Michael Wodhull 1740-1816

Michael WODHULL 1740-1816

Wodhull's armorial stamp (British Armorial Bindings)

Biographical Note

Born at Thenford, Northamptonshire, son of John Wodhull, from whom he inherited extensive Northamptonshire estates in 1754. He was educated at Winchester College and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1758, but did not graduate. Around the time of his marriage to Catherine Ingram in 1761 he built a fine mansion at Thenford, though he also had a house in London; he was sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1783. He wrote and published poems, and a translation of Euripides (1782).

Books

Wodhull is well known as one of the great book collectors of the late eighteenth century, who spent much of his time and money attending book sales and building his library, and he is the model for Orlando in Dibdin's Bibliomania. He began buying books in the 1750s and continued until the time of his death. He is known to have owned at least 8000 books, but he sold many during his lifetime, through two sales at Sotheby's in 1801 (1049 lots) and 1803 (1639 lots). His brief will has no explicit mention of his library, but his remaining books were inherited (along with his other goods) by his wife's youngest sister Mary Ingram, from whom they passed to Samuel Severne of Wallop Hall (1772-1845). After remaining at Thenford from the time of Wodhull's death, these books (together with manuscripts, charters and deeds) were auctioned by Sotheby's in 1886, in sales running to over 3000 lots. An extensive set of sale catalogues owned by Wodhull, annotated by him (including books bought and sold by him, and others) is held in the Sutro Library in San Francisco.

Characteristic Markings

Wodhull regularly had his books rebound by fashionable binders of the day, and many of his books carry his armorial stamp. His books can also often be recognised from his regular habit of adding notes to the flyleaves of his books, recording the purchase price, sale, and/or bibliographical notes.

Sources

• Will of Michael Wodhull, the National Archives PROB 11/1587/16.
• British Armorial Bindings.
• Chantilly, Marc Vaulbert de. "Wodhull, Michael (1740–1816), book collector and poet." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• De Ricci, S., English collectors of books and manuscripts, 1930, 81-83.
• Wodhull sale catalogues in the Sutro Library.