Dr C. M. Fraser (1928–2013)

Constance Mary Fraser became involved in the work of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society relatively late in her long life. It was an engagement that was to prove long-standing and highly productive. She served as a committee member of the Wakefield Court Rolls Section from its inception in 1975, for virtually the next four decades. She became general editor of the series in 1983 and fruitfully occupied the position for almost thirty years, latterly holding the post in tandem with that of secretary of the committee. In the course of her editorship, eleven volumes were published by the Court Rolls Section and of these, five were edited by herself alone. As an instance of her scholarly versatility, as she was primarily a medievalist, all but the last of them were concerned with the seventeenth century. It was in reviewing the last of Dr Fraser’s volumes for the series, containing the three court rolls for 1433–6, that in 2012 Professor Angus Winchester described the Wakefield Court Rolls project as ‘in the vanguard of raising awareness of the richness of manor court records’. This is an achievement for which she was in great part responsible. In the previous year, her final illness had obliged her to resign as general editor of the series, although she remained as the secretary of the committee.

Her involvement with the Yorkshire Archaeological Society was fortuitous, as the principal focus of her life, personal and professional, lay on Tyneside. Constance was born in Tynemouth on 27 May 1928, the daughter of a marine insurance agent, and lived in her parents’ home throughout her life. From there, she attended what was then King’s College, later the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, but then a college of Durham University. After graduation, she pursued her studies and in 1951 received a Durham doctorate for a study of Antony Bek, bishop of Durham between 1283 and 1311. The high level of scholarship that she attained was recognized by its publication in 1957 as one of the slim, red-bound historical monographs issued by Oxford University Press. In the same year, she joined the Extra-Mural Department based at King’s College and continued in post as a staff tutor in local history until her retirement.

Her distinguished and prolific career as a record scholar began in 1953, with the publication of records relating to Bishop Bek in the Surtees Society series. Her work for that society spanned more than half a century, coming to an end in 2007 with her contribution of a fifth Surtees volume. Constance enjoyed an equally productive career in the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, beginning in 1955 and continuing as long as her work for the Surtees Society. By the time of her final appearance in the pages of Archaeologia Aeliana in 2004, she had contributed eleven articles and edited two volumes in its Record Series. She also contributed articles to Northern History and to Speculum. There were also two general works on Northumbria and on Tyneside.

From 1969, she often published in conjunction with her close friend, the academic lawyer Kenneth Emsley. After a career in business, he had graduated with a master’s degree in law as a mature student at the University of Newcastle, where they met. The deep friendship and community of scholarly interest they found together lasted until his death. Dr Fraser contributed his obituary in this journal in 2012.

After graduation, Ken Emsley became a lecturer in law at what then was Leeds Polytechnic. It was thus this personal connection which gave Constance the opportunity to expand her interests into Yorkshire records, for both of them became involved in the creation of the new publishing section of the YAS. Together they edited the first volume that the section published, the court roll for 1639–40, in 1977. Professor J. S. Morrill, reviewing this in the Cambridge Law Journal the following year, wrote that ‘I know of no better evidence in print on the procedure of manorial courts in this period’.

The large congregation for her memorial service, filling the Tynemouth parish church Constance had attended, testified to the range of her activities in both academic life and in her community. The scholarship achievement to which she dedicated her life is, even now, not at an end. At the time of her death, on 4 June 2013, she was collaborating with Dr Adrian Green of Durham University on the editing of the Northumberland hearth tax records, as part of the national hearth tax project. She also left to her successor as general editor of the Wakefield court rolls series a transcript of the court roll for 1436–7. A generous bequest which she made to the YAS will be used in part to publish that roll in 2014, as a memorial volume to its distinguished general editor.