great storehouse were the manuscripts bound in ornamental metal and studded with crystals or gems, of which there are not two hundred known specimens throughout Europe. The whole of Phillipps's manuscripts ultimately numbered about sixty thousand.
Phillipps at the same time purchased printed books of all classes, both ancient and modern. With Van Ess's manuscripts he bought a fine series of incunabula in about a thousand volumes. He sought the original printed editions of the classics, and secured several of them printed on vellum. He owned a copy of Caxton's ‘Recuyell of the Histories of Troye,’ and numerous rare works on America. Phillipps also formed a fine collection of coins and of pictures, including a number of drawings collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and a large collection of pictures by George Catlin, illustrative of the manners and customs of the North American Indians.
Unlike most collectors, Phillipps bought his manuscripts for work. Few volumes were without some trace that he had studied them, while hundreds of notebooks are filled with his own topographical, historical, genealogical, and miscellaneous notes. In 1819 he privately printed, at Salisbury, ‘Collections for Wiltshire,’ and in 1820, at Evesham, ‘Account of the Family of Sir Thomas Molyneux’ (his first wife's father). With a view to making some of his manuscripts more generally accessible, he established about 1822 a private printing-press in a tower situated on the Middle Hill estate, and known as Broadway Tower. A vignette of this tower is to be found on some of the title-pages of the genealogical, topographical, and other works from time to time issued from this press (see infra).
In 1862 Phillipps decided to remove both his library and printing-press from Middle Hill to a larger and more commodious building, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, which he purchased of Lord Northwick. His collections replaced in the galleries the Northwick collection of pictures. Continually corresponding with literary men in all parts of the world, he was always glad to welcome students to Middle Hill or Thirlestane House.
Phillipps was assiduous in the regulation of his estates, and was fond of sport. In 1826 he unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary representation of Grimsby. He was created a baronet on 27 July 1821, and was high sheriff for Worcestershire in 1825. He was a trustee of the British Museum, was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society in 1819, and was fellow of the chief learned societies at home and abroad. He declined election to the Roxburghe Club on the ground that they did not publish sufficiently important works. He was one of the earliest members of the Athenæum Club.
Phillips died at Thirlestane House on 6 Feb. 1872, and was buried at the old church, Broadway, Worcestershire. He married, first, on 7 Feb. 1819, Harriet, daughter of Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Molyneux, bart., of Castle Dillon, co. Armagh, by whom he had three daughters. The eldest, Henrietta Elizabeth Molyneux (d. 1879), who married James Orchard Halliwell, the Shakespearean scholar, succeeded to the entailed Middle Hill estates [see Halliwell, afterwards Halliwell-Phillips, James Orchard]. The second daughter, Maria Sophia, married the Rev. John Walcot of Bitterley Court, Shropshire, and died on 26 Feb. 1858. The third daughter, Katherine Somerset Wyttenbach, married John Edward Addison Fenwick, formerly vicar of Needwood, Staffordshire, and is still living. Sir Thomas married, secondly, in 1842, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. W. J. Mansell. A fine portrait of the collector, by Thomas Phillips, R.A. (1770–1845) [q. v.], is at Thirlestane House.
By his will Phillipps left Thirlestane House, together with his books, manuscripts, pictures, prints, coins, &c., to his youngest daughter, Mrs. Fenwick. A portion of the manuscripts has since been dispersed by private treaty or by auction at Sotheby's (July 1891, July 1892, June 1893, March 1895, June 1896, May 1897, June 1898, June 1899, and June 1908). The German government purchased most of the Meerman collection; the Dutch government the manuscripts relating to Holland, and the Belgian government those coming from or relating to their country, while Alsace-Lorraine acquired the cartularies, charters, &c., relating to Metz, Strasburg, and other places. Some manuscripts still remain at Thirlestane House. The printed books in Phillipps's library were sold at Sotheby's in three portions, in August 1886, January 1889, and December 1891 respectively.
An incomplete enumeration of the works issued from Phillipps's private press at Middle Hill (‘Typis Medio-Montanis’) occupies some fourteen pages in Lowndes's ‘Bibliographer's Manual’ (pp. 1856–8, and appendix, pp. 225–237). Many of these issues were edited by Phillipps himself. But some are mere leaflets, comprising extracts from registers, visitations, genealogies, cartularies, and brief catalogues of manuscripts in private and public libraries, both in England and abroad, besides a number of complimentary and other
