Bookplates
A bookplate, (Ex Libris Latin for the same) is a decorative label stuck in the front of a book, bearing the name of the book's owner. Bookplates were originally used to prevent books from being borrowed without permission. In the early days of printing, books were very expensive, and it was important to be able to keep track of who owned them.
A Bookplate Journal publication n Belton's bookplates is given here for research purposes only and not for reproduction
The first printed bookplates were produced in 15th century Germany. However, it was not until the end of the 17th century that bookplates became popular in England. Armorial bookplates portray titled owners.
The Brownlow heraldry stems from a grant of arms to Richard Brownlow 20th June 1593 after he was made Chief Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas in 1591. This introduced the familiar martlets, ermine and greyhound. A confirmation of arms on 12 October 1602 added a cross, for Panelly, an unknown name, a feature never used later by the family. The family's arms are summarised by this 1823 stained glass window in Belton Church. NT 435764 in the Belton archives holds unused bookplates and some of their copperplates.
The bookplates presented here are not in any historical order, but as they appear discovered in Belton books.
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A chapeau or cap of maintenance.
The upper diagram is the arms of a gentleman or knight, the lower, the full coat of arms of a titled nobleman.
SHIELD: The most basic part of armorial bearings
ESCROLL: A stylized scroll, below the shield, with the motto of the individual or family.
MANTLING: A stylized rendering of a knight's mantle/cape, typically (but not always) depicted shredded as if it had been shredded in battle.
HELM: Deriving from the martial origins of heraldry in the Roman Empire and the middle ages, purely symbolic, the design being chosen for artistic purposes
TORSE: A wreath of two twisted pieces of cloth or ribbon in the knight's primary colours. Or a chapeau, cap of maintenance. The latter is a ceremonial cap of crimson velvet lined with ermine. Traditionally used to keep a crown or coronet comfortably on the head. It appears in Brownlow heraldry with Viscount Tyrconnel, the first ennobled family member, hence, entitled to a coronet.
CREST: An additional symbol particular to the individual or family. It must always "issue," or proceed from a torse, a simple coronet, or a chapeau. Sometimes the crest and shield are used together without additional embellishment. Sometimes the crest is used by itself as a symbolic representation of the individual or family
SUPPORTERS: Often animals, seen in the arms of persons of high rank. They "support" the shield and draw attention to it
COMPARTMENT: Supporters stand on a compartment, or scrollwork
CROWN: a coronet refers to the rank of a nobles
Using these terms an explanation of the book marks is given. It is sometimes possible to give a terminus ante quem, the date before which the plate could not have existed.
Viscount Tyrconnel (1691-1754)
Sir John Brownlow, 5th Baronet, of Belton, third owner of Belton, he inherited the estate & baronetage after the death of his father, William Brownlow and his aunt who had a lifetime interest, Alice Brownlow. He obtained an Irish peerage in 1718. This dates the plate to after that year. An earlier design is discussed below.
Crest: on a chapeau a greyhound statant collared and ringed
statant [standing still with all the feet touching the ground]
Shield: quarterly 1 & 4, Or an Inescutcheon within an Orle of Martlets Sable
[the quarters are numbered from top left and read like lines on a page] Or [gold represented by engravers with stippling] an Inescutcheon [small shield within a larger one] within an Orle [a narrow border inset from the edge of a shield] of Martlets [a mythical bird resembling a swallow, with thighs but no visible legs] Sable [the heraldic term for black, depicted as a region of crossed horizontal and vertical lines,
quarterly 2 & 3, A lion rampant
rampant [one paw on the ground, the other three raised; the beast looking forward having its tail erect. This symbol is from his mother's family, the Masons]
Inescutcheon of pretence
The central shield.
In English heraldry the husband of a heraldic heiress, the sole daughter and heiress of an armigerous man (i.e. a lady without any brothers), rather than impaling (setting side by side two coats of arms or more in the same shield ) his wife's paternal arms as is usual, must place his wife's paternal arms in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of his own shield as a claim ("pretence") to be the new head of his wife's family. Here, Tyrconnel is now the head of the family 'Brownlow' and the lady refers to his wife, Eleanor Brownlow.
