Presidential Address: Great Historical Enterprises IV. The Rolls Series

Rev. M. D. Knowles

doi:10.2307/3678755

Presidential Address: Great Historical Enterprises IV. The Rolls Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

Rev. M. D. Knowles

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The publication of the Chronicles and Memorials of GreatBritain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, known familiarly as the Rolls Series, was the outcome of a movement set on foot early in the nineteenth century by Henry Petrie. Petrte (1768-1842), who began life as a dancing master, made himself a learned and zealous antiquary, and acquired a knowledge, unrivalled in his day, of the materials for early English history. He was patronized by the second earl Spencer (1755-1834), then engaged upon the enrichment of Althorp library, and in 1818 a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen was convened at Spencer House to induce the government to support a scheme for printing the early sources of British history. The project was approved by the then prime minister, Lord Liverpool, and took shape in an humble address of the House of Commons to King George IV (25 July 1822), begging for the publication of manuscript sources of history; as a result of this Petrie, who had been appointed Keeper of Records in the Tower of London in 1819, assembled extracts from various sources for the period before the Norman Conquest, which were published posthumously in 1848 as Monumenta Historical Britannica. This was a selective collection, modelled on the Recueil of the Maurist Dom Bouquet, which Guizot had continued in France. Petrie's Monumenta was inordinately costly, while it failed to give real satisfaction to historians.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 11 , December 1961 , pp. 137 - 159

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678755 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1961

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^{page 137 note 1} Owing to a dearth of source material little hitherto has been known of the early history of the Rolls Series save what is contained in the First Report of the Commission on Public Records (vol. i, 3 parts, H.M.S.O., 1911), especially part 2, pp. 97–98. Recently, however, the Public Record Office documents and correspondence connected with Chronicles and Memorialshave become available for consultation, and my thanks are due to the late Keeper of the Records, Sir David Evans, for drawing my attention to this. I must also gratefully acknowledge his kindness, and the help of Mr H. C. Johnson, Miss D. H. Gifford and others, in facilitating my research at the Public Record Office. In this lecture I have done no more than scratch the surface; the full story remains to be written. The relevant documents are chiefly contained in the collection P.R.O. 37, where nos. 1–11 are original correspondence, 12–16 the official letterbooks (cited below as L.B.), no. 18 records of payments, and 19–21 the incoming correspondence from editors, arranged in packets alphabetically. Public Records quoted in this lecture, in which Crown Copyright is reserved, are printed by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

^{page 138 note 1} For all this the First Report may serve as a starting-point, especially part 2, pp. 1–17, 26, 75–114. Cf. also C. P. Cooper, An account of the mostimportant Public Records of Great Britain (Record Commission, 2 vols., 1832). See also the introduction to T. D. Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue ofMaterials relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland (R[olls] Sferies] 1862–71), i, pp. xlvi ff.

^{page 139 note 1} Hardy, T. D., Memoirs of the life of Henry, Lord Langdale (1852) and D.N.B.Google Scholar

^{page 139 note 2} For him and his sons, see D.N.B.

^{page 139 note 3} For these, see D.N.B., and for Stevenson also the memoir by J. H. Pollen in the The Month (May 1895).

^{page 141 note 1} P.R.O. 37/12 (i.e. L.B. I), pp. 14-20. I give references to the L.B., when available, as being the simplest direction. In many cases the original letters can also be seen in the accompanying bundles.

^{page 141 note 2} L.B. I, pp. 21–56.

^{page 142 note 1} L.B. I, p. 62.

^{page 142 note 2} Ibid., pp. 74–76.

^{page 142 note 3} Ibid., pp. 100–02.

^{page 142 note 4} Ibid., pp. 112–14.

^{page 143 note 1} D.N.B., xlix, p. 187.

^{page 143 note 2} P.R.O. 37/18. The figures cited occur on the early pages, which are not numbered. In 1880-81 the grant was still £2000 but it decreased shortly after this date.

^{page 143 note 3} L.B. I, p. 81 (27 Feb.).

^{page 144 note 1} L.B. II, pp. 98 (27 Mar.), 104 (16 Apr.).

^{page 144 note 2} L.B. I, pp. 98 (1 Apr.), 139 (9 Feb. 1858), 142 (17 Feb.); L.B. II, p. 33.

^{page 144 note 3} MS. note by T. D. Hardy in P.R.O. 37/61.

^{page 145 note 1} For the circumstances of Stubbs' appointment to the Regius chair, see Williams, N. J., Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 33 (May 1960), pp. 121–25.Google Scholar

^{page 145 note 2} L.B. I, pp. 195, 254, 258, 263-64; L.B. II, pp. 91–93. The M.R. had congratulated Hingeston, when the first volume of Capgrave appeared (P.R.O. 37/44, 3 Feb. 1858).

^{page 145 note 3} L.B. I, pp. 253–54 (7 Mar. 1860).

^{page 146 note 1} Stevenson's letters in P.R.O. 37/59—(1 May 1858): ‘His conduct has proved him base, treacherous and untruthful to a degree which I could not have credited but for proofs too ample and convincing to be disputed’. —(4 May): ‘The prevailing feeling of my mind is thankfulness that my child did not become the wife of one who has proved himself so utterly unworthy of her’. —(No date, probably referring to Hingeston): ‘I had not seen the marriage of which you speak, and am afraid I could not congratulate the Lady did I know her’.

