Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals, Cabinets & Books

Longstaffe, W.H.D., a collection of ALS (13), to William Stow Stowell and others, August 1862 to September 1878, on coins of the Durham mint and other subjects; an ALS from Jacob Henry Burn to Llewellyn Jewitt, 6 October 1856; Berwickshire Naturalists Club, 1870, a part of the Proceedings, including a report on the Find of 94 Groats at Embleton, in Northumberland, by Longstaffe; a copy of an account of the life of Longstaffe from the Darlington & Stockton Times, 18 October 1952; together with offprints from BNJ and NC by L.A. Lawrence (4) [Lot]. The ALSs by Longstaffe in a neat and clear hand, others in varied state [weight 0.7 kg] £50-80

Provenance: Ex libris Jeffrey Gardiner.

William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe (1826-98), born at Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees, was the son of a surgeon and the eldest child in a family of nine. Deprived of a full education after the death of his father in 1842, he worked as a solicitor’s clerk in York and Thirsk, then was articled to J.S. Peacock, a Darlington attorney, in 1845. A keen student of local history, Longstaffe was assisted by Peacock and his acquaintances and his History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington was published in parts between 1848 and 1854. In 1850 he moved to Gateshead and was admitted to full practice as a solicitor in 1857. A leading light in the Newcastle Antiquarian Society and the Surtees Society, he was a founder member of the Northumberland and Durham Archaeological Society in 1861 and a contributor to the pages of the Numismatic Chronicle. William Stow Stowell (1836-1920), who inherited the Stow Stowell estate at Faverdale, co Durham, sold it in 1897 to Charles Hubert Backhouse, of the Darlington banking family, and retired to Buxton