11. [Cumberbatch, Benedict] Cumberbatch, Henry Arnold / Rees, Helen / Basil Benwell Rees / William Benwell Rees / Etheldreda Blanche Barker / [Sir Winston Churchill / Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne [Private Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill]].

Large Family Archive of the Benwell Rees – Family, including William Benwell Rees (brother to actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother Helen Rees, by marriage to British Diplomat Henry Arnold Cumberbatch, who was Consul in Romania, Turkey and Lebanon ). The archive includes at least one manuscript letter by Henry Arnold Cumberbatch and around one thousand documents chronicling the lives of the ex-patriate Benwell Rees family from 1890-1970 in Alexandria and Monaco, including William Benwell Rees, whose marriage to Etheldreda Blanche Barker cemented the family’s role in the highest circles of Alexandria life. The archive also charts their son Basil Rees’ decade in Monaco under Princess Grace and Prince Rainer III where he served as President of the British Association in the 1950’s-‘60s and solicited a letter written by Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne, on Winston Churchill’s behalf on Chartwell headed paper in which the former Prime Minister declined to attend an event in Monaco [signed by Montague Browne]. The archive is held in five heavy volumes, bursting with a plethora of amazing and wonderful historical letters, ephemera, emotional messages and telegrams, old images, theatre-programmes, and especially also includes programmes of plays in which ancestors of Benedict played (J.M.Barrie, Shakespeare etc.). The original letters and documents paint an interesting picture of Benedict Cumberbatch’s grandmother’s side of the family history in the Levant, their service in the Middle East and their social lives. The five volumes are bound in bespoke red morocco over textured paper-covered-boards and they contain at least one reference to Helen Rees next to a newspaper-clipping and dozens of wonderful handwritten letters and cards. Each volume about four inches across spine with title in gilt to upper cover and around 100 leaves in each with documents mounted recto and verso throughout, with photographs, invitations, business materials and clippings that chart the family’s life in their service for the British Colonial Office. The five Volumes include for example: Volume 1: The Benwell Rees’: begins with Egyptian Gazette, 1890 and a programme for a performance c1900 at the Port Theatre, Marina, Alexandria of Rumpelstilkskin; visiting cards and contemporary reports of the marriage of W B Rees and Etheldreda Blanche Barker in Alexandria, February 1901; Windsor Hotels prospectus and flyer (a WBR enterprise); 1913 Casino de Monte Carlo ticket for Ethel Rees; Kings School Canterbury ephemera and St Johns’ College, Cambridge for Basil Rees from 1920’s, graduated June 1924. Volume 2: The Benwell Rees’ Vol II, 1920’s-1990’s: includes J M Barrie, Quality Street programme for English Girls’ School, Alexandria, 1941; invitations from Princess Grace of Monaco etc Volume 3: Basil Rees Vol III, cover nearly detached, 1953- Basil Rees living at 2 Rue Origene, Alexandria, and covering period of move to Palais Majestic, Monaco after which he served as President of the British Association and his sudden death in 1967. Invitations to dinner and place settings with the Prince and Princess of Monaco. Birthday greetings; international stamp collecting societies. Photographic ‘Permis de Sejour’ for William Benwell Rees in Monaco, October 1918. Volume 4: Basil Rees Vol. IV Begins with telegram from Rees to the Queen; mostly very extensive formal correspondence concerned with Rees’ Presidency of he British Association in Monaco; invitations, notes, printed volume of Statutes of association from 1950, royal correspondence with Monaco and Britain. Volume 5 and 6 (two large Volumes): Basil Rees 4-5-1902 AND Basil Rees 4-5 1902 [William Basil Benwell Rees ; Birth: 4 May 1902. Alexandria, Al Iskandariyah, Egypt ; Death: 10 Feb 1967 (aged 64). Monaco]. Volume I covers the early days of the Alexandria – Period and beautiful ephemera of a Rees-wedding (Miss Elaine Trevitt Briggs to Charles Owen Benwell Rees, social life in Alexandria, Theatre and Dinners etc. as well as the many Freemason – Engagements of the “Alexandria Lodge No.4184” in the year 1942 and also a rare Volume of Bye-Laws for the District Grand Lodge of Egypt and the Sudan Volume II covers William Basil Benwell Rees; Royal Navy ID card, British Forces, September 1943 – other material relating to Rees’ work as Duty Defence Officer at the Royal Navy Defence Base in Alexandria, HMS Nice. Volume begins in 1902 and includes Alexandria Dog Show, W B B Rees at Jesus College, Cambridge; Egypt NAAFI permits; lock of Basil Rees’ hair, aged 2 etc.