Supporters: On either side a Lion rampant regardant Argent plain collared Gules
regardant [looking backwards] Argent [silver - in engraving it is known by the natural colour of the paper] plain collared Gules [red - in engravings by numerous perpendicular lines, here seen both sides of the collars]
Motto: Esse quam videri
[To be rather than to seem]
Crown: Viscount
[A viscount's coronet of rank bears 16 silver balls or 'pearls' around the rim. Viscounts are peers of the fourth degree in the nobility, next in rank above a baron and below an earl]
Great nephew of Viscount Tyrconnel. The 1st Earl's coronet in 3D.
Crown: an Earl's coronet
Alternating silver pearls and strawberry leaves, with a decorated rim. He received his earldom in 1815. The statant greyhound is seen clearly standing on a chapeau
The collar chain encircling the lion and greyhound has alternating lions and crowns linked by scrolled royal ciphers. It holds the symbol of the Knight Grand Cross, an Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV).This consists of a Maltese cross with ball finials, lions in each quadrant, obverse centre presents a Hanoverian horse surrounded by laurels. Brownlow received this honour in 1834, during the reign of William IV. The bookplates terminus ante quem is therefore, 1834.
The cypher is of GR, George IV, but awarded by his successor William IV.
The 1st Earl was a Train Bearer for William IV, who was the Chief Mourner at his older brother's funeral - George IV, in July 1830.
Left the 1st Earl's Guelphic Order. In silver-gilt, comprising 24 alternating segments of Guelphic crowns, lions passant and Royal 'GR' cyphers, with central Guelphic crown.
Above, how Cust signed himself in his books before inheriting the Barony on the death of his father the 1st Baron Brownlow on 25th December 1807.
Left and below, some books have the Earl's bookplate stuck over his earlier bookplate used when his father the 1st Baron Brownlow was still alive. The younger sons of earls, along with all sons and daughters of viscounts, barons and lords of parliament are accorded the courtesy style of “The Honourable” before their name. The date inscribed by John, himself in the book (S.82.12), is 1796, when he was 17 years old.
Note the lion’s head erased gorged with a collar checky. The head comes from the Stamford Custs granted to Sir Richard Cust 31st May 1663. John's signature at the back of another book.
The library at Wrest Park c.1850 (Bedfordshire Archives). The bookplate's terminus post quem is 1833, the year Thomas became an earl and changed his name.
Thomas Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham, 2nd Earl de Grey, of Wrest in the County of Bedford (1781-1859)
For over 600 years the Wrest estate was home to one of the leading aristocratic families in the country, the de Greys. Thomas rebuilt the house between 1834 and 1839.
A bookplate in S.70.5 with the 1st Earl Brownlow's bookplate and an inscription,
Exchange with E de Grey 1849
Thomas Philip Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham, 2nd Earl de Grey, of Wrest in the County of Bedford (1781-1859). The title was created in 1816 for Amabel Hume-Campbell, [sic] 1st Countess de Grey, childless the title went to her nephew, Thomas. He inherited Wrest Park in 1833 and demolished the medieval house to build an 18th-century French style house. A different, 2nd Earl Grey is associated with the bergamot tea.
There are 6 heraldic quarterings.
Q1 & Q6 the three bars are seen on the bookplate of Jemima Campbell, 2nd Marchioness Grey, 4th Baroness Lucas, who was Amabel's mother.
Q 2 the inverted chevron & stags are the arms for Robinson, Lord Grantham
Q 3 Argent on a saltire azure a bezant is the Earldom of Hardwicke
saltire, a cross, with a gold coin of Byzantium at its centre. Jemima married the Hon. Philip Yorke (later 2nd Earl of Hardwicke) in 1740.
Q4 a gyronny of eight symbolises Clan Campbell
from the Spanish Gyron, a triangular piece of cloth sewed into a garment. It refers to Jemima's maiden name of Campbell.
