Mark Anesley ca.1702-1749

Mark ANESLEY or ANNESLEY or AINSLEY ca.1702-1749

Mark Anesley's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection 546)

Biographical Note

Son of William Anesley of Gallow Hill, Northumberland. Matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge 1720, but did not graduate. He was later a JP for Northumberland but his finances were not well managed, and his estates were sold after his death.

Books

Anesley used an engraved armorial bookplate in the Trophy style (Franks 546); Anesley had no known military connections, but Latcham suggests he may have had some militia attachment. Unusually, the plate has a space at the base for a price of the book to be inserted (the same design was used for the plate of another north-eastern owner, Thomas Middleton). The extent and disposition of Anesley's library is not known.

Sources

• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.
• Latcham, P., Bookplates in the Trophy style, London, 2006, p.30.
• Venn, J. and J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge, 1922.