tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50233918602582328882024-02-26T17:32:59.932+00:00Borthwick Institute BlogThe blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of YorkUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-50433759384889713512024-02-12T18:47:00.014+00:002024-02-12T20:11:01.382+00:00 "Mad on Plain-song": music and the mission archive<p> </p><p> <b>By Dr Philip Burnett, </b><b>School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York</b></p><hr /><p class="MsoNormal">A few months ago, while working in the Borthwick on the
<a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/ssm" target="_blank">papers of the Society of the Sacred Mission</a> (SSM), I came across a document written
in 1904. It contained a series of character sketches of the missionaries
working at Modderpoort, a mission station established amongst
the Basotho people in the Orange Free State (as it was then known) of South
Africa.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89YlxJuDFiIRj9GvfesDTzsr5UVxyS5vLGxEeGFEs5KyRI4NwpN587h5-TT90J-7DJ_xFpWkCP80PX5kUysJDFEsCu_BtXSoA2Og03e-W9YO9rUHNNcvoO0kjL77djUPVsggUpex-GlHtO-L25AH-xcKtduiJv2N_WYdcTRxa0K6NKxIDTuzEP_sbPj3M/s5833/Fig1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Priory Buildings and Chapel at Modderpoort (date unknown)" border="0" data-original-height="3704" data-original-width="5833" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89YlxJuDFiIRj9GvfesDTzsr5UVxyS5vLGxEeGFEs5KyRI4NwpN587h5-TT90J-7DJ_xFpWkCP80PX5kUysJDFEsCu_BtXSoA2Og03e-W9YO9rUHNNcvoO0kjL77djUPVsggUpex-GlHtO-L25AH-xcKtduiJv2N_WYdcTRxa0K6NKxIDTuzEP_sbPj3M/w400-h254/Fig1.jpg" title="Figure 1. The Priory buildings and Chapel at Modderpoort (date unknown)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 1. The Priory buildings and Chapel at Modderpoort (date unknown) </span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">[Borthwick Institute, SSM/Photo 7]</span></div></span><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The handwriting was difficult to read, but out of the faded and
smudged lettering appeared a phrase referring to the missionary William Norton:
‘a bit of poet, a beautiful linguist, and mad on plain-song’ [SSM Archive, SSM/DIR/D/SA/4/1].</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As a music historian, I look for sounds that were once heard, research how they were created, and try to understand the different ways
people heard them. The mission archive is a particularly rich source for this
work, as my find in the papers of the SSM exemplifies. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">So, I was intrigued by this sketch of Norton and wanted to
know more. It was interesting in its own right, but also because by
understanding more about why he was so ‘mad on plain-song’ we can learn more
about the ways in which missionaries made sense of the worlds in which they
worked; and, indeed, how those worlds made sense of and responded to them.
Elsewhere, I’ve examined the backgrounds of nineteenth- and twentieth-century
British missionaries and found that while missionaries were often required to
have a broad skill set – as they had to turn their hand to anything from
carpentry, to masonry, to riding a horse –, wherever they worked in the world
they always needed to have music in their toolkit. Music was fundamental to how
both missionaries and converts expressed their worldview and beliefs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">An obituary of Norton published in <i>The South African
Journal of Science</i> in 1962, tells us that he was born in 1870 in Exeter
where he was educated at the Grammar School. He then went to Exeter College,
Oxford where he read for an undergraduate degree in “Greats”, also known as
Classics. He was a gifted linguist and stayed at Oxford on a postgraduate
scholarship to study for a BLitt in Philology. After Oxford, he was ordained
and worked as a priest in Cornwall for seven years. He then joined the SSM and
went out to South Africa in 1903 to join the community at Modderpoort in the
Orange Free State.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The missionaries at Modderpoort lived like a monastic
community, which involved coming together for prayer several times a day. In
the chapel (see Figure 2), they sang psalms and office hymns to plain-song,
also known as plainchant.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYLs_EtXGHrX570VI9bUCHQmRTiM5fmqh70b2ORNUnxWFe5XGEXDOo-FbV6QdHldCJbujoEd1IoDm1NsUZ-13rqxIJrkRxFz1kVZT89SjyYrn3ZWHYcHbSSsNRYOlYG6ezV-OMdBZqsQtmZrJKxPFb9UUVSOl-Ng-Sj7UadAPoJg8Cxgid4IcbHSC8ElL/s5078/Fig2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Interior of the Priory Church at Modderport" border="0" data-original-height="3817" data-original-width="5078" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYLs_EtXGHrX570VI9bUCHQmRTiM5fmqh70b2ORNUnxWFe5XGEXDOo-FbV6QdHldCJbujoEd1IoDm1NsUZ-13rqxIJrkRxFz1kVZT89SjyYrn3ZWHYcHbSSsNRYOlYG6ezV-OMdBZqsQtmZrJKxPFb9UUVSOl-Ng-Sj7UadAPoJg8Cxgid4IcbHSC8ElL/w400-h301/Fig2.jpg" title="Interior of the Priory Church at Modderport (date unknown)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Figure 2. Interior of the Priory Church at Modderport (date unknown)<br />[Borthwick Institute, SSM/Photo 7] </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>Plainsong (as it is often also spelled) is one of the oldest styles of European sacred music and usually consists of a text sung by unaccompanied voices to a single line of melody. </span><span> </span><span>To give an idea of what that sounds like, here is an example of the evening office hymn sung in the chapel at Modderpoort in August 2023:</span></p>
<div align="center">
<audio controls="" controlslist="nodownload">
<source src="https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~cf13/Te_Lucis.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"></source> Your browser does not support the audio element.
</audio>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the SSM’s <i>Quarterly Papers</i> (see Figure 3), which
collated news and reports of missions all over the world, we find mention of
Norton and plainsong. In April 1903, it was noted that Norton was ‘very busy
with plainsong, teaching the sisters and adapting the tones to Sesuto [sic.]’,
while in July of the same year Fr Wrenford, a priest on one of the outstations,
recalled how when he visited Modderpoort, ‘Fr Norton soon coaxed me into a
small choir practice of plainsong.’ It seems that Norton was keen for all his
fellow clergy and mission workers to be competent in plainsong, and this
suggests, further, that plainsong was used not just at Modderpoort, but also in
outstation churches.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRs0HcrfcyyGRmovOOT0WrznjWqOKAR0OHQsnlRUZ3wYddbj3Wpja_hLQq98wp-Lf7QQ1GEWX8iOf1tBvmXHwVBduIy6SDKBtSxwbkNbe2dU6t2ba6QMz-nk53qiRiTK1LzYqxrFYyYAcI0UtJaPdLYVcuJNNWEFfKfrFmYUcEk2BnWeLrY3Q9nG33EvyN/s2243/Fig3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The front cover of the SSM Quarterly Paper from July 1903" border="0" data-original-height="2243" data-original-width="1475" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRs0HcrfcyyGRmovOOT0WrznjWqOKAR0OHQsnlRUZ3wYddbj3Wpja_hLQq98wp-Lf7QQ1GEWX8iOf1tBvmXHwVBduIy6SDKBtSxwbkNbe2dU6t2ba6QMz-nk53qiRiTK1LzYqxrFYyYAcI0UtJaPdLYVcuJNNWEFfKfrFmYUcEk2BnWeLrY3Q9nG33EvyN/w210-h320/Fig3.jpg" title="Front cover of SSM Quarterly Paper (July 1903)" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 3. Cover of <i>SSM Quarterly Paper </i>(July 1903)<br />[Borthwick Institute, SSM/DIR/S/QP/1] </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Norton’s reputation, it seems, went beyond Modderpoort and
Bloemfontein. Robert Carroll, a young priest who went to work at Inhambane in
Lebombo diocese (part of present-day Mozambique) corresponded with Norton about
how to use plainsong in mission work and adapting to different languages.
Carroll wrote that Norton had asked him to, ‘use my influence with the Bishop
[of Lebombo] for the introduction of plainsong liturgical music.’ [SSM/PP/4/8 iii
(6) [1909]]</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">At Modderpoort, Norton was involved in other aspects of the
music making. His linguistic skills meant he was kept busy with translation,
and he worked with the committee that produced Sesotho hymnbooks. When it came
to adapting hymns, he had some forthright opinions, as his correspondence
reveals. In 1904, Norton drew up a geographical report of the Modderpoort area [SSM/DIR/D/SA/6/3]. On one
side is a typed report of the area and some suggestions for where new mission
outposts could be established. On the other side is a handwritten letter in
which Norton outlines his thoughts on how English hymns could be successfully
adapted into Sesotho. “I wanted to chuck the old hymns & tunes, & start
afresh, but knew it was too revolutionary,” writes Norton. The versions of
hymns then in use had been written in English metres, unsuited to the shape and
rhythm of the Sesotho language.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Norton’s career as a missionary came to an end in 1917 when
he got married. For the SSM, which insisted that its members remained celibate,
this was a taboo, and so Norton had to leave the order, whereupon he pursued a
career as a parish priest and an academic, eventually becoming a professor of
African languages at the University of Cape Town. While he built a separate
reputation in those spheres, his legacy in the SSM was his contribution to
plainsong. In 1952, Fr Harold Firkins, a fellow SSM missionary, in a memoir of
his time in South Africa, noted of Norton: ‘We owe him gratitude for having
established Plainsong in our Sesuto [sic.] Mass, so well that it flourishes to
this day’ [SSM/PP/40].<o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">What do we learn from Norton who was ‘mad on plain-song’?
Foremost, it is that music was an important part of missionary practice, to
which many in the mission field devoted a lot of energy and time. But while he
was celebrated by his peers, Norton’s legacy, however, is not so
straightforward. The archival papers tell us next to nothing of the local
agents and informants who would have helped him in his work of adapting
plainsong for use with Sesotho, nor what the Basotho people thought of this new
music. Language, not least musical language, was a highly contested realm of
the mission field with missionaries often struggling to translate effectively
their texts into local languages and dialects. What did happen is that the
musical language of plainsong and the pre-existing musical systems found at
Modderpoort came to shape and influence each other in complicated ways. That
find in the Borthwick that prompted me to look further at Norton and his plainsong,
therefore, points us to the complex story of colonial missions, and this is the
focus of the current phase of the research for my Leverhulme Early Career
Fellowship.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p></p>
<hr />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><b>Acknowledgments</b>: I’m very grateful to Charles Fonge and the Staff at the Borthwick for their assistance with my research.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span><b>Further information</b>: If you'd like to find out more about this story and the history and music of colonial missions, Dr Burnett will be expanding on his research in an <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/arts-creative-technologies/about/events/philip-burnett-research-seminar/" target="_blank">online seminar on </a></span><span><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/arts-creative-technologies/about/events/philip-burnett-research-seminar/" target="_blank">Wednesday 28 February 2024</a>, 4pm to 6pm. It is o</span><span>pen to staff, students, the public</span><span>. Details can be found through the link.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><br /><p></p>Charles Fongehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03408504710376298151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-46742318173127975012023-05-05T09:19:00.000+01:002023-05-05T09:19:20.565+01:00The Order of Service for a Coronation: A Mystery in the Register of Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York, 1374-1388<p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">As we get ready to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III this weekend, our guest blogger Helen Watt investigates an intriguing set of entries relating to a past coronation, which she found in one of our medieval Archbishops' registers during a recent project.</span></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">On 6 May 2023, Charles,
formerly Prince of Wales, will be crowned King Charles III, following the death
of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last year. The coronation ceremony will take
place in Westminster Abbey, where kings and queens of England have been crowned
since 1066. Although King Charles is intending to have a shorter ceremony than
that of his mother in 1953, the solemnities will presumably still largely follow
that same order of service which has been used for English royal coronations
since the fourteenth century. Details are found in the <i>Liber Regalis</i>, an
illuminated manuscript belonging to the Abbey, thought to have been created
around 1382, probably for the coronation of Queen Anne of Bohemia, the first
wife of King Richard II.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix24jzqFDVutfA21t3PbGNCANLNY5fiTqgDL5Lsb3UsmuZxjrjn_MWcTj0M5KYaZVPsfaDe6t4AW3wqT1_-0Jhfcd5PHK6zZcbph6iuFJH-liqwx71T7cXCkK5OY2Ru3AJSiEIBW4ZBAf4ht8kzY_aaxJalA2kDEqPj8b2BqNNaz7gZ0HE2owZM4pP9g/s2934/Coronation001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Colour image of the crest of Queen Elizabeth II on the cover of a coronation brochure, 1953. The image features the lion on the left and the unicorn on the right, flanking either side of the crest." border="0" data-original-height="2934" data-original-width="2099" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix24jzqFDVutfA21t3PbGNCANLNY5fiTqgDL5Lsb3UsmuZxjrjn_MWcTj0M5KYaZVPsfaDe6t4AW3wqT1_-0Jhfcd5PHK6zZcbph6iuFJH-liqwx71T7cXCkK5OY2Ru3AJSiEIBW4ZBAf4ht8kzY_aaxJalA2kDEqPj8b2BqNNaz7gZ0HE2owZM4pP9g/w229-h320/Coronation001.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of a programme for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, 1953, from the author's own family papers. </td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Liber Regalis</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> shows
that the coronation ceremony is performed by the archbishop of Canterbury, with
the bishop of Durham and the bishop of Bath and Wells as supporters of the new
monarch. What then was the role of the archbishop of York in the proceedings?
No particular actions by him are mentioned in the order of service and it seems
likely that the archbishop at the time would simply have been present as the
second highest-ranking member of the clergy alongside the archbishop of
Canterbury. So it is all the more intriguing to find the order of service for
the coronation of a king in the register of Alexander Neville, archbishop of
York, 1374-1388, ‘</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Ordo coronandi Regem</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">’ (Order of crowning a king).</span><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
This entry is found alongside two others relating to the coronation of King
Richard II and a third relating to the manner of performing the coronation of a
king and queen, ‘</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Qua solemp[nita]te ac sub q[ui]buz m[od]o & for[m]a Rex
& Regina debeant coronari</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">’ (By which solemnity and under what manner
and form a king and queen should be crowned).</span><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
All four entries have come to light following successive projects to work on
the registers of the Archbishops of York, 1225-1650, carried out by the Borthwick
Institute for Archives and Department of History at the University of York. The
first of these projects, entitled ‘Archbishops’ Registers Revealed’, completed
between 2014 and 2015 in the Borthwick and generously funded by the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation, resulted in the digitisation of the registers of the
Archbishops of York, 1225-1650.</span><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
It produced high quality images of the registers contained in an online
database and included entries from the register of Archbishop Neville, which
had been indexed as part of the pilot for the project in 2012, also funded by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.</span><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Following on from that project and a subsequent project generously funded by
the Marc Fitch Fund also carried out in the Borthwick between 2015 and 2016 to
index the registers, 1576-1650, ‘The Northern Way’ project, generously funded
by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, ran from 2019 to 2022 and was managed
by the Department of History in partnership with The National Archives, Kew,
and with the support of York Minster.</span><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
That project carried out indexing of all the fourteenth century York
Archbishops’ registers, and so further highlighted entries from Neville’s
registers, including those relating to the coronation of Richard II and the
order of service for coronations of a king and a king and queen.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6diRp-GZ4DN5XPNNeK8L_9uYIwnnfNAKE16y_KfAhEBCxj7nrdsTGA9rBL0-6VNvoHVFSsEhH2kTOxYGB0R4Mra7u8MkKn4f6UUxcFDLqx8pC9RkC4hboFfkAnfs98JvUvFe2kGYT9ge93M8bz_6aOPkEUElEm4g1d3BxIJPkq-UAvJyV6ikoLwzkQ/s4032/20230502_151325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Colour photograph of two grey boxes stacked one on top of another on a white metal shelf. The boxes read Reg A Neville I and II (registers 12 and 13) both covering the dates 1374-1388." border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6diRp-GZ4DN5XPNNeK8L_9uYIwnnfNAKE16y_KfAhEBCxj7nrdsTGA9rBL0-6VNvoHVFSsEhH2kTOxYGB0R4Mra7u8MkKn4f6UUxcFDLqx8pC9RkC4hboFfkAnfs98JvUvFe2kGYT9ge93M8bz_6aOPkEUElEm4g1d3BxIJPkq-UAvJyV6ikoLwzkQ/w400-h300/20230502_151325.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Registers of Archbishop Neville on the shelves in the Borthwick strongroom, 2023.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGg7Ls1xC8pVKkH-lBTN7kAYBkBIeXZZGzCP2L27qHg_ZTt2vWFxsIwHmoYVSH30zQ8vUOwNn7WzWPBlmSOJ_pcnG4BJgle3J107cGbucgvCNZ7TDb_UssUh1wANbD7qs-BZLK24vzDkMe6r70aF_vVOtRMFf6-YP-mLGW05tok9KWaegKLvNgiH6Vw/s4032/20230502_151420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Colour photograph of a brown leather-bound volume sitting on a wooden table. The spine of the volume includes gold lettering stating it is the register of Archbishop Neville. The bottom of the spine includes a large gold-coloured number 12, reflecting the register number." border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGg7Ls1xC8pVKkH-lBTN7kAYBkBIeXZZGzCP2L27qHg_ZTt2vWFxsIwHmoYVSH30zQ8vUOwNn7WzWPBlmSOJ_pcnG4BJgle3J107cGbucgvCNZ7TDb_UssUh1wANbD7qs-BZLK24vzDkMe6r70aF_vVOtRMFf6-YP-mLGW05tok9KWaegKLvNgiH6Vw/w400-h300/20230502_151420.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The register of Archbishop Neville containing entries for the coronation of King Richard II. <br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Thinking of the latter two
entries and taking into account the duration of the reign of Richard II, 1377-1399,
and the period during which Neville was archbishop, 1374-1388, could the first
entry relate to the coronation of Richard II in 1377 and predate the <i>Liber
Regalis</i>, and the<i> </i>second, to the coronation of Richard II’s queen in
1382 and follow the <i>Liber Regalis</i>? As we shall see, the answer is not so
simple. The first point to consider is that the initial entry firmly
identifiable with the coronation of Richard II consists of the royal order to
the archbishop, dated 26 June 1377, to attend that coronation, which was to
take place on 16 July 1377 at Westminster Abbey. This order is identical to
that sent out to the archbishop of Canterbury and presumably to all those dignitaries
who were to attend.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
However, the second entry in the register consists of a royal letter dated 4
July 1377, excusing Archbishop Neville from attending, for fear of invasions by
the Scots and enemies approaching by sea. These reasons seem to make it very
plausible that the archbishop would not travel to London at that time;
nevertheless he is described as only ever having left his archdiocese during
his first ten years in office, mostly for short spaces at a time to attend Parliament.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
The only other period he spent outside his own diocese was to assist in
defending the border with Scotland during threats of invasions in 1383 and
1384, and not in 1377.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Although taxation, specifically two clerical tenths from Canterbury and York,
was to be raised at the very beginning of the reign of Richard II to finance resisting
enemy invasions, this request may well have applied equally to naval attacks
launched by the French, as to invasions by the Scots.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Therefore, it seems very likely that Archbishop Neville was simply not intending
to make the journey to London for the coronation, but to stay in the north,
probably at his palace at Cawood, on which he spent much time and money
improving.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[11]</span></span></span></a><br /></span><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLRhfaVgFSyYN3mWYd7ZLyYd2m3IdwFnzOC40l44vmDfmUHv3JmdfgqRoYvG03HftrLj3ZEStzdMbtzL6WLSdwrNnggkX25mkjiGcKDjYxrM32eFFGZ-ayugpZGbZ1HkSmx5YAAwJ-5Rygom0jKnKVY-sFtHvb-sbzyIVbTHIa2Yo5p-E0zXyGjX-FA/s6657/Abp_Reg_12_0242%20crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Colour photograph of a page of parchment with brown writing on it. The writing is very small and in a medieval script, in Latin. There are headers for the various entries down the left hand side of the image (also in Latin)." border="0" data-original-height="3801" data-original-width="6657" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVLRhfaVgFSyYN3mWYd7ZLyYd2m3IdwFnzOC40l44vmDfmUHv3JmdfgqRoYvG03HftrLj3ZEStzdMbtzL6WLSdwrNnggkX25mkjiGcKDjYxrM32eFFGZ-ayugpZGbZ1HkSmx5YAAwJ-5Rygom0jKnKVY-sFtHvb-sbzyIVbTHIa2Yo5p-E0zXyGjX-FA/w640-h366/Abp_Reg_12_0242%20crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first two entries relating to the coronation from the register of Archbishop Neville: the Royal writ of King Richard II ordering the archbishop of York to attend his coronation on 16 July 1377 at Westminster, and copy of a letter of Richard II excusing the archbishop from attending his coronation.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Following the royal order and
letter are the two entries relating to the order of service for the coronation
of a king and of a king and queen, as already mentioned. These entries are
undated, but are preceded by those noted above, dated in 1377, and followed by
others, also dated in 1377, although not in strict date order.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Does this order in the register suggest that the entries relating to the
coronation service also date from 1377 and so pre-date the coronation of Queen
Anne of Bohemia? If not, could they have been copied into the register, but not
in chronological order? One answer to these questions might be to look at the
overall makeup of the register; as with most of the fourteenth-century
registers of the Archbishops of York, it is divided into various sections and
these entries fall within the section entitled ‘Diverse Letters’. This section
contains entries, as the title suggests, covering a range of subjects, but
generally dated between 1377 and 1384. Certainly, the first few folios of this
section, ff. 100-7, including f. 104 in which the entries relating to the
coronation are found, do appear to be arranged in chronological order between
1377 and 1382, although f. 105r includes an entry containing a copy of a
document dated in 1222, and f. 107r, an entry dated in May 1378, in between
others dated in 1381 and 1382, therefore perhaps out of place. Given this
general arrangement, it is possible to conclude that the coronation entries,
because they appear between entries dated in 1377, may well pre-date 1382, and
so perhaps relate to an earlier period, perhaps to 1377 or before.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZ2FvKVyZUTxyi-zOv99sSas6QpR_4zxfngm3LV1dq4KnzHNwQJLF2SGyP_qY-fcGahHouaNQxBqd8k1LqoASYeygCNpmk1wpZu8OQTzKibGU2Gn7o60nN8XXLtxrdTEfHcVJ84iOsS_nLMnNctZBbYQ1kOW6-lFLSt4VjYai6WVMcNePyXU9OxneBQ/s6833/Abp_Reg_12_0242%20crop%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Colour photograph of a page of parchment with brown writing on it. The writing is very small and in a medieval script, in Latin. There are headers for the various entries down the left hand side of the image (also in Latin)." border="0" data-original-height="4713" data-original-width="6833" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZ2FvKVyZUTxyi-zOv99sSas6QpR_4zxfngm3LV1dq4KnzHNwQJLF2SGyP_qY-fcGahHouaNQxBqd8k1LqoASYeygCNpmk1wpZu8OQTzKibGU2Gn7o60nN8XXLtxrdTEfHcVJ84iOsS_nLMnNctZBbYQ1kOW6-lFLSt4VjYai6WVMcNePyXU9OxneBQ/w640-h442/Abp_Reg_12_0242%20crop%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Entries relating to the order of service for the coronation of a king and of a king and queen</span>, found in the register of Archbishop Neville, c.1377.</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Turning back to the <i>Liber
Regalis</i>, as well as existing in manuscript form, as described above, and as
well as having been printed in volume 93 of the series of publications of the
Roxburghe Club,<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> the
manuscript also appears in print, in the original Latin with an English translation,
alongside several other documents relating to coronations of English kings and
queens in another volume, <i>English Coronation Records</i>.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Therefore, these two works provide ample means of comparing the text of the <i>Liber
Regalis</i> with the entries found in Archbishop Neville’s register, in an
attempt to discover the origin of the register entries. The editor of <i>English
Coronation Records</i> also provides details of the recensions, or various
forms which the medieval coronation service took and describes the <i>Liber
Regalis</i> as the fourth recension of the text, the fullest thus far.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
The editor was also of the opinion that this particular version was used at the
coronation of King Edward II, which took place in 1308, but only contained
short rubrics or criteria for the service, with more detail included later,
perhaps in the reign of Richard II.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[16]</span></span></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Could this identification of
the text of the <i>Liber </i>Regalis provide further corroboration of the date
of the entries in the archbishop’s register or not? The only way to find out
was to compare the entries with the text of the <i>Liber Regalis</i>, line by
line and word for word. This exercise proved very fruitful and although it
answers the question in part, also raises other points. The results of the
comparison appear to confirm that the register entries only contain the short
rubrics of the coronation service, whereas the <i>Liber Regalis</i> is a much
fuller version of the text. Therefore, it does seem likely that the register
entries predate the more detailed order of service used in the coronation of
Anne of Bohemia, but by how much? The editor of <i>English Coronation Records</i>
also compared the <i>Liber Regalis</i> with another document, a fourteenth-century
Pontifical of Westminster Abbey in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Looking at the variations in the text of the <i>Liber Regalis</i> found in the
Westminster Pontifical, it is clear that the entries in the York archbishop’s
register follow those variations very closely, if not exactly, and so the
entries must pre-date the <i>Liber Regalis</i>. Indeed, the editor of a text for
a coronation order of service printed in another volume, <i>Monumenta Ritualia
Ecclesiae Anglicanae</i>, specifically identifies the Westminster Pontifical
variations as relating to the order of service for Edward II.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
However, also published in <i>English Coronation Records</i> is a document
entitled ‘Forma et Modus’, which is said to be reminiscent of the rubrics of
the <i>Liber Regalis</i>, but is thought to date from the fifteenth century.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Although the first register entry relating to the coronation contains the words
‘m[od]o & for[m]a’, as noted above, so that the same words appear in the
title and heading of each, the texts do not match and so the register entry may
still relate to an earlier period.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Nevertheless, the register
entries appear to have been copied from another text, since there are evidently
copying errors, where the scribe has missed a line, realised his mistake,
crossed out a few words and started again.<a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Another aspect of the register entries is that when compared with the <i>Liber
Regalis</i>, they are not in order, but that the first of the entries, relating
to the coronation of a king and queen, noted above, should fall within the
second, relating to the coronation of a king.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Could it be possible that the
register entries were copied from a manuscript belonging to Westminster Abbey,
containing details of the order of service of the coronation, probably for
Edward II, and if so, how and why? If Archbishop Neville rarely left his
archdiocese, did his clerks also stay with him in the north or have access to
manuscripts in the south? Or were there other manuscripts in York archdiocese
containing the recension of the coronation service earlier than that fuller
version thought to have been produced during the reign of Richard II? If the
archbishop had no intention of attending the coronation ceremony, why was the
order of service copied into his register together with the other documents in
the first place? At present, all these questions are intriguing and remain
unanswered, but still show that there was perhaps the same interest in the
coronation of a new king in the late fourteenth century as there will be today.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p>
</p><div><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> See the illustrated
description of the <i>Liber Regalis</i> on Westminster Abbey’s website,
available via </span><a href="https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/coronations-at-the-abbey/spotlight-on-coronations/the-liber-regalis"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/coronations-at-the-abbey/spotlight-on-coronations/the-liber-regalis</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" face="Arial, sans-serif">(accessed 14 April
2023). The <i>Liber Regalis</i> is printed in </span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">F. Lygon, Earl
Beauchamp, ‘Liber Regalis’, <i>Roxburghe Club</i> (London, 1870), with a
manuscript of a translation available in the Society of Antiquaries of London,
SAL/MS/231.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> BIA YDA/2/Abp Reg 12,
f. 104 r, entry 4, available via the York Archbishops’ Registers database </span><a href="https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk/browse/registers?folio=237&register_id=j67314178"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk/browse/registers?folio=237&register_id=j67314178</span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> (accessed 14 April
2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> BIA YDA/2/Abp Reg 12, f. 104 r, entries
1-3. All four entries are printed in J. Raine (ed.), <i>Historical Papers and
Letters from the Northern Registers</i> (London, 1873), pp. 411-16. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Details of the project are available
via </span><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/resources/archbishops-registers/#tab-1"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/resources/archbishops-registers/#tab-1</span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> (accessed 20 April 2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> The York Archbishops’ Database is
available via </span><a href="https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk/home_page/index"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk/home_page/index</span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> (accessed 20 April 2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> See ‘The Northern Way: The Archbishops
of York and the North of England, 1304-1405’, available via </span><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/northern-way/"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">https://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/northern-way/</span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> (accessed 20 April 2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[7]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> See F. D. Logan (ed.),
‘The Register of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1375-1381’, <i>Canterbury
and York Society</i>, 110 (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 293, no. 798.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[8]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> R. G. Davies,
‘Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York, 1374-1388’, <i>Yorkshire Archaeological
Journal</i>, 47 (1975), 87-101 (93).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[9]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> <i>Ibid</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn10">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[10]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Two clerical tenths from Canterbury
Province, granted 5 December 1377 and two clerical tenths from York Province,
granted 22 March 1378, ‘to support the charges of resisting the invasion of
[the king’s] enemies’, see the E 179 database, available via the website of The
National Archives </span><a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179/default.asp"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/e179/default.asp</span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> (accessed 14 April 2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[11]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> Dobson,
R. Neville, Alexander (c. 1332–1392), archbishop of York. <i>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography</i> (</span><a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-19922"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-19922</span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif">) (accessed 17 April 2023); R.
G. </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif">Davies, ‘Alexander
Neville, Archbishop of York, 1374-1388’, <i>Yorkshire Archaeological Journal</i>,
47 (1975), 87-101 (93). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn12">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[12]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> The entries immediately following those
relating to the coronation service are dated 16 July, 12 August, 2 September
and 24 August 1377, see BIA YDA/2/Abp 12, f. 104 v, entries 1-6. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn13">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[13]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> F. Lygon, Earl Beauchamp, ‘Liber
Regalis’, <i>Roxburghe Club</i> (London, 1870).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn14">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[14]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> L. G. Wickham Legg
(ed.), <i>English Coronation Records</i> (Westminster, 1901), XIII, pp. 81-130.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[15]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> <i>Ibid</i>., p. 81.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn16">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[16]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> <i>Ibid</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn17">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[17]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Wickham Legg (ed.), <i>English
Coronation Records</i>, XVI, pp. 172-190 (81), the document being University of
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawl. C. 425, ff. 60-80. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn18">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[18]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> See W. Maskell (ed.), <i>Monumenta
Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae</i>, 3 vols. (London, 1847), III, pp. 1-48, ‘De
Benedictione et Coronatione Regis’ (3, note 1); also cited in footnotes are
other Pontificals besides that of Westminster Abbey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn19">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[19]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> Wickham Legg (ed.), <i>English
Coronation Records</i>, XVI, pp. 172-190 (172).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn20">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ly967/w2k/EHW%20Coronation%20article.docx#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[20]</span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif"> In the lines relating to part of the
coronation oath, the words ‘Faciam ?concedis iustas consuetudines’ have been
struck through (BIA YDA/2/Abp Reg 12, f. 104v, line 1), only to appear in the
correct place later (BIA YDA/2/Abp Reg 12, f. 104v, line 3); the word ‘servabo’
which should appear in line 1 before the words that have been struck through,
has had to be inserted above the line, pointing to another copying error.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></p><i></i><p></p>Laura Yeomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10243570109502061427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-5057560594023307522023-05-02T23:06:00.005+01:002023-05-02T23:15:13.070+01:00#YorStory: public history and the University Archive<i>Last term we hosted a Masters student from the University's MA in Modern History. As part of their Public History Placement module, students are asked to undertake a public history engagement project. In this blog our student, Izzy, reflects on her experience with us and the social media campaign she has created around the University's history and archive.</i> <div><br /><hr><br /><div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Introduction</h3><div><br /></div>Hi, I’m Izzy, a Modern History MA student at the University of York. For the last 10 weeks I have been undertaking a <a href="https://twitter.com/IPUPYORK">Public History</a> placement with the Borthwick Institute for Archives. At the end of autumn term last year, we were asked to make a decision on our desired projects, choosing from a set of options provided by a range of heritage partners. The projects ranged from planning and delivering history lessons to children, to working with archives on their social media strategy. I chose to go more down the route of archives as they interest me a lot, and the project allowed me to research some valuable skills around social media engagement and communication of history to the public. The placement initially stood out to me as it matched with some of my interests and skills. I like archival research and, in another job role, I am responsible for communicating and marketing ideas to a team - something I thought I could bring to this. I also feel like this project was a lot about organisation and strategy (both of which I love), so I put it down as one of my top choices! <br /><br />The project brief asked me to design a social media campaign that would engage the many audiences of the Borthwick Twitter account. There needed to be a coherent element and tweets needed to go out weekly. The tweets had to be interesting and allow for a two-way conversation between the archive and audience, and be based around the University Archive. They could showcase any University 'firsts' and link to wider events, such as LGBT History Month or Black History Month where possible. I realised quickly that the key to success would be focusing my efforts on one range of documents in particular - York's long-standing student newspaper, <i><a href="https://nouse.co.uk/">Nouse</a></i>. The Twitter campaign had a dual-aspect as it would coincide with, and help celebrate , the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/about/60/">University’s 60th anniversary</a>. The anniversary provides an opportunity to look forward as well as back, and to reflect on the University’s past work in combating inequality and championing social justice, diversity and inclusion. I knew this was important to incorporate into the campaign and kept it in mind when I was reading the newspaper for information.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Masthead for the student newspaper, Nouse" border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="904" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3M391ucFzDnhRIqeC1MNc9hVDTXRrTWCJL620biSi8I3lY9HaVxwNYqZ8Vuuf_PBwk5CkdebGWoPB0t7yrNT64Owrsqji5wIBLA7muYHsg1nLc9C3OfJZB1ILATmryYgb235eCBvSYJgCB-NwH0XZieeDNVLNVmKQmfmQx939ZhU_oY-zsg99XcAWA/w400-h108/nouse-banner.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Nouse masthead, 1984" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nouse masthead (1984)</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Construction of the project</h3><div><br /></div>I decided early on to focus on the newspaper <i>Nouse</i>. I sat in the archive searchroom and surveyed <i>Nouse </i>from 1964-2004. I looked for key themes I thought I could use, any good cartoons, and trivia. As well as looking at the details, I also tried to focus on the project’s wider context. I created a spreadsheet which highlighted the tweet content and the date it would be released. I needed to fill in each week with a unique theme. Some weeks were obvious and related to wider national or University events, others were trickier. A particular issue was thinking of themes for over the summer as <i>Nouse</i> wasn’t published then. After having identified the majority of my themes, I went about searching for the material to populate the tweets. <br /><br />Constructing the tweets got easier as time went on. I found a voice that I liked and rolled with it. The hardest part was trying to create something that people would want to engage with. I felt that the content of the tweets were interesting and people would like the campaign, but would it inspire them to respond or engage? Measuring the impact of the tweets was also hard and in the back of my mind I was thinking about the essay I had to write for my Masters which reflected on how I communicated the history through the tweets and the engagement as a result of that. I will go more in depth into how I tried to create engagement later in this blog.</div><br /><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXj0F-C6UoFui5FM7NN2VEErJqMSRsGzpjh121Xie7xnWCVHaRF_RB294HgoN9aM3mLutmkzdVpb5Amc8Ue06H3YBtFg-w524yyik9TfatLqB2aVXNHjEzKAATsjfTBRTU7PJ1O4tpBE6ibCva6aUTFa1rNSjsX_2OTHbNzx5qHvw7mkyQu5-eEYrIw/s608/yorstory.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Screenshot of the Tweet that launches the social media campaign." border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="593" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXj0F-C6UoFui5FM7NN2VEErJqMSRsGzpjh121Xie7xnWCVHaRF_RB294HgoN9aM3mLutmkzdVpb5Amc8Ue06H3YBtFg-w524yyik9TfatLqB2aVXNHjEzKAATsjfTBRTU7PJ1O4tpBE6ibCva6aUTFa1rNSjsX_2OTHbNzx5qHvw7mkyQu5-eEYrIw/w390-h400/yorstory.png" title="#YorStory launch tweet" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Launch tweet for the YorStory campaign</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br />The decisions I had to make while designing the project were also crucial. I had to think about what <i>Nouse </i>content I included and then how I would frame this in the tweets. I found myself feeling very conscious about my role as the curator of the project. I had the power to make the decisions as to the tweets’ content and therefore present a curated and highly selective history. I did not try to follow a specific agenda to shape the perception of the University’s history, but this will have happened unconsciously. The forward looking perspective in the University’s vision for the 60th anniversary led me to be more engaged with material on gay rights and environmental issues, and to move away from histories that required more nuance in their telling, such as Enoch Powell being invited by a group to speak on campus in 1968 (the invitation was quickly withdrawn). Students’ Unions and societies have often brought students into contact with challenging speakers, but this history requires more detailed explanation than a single tweet would allow. Therefore, it was left out, not through disengagement with that particular content, but a difficulty in communicating the nuances of this event to the readers of the campaign. I think that is where most of the tension came from in formulating this project. The inherently uneven weight I gave to certain aspects of the newspaper and the subsequent perception of these for the readers. The importance and responsibilities of the role of the curator is something I think that struck me most during this placement. I also learnt quite how difficult and strategic it is to design and run a social media campaign.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Engagement and marketing</h3><div><br /></div>I never really thought about the role of marketing (in its broadest sense) at the beginning of the placement, but as I thought about the project’s objectives, Twitter as a tool for engagement, and the different audiences involved, I realised that the marketing of the tweets was as, if not more, important as the actual content of them. An objective of the campaign was the two-way engagement between archive and audience. We were defining ‘engagement’ quite broadly. We were wanting anything from a like and retweet to an audience member reaching out to donate material or collaborate on a project. This not only made the success of the project hard to define, but it made me aware of lots of different ways people can engage with online media. I wanted to encourage more ‘tangible’ forms of engagement. By this I mean people emailing the archive, asking to do projects, donating materials etc. rather than likes and retweets - although both were desirable. I found this quite difficult. My approach was to give clear routes on how to act if they wanted to i.e. a link taking them directly to the ‘<a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/alumni/student-life-collection/">Student Life Collection’</a> web page if they had photos or archive material to donate. I also wanted to build a community and, with that, trust. By doing online polls and nostalgia posts, I was attempting to build a rapport with the audience (whether they physically interacted or not). This was with the hope that when I introduced a call to action people would act on it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4IuENtv3kurdbfQW-Ua9tNtFuCGYq75mrbdDiD2gT1faAdeGX0CpQzVC4zD6_eg5-2F0jyu3MK1tC5lDufaLAMAEfXo4tFQJZglUQan9y9wvq_Cmct6K7xWFHxRc0MLUrPHmclEwMoETNhGXpOytOcBaIvItaIJl1pilP7S_uoyPvzGxzz6JAcZbHA/s899/studentlife.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Screenshot of part of the student life collection webpage listing the type of materials the archive is seeking" border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="899" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4IuENtv3kurdbfQW-Ua9tNtFuCGYq75mrbdDiD2gT1faAdeGX0CpQzVC4zD6_eg5-2F0jyu3MK1tC5lDufaLAMAEfXo4tFQJZglUQan9y9wvq_Cmct6K7xWFHxRc0MLUrPHmclEwMoETNhGXpOytOcBaIvItaIJl1pilP7S_uoyPvzGxzz6JAcZbHA/w640-h600/studentlife.png" title="Part of the webpage for the Student Life Collection" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from the Student Life Collection webpage</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br />During the placement, I also engaged with the social media manager at the Library who gave me some valuable insights into his strategies to increase engagement. I was struck by how data driven he said social media marketing was. I was told that community and trust were the most important ingredients to an engaged audience. In the final part of this blog I will use my experience of the placement and the things I have learnt from the various people I engaged with to suggest some points for future social media campaigns.</div><div><br /><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Reflections</h3><div><br /></div>I have very much enjoyed my placement with Borthwick Institute for Archives. Not only has it given me insight into archival material, but it has given me a chance to put research, communication, and social media skills into practice. It has made me think about some of the difficulties around curated campaigns with short-length outputs and different types of engagement styles. Most of all, it has taught me the difficulty of communicating the past to the public and the types of decisions you have to make while doing it. I want to thank Charles specifically for being an excellent mentor and always being there for our weekly meetings. He has been very clear in his vision while also flexible in how I wanted to shape and deliver the project. I have learnt a lot over these last 10 weeks and now all there is to do is the assessment!!! <br /><br />Thanks a lot!<br /><br />Izzy</div></div></div></div>Charles Fongehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03408504710376298151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-80876384230323105702022-11-29T09:26:00.002+00:002022-11-29T09:26:34.413+00:00The Retreat Letters Project: The Proctor family <p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="text-align: right;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal">Many researchers into the history of mental health treatment
will already be familiar with the Borthwick’s Retreat Collection, an extensive
archive from York’s Quaker mental health asylum, established in 1796 by Samuel
Tuke.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
But the collection should also be helpful to many others, including social,
family and Quaker historians. Of particular interest to this group will be the
Retreat’s incoming correspondence. Following a recent update to the catalogue, summary
information on the 12,000 letters the Retreat received between 1795 and 1852 is
now available online.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Each letter can also be viewed online at the Wellcome Collection (bundled by
year).<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Proctor family’s story of coping with mental illness in
the family is one of many told in these letters.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><i><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgn-NVgh0VLvEJkxRBkM_DZjZ1-ajdfq7k1wT5pKr5YMfYHjYwAUT8VKz5AI3KwmIJXSQDORB0EulJSwSCDOqhLeuve1s-_o92z-tQ0X4RDgF9hOZaA4mKb2n4nwIlZzUnufbFYyFN-sjkeLoGq29g5-2LAo0gjT3-Np2Utih5emifmLx_973XnDbINQw" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="350" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgn-NVgh0VLvEJkxRBkM_DZjZ1-ajdfq7k1wT5pKr5YMfYHjYwAUT8VKz5AI3KwmIJXSQDORB0EulJSwSCDOqhLeuve1s-_o92z-tQ0X4RDgF9hOZaA4mKb2n4nwIlZzUnufbFYyFN-sjkeLoGq29g5-2LAo0gjT3-Np2Utih5emifmLx_973XnDbINQw=w316-h215" width="316" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An 1826 envelope from the correspondence series</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> “Stockton 24 / 3<sup>mo</sup> 1826<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Respected Friend,<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>I duly received thy acceptable
favor this morning and it has indeed afforded us the greatest satisfaction to
find that our dear son appears pretty comfortable and I trust that thro’ divine
favor he will in time be restor’d to us. … … …<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><i>Thy Assured Friend,
John Proctor”</i><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John Proctor was plainly relieved to hear from the Retreat’s
Superintendent that his son, also John, was settled and was optimistic about
his chances of recovery. John Jnr had suffered from a fear of personal injury
since he was twelve. Now, aged twenty-six, things had come to a head. His
phobia was causing him such severe depression that after a particularly severe
attack, his Quaker parents sought help from the Retreat in York.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><sup>,<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>,<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></sup><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sadly, despite many years of care and treatment, John never
fully recovered from his mental anguish. Over his adult lifetime, John Jnr was
discharged from the Retreat several times, only to be re-admitted following the
recurrence of his symptoms.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Throughout that time, his family’s support and feelings for
their son are evident in the letters they sent to the Retreat. In fact, the
Proctor family were prolific writers, and their letters chart the highs and
lows of their experience.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of the letters are very practical, and his family often
advised the Retreat of parcels of food or clothing they were sending to make
John comfortable. New coats were especially popular! Others share items of news
that may interest him, such as family events or alerting him to their upcoming
visits.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvMHs4vb4PSNUNKsxlKCOtRO2h4-PB0NMfJ-vzlZRHKIAwYC-_l6cTxeasC4oavorTJJCnGcODLQT0VQy4nzgO6HFmmgwMn9OB5q10mMVFbPmtdZNsPHI8Iex2vkPieW2iAn5UujD556XwUCyJLHgcE-3MudykCsLKHYveBUwlNdQb5chqS819K8z3uw" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="584" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvMHs4vb4PSNUNKsxlKCOtRO2h4-PB0NMfJ-vzlZRHKIAwYC-_l6cTxeasC4oavorTJJCnGcODLQT0VQy4nzgO6HFmmgwMn9OB5q10mMVFbPmtdZNsPHI8Iex2vkPieW2iAn5UujD556XwUCyJLHgcE-3MudykCsLKHYveBUwlNdQb5chqS819K8z3uw=w400-h150" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Letter from Jane Thomas to Thomas Allis, 1836</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />But the letters
also reveal tensions. Two years before admission to the Retreat, John had
married Jane Spence, and she often disagreed with his parents on his treatment.