Q 5, the 6 annulets [rings] decorate Wrest Park itself. They point to the Barons Lucas (of Crudwell, Wiltshire) (1663). Thomas had another title, 6th Baron Lucas.
Crown: An earl's coronet
Supporters: Wyverns associated with the de Grey family since the C16.
Motto: foy est tout Faith is all
Another book exchanged with Lord Grantham in 1849 has a different Wrest Park bookplate with the 1st Earl Brownlow's partially pasted over. The book, The Fairy Queen by Spenser 1807 (S.82.10). Embossed in gold on the outside with Newby Hall.
The Order of the Garter motto, Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense, shame on anyone who thinks evil is first found on the 1712 arms of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent (1671-1740), Wrest owner.
His distant descendent was Thomas Robinson. Thomas was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1841 to 1844 when he acquired the Order of the Garter. The buckled garter itself is illustrated. It is worn on ceremonial occasions around the left calf. The bookplate must post-date 1844, and so is later than the 1833 version above.
Thomas had inherited Newby Hall in Yorkshire in 1792 from his distant cousin William Weddell, where the book resided at one time. Neither bookplate includes the arms of William Weddell. Newby Hall is still owned by the family today.
This has bookplates, shown left, presumably submitted by the 3rd Earl Brownlow.
These provide the basis for those of Alice and Dorothy Brownlow, depicted below. But are at variance to those found in books for William Brownlow and his son, the later Viscount Tyrconnel.
Dame Alice Brownlow (1659-1721)
Co-builder of Belton House & wife of Young Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet of Humby. As the bookplate states, a relict (widow) by 1698, after John shot himself in 1697. John was a baronet entitled to bear a coat of arms, but not of the peerage. The three plates here are classified as early armorial.
A lozenge shaped escutcheon is used to depict heraldry for a female. The shield is described as if held in the hand with the dexter side the viewer's left and the sinister side the viewer's right. By tradition, a husband's arms occupy the dexter half of his shield, his wife's paternal arms the sinister half as here.
The sinister side shows the arms of Alice's family the Sherards, a chevron [rafter or roof]. Three torteaux surround it. French for a little tart, they may represent the sacred Host.
Dexter has the Brownlow arms of 8 martlets and the Red Hand of Ulster. When James I initiated the Plantation of Ulster he created the order of Baronetage which His Majesty sold for £1,000 a time. The Red Hand was the Order's insignia. This Baronetage of Humby was awarded in 1641 by Charles I.
The crescent or a half-moon with the horns uppermost are from the baronetage of Lobthorpe (1674–1748). It symbolises a second son and may refer to the splitting of the Sherard family.
Above the moon are leopard faces from Alice Pulteney married to Sir John, 1st and last Baronet Brownlow, of Belton. Also seen is her family's fesse dancetty (zigzag partition). Compare to the conjugal crest on their 1664 dish.
Confusingly, However, Richard Brownlow's 1602 heraldry includes three leopard heads of the Lee family of Norwell and Southwell.
The three talbot's (extinct hunting dog) heads erased with a chevron engrailed come from Duncombe. Richard Brownlow's second son, William married Elizabeth Duncombe.
The chequer board is explicable only in Dorothy Brownlow's arms below.
William Brownlow (1665-1701) 4th baronet of Humby, Lincs. and Arlington Street, Westminster, Middlesex
Younger brother to Sir John Brownlow, the Belton estate was entailed to him on his brother's death in 1697. The estate reverted to his family on Alice's death in 1721, i.e. to his son, third owner of Belton, Viscount Tyrconnel.
The unusual round shield is impaled for him and his wife Dorothy Mason. Her field has a lion rampant comes from the Masons. The Red Hand of Ulster indicates that William was now the Baronet of Humby, and so designed after his elder brother's death in 1697. This is emphasised by the helmet of a knight.
Dorothy Mason, Lady Brownlow (1665-1699/1700)
Born in Sutton, Surrey, the daughter of Sir Richard Mason (c.1633-1685) and Anne Margaret Long (c.1637-1711). Mason was Clerk of the Green Cloth in the British Royal Household. She married William Brownlow and the design mimics his version exhibited in 1894 referred to above. As a woman should should not bear a helmet.
