'A great number of Usefull books': The Hidden Library of Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington (1652–1694)

Abstract

Provenance is usually attributed through the analysis of marks of ownership on books. Frustratingly, however, a great many book collectors leave little or no direct evidence of this kind. This article re-examines the early history of the library at Dunham Massey, a National Trust property in Cheshire, and demonstrates that in this instance, paradoxically, it is precisely the lack of any mark of provenance which allows ownership to be assigned. It identifies a new stratum within the library at Dunham: a collection of books linked by a common absence of contemporary provenance. This collection is analysed alongside surviving printed and archival sources relating to Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, and its ownership hypothesized and tested. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the impact of the identification of a new seventeenth-century private library, both locally and in a broader historical framework.