Nicholas Shireburn 1658-1717

Sir Nicholas SHIREBURN or SHERBURNE, 1st bart 1658-1717

Sir Nicholas Shireburn's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection *143)

Biographical Note

Son of Richard Shireburn of Stonyhurst, Lancashire, a member of a long-established Roman Catholic gentry family there. He inherited the family estates on the death of his elder brother in 1690, and also acquired extensive estates in Northumberland through his marriage to Catherine Charleton. He was made a baronet in 1685 but the title became extinct when he died with no male heir.

Books

Shireburn used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks *143); the extent of his library is not known. His will has no specific mention of books, which would have passed (with the rest of his goods and chattels) to his daughter Mary, Duchess of Norfolk (wife of Thomas Howard, 8th Duke of Norfolk).

Sources

• Will of Sir Nicholas Shireburn, The National Archives PROB 11/564/303.
• Shireburn baronets, Wikipedia.
• Mary, Duchess of Norfolk - Lancashire Archives.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.