Like Alice she has fields with similar charges [any emblem or device occupying the field] that relate neither to the Brownlows nor her mother-in-law from the Freke family. The inescutcheon has the Mason's lion rampant, Q 1 & 6 the Brownlow Martlets. The crescent or a half-moon with the horns uppermost appears from C13 onwards, from Henry III's reign and symbolised the crusades. It is used as a difference signifying a second son and may serve to highlight her husband the younger brother of 'Young' Sir John Brownlow.
Q4 - échiqueté, applied to a field divided by perpendicular and horizontal lines, into small squares. Said to relate to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Perhaps refers to her father, Sir Richard Mason, Clerk of the Green Cloth responsible for Charles II's accounts.
The elements of an armorial achievement can reflect family origins and professions, but also personal characteristics. Possibly, the three talbots erased [arraché, heads torn off, leaving a jagged edge] seen here and on Alice's plate symbolise faithfulness, reliability and guardianship.
Marianne Margaret Egerton, Viscountess Alford, generally known as Lady Marian Alford (1817–1888)
The bookplate shows Marion Alfords cipher with a coronet of a viscountess, sixteen silver pearls and a decorated rim.
Alford House was the London home of the widowed mother of the 3rd Earl Brownlow. The allocation of the site resulted from a direct approach to the owner, Lord Listowel, by Lady Alford herself. She acquired land on the 21-acre Kingston House estate.
The cipher is on bed curtains in the Yellow bedroom, reduced from window curtains in 1926. The significance of the sunflowers is unknown. They are unrelated to the heraldry of her father, Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton. The bookbinder is John Mitchell, floruit 1853.
Floor plans of Alford House by Matthew Digby Wyatt, left
The library is seen on the ground floor facing east.
Remarkably, the double-height kitchen and scullery lie on the 1st floor, above the dining room. It is sealed off from the rest of the house to prevent cooking smells permeating Lady Alfords soirées.
Alford House, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge, London, for Lady Marian Alford, Viscountess Alford 1872. Architect Wyatt, Sir Matthew Digby (1820-1877). RIBA Ref No RIBA94155
Marion Alford sold the house in 1879, just before her death to a linoleum magnate. This is when this book may have arrived at Belton. Interior images, but no books! Kingston House East, on the site of the demolished Alford House, was erected in 1955.
Marian Alford above, reading a book!
Left, her cipher on the Bede Houses, Little Gaddesdon. The original buildings were completed in 1865, which may serve to date the bookplate design. She also had another cypher design seen below on an undated box.
The bookplate is found in a collaton of poetical works dating to the first decades of the 19th century, this one is from shelf S.77.
Alexander Hamilton Loughnan (c. 1804-1883) of Ignatestone Hall, Essex
Director of the Ionian Bank, Corfu in the Ionian Islands and member of the board of that bank in London.
The Ionian Islands cosist of Corfu, Paxos, Lefkas, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante and Kythera. In 1809, the British defeated the French fleet in Zakynthos. The Treaty of Paris in 1815 brought the islands under British protection until ceded to Greece in 1864.
His father and grandfather, both Andrew Loughnan, of Loughnan and Son at Coleman Street, London operated Greek loans. Father was awarded slave compensation for one claim in Tobago and one in Trinidad as executor of the London merchant Crawford Davison.
The bookplate refers to the surname of Loughnan derived from the Gaelic O'Leochain from County Galway, Ireland.
Crest: a castle triple-towered proper
Arms: Vert a dexter hand couped apaumé [a right hand showing its palm cut off at the wrist], and in chief an arrow fesse ways [aligned horizontally]
Motto: Virtue Alone Ennobles
The crescent is not part of the original Loughnan arms.
There is no known reason for the books being at Belton.
Ermine on a Chevron Sable three Fountains proper. The sculptor has included a, Yinglong, Chinese winged dragon, left. The style is similar to his father's plate, John Cust, see below. The Rococo framework mirrors that of another London engraver, Clowes.
