James Selby 1657-1724
From Book Owners Online
James SELBY 1657-1724
Biographical Note
Son of James Selby of the Inner Temple, London. Admitted to St Catharine’s College, Oxford and at the Inner Temple in 1677. Called to the bar 1683; bencher and serjeant-at-law 1700. He owned estates in Wavendon and Whaddon, Buckinghamshire. Married Mary Alston.
Books
He had an engraved armorial book label dated 1703 (‘James Selby, Sergeant at Law’): Franks 2634, *342 (another impression).
The content and the extent of his library is not established. There is no specific reference to books in his will, and any in his possession at his death presumably passed to his wife as his main beneficiary.
A copy of Abraham Fraunce, The Lawyer’s Logike by the Practice of the Common Lawe (1588) bearing his bookplate was auctioned in 2019.
Sources
- Will of James Selby. The National Archives, PROB 11/598/213.
- Forum Auctions. Selected 16th and 17th century English books from the Fox Pointe Manor library. 10 July 2019/46.
- Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.