Charles Bertie 1641-1711

Charles BERTIE 1641-1711

Charles Bertie's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection *374)

Biographical Note

Of Uffington, Lincolnshire; younger son of Montague Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey (1607/8]]-1666). Entered the Middle Temple in 1658; travelled on the continent in the early 1660s. Appointed Second Lieutenant of the Navy and Captain in the Coldstream Guards in 1668 and Secretary of the Treasury in 1673. Made envoy to Denmark in 1671, to Germany in 1681; MP for Stamford 1679, 1687 and 1711. His support for his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, amidst the breakdown of Anglo-French relations in the 1670s cost him his seat at the election in 1679.

Characteristic Markings

Bertie used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks 2375/*374); the extent of his library is not known. His lengthy will has no explicit mention of books, and is largely concerned with the distribution of property and estates; his library would have been part of the residue of his personal estate, left to his son Charles.

Sources

• Will of Charles Bertie, The National Archives PROB 11/521/5.
• Handley, Stuart. "Bertie, Charles (1640/41–1711), diplomat and treasurer of the ordnance." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.