South Sea Bubble.- Bennet Sherard, 1st Earl of Harborough & Thomas Snow

Power of attorney and sale instruction from Bennet Sherard, 1st Earl of Harborough (Lord Harborough) (1677-1732), appointing Thomas Snow of London Goldsmiths to sell:

"twelve thousand pounds in the capitall and principall Stock and funds of the . . . Company of Merchants of Great Britain trading to the South Seas and other parts of America",

Signed by Harbourough, Joseph Andrews and John Patton?, 1p. manuscript on laid paper, with wax seal, some spotting, VI pence blindstamps at head, dated 1 March 1716.

***A very early example of its type in that Harborough gives instruction to sell, years before the South Sea Bubble. Thomas Snow, a broker, was immortalised in John Gay’s "A Panegyrical Epistle to Mr. Thomas Snow", in which Gay criticises the financial speculation and greed that led to the bubble.