The difficulties thrown in the way of all literary and historical
inquiries, by the peculiar constitution of the Prerogative Office, Doctors'
Commons, have long been a subject of just complaint. An attempt was made by
THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, in 1848, to procure their removal, by a Memorial
addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which we now print, because it
sets forth, plainly and distinctly, the nature and extent of those
difficulties.
"To the Most Rev. and the Right Hon. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.
"The humble Memorial of the President and Council of the Camden
Society, respectfully showeth,
"That the Camden Society was instituted in the year 1838, for the
publication of early historical and literary remains.
"It has the honour to be patronised by H.R.H. the Prince Albert; and
has supported, from its institution, by the countenance and
subscription of your Grace's predecessor in the See of Canterbury.
"The Society has published forty volumes of works relating to English
History, and continues to be actively engaged in researches connected
with the same important branch of literature.
"In the course of its proceedings, the Society has had brought under
its notice the manner in which the regulations of the Prerogative
Office in Doctors' Commons interfere with the accuracy and completeness
of works in the preparation of which the Council is now engaged, and
with the pursuits and labours of all other historical inquirers; and
they beg leave respectfully to submit to your Grace the results of
certain investigations which they have made upon the subject.
"Besides the original wills deposited in the Office of the Prerogative
Court, there is kept in the same repository a long series of register
books, containing copies of wills entered chronologically from A.D.
1383 to the present time. These registers or books of entry fall
practically into two different divisions or classes. The earlier and
the latter books contain information suited to the wants of totally
different kinds of persons, and applicable to entirely different
purposes. Their custody is also of very different importance to the
office. The class which is first both in number of books and in
importance contains entries of modern wills. These are daily consulted
by relatives of testators, by claimants and solicitors, principally for
legal purposes, and yield a large revenue to the office in fees paid
for searches, inspections, and copies. The second class, which
comprises a comparatively small number of volumes, contains entries of
ancient wills, dated before the period during which wills are now
useful for legal purposes. These are never consulted by lawyers or
claimants, nor do they yield any revenue to the office, save an
occasional small receipt from the Camden Society, or from some similar
body, or private literary inquirer.
"With respect to the original wills, and the entries of modern wills,
your memorialists beg to express clearly that this application is not
designed to have any reference to them. Your memorialists confine their
remarks exclusively to the books of entries of those ancient wills
which have long and unquestionably ceased to be useful for legal
purposes.
"These entries of ancient wills are of the very highest importance to
historical inquirers. They abound with illustrations of manners and
customs; they exhibit in the most authentic way the state of religion,
the condition of the various classes of the people, and of society in
general; they are invaluable to the lexicographer, the genealogist, the
topographer, the biographer,--to historical writers of every order and
kind. They constitute the most important depository in existence of
exact information relating to events and persons of the period to which
they relate.
"But all this information is unavailable in consequence of the
regulations of the office in which the wills are kept. All the books of
entry, both of ancient and modern wills, are kept together, and can
only be consulted in the same department of the same office, in the
same manner and subject to precisely the same restrictions and the same
payments. No distinction is made between the fees to be paid by a
literary person who wishes to make a few notes from wills, perhaps
three or four hundred years old, in order to rectify a fact, a name, a
date, or to establish the proper place of a descent in a pedigree, or
the exact meaning of a doubtful word, and the fees to be paid by the
person who wants a copy of a will proved yesterday as evidence of a
right to property perhaps to be established in a court of justice. No
extract is allowed to be made, not even of a word or a date, except the
names of the executors and the date of the will. Printed statements in
historical books, which refer to wills, may not be compared with the
wills as entered; even ancient copies of wills handed down for many
generations in the families of the testators, may not be examined in
the registered wills without paying the office for making new and
entire copies.
"No such restrictions exclude literary inquirers from the British
Museum, where there are papers equally valuable. The Public Record
Offices are all open, either gratuitously or upon payment of easy fees.
The Secretary of State for the Home Department grants permission of
access to her Majesty's State Paper Office. Your Grace's predecessor
gave the Camden Society free access to the registers of wills at
Lambeth--documents exactly similar to those at Doctors' Commons. The
Prerogative Office is, probably, the only public office in the kingdom
which is shut against literary inquirers.