On one occasion in 1836, Jane was keen to see him return home, where she felt
he would be less anxious and have a better chance of recovery.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">His parents, especially his mother, Mary, disagreed with
this, although later said there had been a misunderstanding.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><sup>,<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></sup>
On another occasion, John Snr was so frank that he ended his letter asking that
it be burnt after perusal.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Several more bursts of letter-writing can be found lobbying the Retreat regarding
John’s discharge. Such family disagreements were not limited to the Proctors. For
instance, in 1848, Isaac Wright asked that his sister-in-law Elizabeth Wright
be prevented from meeting her husband and removing him from the Retreat.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most letters in the Retreat collection use a distinctive
writing style; kind, considerate, humble and supportive. However, the writer
rarely gives you a glimpse of their underlying emotions, making you wonder,
“what are you <i>really</i> thinking?” or “how do you <i>really</i> feel?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Long-term correspondents like the Proctors occasionally
relax their writing style, giving you a glimpse<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgp5Dzi8Agkz1FcK1NdFkD25OBcx-U4Z4voUWyJw1LtRQh42R5dx8ZNetC59u-awbbcf_Meg8aIIB-vFfgMXSEZfVPRweo8hceJNS1BEwZ93xjLz6JkkrhXGoIvmAfgrW5uVlVWN_YmboJ9y0YWZCzv_o_PkgJEIOW68KBDiC6Va8mGuadFnRjIhK1-SA" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="288" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgp5Dzi8Agkz1FcK1NdFkD25OBcx-U4Z4voUWyJw1LtRQh42R5dx8ZNetC59u-awbbcf_Meg8aIIB-vFfgMXSEZfVPRweo8hceJNS1BEwZ93xjLz6JkkrhXGoIvmAfgrW5uVlVWN_YmboJ9y0YWZCzv_o_PkgJEIOW68KBDiC6Va8mGuadFnRjIhK1-SA=w204-h320" width="204" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Letter from John Bright to John Candler, 1845</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> of their underlying feelings.
For instance, in her later letters, Jane’s writing strays beyond a ”functional”
exchange about clothing and provisions. Instead, you get a deeper insight into
her feelings for John and how his absence affects her. In a touching letter
addressed to her “dearly beloved Husband”, Jane tries to lift his mood, assuring
him, “thou are not forgotten, my love”.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
She talks in poetic terms about the arrival of good weather, recalling his
enjoyment of hay-time and how he used to like its “getting up”. “I hardly know
what is sweeter than new made hay”, she says. In another letter, Jane is
remarkably open with John Candler, the Superintendent at the time.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
She explains that she had been unaware of John’s condition when they married
and that “the sympathy of our friends is a mitigation”. However, she now finds
herself quite embittered at their fortune and feeling “hardly [unfairly] dealt
with in 19 years out of not quite 21, being so <i>bereft</i>”.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">John died at the Retreat aged fifty-two, and Jane sent her
final letter in July 1852, ending twenty-six years of correspondence.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn15" name="_ednref15" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><a name="_Hlk118446349"><o:p></o:p></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-j5rk4pWhhLOakhxRX4P6fC2fr5JCTRxbEiLTiXFfluXXFQy2au3C0FdX1RJ-Wx4a805kQOr5UiB_YMfOfmYPddeqJH7_jKS_pgKuVctDVP2U93bmOuF-_XG8wVheGeuTJ3OjBO92pwSTLLFQaet59QDyJNoFW6xSBjXBFRdKaLl67tYOH-iztq4_BA" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="489" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-j5rk4pWhhLOakhxRX4P6fC2fr5JCTRxbEiLTiXFfluXXFQy2au3C0FdX1RJ-Wx4a805kQOr5UiB_YMfOfmYPddeqJH7_jKS_pgKuVctDVP2U93bmOuF-_XG8wVheGeuTJ3OjBO92pwSTLLFQaet59QDyJNoFW6xSBjXBFRdKaLl67tYOH-iztq4_BA=w320-h234" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Letter from Proctor and Son, 1849</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The archive’s incoming correspondence is
a fantastic research resource and is not limited to family letters. For
example, there are regular letters from a wide range of Friends’ Meetings
across England, sending subscription payments to support the Retreat’s work or
paying the accounts of Friends they have placed there. In addition, prominent
Quakers often made contact. Sometimes they requested admission for Friends in
need or sought advice on setting up and running their own asylums. Occasionally
they engaged in discussion about important topics of the day. For example, the
1845 Lunatics Bill prompted a flurry of letters expressing concern that the
introduction of new commissioners could interfere with the smooth running of
the Retreat.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn16" name="_ednref16" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><sup>,<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn17" name="_ednref17" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></sup></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The correspondence also gives a flavour of life in the early
nineteenth century. For example, visitors</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfHkr53xOkE3iF3GC9CWDtEmvjmjKtZrASrGjl5YChRPjq_O39FkIts_uFnw6lW9j2fD0tCghobLc4tzKrBHEpWS8vuj_YlR4frHcGg3aVci0JKhjvpIiO990mxCLGwA2ge-Ri3ovR6_WOdYb3MVZvFfiJtYJF6Qn7HsWq4W3JsWb4uYi07U8eS0cMKw" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="344" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfHkr53xOkE3iF3GC9CWDtEmvjmjKtZrASrGjl5YChRPjq_O39FkIts_uFnw6lW9j2fD0tCghobLc4tzKrBHEpWS8vuj_YlR4frHcGg3aVci0JKhjvpIiO990mxCLGwA2ge-Ri3ovR6_WOdYb3MVZvFfiJtYJF6Qn7HsWq4W3JsWb4uYi07U8eS0cMKw=w196-h200" width="196" /></a></div><br /> from afar often explained the types
and routes of transport they would take, whether road, river, or rail. In
addition, the postal options appear to be very efficient, with many letters
being received the next day. Some even arrived on the same day! <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There are letters relating to running
the Retreat,
such as introductions for potential employees or purchasing goods and
provisions. The records show that the Retreat was a big consumer of cheese. It
received regular deliveries from Proctors of Selby, transported by steam packet
along the Ouse. A typical order could amount to 4cwt of cheese, costing the
equivalent of £1,400 in today’s money.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn18" name="_ednref18" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="background: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgciLELkAkyboLsdHYCXTPQXj_99zqPKtmfofAuQM7pVwvl4Dx8lGteaWH5DFNegyVuVllgLD-kJlGVYNJLut_9VI4jGir570az6CLey-P8_c_n2P3KtA8QFH8hYuGZ2mlNxmyqyvp9_rntsylgOR4tJuvVsgtVoM9zBIb2YjYFsREgZUYWyM6EyCpVkQ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgciLELkAkyboLsdHYCXTPQXj_99zqPKtmfofAuQM7pVwvl4Dx8lGteaWH5DFNegyVuVllgLD-kJlGVYNJLut_9VI4jGir570az6CLey-P8_c_n2P3KtA8QFH8hYuGZ2mlNxmyqyvp9_rntsylgOR4tJuvVsgtVoM9zBIb2YjYFsREgZUYWyM6EyCpVkQ=w320-h320" width="320" /></a></div>The
catalogue has been created by a small team of volunteers whose work has not
always been plain sailing. They developed a skill in reading a wide variety of
handwriting – some of which appears to have been done under candlelight using a
broken ink quill! The writing of William Nainby is particularly challenging,
closely followed by the cross-writing some authors used as a way of saving
precious paper.<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn19" name="_ednref19" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">[xix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><sup>,<a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_edn20" name="_ednref20" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">[xx]</span></span></span></a></sup><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you’re interested in finding out more about the Borthwick’s
Retreat Collection, information can be found at <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/library/collections/named-collections/retreatcollection/">https://www.york.ac.uk/library/collections/named-collections/retreatcollection/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Index of Incoming Correspondence <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/ret-1-5-1">https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/ret-1-5-1</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Images of Incoming Correspondence <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g522gcy8">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g522gcy8</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<div><br /></div><div><i>Written by Paul Wainwright, Retreat Letters Project volunteer</i></div><div><br /></div><div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> The
Retreat Collection <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/library/collections/named-collections/retreatcollection/">https://www.york.ac.uk/library/collections/named-collections/retreatcollection/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence subseries RET/1/5/1 <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/ret-1-5-1">https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/ret-1-5-1</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Wellcome Foundation Images <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g522gcy8">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g522gcy8</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/30 (1826) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ve2d7urv/items?canvas=102">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ve2d7urv/items?canvas=102</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Admission
Register RET/6/2/1/1 <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/en2eated/items?canvas=68">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/en2eated/items?canvas=68</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Admission
Papers RET/6/1/1 <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kvxqcqmq/items?canvas=683">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kvxqcqmq/items?canvas=683</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Case Book RET/6/5/1/1A <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fe9cszjf/items?canvas=331">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fe9cszjf/items?canvas=331</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/40/5/22 (1836) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=399">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=399</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/40/6/8 (1836) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=472">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=472</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/40/7/2 (1836) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=588">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=588</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/40/5/1 (1836) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=429">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kqd8cjsv/items?canvas=429</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<div id="edn12">
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/51/9/14 (1848) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cxhgsxx2/items?canvas=759">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cxhgsxx2/items?canvas=759</a>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/48/7/16 (1845) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=819">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=819</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/48/5/17 (1845) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=637">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=637</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref15" name="_edn15" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Incoming
Correspondence RET/1/5/1/55/8/23 (1852) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tndc2npc/items?canvas=689">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tndc2npc/items?canvas=689</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<div id="edn16">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref16" name="_edn16" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Incoming
Correspondence RET/1/5/1/48/7/2 (1845) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=741">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=741</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref17" name="_edn17" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/48/7/20 (1845) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=767">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/aqsvr7j8/items?canvas=767</a>
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<div id="edn18">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref18" name="_edn18" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/52/5/11 (1849) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pqquupp6/items?canvas=343">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pqquupp6/items?canvas=343</a>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref19" name="_edn19" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Incoming
Correspondence RET/1/5/1/60/6/20 (1857) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zmzwux7n/items?canvas=543">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zmzwux7n/items?canvas=543</a>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file://userfs/ld801/w2k/Downloads/Retreat%20Blog%2020221104%20(1).docx#_ednref20" name="_edn20" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xx]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Incoming Correspondence RET/1/5/1/44/2/17 (1840) <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pcu4jg6p/items?canvas=175">https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pcu4jg6p/items?canvas=175</a>
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</div></div><p></p>Lydia Deanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16988705481541170834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-62565541704098357242021-09-23T08:37:00.000+01:002021-09-23T08:37:12.567+01:00Changes to our Service <p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Written by Gary Brannan, Keeper of Archives</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the autumn rolls in, it’s time for a new academic year here at the University of York. We’re pleased to say that we’re able to make the following changes to our opening times and services here at the Borthwick, as of the 27th September:</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b6f97e4c-7fff-9e5b-d867-a4be8ec20f35"><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Onsite access to archives and microfilm resources remains Monday to Wednesday (9.30 - 4.30); but with extra researcher space, longer appointments, & improved document and resource access.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Introducing morning and afternoon appointment booking slots.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Additional microfilm research space and the reintroduction of self-service microfilm retrieval, plus self-service access to hard-copy searchroom documents.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bookable access to the </span><a href="https://safepodnetwork.ac.uk" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ESRC Safepod</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resumption of paid research services, including elements of previous transcription and translation services, as part of a wider suite of services aimed at serving our remote research community. This will also involve new virtual consultations to solidify dedicated service for researchers who might never visit the Borthwick.</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pandemic has touched all of our lives in different ways, and we at the Borthwick are no exception. From our enforced onsite closure in March 2020, to the development of the York COVID-19 archive; to the various openings/closings through late 2020/early 2021, we have had to adapt to the pandemic’s impacts repeatedly over the last 18 months. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above changes have significant impacts - they more than double our daily onsite researcher capacity based on our pandemic-era occupancy, and means you can see the same number of documents each day as you could pre-pandemic, too. Changes in national guidance related to document quarantine mean we can now be more responsive and produce documents more frequently; and also reintroduce self-service for our microfilm resources and open access to our lists, indexes and onsite library resources. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So - why aren’t we resuming our former five-day service? That’s a good question, and we wanted to be totally open with you about why that may be, as our experience is very common over the whole of the archives and special collections sector. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen a marked and sustained increase in remote researcher demand and onsite demand for resources for teaching. In terms of remote researchers, this has led to long turnaround times for enquiries and reprographics, with our searchroom team becoming stretched to deliver services. We’re committed to taking a data-led approach to our planning, and so we thought we would share some of this with you.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the last quarter of 2020-21 </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">227 onsite research visits (91% of our COVID-capacity); but 22,631 virtual visits to our online resources, leading to 401 income generating requests and 1,661 enquiries to the searchroom team. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">enquiries increased by 47% on the previous quarter, 77% increase on the same reporting period 2019/20, and 38% increase on the same reporting period 2018/19.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of these enquiries are about our remote services such as document copying, as opposed to visiting us here onsite. </span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We also know from our data that on average 38% of our weekly researcher spaces were used pre-pandemic. Our offering at 3 days per week still provides more onsite research spaces per week than we needed pre-pandemic, while allowing us to ramp up our services for our global offsite audiences who may never be able to visit us here in York.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How big is the global Borthwick user community? We know from our web data that it has increased by over 50% since March 2020, with just short of 30,000 users in well over 150 countries around the world. Crucially, this increased online use is sustaining, with over 2,300 non-York users of our online catalogue in August 2021 alone. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond this, the archives and special collections research climate is changing, with a general move to an expectation of remote access and delivery via digital means by the research community, a change that was in evidence pre-COVID but one has been exacerbated by the pandemic.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Changing the balance in this way also means that we can offer new opportunities in the future for volunteering, engaging with our collections, and designing new services which can help connect our global research community with the archives in our care. One thing remains certain, however - you’ll alway be able to access our archives onsite, for free, to get your hands on crucial pieces of our national story and undertake your research, whether it’s a large academic research project or the crucial building blocks of your own family story. We’re looking forward to going on that journey with you.</span></p><br /></span>Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-52202325281008368892021-06-25T16:41:00.000+01:002021-06-25T16:41:43.848+01:00The Enemy in the Archives: Managing Mould<div><i>By conservator Catherine Firth</i></div><div><br /></div>If you arrive at the Borthwick to bring us new material for the archives, one of the first questions we might ask you is “where has this been kept?” We are not trying to be nosy - what we are really asking is what the environment might have been like. If it was in a basement it might have been cold and damp; if it was in the loft it might have been very hot and very cold; if it was stored next to a radiator it might have been quite dry. The most important question for us is whether the records have been damp. This is because mould enjoys living in damp places, and paper, leather and glues offer mould lots to live upon. We don’t want to introduce mould into our strongrooms. <div><br /></div><div>Mould is a living organism that belongs to the kingdom Fungi. Although they look like plants, they are actually not a plant or an animal. They cannot ‘make’ their own food, as plants do - but additionally they do not ‘eat’ food like animals. Instead they absorb nutrition from other organic substances. To do this, they secrete enzymes, which break down the substance into smaller organic molecules that can be absorbed. Mould uses spores to reproduce, and these can be found all around us. But they need the right conditions to germinate - the spores need moisture, the right temperature and a food source, such as archives. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOY5EQ1UoZ-LdDD7gcbIn5po6q8pDfzFQCzbJ6tc7mq-Se6S_aHm-5lqSUCTC0VlATE3ksZ0PUEniagCbhnqavVA199WQsjF1uQOOP227BtRE0LMxASxJ6XtcjUFVyBoiV3F_HJEORszs/s640/Image+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bundle of paper documents affected by mould." border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOY5EQ1UoZ-LdDD7gcbIn5po6q8pDfzFQCzbJ6tc7mq-Se6S_aHm-5lqSUCTC0VlATE3ksZ0PUEniagCbhnqavVA199WQsjF1uQOOP227BtRE0LMxASxJ6XtcjUFVyBoiV3F_HJEORszs/w640-h480/Image+1.jpg" title="Bundle of paper documents affected by mould." width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>There are many different causes for moisture in our homes. Bathrooms and kitchens are obvious ones, but other occurrences could come from poor ventilation, garages and sheds with no buffer from the environment outside, leaks or even condensation on windows. This is why mould can commonly be found in houses. Unfortunately, as well as damaging our belongings, mould can also be dangerous to our health. Exposure to mould can cause respiratory issues, such as nose and throat soreness, irritation and congestion, and coughing, along with other symptoms if exposure is continued. It can be particularly dangerous to anyone who has existing respiratory problems or issues with their immune system. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhPiqF_eaBiIHn5Pt5nRO7gxix9U-MitC4GNHi-tgROt_FOWbtIgJO0ZCYIe49q-qlhsfdl0RiUnCDpQHWrCRXS_lEZSMbYM5DgQeYxhOfNxFr-qQSzjXfNUKUvICiArOLsGQMk4P4SI/s640/Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Various documents stained by mould and damp damage." border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhPiqF_eaBiIHn5Pt5nRO7gxix9U-MitC4GNHi-tgROt_FOWbtIgJO0ZCYIe49q-qlhsfdl0RiUnCDpQHWrCRXS_lEZSMbYM5DgQeYxhOfNxFr-qQSzjXfNUKUvICiArOLsGQMk4P4SI/w640-h480/Image+2.jpg" title="Various documents stained by mould and damp damage." width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>With this in mind, when we treat mould we make sure we are wearing the appropriate protective equipment. We wear nitrile gloves and face masks to FFP2 or FFP3 standards. For large-scale treatments we would wear goggles. We also have white coats that we can wear over our clothes, so that any spores that might land on us can be removed straight away. We are lucky enough to have a vacuum table in our isolation room, which sucks the air (and hopefully the spores) down and away from our faces while we are working. This, like our handheld vacuum, has a HEPA filter, so when we use the table or the mini-vac we know that the spores are being caught by the filter and not recirculated around the room. We also work in a room with the option of a window, for increased ventilation. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLXoVwIxQNbhA56ctu-ZqHTlbG6G97AdiMwpfUwE5PKSi31uzxd5sy6YWiTv25UDIYkkzOS6E7XAjQP4zyjEDFp-vX5-RVi8pk6b7Mx3b6aI-ICWi2oecrsIb9HBFsHoErkzDDoM3yOY/s640/Image+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mould documents on a perforated air bench waiting to be cleaned. Also on the table are nitrile gloves, a mask, various snake weights, brushes and spatulas." border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLXoVwIxQNbhA56ctu-ZqHTlbG6G97AdiMwpfUwE5PKSi31uzxd5sy6YWiTv25UDIYkkzOS6E7XAjQP4zyjEDFp-vX5-RVi8pk6b7Mx3b6aI-ICWi2oecrsIb9HBFsHoErkzDDoM3yOY/w640-h480/Image+3.jpg" title="Mould documents on a perforated air bench waiting to be cleaned. Also on the table are nitrile gloves, a mask, various snake weights, brushes and spatulas." width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Our first task is to make sure that the mould is dry and inactive. If it is still slightly damp, and smeary, then the mould is still active and will not be easy to remove. We place dehumidifiers into the room, and fans to increase the airflow, and we air the mouldy material until it is dry and powdery to the touch. Once the mould is dry, it is a relatively straightforward task to remove any spores on the surface with soft brushes over the vacuum table. Sometimes we find that the mould has stained the paper, and this colour cannot always be removed. There are also occasions where the mould has damaged the paper to the extent that it has very little strength left - it can be rather tricky to handle it without causing more damage. We may consider ‘re-sizing’ these papers once the mould has been treated - adding a substance to them such as methyl cellulose or gelatine, to give them some strength back. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnjq_un_r6l5J5PZCpWIWUJGu3x0xTa5wdj5wQjqLuVXdWW6kl5udcSNhni6A3EEWoAGI03SNeRYvpJkf_lvSnhd7i12pc1nA6-Ob9aXroHekzv2-jiEUYd5-YP7wg4oCGLKIA5ZgDgU/s640/Image+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A fragile mouldy document with large losses, opened out to be cleaned." border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnjq_un_r6l5J5PZCpWIWUJGu3x0xTa5wdj5wQjqLuVXdWW6kl5udcSNhni6A3EEWoAGI03SNeRYvpJkf_lvSnhd7i12pc1nA6-Ob9aXroHekzv2-jiEUYd5-YP7wg4oCGLKIA5ZgDgU/w480-h640/Image+4.jpg" title="A fragile mouldy document with large losses, opened out to be cleaned." width="480" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously the best option is for us to avoid mould altogether! If you can store your important belongings in a cool, dry environment, with plenty of ventilation, then this is ideal. But we do not always have the luxury of these spaces for storage. If you come across mould at home, do take care. For smaller outbreaks, you may be able to manage it yourself. Isolate the item(s) from any unaffected material to prevent the spores spreading, and if you cannot treat it right away then seal it in a plastic bag or container. Ensure the mould is dry and powdery to the touch before attempting to treat it, by airing it well with cool air. Removal itself is best done outside in the open air, with gloves and a mask, and a soft brush. Keep the mouldy material and any treatment processes away from anyone with immune system or respiratory issues. And for any larger outbreaks or valuable items, do contact someone for help and advice - it may not be safe for you to do it alone. </div><div><br /></div><div> Wishing you fungi-free archives!
