Blair Worden - A Book of Friendship

RACHEL HAMMERSLEY

to William Pitt drawing his attention to comments, quoted by Harris verbatim, about the English republic in a letter sent by Samuel de Sorbière (the translator of Thomas Hobbes) to Étienne de Courcelles who translated works by Hugo Grotius and René Descartes. 20 Hollis again drew attention to that letter in the copy he sent to Harvard College. 21 Hollis’s relationship with Harris and engagement with his biography is symptomatic of his obsession with the period of the civil wars in general, and with Cromwell in particular. Hollis was an avid collector of memorabilia relating to Cromwell and his family. On 13th September 1759 he purchased from Yeo two small steel punches depicting the heads of Cromwell and Sir Henry Vane from puncheons by Thomas Simon. 22 He bought portraits of Oliver Cromwell and members of his family, which he displayed in his house. He was interested in any documents, letters or medals relating to Cromwell and his rule. He also took every opportunity to discuss Cromwell with other interested parties. 23 In August 1761 Hollis took a rare holiday away from London. One of the first places he went was Huntingdon, where he visited the house in which Cromwell had been born. 24 His obsession went further. On 28th November 1760 Hollis welcomed William Cromwell esquire into his home. William was the great grandson of Oliver Cromwell, and Hollis took great delight in showing him ‘many books & papers relating to his family, with which he seem’d well pleas’d’. 25 This was the beginning of a long-standing relationship between the two men. They regularly visited each other to show off their respective Cromwell memorabilia, and Hollis also met other family members. 26 In January 1761 he received from William Cromwell ‘divers parchments & papers relating to the Oliverian times, which I am to transmit to Mr Harris of Honeyton for his inspection’. 27

20 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 88. 21 William H. Bond, “From the Great Desire of Promoting Learning”: Thomas Hollis’s Gifts to the Harvard College Library (Cambridge, MA, 2010), p. 102. 22 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 10. 23 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , pp. 21, 35, 57, 68, 79, 90.

24 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 81. 25 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 51. 26 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , pp. 52, 54, 75. 27 The Diary of Thomas Hollis , p. 57.

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