![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
The archive of the dissolved Benedictine priory of Marrick consists of over one hundred medieval charters plus a wide range of other documentation relating to the administration of the monastic estate from the dissolution of the priory in 1539 to the early eighteenth century. This article traces the history of the archive and explains how the bulk of the surviving documents came to be divided between the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds and the Hull History Centre.
Acknowledgements
In researching this article, I have received invaluable help from staff at the following libraries and record offices: the Hull History Centre; the Special Collections of the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds; the British Library; the East Yorkshire Record Office; the North Yorkshire County Record Office; the Surrey History Centre; and The National Archives at Kew. For permission to examine Thomas Stapleton’s library and manuscripts at Carlton Towers, I am grateful to Lord Gerald Fitzalan-Howard and to Mrs Pat Meanwell who made me most welcome there. John Martin Robinson, the Duke of Norfolk’s archivist, patiently answered questions about Stapleton’s manuscripts and books. Professor Nicholas Vincent of the University of East Anglia kindly exchanged information and let me see a draft copy of his meticulously researched biographical study of Thomas Stapleton in advance of publication. Nigel Ramsay has been a constant source of encouragement and helpful advice and provided much valuable information with regard to the provenance history of Marrick manuscripts. At Quaritch, the London booksellers, Shane Lapsys enabled me to inspect the company’s annotated auction records, particularly those relating to the Beaumont sale at Sotheby’s on 22 October 1920. For help in tracing Stapleton documents from the Nichols archive, I am grateful to Julian Pooley at the Surrey History Centre, and to Dr Georgianna Ziegler of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. William Tupper and Rosemary Kelly helped me reconstruct Martin Tupper’s family tree. Mrs Katherine Jessel, daughter of Derek Hudson, Martin Tupper’s biographer, directed me towards the Tupper archive at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where Brian Sol Davidson of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library went beyond the call of duty in supplying detailed information on its content. For supplying biographical information about the Devis family of painters, I am grateful to Dr Amanda Draper of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery at Preston. At various stages, I have benefited considerably from the advice and assistance of the following to all of whom I am most grateful: Judy Burg and Simon Wilson (Hull History Centre); the late Chris Sheppard and Richard High (Special Collections, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds); Chris Webb (Borthwick Institute, University of York); Guy Holborn (Lincoln’s Inn Library); and Mark Christodolou (bookseller of York). For their good company on walks around Marrick, I am grateful to Stewart Ainsworth, Alastair Oswald and John Sutton. Robert Wyke read and improved my text.
Notes
1 Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters.”
2 Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, 5, Honour of Richmond, Part I and Part II.
3 Tillotson, Marrick Priory; Ramsay and Jurkowski, “Medieval English Monasticism”; Lawes, “Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries.”
4 The Valor gives the annual income of Marrick as £64 18s 9d but as this takes no account of fines, received, for example, when leases were renewed, it does not fully reflect the true value of the estate which is likely to have been significantly greater: Caley, Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Hen. VIII, 237. I am indebted to Nigel Ramsay for pointing this out to me.
5 Clay, “Yorkshire Monasteries. Suppression Papers,” 134–5; Ramsay and Jurkowski, “Medieval English Monasticism.”
6 The following brief outline of Stapleton's career is based on Nicholas Vincent's recently published biography in Vincent, “Norman Charters from English Sources,” 26–66.
7 Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” 100, 258.
8 Dingley, “Tupper”; Hudson Martin Tupper.
9 Tupper, My Life, 256.
10 It is disappointing that no letters which might otherwise illuminate these contacts are contained in any of the 22 scrapbooks and albums which constitute Tupper’s personal archive, now in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (call No. F.828 T8391). In 1945, these albums were in the possession of a London bookseller, Capt. Ridgill Trout, from whom they were acquired by Constable’s for the use of Derek Hudson, Tupper’s biographer. Before they were bought by Constable’s, the scrapbooks and albums had been in the possession of the Revd Martin Evelyn Tupper, one of Tupper’s two grandsons. In 1952, the whole archive was bought by the University of Illinois. Significantly, perhaps, a note by Tupper in his album 9, dated 1845, states ‘Not until this year have I cared to keep letters and I have destroyed many of interest and importance’. I am indebted to Brian Sol Davidson of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Urbana-Champaign for searching the scrapbooks on my behalf. All my attempts to trace the ‘copy-book’ containing the seals cut off the medieval charters have been without success.