</div>Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-40528636960252547162021-05-07T14:20:00.002+01:002021-07-03T13:36:55.534+01:00Using press cuttings to understand the early history of the University of York <p> <b>By Victoria Taylor</b></p><hr /><p>Picture this: the year is 2546, and the University of York as it was in 1966 – and as we know it today, in 2021 – has long since ceased to exist. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdUX5IFD1bvbkTdXlujO5FUidW7vm6YXa-SYjWteWhScqxHc5eYRJyfmRNLHFBT_90-3FGjyWla7mbSqgwMWRQxiev2v_MG6TN8Tm3bvqUglUDgVtkTzkPOjGsr-xNIZbs4KKmvJPEcwG/s866/2546.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="866" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdUX5IFD1bvbkTdXlujO5FUidW7vm6YXa-SYjWteWhScqxHc5eYRJyfmRNLHFBT_90-3FGjyWla7mbSqgwMWRQxiev2v_MG6TN8Tm3bvqUglUDgVtkTzkPOjGsr-xNIZbs4KKmvJPEcwG/w640-h298/2546.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">Only the ruins of the campus remain, with the lone surviving documentary evidence concerning the University’s origins to be found in the form of contemporaneous press headlines that have somehow survived the ravages of time. Perilously, you work to pull together broken pieces of a narrative, and your conclusions laid out are thus:</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMFXpc1htyL3am_ci19ciq7sKKy8VBglMDB8ISvr4e1dAUhl9MMSUHekd7ijyv3REXN8pog182y3QL_0cesxZdURKmupnhyuIlFOApuBM62DS3XkSMToYynaI6KxHxE0BiIilAAlTxBql/s391/UOYPC1-13-12_YG19660610-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="102" data-original-width="391" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKMFXpc1htyL3am_ci19ciq7sKKy8VBglMDB8ISvr4e1dAUhl9MMSUHekd7ijyv3REXN8pog182y3QL_0cesxZdURKmupnhyuIlFOApuBM62DS3XkSMToYynaI6KxHxE0BiIilAAlTxBql/w400-h104/UOYPC1-13-12_YG19660610-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvUnaaeyMOZrUTLwcneX8ZYBbXHaFA8F-GSFSpTDZU3k72QbGKmaCEngHqN-CDj48UDH4jXWU-8RKcxLE-b4pWCGRMegxSIHvisDB7GGJKqTge-RpNB-PhkjY2eheCOHo48_tFpoWs8cw/s383/UOYPC1-13-12_YG19660610-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Article imagining the University's story based only on press headlines" border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="383" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvUnaaeyMOZrUTLwcneX8ZYBbXHaFA8F-GSFSpTDZU3k72QbGKmaCEngHqN-CDj48UDH4jXWU-8RKcxLE-b4pWCGRMegxSIHvisDB7GGJKqTge-RpNB-PhkjY2eheCOHo48_tFpoWs8cw/w400-h270/UOYPC1-13-12_YG19660610-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">UOY/PC/1/13/12, <i>Yorkshire Gazette</i> (October 1966)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ironically, and rather meta-textually, I stumbled across this press cutting from the <i>Yorkshire Gazette </i>discussing how headlines might be used to help piece together history during my very own foray into press cuttings concerning the origins and early history of the University of York which I have been undertaking as part of my Public History MA placement at the Borthwick. Thankfully, the archive that I was working with contained both articles and headlines, allowing me to discover slightly more about the early days of York! </p><p class="MsoNormal">Whilst some of 1960s humour might be lost on us today, the satirical sketch – which was performed by some of York’s staff and students as part of an historical exercise after the appointment of York’s very first honorary doctorates in 1966 – highlights the importance and limits of archival holdings, and one way in which a specific kind of archive – namely press cuttings – might be used to help us understand and remember the past, distant or not. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Although excavation of York’s hypothetical ruins would reveal a certain amount of information relating to buildings’ dating and development, only so much would be able to be garnered about the people – and ideas – behind them. For this information, it is into the archives that we must – as the brave researchers of 2546 will do in the future – head. For it is in archives that we find stories from the past. </p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * * * *</div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">York’s early years: stories from the press cuttings</h3><div><br /></div><div>The prospect of a university in York was a hot topic from the late 1940s onwards; consequently, there are thousands of cuttings detailing various aspects regarding the development of the University. From the early days of the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/history/origins/" target="_blank">summer schools</a>, when the hope of a University was nothing but a distant glimmer on the horizon, to the graduation of the very first cohort in 1966, the press reported on a multitude of subjects. It would be impossible to adequately summarise the vast scope of the holdings, but I will take a moment to highlight the versatility of the contents by picking out some of my favourite cuttings and the stories they reveal.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">The enduring popularity of family history</h4><div><p class="MsoNormal">Today, if one wishes to research their family then they can
hop onto one of the many <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/how-to-search/other-resources/#tab-2"><span style="color: #0563c1;">ancestry sites</span></a> that have popped up over the
recent years and trawl over a variety of records (from archives!) that have
been digitised or request them through the post. In the past, the onus was on
archival institutions to deal with such requests for genealogical information,
and the Borthwick Institute – officially opened at <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/history/borthwick-unboxed/st-anthonys-hall/" target="_blank">St Anthony’s Hall</a> in 1953 –
was one such institution that was inundated with requests. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtPsHjPmHoogJH_6xA0WcgSxI6-U3QPCgvpfSOMNpDu38fg9mDu-b-Lfn0AS7FSP2YGAVuMnF7hsYdJRAdS8PdhMacSRIB0OCLr5K5RBwraS7dWaIMsHTGYftRgPTzoxKnjIpejF5QilB/s999/UOYPC-1-2-58_UOYPC-1-13-30.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Headlines on popularity of family history" border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="999" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRtPsHjPmHoogJH_6xA0WcgSxI6-U3QPCgvpfSOMNpDu38fg9mDu-b-Lfn0AS7FSP2YGAVuMnF7hsYdJRAdS8PdhMacSRIB0OCLr5K5RBwraS7dWaIMsHTGYftRgPTzoxKnjIpejF5QilB/w517-h237/UOYPC-1-2-58_UOYPC-1-13-30.JPG" title="UOY/PC/1/13/30 and UOY/PC/1/2/58" width="517" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/13/30, UOY/PC/1/2/58: <i>Northern Echo </i>(June 1966), <br /><i>Yorkshire Post</i>, <i>Northern Guardian</i> (November 1953)</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">Several cuttings in the archive are concerned with genealogical requests at the Borthwick, which – indicative of the 60s' opinion that family history was a less worthy historical research pursuit – apparently impeded the ‘proper’ historical research being undertaken at the Borthwick due to the sheer number of them. Requests came from far and wide, including America, and led to, quite possibly, my favourite piece of wordplay throughout the entire archive:</p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“<i>…it may not be possible to see the historical wood for family trees.</i>”</p></blockquote><h4 style="text-align: left;"> A diverse student population</h4><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Q2AgQiZSrZznVfZJp8hlnMKrSQGQoUMFZotdOcDMybP2WEEQVvrJqGWoO2xluLQeVZakSu4ImU0sQxNNV1zU7FHwBkZYzatiBYd8I_LnGrmwIfFx_5Ril_a3lB8EXrf3MCYzKyeEu3_9/s362/UOYPC-1-7-103.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Picture of George Crofts and students outside Heslington Hall" border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="362" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Q2AgQiZSrZznVfZJp8hlnMKrSQGQoUMFZotdOcDMybP2WEEQVvrJqGWoO2xluLQeVZakSu4ImU0sQxNNV1zU7FHwBkZYzatiBYd8I_LnGrmwIfFx_5Ril_a3lB8EXrf3MCYzKyeEu3_9/w400-h311/UOYPC-1-7-103.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">UOY/PC/1/7/103, <i>Northern Echo </i>(October 1963)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>If you were asked to guess at the relationship between the man and women in the adjacent picture, with the only context given that it depicted people linked to the University of York, a variety of conclusions could be reached. The most obvious answer, perhaps, would suggest that this was a lecturer talking to students. This explanation would certainly fit comfortably with traditional perceptions of what academics and students looked like. However, this was not the case. Every person in the photograph is a student: indeed, this is a group of students from the very first undergraduate cohort to pass through the gates of Heslington Hall in 1963. <p></p><p>George Crofts – pictured seated – was 64 years old when he enrolled at the University of York to study Economics: he was, unsurprisingly, the oldest undergraduate. A World War I veteran and a pharmaceutical chemist, Crofts – following his retirement – moved from Newcastle to York to take up his place at the University and was successfully awarded his degree in Economics with Economic and Social History in 1966. </p><p></p>Crofts was not the only mature student to enrol in 1963. Mary, a mother of four from the City of York, joined in her thirties to study Economic and Politics because she saw no reason for women her age being confined to making tea or knitting. Like Crofts, she was one of the first graduates of the University and set a fine example to her daughters. Anyone, seemingly, was welcome to study at York provided they had the qualifications: there was no conventional image of a ‘York student’ to be upheld. <p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GYqRyqNsBytuO73AP0GYodEexKwqqUudhrxXKO5RVGe7OZ8FvVi6m5s4wO_E3y8VW_SVTANPzfEiak3sISDwMdooFiCqOJCaNx4RElA9ss3s3LA2E88pmtHlwtwPVcgS3dLsrfXaX7q9/s627/UOYPC-1-13-37_YEP19660713.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Picture of woman graduating in 1966" border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="627" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GYqRyqNsBytuO73AP0GYodEexKwqqUudhrxXKO5RVGe7OZ8FvVi6m5s4wO_E3y8VW_SVTANPzfEiak3sISDwMdooFiCqOJCaNx4RElA9ss3s3LA2E88pmtHlwtwPVcgS3dLsrfXaX7q9/w400-h265/UOYPC-1-13-37_YEP19660713.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/13/37, <i>Yorkshire Evening Press</i> (July 1966)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>Not only were mature students welcome, but so, too, were overseas students. Even in the earliest days of the Architecture and Archival summer schools, there had been a focus on establishing York as an internationally renowned place of study. In 1953, York was one of various cities cooperating with the British Council to host a yearly course in the spring entitled ‘Life in an Historic City’, which offered overseas students studying in UK universities the chance to experience the machinations of local government and life in British cities: a course which ran regularly in the following years. International students were commonplace in York, and it is unsurprising that there was talk of York becoming a ‘School of Britain’ at one point when it seemed as if the university dream was dead in the water. </div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbYdOnjBzupnnOC5dJcdoQDQq9_6L9TJoG__v7xuewAqZUFkRUlcbC74BHYu8hBdO8Snx7QojzP73ojSGOgQN3nqNeGPQ2GeSHHfW-pb-MNFue8MnhggUiiDfuxeLJCzV61Z6zAWcwAlS/s1697/UOYPC-1-1__NE19490819_YG195208.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="International students on York's architectural summer schools, 1940s-1950s Summer" border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1697" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbYdOnjBzupnnOC5dJcdoQDQq9_6L9TJoG__v7xuewAqZUFkRUlcbC74BHYu8hBdO8Snx7QojzP73ojSGOgQN3nqNeGPQ2GeSHHfW-pb-MNFue8MnhggUiiDfuxeLJCzV61Z6zAWcwAlS/w640-h378/UOYPC-1-1__NE19490819_YG195208.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/1/24, 160, <i>Northern Echo</i> (August 1949), <i>Yorkshire Gazette</i> (August 1952).</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">(L) Michael Onafowokan of Nigeria, studying architecture at Glasgow University, undertakes measured drawing at York Castle in 1949 as part of a York Summer School on architecture. (R) Students from the UK, Malaysia and Sudan sketching and measuring features at the Treasurer's House, 1952.</div></span><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwoMx7jWXpF01WqyXCvjBOP2jqqUAAqPBUcFFimG9jGUM9_z1PYrXczwdW2lXMhEVDPY6qsESRaBF2Kpq2Z1mdGgVaGJFdlUdasqUZJtj9JB0AJ-o0IMPwaC8ypDX4oo7ErNlK4yK8hKY/s697/UOYPC-1-3-66_YEP19560410.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Overseas students on courses in York visit the York Press" border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="697" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwoMx7jWXpF01WqyXCvjBOP2jqqUAAqPBUcFFimG9jGUM9_z1PYrXczwdW2lXMhEVDPY6qsESRaBF2Kpq2Z1mdGgVaGJFdlUdasqUZJtj9JB0AJ-o0IMPwaC8ypDX4oo7ErNlK4yK8hKY/w400-h263/UOYPC-1-3-66_YEP19560410.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/3/66, <i>Yorkshire Evening Press</i> (April 1966).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>The first cohort of students in 1963 was not lacking in international students but, unsurprisingly, they were in the minority. Students arrived in York from India, Kenya, the USA, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Iraq, Sudan, France, and Germany, to name but some of the countries. A name that may be known to those already familiar with the University’s early history might be <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/50/history/1960s/" target="_blank">Pradip Nayak</a>, a student from Kenya studying Economics and Politics, who was elected the first president of the Students’ Representative Council in 1964. Nayak was actively involved in student politics, with the Yorkshire Post describing him as “a leading light of the student movement”.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Following its official establishment, it did not take long for York to actively seek to develop its international links. In 1964, links were established with, what was then Northern Rhodesia, Zambia; in the 1964/1965 academic year, York – in association with the Ariel Foundation – hosted several African students studying Economics. The Zambian contingents of this group even celebrated their country’s independence at King’s Manor a day early so that they could travel to London the following day to take part in official celebrations.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_bNUJGBwBznDIlp_ak0-DslMZI7AdqvHUzYh8Mm9EVHa-DKeB6SHo9EtIOHWb_TnICOv5M5No7Is_4OtZh2Ibj4id9Gr9b83GeYXpuyBI-2P1MRA2IGY4XUi4-yVFHnds5QoQ5TkqRfj/s859/UOYPC-9-99__YP19641023.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Students celebrate Zambian independence" border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="859" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_bNUJGBwBznDIlp_ak0-DslMZI7AdqvHUzYh8Mm9EVHa-DKeB6SHo9EtIOHWb_TnICOv5M5No7Is_4OtZh2Ibj4id9Gr9b83GeYXpuyBI-2P1MRA2IGY4XUi4-yVFHnds5QoQ5TkqRfj/w400-h149/UOYPC-9-99__YP19641023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/9/99, <i>Yorkshire Post</i> (23 October 1964)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Student activism</h4><div><div><br /></div><div>Universities in the 1960s were well-renowned for their student activism, and, despite York’s climate being tamer than some of the more radical establishments, York students proved to be just as committed to their causes.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1964, for example, students from the University of York and St John’s College joined together to protest the life sentences that had been handed down to South African anti-apartheid activists by holding an all-night vigil in King’s Square.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVrapPgLr3VXC3iR95FayGrXYEAEXv5FIL7Un-2rJPT8-pxWYeICbIrafPptpHVirU6qAE0q5i8_gXCd8eh15npsemfkMhhTK4TbyeKVwvZEStLFGbTT8q6WBx39arQ7GUju4VfAJyuTX/s1259/UOYPC1-9-21_YEP19640613.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Student protest: Mandela vigil" border="0" data-original-height="920" data-original-width="1259" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVrapPgLr3VXC3iR95FayGrXYEAEXv5FIL7Un-2rJPT8-pxWYeICbIrafPptpHVirU6qAE0q5i8_gXCd8eh15npsemfkMhhTK4TbyeKVwvZEStLFGbTT8q6WBx39arQ7GUju4VfAJyuTX/w400-h293/UOYPC1-9-21_YEP19640613.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/9/21, <i>Yorkshire Evening Press</i> (June 1964)</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div><br />York students also took to the streets in the winter of 1965 to condemn Rhodesia’s Universal Declaration of Independence (much to the chagrin of some York residents who were out to see Father Christmas). </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE1cFEre_i8yAcZi0gbUw3SSmGBeJYoESOidZ2pAnIQQcWRdnrSTUxm0GoOuKtz1oxg-73xPo-3MJXy1wjYq-feaaKFfQswoU8MY0whQ67c9am5uY43Kr9qE5gaXgvAlQvP5Gmu9m7cV_/s645/UOYPC1-11-155_unid19651120.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Protest against Rhodesian UDI" border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="645" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE1cFEre_i8yAcZi0gbUw3SSmGBeJYoESOidZ2pAnIQQcWRdnrSTUxm0GoOuKtz1oxg-73xPo-3MJXy1wjYq-feaaKFfQswoU8MY0whQ67c9am5uY43Kr9qE5gaXgvAlQvP5Gmu9m7cV_/w400-h161/UOYPC1-11-155_unid19651120.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/11/155, [unattributed cutting] (November 1965).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>The Vietnam War was also a point of focus throughout the
early years: in 1965 York’s Debate Society passed a motion condemning American
aggression in Vietnam demonstrations were planned, and signatures were
collected for a petition to be sent to the Prime Minister that urged the
government to encourage a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In 1966, some
York students got into hot water with the British Legion for giving out white
poppies for others to wear on Armistice Day in recognition of the impact of the
Vietnam War.</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Indeed, so fed up with the image of the protesting student
in mid-1965, two York students protested the protests that had been taking
place, positing contrary opinions on several subjects that had other University
of York students up in arms! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><a name="_heading=h.gjdgxs"></a>It was not all protests,
however. Students were often behind fundraising attempts. The York
University Movement for Racial Equality worked in tandem with Keighley
International Friendship Council in 1965 – as well as the Linguistics and
Education departments at York – to help teach English to immigrants in
Keighley. The Movement launched an appeal – which was successful – for £1,000
that was to pay for the upkeep of a rented social centre that would enable the
scheme to develop. <p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieEm7m5V2QJFFB2yFr4xd1HtP8mf9nvnZztZv50RcsNhHLtbFRttREUALCV1IdGeWXCfpEuu5fFZNjDcApxQfYjf-3tdv-kP8ZDJ-4rZA-OqAogFcUwh5FMjWcwoTQAxe3gx1oZrXhvwFP/s793/UOYPC1-11-150_TA19651110.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Students help immigrants in Keighley" border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="793" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieEm7m5V2QJFFB2yFr4xd1HtP8mf9nvnZztZv50RcsNhHLtbFRttREUALCV1IdGeWXCfpEuu5fFZNjDcApxQfYjf-3tdv-kP8ZDJ-4rZA-OqAogFcUwh5FMjWcwoTQAxe3gx1oZrXhvwFP/w400-h360/UOYPC1-11-150_TA19651110.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/11/150, <i>Telegraph and Argus </i>(November 1965)</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div><h4 style="text-align: left;">'Sporting’ endeavours</h4><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Forget the annual ‘Wars of the Roses’ competition with Lancaster University: the hottest sporting action to be found in the archives concerns the University of Hull’s challenge of a Winnie the Pooh contest in 1966. Posted on University of York’s noticeboards, Hull students challenged York students to a game of Poohsticks and Pooh hums – for those uninitiated, Poohsticks is a game that involves two sticks, a body of flowing water, and a bridge (what better campus than York’s for such a competition with its largest plastic-bottomed lake in Europe and bridges, one might ask; one with faster running water, one might answer), and Pooh hums were to be songs that would be judged on their “Poohishness”. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Sadly, I could find no articles discussing whether any courageous York students took up this most daring of challenges – should the University of Hull, or any students of the time, be able to clarify any information, I would gladly welcome it. [<span>1</span>] </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">* * * * * *</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Limitations and lacunae: memory and forgetting in the archives</h3><div> </div><div>Whilst there are many and myriad benefits from examining the archive to gain an understanding of the University of York’s early history, it is also necessary to recognise the archive’s limitations. The 1966 sketch acknowledged that, in the distant future of 2546, there would be no evidence of the sketch having taken place, and this observation highlights the fact that archives, no matter how varied their contents, cannot record everything, which can have a significant impact on what and who is remembered. </div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">The art of selection</h4><div><br /></div><div>In fact, archives contain only brief slivers of a vast, expansive past. For the researchers of the future to be aware that the sketch had taken place, an account of the sketch would have to have been documented in a newspaper headline. This would require: a journalist to decide the moment was worth documenting in the first instance; the volume’s compiler to decide that the cutting was worth including; an archivist to decide to keep the volume in an archive; a useful finding aid to be created to search through the surviving cuttings; and it would require this archive to be cared for to survive into the future (whether this survival would be in paper or digital form is a question for another day). For survival, selection is imperative at every point. </div><div><br /></div><div>Selection highlights just how easy it is for an event, a person, a group of people, to be consigned to the cutting-room floor: to be forgotten even in the quest for memory. The necessity of selection has, in the past, created lacunae in archives, and it is frequently the least powerful in society that suffer from this lack of documentation and lack of representation in the archives. Thankfully, action has been taken – is being taken – to redress this wrong: whether in state archives, or in more local, community archives, efforts are underway to preserve the histories of the most marginalised groups on their own terms.</div><div><br /></div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Selection at work in the press cuttings archive</h4><div><br /></div><div>In terms of where selection fits into the archive that I have been working with, it is not necessarily a case of archival selection that delimits the contents – in fact, the collection process seems to have been rather indiscriminate, with the only criteria necessitating that articles must mention the University in some capacity – but rather the nature of the archive itself. It is an archive of press cuttings and press cuttings alone, which ultimately means that its contents reflect the interests of the press throughout the 1950s and 1960s. </div><div><br /></div><div>Stories included in the press cuttings can vary from the mundane to the scandalous, but there is little doubt that they do not – indeed could not – report on every minute happening concerning the University. Selectivity at work once again. Moreover, the articles often tease at information that they cannot further elucidate on. A case in point: a 1966 <i>Yorkshire Evening Press</i> article discussed an <i>Eboracum </i>article written by a first-year student concerned with the relationship between overseas and home students and the existence of unofficial segregation. The cutting acknowledges the existence of this tension but does nothing more to explore the matter: there are no interviews with international students documenting their experience at the time, for example. </div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhEiaRs72DNCMpX0-Vxc_uplllcMENeNEiXa-7-18_IW6SbNpu7QWUcg4bn_3f4IJfQlQiVBD95p6J2cmBkggwNG_HhqtU-aXPrjo9c_0GrZbCNeBlWZMij9_Fjrt8wJGWDIa-gBqmQ6v/s493/colbar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="164" data-original-width="493" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhEiaRs72DNCMpX0-Vxc_uplllcMENeNEiXa-7-18_IW6SbNpu7QWUcg4bn_3f4IJfQlQiVBD95p6J2cmBkggwNG_HhqtU-aXPrjo9c_0GrZbCNeBlWZMij9_Fjrt8wJGWDIa-gBqmQ6v/w434-h144/colbar.jpg" width="434" /></a></div><br /><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_f73QLiFvVbMvqUdx_FeAQlVV6HqqywIxDUqfjbvo0L8L7vQuo7PNo6jsEyg0RdWPK2fxRDsCaVBXjkdWRpSsHZLUPLeHaR1JfIc8CMpGdnqphf4SjZgDPx5j_G2Ytdarffu0CwCrI9OZ/s782/bar5.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="782" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_f73QLiFvVbMvqUdx_FeAQlVV6HqqywIxDUqfjbvo0L8L7vQuo7PNo6jsEyg0RdWPK2fxRDsCaVBXjkdWRpSsHZLUPLeHaR1JfIc8CMpGdnqphf4SjZgDPx5j_G2Ytdarffu0CwCrI9OZ/w457-h219/bar5.JPG" width="457" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UOY/PC/1/12/89, <i>Yorkshire Evening Press</i> (March 1966)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Combating selectivity</h4><div><br /></div><div>How do archives avoid complacency and recognise the gaps in the historical record? I already mentioned the efforts that have been taken elsewhere in archives to combat the impact that such selectivity can have, and similar principles might be applied here. The early years of the University of York’s history are still within living memory, and this means that steps can be taken to counter archival gaps, helping to guarantee that the archival record will be more inclusive and representative of everyone involved in the University of York’s history. </div><div><br /></div><div>In other words, let us hope that the exploration of a press cuttings archive can be used to start conversations about the early years of the University of York as opposed to finishing them, creating a comprehensive and inclusive archive that might survive into 2546 and even beyond. </div><div><br /></div><div><hr /></div></div><div>[<span style="font-size: x-small;">1</span>] <span>Do you know if York accepted the challenge? Do you have a photographic record of the events or an original 1966 Hum or rhyme? If so, please contact the Borthwick and let us know! </span></div><br />Charles Fongehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03408504710376298151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-43155109970571911602021-05-04T11:40:00.000+01:002021-05-04T11:40:05.986+01:00Lady Mary Arundell and the Italian Convent at Loughborough <p>By Sally-Anne Shearn</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In June 1845, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Morning Post</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> reported that the residents of Loughborough had been witness
to an ‘imposing spectacle’ of a funeral, ‘</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">amid
rites and observances of a nature so unusual as to well merit the fullest notice’.
The deceased was Lady Mary Anne Arundell, the widow of James, 10th Baron
Arundell of Wardour Castle, and the observances were Roman Catholic, presided
over by the Italian Father Pagani, Superior of nearby Ratcliffe
College. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The
funeral, and the rather saintly qualities of Lady Arundell, was reported on in
great detail in <i>The Tablet</i>, a Catholic paper, as well as <i>The Morning
Post</i>, but another source of information about the life and death of Lady
Arundell, and her contributions to Loughborough, exists at the Borthwick
Institute for Archives, thanks to the survival of the letters of her ‘most
attached’ friend Henrietta Crewe. Henrietta’s letters to her sister and
confidante Annabel Crewe, later Annabel Milnes, wife of Richard Monckton
Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, provide a window into the life and personality of
Lady Arundell, her decision to move to Loughborough, and the events that
followed when she set out to bring an Italian convent and school to a small
Leicestershire town.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Lady
Mary Anne Nugent-Temple-Grenville was born in 1787, the only daughter of the
1st Marquess of Buckingham and a granddaughter of George Grenville, Prime
Minister between 1763 and 1765. Although her father, the Marquess, was a
Protestant, an 1886 <i>Life of Antonio Rosmini Serbati</i>, Catholic priest,
theologian, and founder of the Institute of Charity, claims that her mother,
Mary Nugent, the daughter of the Irish Viscount Clare, was Catholic and that it
was by her example that the young Lady Mary was first introduced to the faith. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ah7JC6_GIG2jDqFgsqzovXQ94L5Kt0mCJ0b9QNXvIusS7XK3s45xSZrxfGZSK71OAKSlmeH0Hu1yaX72t35KY-SGSXN5D1sHYa8qZuGd869xH8_n6zSSQQoc_MXZjMEEA5ClIO25eE8/s2048/Mary_Anne_Nugent-Temple-Grenville%252C_by_John_Hoppner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1597" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ah7JC6_GIG2jDqFgsqzovXQ94L5Kt0mCJ0b9QNXvIusS7XK3s45xSZrxfGZSK71OAKSlmeH0Hu1yaX72t35KY-SGSXN5D1sHYa8qZuGd869xH8_n6zSSQQoc_MXZjMEEA5ClIO25eE8/w501-h640/Mary_Anne_Nugent-Temple-Grenville%252C_by_John_Hoppner.jpg" width="501" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal">Lady Mary Anne Nugent-Temple-Grenville by John Hoppner (19<sup>th</sup>
century) Wikimedia Commons </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">She
converted formally to Roman Catholicism in 1810 and in 1811 she married the
Catholic James Arundell, then heir to the 9th Baron of Wardour. He
succeeded as the 10th Baron in 1817. Lady Arundell and her husband travelled
widely on the continent, and it was in Italy in the early 1830s that they made
the acquaintance of Rosmini himself and were first introduced to his Institute
of Charity. The institute was then still in its infancy, having been
founded in 1828. It was dedicated to charitable work in all its forms but
focused particularly on pastoral and spiritual care, education, and care for
the sick, poor, and marginalised, work that greatly appealed to Lady
Arundell. The Institute was approved formally as a religious congregation
by Pope Gregory XVI in 1838.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">Rosmini
wrote to Lady Arundell personally in 1834 when Lord Arundell died unexpectedly
at Rome, leaving her a widow at the age of only 47. She returned to
England alone, and at some point in the next few years moved to Bath to take up
residence at Prior Park, the Roman Catholic college established by Bishop Peter
Augustine Baines in 1828. There too, she found the influence of Rosmini,
who had sent members of his Institute to teach at the college at Baines’ request.
The first was Father Luigi Gentili, followed later by Dr Pagani. A novice
from Ampleforth Abbey who studied at Prior Park, Moses Furlong, would also
later join the Institute and become spiritual advisor to Lady Arundell.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV76-GMQsrGCsaFQFm8RtFlATiiGgAh9zuwVfiDgk7ld6JAf2KkmR9-UmaeZXqbGSqBsgbqt5BmwlgPwuKJ0kIbjH_VioVTYElx6IRIHHA8lT2sUrzUz_I7rFqyct04qY8HfHMpUJPrsk/s1351/rosmini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1351" data-original-width="1024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV76-GMQsrGCsaFQFm8RtFlATiiGgAh9zuwVfiDgk7ld6JAf2KkmR9-UmaeZXqbGSqBsgbqt5BmwlgPwuKJ0kIbjH_VioVTYElx6IRIHHA8lT2sUrzUz_I7rFqyct04qY8HfHMpUJPrsk/w486-h640/rosmini.jpg" width="486" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Francesco Hayez, Ritratto di Antonio Rosmini (1853) Wikimedia Commons</td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It
seems to have been at Prior Park that Lady Arundell met and became friends with
Henrietta Crewe. Despite their differences in age (Henrietta was 21 years
her junior), the two women had much in common. Like Lady Arundell,
Henrietta was born to a wealthy and well-connected Protestant family, she was
the granddaughter of the 1st Baron Crewe and his wife Frances Anne Greville,
and she was also a convert to the Catholic faith. Between 1829 and 1836
she had lived at </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Liège <span style="background: white;">in Belgium with her estranged
father, the 2nd Baron Crewe, and it was here that her interest in the Catholic
faith led her not only to convert but also to make plans to join a convent - an
ambition which was ultimately forbidden by her family.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">Henrietta
had already made several visits to Prior Park in the early 1830s during her
regular trips back to England, but in 1836, following the death of her father,
she returned to England for good and took up residence at The Priory, a house
in the grounds. In these decades Prior Park would seem to have been
something of a haven for a small circle of well-bred Catholic ladies who were
regular visitors, staying either in Bath or at the college itself, and deeply
devoted to the colourful and charismatic Bishop Baines. Some, like
Henrietta, even invested money in the enterprise, although few saw a return on
their investments. It is not clear from Henrietta’s letters when she and
Lady Arundell first met. In a letter of 1841 Henrietta mentions Lady
Arundell’s visit of two years previously ‘</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">before she had been quite able to settle
about returning.’ </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Evidently, she had
made up her mind by May 1840 when Henrietta writes of her familiarly as a
fellow resident and close friend. The accounts of Lady Arundell’s funeral
describe her as a ‘rigid Catholic’, living a life of ‘extraordinary self-denial
and charity’, but it is clear from Henrietta’s letters to her sister that she
was far more than this rather pious epithet suggests. Attempting to sum
up her ‘darling friend’ in 1843, Henrietta writes of the ‘freshness, & originality,
& fun, & supremely delightful nonsense of her’, recalling ‘happy Monday
evenings’ spent together reading aloud from the latest serialised novel by
Charles Dickens, long conversations that ‘she always contrived to render
merry’, and regular lively visits from her younger brother Lord Nugent and his
family to whom Lady Arundell was very close. ‘There never <u>was</u> such
an attachment,’ Henrietta had written in an earlier letter, ‘as between that
brother & sister’. </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But Lady Arundell
could not be fully content with her life at Bath, busy and enjoyable as it
was. As she revealed to Henrietta, she had long cherished hopes of
founding a convent in England and perhaps even joining it herself. She had
talked of it with her husband during their marriage and they had both agreed
that whoever should survive the other would embrace a religious life, she as a
nun of some sort and he as a Jesuit. Her plan was initially to establish
a convent near Bath, where the sisters could run a school for the poor, but finding
an affordable house proved difficult and her choice of religious order
unexpectedly contentious. Bishop Baines, according to Henrietta, favoured
the Sisters of Charity or Sisters of Mercy, but Lady Arundell had her heart set
upon the Italian ‘Suore della Providenza’ or Sisters of Providence of Rosmini’s
own Institute of Charity, commonly known as the Rosminian Sisters of
Providence. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is likely there
was more to Baines’ opposition than Henrietta knew or wished to reveal to Annabel,
who had a persistent suspicion of all things Catholic. By 1840 the
relationship between Baines and Rosmini was strained. Baines’ biographer
Pamela J. Gilbert characterises Baines as something of a flawed genius, a
brilliant educationalist but obstinate, antagonistic, and as likely to create
enemies as loyal followers like Henrietta. It was certainly so with
Rosmini and his followers at Prior Park. When admission numbers began to
fall in the 1830s Baines blamed the strict regime introduced by Father Gentili
and set about limiting his authority and finally removing him from the college
altogether. In 1838 he sent him to a convent at Stapehill and then to
another at Spettisbury near Blandford. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rosmini
was forced to appoint the relative newcomer, Dr Pagani, as Superior of the
Institute at Prior Park in his place and withdraw Gentili back to Italy.
After a brief period there however, Rosmini sent Gentili to England to take up
residence as chaplain to Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps, a Roman Catholic convert,
disliked by Baines, who was active in the Catholic revival movement in
England. From Phillipps’ home at Grace Dieu manor, near Loughborough,
Gentili ran a hugely successful Catholic mission and was credited with
converting several hundred people to the faith. In August 1842 Rosmini
took the decision to withdraw all remaining Rosminian brethren from Prior Park
and to establish a new foundation in Leicestershire in the Midland
District. Fathers Pagani and Furlong left Prior Park later that month and
joined Father Gentili in Loughborough at the first house of the Institute of
Charity in England. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgre32MYxmkSErViuScLWtSHSSEKcssbZecOHZqKU2SIrq-CHq6Q904megF2QMIqHBi0YXwcNwuzCXsyrpiGJftpEQT5Vea_Vp2WRDI06rpa55l_8fJs5scdEUCaMaRS2IISPynopv3zS4/s2048/Letters+other+%252813+of+40%2529+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1295" data-original-width="2048" height="405" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgre32MYxmkSErViuScLWtSHSSEKcssbZecOHZqKU2SIrq-CHq6Q904megF2QMIqHBi0YXwcNwuzCXsyrpiGJftpEQT5Vea_Vp2WRDI06rpa55l_8fJs5scdEUCaMaRS2IISPynopv3zS4/w640-h405/Letters+other+%252813+of+40%2529+-+Copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: times;">Letter 243 from Henrietta Crewe to Annabel Crewe, Milnes Coates Archive</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is perhaps
unsurprising then that when Lady Arundell’s plans for a Bath foundation were
abandoned she would turn her attention instead to Loughborough, now the centre
of Rosminian work in England. In March 1843 Henrietta was finally able to
write to her sister to reveal all, for ‘the embargo has been taken off and my
lips unsealed - Before...I was under both orders and a promise not to mention
it to any one.’ Lady Arundell had indeed settled upon ‘the little
stocking-weaving Town’ of Loughborough for her convent. The presiding
Bishop, Bishop Walsh, had no objection to Lady Arundell’s choice of religious
sisters, Rosmini himself approved, and a house was found ‘in every respect
adapted to the purpose’ and evidently cheaper, ‘financial difficulties’ being
‘not so great in that neighbourhood’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Lady Arundell left
Bath on the 22nd of February and Gilbert writes that Baines felt Lady
Arundell’s defection from the college sorely, although Henrietta describes how
the Bishop appeared at the door of Prior Park at the last moment to give her
his blessing. Her leaving was evidently a painful subject for Henrietta,
and for Lady Arundell too who wrote that no words could express what she felt
and always should feel on the matter. ‘I, who have so few friends! at
leaving one who I feel is one of the best!’ </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">After a stay of
several weeks with the Phillipps’ family at Grace Dieu, Lady Arundell finally
took possession of her new home in Loughborough. She wrote to Henrietta
soon after her arrival and regularly thereafter. Her first weeks were
spent ‘shopping- furniture-buying, & arranging’ the house, in what she
unfortunately calls the ‘worst & roughest paved town in England’. She
was accompanied there by her butler and cook, a Mr and Mrs Doughty who had been
in her service for more than thirty years. The house was called Paget’s
House and was situated on Woodgate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
her first visit later in 1843 Henrietta described it to Annabel. It was a
half modern, half Elizabethan house with ample accommodation for a community of
six or eight Sisters of Charity, besides Lady Arundell’s own apartment, and a
room which had been converted into a chapel for daily mass. Lady
Arundell’s drawing room and bedroom looked out over the ‘quiet shady garden’ at
the rear of the house ‘where the Sisters will be able to breathe a little fresh
air and recreate from their labours being unlooked’. At present the
garden was only a lawn but Lady Arundell had plans to plant some flower beds in
the autumn. The garden door opened on to a road leading into the country
and the country thereabouts was, to Henrietta’s unflattering surprise,
‘extremely pretty - the whole district of Charnwood Forest forming a sort of
oasis in the otherwise ugly county of Leicestershire’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">By Henrietta’s second
visit Lady Arundell had made a few additional alterations, particularly to her
drawing room where she had created a little greenhouse ‘full of flowers and birds’
with the ‘prettiest effect imaginable’ by adding a second sheet of glass in
front of the lower half of the large window. The addition was practical
as well as pretty for Henrietta reports that the rest of the house was
noticeably cold, with no carpets due to ‘Conventual simplicity’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Henrietta greatly
enjoyed her first visit to Loughborough in September 1843.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well as seeing the new house, she visited
Grace Dieu and met the ‘cheerful’ and welcoming Phillipps family, dined with
Lady Arundell and Father Gentili (‘a very superior person’ as she wrote to Annabel)
and saw the new Catholic church at Shepshed, designed by Augustus Pugin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also drove out to the recently founded Cistercian
monastery at Mount St Bernard, whose permanent buildings were also designed by
Pugin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a place she had long
wished to see, and she professed herself even more gratified than she had
expected at the sight of the flourishing farm amidst the ‘smiling landscape’
and the charitable works of the brothers, a much needed alternative, in her
eyes, to the grudging aid offered by the union workhouses.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju597o1IZARRIh0RVz0z4FXb_gd1Sx5Sv26oeOLof8lBTB6xE7SKThVpKyx0bzfZvvErBshNxF24AcQkkXKrx5UR1M19F2fQYpgpAKW8wPCjGLyJ-B4k-Vcssix3sY-VRo6Hx3Y9rRNvU/s2048/DSC_4549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="2048" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju597o1IZARRIh0RVz0z4FXb_gd1Sx5Sv26oeOLof8lBTB6xE7SKThVpKyx0bzfZvvErBshNxF24AcQkkXKrx5UR1M19F2fQYpgpAKW8wPCjGLyJ-B4k-Vcssix3sY-VRo6Hx3Y9rRNvU/w640-h324/DSC_4549.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Milnes Coates Crewe correspondence</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">She was disappointed
however, on this occasion, not to meet any of the Sisters of Providence who
were to labour alongside Lady Arundell.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
two ‘ladies from Milan’ chosen by Rosmini to begin the convent and run the
school, Sister Maria Francesca Parea and Sister Maria Anastasia Samonini, were
still ‘waiting for a boat’ and would reach Loughborough the following month
after a journey of twelve days. It was in mid-October then that two Roman
Catholic nuns appeared on the streets of Loughborough for the first time in
their black habits and stiff white veils, to the outrage of many of the town’s
Protestant residents. ‘Already they have been obliged to have black poke
bonnets and veils concocted for going out of doors’, Henrietta wrote just a few
months later, ‘as the three times that they ventured forth in their white head
gear, they were regularly mobbed.’ The last time was ‘the worst of all,
and the poor little things were a little frightened as well as incommoded by
the crowd’ that the change of clothing was deemed a necessity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">By the time Henrietta
met the nuns in person in early 1844, they were settling into their new
life. Henrietta reports that the elder of the two, Superiora, was still
struggling with the language, but the younger, Suor Anastasia, was making better
progress. They already had two English </span>postulants<span style="font-size: 12pt;">, a widow and a young
girl, who would soon commence their novitiate. The first postulant took
the habit on the Feast of the Annunciation in 1844 and the small community began
its life with Suor Maria Francesca as Superior and Suor Anastasia as Mistress
of Novices.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The nuns formally
took charge of the school in March 1844, becoming the first religious sisters
to run a Catholic day school in England in the nineteenth century. An
article in the <i>Catholic Herald</i> in 1985 provides some details as to the
layout of the school. Lady Arundell had adapted the stables of the house
for an infants’ school and made the loft above the coach house into a classroom
for the older girls. Before the nuns took charge, lessons were being
given by a Mrs Moon, a ‘kind mistress’ who Henrietta notes had ‘the best that
Loughbro’ could supply, but very far from what is requisite’, and Lady Arundell
herself who devoted an hour or two each day to it. Now the nuns would
begin to teach the school ‘according to their own method’, although given the
language barriers Henrietta writes that they accepted there might be a few
‘spropositi’ (an Italian word for blunders) along the way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Whatever spropositi
there might have been, the school and convent continued to grow and to thrive,
particularly after the arrival of Mary Barbara Amherst as a postulant in
1845. The sister of the Bishop of Northampton, as Mary Agnes Amherst she
would become the first English Superior of the Sisters of Providence and a
central figure in the growth of the order’s work in England. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Sadly, Lady Arundell
would not live long enough to see these developments. She died in June
1845, only two years after her arrival in the town and before she had seen her
dream of erecting a proper convent building realised. On hearing of her
friend being suddenly taken ill, Henrietta immediately set out for Loughborough
but arrived too late. ‘You did not, could not know how very dearly I
loved her’ she wrote to Annabel that night, from her room at the convent, ‘or
how immense a loss it is to me’. She describes the arrival of Lord
Nugent, whose ‘voice and manner’ she would never forget, and the long and
arduous day of her funeral when she resolved to follow her ‘darling Mimi’ with
her prayers to her last resting place. She couldn’t help but note that the
route along the streets to the little Catholic chapel was the same one they had
so often trodden together to attend prayers. Lady Arundell left money
to continue her work in Loughborough and instructions to be buried at the
nearby Ratcliffe College, recently established by Rosmini and Father Gentili.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">After Lady Arundell’s
death Henrietta mentions Loughborough only rarely, but it is clear she kept up
with the progress of her friend’s work there and in 1848 she made another
visit. Writing afterwards from her brother’s grand home at Crewe Hall in
Cheshire she calls the busy house party there her ‘little penance after the delights
of dear Loughboro’. In answer to Annabel’s concern, she assures her that
‘it is scarcely sad to go there, my dearest, I cannot explain to you what it is
- I only know that it is luxury. I feel as if I had her still when I am in
those darling scenes where we have so often prayed together - where we last
parted - where she still lives in all these good works which it has pleased God
to bless in so very wonderful a manner’. To Henrietta’s delight ‘her
Nuns’ had increased in number from 3 to 17 and a ‘charming convent building’ was
being built just out of the town, on the Park Road. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Our Lady’s Convent
School would open in 1850 and today, more than 170 years on, the work begun by
Lady Arundell and the Italian sisters lives on as Loughborough Amherst School.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><u>Bibliography</u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: times;">Milnes Coates Archive, Borthwick Institute for Archives</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">‘Importing the Rosminians’, in </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The Catholic Herald</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, 25 October 1985</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px;">Sister Maria Bruna Ferretti, <i>The Rosminian Sisters of Providence</i>, ed. J. Anthony Dewhirst (2000)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px;">Pamela J. Gilbert, <i>This Restless Prelate: Bishop Peter Baines 1786-1843</i> (2006)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">William Lockhart, <i>Life
of Antonio Rosmini Serbati, Founder of the Institute of Charity</i>, Volume II
(1886)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">John Morris, <i>A
Selection from the Ascetical Letters of Antonio Rosmini</i>, Volume II 1832-1836
(1995)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">
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<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-78194083855310170212021-04-15T17:14:00.007+01:002021-04-16T08:43:09.065+01:00Rowntree Colonial Histories: A Statement<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-a2b98780-7fff-f4cd-689e-86677c936825" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;">As custodians of the archives of <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Rowntree & Co</a>, the <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/jrf">Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)</a>, the <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/jrct">Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT)</a> and the <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/jrrt">Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (JRRT)</a> we welcome <a href="https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/news/statement-on-rowntree-colonial-histories/">today’s acknowledgements</a> from The Rowntree Society and Trusts of the company’s historic involvement in colonialism and racial exploitation.<br /><br />The archives of the Rowntree company, family and trusts document their lives, work, and beliefs and are an important resource that enables us to examine - and re-examine - how their wealth was created. The statement of the Rowntree Society and Rowntree Trusts draws on archives which are available to researchers here at the Borthwick Institute and which can be searched through our online catalogue <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/">Borthcat</a>.<br /><br />We will continue to collaborate closely with our research community, including the Society and Trusts, to facilitate, encourage and undertake research into colonialism and exploitative practices as well as challenging ourselves by critically interrogating our own curatorial practices and assumptions. <br /><br />Archives are important repositories of our collective heritage. We have a responsibility to acknowledge the full cultural importance of the records in our care, and to direct our efforts to ensure that the voices of those who have been dismissed and marginalised are recognised, heard and amplified - now and in the future.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-43339233472542994262020-07-16T16:47:00.002+01:002020-09-17T10:22:55.122+01:00My Year as an Archive Trainee<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span><i style="background-color: white;"><font face="inherit">By John-Francis Goodacre</font></i></span></div><hr style="background-color: white; color: #333333;" /><font face="inherit"><br /></font><div class="separator"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="inherit">As my year as Archives Graduate Trainee comes to an end, I have been reflecting on my time at the Borthwick and what I’ve learnt along the way. The last twelve months have been a fantastic experience and a great introduction to working in archives. Special thanks go to my manager Amanda, and to all the Archives Assistants for their helpfulness and willingness to share their expertise.</font></span></div><font face="inherit"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a1b4b99b-7fff-86df-d9ae-b5d99c469bfe"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Working with the wills and inventories in the Borthwick’s </span><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/guides/research-guides/probate-courts/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">probate collection</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was at the heart of my year, and this gave me great insight into a wide range of archival skills and processes. I developed my understanding of how the documents were created, their archival history, and what they can reveal to researchers today. I learned to use the finding aids (both analogue and digital), retrieve documents from the strongroom, and collaborate with our conservators who clean and flatten the tightly-rolled bundles. Last but not least, I made digital copies of many hundreds of these documents to send to researchers around the world. Following up my own interests, I even researched and wrote two blog posts about the probate collection - one concerning </span><a href="http://borthwickinstitute.blogspot.com/2020/04/isaac-havelock-book-lover-in.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a seventeenth-century book owner</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and one about </span><a href="http://borthwickinstitute.blogspot.com/2020/06/where-theres-will-charles-dickens-and.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Charles Dickens</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also worked in the searchroom, where I helped students, family historians, academics, television companies and even the university’s own Vice-Chancellor to find and use archival material. This gave me a taste of the bewildering variety of enquiries that archivists get to answer, as well as an appreciation for how important access to archives is. On top of this I have helped with packaging projects, updating the <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/">online catalogue</a>, and attended conferences and training events across the country.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A real achievement has been learning to read and interpret the handwriting in some of the Borthwick’s oldest documents. Over the course of the year I took two palaeography modules alongside history postgraduates, and a <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/lfa/languages-special-purposes/documentary-latin/">course in medieval Latin</a>. It’s a great feeling to be able to read documents that seemed impenetrable only one year ago, and I hope to put these skills to use in the future.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghZAGOM5a-gGoeOfOiieP7rDvdmPxyfJ-4Na9NwhAaPfpkKCBCTepqc03H5jbV8REvyt8cHqiEJQp9eYD9b2Uc-6rsutG4lfgqRpDtfGv98rCMhoPnl1P4TNZUQXqqfutDBHAmgw91RgM/s2048/BIA17180783%252C+John+Sharp%252C+Keighley%252C+Oct.+1756_0010.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1338" data-original-width="2048" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghZAGOM5a-gGoeOfOiieP7rDvdmPxyfJ-4Na9NwhAaPfpkKCBCTepqc03H5jbV8REvyt8cHqiEJQp9eYD9b2Uc-6rsutG4lfgqRpDtfGv98rCMhoPnl1P4TNZUQXqqfutDBHAmgw91RgM/w400-h261/BIA17180783%252C+John+Sharp%252C+Keighley%252C+Oct.+1756_0010.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A document from our probate collection</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a literature graduate with a love of early printed books, I particularly enjoyed the opportunities to work with York University Library’s staff and collections. I was part of the team that organised the Library and Archives’ student enterprise competition </span><a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/library/lib-inspo/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LibInspo</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and I helped bring archives and rare books together for Wonders on Wednesday exhibitions. One of the highlights of my year was developing a hands-on bookbinding activity for one of these events.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhUjab4Zu8EHPVooF_D7xhQ1WIHZw1l3BM7H5oqYj4wPkV6Ty3R-9blxPYStJqZ4-2BDt3rgO1GMMZ-CjdyyaSa9MP79hwoILejNEI1J7lT9PLdJl-VC8aExacK1HIDmL2wKyzykOelo/s2048/IMG_7885.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhUjab4Zu8EHPVooF_D7xhQ1WIHZw1l3BM7H5oqYj4wPkV6Ty3R-9blxPYStJqZ4-2BDt3rgO1GMMZ-CjdyyaSa9MP79hwoILejNEI1J7lT9PLdJl-VC8aExacK1HIDmL2wKyzykOelo/w300-h400/IMG_7885.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><font size="2">Sewing a facsimile of <i>The Strange and Wonderful History and Prophecies of Mother Shipton</i>, a chapbook printed by James Kendrew of York in 1809</font></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Running the Borthwick’s social media gave me lots of opportunities to find intriguing stories and new ways of presenting archives to a wider audience. Having a pandemic-related tweet go (mildly) viral was certainly something I didn’t expect from this year!</span></p></span><br />