Sir Brownlow Cust, 4th Baronet Stamford in Lincolnshire (1744-1807) before his elevation to the peerage
Engraved by Foster, sculp Fetter Lane, London. sculp or sculpt in this context means engraver. The British Museum holds no print under the name Foster, Fetter Lane. Foster does not appear in the Dictionary of British sculptors 1660-1851. Sixth owner of Belton, Brownlow has stuck the bookmark in a book earlier owned by his paternal grandmother Anne Cust, a 1712 history of the English Civil War (L.45.B1). As of January 2024 the baronetage of Cust of Stamford (awarded 1677) lies unclaimed by the present 8th Baron Brownlow.
Brownlow Cust, raised to the peerage 1776
The 1st Baron Brownlow was referred to as Brownlow, Lord Brownlow. Found in a book published 1784 (S.79.24).
Created after his barony in 1776 as indicated by the baron's coronet. Two lions rampant regardant support the shield. The arms have the Brownlow's Hand of Ulster and martlets. The chevrons with inset fountains relate to the Custs. Anne Browlow inherited Belton from her childless brother, Viscount Tyrconnel in 1754. She had married Sir Richard Cust in 1717, introducing that surname to her descendants to this day.
The central shield holds the arms of the Bankes family of Kingston Lacey. A cross engrailed [the cutting of the edge of a border into small semi-circular indents] between four fleur-de-lys. This refers to Frances Bankes (1756-1847), daughter of Sir Henry Bankes. She became the 1st Baron Brownlow's second wife in 1775. Her son became the 2nd Baron and 1st Earl Brownlow.
The third quadrant has two crosses pattée fitché, a plain cross having the lower member pointed. Berry, W. (1828) relates this element to Payne. Brownlow Cust's mother Ethelred Payne was daughter to Sir Thomas Payne of Hough-on-the-Hill. His church memorial does not have arms to confirm this.
Opera Illius Mea Sunt, 'his works are mine'. The source of this motto is explained under 'Architecture'.
SM identity unknown
Found glued within Bentley's Miscellany volume XLVI for 1859 (S.79.18), a monogram, a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters. The Miscellany, an English literary magazine sold by Richard Bentley, right, of New Burlington Street, London, price Half-a-Crown (£12). Dickens was its first editor and serialised Oliver Twist in it. Dickens fell out with Bentley calling him, the Burlington Street Brigand. Volume XLVI, online.
A bookplate similar to Viscountess Alford's monogram design above, or a book seller's ticket?
Belton's portrait of John, above, does not show the saddle nose depicted in his caricatures. Such a deformity can be associated with congenital syphilis. That was portrayed in 18th century art. Was this saddle nose emphasis intended as a political insult?
Sir John Cust, 3rd Baronet of Stamford in the County of Lincoln (1718-1770)
Apart from the familiar Brownlow and Cust charges, the central inescutcheon bears three cross-crosslets fitchée (pointed at the base). This links to the first Richard Brownlow's mother, Jane Arden. Her family's arms come from the Ardens of Alvanley, the three crosses seen here (Cust E. 1909). They appear on Richard's 1602 grant. Elizabeth Cust reports the Arden arms on a 1684 Browlow deed when Edward Arden assigns £20 to his cousin, 'Young' Sir John Brownlow.
As a politician, Cust was subject to caricature (British Museum). One reason why the Brownlows were raised to the peerage, is because Cust, Speaker of the House of Commons, died in office. The other is his son Brownlow Cust was a cousin twice removed and friends with Frederick Lord North the prime minister on Cust's death. North was the grandson of Alicia Brownlow.
Captain Sir Charles Leopold Cust Bt, RN, GCVO, CB, CMG (1864-1931)
Charles's grandfather, was Sir Edward Cust, 1st Baronet, KCH (1794-1878) was the younger brother to the 1st Earl Brownlow and a British soldier, politician and courtier. His son, Sir Leopold Cust, 2nd Baronet (1831–1878), married in 1863 Charlotte Sobieski Isabel Bridgeman. Charles was one of their progeny.
