Posted on 28 November 2024
Quitclaim from William Percehay, knight, to John Freboys, John de Crome and Robert de Smeton, citizens and merchants of York. All that piece of ground in Fossgate, lying in breadth between Trichourlane and the river Foss, and in length from Fossgate in front, as far as the land of Henry de Haxiholm at the back; which property Sir William had lately acquired from Robert de Insula and Thomas de Duffeld, executors of the testament of Henry de Belton, late citizen and merchant of York. Christmas Eve, 1356 [CMAY/3/3/6/4/41]
As we enter December campus is looking festive - and occasionally frosty! The university winter break begins on the 16th but the Borthwick will be open to researchers as usual until Wednesday 18th December and there will be staff onsite to answer enquiries until the 20th. We reopen in the new year on Monday 6th January.
It’s been another busy year for us. Over the past year we’ve taken in more than a hundred new accessions, added nearly 5000 new entries to our online catalogue Borthcat, answered more than 5000 enquiries, and been awarded Accredited Status once more by The National Archives. Looking forward to 2025 we will be bringing you more archive catalogues, including the archive of the famous confectionery company Terry’s of York, and some very exciting additions to our collections which are currently still under wraps. Watch this space!
We received 7 accessions in November, all of them additions to existing archives here at the Borthwick. We added more scripts, audio recordings and newsletters to The Goon Show Preservation Society Archive, including an original annotated script from 1952. To the archive of the Yorkshire School for the Blind (part of the Records of the Wilberforce Memorial) we were very pleased to add a braille writing frame, a braille copy of the Radio Times and of the Home Help Weekly Magazine for Women, both dated 1961 and generously donated by the granddaughter of a former pupil. The archive of architectural firm W.R. Dunn was gifted to us in October and it’s still growing, with two further additions of plans and files relating to work carried out at Bishopthorpe Palace, Harewood House and Ripley Castle. Finally, bringing us right up to date, we took in the Parochial Church Council minutes for the parish of Haxby, 2014-2019, and papers of the University of York’s Academic Ethics and Compliance Committee, 2020-2023.
Number of archival descriptions on Borthcat on 1st December 2024: 137,177
The archive of W.R. Dunn is not the only architectural highlight this month. We’ve also added the complete catalogue for the building contractors William Anelay Ltd. Although the earliest records in the archive date to 1898 the history of the company goes back a lot further - to 1747 and the business of builder and bricklayer John Thompson of Doncaster. In 1767 Thompson invited John Anelay to join the firm, and it would eventually descend to William Anelay who took the fateful decision to relocate his business from Doncaster to York at the turn of the 20th century. The firm made their name in the city with work on a range of prominent buildings, many of which have links to the Borthwick’s collections. These include the Yorkshire School for the Blind at King’s Manor, workshops for Messrs T. Cooke and Sons at Bishophill, the restoration of the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, and work on York Castle Museum and the Terry family home at Goddards. Beyond York, the firm counted the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, Studley Royal and Castle Howard among their commissions. The surviving archive was gifted by the family and includes registers of clients, work order books, accounts, and staff records of a business that helped to shape the landscape of York for more than a century.
Written by conservator Catherine Firth
Our wonderful conservation volunteers have been busy over the last month. They have been making and modifying 4-flap folders, which has allowed up to package a whole collection of Leavis-Brockbank correspondence as well as providing protection for some oversize Atkinson Brierley material. They have also wrapped some more unpackaged Atkinson Brierley rolled plans. We are currently learning about acid-free tissue puffs, and improving the packaging of some of our hospital artefacts.
In the workshop we have had a request from a researcher for a number of probate bundles that are looking very sorry for themselves, and are going to need some significant treatment before we can make them available. We will be treating these in batches over the next few months. Additionally we have been selecting and preparing some objects for a fascinating 3D scanning workshop with the Creativity Lab, which we are excited to support.
In November we showcased some of our women’s archives in a special workshop for students from the university’s Centre for Women’s Studies. The archive of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York was also featured in the latest newsletter of AMARC (the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections) in an article by Research Services Archivist Lydia Dean which highlighted the range of the archive and the work we’ve been doing to share it with a wider audience.