</font><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en"><font face="inherit">"the archive is closed until further notice"<br />- technically true<br />- a bit boring<br />- everyone is saying it<br /><br />"we have sealed the vault until the plague passes"<br />- heroic<br />- sounds like you have a treasure hoard in the strongroom<br />- nobody can check as the archive is closed</font></p><font face="inherit">— UoY Borthwick Institute for Archives (@UoYBorthwick) <a href="https://twitter.com/UoYBorthwick/status/1245280645045268481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2020</a></font></blockquote><div><font face="inherit"><br /></font></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="inherit">As my final four months were spent working from home, I was glad to return to the strongroom one last time before leaving. I'm now looking forward to beginning my masters degree and the next stage of my career, and I wish all the best to my colleagues and to anyone considering working in archives. </font></span></p><div><font face="inherit"> </font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkxv3ZkaVJB_oeyst2nk2WKlyi4j-yO6V4ZqFGpDkYckr-sTzaQT7Oo7ie31Vb1b9yVedjHGKgeH8aRl6qx-3VqzAHi1VP6MrjMs88YD9tJ8VrFoVpUP_myUzKhAXxhp-yccafGJOsvU/s2048/New+wall+vinyl+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1735" data-original-width="2048" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkxv3ZkaVJB_oeyst2nk2WKlyi4j-yO6V4ZqFGpDkYckr-sTzaQT7Oo7ie31Vb1b9yVedjHGKgeH8aRl6qx-3VqzAHi1VP6MrjMs88YD9tJ8VrFoVpUP_myUzKhAXxhp-yccafGJOsvU/w400-h339/New+wall+vinyl+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-52974678017337960992020-06-09T10:06:00.001+01:002020-09-17T10:03:49.024+01:00‘Where there’s a will’: Charles Dickens and York’s Church Court Records<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i style="background-color: white;">By John-Francis Goodacre, Archives Trainee</i></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the 12th of October 1850, an exposé reprinted in the </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">York Herald</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sparked a small controversy in the city. Criticising the way that York’s ecclesiastical records were kept, the article generated a flurry of accusations and denials in the city’s newspaper over the subsequent weeks. However, no attempts were made to draw the author into this dispute, perhaps as the piece had appeared without direct attribution. We now know that the article, which was the second in a series of four under the title ‘The Doom of English Wills’, was written by the 38-year-old Charles Dickens and had first appeared in his weekly journal </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Household Words</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. But what made Dickens, one of Victorian England’s best-loved authors, so interested in the storage of historical records - the same records that are now housed at the Borthwick?</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As the Borthwick’s current Graduate Trainee, a large part of my time has been spent providing access to the centuries of wills and probate records in the York Diocesan Archive. I was fascinated to learn that Dickens wrote about the very pieces of paper and parchment that I have been handling day to day. The tightly rolled documents, often covered with a layer of smoky residue that obstinately coats the fingers, sometimes feel like they belong to a Dickensian world of candlelit intrigue.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Katharine Longley has already written a fantastic account of all four ‘Doom of English Wills’ articles and their place in record-keeping history in the </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of the Society of Archivists</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. However, this left me curious about how they fitted into Dickens’ career as a writer. I am fascinated by the way Dickens brought his skills as a novelist to the investigation of York’s historical records, while exploring issues that would play a central role in his novels of the early 1850s.</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Doom of English Wills</span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The article that appeared in the </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Herald</span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (subtitled 'Cathedral Number Two’) was the second in a series of journalistic investigations into the keeping of England’s historic records. A young lawyer and antiquary named William Downing Bruce had made expeditions to four of England’s great ecclesiastical registries (the church archives of the time), and Dickens, together with his assistant editor William Henry Wills, turned Bruce’s experiences into articles for his newly-established magazine </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Household Words</span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Dickens gives Bruce the pseudonym ‘Mr William Wallace’, and narrates his experience in York. Wallace goes in search of the registry, where he wishes to look at some documents for the purposes of historical research. When he finally finds the registry, a shed sticking to the outside of the Minster ‘like a dirty little pimple’, his research is thwarted by its obstructive management. The Deputy Registrar questions Wallace’s motives, refuses to let him see any wills from after the year 1500, and repeatedly claims that the records he wants to see have been lost or stolen. After a week of apparently fruitless struggle, Wallace is forced to ‘beat a dignified retreat’.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Corruption and reform</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Until 1858, the Church of England had jurisdiction over matters of probate in England and Wales. This meant that a small number of civil law courts had the (often lucrative) job of approving wills and giving grants of administration if a testator had died intestate - that is, without leaving a will.</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens was already familiar with the technicalities of these legal processes. After leaving school, he had worked for a year as a junior clerk in a law office, and spent a subsequent four years as a freelance legal reporter at Doctors’ Commons, the London Inn of Court for civil lawyers which played host to the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Doctors’ Commons and its record office even appeared in one of Dickens’s first forays into legal satire, an episode of his </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sketches by Boz</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which appeared in the </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Morning Chronicle </span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in October 1836.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The registries that housed the wills and other records created by the courts had an important function. The documents could be vital evidence in settling inheritance disputes, not to mention being rich historical sources. Public access was thus a serious matter. Yet despite parliamentary debates and inquiries throughout the 1830s and 40s, and the passing of the Public Record Office Act in 1838, the conditions of storage and ease of access to such documents was haphazard. Additionally, it was suspected that some registries were charging extortionate fees for their own gain.</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In his novels of the 1850s, Dickens turned his attention to antiquated institutions that in his view were keeping England stuck in a morass of corruption and bureaucracy. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Copperfield</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which was reaching the end of its monthly serialisation when ‘The Doom of English Wills’ appeared, gave him an initial chance to satirise the apparent corruption of the registries. David, who is apprenticed to a proctor (the civil law version of a solicitor), gets to observe the registry where the wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury are stored. He remarks that the office is 'rather a queerly managed institution', where registrars with 'magnificent sinecures' store the public’s wills haphazardly, ‘having no object but to get rid of them cheaply'. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Wallace’s misadventures in York take us deeper into these charges of corruption. With characteristic irony, Dickens claims that the registry generates ‘about ten thousand a year for the Registrar who does nothing, and the like amount for his Deputy who helps him.’ Dickens also intersperses the narrative with anecdotal accounts of York’s records being sold as waste paper or being used as a private source of income by the registry’s clerks. </span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While ‘The Doom of English Wills’ portrays the immediate consequences of inadequate storage for records, Dickens would depict the wider repercussions in his next novel. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bleak House</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, published serially between 1852 and 1853, presents a dysfunctional society whose problems can be traced back to legal corruption and poor record-keeping. The novel’s central characters are all ensnared in the web of a legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, that has been going on for years and has become ‘so complicated that no man alive knows what it means’. The impasse stems from the multiple conflicting wills left by a testator. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Dickens leads us to believe that the crucial will, which will allow the case to be resolved, is in a rag and bottle shop in the shadow of Lincoln’s Inn, filled with 'heaps of old crackled parchment scroll, and discoloured and dog’s-eared law-papers'. The shop is presided over by a grotesque and illiterate alcoholic named Krook who obsessively hoards documents that he has no means of understanding. To drive the point home, Krook is known by his neighbours as the 'Lord Chancellor' and shop as 'Court of Chancery'. This is Dickens’s nightmarish vision of a dysfunctional record office taken to its extreme - a place of filth and disorder where nothing can be found and documents lose their meaning.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">When he first steps into the registry, Wallace finds himself in a ‘confined den’ with a ‘pestilent little chimney in it, filling it with smoke like a Lapland hut'. This first impression, its outlandish imagery contrasting starkly with the descriptions of York’s opulent mansions, primes us for the article’s other serious criticism of the registry - that the documents were at risk of smoke and fire. Despite the specific complaints made by an 1832 Ecclesiastical Commission, Wallace finds that the registry has done nothing to fire-proof itself. Reflecting on the prospect of spending a week there, he remarks that he ‘did not enjoy the notion of being smoke-dried; and of returning to the Middle Temple a sort of animated ham.'</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Dickens was well aware of the danger that fire posed to historical records. He had been working as a journalist in London in 1834 when Parliament was consumed by fire, destroying centuries of procedural records for the House of Commons. It is quite possible he saw the blaze with his own eyes. Major fires at York Minster in 1829 and 1840, in which York’s records were rescued by local bystanders, are unlikely to have escaped his notice.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Speaking about the burning of Parliament in an address to the Administrative Reform Society in 1855, Dickens dwelt on the irony that the fire was itself a product of poor record-keeping practice. The blaze had started when two cartloads of tally sticks - small notched pieces of wood used as tax receipts since the twelfth century - were used as fuel in a heating furnace designed to burn coal. Dickens mocked both what he saw as the ‘obstinate adherence to an obsolete custom’ well into the nineteenth century, and the perverse decision to incinerate them rather than distribute them to locals in need of fuel.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Yet for Dickens, the cause of Parliament’s incineration had a metaphorical significance that surpassed mere fire safety. The moral he drew was that ‘all obstinate adherence to rubbish which the time has long outlived [...] will some day set fire to something or other’. In other words, the failure to reform England’s stagnant institutions and outdated systems would lead to disaster. </span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This image of a corrupt system consuming itself in flames is one that Dickens used to great effect in </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bleak House</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Krook, the ‘Lord Chancellor’ of the rag and bottle shop who parodically embodies the ills of Chancery, apparently dies of spontaneous combustion ‘engendered in the corrupted humours of the vicious body itself’. Smoke too, together with the thick London fog, is one of the abiding images of the novel, evoking the confusion and opacity that shrouds the lives of its characters. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Humour and humanity</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Finally, it is worth acknowledging quite how funny ‘The Doom of English Wills’ is. Dickens takes what could be a dry subject - the appropriate storage of historical documents - and makes it engaging, satirising corruption and using narrative intrigue and memorable characters to humanise the issue.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">There is of course a real person behind the mask of ‘Mr William Wallace’, but Dickens takes advantage of the pseudonym to craft a likeable novelistic protagonist in the vein of David Copperfield. Rather than depicting Wallace as a hard-headed investigative journalist out to expose corruption, Dickens endows him with a naive optimism about the state of York’s ecclesiastical records. After listing the historical distinctions that make York the second city of England, Wallace exclaims 'this is surely the place for an unimpeachable Registry!'. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">We know from the start that Wallace isn’t going to find the flawless institution he is dreaming of, so his search among all of York’s grand buildings takes on a comic futility, and all of his efforts lead up to one big punchline. Unable to find his way to the registry, Wallace reflects that 'there must surely be a flaw in the old adage, and that where there was a will (and a great many wills) there was no way at all'. Having finally located the registry and started the arduous task of finding the information he needs, Wallace takes on the quixotic role of a ‘kind of knight-errant in the matter of rescuing ancient documents from their tombs of filth’.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The other ‘characters’ in the article seem to have stepped out from the pages of a novel: from the ‘farmer-looking man’ with the comedy Yorkshire accent who finally points Wallace to the registry, to the officious Deputy Registrar who laughs incredulously at the idea that Wallace might actually want to see the documents himself. (Dickens describes this reaction in a way that recalls the disbelief of Mr Bumble when Oliver Twist asks for more gruel.)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">While Dickens is writing reportage here, describing people and events that have a basis in reality, his persuasive techniques are quite comparable to the ones he uses in his fiction. He could have advocated for reform using argumentative and factual prose (as William Downing Bruce would go on to do). Instead he uses characterisation and narrative to highlight the injustices of the situation. In the words of social historian David Vincent, 'Dickens’s fundamental claim [is] that contemporary abuses are best understood and communicated by means of an intense imaginative engagement with individual lives'. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Dickens’s articles, along with the sustained campaigning of Bruce and certain sympathetic politicians, did help bring about reform. Efforts were made to improve the storage conditions in York’s registry, and in 1858 the entire probate system was reformed, transferring jurisdiction from the church courts to a new centralised Court of Probate with specific registries for the new records. 170 years on since the publication of ‘The Doom of English Wills’ (and 150 years to the day since Dickens’ death), the records are now kept safely in the Borthwick strongroom - but the persistent layer of smoky residue on some of the wills reminds us of this chapter in their long history.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Bibliography</span></span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens, Charles, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bleak House </span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(London: Penguin, 2003).</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens, Charles, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Copperfield</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (London: Penguin, 1996).</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens, Charles, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sketches by Boz</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (London: Penguin, 2006).</span></span></span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens, Charles, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speeches Literary and Social</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (London: Chatto and Windus, 1880).</span></span></span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dickens, Charles, and William Henry Wills, ‘The Doom of English Wills: Cathedral Number Two’, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Household Words</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, vol 2, pp. 25-28.</span></span></span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Longley, Katharine M, ‘Charles Dickens and the “Doom” of English Wills’, </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of the Society of Archivists</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 14.1 (1993), 25-38.</span></span></span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vincent, David, ‘Social Reform’, in John Jordan, Robert L. Patten, and Catherine Waters, eds., </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Oxford Handbook of Charles Dickens</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 420–435.</span></span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-4558873851313604722020-04-23T11:13:00.004+01:002020-09-17T10:19:13.549+01:00Isaac Havelock: a book-lover in seventeenth-century York<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<i>By John-Francis Goodacre, Archives Trainee</i><br />
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Imagine stepping into a house. Nobody is at home, but a row of books lines the bookshelf. How much can you tell about the person who lives there?<br />
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This is the situation we can find ourselves in when reading probate inventories, the lists of movable goods that were drawn up after a person’s death in order to assess their wealth and calculate church court fees. These lists can offer an incredibly rich insight into the everyday lives of people long dead, through a snapshot of what they owned at the time of their death. Though many inventories only record clothing, household furniture and livestock, some occasionally contain detailed evidence of book ownership. One such inventory in the Borthwick’s Yorkshire Probate Records tells the story of an avid reader in seventeenth-century York.<br />
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Isaac Havelock died some time before September 1640. His estate passed through the Prerogative Court of York, and four men were instructed to make an inventory of his goods, which they did on the 31st of August. This inventory - a long piece of parchment written on both sides - records an impressive array of furniture in York, as well as a large selection of goods in Berwick upon Tweed, including fine clothes, five gold rings, a silver watch and chain, and a horse. What makes the document stand out, however, is the category of items that is given its own space in the end, making up a good third of the entire inventory and over a quarter of its value. The “Schedule of his books” records at least 132 books, of which 43 are individually named.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb_ytBYdCsnLoQ5-By26nNwI6l-8JhNJWO6Rdja0O5IwjDlDb90-aehjEnBwqtd95fX32aWpjjgWuCG3pZP0HeVKFNKyaDXAD8FLmlXUfzTdp3Yo5nBA4RWPDINqmcOyE6BLBPci4Ly0/s2048/Inv_Havelock_Isaac_York_Sep_1640_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1754" data-original-width="2048" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb_ytBYdCsnLoQ5-By26nNwI6l-8JhNJWO6Rdja0O5IwjDlDb90-aehjEnBwqtd95fX32aWpjjgWuCG3pZP0HeVKFNKyaDXAD8FLmlXUfzTdp3Yo5nBA4RWPDINqmcOyE6BLBPci4Ly0/w400-h343/Inv_Havelock_Isaac_York_Sep_1640_0001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The beginning of Isaac Havelock’s inventory.</span></div>
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There is little else we know about him. The other documents that one would expect to find in a probate bundle - a will, a grant of administration, a bond - haven’t survived, so it is not clear what his occupation was or to whom he left his possessions. There seem to have been Havelocks living in the villages of Skelton-in-Cleveland, Marske and Guisborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and the parish register of Skelton records the baptism of an Isaac Havelock, son of John, on September 28th 1587. Isaac Havelock also appears as a witness in a number of deeds from the area around York between the 1610s and the 1630s, including one where he is described as a servant to Richard Bell Esq., a counsellor-at-law of York. Of all the archival sources, it is thus the list of books which gives us the most detailed insight into his life.<br />
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It is not entirely surprising that the inventory begins with “One large bible in folio”. The bible would have been a vital part of any 17th-century book collection, and the mention of its large size and format, as well as its relatively high value of 16 shillings, emphasises the primary importance of the scripture in Havelock’s collection. Moreover, the attention to its physicality reminds us that books were also objects to be valued for their aesthetic qualities. Next comes the most expensive book in the inventory, John Foxe’s influential Protestant martyrology called <i>Acts and Monuments</i> (here referred to by its popular title, <i>The Book of Martyrs</i>). This massive folio, full of distinctive woodcut illustrations, was given the value of £1 6s 8d - more than the price of the sword with a silver hilt that was among Havelock’s possessions at Berwick upon Tweed.<br />
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The ordering of the books in the inventory tells us a lot about the importance that was assigned to them. From these and other large-format works of theology and history, the inventory moves on through a mix of quartos and octavos, and finishes with an undifferentiated group of “83 little books besides” as well as a bag of songbooks. Whether or not this seemingly hierarchical arrangement was how Isaac Havelock organised the books in his house, we cannot know for sure. While inventories tended to reflect the layout of goods in a house, the historian Donald Spaeth has recently explored the ways that their order and arrangement could be dependent on the methods of individual appraisers or local conventions.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhquJHOekEWnTYKiefbjtmEx0Ax6-1XYbewMDnjZyTUNXR7MDIySuoC1AjDhuejT1GRObmdN3vtlbqDBQDwH1WvwhJYGcx5Jyi0Fu14TWLInzs8ZrbsYOvZ3UgLbgWfZNekLTVrHkwLU/s785/785px-Foxe%2527s_Book_of_Martyrs_-_John_Rogers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="785" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhquJHOekEWnTYKiefbjtmEx0Ax6-1XYbewMDnjZyTUNXR7MDIySuoC1AjDhuejT1GRObmdN3vtlbqDBQDwH1WvwhJYGcx5Jyi0Fu14TWLInzs8ZrbsYOvZ3UgLbgWfZNekLTVrHkwLU/w400-h306/785px-Foxe%2527s_Book_of_Martyrs_-_John_Rogers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Woodcut illustration of the burning of John Rogers, the first victim of the Marian persecutions in England. From the first English edition of <i>Foxe’s Book of Martyrs</i>. (Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)</span></div>
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The Bible and <i>Foxe’s Book of Martyrs</i> are a fitting beginning to a list that paints a picture of someone well-read in a variety of Protestant writings. Havelock owned a range of works by important figures in the Reformation from across Europe. These included the works of William Tyndale, whose English translation of the Bible played an important role in the English Reformation; an edition of the New Testament by the French reformer Theodore Beza; the <i>Commonplaces</i> of the Italian-born Peter Martyr Vermigli, a standard textbook of Reformed theology; and the <i>Meditations</i> of the German Lutheran Johann Gerhard. He also owned a copy of <i>De civitate</i> Dei by Saint Augustine, whose works had become popular among Protestant reformers.<br />
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In addition to these pan-European religious bestsellers, Havelock had had an interest in vernacular works of popular devotion. Among these were Lewis Bayly’s hugely popular religious self-help book <i>The Practice of Piety</i>, John Norden’s A Poore Mans Rest, and treatises and sermons by the Puritan preachers William Cowper, Richard Stock and John Dod. He also possessed a copy of George Herbert’s collection of religious poetry, <i>The Temple</i>. However, the inventory isn’t uniformly Protestant. Havelock owned <i>The Passions of The Mind</i>, a treatise on the passions written by Thomas Wright. Wright, born in York to a Catholic family, was a Jesuit who had spent much of the 1590s imprisoned in York due to his recusant activity.<br />
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In the fore chamber of his house in York, the same room that contained his desk and writing materials, Havelock had a “large mapp”. As this is listed in the same entry as “a woodden frame with pictures”, it is tempting to imagine the map hanging on the wall above him as he sat writing, perhaps providing a window onto distant lands. From his books, it does seem that Havelock had a particular interest in travel and the world - and in particular the Middle East. His library contained Heinrich Bünting’s popular <i>Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae</i>, a book describing the geography and landscapes in which biblical events and journeys took place. He owned an account of the travels of George Sandys, son of Archbishop of York Edwin Sandys, which included a map of the Middle East along with lavish illustrations of Constantinople’s skyline, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. More sensational was an account of the travels of the Scotsman William Lithgow, whose journey by foot through Europe to the Middle East and North Africa purportedly involved daring escapes, shipwrecks and encounters with pirates.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A map of the holy land from the 1585 German edition of Heinrich Bünting’s <i>Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae</i>. (Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain)</span></div>
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These travel narratives are complemented by other larger-scale works of world history and geography by John Swan, Peter Heylyn and Walter Raleigh. Together, their variety demonstrates that the early modern interest in the world wasn’t solely restricted to the category of knowledge we now call geography. These books ranged from biblical history to current affairs, carefully sourced scholarship to highly personal accounts, and indeed from fact to fiction - the authoritatively-titled <i>History of Trebizond</i> in Havelock’s library was actually a collection of romances.<br />
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The rest of the inventory suggests that Havelock’s reading covered a wide range of subjects.<br />
Law is well represented; he owned books of statutes and decrees, a manual on the role of justice of the peace, and the earliest treatise on women’s rights in English known as <i>The Womans Lawyer</i>. He owned a large chronicle of British history from the Roman conquest, as well as two histories of the reign of Elizabeth I. An interest in Latin authors is suggested by a translation of the Roman historian Justin, a copy of what is likely to be Lucan’s epic poem on the Roman civil war, and a parallel translation of the <i>Distichs of Cato</i> - a popular schoolbook for teaching Latin. We may also wonder about Havelock’s connection to music, as he owned a bible “with singing psalmes”, an <i>Introduction to Practicall Musicke</i> by the composer of madrigals Thomas Morley, and a bag of songbooks valued at a pound - although there is no mention of any instruments in his possession.<br />
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Where would Havelock have got these books from? At the time of his death, no books had been printed in York for more than a hundred years, and it would be another two before King Charles brought the royal printer to York at the onset of civil war. Rather, Havelock’s library was made up of books printed in the centres of the early seventeenth-century print trade in Britain. Most came from London, a number from the two university cities Oxford and Cambridge, and at least one of his books was printed in Edinburgh.<br />
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However, he wouldn’t have needed to travel far to get his hands on them. York was part of an impressive distribution network for books that stretched across the country and beyond, and the Minster Yard was home to a number of booksellers, bookbinders and stationers. The inventory of John Foster, the owner of one of these shops who died in 1616, attests to the scale of the trade. His stock included three and a half thousand copies of over a thousand titles, with books printed as far away as Venice, Zurich and Lyon. In fact, a number of books in Havelock’s inventory match titles that were on sale in Foster’s shop, suggesting he may have been a regular customer.<br />
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Can this list of books tell us who Isaac Havelock was? The inventory gives us an impression of a wealthy protestant reader, who was buying books well into the last decade of his life: a man who was interested in the wider world, history, and law. His library, writing equipment and the “3 dozen of parchment skinns” listed alongside his books suggest that literacy was an important part of his profession. He may have been involved in music-making, either in connection with the Minster or one of York’s many other churches.<br />
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However, there are also significant gaps in the information provided - what were the 83 “little books besides” that the appraisers didn’t list by name? Nor does the inventory tell us anything about the social lives of the books. Reading was frequently a social activity as books were read aloud or passed among friends, but we cannot know about the other women or men who interacted with Havelock’s library. Finally, we all know that the books on our bookshelves can mean different things to us. Some we buy for pleasure, others profit. Some we read once, others we return to time and time again. Some books change our way of looking at the world, others reinforce what we already believe. The book historian David Pearson entreats us to bear this in mind when researching books and their readers: “We should think of these libraries not so much as mirrors of the particular interests of their owners, but more as platforms or springboards from which their own ideas and perceptions of the world developed” (2010: 159). Nonetheless, Isaac Havelock’s inventory offers a remarkable insight into seventeenth-century York’s literary world.</div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">A transcription of the whole inventory with a glossary is available <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mxOQdT13YqVlGnzL9E_vPWLN2Fr6ZhbE/view?usp=sharing">here</a>.<br />
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<b>Bibliography</b><br />
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Barnard, John, and Maureen Bell, ‘The English Provinces’, in <i>The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain</i>, edited by John Barnard and D. F. McKenzie, with Maureen Bell, vol. 4, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 665–686.<br />
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Pearson, David, ‘Patterns of Book Ownership in Late Seventeenth-Century England’, <i>The Librar</i>y, 11.2 (2010), 139-167.<br />
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Spaeth, Donald, ‘“Orderly Made”: re-appraising household inventories in seventeenth-century England’, <i>Social History</i>, 41.4 (2016), 417-435.<br />
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Tillott, P. M., ed., <i>A History of the County of York: the City of York</i> (London: Victoria County History, 1961).<br />
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Winters, Jennifer, ‘The English provincial book trade: bookseller stock-lists, c.1520-1640’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of St Andrews, 2012).<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-73828631655144580842020-02-21T09:25:00.000+00:002020-02-21T10:09:19.003+00:00'A Very Dangerous and Anxious Sitation': European Refugees and the Retreat Hospital, 1938-1945<div>
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By Dr. Nicholas Melia, Archives Assistant, Borthwick Institute for Archives<br />
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In spring 1939, John W. Harvey, professor of philosophy at Leeds University and a prominent Quaker, wrote to Dr. Arthur Pool, Medical Superintendent at the Retreat Hospital, requesting help in finding work and hospitality for a ‘very distinguished’ émigré psychoanalyst who had fled Vienna in the aftermath of the Anschluss. The letter, preserved in a file of correspondence and papers in the Retreat Archive at the Borthwick institute relating to applications for posts by European refugees before and during the war (RET/5/6/16), explains that not only had Dr. Maxim Steiner ‘heard of the Retreat’, but came ‘with very strong recommendations from Prof. Freud’, to whom Steiner acted as physician and dermatologist in Vienna.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1939_04_03aSteiner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Letter from John W. Harvey, University of Leeds to Dr. Arthur Pool concerning Dr. Maxim Steiner, April 1939." border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="641" height="320" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1939_04_03aSteiner.jpg" title="" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: start;">Letter from John W. Harvey, University of Leeds to Dr. Arthur Pool concerning Dr. Maxim Steiner, April 1939.</span></span></td></tr>
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Twelve months earlier, Freud had written to Ernest Jones, president of both the International Psychoanalytical Association and the British Psycho-Analytical Society, begging him to aid Steiner’s passage to England: ‘I cannot claim that he is important as an analyst’, wrote Freud, ‘but […] he is a special friend of mine’.(1) Jones appears to have shown the letter to Harvey some time later, and, despite the personal, rather than professional tenor of Freud’s recommendation, Pool nonetheless met the 62 year old Steiner over tea in York. In his response to Harvey, he described Steiner as ‘very alert intellectually and younger than his years’, despite suffering with a self-confessed depression resulting from the ‘terrible things’ afflicting Europe.</div>
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While Steiner was not ultimately able to secure work at the Retreat, he was in no sense the only physician to seek refuge from Nazi persecution in the UK or, indeed, at the Retreat. A Quaker poverty relief unit had been active in Vienna for some years, and Freud himself had dined at the Friends Society there, likely through acquaintance with British Quaker psychoanalyst John Rickman. Rickman had moved to Vienna in 1920 and, with his wife Lydia, spent much time working with the unit to alleviate poverty. In fact, the Friends War Victims’ Relief Committee (later the Friends Relief Service) had acted to organize aid and hospitality for Europeans affected by poverty, war and political instability since the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and was ultimately awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1947 for its wartime work.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_1_8_7_7_4_poole_and_rowntree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Photograph of Arnold S. Rowntree with Dr Arthur Pool, Retreat Physician Superintendent, 1946." border="0" data-original-height="517" data-original-width="800" height="206" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_1_8_7_7_4_poole_and_rowntree.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photograph of Arnold S. Rowntree with Dr Arthur Pool, Retreat Physician Superintendent, 1946.</span></span></td></tr>
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It is no surprise, therefore, that Quaker responses to the rise of fascism in Europe were coordinated early. The German Emergency Committee (later Friends Committee for Refugees), which played a vital role in the 1938 Kindertransport, was established in 1933, and within months of the Anschluss and annexation of Sudetenland, the Retreat became the recipient of the first of many applications for work and hospitality, mostly via the mediation of Quaker agencies and networks. The Retreat Management Committee ‘felt it was right to offer what hospitality it could to refugees from central Europe’ and had, in fact, signaled that it was ‘anxious to help in any way’ possible a matter of days after Kristallnacht. A few weeks later, the Committee responded to a request from the Vienna Society asking for help in ‘getting non-Aryans to England’, and by January 1939, had ‘committed [itself] to trying to get two doctors into the country – a Dr. Koch from Vienna and a Dr. Kiewe from Germany’. It was also working to provide hospitality for a third - Dr. Fritz Kraupl - already in London, and had already hosted Dr. Gretl Hitschmann earlier in 1938, who wished to gain ‘insight into the work of an English Mental Hospital’, and had, Management Committee minutes reveal, been ‘forced to leave Austria because she is a Jewess’. Shortly thereafter, the Committee would also agree to provide work running the Male Nurses Hostel for Manfred and Ilse Tallert, who had landed in Whitby while fleeing Europe for Shanghai.</div>
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<br />
Little correspondence survives regarding the successful arrival in April 1939 of Dr. Siegfried Kiewe, but Management Committee minutes tell us that he had been forced to leave Berlin ‘on account of his being a Jew’. The Committee offered hospitality ‘for an indefinite period’, and psychiatrist and family were lodged with Retreat secretary Mr. Burgess at Garrow Bank. Kiewe initially undertook laboratory, dispensary and massage work at the hospital, but in 1941, the Committee and Board of Control approved his undertaking of locum duties, and he continued thereafter as a salaried Assistant Physician until retirement in January 1959. Upon receipt of the Alfred and Margaret Torrie award, given to staff making an outstanding contribution to the wellbeing of patients, Kiewe payed tribute to the ‘kindness, understanding and tolerance’ he had received from the moment of his arrival in York. He died in 1986 at the age of 105.(2)<br />
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Dr. Fritz Kraupl, a medical dietician from Sudetenland exiled in London with experience of treating nervous disorders, was initially invited to the Retreat as a guest of the Committee with the intention of undertaking a kitchen traineeship. However, the committee felt that it would be inappropriate to place a male physician into a kitchen in which the ‘staff are wholly female’, and having taken up residence on 31st July 1939, Kraupl was found work in the Retreat laboratory, before obtaining a Clinical Assistant post at the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, in May 1940.<br />
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Securing safe passage for Dr. Rudolph Koch, however, proved more difficult. The Vienna Society of Friends approached Pool in November 1938 seeking hospitality and work for a physician ‘just been released from the concentration camp’. In correspondence, Koch declared himself ‘compleatly [sic] healthy and willing to work’, but stressed the need to escape from Vienna with the ‘utmost urgency’. Given the prohibitive implementation of the UK’s immigration legislation under the 1919 Aliens Restriction Act and Aliens Order 1920, which severely limited the possibility of refugees gaining employment, Pool was unwilling to try to engage Koch as a physician. Instead, he submitted a formal request to the Home Office for permission to employ a ‘foreigner who has left or wishes to leave Germany or Austria on political, racial or religious grounds’ as a laboratory technician. The combination of an intensifying climate of Home Office suspicion and the delay in processing applications due to a huge increase in numbers of applicants, however, took its toll on the Koch family. This is most clearly felt in the series of increasingly desperate letters from Koch’s mother preserved in the correspondence file, who wrote directly to Pool to express ‘the greatest worry about my son’. <br />
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Despite Pool’s desire to help and, if necessary, take Koch in ‘on no official basis’, the Germany Emergency Committee received correspondence from the Home Office on February 15th 1939, rejecting the application and stating that ‘we are unable to agree to foreigners, especially foreign doctors, coming to the United Kingdom to settle in employment as laboratory assistants’. Two weeks later, Pool reported to the Retreat Committee that ‘arrangements for admitting Dr. Koch […] had fallen through’.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1939_02_02_koch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Letter from M.G. Russell, Home Office (Aliens Dept.) to Miss Nike, Society of Friends' Germany Emergency Committee, concerning Dr. Rudolph Koch, February 1939. " border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="647" height="320" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1939_02_02_koch.jpg" title="" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Letter from M.G. Russell, Home Office (Aliens Dept.) to Miss Nike, Society of Friends' Germany Emergency Committee, concerning Dr. Rudolph Koch, February 1939. </span></td></tr>
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The sincere efforts and commitment of the Committee notwithstanding, many aspects of the correspondence file make for uncomfortable reading. The Retreat had agreed in 1938 to take ‘our quota of refugee girls permitted by the home office to train as nurses’, and the Annual Report of 1941 tells us that by the end of that year, ten refugees were to be counted among a total nursing staff of 72. However, women who had gained success in their field and sought to utilise professional medical expertise received a significantly shorter shrift than did their male counterparts. Psychologist Rose Rand, the only registered female member of the Vienna Circle, which included Rudolf Carnap and Kurt Gödel amongst its numbers, and Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper amongst its advocates, was described by her peers as ‘a specially gifted philosopher with high promise’.(3) She had worked and studied psychology at the University of Vienna Psychiatric Clinic, where her work with women suffering with mental and nervous disorders led the director of the clinic to describe her as ‘uncommonly gifted for the right treatment of insane patients’. Upon fleeing Vienna, Rand had obtained a post in an ‘epileptic colony’, but had become ill with exhaustion and was, in January 1940, ‘living in London alone on £1 per week’.</div>
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Pool was dismissive of Rand’s appeal. In a letter to the Nursing and Midwifery Department of the Central Office for Refugees dated 22nd January 1940, he described Rand pejoratively as a ‘blue-stocking type’: ‘I feel […] suspicious of the very intellectual type who finds it difficult to engage in ordinary domestic pursuits. I prefer the type who can get down to washing dishes and if necessary scrubbing a floor’. ‘If you feel that you would like me to see her’ Pool concluded, ‘well and good, but from your description, I am not at all impressed’. Rand was forced to look elsewhere for hospitality.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1940_01_22%20Rand_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Letter from Dr. Arthur Pool to Miss Pye, Nursing and Midwifery Department of the Central Office for Refugees, concerning Rose Rand, January 1940." border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="637" height="320" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/RET_5_6_16_1940_01_22%20Rand_a.jpg" title="" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Letter from Dr. Arthur Pool to Miss Pye, Nursing and Midwifery Department of the Central Office for Refugees, concerning Rose Rand, January 1940.</span></td></tr>
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The Committee continued to receive and assess applications throughout the war. In the two years following October 1938, it had considered applications from 62 European refugees, and by mid-1939, with applicants at once increasingly desperate and numerous, requests for work were being routinely refused. Probationary Nurse Ilse Gunszt, for example, a ‘non-Aryan Christian [opposed] to the new German ideas’, was required to leave Gt. Yarmouth Hospital when it was requisitioned by the military in 1940, and all ‘aliens had to move 20 miles inland’. She was the first of many to receive a standardized, albeit apologetic, response from Pool: ’[u]ntil the Government make more definite plans, it is unwise to take on our nursing staff [any more] applicants’.</div>
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The following year, a Special Meeting of the German Emergency Committee heard with some perturbation accounts of ‘the amount of mental breakdown among refugees’. In a report in the correspondence file, we read that ‘it is quite clear that there is a growing need for special care for refugees who have not been able to overcome the strains and stresses through which they have lived in recent years’. The report raises concern over the increased risk of attempted suicides, and the need for provision of institutional treatment for European refugees. It is an image much in evidence in the latter half of the correspondence file, which increasingly couples applications for work with appeals for treatment.<br />
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While the file largely leaves the fate of its supplicants unresolved, many had either already managed to escape from mainland Europe, or would find safe haven elsewhere in the UK. This was not the case for all, however, and this is no more apparent than in an unanswered letter from December 1938, in which we hear from the brother of Johannes Braun, a ‘very successful actor’. Johannes, ‘tall and broad, good looking’ was prohibited from working in Germany, had retrained as a masseur and, we are assured, ‘could become after some instruction a male nurse’. Dr. Konrad Braun described his brother’s situation as ‘very dangerous and anxious’: a third brother, also a doctor, had already been ‘arrested without any reason but that he is of Jewish extraction’. While ‘Johannes is still free’, Konrad warns us, ‘there is actual danger for his life and existence’.<br />
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The Braun family archive, held at the Bodleian Library, reveals that Johannes was arrested by the Gestapo in spring 1942 and taken to the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, where he contracted tuberculosis. Within four months, he was dead.<br />
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<b>Notes</b><br />
<br />
(1) Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ernest Jones, 23 April 1938. Paskauskas, R. Andrew (ed.). The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939. London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995, pp. 761-762. <br />
<br />
(2) AJR (Association of Jewish Refugees) Information, Volume XLI No. 12; December 1986, p. 7. <br />
<br />
(3) Rentetzi, Mari, ‘”I Want to Look Like a Lady, Not Lie a Factory Worker” Rose Rand, a Woman Philosopher of the Vienna Circle’. In Suárez, Mauricio; Dorato, Mauro; and Rédei; Miklós (eds.), EPSA Epistemology and Methodology of Science: Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London and New York: Springer, 2010, p.240<br />
<br />
<b>Bibliography</b><br />
<br />
Paskauskas, R. Andrew (ed.). The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939. London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995.<br />
<br />
Rentetzi, Mari, ‘”I Want to Look Like a Lady, Not Lie a Factory Worker” Rose Rand, a Woman Philosopher of the Vienna Circle’. In Suárez, Mauricio; Dorato, Mauro; and Rédei; Miklós (eds.), EPSA Epistemology and Methodology of Science: Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London and New York: Springer, 2010.<br />
<br />
Steiner, Riccardo, ‘It is a New Kind of Diaspora’: Explorations in the Sociopolitical and Cultural Contexts of Psychoanalysis, London and New York: Karnac Books, 2000.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-75950233220398875662020-02-04T09:01:00.000+00:002020-02-04T09:01:04.005+00:00Feminizing His-story: Addressing Gender-Bias in Wikipedia<h4>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Dr. Namrata R. Ganneri</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On 4th February 2020, a dedicated <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/history/news/news/2020/women-scientist-editathon/" target="_blank">Wikipedia Editathon on Yorkshire's women scientists and innovators</a> will be run at the University of York. The upcoming <a href="https://www.un.org/en/events/women-and-girls-in-science-day/" target="_blank">United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science</a>, aimed at raising issues of equity and access and held annually on 11th February, nicely bookends this event. It is believed that along with combating gender-based prejudices, drawing attention to a diverse set of role models and career trajectories of scientists fosters in young people a broader appreciation of the pathways to science. With women's uptake of careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at a dismal 22% in the UK, the task of visibilizing and celebrating the achievements of women is more urgent than ever.</span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/Rowntree_Frayed_Nerves_R_DD_SA_33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="641" height="400" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/Rowntree_Frayed_Nerves_R_DD_SA_33.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the Rowntree Cocoa advertising campaign</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As one turn to digital spaces, one finds that women are under-represented even on Wikipedia, one of the frontline, go-to sources of information for people looking for biographical information. Although a live, open-content encyclopaedia, Wikipedia is also man-made (only 12-17% of Wikipedia editors identify as female). The preponderance of men in the online community of wiki editors has led to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Gender_bias_and_editing_on_Wikipedia" target="_blank">systematic gender-bias in the project</a>. Further, discrepancies in terms of metadata and hyperlinks on entries relating to women have broader consequences for Information-seeking activities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This Editathon thus aims to expand digital editing skills across a broad range of genders (and non-binary identities) and seeks to highlight and bridge the content gap on Wikipedia. A University-wide call for entries to be added and edited highlighted the names of many exceptional contemporary scientists and academics from within the University, including the much-decorated Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research, Professor Deborah Smith and the outstanding physicist, Professor Sarah Thompson among others. Microbiologist Hilary Lapin Scott, who is based at Swansea University and who passionately draws attention to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5TizhPki74" target="_blank">leaky pipeline in science</a> was also nominated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In response to this call, the Borthwick Institute for Archives identified a number of archives that tell the stories of innovative women and women-affiliated organizations in Yorkshire.. I was particularly fascinated by the landscape gardener <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-97936" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fanny Rollo Wilkinson</span></a> (1855-1951), the daughter of a leading doctor from Manchester. Her wealth and social connections meant that Wilkinson had what can be called high ‘science capital’. Wilkinson chose to enrol in an eighteen-month course at the Crystal Palace School of Landscape Gardening and Practical Horticulture which had till then trained men from the artisan class. While women had been involved in domestic gardening, Wilkinson was one of Britain’s first professional landscape gardeners who conducted her practice from Bloomsbury. She was the landscape gardener to both Octavia Hill’s Kyrle Society and the Metropolitan Public Gardens, Boulevard, and Playground Association (MPGA), laying out over 75 public gardens for the MPGA that spanned London from Wandsworth to Plaistow and from Camberwell to Haverstock Hill. She resigned from this position in 1904 to concentrate on her role as first woman principal of Swanley Horticultural College. This college, originally founded in 1880 to train men in the practice of scientific horticulture, had slowly been transformed into a women-only establishment. Fanny Wilkinson remained as principal until 1916 and continued to patronise many such institutions till the end of her life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Borthwick holds letters exchanged between Wilkinson and her mother as well as other associates and relatives, which offer insights into the personal and professional life of this extraordinary woman professional. More information about the Fanny Rollo Wilkinson letters can be found <a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/fwil" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/Kit_Rob_Portrait_CROB_Acc_2016_098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="320" src="https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/images/bloggerimages/Kit_Rob_Portrait_CROB_Acc_2016_098.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Catherine Muriel 'Kit' Rob</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another fascinating story from the archives is that of the experienced, amateur field botanist Catherine Muriel 'Kit' Rob (1906-1975) based in North Yorkshire. Educated privately by governesses whilst her brothers received university education, Rob collected North Yorkshire records for the Atlas of the British Flora. She was responsible for the publication of Yorkshire Plant Records from 1957 to 1965. Rob worked with many institutions and the Borthwick Archive holds a wide selection of her records. <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/features/2018/botanical-brilliance-the-yorkshire-plant-scientist/" style="text-decoration: none;">Reading about Catherine Rob</a>, I was most struck by allusions to her sensitivity and concern for budding female botanists who approached her seeking mentorship and guidance. This made me think a lot about the broader nature of scientific enterprise and conditions around women’s participation in science.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The feminist historian of science Londa Schiebinger, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173988?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" style="text-decoration: none;">argues that recovering lost voices is an important conceptual approach to mapping the field of gender and science</a>. She points out that this approach coheres neatly with the academic field of women’s history. In any case, it was only in the 1970s that a sizeable number of women began formally entering the sciences (in the western world). Some published biographies. The consumption of these biographies led to questions about why women’s work has been relegated to the periphery of science, which cascades into other inequalities like lower pay and less prestigious appointments and leads to disillusionment and attrition. Finally, these gender-based patterns of exclusion may have actually even distorted the overall norms and methods of scientific practice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These observations, in fact, complete the full circle of women’s online presence on Wikipedia along with their marginal presence among the small, online community of (English) Wikipedia editors who are largely male English speakers hailing from the Northern Hemisphere. This Editathon is a small step towards building capacity for an inclusive, global, online community and democratizing access to information. As some volunteer editors have chosen to surface information from archival collections, one can only hope that the changing constructions of information and history in a digital age will also be highlighted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For more information on how you can participate as an editor in the Wikipedia community, see the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing" target="_blank">Wikipedia editing guide</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Namrata R. Ganneri is a Commonwealth-Rutherford Fellow based at the Centre for Global Health Histories, Department of History, University of York and is working on a monograph on India’s smallpox eradication programme.</span></h4>
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Dorothy Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06604912730056540983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-65977339604702166232019-10-29T14:40:00.000+00:002019-11-06T16:41:12.044+00:00Using the York Cause Papers for Family History<br />
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As a family historian I’m always on the look-out for record
collections that add some colour to the past lives I’m researching. Sources
such as parish registers, general registration and census records are
indispensable sources, but on their own they can only give a small number of
clues to the life a person led. Sometimes that may be all you’re looking for,
but I generally find that once you have an outline view, you become hungry to
find more about the person. How did they live? What was their personality like?