11 Tupper, An Author's Mind, “The Prior of Marrick,” 117–124.
12 In the same year, 1592, this same Richard Brackenbury, described by James Raine as ‘of Sellaby, a County Durham man’, also sold the neighbouring Marske estate to the Huttons. James Raine wrote two articles on Marske, of which the second is an expanded version of the first, published, respectively, in Archaeologia Aeliana, n.s. 5 (1861), 1–90; and Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 6 (1881), 172–286.
13 For Fryerhead (otherwise Fryarhead, Fryars Head, Friar Head or Friers Head), Winterburn, North Yorkshire, see Leach and Pevsner, Buildings of England, 757 and plate 33. Frances Malham was the daughter and heir of Colonel Francis Malham of the ancient family of Malham of Elslack (Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” 254).
14 Marriage register of the church of St Mary and All Saints, Whalley, Lancashire, where Anthony Devis’s name is written as ‘Davis’. See Paviere, Devis Family of Painters, 24.
15 In 1836, Joseph Tempest, of Broughton near Skipton, Yorkshire, was elected to the London Society of Antiquaries on the recommendation of John Gage, Thomas Stapleton and Michael Jones. In his biography of Stapleton, already referred to, Professor Vincent describes John Gage as both an intimate friend and mentor of Stapleton who likewise came from an old, landed Catholic family and had been trained in the law at Lincoln's Inn. Since 1829 Gage had officiated as Director of the Society of Antiquaries and his endorsement, with Stapleton, of Joseph Tempest would undoubtedly have carried considerable weight. In these circumstances it is possible to see Gage, Stapleton and Tempest as to some extent co-workers in exploring a submerged Catholic past. Vincent, 'Norman Charters from English Sources’, delves more deeply into these connections which are also explored by Birrell, ‘Circle of John Gage’.
16 H[ull] H[istory] C[entre], U DDCA2/20/1-10 and DDCA2/18/1-20. [University of Leeds Library], Brotherton Collection, Marrick MSS 5/5/1-3.
17 B[ritish] L[ibrary], Add. Ch. 75052.
18 A 93-page catalogue or ‘Finding List’ of the contents of the Carlton Towers library was prepared by Clive and Jane Wainwright and John Martin Robinson in the early 1990s. The three quarto notebooks are listed under shelfmark 2J.
19 Carlton Towers Library, Shelfmark 1G.
20 Carlton Towers Library, Shelfmark 18F. In the ‘Findings List’ this volume is described, somewhat misleadingly, as a ‘Library Catalogue’.
21 See Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” 254. The Elslack and Glusburn deeds were included with the Marrick charters in the second deposit of Stapleton papers at Hull University Archives and are now in HHC, U DDCA2/18 (Elslack) and U DDCA2/20 (Glusburn).
22 The National Archives, PROB 11/2108.
23 HHC, DDCA3/10/1.
24 Both sales by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 Wellington St., London. The sale in December 1874 took place over eight days starting on 4 December. The Nichols materials were sold in 2860 lots.
25 BL, Egerton Charter 406.
26 Reference Y.d.24 Box 22 (62). For a full account of how this material was identified as coming from the Nichols sale, and its eventual purchase by Folger, see Peoples, ‘Folger Nichols Manuscript Collection’.
27 See Kuist, Nichols File where all the drawings in the 'Nichols File' are listed. I am grateful to Georgianna Ziegler for help in searching the Folger collection.
28 I am grateful to Julian Pooley for copies of these letters (Ref. 1 PC1/18/198-199) details of which he supplied from a database of more than 13,000 Nichols letters recorded as part of his ongoing Nichols Archive Project – see http://www.le.ac.ac/elh/resources/nichols/index.html. For details of Stapleton’s Continental tours, see Vincent, ‘Norman Charters from English Sources’.
29 For a discussion of the charters see Vincent, “Norman Charters from English Sources.”
30 University of Manchester, John Rylands Library, BMC/91.
31 Myers & Co, catalogue 260 (June 1927), 75–6, item 274. In addition to the documents sold as part of item 274, the same catalogue contained six other Marrick documents separately described as items 60, 72, 96, 100, 126 and 189. All were priced individually on account of their well-preserved seals.
32 Winifred A. Myers, the last member of the Myers family involved in the bookshop, died in March 1985. Thereafter, the business was run by Ruth Shepherd who in turn retired in January 2001. No business records or correspondence have come to light that might provide additional information about this sale. As Vincent, 'Norman Charters from English Sources’, records, Stapleton was intending to write a history of the township of Drax, near his family home at Carlton Towers. Also, as we have seen, he is known to have had Glusburn charters in his possession at the time of his death.
