John Dee | Document signed (“Joannes Dee Gardianus”) as Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, 1597

John Dee

Document signed (“Joannes Dee Gardianus”) as Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, granting Humphrey Davenport the office of Steward of Newton for an annual fee of forty shillings, in Latin, also signed by three fellows, Oliver Carter, Thomas Williamson, and Robert Birche, one parchment membrane (380 x 155mm), 1 October 1597, with pendant seal in orange wax of the arms of the college incorporating an open book and lighted candle (60 x 75mm), small ink smudge to the first letter of Dee's signature, the document with light dust-staining, the seal chipped at edges and with indistinct motto but near complete

AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE SIGNATURE OF THE GREAT MAGUS OF ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 

John Dee (1527-1609) spent ten years in Manchester towards the end of his life, where he held the position of Warden of Christ’s College, the town’s parish church. His time in Manchester came after his peregrinations through central Europe. He had left England for Poland in 1583 in search of alchemical insights, taking with him his family and also the medium Edward Kelley, through whom he believed himself to be communicating with angels. He returned to England six years later in reduced circumstances, and discovered that his home in Mortlake had suffered extensive damage and many of his books were missing. He looked to the Queen and others at court to help him rebuild his finances, and with their patronage he eventually gained his appointment in Manchester in 1595. Christ’s College had been refounded in 1578 (the Medieval college having been dissolved under Edward VI) largely to ensure the maintenance of daily choral worship, which was much loved by the Queen. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, and the former warden’s lodgings are incorporated into Chetham’s Library.

Dee’s years in Manchester were marked by a fractious relationship with the fellows of the college (especially Oliver Carter, who also signed this document), and his pay was not enough to alleviate his deepening poverty. Nonetheless, he left his mark on the town in a number of ways. He employed the cartographer Christopher Saxton to produce a map of local parish boundaries; a handful of books that once belonged to Dee are still found in Chetham’s Library; more colourfully, if less plausibly, a scorch-mark on a table in the library has been claimed as the hoof-print of a devil conjured by Dee. As warden, Dee was responsible for estates that belonged to the church. The current document relates to the manor of Newton, then just outside Manchester, which had been part of the endowment of the church since at least the eleventh century, and confirms the appointment of the prominent local lawyer Humphrey Davenport (1566-1645) as warden of the manor.

John Dee autograph material is exceptionally rare at auction. A book with his ownership inscription and annotations was sold in these rooms fifteen years ago from the library of the Earl of Rosebery (29 October 2009, lot 56) but we have no record of a letter or document having sold at auction since 1968. 

PROVENANCE

Humphrey Davenport; by descent to Anne Davenport, b.1630, who married Rowland Bellasis (1632-1699) of Newburgh Priory, North Yorkshire; thence by descent

LITERATURE

Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections, Vol.II […] Sir George Wombwell [of Newburgh Priory] [etc] (London, 1908), pp.21-22