Ralph Sheldon 1623-1684
From Book Owners Online
Ralph SHELDON 1623-84
Biographical Note
Of Weston, Warwickshire; antiquary, member of a wealthy Roman Catholic gentry family.
Books
Anthony Wood, who helped to catalogue and organise his library at Weston, noted its size and significance. Gave heraldic manuscripts to Jesus College, Oxford, and the College of Arms; books which remained in the family were largely dispersed by auction, 7.9.1781.
Characteristic Markings
Numerous books with his armorial stamps survive; he also used 3 bookplates.
Sources
- [ British Armorial Bindings].
- Broadway, Jan. "Sheldon, Ralph (1623–1684), antiquary." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Cliffe, J. The world of the country house in 17th-century England, 1999, p.163-4.
- Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903, 26649-51.
- Lee, B. N. British bookplates: a pictorial history. Newton Abbot, 1979. 10.
- Maggs (catalogues of the London booksellers Maggs Bros): 1075 (1987)/44.
- Philip, I. G. Sheldon’s manuscripts in Jesus College Library, Bodleian Library Record 1 (1939) 119-23.