The cataloguing aspect of our Lord Crewe Project has begun, made possible by a grant the Lord Crewe’s Charity itself made to the Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust.
The papers of the Charity span from the 15th to 20th century, and the 12,000+ documents within the collection relate to Nathaniel, Lord Crewe (1633-1721), his estates including Bamburgh, as well as the charitable trust he left behind.
This part of the project will add descriptive detail and content to the collection by individually listing many of the deeds and papers held within it. Deeds provide an invaluable resource to researchers. They give details of ownership, tenant, length of lease, rent, use of the land, or restrictions stipulating what the land or property cannot be used for. Details of previous tenants can be given which is especially useful for those building a family tree to show what has and has not remained in use for generations of the same family. Descriptions of land and property can give insight into how the use of land has changed and boundaries have moved or impacted by advancement of technology such as railways and electricity.
Deeds are often very ornate documents with scalloped edges and wax seals. The initial word can be highly stylised, which can be a huge contrast to those entering a contract with an ‘X’ to mark their name. Deeds can also be confusing and difficult (some are in Latin), and early styles of handwriting and spelling can be particularly difficult to decipher.
We will provide regular updates on our progress and share interesting documents on social media along the way. The most unusual document we have found so far has been the lease where a tenant sub-let part of his land to enable the collection of seaweed along the shores near Bamburgh in 1728 [ref. NRO 00452/D/1/5/2/6].
An online exhibition on Lord Crewe’s Charity was created by Northumberland Archives during a previous project and is available to view here, https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/exhibitions/crewe/1.html
If you would like to find out more about the Charity, you can find their website, http://www.lordcrewescharity.org.uk/
The scalloped edges were an early form of copyright. If numerous copies were to be made, the scalloped edges had to match for proof of authenticity. I learnt this when transcribing Indenture papers contained in the Dickson, Archer and Thorp project.