Justinian Isham 1611-1675

Sir Justinian ISHAM, 2nd baronet 1611-1675

Biographical Note

Born at Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire; son of Sir John Isham, 1st baronet (1582–1651) and member of the Isham family of Lamport Hall. Succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 1651. Educated at Christ's College, Cambridge and admitted to the Middle Temple in 1628. MP for Northamptonshire 1661, but noted as a "largely inactive member" (ODNB).

Books

The family developed the library at Lamport Hall over many generations, until largely dispersed in the late 19th century. Elizabeth Isham refers in a manuscript diary to "the bookes which I had in my closet". Her list of her mother’s books, ca. 25 titles, is edited as Private Libraries in Renaissance England 270; a separate list of her sister’s books, 17 titles, as Private Libraries in Renaissance England 272; and a list of her own books, ca.100 titles, as Private Libraries in Renaissance England 276.

Sources

• Aughterson, Kate. "Isham, Elizabeth (bap. 1608, d. 1654), diarist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Black, J. L. & others, Judith Isham, Judith Isham, Elizabeth Isham, Private Libraries in Renaissance England 9 (2017), 179-189, 201-208, 319-345.
• Cambers, A. Godly reading, 2011, p.47, 65.
• Graves, R. The Isham books, Bibliographica 3 (1897), 418-29.
• Jackson, W. A. The Lamport Hall – Britwell Court books, in his Records of a bibliographer (1967), 121-133.
• Hallam, H. Lamport Hall revisited, The Book Collector 16 (1967) 439-49.
• Snook, E. Elizabeth Isham’s “own bookes”, in L. Knight et al (eds), Women’s bookscapes in early modern Britain, Ann Arbor, 2018, 77-93.
• The diary of Thomas Isham of Lamport (1658-81), 1971.