Alexandria / Monaco / etc., c. 1902 – 1967. Octavo. Six Volumes with hundreds of pieces of Ephemera, an original Theatre Couplet, photographs, newspaper-clippings, Theatre Programmes etc. Half Morocco. Bindings stronger rubbed and slightly damaged.

12. Verney, Frances Parthenope.

Memoirs of the Verney family during the seventeenth century.

Second edition. Two Volumes (complete set). London, Longmans, 1904. 14 cm x 20cm. Volume I: XXI, 582 pages / Volume II: X, 574 pages. Original Hardcover (red cloth) with spinelabels. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Spines of both volumes slightly rubbed. Spine-labels slightly detached.

13. Aylmer, Captain James Evans Freke / Colonel F. A. Aylmer.

Pedigree of The Family of Aylmer of England and Ireland. Compiled by the Late Captain James Evans Freke Aylmer. With some additional Notes by Colonel F.A. Aylmer. [and with several manuscript annotations completing or correcting some of the Pedigrees (surely in the hand of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer)].

London, Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1909. Quarto. 26 pages. Softcover / Original printed wrappers. The binding a little frayed but overall still in good condition. From the library of Gerald Percy Vivian Aylmer (1856-1936) of Walworth Castle, with his signature to the front wrapper. Extremely Rare !

14. O’Halloran, W. (Rev.).

Early Irish History and Antiquities and The History of West Cork.

First Edition. Dublin, Sealy, Bryers and Walker, 1916. Octavo (13 cm wide x 19 cm high). (3), 182 pages with a folded Map in colour of “Ireland Before the Anglo-Norman Invasion”, bound behind the Contents-Page. Hardcover / Original cloth with lettering on spine and cover. Very good condition with some minor rubbing to the binding only. Extremely rare publication with an extensive History of West Cork.

15. Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles.

A Complete Guide to Heraldry. [With a chapter: “The Status and the Meaning of a Coat of Arms in Great Britain”]. Illustrated by Nearly 800 Designs, Mainly from Drawings by Graham Johnston, Herald Painter to the Lyon Court.

Revised Edition. London and Edinburgh, T. Nelson & Sons, Ltd. / T.C. & E.C. Jack, Ltd., no year [c.1925]. 18 cm x 24 cm. Frontispiece, XII, 647 pages. With 779 illustrations and 9 plates including frontispiece. Hardcover [publisher’s original tanned cloth] with lettering on spine and front board. Large heraldic device on front board. With rare illustrated dustjacket in protective mylar. Deckled fore and tail-edges. Gilt top edges. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Dustjacket chipped and torn. Some minor foxing to endpapers and edges. Some untrimmed pages. Unmarked interior.

16. Thorp, Thomas.

Catalogue Of Old Books On The Topography, Archaeology, Genealogy And Heraldry Of Great Britian And Ireland. Cat. No. 415.

Guildford, Thomas Thorp, 1931. 14 cm x 21,5 cm. 163 pages. Original Softcover. Cover with crease. Ball- pen mark on the front cover, otherwise in very good condition with minor signs of external wear.

17. [English History Collection] – Whitaker, J.

Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage.

London, J. Whitaker and Sons Ltd., 1936. 21.7 cm x 14 cm. X, 747 pages, XXXI. Original Hardcover. In protective mylar. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Blue cloth boards, gilt lettering and decoration on front and spine.