33 Symington, Brotherton Library.
34 A fictionalised account of Symington’s dealings after he left the Brotherton Library forms one strand of Justine Picardie’s novel Daphne (2008). For a biography of Symington which attempts to defend him against the most serious charges see Smurthwaite, Life of John Alexander Symington. For an account of the forgeries of Wise and Forman, see Collins, Thomas James Wise and H. Buxton Forman; Partington, T. J. Wise, 124, notes that Lord Brotherton was one of Wise's clients.
35 See Pickering, “Two English-Language Documents”. The respective document reference numbers in the Brotherton Collection are Marrick MSS 2/7 and 2/10.
36 Tyson, Manor and Lead Mines of Marrick.
37 Now in BL, Add. Ch. 75053. As well as the Marrick charter, Cox donated another 37 charters, as listed in Add. MS. 75053. It is not known when or how they were acquired by him.
38 BL, Add. Ch. 44891.
39 Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” 122, No. 11.
40 For appreciations of Solomon Pottesman as a personality and collector, see Snelling, ‘Potty’, and Alan Thomas’s recollections in The Book Collector, (Winter 1979), 545–553, also reproduced in Barker, Pleasures of Bibliophily.
41 N[orth] Y[orkshire] C[ounty] R[ecord] O[ffice], Ref. ZHG.
42 In Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” transcripts of these charters appear on pp. 109 (No. 2) and 224. Stapleton’s transcript of the bond is contained in the North Riding quarto notebook in Carlton Towers Library, shelf 2J, where it appears under the heading ‘Ravensworth’ manor.
43 York Minster Archives, Hailstone Collection, BB 35.
44 There is a copy of Dr Willis's typescript list in the HHC, (DDCA1/33/29).
45 Dr Willis’s remark, quoted in his letter to Lady Beaumont, had originally been directed to an unnamed ‘member of the history school at Leeds’ (most probably John Taylor) who had written enquiring about Stapleton’s notes made in preparation for his Camden Society volume on the ‘Plumpton Correspondence’ (published John Bowyer Nichols) in 1839. Dr Willis’s letter to Lady Beaumont, dated 16 April 1957 and containing the quotation, is filed with his list in HHC.
46 The Marrick documents deposited with Hull University are now in the HHC, (DDCA2/29/1-134). They remain the property of His Grace, the 18th Duke of Norfolk. Dr Higson’s typescript catalogue is available for consultation online.
47 These are individually described under reference U DDCA2/29.
48 Tillotson, Marrick Priory. In HHC the original document is referenced as U DDCA2/29/108.
49 HHC U DDCA3/4/1.
50 NYCRO, ZAZ/ 75 and 76. Some of these same items were printed by Raine in 'Correspondence of Dr Matthew Hutton’. At the time when Raine was writing, the letters and other papers were in the possession of John Hutton, esq., of Marske.
51 Schedule entries 26, 37, 338, 349 and 558.
52 The date as given is 19 February 1651. This is presumed to be Old Style as Robert Blackburne died in August 1651.
53 Tyson, Manor and Lead Mines of Marrick.
54 At least four schedules written in Timothy Hutton's handwriting and set out in identical fashion to that for Marrick survive amongst the Marske papers in the NYCRO (reference ZAZ 75 and 78). Most if not all the Marske deeds and other documents dating earlier than 1629 are endorsed with numbers written in the same style as those that Hutton used for his Marrick papers. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, two of the Marske schedules and some of the deeds were faithfully copied for an unknown purpose by Richard Dixon, esq., of Middleham. These copies are now in the Hailstone Collection at York Minster Archives (Hailstone 4.12 and 4.15). Annotations made by Dixon state that the original documents were the property of John Hutton, esq., of Marske, but were then in the possession of Clervaux Chaytor of Spennithorne.
55 In Hutton’s schedule, all five are referred to as 'plotts'.
56 Brotherton Collection, Marrick Priory MSS, 3/1/80-84. Two conjoined sheets (3/1/80-81) showing the layout of the enclosed fields in the vicinity of the priory and 'Marrigg towne' are reproduced in The Brotherton Collection, 83.
57 The vaccary had been given to Marrick Priory by Conan de Aske at some date before 1203. The deed of gift, known only from a paper copy (quite possibly made by Avery Uvedale himself, but now lost), was published by Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters”. See also Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, V, Honour of Richmond, pt. II, 79.
58 Stapleton, “Ground Plan and Charters,” 104 (8).
59 Ibid., 104 (9), 259n.
60 For Avery Uvedale's notes on the boundaries of Ullandes see Brotherton Library, Marrick MSS 3/1/73, 75-78.
61 For a discussion of the disputes between the convent and the lords of Marrick manor see Pickering, ‘Two English-Language Documents’.