William Drummond 1585-1649

William DRUMMOND of Hawthornden 1585-1649

Biographical Note

Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle near Edinburgh on 13 December 1585, the eldest son of the laird, John (from 1603 Sir John) Drummond. His mother was Susanna Fowler, sister of the poet and Queen’s secretary William Fowler. After attending the High School in Edinburgh, Drummond entered Edinburgh University in 1600, taking his MA in 1605. He then travelled to France, 1607-1608, where he acquired many books. His father died in 1610 and thereafter Drummond lived as a landed gentleman, devoting his leisure time to literary pursuits, especially poetry, of which he published several collections, but also issued essays, and, later in his life, political and historical works. He died on 4 December 1649.

Books

Drummond is known to have brought back 399 volumes from France in 1608, and acquired many others later, but seems to have acquired few after 1626: the catalogue of his library compiled by Robert MacDonald and published in 1971 records just under 1340 printed items and sixty-seven manuscripts. He was generous with gifts from his library to Edinburgh University Library during his lifetime: 360 volumes were given in 1626 and 1627, and a good number thereafter, so at his death his library can be assumed to have been much smaller than when Drummond was in his thirties.

Drummond himself compiled a manuscript catalogue of his library, arranged by language and subject, in 1611 (its arrangement is followed by MacDonald): it often included prices paid. He also kept notes of what he had read, 1606-1614, and of plays read later in life, and these reading lists are listed by MacDonald, pp. 228-232. Drummond’s own manuscripts, including the library and reading lists, are now in the National Library of Scotland.

The subject content of the library is wide-ranging, and contains material in several west European vernacular languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian) as well as Latin and Greek, with a few in Hebrew. Post-1500 literature is particularly evident (e.g. five titles by Shakespeare, four by Spenser, and others by Sidney, Marlowe, Dekker, etc. for English writers, and Montaigne, Saluste du Bartas, Rabelais, Boccaccio, Bandello, Guarini, Cervantes, and Vargas, for continental figures, as well as neo-Latin writers) but there are also books on theology, philosophy, science and mathematics, medicine, language, history and law. A great number of the books are smaller format items, which obviously would have been less expensive than stately folios, and were probably acquired by Drummond second hand. MacDonald unfortunately does not record any provenances of Drummond copies,

The majority of Drummond’s surviving copies can be found today in Edinburgh University Library, but others are scattered world-wide.

Drummond's inscription, from an example in Edinburgh University Library

Characteristic Markings

On books given to Edinburgh University Library, Drummond often wrote a donation inscription on the title-page. He also added his signature to the majority of the items he possessed, often using variants for William if items are not in English (e.g. Guglielmus or Guillaume). His first name is often given as an initial, and there are also instances of his using the anagram ‘Don Murmidumilla’. Often, there are also marginalia.

Sources

• Auctarium Bibliothecae Edinburgenae, sive Catalogus Librorum quos Guilielmus Drummondus ab Hawthronden Bibliothecae D.D.Q. Anno 1627 (Edinburgh: excudebant haeredes Andreae Hart, 1627) ESTC S109644.
• MacDonald, Robert, The Library of Drummond of Hawthornden (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971).
• Spiller, Michael R. G. ‘Drummond, William, of Hawthornden (1585-1649), poet and pamphleteer’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Information from Murray Simpson.