Anthony Morris Storer

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Anthony Morris Storer (1746–1799) was an English man of fashion, politician and collector.

Life
Anthony Morris Storer was born on 12 March 1746, the elder son of Thomas Storer of Westmoreland, Jamaica, who died in London on 21 July 1793, and Helen, daughter of Colonel Guthrie. He attended Eton College from about 1760 to 1764, where he was there alongside Charles James Fox and the Earl Fitzwilliam. In December 1764 he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, but he left without taking a degree.

Storer became a prominent figure in London’s social scene. Through patronage he combined being a man of fashion with a Whig political stance. In 1778 and 1779 he travelled in America with Frederick Howard, the 5th Earl of Carlisle, and William Eden. He visited Carlisle in Ireland in 1781 and, thanks to his influence, became a commissioner of the Board of Trade on 26 July 1781. He served in the House of Commons as MP for Carlisle from 1774 to 1780, and then for Morpeth from 1780 to 1784.

Much of his time was spent with the North family, and in August 1782 he acted as a channel between Lord North and Fox. He joined the Fox–North Coalition; and in September 1783, to the annoyance of Edward Gibbon, he was sent by Fox to Paris as secretary of the legation. On 13 December 1783, when the ambassador, the Duke of Manchester, returned home, Storer was nominated as minister plenipotentiary. Six days later his supporters were removed from office, and from then his connection with politics largely ceased. He had quarrelled with Carlisle and did not seek re-election for Carlisle’s Morpeth seat after the 1784 dissolution.

In 1786 he studied Latin and Greek with Edward Harwood, who used Storer’s library. He hoped to re-enter diplomatic service in December 1787, and again in April 1793 he longed for employment, but his father’s death brought him a fortune. He bought Purley Park, between Pangbourne and Reading, and, with the advice of Humphry Repton, improved the grounds. His health remained poor; he did not live to complete the house, which was later built to designs by Wyatt. Repton left a rather unflattering note about Storer in his personal journal.

Collection and Extra-illustration
According to Horace Walpole, Storer began collecting books and prints in 1781, and Walpole quipped that he was “a macaroni turned antiquary.” He built a collection that included early bindings, Caxtons and other black-letter books, Greek and Latin classics, Italian literature and early English plays, including the first three folios of Shakespeare. His interest in topography and extra-illustration is shown by a letter from Thomas Pennant in 1782, offering to contribute to his amusements.

Storer left his complete library to Eton College in 1799. His collection of prints and extra-illustrated books also went to Eton, with the extra-illustrated works stored in a special press brought from his Devonshire Street residence and installed in the College library. Despite his wealth, the only title named in his will is James Granger’s Biographical History of England.

Death and legacy
Storer died at Bristol Hotwells on 28 June 1799 and was buried at Purley, where a monument by Nollekens with a Latin inscription was erected in Purley church. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 11 December 1777 and became a member of the Dilettanti Society on 18 April 1790.

His fortune was left to his nephew, Anthony Gilbert Storer, the son of his brother Thomas James Storer and the Hon. Elizabeth Proby. The only other legacy was £1,000 to James Hare. Letters by Storer appear in John Heneage Jesse’s George Selwyn and his Contemporaries and in the Correspondence of William Eden, Lord Auckland.