What did they do in their life? What were their beliefs? Who were their
friends? How did they interact with others? What did they own? The list goes
on…</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bae5JBpC2Ts/XbhG5ZvzIKI/AAAAAAAAAt0/kI-HBXJ9kHUaeXr7x4PaUoMGnZDN5bTiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image005.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Diocese of Church of England between the Reformation and the mid-19th century" border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="489" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bae5JBpC2Ts/XbhG5ZvzIKI/AAAAAAAAAt0/kI-HBXJ9kHUaeXr7x4PaUoMGnZDN5bTiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/image005.png" title="Diocese of Church of England between the Reformation and the mid-19th century" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dioceses of the Church of England between the<br />
Reformation and the mid-19th century</td></tr>
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I recently had my eyes opened to the documents from the
church courts of the Archbishop of York. Known as <a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/causepapers/index.jsp">the York Cause Papers</a>, these
documents hold information on people mainly living in the Diocese of York, and
the Northern Province and run from 1300 to 1858. The papers are well known and
well used by academics researching church, legal and medieval history, but less
so by family historians researching the lives of specific individuals or
families. Certainly, I’d always felt a little intimidated at the prospect of
delving into them and feared that I could spend a lot of time finding very
little!<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was looking for a project subject for my studies at the University of Strathclyde, and Alexandra Medcalf from the Borthwick Institute
showed me the papers for the <a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/causepapers/causepaper.jsp?id=109397">cause of Hannah Willmott from Ellerburn</a>. Hannah
died in 1820 without leaving a will and had no immediate next of kin.
Administrators carried out the initial distribution of her estate, but the
scale of wealth she had inherited meant that lots of people started to come out
of the woodwork, disputing the actions of her administrators and staking a
claim to a share of the estate. The detail of Hannah’s cause deserves a blog
post of its own, but what really challenged my preconceptions about Cause
Papers were the records I found in this case: 5 detailed family trees, more
than 60 “certified” copies of parish register entries and 30 witness
testimonies giving vivid descriptions of individuals and events.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1zOFnx4jmU0/Xbgx24iqi4I/AAAAAAAAAtk/kqgDLCerduwgyKA_0BnXUbwMsB3OZyf7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/FamilyTree3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Images of part of a genealogical chart and copies of parish register entries, from the Hannah Willmott testamentary case" border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="1491" height="190" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1zOFnx4jmU0/Xbgx24iqi4I/AAAAAAAAAtk/kqgDLCerduwgyKA_0BnXUbwMsB3OZyf7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/FamilyTree3.png" title="Images of archive documents relating to TEST.CP.1820/3" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examples of copies of parish register entries and an excerpt from a genealogical chart, TEST.CP.1820/3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QZy24aDE3KU/XbgwsgIjrSI/AAAAAAAAAtU/RsQIG7f4V6cJe8ybEi0AXGQIivVW9lTZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/FamilyTree2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
With more than 15,000 causes and appeals in the overall
collection, I suspected that there could be great potential locked into the
records, so I had to find out more. The courts heard causes relating to
probate, marriage, immorality, defamation and tithes, and I felt that the probate
records could hold details of particular interest to a family historian. And so
my project was launched!<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I spent time building a high-level view of the entire Cause Paper catalogue, then looked in detail at a selection of testamentary (probate
& administration) causes dated between 1733-1858. Here are some of the
things I found in the causes I looked at:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>A relatively large number of people can be found in the
collection.</b> Across the 100 causes I looked at in the catalogue, I found 720
named individuals. Causes most often involved only 2 participants, but some
(admittedly exceptional) causes had more than 30 people involved. The average
number of participants was 7 people per cause. Looking more broadly, and with
15,000 causes in the full collection, it means that there is the potential to
find details for more than 30,000+ individuals (possibly up to 100,000).
Although this is not a large number when compared to collections such as parish
registers or census records, when considering the relatively humble background
of those listed, and the periods covered, this is a significant collection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>The individuals came from a wide range of backgrounds.</b> The
occupations of people involved in causes were not just limited to legal or
church officials. They also included producers (e.g. agricultural workers),
manufacturers (e.g. clothing, food, construction), sellers and dealers,
professionals and transport workers. This is great news for family historians,
as biographical information about individuals from such a broad range of
backgrounds is extremely scarce prior to the 1841 Census.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ByyBf3CiqE0/XcL3gJRZ-dI/AAAAAAAAAug/20is-LuJ614HjDakclajbBnoM93FdbJXACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image013%2B%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Table showing occuations for participants in testamentary causes" border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1088" height="258" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ByyBf3CiqE0/XcL3gJRZ-dI/AAAAAAAAAug/20is-LuJ614HjDakclajbBnoM93FdbJXACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/image013%2B%25282%2529.png" title="Table showing occuations for participants in testamentary causes" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Occupations found for 50% of the 720 people named in testamentary catalogue sample</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Most of the individuals came from Yorkshire.</b> This was not
really surprising, but given the complexity of church court jurisdictions
(there were 372 active in England & Wales in 1832), it’s useful to know
that I found 84% of participants came from Yorkshire (all Ridings). 13% came
from elsewhere in the Northern Province (mostly Lancashire, Durham and
Nottinghamshire), and 3% came from the Southern Province.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qA8oFa1dZos/XbhGn-Yh-JI/AAAAAAAAAtw/V5tSylEp4TAvuk7zYokWotgeKl3HmOb9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Heat map showing locations of testamentary cause participants" border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="603" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qA8oFa1dZos/XbhGn-Yh-JI/AAAAAAAAAtw/V5tSylEp4TAvuk7zYokWotgeKl3HmOb9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/image007.jpg" title="Heat map showing locations of testamentary cause participants" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heat map showing locations of testamentary cause participants</td></tr>
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<b>The depositions (witness testimonies) and case exhibits are
generally the most useful documents.</b> I looked at 20 causes in great detail and
found more than 400 documents, across 1000 images. These documents contain a
wide variety of facts and clues, some of which may not be available elsewhere,
and this is where I found I could glean most information about a person’s
character. Other records such as parish records, family trees, guardianship,
debtor/creditor accounts, etc. may open up new lines of enquiry helping break
through a brick wall.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QhPE7d1Ok0E/XbhODiklW0I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/5nbBfvRnpLox19uCc54J-_ToifEhgUqIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Docs1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="786" data-original-width="1600" height="313" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QhPE7d1Ok0E/XbhODiklW0I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/5nbBfvRnpLox19uCc54J-_ToifEhgUqIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Docs1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Examples of documents in causes: an account of funeral costs from 1779 (TEST.CP.1779/2 p. 2)<br />
and a sample of questions put to witnesses 1820 (TEST.CP.1820/3 p. 106)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>The catalogue has a wide range of search terms.</b> Many family
historians will be searching for a person by name. Whilst the search allows for
a search by name or variant, I’d love to see an enhancement to allow for a
phonetic search. During the period of the records, names would have been spoken
much more often than written, and given the rich variety of dialects across
Yorkshire, a phonetic search would help to track individuals down. The search
is not just limited by name. The cataloguing team have indexed a wide variety
of terms, all of which can be searched in the advanced search. Places,
occupations, dates, roles, sex, status are all indexed (where they appear on
the source record), and while I did find a small number of inconsistencies,
errors and omissions, this doesn’t in any way diminish the fantastic job the
team did in compiling the catalogue.</div>
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<b>The quality of online images is excellent.</b> People familiar
with attempting to read parish registers from digital versions of grainy, feint
microfilm images, will be delighted with the quality of the images in the cause
paper collection. I only found a couple of less than perfect images in the 1000
I looked at.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>The records are (relatively) easy to read and understand. </b>Armed
with a basic understanding of court procedures, and a good reference book, the
records were surprisingly easy to follow. The handwriting was generally clear,
most records types were easy to identify, and the standard records were
consistent in their structure. After 1733, English was the mandatory language,
and I also found it used in many pre-1733 records. Those pre-1733 records
written in Latin were harder to decode, but they were generally formulaic so
once the record type had been identified, I found it possible to pull out keywords.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Having found all of these benefits, I also need to sound a
word of caution which will be of no surprise to family history researcher. <b>Always
keep in mind the context of the records, don’t just take them at face value.</b> These
records were created in adversarial court cases, so there is a risk of bias and
this needs to be taken into account before accepting what is written. This is
made difficult on some occasions, where a cause did not have a full set of
papers, making it harder to reconstruct the case and determine a record’s
context. However, understanding the verdict and cross-referencing facts to
other sources (e.g. newspaper accounts of proceedings) will help in this
area. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So is it worth the effort? Absolutely it is! The project
team which created the online catalogue have created a fabulous, easy to
access, free to use resource. Anyone researching a Yorkshire tyke living
between 1300 and 1858 should have this on their list to check and may well tap
into a rich seam of information that will bring real colour to their research.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The catalogue of York Cause Papers can be found at <a href="https://www.dhi.ac.uk/causepapers/index.jsp">here</a>, with images (where they are not linked directly through the catalogue) <a href="https://dlibcausepapers.york.ac.uk/yodl/app/home/index.">here</a>. </div>
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To get a deeper understanding of the records, the following
are invaluable sources of information:</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/guides/research-guides/what-are-causepapers/">The Cause Papers Research Guide.</a></li>
<li>Tarver, Anne. (1995) Church Court Records: An introduction
for family and local historians. Chichester, England: Phillimore.</li>
<li>Withers, Colin Blanshard. (2006) Yorkshire probate. 1st
edition. Bainton, England: Yorkshire Wolds Publication.</li>
</ul>
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<div>
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<div>
This blog was written by Paul Wainwright, a volunteer at the Borthwick Institute working on the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/projects/retreat-letters/">Retreat Letters Project</a> . Paul is a student on the University of Strathclyde's <a href="https://www.strath.ac.uk/courses/postgraduatetaught/genealogicalpalaeographicheraldicstudies/">MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies</a> and a student member of the <a href="https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/">Register of Qualified Genealogists</a>. </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-50885389769137042442019-09-12T12:23:00.000+01:002019-09-13T09:25:48.631+01:00William Huskisson and the Vicaress of Eccles<br />
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<i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">By Sally-Anne Shearn. With thanks to the National Railway Museum; Hoole History Society; Chetham's Library, Manchester; and the staff of Chester Cathedral.</i></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The death of Liverpool MP William Huskisson at the opening of the
Liverpool to Manchester Railway in September 1830 has become a notorious event
in early railway history. Less well known however is the part played in
the events of that day by Emma Anne Blackburne, the Vicaress of Eccles, who
features heavily in the correspondence of Annabel Crewe, part of the Milnes
Coates Archive at the Borthwick Institute.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLcEaJdG_DBtDabp_nEQnR_EHsuLFKxGC-Rp4fWVl71k0cgIovLsCiaer3VMpMJNu-BC9uCx6CTudID1vS3Gw2tI4EDyVJFy4-8LWxiamD_KYloHeElbA-oWawhTR6VN2hO8VqFnipUc/s1600/DSC_4546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1600" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkLcEaJdG_DBtDabp_nEQnR_EHsuLFKxGC-Rp4fWVl71k0cgIovLsCiaer3VMpMJNu-BC9uCx6CTudID1vS3Gw2tI4EDyVJFy4-8LWxiamD_KYloHeElbA-oWawhTR6VN2hO8VqFnipUc/s640/DSC_4546.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of Annabel Crewe's Correspondence in the Milnes Coates Archive</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">On the morning of 15 September 1830 eight trains hauled by ‘Stephenson locomotives’ and carrying a total of thirty two carriages waited at
Liverpool, led by railway pioneer George Stephenson himself driving the train in which
rode the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The scene was set for a
grand spectacle but just seventeen miles into the journey, during a stop at
Parkside, William Huskisson crossed the track to speak with the Duke and was
struck by the approaching locomotive engine 'Rocket' driven by Joseph Locke, crushing his leg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stricken Huskisson was carried to a train
carriage and, accompanied by his wife, was taken to Eccles Vicarage, near
Manchester, where he was attended by doctors. His wounds were so severe
that they could only make him comfortable and he died just after 9pm that evening.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP61nq0RMGCo65UMqsMXmEs_pXvtIMpd3GubpPjmWU_qAeLS8HF4guZPXbSZFOhxBc5JBsdo34as8rJ8nGmTsI7kCpbJkMiJcAuxWVcBUDzd5WHGelM8QkVbkIDsEEgj2OP-cjB5JRUL4/s1600/large_1914_0291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1231" data-original-width="1536" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP61nq0RMGCo65UMqsMXmEs_pXvtIMpd3GubpPjmWU_qAeLS8HF4guZPXbSZFOhxBc5JBsdo34as8rJ8nGmTsI7kCpbJkMiJcAuxWVcBUDzd5WHGelM8QkVbkIDsEEgj2OP-cjB5JRUL4/s640/large_1914_0291.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway<br />
<i>Science Museum Group Collection<br />copyright: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Huskisson’s death made front page news, earning him the dubious honour of becoming the world's first widely reported railway passenger casualty. His conveyance ‘to the house
of the Rev. Mr Blackburne’ at Eccles was also widely reported. But it was not
the Reverend himself who received the Huskissons and their friends that day,
but his wife Emma who was alone in the house with her children, and it was Emma
who distinguished herself to such an extent that her conduct on that day would
be remembered at her own death more than fifty years later.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7mdjYGI4a1OeWHQVixWAitNxCrtRzNIUwNcXotawjjqrYNUVvUYq36krsT0OdOcPhX6zvRb_P8WiQkZrtaScq2iVQVVXvF095X93OZxLbEbAEhRjEr32aYvdeS1GhditmqktK0FYqrQ/s1600/Replica+Train+Carriage+NRM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1600" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7mdjYGI4a1OeWHQVixWAitNxCrtRzNIUwNcXotawjjqrYNUVvUYq36krsT0OdOcPhX6zvRb_P8WiQkZrtaScq2iVQVVXvF095X93OZxLbEbAEhRjEr32aYvdeS1GhditmqktK0FYqrQ/s640/Replica+Train+Carriage+NRM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A replica of a first class train carriage on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.<br />
National Railway Museum (author's own photo)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Emma Anne Hesketh was born in 1795, the daughter of Henry Hesketh of
Newton Hall, a wealthy wine merchant. An 1884 book of ‘Railway Adventures
and Anecdotes’ would call her ‘rather strong-minded than otherwise’ and this is
certainly borne out by what we know of her life. At a time when there was
little financial protection for women, the young Emma was responsible for
establishing the Flookersbrook, Newton & Hoole Female Friendly Society
which provided insurance for its members in the event of illness and
disability. In the case of female friendly societies, this included
pregnancy and other specifically female ailments. A report in the Chester
Courant of 3 June 1816 recorded the anniversary procession of the Society, led
by ‘Miss E. Hesketh’ (who also made a ‘neat and appropriate’ speech), and noted
the society’s emblem of a beehive and a pair of joined hands, designed by Emma,
with the mottoes ‘Piety and Virtue’ and ‘Friendship and Industry.’</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Following her marriage to the Reverend Thomas Blackburne in 1819 Emma
would play an equally prominent role in her new parish of Eccles, where as the
vicar’s wife she ‘showed remarkable powers of organisation and work’ among a
population of some 25,000 people. A visitor to the area, Catherine
Stanley, who met Emma in 1832 wrote admiringly of her hard work: ‘there is one
person who interests me very much, Mrs Tom Blackburne, the Vicaress of Eccles…
She made one ashamed of the ease and idleness of one’s own life, compared with
hers.’ She quickly recognised that Emma was ‘the ruling spirit’ there, and that
‘under her guidance, and the help of a sound head and heart, her husband has
become the very man for the place.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIvtbPHQNA1Oob0yc6MC7DB8bCftCQRQbA9BiLdQHFPK0Tvis-QvbbG4-30zSGEDW_U-YoP79vqdFNcRGfrKH1vWVqL8M5-J2XJ0Y88buukE4PJNL9-K85P8Kh0YjWsuimhkC_G5N9Bo/s1600/9041631912_7cc255ab84_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1600" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIvtbPHQNA1Oob0yc6MC7DB8bCftCQRQbA9BiLdQHFPK0Tvis-QvbbG4-30zSGEDW_U-YoP79vqdFNcRGfrKH1vWVqL8M5-J2XJ0Y88buukE4PJNL9-K85P8Kh0YjWsuimhkC_G5N9Bo/s640/9041631912_7cc255ab84_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eccles Parish Church in 1800, just 18 years before Thomas Blackburne became its vicar.<br />
Image reproduced with permission of Chetham’s Library, Manchester.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The important role Emma played in the management of the parish was
recognised equally by her husband’s parishioners. When, in 1837, they
presented Reverend Blackburne with a ‘costly testimonial’ on the occasion of
his moving to Prestwich, Emma was specifically included in their tribute, their
representative praising her for having ‘the heart to feel and the energy to
act’, and adding that without her efforts ‘so much could not have been
accomplished for the schools - so much could not have been done for the
afflicted poor’. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">With this in mind it is perhaps not surprising that the role played by
Emma on the 15 September 1830 was so characteristically active. For the occasion
of the grand opening of the railway Emma and her husband had been invited to a
celebration at Hale Hall, near Liverpool, then the home of Reverend
Blackburne’s brother, the MP John Blackburne. In the words of the
Cornhill Magazine, reporting on the events at Eccles in an 1884 article, there
then occurred ‘one of those strange circumstances utterly condemned by critics
of fiction as ‘unreal’, ‘unnatural’ or ‘impossible.’ After arriving at
Hale, Emma, who was then six months pregnant, became ‘possessed by an
unmistakable presentiment’ that her presence was required at home and insisted
on returning to Eccles at once, to the surprise and consternation of her
friends and family. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">At such a time this journey was easier said than done, but Emma
persisted and took a carriage to Warrington where she travelled the rest of the
way to Eccles by canal boat, arriving at the vicarage on the 14th to find, to
her surprise, that all was well. Whether Emma truly had a ‘presentiment’,
or the Cornhill Magazine was employing some artistic license, Emma was
certainly there, with only her children and servants, on the morning of the
15th when a Mr Barton of Swinton arrived at the vicarage with the alarming news
that a mob was expected to come from Oldham that day to attack the train as it
passed through three miles of unguarded railway line near Eccles. Their
object was the carriage of the Duke of Wellington, a popular Peninsular war
hero but by then an unpopular Tory Prime Minister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Expecting to find Mr Blackburne, Barton found
Emma instead who took charge in place of her husband, rousing fifty special
constables and the churchwardens to form a ‘guard for the Duke’ on Eccles
bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the Cornhill
Magazine Emma then set up a small tent for herself and her children on a nearby
hill with a good view of the railway line and settled down to enjoy the grand
opening, along with gathering crowds of villagers.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzW67DaiAdRhfnVNFt4IiJneZHTOn4KWqsbSXj2tykXDXk0-y2rnuYN0_wq69MhGA4cDdehCRUTcMDY5laEX28ePX0cFhaT7hPiuQKLSYqJZrBIRd9OuAMt5DaElZvum3rKBxwTgiF_CI/s1600/large_cd0719_008_140128_YA1983_9_4_13_L_MR_Aquatint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzW67DaiAdRhfnVNFt4IiJneZHTOn4KWqsbSXj2tykXDXk0-y2rnuYN0_wq69MhGA4cDdehCRUTcMDY5laEX28ePX0cFhaT7hPiuQKLSYqJZrBIRd9OuAMt5DaElZvum3rKBxwTgiF_CI/s640/large_cd0719_008_140128_YA1983_9_4_13_L_MR_Aquatint.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parkside, where the fatal accident took place.<br />
<i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Science Museum Group Collection</i><br />
<i style="font-size: 12.8px;">copyright: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It was while waiting there that she was said to have heard the first
commotion and confused shouts of an accident at the vicarage. Hurrying
back she found a growing crowd around the vicarage and a ‘sad procession’
bearing Huskisson upon a door. Her husband was then at Manchester and
still had no knowledge of events, but he wrote to his mother in law the
following day to take up the tale, ‘[Emma] made her way through the immense
crowd.’ At her direction ‘they placed him on the sopha in the drawing room and
dared not move him till he died’, adding with some pride that ‘as to dearest
Emma, they all value <i>her</i> as they <i>ought</i>.’ </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Indeed, Emma was universally praised for her conduct throughout.
The Cornhill Magazine asserting that ‘the accident of a day had brought into
prominence the devoted work of years’. In a biographical memoir of
Huskisson published the year after his death, the author claimed that ‘kindness
would, indeed, have been shewn by any under such circumstances; but few could
have been so capable as Mrs Blackburne to arrange with ready and affectionate
attention, and to perform so quickly and with such perfect judgement, every
thing which it could be hoped might in any way minister to his
assistance.’ </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Emma’s tasks were
manifold. As well as the need for her own nursing skills, she had to
manage a sudden influx of guests into her small home: Lords Wilton, Granville
and Colvile, Huskisson’s secretary Mr Wainwright, Mr Ransome, Mr Whatton, the
doctors from Manchester, and the following day Lords Gore, Warncliffe, Walhouse
and Littleton, and an additional two deputations from Liverpool. Her
husband, who had finally received word of the disaster while eating his
luncheon in Manchester, returned at once to support his wife and to give
Huskisson the Sacrament, writing in something of an understatement that he
found the house in a ‘tolerable bustle’. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But perhaps Emma’s most important role was as a support to the
traumatised and grieving Emily Huskisson who had witnessed her husband’s
accident and accompanied him in the carriage to Eccles. The Cornhill
Magazine writes that Emily was separated from her husband by the immense crowds
there and, having been mistakenly told he had been taken to a nearby farmhouse,
made her way there first before being redirected to the vicarage, where she
arrived nearly an hour later to find her husband ‘suffering agonies’.
