Vellum Indenture signed by Algernon Sidney.

1658.

Vellum manuscript, 420 x 640 mm., folded to docket size, a little rubbed yet in good condition.

The hero of Tommy Townshend, Viscount Sydney.

A rare example of Algernon Sidney's signature, hero and namesake of Tommy Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (1733–1800) for whom Sydney was named.

A rare example of Algernon Sidney's signature, hero and namesake of Tommy Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (1733–1800) for whom Sydney was named.

Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) republican political theorist, was charged with treason in the reign of Charles II, and sentenced to death, in part based on his most famous work, Discourses Concerning Government. He famously delivered a document to his executioner, before he was beheaded: "God has left nations unto the liberty of setting up such governments as best pleased themselves [and] Magistrates were set up for the good of Nations, not Nations for the honour and glory of Magistrates." An idea echoed in David Collins view of his later namesake: "[Sydney's] benevolent Mind... [had led him] to conceive this Method of redeeming many Lives that might be forfeit to the offended Laws; but which, being preserved under salutary Regulations, might afterward become useful to Society".

This Indenture is of some interest to the biography of Algernon Sidney: between Viscount and Viscountess Strangford and "the Honble Algernon Sidney of the parish of St Martyn in the Fields in the county of Middlesex", passing the manor of Postling in the county of Kent to Sidney in trust. Philip Smythe, 2nd Viscount Strangford (1634-1708), was Sidney's cousin, and so was his wife. The entanglement of their affairs became complex; the Strangfords went into short-term exile while Sidney manoeuvred; as a result of the complexity he was forced to attempt to restore their fortune (described at some length by his biographer Jonathan Scott, Algernon Sidney and the English Republic, 1623-1677, pp. 61 onwards), in order to restore his own. One of the stages in the procedure was the Strangfords' conveyance of the manor of Postling in trust to Sidney. Scott speaks of this occurring in June or July 1658; in fact the document to hand is dated 2 July 1658. The story would not end well, with Sidney later accused by his cousins of trickery and unfair dealings.

The handsome document is signed by both Strangfords as well as by Algernon Sidney.

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