Condition: Good. Unique. A manuscript handwritten will of the Landowner and Lord of Bosworth Hall (Bosworth Park) Leicester. This 99 line LAST will of the 4th Baron is handwritten in the early 19th century probably bu Vincent Holbeche over 4 pages details in rhyme the good, chattels and money he duly bequeaths to his family and staff at Bosworth Hall. With a bias towards the pithy and satirical in its form. It begins "I Willoughby Dixie of Bosworth Park, without the aid of scribe or clerk or pettifogger of the law, ready to find or make a flaw.To Sister Eleanor of Bourne, Lest she the fate to long should mourn, of her lamented brother dear, In land twelve hundred pounds a year and on her I do fix, to be my sole executrix. To Rosamond whose joyless bower, Never knew of bliss one single hour, I give 12 pence far more than due, to such a vexatious shrew.He leaves £17 thousand pounds to his dog Drakely. And he continues in the same vein throughout with bequests full and generous to all his maids, grooms, butler, laundry maid, the cook, even the scullion and labourer Tom. Some wear, remains of old blue sugar paper adhesion at edge, from being in an album or diary? Paper holed in gutter from its removal, rhymes not affected. *The 4th Baron had a reputation for being a full English eccentric with a real 18th century autonomy that the Landed Gentry enjoyed at that time. I like the fact he left his worldly goods shared out to his staff and not his family and hangers on. *I can find no mention of this will online nor does the only other example in the National archives have anything to do with this particular 4th baron. I stand corrected if not the case. I just could not locate any such will by this man, certainly not this unblemished and humorous version. Was it enacted upon?

Loose as Issued. Condition: Good. Limited Edition. 11 page satirical poem probably by Vincent Holbeche of Sutton regarding "fork maker" Francis Parkes" and his application to allow football and other sports on this 2000 acre park one of the largest in Europe. No record found of this local skit. Rescued from an archive of similar material of the Holbeche family. There is some album paper adhesion on the last or back leaf, not affecting poem except for a small hole along last line on page 11, no loss. Front page a little browned and light top corner curl and last page attached still to part of album page. Good to Very Good. Small 5 x 3 inch, unbound as issued. Possibly a unique copy, for the family of Holbeche and "gentlemen" of Sutton only? c1853-55. In 1855 a dispute arose over the future of this once Royal Park and its uses. Mr Parkes a local factory owner at Powells Pool in or on the park itself, maker of spades and metalware, wanted the park to allow it to be changed for other uses, including "Football". The derogatory aside of him being a "fork-maker" was made by Mr Vincent Holbeche in derision at the hearing, this poem contains the same wording and was from an archive belonging once to Helen Holbeche, so a fair guess. He also wanted the old Wardens of Sutton and its traditions of self-appointment abolished and a rural council instigated in its place "You all have heard of Sutton park, with its expansive range. But few of you have heard of Parkes, And of his doings strange. Frank Parkes is a fork maker, and (Being clever at his trade) Has raised himself in some degree; But Still a spade's a spade.etc, etc. (39, 4 line verses).