Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector[2] who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century.

Phillipps recorded in an early catalogue that his collection was instigated by reading various accounts of the destruction of valuable manuscripts.

[6] His country seat, Middle Hill near Broadway, Worcestershire, gave over sixteen of twenty rooms to books.

He employed a distant relative by marriage, Amelia Elizabeth Guppy, to photograph some of his collection in 1853 including artefacts from Babylon and Utrecht.

[6] At least 105 wagon-loads, each drawn by two horses and accompanied by one or two men, were used to move the collection to Thirlestaine House in Cheltenham over a period of eight months, leaving Middle Hill to fall to ruin.

[12] The previous owner of Thirlestaine House was John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick, whose important art collection had been sold in 1859 after he died intestate.

He was an assiduous cataloguer who established the Middle Hill Press (Typis Medio-Montanis) in 1822 not only to record his book holdings but also to publish his findings in English topography and genealogy.

[17] Phillipps's will stipulated that his books should remain intact at Thirlestaine House, that no bookseller or stranger should rearrange them and that no Roman Catholic, especially his son-in-law James Halliwell, should be permitted to view them.

[18] In 1885, the Court of Chancery declared this too restrictive and thus made possible the sale of the library which Phillipps's grandson, Thomas FitzRoy Fenwick, supervised for the next fifty years.

By 1946, what was known as the "residue" was sold to London booksellers Phillip and Lionel Robinson for £100,000, though this part of the collection was uncatalogued and unexamined.