William Walker and the Provenance of the "Best" Old Arcadia Manuscript

In a recent essay in this journal, Steven W. May identified Silvanus Scory (d. 1617) as a likely first owner of the Sir Philip Sidney Old Arcadia manuscript now preserved in the Library of St. John's College, Cambridge. Subsequent owners identified by May include Silvanus's son (Sir) Edmund Scory, William Walker (vicar of Chiswick), and Thomas Baker, who donated the manuscript to his college. The essay below expands biographies of the two Scorys and particularly of William Walker, whose inscriptions in items from his remarkable library bear witness, along with contemporary documents, particularly wills, to wide circles of friends and family, many with clear bibliographic interests. Absence of Walker's own will leaves a gap in the provenance of the St. John's Old Arcadia that is tentatively resolved by reference to other Walker family wills and cautious speculation.