St John's College O.54 and 55 (James 400 and 401)
Zachary Grey, Collections for a Life of Thomas Baker. English, c. 1760
Zachary Grey (1688-1766): Collections for a Life of his longtime friend Thomas Baker (1656-1740), 'Interspers'd with some of the Transactions, and short characters of the Right Reverend the Lord Bishops and other eminent Divines, who after having made so glorious a stand against Popery and Arbitrary power in the reign of King James the Second, quitted their preferments immediately after the Revolution, and an account of the Rise and reasons for the separation of the Nonjurors', mid eighteenth century. The work formed the basis of Robert Masters, Memoirs of the life and writings of the late Rev. Thomas Baker ... (1784). At the start of vol. 1 is a letter from Baker to Mr Williams, Rector of Doddington, 5 June, n.y., re exhibitions at St John's.
In 2 vols: 220x175 mm. each of c. 200 fos. Formerly Phillipps MS 4283, lot 868 in the Sotheby's Phillipps sale, June 1896 (cutting from catalogue pasted inside back cover of vol. 1). Phillipps' stamp inside both front covers. Presented to the College by Robert Forsyth Scott, then Fellow and later Master of St John's, in 1900 (donation plates inside both front covers). Tipped in at the beginning of vol. 1 are a letter from Mrs and Miss Grey to Masters, in the hand of the antiquary William Cole, 25 Mar. 1767, a letter from Cole to Masters, 5 May 1768, and the copy of Masters' undated reply to this letter. The DNB article on Grey records that these papers were 'bought by [John] Nichols and used by Masters'.
In Grey's hand, with additions by Masters and perhaps two others, some corrections. Paper. Original quarter leather binding with marbled boards.