18. Murray, Laurence P.

History of the Parish of Creggan in the 17th and 18th centuries. With numerous Ancient Maps and Illustrations.

Dundalk, The Dundalgan Press, 1940. 92 pages. Original Softcover. Repaired and frayed but overall still in good condition with signs of external wear. Several annotations in the maps and within the text.

19. Kenmare, Valentine Edward Charles Browne / The Irish Manuscripts Commission.

The Kenmare Manuscripts. Edited by Edward MacLysaght.

Dublin, Stationery Office, 1942. Slim Quarto (17 cm x 25 cm). XIV pages, 1 leaf, 517 pages, 1 leaf. Original Hardcover. Excellent condition with some minor signs of wear only. An extremely scarce publication.

20. ffolliott, Rosemary [Poole].

The Pooles of Mayfield and other Irish Families. With a Preface by Basil M. O’Connell.

Dublin, Hodges and Figgis & Co., 1958. 4°. Frontispiece-Portrait of Joanna Meade Townsend, 294 pages with XIII plates showing 53 portraits and illustrations. The Volume contains over eighty “Pedigrees” [Genealogical Tables with Family Trees connecting to two thousand persons from families like: Allen, Baldwin, Barry, Becher, Bowdler, Boyle, Browne, Brydges, Capenhurst, Chavasse, Clayton, Conner of Connerville, Corker, Courthope, Cummins, Daunt, Davies, Dunscombe, Field, FitzGerald, Fleming, ffolliott, Freke [Capt. John ffreke of Knocknameel with a complete Pedigree starting with Robert Freke of Shroton] / , Fowle, Hayman, Hewitt, Holmes, Hull, Hungerford, Jellett, Langton, Latham, Lucas, McCall, Meade, Moore, Morgan, Morris, Morrison, Nevill, Nisbett, Newton, Poole, Riggs, Rogers, St.John, Sarsfield, Somerville, Stannard, Symes, Synge, Townsend, Townshend, Travers, Turner, Vaughan, Waring, Wynn and others], List of Subscribers and a comprehensive Index with reference to over four hundred surnames are also included. Original Hardcover with the rare dustjacket. Original blue cloth with only very minor traces of external wear and overall in excellent condition (minor staining to the binding). Interior unbelievably clean and bright with no markings. No.488 of only 500 numbered copies. This extremely rare publication is a key-publication of Irish Genealogy and has set new standards of genealogical research. In the Obituary for Rosemary ffolliott, the Irish Times wrote in 2009: “In 1958, when she was 23 years of age, Rosemary ffolliott compiled “The Pooles of Mayfield”, a history of Settler Families in the Cork area. The publication of this Munster gentry, which some who appeared in it described as “the Dead Sea Scrolls”, initiated a career in the difficult field of Irish genealogy, made the more arduous by the destruction of records at the Four Courts. Her dedication to a discipline that had been considered vague, imprecise and colourful, had an acknowledged effect in raising the standards of genealogy in Ireland. Her research methods were meticulous and she is remembered as a genius in the use of the Registry of Deeds in Henrietta Street. In 1966 she became a Fellow of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, the first woman to be recognised in this way.” The publication is an important source for the History of Family-Connections for the two Irish Country-House-Libraries we currently have on offer: “The Richard Meade Collection (Ballymartle)” and “The Danile Conner – Collection (Connerville and Manch House)”. Both families are mentioned as subscribers to this publication [″H.L.Conner, Esq. – Manch House, Ballineen, Co.Cork” and “Mrs. G.W.Meade – Pitch Place Farm, Thursley, Surrey / Captain J.A.Meade – Chatley, Metchosin, British Columbia / Mrs. Meade – Templenoe House, Fermoy, Co. Cork”]. Especially the many portraits of members of the Meade-Family,as well as the family-connection to the Townshend / Townsend-Family in Castletownshend, near Skibbereen, make this an invaluable source for Irish Genealogy.