Emma told Catherine Stanley that Emily was ‘alternately in paroxysms of grief
and a still more dreadful calmness’. She remained with Huskisson in the
drawing room, Thomas Blackburne writing ‘never shall I forget that scene, his
poor wife holding his head, and the great men weeping.’ </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDhH3YM4LPQu9ZoPxhwAxzCIWoyz04wEGSd9Uy1eSfoBrgUiNRpVJsw5QjfMc70OO3INGEdlm4wB4F9GNgBJ0coofuf2SoVZp_WgT9F4TkUff5ePhMIv_i2yGsaEmVqDv9kcIks1M838/s1600/large_DS050282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="933" data-original-width="1536" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbDhH3YM4LPQu9ZoPxhwAxzCIWoyz04wEGSd9Uy1eSfoBrgUiNRpVJsw5QjfMc70OO3INGEdlm4wB4F9GNgBJ0coofuf2SoVZp_WgT9F4TkUff5ePhMIv_i2yGsaEmVqDv9kcIks1M838/s640/large_DS050282.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">William Huskisson's Memorial Tablet.<br /><i>Science Museum Group Collection</i><br /><i>copyright: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">After Huskisson’s death that evening Emily remained at the vicarage a
further three days. ‘Poor woman’, wrote Thomas Blackburne, ‘how <i>she</i>
lamented his loss; yet her struggles to bear with fortitude are
wonderful.’ Emma’s own account, as given to Catherine Stanley, is less
stoic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emma told her that the most
painful thing she had to do was to wake Emily from a deep sleep the morning
after his death, ‘She went three times into the room before she had resolution
to wake her outright’ and when she finally did so Emily became so hysterical
that Emma had to be assisted by Lord Granville to calm her, ‘in which task only
he and Mrs Blackburne were in any degree successful’. On the day she was
to leave the house to accompany her husband’s body back to Liverpool, Emily
again gave way to violent grief, locking herself in her room to pray ‘during
which Mrs Blackburne tried in vain to get to her assistance’. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Despite the terrible circumstances of their meeting, Emily would
remember Emma and her kindness with great affection. She had spoken to
Emma at the time of her worry that the pregnant Lady Elizabeth Belgrave (who
had been present during the accident) would suffer from the effects of the
shock. Emma was quick to reassure her, and revealed nothing of her own
advanced pregnancy, but later wrote to her when her baby, whom she named Emily
Anne, was born ‘and Mrs Huskisson answered her that it was the first ray of
sunshine that had come to her, for she had afterwards found it out and it had
weighed heavily upon her.’ Some months after the accident Emily sent the
Blackburnes a bible with gold clasps, bearing the inscription ‘I was a
stranger, and ye took me in’ and from then until the Blackburnes’ removal to
Prestwich in 1837 she also sent £20 at Christmas to be distributed amongst the
poor of Eccles. In her will in 1856 she left Emma £100.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Reverend Thomas Blackburne died unexpectedly in 1847, leaving Emma a widow
with eight children. She settled at Boughton and that we know anything
detailed about her life subsequently is due to her appearance in the set of
letters at the Borthwick Institute belonging to Emma’s distant cousin Annabel
Crewe, the daughter of the 2nd Baron Crewe of Crewe Hall in Cheshire. It
is once again at a time of crisis that Emma comes to the fore, in this case the
illness and death in February 1850 of Annabel’s beloved aunt, Elizabeth Emma
Cunliffe Offley, with whom Annabel had lived since the age of 15.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was ‘dear kind Mrs Blackburne’ who
supported Annabel through the first difficult days, making the necessary
arrangements and becoming her ‘staff and stay’ in the months that
followed. Emma would often refer to Annabel by the nickname ‘IX’, an
honorary ninth daughter.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXXBjw1ypPJRjRUY2L39nYVhxs3pcQDNQh6V7uS4q7VIand7IVtCm1Xo_zxawoc_5Fyj7NBMf8WxZXJMUSf9zgB7273dCZ-Eld0yZ6Ees8BG39sCIIG7JM6WjXFCDnivqgU83VFrD3Ak/s1600/Emma+and+Annabel+Letters+%252830+of+45%2529+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="1600" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXXBjw1ypPJRjRUY2L39nYVhxs3pcQDNQh6V7uS4q7VIand7IVtCm1Xo_zxawoc_5Fyj7NBMf8WxZXJMUSf9zgB7273dCZ-Eld0yZ6Ees8BG39sCIIG7JM6WjXFCDnivqgU83VFrD3Ak/s640/Emma+and+Annabel+Letters+%252830+of+45%2529+-+Copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A letter from Emma Blackburne to 'My very dear IX' [Annabel] <br />
discussing Warmingham church affairs and the progress of Crewe Hall.<br />
<i>Milnes Coates Archive, Borthwick Institute</i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A total of seventeen letters by Emma herself survive amongst Annabel’s
correspondence, filled with family news and gossipy anecdotes that give a vivid
insight into her personality. The ‘Dear and Faithful’ as she came to be
dubbed by Annabel and her sister Henrietta remained an important figure in the
lives of the Crewe siblings, who were in age between 13 and 19 years her
junior. She attended Annabel’s wedding to Richard Monckton Milnes, later
Lord Houghton, in 1851 and acted as an unofficial housekeeper and hostess for
Annabel’s brother, the shy and eccentric Hungerford, 3rd Baron Crewe, when he
entertained at Crewe Hall. In Emma’s longest surviving letter to Annabel
she writes of a grand three day entertainment given by Hungerford at Crewe in
1859 for all his tenantry - but evidently organised by Emma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She even dug out an old local song for the
occasion, ‘<span style="background: white;">The band sang well after each Toast,
I had taught them the old Crewe song - which was encored each day, Your brother
was quite delighted with it...I never saw a man so happy as he was, it was
quite wonderful how he remembered to say the right thing to the right person.’</span>
It was also Emma who made arrangements for the grand re-opening of Crewe Hall
after the devastating fire of 1866, following the rebuilding work with interest
and updating Annabel and Henrietta on the latest developments. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsglPOznITXeKiPGl2AnhodPUZh5VX_EQ-E29akSonqFEXMp4U33qjjEuFCm0wzRFkGjUvqu7fHAlle_GGAGKnMDLn6Un7xYctnTZldM9BTX4q4MuaKb1nZyDUFTAKfAsN3znv8PoFQqo/s1600/20190909_130834.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1011" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsglPOznITXeKiPGl2AnhodPUZh5VX_EQ-E29akSonqFEXMp4U33qjjEuFCm0wzRFkGjUvqu7fHAlle_GGAGKnMDLn6Un7xYctnTZldM9BTX4q4MuaKb1nZyDUFTAKfAsN3znv8PoFQqo/s640/20190909_130834.jpg" width="404" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emma Anne Blackburne's stained glass window at Chester Cathedral (author's own image)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Emma would outlive both Annabel and Henrietta, dying in 1886 in her 91st
year, one of the oldest inhabitants of Spring Hill in Boughton. She was
survived by two daughters and five sons and her funeral in Chester was attended
by Hungerford and by Annabel’s husband Lord Houghton. At her death her link to
Huskisson was once again recalled, with many newspapers describing her as ‘the
lady who nursed Mr Huskisson’ and noting that with the death of the ‘good and
kindly’ Mrs Blackburne, had been severed ‘probably the last surviving link in
the chain of connexion with the dark cloud which marred an otherwise auspicious
event’ so many years before.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">She is commemorated by a stained glass window in Chester Cathedral with
a dedication that reads,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In loving remembrance of Emma Anne
Blackburne, here married A.D. M DCCCXIX., and of Katherine Margaret, her
daughter, here baptised A.D. M D CCCXXIV., this window is dedicated in the name
of God, M DCCCCII.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnoVOIt44IUUkJiQRB1IT1Gv2jxAMIMw9yVl4OCx5f8vsMcteqcryGq89TuBcKlhI8p1BWu429iJggywKCwR297ubMQvMDqjkU5cYsDZM4iThZF-klMhxy6boBSoW0nYTOu3NsafQs-Y/s1600/20190909_114704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnnoVOIt44IUUkJiQRB1IT1Gv2jxAMIMw9yVl4OCx5f8vsMcteqcryGq89TuBcKlhI8p1BWu429iJggywKCwR297ubMQvMDqjkU5cYsDZM4iThZF-klMhxy6boBSoW0nYTOu3NsafQs-Y/s640/20190909_114704.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emma Blackburne's grave at Overleigh Cemetery, Chester (author's own image)</td></tr>
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<br />
<u>Bibliography</u></div>
<div>
<br />
Christian Wolmar, ‘Fire and Steam: How the Railways Transformed Britain’, London 2007.<br />
<br />
Richard Pike, ‘Railway Adventures and Anecdotes: Extending Over More Than Fifty Years’, 1884.<br />
<br />
Flookersbrook, Newton & Hoole Female Friendly Society’<br />
[<a href="http://www.hoolehistorysoc.btck.co.uk/HooleSocialWelfare/FemaleFriendlySocieties">http://www.hoolehistorysoc.btck.co.uk/HooleSocialWelfare/FemaleFriendlySocieties</a>]<br />
<br />
‘Death of Mrs Blackburne of Boughton’, Chester Observer, 17 April 1886.<br />
<br />
‘Memoirs of Edward and Catherine Stanley’, edited by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 1880.<br />
<br />
‘Eccles: Splendid Testimonial to the Rev. Thomas Blackburne A.M.’, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 4 March 1837.<br />
<br />
‘At Eccles’, The Cornhill Magazine, 1884.<br />
<br />
‘The speeches of the Right Honorable William Huskisson, with a biographical memoir, supplied to the editor from authentic sources’, London 1831.<br />
<br />
‘Funeral of Mrs Blackburne’, Liverpool Mercury, 19 April 1886.<br />
<br />
‘Death of the Lady who Nursed Mr Huskisson’, The Manchester Evening News, 14 April 1886.<br />
<br />
‘Notes and Comments’, Newcastle Evening Chronicle 15 April 1886. <br />
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Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-24610779411206881612019-08-15T14:07:00.002+01:002019-09-13T09:26:03.146+01:00When Joseph met Julia: A Rowntree Love Story<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Written by Sarah Moses, Archives Trainee</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the Rowntree Victorian Correspondence, there are
a number of letters revealing details about the relationship between Joseph
Rowntree and Julia Seebohm from meeting in York as school pupils (although they
had probably known each other since early childhood) to Julia’s untimely death
at the age of 22.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Julia Elizabeth Seebohm was born in Bradford on 6
March 1841, the daughter of Benjamin Seebohm and his wife Esther (née Wheeler).
Benjamin, a Quaker, had moved from Germany to Bradford in 1814 at the request
of English Quakers, who had valued his role as an interpreter for them while
they visited his local area and other parts of Europe. Esther was the
granddaughter of William Tuke of York.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2GjPZ3jhqrR-jkmUDJlAguibtOkStX9PZwATSxFwIv_pF1vMY3MjnRp-bxqGrxa-8eEn7SZVhw_1tKW4WATqivVu4UYak0AG7GvEX65aGFYBDUNJO_NR7jJypKihFx_Gr-novbPq2b0/s1600/03_1_1206_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="651" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2GjPZ3jhqrR-jkmUDJlAguibtOkStX9PZwATSxFwIv_pF1vMY3MjnRp-bxqGrxa-8eEn7SZVhw_1tKW4WATqivVu4UYak0AG7GvEX65aGFYBDUNJO_NR7jJypKihFx_Gr-novbPq2b0/s640/03_1_1206_0001.jpg" width="404" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The young Julia Seebohm (JRF Rowntree Photographs)</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Julia was educated at the York Quarterly Meeting Girls’ School in Castlegate (later The Mount School) between 1854 and 1856, where she was a close friend of Hannah Rowntree. Julia often visited the Rowntree family during this time, as is reflected in her letters. This letter to her mother in May 1854 is just one example:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘My dearest mother,</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I must now begin to write to thee as I have a small portion of time to spare & I shall not have much time tomorrow for I am going to Joseph Rowntree’s to dinner & tea with Hannah and Libby [...]’ </span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">(RFAM/JS/VC/2/20)</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the spring of 1857, Julia became reacquainted with Joseph Rowntree at her brother Frederic’s home in Hitchin. Few of Joseph and Julia’s letters from this period survive but, using letters from their friends, we can piece together something of their relationship. In April 1858, Julia’s school friend Sarah Hannah Grimshaw wrote:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘[...] I suppose thou wilt have heard that M. A. Ashby is going to be married to one of the Richardsons. Does it not seem queer that one of my schoolfellows should be married; but does thou know I have heard of another? A more intimate friend of mine whom thou art very well acquainted with intending to do the same. If there is any truth in it of course thou will know of it better than any one. Joseph Rowntree Jun[ior] being her intended. I am a little impertinent puss to tease poor mousey so am I not? If I did not think thee very merciful perhaps I should not dare to do it. [...]’ </span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">(RFAM/JS/VC/17/19)</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nearly four years later after this letter was written, Joseph and Julia became engaged. Joseph’s draft letter (with corrections) to his future parents-in-law requesting their daughter’s hand in marriage is found in our Rowntree Family Letters Archive:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘My dear Friends, Benjamin & Esther Seebohm</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I am about to ask your kind attention to a subject of great importance and one that has for a long time engaged my warmest interest. </span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">From an early period of my acquaintance with ^your dear^ Julia, indeed whilst she was at York School, I formed a warm attachment for her, & have cherished the hope that she might be the right partner for me in life. I have deeply felt the importance of the subject, & it has often engaged my earnest prayerful consideration with the desire for the Lord’s guidance in it.</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">For some years past Julia has never been long absent from my thoughts; increased acquaintance has heightened my estimate of her character, my affections are deeply engaged and I now ask your permission to address her on the subject.</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I trust you will allow me to express my feelings to Julia in writing & I indulge the hope that an early visit to London, which I have in prospect, may afford the opportunity of our meeting.</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The subject of this letter has the warm approval of my dear Mother who wishes to write in dear love to you. [...] Jos R’ </span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">(Rowntree Family Letters, Bundle 4d)</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI5zevRxUh0ilVIyEuCmYi4-kp8P3H4Bc4tc8vs_9TY1bfYeypYodiqnXrfGYPDBqjzjPaau_XACAYR5KGHgI5rn9lDAh-S8U3bfVZPjy-xQqSXXF8Hr3geRFBZsfZEmXdVKJgu97sj3I/s1600/Joseph+Rowntree+Proposal+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1058" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI5zevRxUh0ilVIyEuCmYi4-kp8P3H4Bc4tc8vs_9TY1bfYeypYodiqnXrfGYPDBqjzjPaau_XACAYR5KGHgI5rn9lDAh-S8U3bfVZPjy-xQqSXXF8Hr3geRFBZsfZEmXdVKJgu97sj3I/s640/Joseph+Rowntree+Proposal+%25281%2529.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The proposal letter from Joseph Rowntree </td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p><br /> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">During their engagement, Joseph and Julia appear to have written to each other almost daily and, as their wedding day approached, their thoughts turned towards arrangements for their big day. In this letter from June 1862, Joseph writes to his fiancée about her wedding attire:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘[...] As to thy wedding dress, darling, thou will look so well in anything that it does not make much matter what thou has (within certain limits).</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 18px;"> </span><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">I have no obligation to a </span></i><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">white silk & it seems as though this might save a good deal of trouble. </span></i><i style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">[...]’ </span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">(RFAM/JR/VC/6/5)</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Joseph and Julia married on 15 August 1862 in the Friends’ Meeting House in Hitchin. They then moved into ‘Top House’ at Bootham, York, the home of Joseph’s mother Sarah (although the house had been divided into two sections, giving the young couple some privacy). </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9PXGvJ86gg3TGFUupyQ4hi9CrHBthrujN6PqkmvyudyElNQYG5xbEA8O3onDwe_X3OTHuSnM1GgeDmNt68jnSWwEfp1de8Kz4_maWvU6cle7KDnhKBKS_vnRxsHm7o_r0IOKpuDsfFU/s1600/02_1_1215_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="655" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga9PXGvJ86gg3TGFUupyQ4hi9CrHBthrujN6PqkmvyudyElNQYG5xbEA8O3onDwe_X3OTHuSnM1GgeDmNt68jnSWwEfp1de8Kz4_maWvU6cle7KDnhKBKS_vnRxsHm7o_r0IOKpuDsfFU/s640/02_1_1215_0001.jpg" width="408" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph and Julia Rowntree (JRF Rowntree Photographs)</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nine months later, their daughter Julia Seebohm (known as ‘Lillie’) was born. Julia’s health, never particularly strong, rapidly deteriorated after Lillie’s birth and Joseph sent them both to Scarborough, hoping for some improvement. At the end of August 1863, Julia returned to York and fell desperately ill. She died on 19 September 1863, most likely of meningitis. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Joseph’s grief is illustrated in some of his letters, including this one to his mother-in-law less than a fortnight after Julia’s death:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘[...] It is only 4 weeks today since our darling came home from Scarb[o]ro[ugh] looking then indeed very ill, but able to enter with intense feeling into the enjoyments of her home. Sometimes when alone the past comes before me so vividly that I hardly know how to bear the train of recollections that pour in & I have to bury myself in a book, or take refuge in dear Mother’s dining room. </span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I feel that there is a left hand & a right hand temptation to struggle against - on the one hand not to allow myself to become swallowed up in the common round of daily occupations & on the other not to become selfish or morbid by too much cherishing my sorrow […] by allowing the spring of action to be weakened by the constant sense of very heavy bereavement.</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But this is an egotistical letter. I felt for you going back to your home which can never more be brightened by your daughter being present & thy kind letter of this morning, for which Mother wished me to thank thee, brought your loneliness again before me. [...]’ </span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">(RFAM/JR/VC/8/2)</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcaBhaEyJqR1iyEDQYryxumqfAf7ybQ_SFUZPzZo9oPsK95TXfr8OgAXTzd4V_hanPAfH8DJgb2-jrT4sp8-vH4Z-uQPlXyQgosoWq5deWY8D840HRxYM7fobhyEK5I71rfGOIht7j0g/s1600/03_1_1204_0001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="679" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLcaBhaEyJqR1iyEDQYryxumqfAf7ybQ_SFUZPzZo9oPsK95TXfr8OgAXTzd4V_hanPAfH8DJgb2-jrT4sp8-vH4Z-uQPlXyQgosoWq5deWY8D840HRxYM7fobhyEK5I71rfGOIht7j0g/s640/03_1_1204_0001.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph's mother Sarah Rowntree with baby Lillie<br />
(JRF Rowntree Photographs)</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But life continued. Joseph’s sister Hannah came to live with him and help to care for his young daughter Lillie. When Lillie was almost 11 months old, Joseph wrote to his mother-in-law:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘[...] If my little pet looks as well when thou sees her as she looks this morning after breakfast thou will think her a noble little grandchild. Hannah professes to be anxious ab[ou]t her getting so plump. H thinks the chicken does not mean to learn to crawl but will walk without passing through this stage. [...]’</span></i></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">A few years later, Joseph met Julia’s cousin Emma Antoinette Seebohm (known as ‘Tonie’) in Hitchin, where she was learning English. They married on 14 November 1867 and Tonie moved into ‘Top House’. Lillie was now 5 years old and she wrote the following letter to her father and stepmother while they were on their honeymoon:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Dashwood Road,</span></i></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Banbury.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Nov 24. 1867</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">My dear Papa & Mama,</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I have seen some peacocks in the gardens of Roxton Abbey. I send some feathers & one is a brown one & one is a blue & brown. They both are very soft. And I got a great many chestnuts & Suzanna is very well but Effie is ’nt. Effie has got a cold, and one is a brown feather & the other is brown & white on the top. I am very happy here & I hope you will come in the morning when I am chalking & Suzanna laid by me.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We have such a funny game & one ball has to be on the top in such a funny heap & we have to try to knock it (& it is called Chinese Bagalille) & I am sure I like to be at Banbury. We went such a very beauty ride yesterday & we saw some cows & two such queer ducks & a man fed the ducks & we saw more than two ducks. The cows were in a field & we went over such a queer little bridge, two bridges.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tantie has just had a letter from Grandmamma & she says John & Mable fighted together so that Cousin Pollie had to open the door, because they were so naughty & one came out, & sat a very long time out of the cage, & I am sure Topsy is very silly & I am sure Charlie sings very much. And we went to see a house yesterday & it had some ivy on & Tantie went to see the lady. I send as many loves & kisses as you like.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Your loving little daughter</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></i></span><span style="text-decoration-skip-ink: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Lillie</span></u></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">’ </span></i></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">(RFAM/JR/VC/9/1)</span></span></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lillie Rowntree (JRF Rowntree Photographs)</td></tr>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sadly, Lillie died of scarlet fever on 16 May 1869, bringing the last living memory of Joseph and Julia’s relationship to an end. After this decade full of both happiness and sadness, however, Joseph and Tonie (and their own children) lived happily for many years. But that story is told elsewhere.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-35962145060553225592019-08-07T09:36:00.000+01:002019-08-07T09:37:29.992+01:00An A-Z of life as a Trainee at the Borthwick Institute for Archives<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By Sarah Moses, Archive Trainee</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Welcome to my A-Z of what I’ve learned while I’ve been a trainee at the
Borthwick Institute for Archives! I started working here in July 2018 and I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed the traineeship but, as I’m almost finished, I wanted to
provide some insight into the life of an Archive Trainee. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">A is for Archive Graduate Trainee:</span></span></b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This traineeship is an opportunity for someone
interested in being an archivist to learn more about the practical side of
working in an archive, before pursuing a formal postgraduate qualification. The
Borthwick role includes a huge variety of tasks from copying probate orders to
social media to working in the searchroom, as well as training in aspects of an
archivist’s job and visits to other repositories to learn even more. In this
blog post, I’ll be attempting to show just how varied the trainee’s role truly
is!</span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">B is for Borthcat:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> The Borthwick Catalogue (</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">) provides all manner of information
about our archives and their history. Whether you need a quick search to check
some information or you have time to get lost in the depths of archival
descriptions and authority records, Borthcat is your one-stop shop for all
things holdings-related. (Although I’ve also learned that you sometimes just
cannot get by without the paper catalogues in the searchroom.) </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">C is for Conservation:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> Our conservators form a vital part of the team at the Borthwick. As a
trainee, I’ve got to know them as the people who work magic on the rolled
probate records I bring in to have made flat. They are also the fount of all
knowledge when it comes to packaging, and don’t seem to mind too much when I
repeatedly ask questions about how to deal with specific
documents/objects/photograph albums. On the subject of photographs, most of
these (along with some scientific instruments) are held in our cold store,
which is (as the name suggests) COLD. I quickly learned that if I would be
spending a large amount of time in there, I needed to wear extra layers. (On a
side note, this sartorial advice actually applies to working in archives anyway
- many areas are colder than you expect!) </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">D is for Data Protection:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Before I started my
traineeship, my only known experience of data protection was the numerous
emails I had received the previous year relating to GDPR. But I now know far
more about the 100-year rule and the various regulations for medical records in
particular. Although a more knowledgeable member of staff has always been happy
to answer any questions about data protection because this is one area in which
I really didn’t want to mess up!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">E is for Exercise:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> An unexpected side
effect of being an archive trainee is the exercise I’ve got. Although I have
lifted heavy items more than once in my life, it is slightly different when you
are moving dozens of boxes every day. Not only have I actually got arm muscles
for the first time in my life, but climbing stairs and walking between
strongrooms and the searchroom and accessions (where I’m based) and the
digitisation suite and the staff area have made me fitter, despite all the cake
archivists eat.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">F is for File:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> While fixing problems on
Borthcat, I asked what I assumed was a very simple, very stupid question: in a
description of an archival collection, what is the difference between
file-level and item-level? Apparently, this is not such a simple, stupid
question after all, which provokes debates on, for example, whether a minute
book is an item in itself, or whether it is a file in which individual
entries/pages are items. I found myself surrounded by hours of discussion and
had books recommended to me on the topic.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">G is for General Staff Meetings:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> The highlight of
every three months. It is the trainee’s job to provide statistics on rolled
wills given to conservation, which will inevitably involve a fight with a
spreadsheet and more time than it should take manually copying and pasting and
adding up, but I always managed (eventually) to obtain the right information. I
also learned that it’s advisable to read other people’s summary reports that
are provided before the meeting, so you don’t end up sitting in a room of 20
people where everyone else seems to know what is being discussed and you don’t
have a clue.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">H is for Handwriting:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Or more accurately:
palaeography. This is one of the greatest archival skills I have learned in my
traineeship. Through both 1:1 study with a member of staff and seminars taught
as part of a postgraduate module, after a few weeks of studying early modern
material, I started to realise that maybe I could actually read it. And if in
doubt, I learned to count the minims and ask myself if the letter I was stuck
on was ‘c’ or ‘h’ or ‘r’ or ‘&’ (it’s normally one of those). I also had
the opportunity to work on some 19th and 20th century material, which made the
16th century palaeography seem like a doddle. On a slight tangent, I was also
able to participate in the Medieval Latin course run by the University’s
Languages for All scheme (</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/lfa/courses/latin-medieval/"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">https://www.york.ac.uk/lfa/courses/latin-medieval/</span></a></span><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">). This can be taken
at either beginner or advanced level and provides a solid foundation in Latin
grammar and vocabulary, as well as information on standard phrases used in
legal and probate documents. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6kjRYgGeu1DBgKlZixzNjZ-YGkkQGM9K5zKCzeK3HA4r51hSo8fftSyJJe8M8Do5S9hK0CVcAaoIvZ-TpRcIXG17wV5rim0o7ulxHzdthXVEVJWLIeltyPT0vLuWm8XzYEQ7AHl9cc8/s1600/H.+Prob_Reg_7_21r_lines1to20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1600" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY6kjRYgGeu1DBgKlZixzNjZ-YGkkQGM9K5zKCzeK3HA4r51hSo8fftSyJJe8M8Do5S9hK0CVcAaoIvZ-TpRcIXG17wV5rim0o7ulxHzdthXVEVJWLIeltyPT0vLuWm8XzYEQ7AHl9cc8/s640/H.+Prob_Reg_7_21r_lines1to20.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The first palaeography document I attempted to read - the will of Jane Stapilton</span></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I is for Instagram:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> And Facebook. And
Twitter. One of my most time-consuming roles has been maintaining the social
media channels of the Borthwick. We may not have reached the dizzying heights
of The Museum of English Rural Life or Orkney Library but social media is a
great way to show what we do. I’ve learned to be creative, have fun and, most
importantly, ask my colleagues for ideas. Typing in a certain word on Borthcat
may provide an overwhelming selection of records to use, but it is most likely
that someone will have a random nugget of information tucked away deep in their
memory banks that was stored for such a time as this. And I’ve had the
privilege of staging many a photoshoot for Archie (our dearly loved archive squirrel).
He could be doing anything or saying anything (more or less) and get away with
it. Because he’s a squirrel. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WVO56nIDojFkELNcywwBoybp8KV1ka3Lwjyi5vAJjd-SpXOhQhVntKjL0j3_RWPxEqGqyGYAqJMlP2e9_Gdra4Ib3eljZCKkWYOy1_CNFkHJYlp5mdTZGuyDrcKDqqfLGZ1s_j4G3SA/s1600/I.+Graduation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1354" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2WVO56nIDojFkELNcywwBoybp8KV1ka3Lwjyi5vAJjd-SpXOhQhVntKjL0j3_RWPxEqGqyGYAqJMlP2e9_Gdra4Ib3eljZCKkWYOy1_CNFkHJYlp5mdTZGuyDrcKDqqfLGZ1s_j4G3SA/s640/I.+Graduation.jpg" width="539" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Archie the Archive Squirrel</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">J is for Jobs, Odd:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> As a trainee, I’ve
ended up doing jobs that I’d never expected. From staging photo shoots for a
squirrel to creating a post-it note crown for said squirrel (twice), I’ve
occasionally found myself in slightly bizarre circumstances during my
traineeship. One of my most ‘what am I actually doing’ non-squirrel-related
moments was when we got a new safe for our keys and I spent an hour sitting on
the floor, writing out sticky labels with staff names on, attaching these to
the new cabinet and transferring the keys across (which had helpfully been
mixed up moments beforehand). </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPf5mojd9qm2KDefR6AwZQRUgyF02Hywp43jzEtCvxwDSV3xvMatFhLX__tgXgq-2fsLm_NPt0dp7rOtVQOddSmKSAve79dHRnFgBztwumhxappn6mliqQ0Dzcu5K-KzKN4jNYYogwaRA/s1600/J.+Christmas+Opening+Times+Archie+%25281b%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1358" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPf5mojd9qm2KDefR6AwZQRUgyF02Hywp43jzEtCvxwDSV3xvMatFhLX__tgXgq-2fsLm_NPt0dp7rOtVQOddSmKSAve79dHRnFgBztwumhxappn6mliqQ0Dzcu5K-KzKN4jNYYogwaRA/s640/J.+Christmas+Opening+Times+Archie+%25281b%2529.jpg" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first outfit I made for Archie - a crown and a paperchain</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">K is for Key Cabinet:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> A few months into
my traineeship, we got a new safe for the keys we use to access various parts
of the building. With its handy touchpad to ensure ease of opening, this safe
will seem perfectly normal to anyone beginning a career at the Borthwick. But,
unfortunately, they’ve missed out on the rite of passage that was the old key
cabinet. Transferred from the Borthwick’s old home at St Anthony’s Hall, this
cabinet had a dial that was incredibly temperamental. A fraction of a degree
out of place could make all the difference (as could pounding the door of the
cabinet), and I thought I would never learn how to use it and instead be
reliant on other people getting my keys out for me...until Day 3 of my
traineeship, when I opened the safe by myself and, of course, no one was around
to see it! Sometimes change is good.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">L is for Lifelong Learning:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Our main classroom
space is known as the Lifelong Learning room. I’ve spent plenty of time in here
setting up for various classes and visits. Sometimes it is simply a case of
moving some chairs and tables; sometimes I’ve spent more than an hour laying
out archival material that will be studied by the visiting group. Sitting in on
classes (especially at the start of my traineeship), was a great way to learn
more about the holdings of the Borthwick, and to see how outreach can be done
in an archival setting. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDrSfmJ7JjsTx5beSVE4_o2EtpCn4lQSGNdJT_N6beUYOrxeiV0RO8s4uRYNpbFfgprElWhSCOBR8XClZT8Ic8_75zfcgY7ghUt33iz_FQEIwW_ZQm1u_nT7H6poNloXNlLDYMZR6-Mg/s1600/L.+LLL+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifDrSfmJ7JjsTx5beSVE4_o2EtpCn4lQSGNdJT_N6beUYOrxeiV0RO8s4uRYNpbFfgprElWhSCOBR8XClZT8Ic8_75zfcgY7ghUt33iz_FQEIwW_ZQm1u_nT7H6poNloXNlLDYMZR6-Mg/s640/L.+LLL+%25281%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Archie in Lifelong Learning</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">M is for Milk:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> We’re halfway through my A-Z, so
I think it’s time for a tea break, but is there milk in the fridge? This is one
of my most inconspicuous, yet vital, roles. If there’s milk in the fridge, no
one bats an eyelid. If there isn’t, someone else will have to buy milk from the
shop on campus and I feel like I’ve failed at life. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">N is for The Northern Way Project:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> And the Rowntree
Archives Project. And the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Project. And the Alcoholics
Anonymous Project. And the Yorkshire Historic Dictionary Project. It’s always a
great idea to learn about the projects being undertaken at the Borthwick. The
project archivists have provided me with all sorts of fascinating information
and taught me about cataloguing (and I’ve been able to hear them discussing
times when they’ve found funny/sad/annoying records which provide an insight
into their project). Because they know their project material so thoroughly,
they are also great people to ask for ideas for social media.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">O is for Orders Database:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> What to say about
the orders database. It is a fantastic spreadsheet, providing a wealth of
useful information but it is full of all kinds of formulae and buttons I never
ever want to mess with. When people order anything through the research or
copying services on our website, their request arrives in the orders database,
from which we can generate invoices and store any necessary information. I use
it almost daily, so I’ve had to become familiar with the columns I need. And in
the worst case scenario, it does ask whether you really want to type in a box
which should not be changed, so I can quickly say, “No, thank you” and get back
to what I was trying to do. And in the worst worst case scenario, the database
can easily be restored to a version from a few hours before (but I always ask
someone who actually knows what they’re doing to fix it).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">P is for Packaging:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> As part of my
traineeship, I’ve been asked on several occasions to transfer archival material
from the cardboard boxes/plastic bags in which it arrived, to archival standard
packaging, checking for rusty paperclips, plastic wallets or anything that
maybe should be treated slightly differently (like a box of matches - yes,
really). My repackaging tasks have varied from school records to ecclesiastical
records to scripts for plays to miscellaneous business records. I’ve also been
asked to create lists of the contents of each box - such a simple exercise and
yet incredibly useful for finding stuff. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHoJoc3ivH81IhBDXYhgHbV1Voiis_v4hgBaX4IyQCi1HQdDbA5Rx0yBcSPiSXLUwL0Xjtucs96VrtMQwAFZ4oroALa1CUYmMGXnqkW98Tl0UCzhhViATOZPm99IYDUi4pnmnZr7EKrZ8/s1600/P.+Box+lists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1600" height="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHoJoc3ivH81IhBDXYhgHbV1Voiis_v4hgBaX4IyQCi1HQdDbA5Rx0yBcSPiSXLUwL0Xjtucs96VrtMQwAFZ4oroALa1CUYmMGXnqkW98Tl0UCzhhViATOZPm99IYDUi4pnmnZr7EKrZ8/s640/P.+Box+lists.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some examples of box lists I've created</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Q is for Questions:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> This is questions
in two senses: (a) questions I receive, and (b) questions I pose. Firstly, when
working at the searchroom reception desk, I am asked many many questions. These
enquiries could be received by email (in which case I can consult other members
of staff before replying), by telephone (in which case I can ask them to email
us, or say that I will email them, if I don’t know the answer), or in person
(in which case it is more difficult to hide my lack of knowledge). The
questions could be anything from general queries on using probate indexes to
incredibly detailed analyses of a person’s ancestors. Secondly, there are the
questions I have posed as a trainee. Throughout my first few weeks (and, let’s
be honest, all year) it was reiterated to me on multiple occasions that there
were no stupid questions and I could ask for help as many times as I needed.
And, to be fair to my colleagues, everyone has treated me with patience and
kindness, even if I have forgotten something incredibly basic. I had to ask how
to turn a computer on a few months into my traineeship, so it’s pretty
impossible to do any worse than that.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">R is for Rowntree correspondence:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Presented with
three boxes of hundreds of letters written to and by the Rowntree family in the
middle of the 19th century, I faced the daunting prospect of writing a short
note on the author, recipient, date and contents of each letter. Fortunately,
some work had already been done to find the common thread in each bundle, and
so, armed with a fairly detailed family tree of Joseph Rowntree, I began this
task. However, I hadn’t reckoned on the challenge of reading Victorian
handwriting. And, as luck would have it, the least legible writing style came
from Joseph’s mother Sarah, hundreds of whose letters are contained within the
collection. Fortunately, I quickly learned that if I was really struggling to
read someone’s handwriting, I should take the time to actually sit and
transcribe whole letters. Although this was time-consuming, it enabled me to
“get my eye in” and pick out common stylistic variations.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8_KfUuyWei77aOlb7EdKlJ-sIvekmOfrUtTUHiL4JVClc1XD6y9T16P_uqVptBMoGx4-1ntK8dHXVI8mwDG6Zn9EkHVCxD9BzI530SY-2ZBpx9Z5sPHUAPYyzHpkArLiGKriJb4DSRs/s1600/R.+JR_1_2+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1091" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8_KfUuyWei77aOlb7EdKlJ-sIvekmOfrUtTUHiL4JVClc1XD6y9T16P_uqVptBMoGx4-1ntK8dHXVI8mwDG6Zn9EkHVCxD9BzI530SY-2ZBpx9Z5sPHUAPYyzHpkArLiGKriJb4DSRs/s640/R.+JR_1_2+%25281%2529.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first Rowntree letter I read - from Joseph Rowntree Sr to his son Joseph</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">S is for Searchroom/Strongroom Duty:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> This is arguably
the most fun, and yet most daunting, part of the traineeship. On a quiet day,
I’ve spent most of my time at the computer in the searchroom reception,
tackling email and telephone enquiries. But on a busy day, I’ve run to the
strongrooms and back multiple times an hour. However, I’ve been able to see
first-hand how archives are used by members of the public and enjoyed several
joyful experiences of a researcher finding just the information they needed.
Doing searchroom/strongroom duty has taught me more about our archival holdings
than I could have thought possible, and within a few weeks I knew which part of
the strongrooms I needed to be in to find the requested material (most of the
time). I also quickly learned that when showing a visitor how to use a digital
microfilm reader, there is a diagram on the machine itself, so if I pointed
them to it while I explained how to put the reel on, they didn’t know that I’d
forgotten how to do it. Finally, I had the joy of using our hanging map
cabinets several times. Although it wasn’t ideal that my first experience of
using them was at 5pm on a Friday, when I couldn’t get it open properly and
then the lid wouldn’t stay up, and I ended up with numerous people trying to
talk me through how it works over the phone and then in person. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPH51EioIejPVWqQVRY4AsSMY9odPqCzKW3q-RQCKhDQaD8C_oGE4aYhBc3VjsdQlELSKujSt2z2FnMoh0zmuwCDVWJDsuvLTv2ZmOYhYUtYw6L-3wu7wPCdieQefkoeafMfN5IwpVRdU/s1600/S.+Searchroom+%25281b%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1159" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPH51EioIejPVWqQVRY4AsSMY9odPqCzKW3q-RQCKhDQaD8C_oGE4aYhBc3VjsdQlELSKujSt2z2FnMoh0zmuwCDVWJDsuvLTv2ZmOYhYUtYw6L-3wu7wPCdieQefkoeafMfN5IwpVRdU/s640/S.+Searchroom+%25281b%2529.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Archie in the Searchroom</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">T is for Teamwork:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Teamwork is incredibly
important in an archive. As I mentioned elsewhere, my colleagues have given me
so many suggestions for records to highlight on social media and provided
insights into the life of an archivist. I’ve also had some very team-focused
tasks. Just one example is the day an addition to the Alcoholics Anonymous
Archive was transferred to the Borthwick. After the archive arrived during
mid-morning, it took four members of staff the rest of the day to put all the
boxes back into order and move them up a floor to the correct strongroom. It
was good fun! (But I wouldn’t want to do it every day.)</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">U is for University:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Although the
Borthwick is situated within the Library of the University of York, we don’t
just hold University records. We also have archives relating to the church
(Church of England and non-conformist), health and medicine, businesses,
families, architecture, horticulture, the environment, social welfare
organisations, charities, schools, societies, music, writing and performance.