"The results of such regulations are obvious. The ancient wills at
Doctors' Commons not being accessible to those to whom alone they are
useful, yield scarcely any fees to the office; historical inquirers are
discouraged; errors remain uncorrected; statements of facts in
historical works are obliged to be left uncertain and incomplete; the
researches of the Camden Society and other similar societies are
thwarted; and all historical inquirers regard the condition of the
Prerogative Office as a great literary grievance.
{216}
"The President and Council of the Camden Society respectfully submit
these circumstances to your Grace with a full persuasion that nothing
which relates to the welfare of English historical literature can be
uninteresting either to your Grace personally, or to the Church over
which you preside; and they humbly pray your Grace that such changes
may be made in the regulations of the Prerogative Office as may
assimilate its practice to that of the Public Record Office, so far as
regards the inspection of the books of entry of ancient wills, or that
such other remedy may be applied to the inconveniences now stated as to
your Grace may seem fit.
"(Signed) BRAYBROOKE, President.
THOMAS AMYOT, Director.
HENRY ELLIS.
J. PAYNE COLLIER, Treas.
HARRY VERNEY.
H. H. MILMAN.
JOSEPH HUNTER.
WILLIAM J. THOMS, Sec.
CHS. PURTON COOPER.
THOS. STAPLETON.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.
PETER LEVESQUE.
THOS. J. PETTIGREW.
JOHN BRUCE.
BERIAH BOTFIELD.
BOLTON CORNEY.
_25. Parliament Street, Westminster,_
_13 April, 1848._"
As the Archbishop stated his inability to afford any relief, THE CAMDEN
SOCIETY availed themselves of the appointment of the Commission to inquire
into the Law and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical and other Courts in
relation to Matters Testamentary, to address to those Commissioners, in the
month of January, 1853, a Memorial, of which the following is a copy:
"To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Commissioners appointed by
Her Majesty to inquire into the Law and Jurisdiction of the
Ecclesiastical and other Courts in relation to Matters Testamentary.
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"We, the undersigned, being the President and Council of the Camden
Society, for the Publication of Early Historical and Literary Remains,
beg to submit to your consideration a copy of a Memorial presented on
the 13th April, 1848, by the President and then Council of this
Society, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, praying that such
changes might be made in the regulations of the Prerogative Office as
might assimilate its practice to that of the Public Record Office, so
far as regards the inspection of the books of entry of ancient Wills,
or that such other remedy might be applied to the inconveniences stated
in that Memorial as to his Grace might seem fit.
"In reply to that Memorial his Grace was pleased to inform the
Memorialists that he had no control whatever over the fees taken in the
Prerogative Office.
"The Memorialists had not adopted the course of applying to his Grace
the Archbishop until they had in vain endeavoured to obtain from the
authorities of the Prerogative Office, Messrs. Dyneley, Iggulden, and
Gostling, some modification of their rules in favour of literary
inquirers. The answer of his Grace the Archbishop left them, therefore
without present remedy.
"The grievance complained of continues entirely unaltered up to the
present time.
"In all other public repositories to which in the course of our
inquiries we have had occasion to apply, we have found a general and
predominant feeling of the national importance of the cultivation of
literature, and especially of that branch of it which relates to the
past history of our own country. Every one seems heartily willing to
promote historical inquiries. The Public Record Offices are now opened
to persons engaged in literary pursuits by arrangements of the most
satisfactory and liberal character. His Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury gives permission to literary men to search such of the early
registers of his See as are in his own possession at Lambeth. Access is
given to the registers of the Bishop of London; and throughout the
kingdom private persons having in their possession historical documents
are almost without exception not only willing but anxious to assist our
inquiries. The authorities of the Prerogative Office in Doctors'
Commons, perhaps, stand alone in their total want of sympathy with
literature, and in their exclusion of literary inquirers by stringent
rules, harshly, and in some instances even offensively, enforced.
"We have the honour to be,
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"Your most obedient and very humble servants,
(Signed) BRAYBROOKE, President.
JOHN BRUCE, Director.
