Samuel Wells

Samuel WELLS d.1709

Biographical Note

Little is known biographically other than that he was “minister of Ferne in Wiltshire” at the time of his death, according to the announcement of his library sale in 1710. Ferne is a large country estate in the parish of Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire which belonged for many centuries to the Grove family and Wells may have been their chaplain. He is not traceable in the university lists although there were three men of this name at Oxford and Cambridge in the 1650s/60s/70s whose subsequent careers are not known.

Books

Wells's will, which was dictated just before his death, left all his goods to his wife Elizabeth, and directed that “his books be sent to London and sold by way of auction and the money they are sold for returned to his said wife”. Books are the only specific item of property mentioned in the will. The instruction was carried out and the sale of “part of the libraries of the late Reverend Peter Birch ... and Mr. Samuel Wells” was advertised in the Daily Courant in October 1710, “containing a collection of very valuable, ancient and modern books, in Greek, Latin, and English, neatly bound ... with a large collection of trials, atlases, sermons, and other curious pamphlets”. The sale began at the Black Boy Coffee House in London on 16 October 1710 but no catalogue survives.

Characteristic Markings

None of Wells's books have been traced.

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, 2010.