And as the trainee, I’ve had to learn everything there is to know about all of
these! Well, not quite, but I’ve certainly acquired some knowledge about each
of these and added constantly to my learning. But I quickly learned that there
was always someone around who knew more than I did, so I shouldn’t be afraid to
ask for advice.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">V is for Visits:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> During my traineeship, I’ve had
the opportunity to visit other archives (university archives, business
archives, museums and local record offices). These visits have been great
times to ask questions and discover something new about the archival
profession. It’s easy to become accustomed to one way of working and assume
that this is the best way but through visiting other places, I could learn from
the systems in place which may work better or worse than what I’ve experienced
in my traineeship. Visits are also a great method of networking with other
people working in archives. Likewise, training days provided me with the
opportunity to meet other archive trainees and gain a more theoretical
knowledge of what I do in practice. It was only through a training day that I
truly learned just how prestigious the Borthwick is in the field of archives,
so I knew that I needed to make the most of my time here!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">W is for Wills: </span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Borthwick holds more than
750,000 probate records, dating from the 14th century to 1858. As the trainee,
the </span><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">14 aisles<span style="background: white;"> containing wills are my domain. At times I love these
records; at others I strongly despise them (when I just can't seem to find the
one I need). Most people will use Find My Past to request copies of probate
documents, but I’ve also learned to appreciate the ease of having full
searchroom indices (or is it indexes?) of all probate records. When someone has
paid for a copying order, it’s my responsibility to find the will or
administration they have requested, digitise it and email/post it out. This
does require a lot of time but I quickly got into a rhythm of knowing when I
enjoy doing each stage of the process (and being aware of any problems in conservation
which might cause a backlog). </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiCMrst_GcSyf0vmJOeFasfXYOz-EBC5HM-2g1gzm7pZPBAmq1_9YhClInsuoc-r3jnfO9CZ15sGeWq8ulwfWQo_QwDTX5yHffBrL0nnM3Skg7WDcZ-6y-rbtEFnaIGvyaHQmgDUEczU/s1600/W.+Wills+%25281b%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="1600" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiCMrst_GcSyf0vmJOeFasfXYOz-EBC5HM-2g1gzm7pZPBAmq1_9YhClInsuoc-r3jnfO9CZ15sGeWq8ulwfWQo_QwDTX5yHffBrL0nnM3Skg7WDcZ-6y-rbtEFnaIGvyaHQmgDUEczU/s640/W.+Wills+%25281b%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is how the wills look before they visit our conservators</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">X is for X marks the spot:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> By which I mean
“treasures”. Every archive has its treasures - those records that get wheeled
out time and time again to wow visitors. A </span><span style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">12th century<span style="background: white;">
manuscript fragment, a medieval Archbishop’s Register, the baptism register
entry for Guy Fawkes, the </span>will of Charlotte Brontë<span style="background: white;">, papers relating to meetings between Lord Halifax
(the British Foreign Secretary) and Adolf Hitler, the list goes on. I’ve seen
these treasures (and got them out of the strongrooms) several times, yet the
wonder never quite fades.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Y is for Yorkshire:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> The best part of
England. Fortunately, I spent my years as a student here in York, so I already
had a great appreciation for this wonderful city and the area in which it is
found. But through my time at the Borthwick, I have learned so much to make me
love it even more. I’ve become more familiar than I ever anticipated with the
names of the old deaneries within the Diocese of York, until I could rhyme them
off alphabetically: Ainsty, Buckrose, Bulmer, Cleveland… On more than one
occasion, when out in the Yorkshire countryside, I would suddenly recognise the
name of a small hamlet I was driving through. But why? I racked my brains and
then realised that just last week I had located the will of someone who lived
there in the 18th century.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 107%;"><br />
</span><b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Z
is for Zest of Lemon:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1d1d1d; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Apologies for the slightly tenuous link here, but
as any archivist will tell you, cake is important. Just take a look at
#archivecake on Twitter. In my experience, bringing cake/biscuits means your
colleagues will love you forever (well, for the rest of the day at least). So -
apologies, another tenuous link ahead - I’m going to end my A-Z on a truly soppy
note about the wonderful people who work at the Borthwick. They’ve put up with
me for more than a year, so they must be pretty amazing and it’s thanks to them
that I’ve enjoyed my time as a member of staff at the Borthwick so much!</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-AhnRBlkhgxw0V0EQS7RQ69Wo_dGmKxkH-L9Q5tEBcQhPd-ldg0FW1R_bEmeiRv8zm5V_1O97ILkEiJ2t-JNHS2CeZx1GD8JLjYpNcGTrp5PBzgRVSzH9dLMH2TtWMDNkLPttQKec8o/s1600/Z.+Tea+break+%25281b%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1161" data-original-width="1600" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-AhnRBlkhgxw0V0EQS7RQ69Wo_dGmKxkH-L9Q5tEBcQhPd-ldg0FW1R_bEmeiRv8zm5V_1O97ILkEiJ2t-JNHS2CeZx1GD8JLjYpNcGTrp5PBzgRVSzH9dLMH2TtWMDNkLPttQKec8o/s640/Z.+Tea+break+%25281b%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Essential supplies</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-2684490307509718142019-07-25T12:51:00.000+01:002019-09-13T09:26:29.465+01:00A Few Lines from America: The Letters of Julia Rowntree<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By Sarah Moses, Archive Trainee</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benjamin Seebohm (father of Joseph
Rowntree’s first wife Julia Seebohm) was born in Friedenthal, near Bad Pyrmont,
Germany, on 20 February 1798. He came into contact with English-speaking
Friends (Quakers) at a young age through his parents’ invitations to English
and American Friends to visit their small group living around Minden and Bad
Pyrmont. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benjamin’s father Ludwig had acted as
interpreter during Friends’ visits but, due to Ludwig’s illness in 1814,
Benjamin was asked to serve in his place during the visit of French-born
American Friend Stephen Grellet. He soon adopted this role once again for a
group of English Friends, including Sarah Hustler of Bradford. Benjamin was
asked to interpret during their visits elsewhere in Europe, and was then
requested to accompany them back to England. He soon became part of the Hustler
household in Bradford, moving into their family business as a wool
merchant. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The young Benjamin Seebohm </td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1831 Benjamin married Esther
Wheeler, a granddaughter of prominent York Quaker William Tuke. Benj</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">amin and
Esther had four children who survived to adulthood: Henry (born in 1832),
Frederic (born in 1833), Benjamin (born in 1839) </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and Julia (born in 1841).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benjamin’s gift for ministry was
acknowledged in the early 1820s, and he visited many parts of Great Britain,
Ireland and North America to speak at Meetings, often staying away from home
for many months at a time. One visit in particular had a significant impact on
Benjamin and his family: his visit to North America from October 1846 to July
1851.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Many of Benjamin’s experiences during
this visit (and Esther’s unhappiness during his absence) are recorded in
‘Private Memoirs of B. and E. Seebohm’ - a volume of recollections, memoranda
and correspondence edited by their sons and published in 1872.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Concerning Benjamin’s departure for
America, the boys wrote:</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘In 1846 the news was broken to us at
school that our father was going, probably for some years, to America. During
the summer holidays he took our mother and two of us a tour in Germany, to take
leave of his relations at Friedensthal, Minden, and Hamburg. […] When in
October the time of departure came, we were summoned home from school. Never
shall we forget his solemn and touching farewell sermon at meeting on the last
Sunday morning; the sorrowful evening, when it was so hard to all to be
cheerful; the next morning, when the carriage came to bear him away; the long
embrace between him and our mother; the wave of his handkerchief, as he drove
out of sight; and how we, the mother and weeping children, were left alone with
a sense of blank which was to last for years. What the sacrifice was to our
mother in thus sparing him for years from her side, no one can tell. The worst
was, that though our father had spared no pains to secure, as far [as] it could
be, that she should be free from anxiety, and had left his affairs in as small
a compass as circumstances would admit, yet during his absence one anxiety came
after another, and she, as so often had been the case before, had to breast it
alone’ (pp.47-48).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In one of the first letters sent to her
husband during his voyage, Esther described her sense of loss, while admitting
the necessity of Benjamin’s travel to North America to aid the Quaker ministry
there. ‘My mind has generally been favoured with quietness since thou left,
though I have felt very low these last few days, and perhaps shall more and
more realise the loss of my dearest earthly treasure; and yet I desire to
regard it less as a loss than a <i>loan</i> to Him who in His great kindness
put me in possession of it’ (p.178).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benjamin reached land on 5 November
1846, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His travels took him all over North
America but he spent much of his time in Philadelphia. As mentioned above, these
journeys are vividly described in ‘Private Memoirs of B. and E. Seebohm’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Seebohm, aged 6</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On 14 April 1849, halfway through his
visit, Benjamin wrote to his eight-year-old daughter Julia to tell her about
his recent travels around Union Springs, Albany and New York. (He wrote many
letters to his children during this time but this is the only one in our
Victorian Correspondence files. See below for a full transcript of this letter
- RFAM/JS/VC/1/1.) Beginning his journey in Union Springs on Cayuga Lake,
Benjamin soon arrived in Auburn, where he visited the prison - home to more
than 500 convicts and namesake of the ‘Auburn system’, in which silence was
enforced at all times. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He then travelled onwards to Albany,
where he was introduced to the Governor of New York, Hamilton Fish, and ‘an
Indian Chief of the Cayuga tribe’. Benjamin describes this man as being ‘fine
looking’ and ‘dressed a little like an Indian’ but he appears to have enjoyed
their meeting and encourages Julia to ask ‘Grandfather Robson’ - presumably
Thomas Robson, the father of her uncle Isaac Robson, who was married to Julia’s
maternal aunt, Sarah Wheeler - about ‘these poor people who formerly inhabited
the land now occupied by the whites’. Benjamin left Albany aboard a steamer
named ‘The Isaac Newton’ and, on arriving in New York, visited an old friend
and attended two Quaker Meetings before travelling to Philadelphia for the
Yearly Meeting.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benjamin finally left North America at
the beginning of July 1851 but memories of his visit remained in the minds of
Friends he had met. Our Victorian Correspondence files contain two letters
written by Margaret C Kimber of Philadelphia to Benjamin’s daughter Julia in
the early 1860s. (Full transcripts of both letters are included below -
RFAM/JS/VC/27/1 and RFAM/JS/VC/27/2.)</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMXs91mYJclY8YJO3Apa4um_N4jXKZu2pl9M8otctAcHOR9Jlv3rjx8T09CVoGApFdVMZBV05Bb1o3t0q_RPqJZNdIVtxRAQrxLxxVck-aYCIzNFOde-4VOOOEetc3mH83kwAEy07T3s/s1600/Julia+Seebohm+%252803_1_1206_0001%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="651" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMXs91mYJclY8YJO3Apa4um_N4jXKZu2pl9M8otctAcHOR9Jlv3rjx8T09CVoGApFdVMZBV05Bb1o3t0q_RPqJZNdIVtxRAQrxLxxVck-aYCIzNFOde-4VOOOEetc3mH83kwAEy07T3s/s400/Julia+Seebohm+%252803_1_1206_0001%2529.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Seebohm</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In her first letter, dated 2 December
1860, Margaret updates Julia on various Friends, Quaker Meetings and missionary
visits. However, she also mentions the changing political climate in America,
stating that the ‘great “republican” victory in the last Presidential election
[...] has thrown our southern states into a tumult’ and increased the
probability of ‘a northern and southern confederacy, in which event, our
Baltimore friends fear Maryland will go with the south’. Despite ‘almost
everyone [being] apprehensive as to what may be in store for us’, Margaret
takes comfort in knowing that ‘our country is at the disposal of none of the
conflicting parties, but that her future is controlled by a merciful and all
wise Providence who [...] will bring that which seemeth to Him good’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On a lighter note, Margaret’s mother
appears to have taken great delight in telling American shopkeepers about the
‘better articles she saw in the shops in England’ during her travels there;
whereas Englishman William Lean declared that American bookstores were ‘more
complete, extensive and well-arranged than he had seen them at home’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUNr0UwOb1VZ3ugLbWZ-MyjUcSIwJDZlU2xS1FEpFMpLPOhK2N71aP2yijxYMgDqULuT2La9ZpwvhhbDeyz6yfslsR5snmViP5Urbnt8VEPjJAeyXIMwmZWZ5hBzaYpGTvT3qi6eZoeS8/s1600/Julia+Seebohm+%252802_1_1215_0001%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="655" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUNr0UwOb1VZ3ugLbWZ-MyjUcSIwJDZlU2xS1FEpFMpLPOhK2N71aP2yijxYMgDqULuT2La9ZpwvhhbDeyz6yfslsR5snmViP5Urbnt8VEPjJAeyXIMwmZWZ5hBzaYpGTvT3qi6eZoeS8/s400/Julia+Seebohm+%252802_1_1215_0001%2529.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Seebohm and Joseph Rowntree</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Three years later, Margaret wrote again
to Julia, who had now become both a wife and a mother following her marriage to
Joseph Rowntree and the birth of their daughter Lillie. Little did Margaret
know as she wrote this letter, sent from Haverford on 12 August 1863, that her
‘dear Julia’ would be dead - most likely of meningitis - little more than a
month later.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As with her previous letter, Margaret
recounts the activities of her family and other Friends, including her own
involvement with the First Day School system, which she describes as ‘a great
privilege as well as a great responsibility’. She then updates Julia on the political
situation in America and the ‘drafting for the war’. A visit from some Friends
from North Carolina both saddened and strengthened Margaret and those around
her. One visitor in particular related the experiences of his two brothers in
Kingston, ‘who were kept without food or water for four days & four nights,
but who wrote to their friends that they did not suffer, for they had bread
from Heaven to eat, and their Master himself was with them by night and day’.
Margaret was unwavering in her support for the President, Abraham Lincoln, and
declares her ‘respect and love’ for him ‘with this honest homely ways, his
unambitious purity of motive, and his full faith in Providence’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Finally, Margaret writes about her
interest in ‘the colored people’, stating ‘it is grand to see a nation emerging
from slavery’. She continues by mentioning the officers of the ‘colored
regiments’, whom she views as ‘men of great moral as well [as] of physical
courage’, and trusts that the ‘wicked politicians [who] for their own purposes
are trying to incite the foreign population against them [...] will not be
allowed to do any permanent harm’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for Benjamin Seebohm, his feelings
during the American Civil War are recorded in the ‘Private Memoirs of B. and E.
Seebohm’:</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">‘During the period of the American War
his feelings of sympathy with his many American friends were warmly excited.
The daily newspaper was always lying on his table, and frequently the memoranda
of his own American journeys. He kept up a correspondence with some of his
Philadelphia friends in particular. His political feelings went ardently and
throughout with the North, much as he sorrowed over the war itself. He was
deeply grieved at the hasty and unwise words of some leading English
politicians upon the triumphs of the South, and never lost his faith that the
right would prevail, and Slavery come to an end. True as were his sympathies
for the American people, his love of his “Friends” in the United States was
equally constant, and seldom did anything give him greater enjoyment than the
visits he received from those who from time to time visited this country’
(pp.57-58).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMY4QZjss-c6QfLnjXAEDazbY9u7xxfbg4cdIXJAIDbWyUFliXxT66ZhRhD7Sbku_vnWP3XPA7SYiUlF1zdInwYsNe0GdB-60csms-nLDT00sG-JSsuvYcjUSDqdb4EfgHojHTdDNhE_g/s1600/Benjamin+Seebohm+%25284_2_1%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="974" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMY4QZjss-c6QfLnjXAEDazbY9u7xxfbg4cdIXJAIDbWyUFliXxT66ZhRhD7Sbku_vnWP3XPA7SYiUlF1zdInwYsNe0GdB-60csms-nLDT00sG-JSsuvYcjUSDqdb4EfgHojHTdDNhE_g/s400/Benjamin+Seebohm+%25284_2_1%2529.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benjamin Seebohm</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the years following his visit to
America, Benjamin wrote several volumes, including ‘Memoirs of the life and gospel
labours of Stephen Grellet’ - whom he had met in Germany so many years before -
and ‘Memoirs of William Forster’, and worked as editor of the ‘Annual Monitor’
(a list of the deaths of British Quakers) between 1855 and 1878. He continued
to travel to speak at Meetings until 1870 and, following a bronchial
affliction, he died on 2 June 1871, and his body was interred in the Friends’
burial ground in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Transcript
of RFAM/VC/JS/1/1 from Benjamin Seebohm to his daughter Julia Seebohm</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My darling Julia</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tho’ I write thee a pretty long letter
by the last steamer, and have not time to say much now, I must just tell thee
that we have got back again to the fine city of Philadelphia, where we have
many kind friends who are glad to see us. We left Union Springs, on Cayuga
Lake, last second day morning & went to a nice town called Auburn to take
the rails for Albany, but before we set off from there we paid a visit to a
large prison near the town, where more than 500 convicts are confined - as a
punishment for various crimes which they have been found guilty of. They are
not allowed to speak to one another, but are employed in making a great variety
of things for sale, such as carpets, wigs[?], tools, machinery, saddles etc
etc. They have a minister of the Gospel and two school masters to instruct them
& try to make them better and I was glad to hear that many of them are
quite reformed, and have become Christians. When we had paid our visit to the
prison we took our places in the cars & arrived at Albany quite early in
the morning. We had to wait a long time for the steamboat that was to take us
to New York, & were introduced to the Governor of the State of New York
whose name is Fish. We found in his room an Indian Chief of the Cayuga tribe.
He was a fine looking man, dressed a little like an Indian. He seemed pleased
to shake hands with us & we liked to talk to him a little. I dare say
Grandfather Robson can tell thee a little more about these poor people who
formerly inhabited the land now occupied by the whites. When we were at Charles
Howland on Cayuga Lake a nice little boy about 10 years old, the son of a
friend of the name of Richard Small from England, fell into the lake and was
drowned. We attended his funeral, & had a very large Meeting - a great many
of the town people coming to it. Children ought to be very careful not to go
near the water. His poor father & mother & two sisters were very much
disturbed & we tried to comfort them.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We left Albany in a very fine steamer
called “The Isaac Newton” & we had nearly 500 passengers. When we arrived
at New York, I went to see a dear aged friend, Eliz[abe]th Coggeshall, with
whom I first came to England, many years ago, & she enquired about my dear
little Julia & his dear Mother & brothers. I had just got your letters &
would tell her a little about you all. She sent her love to dear Mamma &
aunt Sarah, & Uncle & Grandfather Robson. We were at two Meetings at
New York & then came here to attend the Yearly Meeting. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In a few days I hope to hear again from
you all. I am very glad that thou art so happy with dear Aunt Sarah, & hope
thou writes to dear dear Mamma and gets good accounts from her & thy dear
brothers. I do love thee, very much, my darling & hope thou art trying to
be very good. Give my dear love to Uncle & Aunt & Grandfather &
Henry & Joshua, and particularly to dear Henry, Fred & Benjy when thou
writes to them. Farewell my precious Julia Elizabeth. Thy affectionate father</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Benj[amin] Seebohm</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Philadelphia 4/14/49</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Transcript
of RFAM/VC/JS/27/1 from Margaret C Kimber to Julia Seebohm</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Philadelphia</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">12 mo. 2nd 1860</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My dear Julia,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I was sitting alone this evening,
mother brought me to read a letter lately received from thy dear father, with a
nice note enclosed from thy mother. It was most pleasant to hear from you and I
felt tempted to write a few lines to thee, without having anything on my mind
but a little <u>chat!</u> Thou will like to know Eliza Barclay and party are
spending a pleasant week with us in Filbert St. E. P. Gurney is making her home
at John M Whitall’s opposite, and we see much of her. They are quite interested
in our city, its society, institutions etc and it is a great pleasure to us
all, to have their company. John Henry is full of life and spirits, and having
purchased a little American pistol to take home, which he was kind enough to
exhibit and explain to my boys, has become in their eyes a hero of the first
magnitude.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our weather has been at times extremely
cold for the early winter, and we were quite satisfied to leave the country on
the 18th of last month, although on many accounts we regretted the change. The
quiet of the country we had thoroughly enjoyed, and the uninterrupted evenings
were seasons of much </span>[<span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">home</span>]<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> endearment for parents & children. I do not
know whether the distinction between country and town socially, is so broadly
marked with you as it is with us. You are so much more </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">thickly s</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ettled,
that perhaps there are few places where there is not society, and your towns
are so much larger, that there may be retirement in the crowd. We have this
winter a large Bible class, it meets here weekly. Since coming from England my
father takes great interest in it, and in the First day school, of which he is
now considered superintendent. We are very glad to have him, as before we were
feeling rather young and inexperienced. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Samuel Shipley & Anna sometimes
come in from the country to meet us. Thy father will like to know that Samuel [Kettle]
and my uncle Tho[ma]s Wiston have just returned from a visit to Muncy. They
have been among families of friends in that mountainous country, and although
Sam[uel] Kettle was taken quite ill in a very remote & inaccessible place,
(with the nearest doctor, thirty miles distant, and the snow deep on the roads)
he was favoured to recover, and accomplish his labors to the satisfaction of
his friends.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Francis King has been spending a day or
two here. He is in much trouble at the political aspect of things. If thou
takes any interest in American affairs, thou may have noticed our great
“republican” victory in the last Presidential election. This has thrown our
southern states into a tumult, and filled them with foreboding as to the
destiny of their peculiar institution.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is now much threatening, and an
increasing probability of a secession, and the formation of a northern &
southern confederacy, in which event, our Baltimore friends fear Maryland will
go with the south. They think they scarcely could live there, in such event as
this, and yet they are not ready to think of leaving their homes. Business men
everywhere are dull and almost everyone is apprehensive as to what may be in
store for us. It is a great comfort however to reflect that our country is at
the disposal of none of the conflicting parties, but that her future is
controlled by a merciful and all wise Providence who out of all this seeming
chaos of human opinions and actions, will bring that which seemeth to Him good.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We were very glad to hear of the safe
arrival at home of your Prince of Wales. The voyage was a long one, but as it
has proved safe, a touch of sea life would do very well. I am often amused at
my dear papa. He looked upon the journey to England as something very
formidable, but now it is over, he thinks he should not at all mind taking
another trip. Even mother who was so timid, seems now to think nothing of the
dangers of the sea. They talk much about England, and we have many little
things in daily use to remind us of their travels. I tell mother she will quite
displease our American shop keepers, by telling them how much better articles
she saw in the shops in England. W[illia]m Lean however, who is with J. H.
Backhouse, was liking our book stores very much the other day, and thought them
more complete, extensive & well arranged than he had seen them at home.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am glad to hear the labour of the
Annual monitor was concluded for the season. We scarcely think in looking at
these little returns, how much care & toil they involve. Coming so soon
after the long work of the Grellet memoirs, I hope it may not wear too much on
thy dear father’s strength.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I hope at this time you may be
enjoying, as hinted in the letter, a visit to thy brothers in the South. I think
my parents were not at Hitchin.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dear Julia, I must conclude - do write
at some leisure time.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I must renewedly acknowledge all your
nice presents to us, the beautifully bound books, the pitcher, and the
children’s cards & toys. When I wrote before I had not seen them all, for I
was afraid to have them sent to us in the country, lest something should
happen, and they were waiting for us in town. With much love to all your
family, in which Anthony unites, thy attached friend, M. C. Kimber</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eliza Barclay desires her love to you
all, and hopes to write if she finds time. Mother says “how I wish I had urged
dear Julia to come home with us, and now she could have returned with Eliza
Barclay.” How much we should have enjoyed it, if it could have been so.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Transcript
of RFAM/VC/JS/27/2 from Margaret C Kimber to Julia Seebohm</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Haverford</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">8 mo. 12th 1863.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It has been long, dear Julia, since we
have heard directly from each other, how long I can scarcely tell. Thy letter
as the last, and I have not been doing myself justice to be silent so long. I
think of you all so often and with such an unvarying feeling of interest and
affection. How I should delight again to meet your family circle, so enlarged
since we were with you. Do write and tell me of thy new home. I should so like
to hear of it. Is it not one of the compensations of leaving home to receive a
visit from our parents. I do not think <u>we</u> have a greater pleasure than
to have such at times. We are now boarding for a few weeks in the neighborhood
of Haverford College. Sister Mary with her family are at Germantown, a few
miles from us. My Father and Mother are at Newport for the summer, and have
with them our eldest boy, we hope to join them there before long. We have just
been reading with interest, the report of the First day School Conference at
Leeds. I noticed thy husband’s name and thy own among those who attended.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We held a much smaller Conference in
Philadelphia during our last Yearly Meeting, which we enjoyed very much. The
cause with us is still in its early beginnings. Our school at 12th St Meeting
is doing well. We have taught for three years, and find it deeply interesting.
We sometimes think the good results are more noticeable among the teachers than
among the scholars in our city, that it has proved as an anchor to some in
times of unsettlement can be said very truly. My dear husband has a class of
boys of the same age as our own, and including them; as a reward of good
conduct they take tea with us occasionally. They are all friends or professors.
My own class are young girls of nineteen or twenty. They are all birthright
members of our Society, but little more. It is a great privilege as well as a
great responsibility to have such a charge. I do not know whether thou met with
Mary Bettle when in England. We missed her very much while away. She is one of
our best and most indefatigable teachers. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are feeling much now on account of
the drafting for the war. Many of our friends have had the lot to fall upon
them. What their fate will be we do not know, but most of them are very firm,
and some hopeful and trusting that if the trials of old are to fall to their
portion, the promises and consolations will also be fully realized.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My cousin Wiston Brown was drafted last
week. We were very much strengthened and cheered by the company of the friends
from North Carolina. They have suffered so much, have borne such a noble
testimony in the midst of the rebel army, and have been so wonderfully
preserved, that it has been deeply instructive to us all. W[illia]m Stockett
was relating to us the account of his two brothers, who were kept without food
or water for four days & four nights, but who wrote to their friends that
they did not suffer, for they had bread from Heaven to eat, and their Master himself
was with them by night and day. <u>They</u> are still in cruel confinement in
Kingston North Carolina. There is good hope that this state will return to the
Union at an early day, when we trust there dear friends with their families may
be relieved from their sufferings. The five young men who were with us are all
in poor health, having contracted disease and cold from long marches and
exposure. Three have gone to their friends in the west, two who are too unwell
to travel are still with us. In regard to the great revolution through which
our country is passing, our hearts are bound up with the cause of our
government and the cause of freedom. We respect and love our President with his
honest homely ways, his unambitious purity of motive, and his full faith in
Providence. We believe it is in the divine ordering that such a man at the
present crisis should be the head of our government, and we feel anxious to
support his administration to the extent our consciences will allow.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For the colored people we are deeply
interested. It is grand to see a nation emerging from slavery. Wicked
politicians for their own purposes, are trying to incite the foreign population
against them, but we trust they will not be allowed to do any permanent harm.
My cousin in command at Yorktown, Virginia, writes my Uncle Thomas Wiston to
try and find a friend to come out and take charge of 3000 freedmen within his
lines. The colored regiments are steadily fighting their way up, we cannot help
following them with interest. Their officers are men of great moral as well of
physical courage, deeply interested in what they consider the Providential mode
for the elevation of the race. The 54th Massachusetts were at Battery Wagner in
front of Charleston, has a Lieutenant Colonel, and Captain from among our best
Haverford boys (not friends) the first terribly wounded in the last assault.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am afraid thou can not make out the
cross writing dear Julia. Will thou give our love affectionately to <u>every</u>
member of your family. Our special thanks to thy brother Fred for his
acceptable gift of his book. We enjoyed it very much ourselves, and have made
much use of it in lending to our friends. We have been very remiss not sooner
to have acknowledged his kindness. My husband wrote to thy dear father last
week. I hope it has reached him. Write to me soon dear Julia that I may learn
to love thy <u>English</u> name. With kindest regards to thy husband. I am thy
affectionate friend</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Margaret C. Kimber</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-66321558454178405842019-05-09T09:17:00.000+01:002019-05-10T10:25:16.524+01:00Here’s looking at EU - Borthcat data shared with major networks<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">Just in
time to celebrate </span><a href="https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/symbols/archived-europe-day_en"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Europe Day</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">, we have successfully shared </span><a href="https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Borthcat</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">’s catalogue descriptions with two
major online portals: </span><a href="http://www.archivesportaleurope.net/directory/-/dir/content/GB-193/fa"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Archives Portal Europe</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and the </span><a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/locations/66753711-7485-37b0-8b22-ca5bda8c210f"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Archives Hub</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMNWz7zbgjhXGl8vyffaJ2C7PbVWN4JXmhKp7J4avPeGZ0YB_MTD3MdMohx7bzlMRoAJYQpv29-IND_W_lYg4yAqX9o8Mh6slzHiVlwJnetmwo8yC0QsO8sWNkb3K9oMPKgx5HVgPhJ8A/s1600/RET_8_9_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1516" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMNWz7zbgjhXGl8vyffaJ2C7PbVWN4JXmhKp7J4avPeGZ0YB_MTD3MdMohx7bzlMRoAJYQpv29-IND_W_lYg4yAqX9o8Mh6slzHiVlwJnetmwo8yC0QsO8sWNkb3K9oMPKgx5HVgPhJ8A/s400/RET_8_9_3.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RET/8/9/3</td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">The
project builds on work to convert and import the detailed catalogues we have
for some of our major holdings into Borthcat. Together with the summary
descriptions from </span><a href="http://borthwickinstitute.blogspot.com/2017/05/saying-goodbye-to-project-genesis.html" style="text-align: justify;">Project Genesis</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> and the outputs of recent cataloguing
projects, it makes over 670 of our collections, and thousands of detailed
catalogue descriptions, more easily discoverable by wider research communities.
Sharing the data allows our archives to be viewed and interpreted alongside
different material from the networks’ respective European and UK contributors.
This means archives can be displayed, searched on and contextualised in
different and exciting ways.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">“<i>It’s difficult to imagine the power
that you’re going to have when so many different sorts of data are available</i>.”