It is Charles's paternal grandparents, who are the only family members with a direct link to enrichment from enslavement.
Edward Cust, together with the heirs of the late Mrs L. W. Boode (his mother-in-law), made a claim on Greenwich Park in British Guiana and was awarded £5,029 7s 8d under the Slave Compensation Act 1837 .
Impatient, Edward Cust wrote to Henry Frederick Stephenson, one of the Commissioners of Compensation in 1835,
Dear Stevenson [sic] how much might I hope to receive? I trust I am not intruding an impertinent request...
In 2021, the relative value of £5,029 from 1837 ranges from £486,200 to £22,680,000 depending on the comparison index used.
Charles's own wealth would relate in part to that compensation.
Further analysis in preparation
Who hates Cust beware
Henry (Harry) John Cockayne-Cust, JP, DL (1861-1917)
Harry was the heir apparent to the childless 3rd Earl Brownlow. He was descended from Henry Cust the spare heir and younger brother of the 1st Earl Brownlow.
Harry has included his wit in the bookplate motto. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes is a Latin phrase found in the work of the Roman poet Juvenal. It translates as Who watches the watchers? It refers to the problem of controlling the actions of persons in positions of power. Harry has used the Cust surname and the verb odi, to hate to refashion the saying to
Who hates Cust beware.
The Bookplate Journal published a comprehensive review of the Brownlow family bookplates found at Belton up to that of Peregrine Cust 6th Baron Brownlow.
Available here as a back copy to purchase.
Grantham House
A reminder that Grantham House in Grantham was once a Cust property. Lived in by Lucy Cust until her death in 1804 it had a number of functions after that presented here. The Lord Brownlow is Brownlow Cust who inherited the property from his aunt Lucy. William (1787-1845) and Richard Cust (1785-1864) were two of his sons. However, there is another Richard Cust, their uncle, who went to Merton College. So the attributions are not completely certain.
The book is Conjuration de Nicolas Gabrini dit Rienzi, tyran de Rome en MCCCXLVII : Ouvrage posthume du R. Pere Du Cerceau, de la Compagnie de Jesus. Avec quelques nouvelles poesies du meme auteur. Amsterdam 1734.
Lady Frances Scott
Frances Douglas, Lady Douglas (1750-1817), formerly Lady Frances Scott, was the wife of Archibald Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas, and the mother of novelist Caroline Lucy Scott. Like her brother, Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, she was closely acquainted with the novelist Walter Scott. She was an amateur artist, some of whose works have survived.
Her herladry holds elements of her brother's heraldry below confirming her identity. She was the great aunt of Lady Isabella Mary Montagu Scott (d.1829), wife of Lt. Col. Hon. Peregrine Francis Cust (1791-1873). It was their second son, Horace William Cust, Coldstream Guards, who died at the Battle of the Alma in the Crimean war, in 1854. Alma Wood is a memorial to him as is a column in Belton churchyard.
Ashridge House bookplate dated 1866
The first Earl Brownlow died in 1853, and so this must refer to John William Spencer Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842-1867). The quarters show the Cust ermine and chevron with fountains embedded. The other quarters are the arms of Egerton: Argent, a lion rampant gules between three pheons sable, relate to the Dukes of Bridgwater.
John William Egerton, 7th Earl of Bridgewater (1753 -1823) had no son. His heir presumptive was his brother, the Rev. Francis Egerton, an eccentric parson of whom the Earl disapproved. To bypass his brother, he left his possessions, subject to the life interests of his widow and niece, Lady Farnborough, to John Hume Egerton, Viscount Alford, the son of the 1st Earl Brownlow.
Lady Farnborough was the maternal aunt of Alford and Charles. The condition was that Alford acquire a Dukedom within five years of his succession. Failure to do so meant the forfeiture of the property to his younger brother, Charles Henry Hume Cust, who had to comply with the same condition or in turn forfeit his right to William Tatton Egerton.