^{page 146 note 2} P.R.O. 37/44. The reference to bathing occurs in a letter of 30 Dec. 1863.

^{page 146 note 3} Ibid., letter of 5 Oct. 1864. The organ cost £120.

^{page 146 note 4} L.B. II, pp. 287–92 (15 Dec. 1864), 284–85 (17 Nov. 1864).

^{page 146 note 5} P.R.O. 37/4.

^{page 146 note 6} L.B. II, pp. 287–92. The Public Record Office has a copy of the suppressed volume.

^{page 146 note 7} For Thorpe, see the somewhat indulgent article by T. Seccombe in D.N.B., and L.B. I, pp. 147 (7 Mar. 1858), 211, 212–17, 222, 232 (where Romilly goes to the British Museum ‘for a couple of hours’); L.B. II, pp. 37–39> 67.

^{page 147 note 1} P.R.O. 37/59 (undated letter of Stevenson): ‘I cannot tell you how shocked I am with poor old Ellis's book. It is bad beyond credibility, you need to see it in order to understand the amount and grossness of the errors’.

^{page 147 note 2} L.B. I, p. 238, and for the cancellation L.B. II, pp. 75–76. The employment of Knowles is not acknowledged on the title-page or in the correspondence, for obvious reasons, but the sum of £193–14–0 ‘for collation’ is credited to him in the Payments Book (P.R.O. 37/18, p. 31 for 1860–61).

^{page 148 note 1} For this, see L.B. II, pp. 95–96, 127–29, and article on Turnbull in D.N.B. Stevenson's letters contain several references to the episode.

^{page 148 note 2} L.B. II, pp. 44, 306; L.B. Ill, p. 69.

^{page 149 note 1} For Maxwell Lyte, see the biographical sketches by C. Johnson (Pro-ceedings of the British Academy, xxxvi (1940)), V. H. Galbraith (D.N.B. Supplement, 1931–1940).

^{page 149 note 2} See article in D.N.B. (First Supplement, vol. ii).

^{page 149 note 3} See article by Powell, F. York in D.N.B. Sir Charles Oman (Memoirs, 1941) has a story that Vigfusson used to sit over York Powell in his room until he had completed his daily stint of work.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 1} L.B. I, pp. 210–11.

^{page 150 note 2} L.B. III, pp. 242–43, 261–63, 294–97, 313, 321–28, 335–41.

^{page 150 note 3} L.B.IV, p. 33; P.R.O. 37/19.

^{page 150 note 4} L.B. V, p. 22 and P.R.O. 37/26.

^{page 151 note 1} P.R.O. 37/26.

^{page 151 note 2} L.B. V, pp. 169, 174.

^{page 151 note 3} Ibid., pp. 201–02. Dasent had in fact done much of the work; it was his misfortune that it had been rendered useless by subsequent discoveries.

^{page 151 note 4} Ibid., pp. 190–91.

^{page 151 note 5} Ibid., pp. 276–77.

^{page 152 note 1} L.B. V, p. 281.

^{page 152 note 2} Ibid., pp. 504–06 (27 Nov. 1889).

^{page 152 note 3} D.N.B.

^{page 153 note 1} L.B. Ill, pp. 316–17.

^{page 153 note 2} L.B. V, p. 63; P.R.O. 37/30.

^{page 153 note 3} P.R.O. 37/30.

^{page 153 note 4} L.B. V, pp. 89–90. Clasper was a well-known oarsman and boat-builder.

^{page 154 note 1} L.B. V, pp. 106–09.

^{page 154 note 2} Ibid., pp. 110–11.

^{page 154 note 3} P.R.O. 37/30. This letter would seem to contradict the assertion in the D.N.B. that Furnivall never learnt to swim.

^{page 154 note 4} L.B. I, p. 90.

^{page 154 note 5} Ibid., p. 155. This was as early as 1867–68.

^{page 154 note 6} L.B. IV, p. 183.

^{page 155 note 1} L.B. V, pp. 204, 214, 222.

^{page 155 note 2} For Maitland, see the introduction by Professor Cam, Helen in Selected Essays of F. W. Maitland (Cambridge, 1957), pp. xxiv–xxvi. The Hall-Round affair gave birth to a small literature of reviews (including Round's notorious notice in The Athenaeum), pamphlets and letters, some of which are in the London University Library.Google Scholar

^{page 155 note 3} For statistics, see First Report, i, part 2, p. 75. The total number of volumes is there given as 252, with another still to come in 1911. On p. 98a the total is given as 254. On my calculation 250 volumes (excluding those subsequently cancelled) were issued, but three of these were bound in two parts.

^{page 155 note 4} First Report, i, part 2, p. 98b, referring to minutes of evidence; ibid., i, part 3, Q. 545 (p. 21b).

^{page 156 note 1} First Report, i, part 3, Q. 539 (p. 21a).

^{page 156 note 2} Ibid., i, part 2, p. 98a, and Deputy Keeper's 48th Report, p. xvii.

^{page 156 note 3} L.B.V, 270.

^{page 156 note 4} L.B.I, p. 135.

^{page 156 note 5} First Report, i, part 3, QQ. 537-38 (p. 21a); cf. also Q. 797 (p. 61b).

^{page 157 note 1} See table in First Report, i, part 2, pp. 85–87.

^{page 157 note 2} These figures are derived from the accounts in P.R.O. 37/18.

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Presidential Address: Great Historical Enterprises IV. The Rolls Series

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