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Auction: 25360 - The 360th Anniversary Sale
Lot: 29

19TH CENTURY PASSPORT OF EDWARD BEARCROFT

Linen backed passport, 1850, folded into a leather case, issued in the name of Edward Bearcroft (1816-1886) of Mere Hall, Hanbury, travelling to 'Italy and to Austria' with his wife and a servant, handwritten pass issued in Switzerland, includes a vast number of stamps including for Milan, Bolonga, Parma, Modena, as well as a wax seal for the Dresden City Police at the back.
8cm x 12.5cm folded.
Case in largely good condition other than the flap being torn off, the paper and most of the text and stamps can be clearly read, an incredibly impressive and rich example of a 19th century passport.

Edward Bearcroft, eldest son of Edward Henry Bearcroft and Elizabeth Bowen, was born in Haverford, Pembrokeshire, and baptised on 1 June 1816. Educating at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he was commission into the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1836. Inheriting Mere Hall, Hanbury - one of the oldest timber-framed mansions in Worcestershire - in 1832, he assumed full control on coming of age five years later.

A devoted Victorian country gentleman, Bearcroft served as a Justice of the Peace from 1843; Deputy Lieutenant for Worcestershire; Chairman of the Droitwich Petty Sessions for 25 years; and High Sheriff in 1854-1855. A staunch Conservative, he was as committed to local justice as he was to county tradition. In 1850, he married Eliza Colby of Ffynone, Pembrokeshire, who died two years later from complications in childbirth. He never remarried. Bearcroft suffered from blindness in later life and died in 1886.


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Estimate

Starting price
£200