Frances Wolfreston 1607-1677

Frances WOLFRESTON 1607-77

Biographical Note

Born at King’s Norton, near Birmingham, eldest child of George Middlemore of Hazelwell. Married (1631) Francis Wolfreston (d.1666), who owned and lived at the manor of Statfold, near Tamworth.

Books

Noteworthy as one of the very few seventeenth-century women who can definitely be identified as a book owner. Ca. 100 books with her inscription can be traced today, although her original collection is likely to have been appreciably larger. Bequeathed her books to her son Stanford (Vicar of Wootton Wawen, d.1698); most of the collection remained together in family ownership at Statfold until 1856, when a large proportion was sold at Sotheby’s. Other books had been alienated earlier, and there was a further dispersal in the 1930s. Surviving books are all English language, with a striking proportion of poems and plays. Examples: surviving books are listed in Paul Morgan’s article; an additional one was Quaritch 1243 (1997)/10.

Characteristic Markings

Typically inscribed titlepages “frances wolfreston hor bouk” (sometimes “her book”); sometimes, but rarely, added further annotations.

Sources

• Frances Wolfreston Hor Bouks.
• Erle, L. Shakespeare and the book trade, 2013, 212-13.
• Gerritsen, J. Venus preserved: some notes on Frances Wolfreston, in O. Arngart et al (eds), English studies presented to R. W. Zandvoort, 1964, 271-4.
• Hunt, A. Libraries in the archives, in G. Mandelbrote and B. Taylor (eds), Libraries within the library, 2009, 363-84, pp. 372ff.
• Lindenbaum, S. Hiding in plain sight, in L. Knight et al (eds), Women’s bookscapes in early modern Britain, Ann Arbor, 2018, 193-213.
• Morgan, P. Frances Wolfreston and ‘Hor bouks’: a seventeenth-century woman book-collector, The Library 6th ser 11 (1989), 197-219.