Katherine Blount 1676-1753

Katherine BLOUNT 1676-1753

Biographical Note

Daughter of James Butler and Grace Caldecott, Blount was born at Amberley Castle in Sussex. She married Sir Thomas Pope Blount, 2nd Baronet in 1695. Little is known about her life, though she has been noted for some time as a book collector, and in article on Tyttenhanger, the family seat, Jane Van Koughnet describes how she was “a brilliant woman, full of cleverness and highly cultivated, fond of poetry, a lover of all that was refined and artistic, interesting herself in the passing world of her day, and gifted with a mind full of energy.” Other members of the Blount family were known to have acquired significant libraries (see Charles Blount 1654-1693 and Thomas Pope Blount 1649-1697). She left her books and other items to her son, Sir Harry Pope Blount; it is likely the books were sold by him at some point after her death.

Books

Although she is mentioned as a book collector in William Carew Hazlitt’s bibliography A Roll of Honour: A Calendar of the Names of over 17,000 Men and Women Who Throughout the British Isles and in Our Early Colonies Have Collected MSS and Printed Books from the XIVth to the XIXth Century, not many of her books had been identified until 2020, when a series of articles appeared on the blog Early Modern Female Book Ownership. Over 40 books have now been identified as having belonged to Katherine, in a variety of institutions as well as in private ownership. The books located so far show subjects covering literature, poetry and the natural sciences. It is not known when or how her library was dispersed, though several of her books appear in auction catalogues from the 20th century. Examples: Hertford College, Oxford, XXX.5.20; Houghton Library, Harvard *EC65 B6239 691ec; Library of Congress, QK711 .H2 1727.

Characteristic Markings

Manuscript inscription of Katherine Blount (Hertford College, Oxford)

Blount usually marked her books in a very characteristic way, signing her name, often noting the price of the book or who gave it to her. She also annotated some of the texts with marginal notes.

Sources

• Katherine Blount's library, featured on Early Modern Female Book Ownership blog
• Van Koughnet, Jane C. E. A History of Tyttenhanger. London, 1895.