On the subject of wider audiences, although the Borthwick is often thought of as a Yorkshire archive, our collections are in fact international in scope, and since the 1970s we have developed a particular strength in Southern African history. This began with the records of the University’s own Centre for Southern African Studies and now includes the archives of the Rowntree Trusts, the Capricorn Africa Society, and the archives of Patrick Duncan, Dennis Brutus and Michael Young. University Archivist and Records Manager Charles Fonge is a member of the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa (SCOLMA), a forum which aims to bring together people working with African records in the UK, and in the Spring the group launched a season of online seminars looking at the topic of ‘African Studies in the Digital Age’. The results are the subject of an article on the ‘Africa in Words’ blog, and the complete series of seminars are now available on SCOLMA’s YouTube channel.
Finally, December will see the launch of a new University of York Art Collection podcast, hosted by University Art Curator Helena Cox and our Keeper of Archives Gary Brannan. The first episode should be up in a few weeks and future episodes will feature special guests and report on all the latest developments, exhibitions and events involving the collection. We’ll be bringing you a link to that in the next newsletter.
What is it? A single letter hinting at an argument, scandal, or conflict hundreds of years ago - read on to find out more!
Where can I find it? The letter is part of our Miscellaneous Documents collection.
Why is it Archive of the Month?
We finish our dive into the varied contents of our Miscellaneous Documents collection with a mystery. In 1954, less than a year after the Borthwick opened its doors, we were gifted a letter about which very little is known. It has frequently been a subject of speculation amongst Borthwick staff but not even the internet has (yet) helped to shed any light on it.
All we know is that sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century a ‘C. Molyneux’ penned an impassioned letter addressed on the reverse to a Lady Wilstrope, begging for her help or for an end to some dispute between them. ‘I beseech you consider how justly I have dealt with you in all things, how guiltless I am of any crime objected against me, and then according to your goodness let me recover my just desert at your hands,’ Molyneux writes (spelling modernised). There are hints of malign influence - ‘I trust to you and to the continuance of your assured goodwill borne towards me which I well hope cannot be shaken by any persuasion although I make no doubt but that as much as can be devised is said unto you to dissuade you from that which both we in indeed do greatly desire,’ and of serious consequences, ‘otherwise my very good Lady your pretended Love towards me will be to my destruction and utter overthrow.’
We can guess at the date because of the style of the letter. It is written in a form of handwriting called Secretary Hand and this was the dominant form of writing in the 16th and a large part of the 17th century. The phrase ‘just desert’, which at first might stand out as unexpectedly modern, actually came into use from the early 16th century and had nothing to do with pudding, ‘desert’ coming from the French ‘deservir’, meaning ‘to deserve’. We also know there was once a village of Wilstrop or Wilesthorpe six miles north of York and that the Lords of the Manor were known by that surname from at least the 15th century. Could this be the family of Lady Wilstrop? Who might C. Molyneux be and why were they at odds? You can read a transcript of the letter yourself below and make your own guesses. Its existence is a good reminder that the contents of an archive are only ever the small pieces that survive, telling a partial, often intriguing - and sometimes frustratingly unknowable - story.
Good madam. I trust to you and to the
continuance of yor assured goodwill borne
towards me which I well hope cannot be
shaken by any perswacon although I make
no dowbt but that as muche as can be
Devised is saied unto you to diswade you
from that wch both wee in deed doo greatly
desyer as it hathe been made plaine
to the world by your owne wordes and myne. Wch I
praye god maye still remaine as firme
in you as duringe my Lieffe it shall remain in me
for otherwyse my very good Lady yor pretended
Love towardes me wilbe to my distruccion and
utter over throwe wch I veryly beleve yow will
not seeke or desier to me whow wisheth
yow all good fainedly. I beseche you
consither how justly I have delt with
you in all thinges, how giltles I am of
any cryme obiected against me, and then,
accordinge to your goodnes lett me recover
my iust desert at your handes. And
even this in wofull manner I humbly
commend me unto your good Ladishpe to
whom I wishe as muche joy and
happiness as I wishe to my owne [...]
[sole] from my chambers
Your Ladishippes most
assured at commandement
C Molyneux
We’ll be back in the new year with more news and events from the archives!