Tim Berners-Lee</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Gateways
to discovery</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Archives Portal Europe</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (APE) provides access to information
on archival material from across European countries. It is the first time
European archives have collaborated and aggregated their data on such a scale
and has brought together more than 255 million records from several hundred
institutions in more than 30 EU countries. The portal also acts as a data
aggregator for </span><a href="https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Europeana</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">. This offers us future possibilities
for links to our digitised archives and other digital objects to be surfaced in
a portal which already brings together more than 50 million digitised items,
and to continue working alongside the Archives Hub and APE to document and
provide access to a shared cultural heritage.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXknaiMluvhPsMq0n_LUZ1aKn95NNp4LuIgeE4GI8jNAKeNgoDys8jmu9VhyjqimrPXvjbZCka-EmQepxoCGg_KiYswxpBCRbZVRSK5d6_eYsLy7A9gu8Zj4RBq1E66H8se5E5mHpdvCQ/s1600/Letter+787_Annabel+Milnes+to+Henrietta+Crewe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1492" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXknaiMluvhPsMq0n_LUZ1aKn95NNp4LuIgeE4GI8jNAKeNgoDys8jmu9VhyjqimrPXvjbZCka-EmQepxoCGg_KiYswxpBCRbZVRSK5d6_eYsLy7A9gu8Zj4RBq1E66H8se5E5mHpdvCQ/s320/Letter+787_Annabel+Milnes+to+Henrietta+Crewe.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Milnes Coates Letter 787</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Jisc </span><a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.0pt;">Archives Hub</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"> is a vital part of the research and education
landscape in the UK. Its open access and standards-based ethos give researchers
the ability to search across the huge wealth of UK archives. It shares our
vision of making the most of our data, creating descriptions once and using
them in many different ways. The technology underpinning the Hub now allows the
service to take data from various archive management systems and gives
contributors even greater control in the timely uploading, publishing and
modification of their descriptions, with a seamless workstream supporting
publication to portals like APE. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">Realising
opportunities</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">Working
collaboratively and sharing our data is central to the continued improvement
and development of our resources. As we establish, adopt and drive common
standards across different archive systems and datasets we can make sure our
descriptions work alongside those created by others and we improve the quality
and maximise potential of our data. This helps us and researchers to get the
most out of the information and expands the horizons for collaboration and
discovery.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGnXHNXgDNjErwP6Pj_ikyVzDzLYqUSXFbr-Ncdv7sU-Haq1BaQf9Vb_Mly-QwK9AzrZmjJJVqTjrH0aRnRWg-5kX6h6BMvfLl6NmYgl_ofHq_zjwjO_cvpOr9BZPA4rG2tmM03zqkIg/s1600/Archie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1004" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGnXHNXgDNjErwP6Pj_ikyVzDzLYqUSXFbr-Ncdv7sU-Haq1BaQf9Vb_Mly-QwK9AzrZmjJJVqTjrH0aRnRWg-5kX6h6BMvfLl6NmYgl_ofHq_zjwjO_cvpOr9BZPA4rG2tmM03zqkIg/s320/Archie.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Archie the Archive Squirrel</td></tr>
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Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-11187930883968660082018-12-20T11:53:00.001+00:002019-08-12T10:22:42.157+01:00Lawrence Rowntree – A Life in Letters (Part Two): ‘I have health & strength & can probably find some way of making myself useful at last, if I look for it.’<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>Written by Rosie Denton and Sally-Anne Shearn</i><br />
<br />
<a href="https://borthwickinstitute.blogspot.com/2018/12/lawrence-rowntree-life-in-letters-part_20.html">Part one can be read here</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Q4U4VUq6vVe4v5D_V7upl1r3K4JwSK0C0tYLKDg96y8Lv8o0kG6hnIdSPL9cT3MZt8U31O8xWdIEFY7sLSH19cRwW7e19FKblGradmDGaZnaMadKNHUpLdnJ_ST-Xe6FsedGNvr2iMQ/s1600/Lawrence_Rowntree_Photographs_0047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1175" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Q4U4VUq6vVe4v5D_V7upl1r3K4JwSK0C0tYLKDg96y8Lv8o0kG6hnIdSPL9cT3MZt8U31O8xWdIEFY7sLSH19cRwW7e19FKblGradmDGaZnaMadKNHUpLdnJ_ST-Xe6FsedGNvr2iMQ/s400/Lawrence_Rowntree_Photographs_0047.jpg" width="292" /></a></div>
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‘I want to run over & have a talk with you sometime. I have been feeling more and more lately that I oughtn’t to be here.’ So began the letter that was to change the lives of Lawrence and his mother forever. It was January 1916 and Lawrence had been on active service with the Friends’ Ambulance Unit since the outbreak of war two years earlier. The FAU, a civilian volunteer ambulance service established by Quakers, provided vital medical support to the armed forces in extremely dangerous conditions and Laurie’s famous journal from this time, entitled<a href="https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/rowntree-now/exhibitions-anniversary-events/lawrence-rowntree-exhibition/"> ‘A Nightmare in Three Acts’</a>, attests to the horrors he and his companions faced from their arrival in Dunkirk in October 1914. </div>
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However by early 1915 Laurie was already beginning to have doubts about his vocation. In August 1914 he had written that he would do all he could, and offer himself ‘to what ever relief works are going,’ flatly rejecting the absolutist pacifism of some Quakers who refused to refused to play any part whatsoever in the war effort. ‘Although the horrors it entails are too great to be imagined, & one realises the wickedness of it all, still I consider it would be criminal to stand out & say “you have brought this war on your selves, I will do nothing.” For a medical student the FAU offered an honorable way to make a contribution to the war effort without engaging directly in armed conflict.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNowDUhvyYdQgFl_8vCrRNNcjIpBgkixfmzljxh1NZXnynjXOAabG0Z3HCoyL6UDFCwjPnu4BeacvygbdlW86XwiR0vP_vhwbdQRT8Y1acXdnXrpZY_hHmg02uFIKWT3ekYf855PG6yQ/s1600/rowntree_lawrence_1_f_01_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrNowDUhvyYdQgFl_8vCrRNNcjIpBgkixfmzljxh1NZXnynjXOAabG0Z3HCoyL6UDFCwjPnu4BeacvygbdlW86XwiR0vP_vhwbdQRT8Y1acXdnXrpZY_hHmg02uFIKWT3ekYf855PG6yQ/s640/rowntree_lawrence_1_f_01_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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In January 1916, with military conscription looming and the war no closer to being won, he admitted to his mother that he was in the FAU rather than in the Army ‘because it was the only place that offered me the work I wanted, not because of my conscience, & I couldn’t go before a tribunal & say I was a conscientious objector.’ He goes on ‘I suppose everyone gets a call of some sort some time. I’ve been getting it for about nine months. I think it started when I met some men coming out of the trenches & I was in the car, but it’s been much stronger lately.’ He had waited ‘because I never felt before that I was really wanted, but now I am sure that I am more wanted there than here… Here am I, healthy & strong, doing work that any woman could do, when there is man’s work waiting.’ </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtJ78Nb5x5uKYoX2A1zrp5yWoFPL1V3zMbrwUU0bXXbzvkr6zVOH-Z6YHKgPP0iYZEpR6rjsbTHIYTqCelndmOGpXdG9X92j5yUwSnKt5Vt9f9NoY6XdBNX6lY1GMMcZPSZmNnJ8uEDQ0/s1600/Lawrence+%252819+of+42%2529+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtJ78Nb5x5uKYoX2A1zrp5yWoFPL1V3zMbrwUU0bXXbzvkr6zVOH-Z6YHKgPP0iYZEpR6rjsbTHIYTqCelndmOGpXdG9X92j5yUwSnKt5Vt9f9NoY6XdBNX6lY1GMMcZPSZmNnJ8uEDQ0/s640/Lawrence+%252819+of+42%2529+-+Copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The letter to his mother in January 1916 in which Laurie first broached the subject of joining up.</td></tr>
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We do not have Constance’s reply, but evidently she was as supportive of her son as she could be because Lawrence’s letter the following day begins ‘You really are an absolute brick, & you understand things better than anybody I know.’ He clearly felt great guilt for his decision and its impact on her however, adding ‘I am different to what you want me to be I know. I’m frightfully sorry, because I know it is an awful disappointment to thee, & I have tried to fall in with what you would like, but the call is too strong. It doesn’t go against my conscience: I wish it did, for thy sake, & if it did I would sooner die than do it.’ </div>
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Lawrence left the FAU the same month and enlisted in the army, just one of hundreds of Quakers to join the armed forces. After training, he returned to France in August 1916, this time as part of ‘C’ company of what would later become known as the Tank Corps. A month later Laurie was part of the first ever deployment of tanks in battle at Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme. His unit’s tank, nicknamed Creme de Menthe (<a href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/tank-creme-de-menthe-passes-tank-in-no-mans-land-news-footage/458833218">film of the tank can be viewed here</a>), took part in a successful attack on a sugar factory but Laurie was wounded and returned briefly to Britain to convalesce at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary where his recent deployment aroused a great deal of curiosity; ‘The old tanks seem to be creating a lot of interest. Nobody knows anything detailed about them & it is amusing to hear some of the extraordinary things they say.’ It was during his time at Edinburgh that Laurie decided to apply for a commission, subsequently becoming a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. </div>
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His letters from the Front between 1916 and 1917 are frequent and detailed, despite the occasional liberal application of the censor’s black ink. They show his characteristic sense of humour. Of his regular post from York he wrote in 1916: ‘The postal staff have got into the habit of expecting at least one for me every day & they weep bitter tears of disappointment if there isn’t. The record was sustained yesterday by one which arrived in a state of decomposition. In fact it looked as if it had been in a rather bad railway smash & arrived marked ‘died of wounds’. We gave it a decent burial, but no one present recognized the deceased. No inquest.’ In December that year he wrote that ‘Christmas day went off as well as we expected. Luckily we didn’t expect much because we didn’t get much.’ In a letter to his adventurous little sister Jean in early 1917 he simply added the postscript ‘P.S. Whatever you do, don’t.’ </div>
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These flashes of humour belied the terrible strain of everyday life on the Western Front. Laurie writes of the discomfort of lice, trench foot and having to sleep in a gas mask during his stints in the trenches. After one such duty in August 1917 he wrote that it was ‘blessed peace coming back to a tent & green grass after rabbit warrens & mud & everlasting smell.’ In October he reported that he and his companions had got a gramophone going ‘to try & cheer us up’, expressing the hope that the war would not last out the winter. </div>
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However by November he seemed less optimistic, writing of poor weather and how everyone was ‘tired and ill’. On the 8th of that month, after another turn of duty on the front line, he wrote ‘it has been so bad that it was really impossible to write. I have practically done without sleep & altogether done without any sort of a wash.’ On his return to the wagon lines he was knocked down by a car and although it did no serious damage he found it very difficult to walk as a result. He wrote longingly of family Christmases, noting on the 22 December 1916 that ‘they (whoever they are) say that the third time is lucky. This will make the third Yule-tide that I have been absent from the family board so at that rate next year I ought to be there.’ </div>
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It was not to be. On Friday 30 November 1917, Constance met up with her sister-in-law Isabella. She remarked that she had not heard from Laurie for nearly a week. At the point, Constance said, she did not mind if it was good news or bad news, just so long as there was news. The following morning, she received a telegram: Lawrence Rowntree had been killed during the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) on 25 November 1917, just three months before his 23rd birthday </div>
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Over the following weeks Constance received nearly 130 condolence letters. She kept them all tied up in an old writing paper folder. Almost all of the letters commented on Laurie’s kindness and his caring nature. Many remarked on Laurie’s great love for his mother. His housemother from prep school who had recalled Laurie’s first reaction to hearing of his father’s death as being “But who will look after my mother?” imagined that he had had the same reaction upon finding himself in heaven. She was not the only writer to imagine Laurie in heaven. A prominent American Quaker who had known Laurie’s father wrote to Constance: ‘You raised Laurie alone for 12 years. Now it is John’s turn. And when you to ascend unto Heaven, they will be there waiting for you: the man you loved and the man you created together’. Constance’s best friend Winnie took a more practical approach, offering to have the then 12-year-old Jean to stay both immediately or over the upcoming Christmas holidays if it would help. Perhaps the most heartbreaking letter came from one of Constance’s childhood friends. She described Laurie as a kind and thoughtful young man, and she recalled her favourite memory of Laurie when, as a teenager, he had helped his mother host Christmas dinner. She offered her support and prayers. Then, at the bottom of the page, she simply wrote: ‘P.S. We have both now lost three apiece. Let’s not lose any more.’ </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A letter of condolence from Laurie's FAU comrades.</td></tr>
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After receiving news of Laurie’s death his friend Roger Derby drove straight to Constance’s house to retrieve Laurie’s documents as he had promised. He subsequently wrote a series of four letters to Constance from different parts of the country explaining what he had done on Laurie’s behalf. This included selling Laurie’s Cambridge flat and furniture, collecting Tony from a friend’s house in Edinburgh, organising for Laurie’s bank account to be closed, and coordinating with the army for the return of Laurie’s belongings. In the final letter he writes that, with Dorothy’s permission, he has taken one of Laurie’s coats and a pair of gloves, as well as a photo of Laurie and Dorothy together that Laurie kept on his bedside table. He writes 'I will return them if you would like, but I would so like to have the photo to remember him by.'</div>
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Constance wrote to Dorothy, Laurie’s fiancée, immediately after receiving the telegram, but she had already heard the news from Margaret, Laurie’s sister and Dorothy’s roommate. In her reply to Constance, whom she called her ‘other Mother’, she wrote that it was terrible news but not wholly unexpected. She was grateful for the time she and Laurie had had together and thanked Constance for ‘giving me your son, the most precious gift you could bestow,’ adding that she would aim to live a life worthy of Laurie so that when they met again in Heaven he would be proud of her. </div>
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Three days letter, Dorothy wrote a second letter. This one read simply: </div>
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<i> Dear Other Mother, <br /><br /> This is far harder than I thought it would be, and I think I need my family around me. Could I come and stay? <br /><br /> Thy Other Daughter </i><br />
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Laurie’s other close friend, Richard, was serving in the trenches at the time and didn’t hear of his death until over a month later. It was only while on leave in Paris that he bumped into an old friend and was told the terrible news. He wrote to Constance immediately, apologising firstly for the delay and secondly for not knowing how to write a condolence letter, yet his letter is one of the most heartfelt that Constance received. He wrote that he frequently imagined life after the war. He daydreamed about returning to Cambridge and completing his medical degree, and envisioned his life beyond Cambridge. He had had many variations on this daydream, but in every single one of them Laurie was there with him. While Richard had considered that he personally might not survive the war, it had never even occurred to him that Laurie might not and he struggled to imagine a future without him. </div>
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Richard did survive the war. He did indeed return to Cambridge and complete his studies. Roger also survived the war, despite returning briefly to France. He later invested in the railways, married and had a large family. Dorothy later married the brother of her another school roommate and went on to have two children. Margaret married only a month after Laurie’s death. It’s not clear if Laurie ever met her soon-to-be husband, but hopefully he would have approved of him! Tony also married in 1925. She continued to write through much of her life, and some of her scrapbooks and journals also survive in the Borthwick archives. True to Laurie’s word, they are funny and entertaining, and tell you precisely nothing about what she was actually doing on a day to day basis. </div>
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It was Jean, however, who led perhaps the most adventurous life of the remaining siblings. After obtaining a history degree from Somerville College, Oxford, she briefly became a teacher but took a sabbatical in 1938 to help Jews and other vulnerable refugees fleeing the newly Nazi occupied Sudetenland. This was, after all, the girl who had attempted to shoot down zeppelins from the roof of her house with an air rifle. Following her return to England in 1940 Jean joined the BBC. She served as a producer of educational programming for many years, retiring in the 1970s. A great advocate of education for all, she was instrumental in setting up the Open University and received an OBE in 1962. Like Tony, she kept scrapbooks and journals throughout her life. She died in 2003, aged 97. </div>
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Constance died in 1928 at the age of 56. True to her friend’s letter, her three remaining children all outlived her. </div>
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But let’s not end with death. Instead, let’s end with and extract from my favourite of the letters Laurie wrote. On New Year’s Day 1917 Laurie wrote the following letter to the then 11 year old Jean: </div>
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<i>My Dear, <br /><br />Happy New Year, and much good may it do you. I’m afraid I’ve been an awfully long time answering your letters and thanking you for the soap but I knew you wouldn’t mind my taking them in age order, and that way it takes some time to come round to you. When the only time one gets for writing is half an hour to an hour in the evening. </i><br />
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<i>The soap was most acceptable. Thanks awfully. Also it was in a way a relief to get something that didn’t have to be eaten – at least I suppose some people might have eaten it, but I didn’t. I gave that up at the age of two in favour of more toothsome delicacies. </i></div>
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<i>You warned me not to eat too much turkey. Unnecessary, madam, for there was no turkey to eat. But you didn’t say anything about goose, so I ate too much of that. I got a lump of green stuff with it that I couldn’t make out until it struck me that it must be what they make pate de foie gras out of. Which as a luxury I consider to be overrated, besides entailing a certain amount of cruelty in its production. </i></div>
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<i>You haven’t told me if your heart is yearning particularly over anything in the shape of a Christmas present. If it is, acquaint me with the object. It will have to continue to yearn for a little while I’m afraid, but at the first possible opportunity it shall be procured if money can buy it. That last condition does not necessarily hold true. Don’t request an elephant or anything else of a ridiculous nature… </i></div>
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<i>Thy Loving Brother, </i></div>
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<i>Laurie</i></div>
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A catalogue for the Lawrence Rowntree Archive will be available in early 2019.</div>
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Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-63376262535584110102018-12-20T11:21:00.001+00:002019-01-04T13:27:03.251+00:00Lawrence Rowntree - A Life in Letters (Part One)<div>
<i>Written by Rosie Denton</i></div>
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Those of you based in York may have already heard of Lawrence Edmund Rowntree, the subject of a recent exhibit at York Castle Museum which was <a href="https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/15438313.a-french-soldier-more-dead-than-alive-came-staggering-down-the-shell-swept-road-the-war-diaries-of-lawrence-rowntree/">covered in the York Press</a>. For those to whom the name is unfamiliar, Lawrence (or Laurie as he was always known) was the son of John Wilhelm and Constance Rowntree, and the grandson of the famous chocolate-maker and philanthropist, Joseph Rowntree. Until now he has been best known for the journal he wrote while serving with the Friends Ambulance Unit during the First World War.</div>
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It is this journal that serves as the basis of the <a href="https://www.rowntreesociety.org.uk/rowntree-now/exhibitions-anniversary-events/lawrence-rowntree-exhibition/">Castle Museum exhibit</a> as well as a play based on his early wartime experiences that was performed at the museum in the summer of 2017. However in late 2017 the Borthwick Institute received a gift of more than 600 letters written by Lawrence to his mother Constance Rowntree. These reveal, in his own words, the fascinating story of his upbringing as part of York’s most famous family and his fateful decision to leave the Friends’ Ambulance Unit for active military service which led to his death at Passchendaele at the age of just 22.</div>
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Laurie was born in 1895, the only son of John Wilhelm Rowntree, who would himself die young at the age of 37 leaving a widow, Constance, and Laurie and his four sisters Margaret, Antoinette (Tony), Violet (who died aged 3), and Jean. The earliest letter surviving letter from Laurie dates from 1901 when he was just six years old. His parents were away from home, and Laurie wrote to his father to let him know that all the children were safe and happy. </div>
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Shortly after this, Laurie and his sister Margaret were sent to live with a local tutor. While Laurie was occasionally persuaded to write to his parents during this time, these letters give the very clear impression that Laurie was relying on Margaret to pass on any important news, although he does proudly report any time their hosts let him drive the horses. One letter to his father gives a glimpse of the kind of education he was receiving. ‘I wrote down all five conjugations in Latin all by myself! Then he [the teacher] told me there are six conjugations. I’m not sure.’</div>
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Laurie started at boarding school in 1904. Over the next thirteen years he wrote to his mother at least twice a week. Initially writing from prep school, Laurie continued to write during his years studying at Bootham School in York, his year studying at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and his brief spell at Cambridge University as a medical student. </div>
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Some things remained constant over the thirteen years’ worth of letters. For one, Laurie was forever an athlete. His letters from school relate endless results of football, rugby, cricket, and swimming matches. Each year at Bootham School, each dorm would compete against the other dorms in a variety of sports. Laurie took this competition very seriously and updated his mother on the score after every match. While in America, Laurie attempted to play American football, but quickly decided he would rather support than play. At Cambridge, he joined the rowing team. Even when writing later from the trenches of World War One, he tells Connie about impromptu football games between the men - always being very careful to mention exactly which goals he scored.</div>
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Laurie also loved to ‘fix’ things. While in the junior years at Bootham School, Laurie and his friends became fixated with the idea of creating a hydroplane. For over a year, Laurie wrote about this hydroplane in every single letter to his mother. As the letters go on, he continues to explain why it is taking so long and why they need more money for a new part. Finally, Laurie writes that the hydroplane is almost finished and that he and his friends are planning to launch it on the river. He promises to send Constance all the details of exactly what happens, but the hydroplane is never mentioned again. A quick search through the Bootham School Archive revealed that the hydroplane sank as soon as it was put on the water! </div>
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While in sixth form, Laurie purchased a motorbike without telling his mother. Again, he decided to try and ‘improve’ the motorbike, with varying levels of success. Eventually he was forced to give up, although a much later letter hints that Constance was now using the motorbike herself, despite her initial disapproval of the machine! Thankfully all this early experience served Laurie well. While serving with the Friends Ambulance Unit, he was using his grandfather’s Daimler car as an ambulance. Unfortunately, the Daimler was not cut out to be driven on such poor or non-existent roads, nor was it used to being driven so regularly. It broke down often, and Laurie was forced to rely on all his earlier engineering experience to keep it going.</div>
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Reading these letters, it is also possible to watch Laurie grow up, and nowhere is this more evident than in his sign-off. The early letters are signed ‘Thy very loving little son’ with the word ‘very’ underlined multiple times. When he started secondary school, Laurie dropped the word ‘little’. By the time he had reached sixth form, the ‘very’ had also disappeared. While serving on the western front, Laurie’s letters became quite hurried, and the word ‘loving’ also disappears, leaving simply ‘Thy son.’ However, there is one letter written in early 1917 in which Laurie signs himself ‘Thy very loving little son.’ He then crosses out ‘little’ and adds underneath 'sorry – nostalgic habit!'</div>
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Laurie and his mother were clearly very close. In 1917 the housemother from Laurie’s school would recall that when he was told of his father’s death in March 1905, his first response was ‘But who will look after my mother?’ His letters from school show frequent concern for her health, in one he sends sympathy for her hay fever, adding with concern ‘Please don’t let him cut off your nose, as you said he was going to. I’m sure it will get better without that. And besides, it would hurt.’ </div>
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Out of his three sisters, Laurie was especially close to his older sister Margaret. Margaret was at the Mount School in York, so as soon as Laurie started at Bootham Margaret arranged regular visits between the two of them. Laurie refers to the two of them visiting relatives together, going for walks around York, or attending social events at each other’s schools. When Margaret began to collect a series of beaus and fiancées, none of them quite met with his approval. In a letter from 1912, he wrote scathingly of Margaret’s latest romantic entanglement. In the next letter, he apologises profusely and takes back all earlier comments. However, on a separate sheet of paper with ‘DO NOT SHOW MARGARET’ written in capitals across the top, he writes that he will make enquiries about this mysterious fiancée (a missionary from Tasmania who none of the family had ever met) amongst other Quakers. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BK5pQiM7Nr37yggmc-RsBsVMAQOhXeu4zqKHXn2VJlR-USLgc5-NIroDdFcHS6H4KRPbE1pkvRNUuUd801FMZIh9aYPgdFvPbPcCVcC23EQ05kaTz4w-cv_kAPplTBAei01pG33dX_I/s1600/Lawrence_Rowntree_Photographs_0029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1233" data-original-width="1600" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BK5pQiM7Nr37yggmc-RsBsVMAQOhXeu4zqKHXn2VJlR-USLgc5-NIroDdFcHS6H4KRPbE1pkvRNUuUd801FMZIh9aYPgdFvPbPcCVcC23EQ05kaTz4w-cv_kAPplTBAei01pG33dX_I/s400/Lawrence_Rowntree_Photographs_0029.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laurie's sisters Jean and Tony.</td></tr>
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During the war, Margaret moved to London to help with the war effort. While at officer training camp, Laurie couldn’t often get home to Yorkshire, but he did make regular trips to London to visit Margaret. While in France, Laurie didn’t get much time to write letters, but when he did there was a strict order in which he wrote them. Margaret was third after his fiancée and his mother.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tony photographed by Lawrence on a family holiday in 1914</td></tr>
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Shortly after Margaret left the Mount School, Laurie’s younger sister Tony started there. Now it was Laurie’s turn to organise familial visits. He took Tony to tea in town, as well as to visit the full cohort of nearby relatives. He even put up with what he referred to as her ‘group of giggling girls.’ After Laurie left Bootham, the two siblings began to correspond regularly. The pair of them had seen Peter Pan together as young children, and it had clearly made an impression. They kept a close eye on the career of Pauline Chase (who had played Peter), and often make references to the play in their letters. Laurie wrote from America that he thoroughly enjoyed receiving Tony’s letters; they were funny, well-written, and entertaining, yet managed to tell the reader precisely nothing at all about what was going on in her life.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Better a girl than none' - Laurie's verdict on<br />
the birth of Jean.</td></tr>
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Laurie’s youngest sister was born in 1905. Upon hearing of her birth, Laurie wrote to his mother ‘As I have had opportunity to say twice before – better a girl than none.’ He was clearly delighted at the idea of having another sibling, and suggested that she be called Cello. Perhaps understandably, Constance decided not to name her new baby after a musical instrument, but instead named the child Jean. As a teenager, Laurie complained about having to write to the young Jean, a decade his junior. ‘She’s just so little I don’t know what to say,’ he wrote. While Laurie was in America, the then seven-year-old Jean started to write back to him. Much like Tony’s letters, Laurie wrote that he enjoyed receiving them, but they only spoke of ‘childish nonsense’ and gave him no real news. However, by 1915 it’s clear the siblings were very fond of each other and perhaps the most similar of the four. For her tenth birthday, Jean requested a crossbow. She wanted to be able to shoot down the German zeppelins from the roof of their house. Laurie sent her an air rifle, explaining to his mother that it was simply the duty of older brothers to encourage their younger sisters.</div>
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Popular with his peers, two names feature frequently in Laurie’s letters to his mother: Roger Derby and Richard, whose surname is unfortunately not mentioned. Roger starts to appear in Laurie’s letters very shortly after Laurie arrived at Bootham School. He was a young lad of exactly Laurie’s age, who came from a prominent Quaker family in the south west. The two shared a dorm and were both determined to win the inter-house tournament. Later, when they no longer shared a room, often be entered for all the same events, but were quite happy so long as one of them won. They were clearly close and Roger was often invited to spend the shorter school holidays with Laurie. Aged eighteen, the two of them went on a motorcycling trip of the UK. Unfortunately, they did not get very far before Roger’s motorcycle broke beyond repair and the two were forced to return to Roger’s family in Bristol. The two lost contact for a couple of years after school, but were reunited when they joined the same section of the Friends’ Ambulance Service. It was a happy reunion, and once again news of Roger begins to fill Laurie’s letters. Roger did not join up when Laurie did, but returned to England as a Conscientious Objector. As such, Laurie made Roger the executor for his will, and asked Roger to take care of his family should anything happen to him.</div>
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Richard and Laurie became friends while both serving as prefects at Bootham School and became virtually inseparable. They shared both a bedroom and a prefect office. The two stayed close during Laurie’s studies at Haverford in the USA. Despite the 3000 miles between them, Laurie writes news of Richard in pretty much every letter to his mother. When Laurie arrived at Cambridge, Richard was already studying there. He had organised Laurie’s accommodation for him, and introduced him to the local Quaker community. Richard and Laurie were together when the outbreak of war was declared. Constance and Jean were on holiday in Austria at the time, and Laurie and Richard frantically worked with Laurie’s grandfather and Uncle Duncan to get them home safely. Richard stayed on with the family, and he and Laurie took the decision to join the Friends’ Ambulance Service together. Once again, they shared a bedroom. Richard joined the army shortly before Laurie and ended up serving in a different part of France, so the two were separated. However, whenever they were in the vicinity of each other, they always made sure to meet up, and Laurie always describes these meetings with joy.</div>
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Constance knew all of Laurie’s acquaintances at least by name. Unfortunately, this makes things rather tricky for the modern reader, as they often refer to people simply by initials. While at prep school, Laurie was forced to share a dorm with a boy named Pumphrey, who Laurie described as ‘quite the softest ass I have ever met.’ The two boys despised each other, and when Pumphrey enrolled at Bootham just a year after Laurie, he does little to hide his disgust. Fortunately, Bootham was a larger school than Colwall, and the two boys were able to largely avoid each other. Many year later, when Laurie joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, he was serving under a man known as P. J., who Laurie respected greatly. It in only on the Christmas dinner menu from 1914 signed by all the men of the unit that it becomes clear that P. J. is Pumphrey! It’s nice to know the two boys worked out their differences in the end.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghg1SEM6hrG8J844X6d0ZiZ-mI4AAxrMgz0-mJgwJhtpXnlUcUTMWnutJkpVGT2Y7ajgcCT9sxvpiWvwZGCY6DAFS4cU-EpOc2bYjN2LutclwVLUj3lXsW7piKyvfZLSzs61y_bq5Isoo/s1600/Lawrence+%25283+of+42%2529+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghg1SEM6hrG8J844X6d0ZiZ-mI4AAxrMgz0-mJgwJhtpXnlUcUTMWnutJkpVGT2Y7ajgcCT9sxvpiWvwZGCY6DAFS4cU-EpOc2bYjN2LutclwVLUj3lXsW7piKyvfZLSzs61y_bq5Isoo/s640/Lawrence+%25283+of+42%2529+-+Copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pumphrey's signature on the 1914 'War Dinner' menu</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lawrence and Dorothy</td></tr>
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However the most important person in Laurie’s life during this time was Dorothy Cross; Tony’s old roommate and one of the ‘group of giggling girls.’ The two first started a romantic relationship when Laurie was eighteen and Dorothy was fourteen. Like Laurie, Dorothy was an athlete and her name appears on many of the Mount School sports awards from this time. She was also a committed Quaker like Laurie. Their relationship continued throughout Laurie’s time in America and Cambridge. In 1913 Laurie mentioned that Tony had written to him about a party held at the Mount School, noting that Dorothy looked very pretty – ‘As if I didn’t already know that!’ </div>
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Dorothy moved to London during the war (she and Margaret shared a house for a while) and briefly assisted with the Red Cross in Belgium. She and Laurie were in constant contact and Dorothy was the first person Laurie wrote to whenever he had spare time. In 1916 he wrote to his mother to request she help him buy ‘an opal ring.’ She had it sent to him and he proposed to Dorothy shortly after while on leave in London. She accepted and the next letter Laurie wrote to Constance was brimming with joy and excitement. </div>
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The two initially decided not to marry until after the war. However, many of their friends and acquaintances tried to talk them out of this, and the two wrestled with the idea of marrying while Laurie was on leave. In late 1917, Laurie wrote a letter to his mother while on leave in York. At the end, he briefly writes ‘Mrs L.E. Rowntree sends her love in buckets. Did I tell you we were married this morning?’ However, this is all that Laurie ever writes on the topic, and no marriage certificate has been found, so it remains a mystery! </div>
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<i><a href="https://borthwickinstitute.blogspot.com/2018/12/lawrence-rowntree-life-in-letters-part.html">Read part two here</a></i><br />
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Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-66786948772554651182018-11-23T15:32:00.000+00:002018-11-23T15:32:14.071+00:00A Year in the Life of a Borthwick Trainee <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In July 2017, I became the
latest in a long line of Borthwick Institute Trainees when I accepted the
position over the phone <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">while wedged between the skips out the back of York </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Waterstones (it was the quietest place I could find on Coney Street!). Despite </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">this inauspicious start, I quickly fell in love with my new job. The Borthwick </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">staff kept me busy with a wide variety of tasks and projects. All of</span>them were quite happy to share their knowledge about their own personal area of expertise, and the Archive Assistants in particular happily endured my endless barrage of questions. A year on, I have finished my traineeship, and would like to share with you six items from the Borthwick archives that I think sum up my role over the last year.</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Rnn98oTuUOIYVrYtHRI4dMDQQTEU6x3l8uXUrERDO8EQyygpXPpV9eqwUd2MAKq03id3MOWTiJYLUpOcF5O7exzfaccW54PEnfMFwQHjD1KhlwfSFIc9BD2Q9GDUrKy4CEA6JJNihvm39cARIw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="A close up of text on a white background
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Naturally, a key part of being a trainee is receiving training. Palaeography, the art of reading old handwriting, was one of the hardest and yet most rewarding things I learned at the Borthwick. In my first lesson, I was asked to read the will of Jane Staple. I sent a photo of it to a friend with the caption “It’s completely illegible!” She replied that actually this was quite a nice document and they’d get harder. Not exactly encouraging! But a year on, this document is no longer illegible; and she was right: they do get much, much </span>harder! </span></div>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oMfwZHJgbUerN_B8c2kOrab4WK78kyAOj9_bibL3JGi6VJSROHa66CfdM0UO2fS3AdWbmT2-WSVQeFMOzZ1nkap6b6gO38u44d0AqfDRlfvBEFSNGOXKb-vVYCI1jAPhfNM5D3x-f5-QaVXSqg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="A picture containing indoor, building
Description automatically generated" border="0" height="400" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oMfwZHJgbUerN_B8c2kOrab4WK78kyAOj9_bibL3JGi6VJSROHa66CfdM0UO2fS3AdWbmT2-WSVQeFMOzZ1nkap6b6gO38u44d0AqfDRlfvBEFSNGOXKb-vVYCI1jAPhfNM5D3x-f5-QaVXSqg" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="298" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Number two: Will of Lancelot Thorpe</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Borthwick have somewhere between 750,000 and 1,000,000 wills (depending on who you ask). One of my jobs was to make copies of wills for researchers. This was a simple, yet time-consuming task, not helped by the fact that I would regularly get distracted by the contents of the wills themselves. The will of Lancelot Thorpe particularly caught my attention. The will itself was clearly written by a scribe, and is fairly standard in form and content. However on the back is a letter to Lancelot’s wife written in his own hand, explaining that he has total faith in her to act as his executrix. Lancelot died aboard ship not long after. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I was asked to repackage and list a collection of parish magazines, I don’t think anyone realised that there were nearly 6000 of them! Again, I became hopelessly distracted by the contents of the magazines, in particular the serialized stories. This tale was a personal favourite: the story of a young lady who must choose between caring for her mother (‘inept at housework of all kinds’) or pursuing a career as a potter when a young man from London offers her a job. Unfortunately, the next few editions of the magazine have not survived, and come the next surviving issue he is in court accused of a serious crime, and she leaves him after a dramatic scene at a bus stop. The December edition of this story is also missing, but I like to imagine they lived happily ever after. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After the parish magazines I moved on (via a couple of other
projects) to listing the letters of Lawrence Rowntree. Laurie wrote
nearly 600 letters to his mother over the course of his life, starting when he
was just six years old and ending with his death on the Western Front in 1917
aged just 22. On the whole these letters were a joy to read, as Laurie’s
letters are full of humour. On one occasion, he went to have his hair cut. The
barber did not know his last name, and spent the entire hair cut telling Laurie
how awful the Rowntree family were. Laurie wrote to his mother that he now had
an entirely new view of his grandfather! In one early letter, Laurie
rejoices at the birth of his youngest sister, and asks that she be called
Cello. Instead, she was named Jean. Over the next few years, Laurie often
comments on how awkward it is writing to Jean, because she is just so little.
By January 1917, when this letter was written, the two were clearly very close,
and Laurie jokes about his Christmas celebrations and present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To end my traineeship, I was given the opportunity to devise my
own project. Having been a teacher in a previous life, I decided to use the
archives at the Borthwick to create a series of teaching resource packs.
My favourite was about the use of persuasive language (to tie in with the
KS3 English syllabus) as shown through Rowntree adverts. I especially love the
early Black Magic adverts, because they provide little snippets of a story and
leave you to fill in the blanks. Much as with the parish magazines, my
imagination ran wild!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Archie is a toy squirrel and the Borthwick’s unofficial mascot.
Having been asked to help out with the Borthwick social media accounts I
thought we could have a bit of fun with him. Often we would have themes or
campaigns for our social media streams, such as Archives 30 (in which the
Archives and Records Association set a different theme each day) or our
collaboration with the English department at the University of York to try and
provide dissertation ideas for undergraduate students. Having come up
with ideas for photos I wanted to take for these campaigns, I would take Archie
with me and photograph him with any interesting or unusual things I found while
in the Strongroom. As such, Archie ended up being photographed with some very
unusual items!</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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As I mentioned
at the beginning, this traineeship program has been running for a long time
now, and hopefully will run for many more years. While I have now left the
Borthwick and returned to university to complete a Masters degree in archival
and information studies, the traineeship programme goes on. So I’d like
to end with some quick advice for my successors.<span style="background: white;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Firstly,
always lift the archive boxes with two hands (trust me on this one). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Secondly,
if you ever have a spare ten minutes, there is endless fun to be found in
wandering into the Strongroom, picking a box at random, and seeing what you can
find. It’s the closest you will ever come to finding buried treasure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">And
thirdly, the staff at the Borthwick are fabulous. Not only are they incredibly
knowledgeable about their collections and generally all things archives, but
they are very happy to share this knowledge with you. Ask as many
questions as you want (you won’t annoy them) and learn as much as you can.
Don’t waste this fabulous opportunity, because you are incredibly lucky to have
it. Good luck! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Rosie Denton</i><br />
<i>Archives Trainee 2017-2018</i>Sally-Anne Shearnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17065462006564526816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-28507554807573021852018-11-19T08:00:00.000+00:002018-11-19T08:00:16.136+00:00When the guns fell silent: York and the 1918 flu<div style="text-align: justify;">
The signing of the Armistice in November 1918 was a bittersweet time for the people of York. Doubtless, many would have been looking forward to seeing their loved ones again after four years of conflict. Many would have been feeling the bite of the recently introduced rationing. Still more would have been feeling the Armistice all the more keenly when looking at the photographs of those they had loved and lost.</div>
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As the crowds mingled in York to mark the moment, any would have been feeling under the weather. Some may have been feeling the first signs of a cold-like virus, with a sore throat and high temperature. Others would have been at home in bed with a full blown fever, delirious, in pain with excruciating muscle cramps. Others would be in the final, terrible stages of influenza, developing a purple tinge to the skin, their breathing becoming ever more shallow, rapid and laboured as they effectively drowned in their own beds. </div>
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The H1N1 virus - erroneously known as Spanish flu - was the final act of a war that had already claimed up to 19 million lives. The virus, most likely a mutation of a swine-borne flu, had manifested itself in military camps in the United States, and crossed the Atlantic with the massive moves of men as the US bolstered its efforts in France. The massing of men in hospitals and camps provided the ideal breeding ground, and the moves of so many men as the war drew to a close provided the ideal medium for transporting the virus all over the world. By the end of 1920, between 50-100 million people would have died from the disease and to to 500 million infected people infected worldwide. </div>
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The reports of York’s Medical Officer of Health (MOH/Y/10) suggest that the 1918 flu hit York very much like anywhere else – in two distinct waves, the first in the summer (approximately 30th June - 27th July 1918), the next in late autumn, 'commencing just before the Armistice', though officially recorded as 12th October 1918-11th January 1919. It was this second wave that was to be the more deadly. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MOH/Y/10: Medical Officer of Health report for York, 1919</td></tr>
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The first signs that the city was taking the outbreak's return in October seriously came with the closing of 12 of the city's schools on the 22nd-23rd October, with a further 11 closed on the 24th-25th. 600 children had been reported as being ill up to the 25th October. On the 30th October, all of the city's schools were closed, at the very least until the 18th November.</div>
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By this point it was becoming apparent to the authorities that they were in the midst of a crisis. Unlike the summer wave, which had manifested as 'normal' flu, this iteration was much more virulent and deadly. Health visitors and school nurses were transferred to the job of supporting doctors in visiting cases at home. Here, the danger inherent in medical care was brought into sharp relief with the deaths of two home visitors from flu. </div>
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The Medical Officer of Health 'engaged the services of disengaged midwives and other handy substitutes' to bolster the city's medical provision, with a panel formed to draw up guidance for home nursing. It was in vain. Nine of the city's doctors had reported visiting over 6000 cases between them. The MOH report notes that as a result of the flu outbreak, 'the professional nursing staffs of the city and district were absolutely overwhelmed.'</div>
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The city took further measures to try and slow the spread of the infection. It had already been noted that Armistice celebrations had provided the perfect conditions to spread the infection further, with a combination of packed tramcars and crowds jostling in the streets in scenes of spontaneous and civic celebrations. Cinemas were asked to close for an hour in the early evening to subject theatres to free ventilation and disinfectant spray. On the 18th November, the national Local Government Board recommended that all places of public entertainment should not be operate for more three consecutive hours and places should be thoroughly ventilated for a full 30 minutes between performances. By the 22nd November, this was extended to four hours.</div>
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By the end of November there were reports of multiple bodies in households, with delays in burying the dead. As a result, soldiers from local barracks had been deployed to aid the authorities in digging graves.</div>
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The Medical officer of Health, in typical fashion, reported the bare facts in his end of year report. There had been 1,318 deaths in York during 1918. Of these, 530 occurred between October and December, more than double the rate of the previous year. 226 deaths were attributed to influenza, with a further 166 being listed as being down to flu's common complication, pneumonia. It was noted that it was difficult to distinguish between the two, mainly as those who died in hospital were classed as dying of pneumonia as opposed to flu.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MOH/Y/10: Medical Officer of Health report for York, 1919</td></tr>
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A defining feature of the 1918 flu was its mortality, disproportionately affecting those who would be classed as in their physical prime. This was reflected in York, with those aged 15-45 faring the worst. The poorest districts in the City were hit particularly hard - presumably due to their cramped living conditions – 89 deaths from influenza and 71 from pneumonia in Walmgate ward, 76 from flu and 59 from pneumonia in Micklegate ward. The outbreak had largely hit 'indoor workers' – those working in factories and offices, for instance. The nature of the workforce by the end of the war meant that the outbreak had hit women almost twice has hard as men.</div>
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The majority of people had died at home. Only 58 people had died in local hospitals – 26 in the Workhouse Infirmary, and 25 in the County Hospital. In addition to the city's own dead, 56 soldiers had died of flu at Fulford Barracks, in addition to 19 visitors to the city.</div>
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The records of the city's hospitals display, likewise, a struggle to cope with the sudden and extreme pressure they found themselves under. The Fever Hospital at Naburn was quickly emptied of cases to provide extra bed space, but even this was insufficient. York County Hospital reported 80 inpatients over the course of the outbreak, with a mortality rate of 50% for those admitted, 35% of those admitted dying within 48 hours of admission. In addition to patients admitted with flu or pneumonia, 7 patients already in the hospital contracted flu when 6 flu cases were admitted to a ward.</div>
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The House Committee minute book (YCH/1/1/3/10) records the situation. On the 12th November, 10 nurses, 2 maids and a porter were reported as being absent with flu. By this point, 16 staff had been infected. The meeting must have been a sombre one, as one nurse – Nurse Harrison – had died that morning. Accommodation was being arranged for those staff who were still recovering from flu but wished to work.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">YCH/1/1/3/10, note stating that 10 nurses, 2 maids and 1 porter off duty with influenza, 12th November 1918</td></tr>
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Patient records reveal that many of the nursing staff infected were treated in a hastily re-purposed Board Room. Treatments were rudimentary and were recorded as aspirin, brandy and, finally, morphine. Patients whose temperatures stayed below 100 degrees tended to survive; those who found their temperatures going higher than this rarely did.</div>
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The Committee 'desired to place on record their high appreciation of the zealous and devoted manner in which all the members of the staff are discharging their duties under the present exceptionally trying conditions’. This is something of an understatement. Later minutes from the hospital's Medical Board (YCH/1/1/6) stated that ‘the hospital was practically closed for two months’ due to shortage of staff, with only ‘extremely urgent’ cases admitted.</div>
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By the end of the year, the virus had passed. The 1918 strain of flu was virulent, but short lasting. It left behind in its wake yet more broken families, another swathe through a population in its prime. There is no memorial to the dead of the 1918 flu. Society, as a whole, has chosen to try and forget the deadly autumn and winter of 1918. Perhaps, as the evenings draw in and we look towards the end of the year and all the joys it brings, we should stop for a moment and remember the 400 of York’s community who lost their lives, and the many thousands more who found their lives changed forever - just as the guns stopped firing.</div>
Gary Brannanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11607015603330904721noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5023391860258232888.post-33063094532450727442018-10-31T16:41:00.000+00:002019-01-25T10:18:31.380+00:00Magical Yorkshire<br />
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The magic of Yorkshire's history can sometimes be literal as well as figurative! </div>
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We are all familiar with the idea of <b>wisemen </b>and <b>wisewomen</b> as people involved in occult activity. In Yorkshire, such people seem to have been helpful rather than malicious, although that didn't mean the Church approved. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">V.1567-8/CB1 f. 25v, Borthwick Institute for Archive</td></tr>
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In 1567, Robert Garmann was the subject of testimony to the archbishop of York during a visitation, where he was accused of being a <b>wiseman</b> who 'had healed beastes beinge forespoken' (bewitched or charmed). The magic spell he used to break the enchantment was </div>
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God and sancta charytie blysse the beast. </blockquote>
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The belief in forespeaking carried on in Yorkshire into the ninteenth century. Around 1840, a farmer from South Crosland near Huddersfield who was noted as a cow-doctor wrote down instructions for curing a forespoken cow: </div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">When Cattle is forspoken Catch her waters then get
a new Pipkin never been used put the waters therein then Get some Glass shave
both horns a little of then Cut some hair from between her horns and Tail end
then get 9 Clogg nails 9 pins never used put all together into the pipkin then
as near the full Moon as Possable at twelve O Clock at Night make the doors
then set the Pipkin with the above in it on a good red fire and sit with it
till all be boiled away and no Smook from it then take it off and when Cold
scrape all the black in the pot and nails etc on to some paper then put all in
as small a parcil as you can turning each end Contrary way and if any body come
to the door don’t open nor speak when doing this then in the morning take the
parcel and a Gimblet big enough and go to a live Oaktree and bore a hole and
put the parcel in and make a peg for it and put it in and drive it up with a
hammer and then Get a egg and break the small end and put tarr in when emptied
and give it to the Cow next morning keep warm and give Aird water to drink a
time or two till well </span></blockquote>
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Clearly, un-forespeaking an animal was a complicated process!</div>
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Other <b>wisewomen</b> are on record as folk healers. During the 1598 vistation, one Widdow Carre of Darfield was reputed to be a wisewoman with skill at curing sickness. And in 1693, at the Quarter Sessions in Silkstone, appeared one William Beever who was supposed to be able to 'finde things that are lost' by the use of 'a booke whiche he calls an alminacke'. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A wiggen, or rowan tree, Barbondale</td></tr>
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Although these people professed benign powers, there was still obviously a fear of magic and bewitchment. The <b>wiggen </b>(the rowan, or mountain ash) was supposed to protect people from evil. In 1674, a witch's plot was foiled because 'they tye soe much whighen about him, I cannot come to my purpose'. It was even a cure against sickness: in 1782, an Ecclesfield man's diary records an attack of ague from which he recovered after six days 'Under Bark of Wiggin'. </div>
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We can even track the suspicion of the occult into people's names. The surname <b>Pricker</b> was evidently occupational but its meaning is uncertain. In some contexts a <b>pricker </b>was a huntsman and in others a witch-finder. One by-name which may derive from witch-finder is <i>Helya Prickescin</i>, who lived around Fountains Abbey 1168-1194.<br />
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<b>Edit 25/01/18 </b>The Yorkshire Historical Dictionary is now available online at yorkshiredictionary.york.ac.uk </div>
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