HISTORIC DOCUMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1939, Page 11

HISTORIC DOCUMENTS

SOO-YEAR-OLD DEED

An early twelfth century document, which had not seen the light of day for nearly 300 years, is one of the latest of many papers of historic interest to have been rescued by the Records Preservation Section of tho British Record Association. The document, retrieved from a collection of family papers which were threatened with destruction, is a deed executed by Thurston, Provost of Beverley, who was elected Archbishop of York in 1114. His election in that year establishes the age of this document, executed by Thurston as Provost and not as Archbishop, as not less than 825 years. The whole of this collection, numbering several dozen papers of early date concerning properties in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has now been sent to the repository of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds. At the headquarters in Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, the volunteer experts upon whom the work of the section depends have been instrumental in preserving for the nation many papers of similar interest which otherwise might have been lost. AVhile the Master of the Rolls has been empowered to provide for the safety of all manorial records, no power has ever been given to any authority in Britain to assure the safety bf deeds, diaries, letters and other documents in private possession, and the need for economy of space, the simplification of the requirements for title, and other social economic and legal changes all combine, in the opinion of the association, to reduce once-prized records to the level of rubbish in the eyes of their custodians.

To combat this tendency, the Records Preservation Section undertakes to sort any collections of old papers which may be sent to it from families, solicitors or instiutions. Documents redeemed in the course of these scrutinies are now to be seen in the Public Record Offices in London, Belfast, and Dublin; in the Bodleian Library, Eton College, the London School of Eco.iiomics, the Royal Mint, the National Maritime Museum, and elsewhere. Typical of the past year’s activity are the discovery of a deed under the seal of Thomas Beauchamp. Earl of Warwick, 1386, and a letter of Sir John Benet, grandson of the founder of Pembroke College, Oxford, placing at “the prince’s disposal” his place of Waiter of the Chancery, 1621.