The 7th Earl's wife died in 1849. Alford inherited, but died in 1851. The 1st Earl died in 1853. The 2nd Earl challenged the terms of the will and lost to his uncle Charles. But that loss was reversed on appeal by the House of Lords in 1853.
He produced language maps of India, and Africa. His books are still in publication. His obituary is available here as a pdf.
A nephew of the 1st Earl Brownlow, by Henry his younger brother. Born in the Manor House at Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire, where his father was the rector, he became a British administrator and judge in colonial India apart from being an Anglican evangelist and linguist. From 1844, he worked in the Bengal Civil Services for the East India Company. He was married three times with his first two wives dying in childbirth. He seems to have had a fractious relationship with his eldest daughter Albinia Wherry wanting,
friendships to be formed within his class. Courtships and engagements should follow the etiquette which had governed his family a generation earlier.
The arms have those of the Custs in two quarters, the Brownlow martlets in one. The other quarter relates to the Cockayne family, three cocks and a crescent for difference. The motto,
Qui custodit caveat
Let him who guards beware.
Gift by the Will of Francis Cockayne Cust Esq to his Nephew Lord Brownlow 1 Decr 1791 L.42.I.16
Francis Cockayne Cust (1722-1791) was a British lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1770 and 1791. Cust was the second son of Sir Richard Cust, 2nd Baronet and his wife, Anne Brownlow. His elder brother was Sir John Cust, Speaker of the House of Common and who inherited Belton. After Cockayne Cust's death his youngest sister Lucy Cust contined to use the Cockayne Hatley property and Grantham House.
Probably the bookmark of the 3rd Earl Brownlow (1844-1921)
Found in Robert Needham Cust's Linguistic and Oriental essays L.17.ext.8, a gift book dated 1904. This anonymous plate with an Earl's coronet and the Cust & Egerton quartering is found in later books and is in all likelihood that of the 3rd Earl.
Robert Needham Cust (1821-1909)
He collected books and articles by the family for a special bookcase at Belton, this collection is in Library XVIII extension shelves 1 & 2. He had a special bookmark prepared for these publications.
Library XVIII extension shelf 1.32. Son of Robert Needham Cust and his first wife, Maria Hobart. Art historian. His cousin was Lionel Cust a director of the National Portrait Gallery. A link to some of his books here.
His bookplate found in Chronicles of London Bridge 1827 on the front board paste down. Ascribed to Richard Thomson. Inside 32/- is inscribed in pencil presumably the secondhand or auction price. Faber mea fortunae - The smith of my own fortune. His copy of Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson is currently on offer for £35,000 (2024).
Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, GCSI, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and barrister who attained high office in the early 20th century, in particular as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a skilled orator, noted for his staunch opposition to Irish nationalism, his wit, pugnacious views, and hard living and drinking. He is perhaps best remembered today as Winston Churchill's greatest personal and political friend until Birkenhead's death aged 58 from pneumonia caused by cirrhosis of the liver.
Smith was created Viscount Birkenhead, of Birkenhead in the County of Chester, in the 1921 Birthday Honours and an earl in 1922.
His library of 10,000 volumes at 32 Grosvenor Gardens, London was auctioned there in December 1930. There are other books in the collection with this bookplate probably bought by the 6th Baron Brownlow.
Birkenhead on Time Cover 1923.
He was known for his rapier wit,
Judge: Are you trying to show contempt for this court, Mr Smith?
Smith: No, My Lord. I am attempting to conceal it.
The plate matches best the British armorial stamp illustrated right. This belonged to Fitzmaurice, John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne (1706 -1761).
His son was one of our less well-known prime ministers in 1782–83 during the final months of the American War of Independence.
The plate exhibits a saltire with chief ermine a crescent for difference. Supporters: Dexter A pegasus ermine bridled charged on the shoulder with a fleur-de-lys and Sinister A griffin. The motto, virtue non verbis, 'no virtue in words' also matches.
Presumably John Cust acquired the book sometime after either the death of the 1st or the 2nd Earl.
Shelburne was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Irish peerage in 1754 and lived at Bowood House, Wiltshire.