James Darcy Lever 1703-1742
From Book Owners Online
Sir James Darcy LEVER d.1742
Biographical Note
Son of John Lever of Salford, a member of a prosperous Lancashire family. Matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford 1723; awarded the DCL degree, 1733. High sheriff of Lancashire 1736, knighted 1737. He commissioned the Italian architect James Leoni to rebuild Alkrington Hall, to new Palladian designs.
Books
Lever used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks 18199-200), made before he was knighted. The extent of his library is not known; his eldest son and heir Sir Ashton Lever went on to develop an extensive museum of natural history specimens.
Sources
- Foster, J., Alumni Oxonienses, Oxford, 1891.
- Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.
- Kell, P. E. "Lever, Sir Ashton (1729–1788), natural history collector." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Alkrington Hall, Middleton Heritage.