PARAGON REVIEW

Issue 6

SCOTTISH ARCHIVES

If you flick through the countries' index in the Archives Reading Room in the BJL you will find entries for most parts of the world. Whilst some countries have larger representation in the collections, the quality and extent of our Scottish holdings is perhaps surprising for a repository based in East Yorkshire. Here, Dr Amanda Capern provides a wee overview.

Although the Archives of the Brynmor Jones Library are not overflowing with papers related to Scotland, there are three collections of unique value and interest. To begin with, in the papers of the Sykes family of Sledmere at DDSY(3)/1 there are 77 letters to Richard Sykes (1701-1761) about the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. These are largely from John Neilson in Glasgow and John and Francis Simpson in Newcastle. Sykes was captain of the Hull Volunteer Force and the letters give him details of rebel and troop movements, the sieges of Edinburgh and Carlisle, skirmishes, the capture of prisoners, and so on.

Agricultural implements as used on Skye, from John Blackadder's 1799 report

Scottish papers of the Bosville-Macdonald family (now of Thorpe, in the East Riding) cataloguedas DDBM span the dates 1596-1933. They include the 1782 manuscript of D.Macqueen's Enquiry into the chieftainship of Macdonald, the 1799 report of John Blackadder about family estates at Skye, an album containing copies of the correspondence between the 3rd Lord Macdonald (Godfrey Macdonald, 1755-1832) and Alexander Macdonnell over their respective descent to chieftainship of the clan, and addresses of welcome to Alexander Bosville-Macdonald in 1911 on his taking up residence in the Isle of Skye. There is also a 1916 tree showing the descent of the families of Macdonald of Sleat and the Isles.

Arguably the most valuable collection of Scottish papers, numbering almost 2500 items, is to be found in the Constable-Maxwell of Everingham family and estate papers at DDEV/71-81, the property of Lady Herries. These include genealogical material for the Maxwell family and Herries barony and estate papers, plans and surveys for Terregles and Caerlaverock. Miscellaneous estate papers include material on sequestered property as well as inventories and an original bundle of papers relating to the 1873 movement of the family muniments from Terregles to Everingham in East Yorkshire. Printed material spans the dates 1748 to 1883 and includes an 1873 volume about the letters and papers of the Earls of Derwentwater in the early eighteenth century.

DDEV/72 consists of forty bound volumes of the manuscript notes and correspondence of the Scottish antiquarian and biographer, George Chalmers (1742-1825). It includes manuscript notes for his work, Caledonia, and letters from fellow antiquarians like James Mitchell, William Robinson and John Skinner. There is also some correspondence of Thomas Con-stable, the printer and publisher to Edinburgh University and copyright holder of Chalmers' work after his death.

DDEV/73 is correspondence covering the period 1650 to 1872. A small number of letters for the 2nd and 3rd Earls of Nithsdale are here (though most are in DDEV/79, 80). The bulk of surviving family letters in this section are from the first half of the eighteenth century and relate to the affairs of William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale, after his escape from England to Rome in 1716. The most appealing manuscript in the family papers is Lady Winifred Herbert Maxwell's account of the way she helped her husband to escape on this occasion, from the Tower of London.

Lady Maxwell's account of her husband's escape from the Tower of London

DDEV/79-81 represents a very complex deposit. DDEV/79 is a series of bound volumes, some of them published volumes and some bound collections of manuscripts. DDEV/79A is a copy of William Fraser's Inventories of the muniments of the families of Maxwell, Herries, and Nithsdale in the charter room at Terregles (1865) and the Maxwell and Nithsdale inventories found in here calendar the papers in DDEV/80 and /81.

DDEV/79B-D contain copies of the inventories at DDEV/79A and transcripts of the Maxwell muniments at DDEV/80. DDEV/79E is a volume of transcripts of Herries charters and letters 1468-1563 (originals at Traquair House) and extracts from Scottish state papers 1560-1579 and the Ayscough and Harleian manuscripts 1567-1578. Similarly, DDEV/79F is a collection of transcribed letters and memoranda of the Maxwell family 1640-1701, some of which finds repetition elsewhere in the volumes at DDEV/79.

DDEV/79G contains 215 original manuscripts bound into a volume and spanning the dates 1589 to 1779 and DDEV/79H-J are also bound volumes, containing 199 and 121 manuscripts respectively spanning the dates 1607 to 1848. These are all Nithsdale and Herries papers and taken together with the manuscripts at DDEV/80 and /81 represent a collection of close to 2000 papers, the bulk of which relate to state affairs in early modern Scotland. Some of these papers have been printed in The book of Carlaverock in 2 volumes in 1873 and a copy of this is at DDEV/K-L. As only 150 copies were printed this is a rare survival in itself.

The contents of DDEV/79G-J are largely seventeenth century. They include the correspondence and papers of Robert Maxwell of Caerlaverock (1613-1646), 1st Earl of Nithsdale. Robert Maxwell's correspondence includes letters from Marshal Tillieres and Cardinal Richelieu of France as well as Louis XIII written from the late 1620s to 1641. In Scotland his correspondents included various lairds and members of the Scottish privy council including James Huntly, William Ker, and George and Frederick Hamilton. There are also letters from John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St Andrews. There are two letters of James VI (James I of England) written in 1623 and several letters of Charles I written in the crucial years 1639-1640. There is one from Queen Henrietta Maria. There is a 1627 commission of Christian IV of Denmark for raising troops and one letter of the same year from Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (sister of Charles I). Correspondents from Ireland are Thomas Wentworth, the Lord Deputy, and Richard Boyle, the Earl of Cork.

Robert Maxwell (1620-1667), 2nd Earl of Nithsdale, was succeeded to the title by his cousin John Maxwell, 7th Lord Herries (of Terregles), and their correspondence in the 1650s, while both serving time in prison, is to be found in DDEV/79G-J. There are also letters of other family members of this generation. Robert Maxwell's correspondence with General Monck is in DDEV/79J, as is some of the correspondence of both sides of the family (Nithsdale and Herries) with the court of Charles II after the Restoration. DDEV/79J includes the commission of Robert Maxwell, 3rd Earl of Nithsdale and 8th Lord Herries, from James VII of Scotland to serve against William of Orange and DDEV/79J contains the warrant of arrest for his son, William Maxwell, 4th Earl of Nithsdale and 8th Lord Herries, for his part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Eighteenth-century papers in DDEV/79G-J are largely to do with family affairs, particularly attempts to regain financial security, and include letters to and from several women in the family.

The Maxwell muniments at DDEV/80 span the dates 1276-1669 and the Nithsdale muniments at DDEV/81 span the dates 1666-1720. These are largely charters, contracts and title deeds and include the 1525 grant by Herbert, Abbot of Sweetheart, of the bailiary of the abbey to Robert Maxwell and the certificate of supplication of the same year from James V to Pope Clement VII recommending John Maxwell to the abbacy of Sweetheart.

Archives staff do receive enquiries about various aspects of the Scottish papers in the BJL from time to time, but it is evident that much more potential use could be made of the collections. I hope that by drawing attention to the papers in this way a start will have been made.

Amanda Capern