British Legal Instruments collection
(Late Medieval to Post-Regency). – 1336-1825. – 81 items : parchment.
– Manuscript and
printed. – Latin, English, Scots.
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.
Title based on contents of collection.
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.
Finding aid available at the item level in hard
copy and electronically.
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are not expected.
