Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
British legal instuments collection (Late Medival to Post-Regency)
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Collection
Reference code
RC0495
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1336-1825 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
81 items : parchment.
Manuscript and printed – Latin, English, Scots.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Custodial history
Scope and content
This artificial collection of documents consists of 81 manuscripts, including deeds, charters, instruments of sasine, obligations, letters patent, wills, probate certificates, and manorial court proceedings, placed into 76 separate groupings. Most of the documents are English, concerning Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Devon, Essex, Hampshire (including Isle of Wight), Kent, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Rutland, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, Wiltshire, and Yorkshire. Some are Scottish, from Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, Edinburgh, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, and West Lothian. One was drawn up in Louth, Ireland while under British rule. Among the notable names occurring in these documents are North of Kirtling, Addington of Harlow, Cotton of Leswade, Primrose of Chester, Paston of Paston, and Shelley of Horsham. Also included, in envelope A, are several pieces of seals which have broken.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
There have been several accruals. Nos.1-69 and 77-79 are believed to have been acquired from a London auction by Bertram Rota in the 1960s, perhaps in the interest of providing palaeographic materials for a course at McMaster. The provenance of Nos.70-74 and 76 are not known. No. 75 (29-1995) was donated in 1995 by R.H. McNairn. His father, William Harvey McNairn, of McMaster University, Toronto, had purchased the document on 13 June 1916 from Reginald Atkinson, bookseller, in London, England. W.H. McNairn was a professor of geology but also produced scholarly papers on medieval history. Receipts and a letter from Atkinson pertaining to the purchase, together with a cardboard sleeve once used to house the item, are located in the master file. A typescript transcription of the item itself has been included with the document.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
There are no access restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are not expected.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
RC0495