C. PURTON COOPER.
J. PAYNE COLLIER, Treas.
W. R. DRAKE.
EDWD. FOSS.
PETER LEVESQUE.
STRANGFORD.
W. H. BLAAUW.
W. DURRANT COOPER.
BOLTON CORNEY.
HENRY ELLIS.
LAMBERT B. LARKING.
FREDK. OUVRY.
WM. J. THOMS, Sec.
_25. Parliament Street, Westminster,_
_January, 1853._"
A Report from that Commission has been laid before Parliament; and a Bill
for carrying into effect the recommendations contained in such Report, and
transferring the powers of the Prerogative Court to the Court of Chancery,
has been introduced into the House of Lords. The Bill contains no specific
enactments as to the custody of the Wills.
Now, therefore, is the time for all who are interested in Historical Truth
to use their best endeavours to procure the insertion of such clauses as
shall place the Wills under the same custody as the other Judicial Records
of the country, namely, that of Her Majesty's Keeper of Records.
With Literature represented in the House of Lords by a Brougham and a
Campbell, in the Commons by a Macaulay, a Bulwer, and a D'Israeli, let but
the real state of the case be once made public, and we have no fear but
that the interests of English Historical Literature will be cared for and
maintained.
* * * * *
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Notes.
"J. R. OF CORK."
My gifted and lamented countryman "The Roscoe of Cork"[1] deserves more
notice in these pages, which he has enriched by his contributions, than the
handsome obituary of our Editor (Vol. vii., p. 394.); so a few words is
with reference to him may be acceptable.
MR. JAMES ROCHE was born in Limerick some eighty-three years ago, of an
ancient and wealthy family. At an early period of his life he was sent to
France, and educated in the Catholic College of Saintes. After completing
his studies, and paying a short visit to Ireland, he settled in Bordeaux,
where he became acquainted with the most distinguished leaders of the
Girondists.
MR. ROCHE was in Paris during the horrors of the first Revolution, and in
1793 was arrested there as a British subject, but was released on the death
of Robespierre. For some years after his liberation, he passed his time
between Paris and Bordeaux. At the close of the last century, he returned
to Ireland; and commenced business in Cork as a banker, in partnership with
his brother. He resided in a handsome country seat near the river Lee, and
there amassed a splendid library.
About the year 1816, a relative of mine, a wealthy banker in the same city,
got into difficulties, and met with the kindest assistance from MR. ROCHE.
In 1819 his own troubles came on, and a monetary crisis ruined him as well
as many others. All his property was sold, and his books were brought to
the hammer, excepting a few with which his creditors presented him. I have
often tried, but without success, to get a copy of the auction catalogue,
which contained many curious lots,--amongst others, I am informed, Swift's
own annotated copy of _Gulliver's Travels_, which MR. ROCHE purchased in
Cork for a few pence, but which produced pounds at the sale. MR. ROCHE,
after this, resided for some time in London as parliamentary agent. He also
spent several years in Paris, and witnessed the revolution of 1830.
Eventually he returned to Cork, where he performed the duties of a
magistrate and director of the National Bank, until his death in the early
part of 1853.
MR. ROCHE was intimately acquainted with many of the great men and events
of his time, especially with everything concerning modern French history
and literature.
MR. ROCHE was remarkable for accurate scholarship and extensive learning:
the affability of his manners, and the earnestly-religious tone of his
mind, enhanced his varied accomplishments.
For a number of years he contributed largely to various periodicals, such
as the _Gentleman's Magazine_, the _Dublin Review_, and the _Literary
Gazette_; and the signature of "J. R. of Cork" was welcome to all, while it
puzzled many.
In 1851 he printed _for private circulation_, _Essays Critical and
Miscellaneous_, by an Octogenarian, 2 vols.; printed by G. Nash, Cork. Some
of these Essays are reprints, others are printed for the first time. The
work was reviewed in the _Dublin Review_ for October, 1851.
A "Sketch of J. R. of Cork" was published in July, 1848, in Duffy's _Irish
Catholic Magazine_, which I have made use of in this Note. My object in the
present Note is to suggest that MR. ROCHE'S Reminiscences and Essays should
be given to the public, from whom I am well assured they would receive a
hearty welcome.