Tollemache, Lionel, 4th Earl of Dysart (1707 -1770)

Some of these stamps, particularly 1 and 2, may have been made for earlier Tollemaches, but there is no proof that they were used before the time of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart. It has been suggested that L H T D stands for Lionel Tollemache Huntingtower Dysart. No plausible identifications have been made for “C B”. Lionel Tollemache succeeded his father in 1727 and married, in the same year, Grace Carteret, eldest daughter of John Carteret, Earl Granville, by whom he had sixteen children. He inherited a considerable library from his grandfather the 3rd Earl, and from his great grandmother's second husband, the 1st Duke of Lauderdale, who lived at Ham House. To these he added considerably by purchase from the Harleian Library sales and other sources. The Ham House library was dispersed in three sales at Sotheby's 30 May and 20 June 1938 and 25 November 1947. The books and manuscripts at Helmingham Hall were sold, also at Sotheby's, on 6 June 1961 and 14 June 1965. The catalogue of the last sale has a useful preface on the bookstamps by A. R. A. Hobson, but a fuller account is given in Edward Wilson. `The book stamps of the Tollemache family of Helmingham and Ham.' Book Collector xvi, 178 185 (1967).