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The 200 Year Old Time Capsule

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Feb 24, 2010

The story of how archives have survived can be almost as interesting as the documents themselves; but not quite. Last year a furniture restorer in Sussex sent some papers of the Hazland family of Woodborough which he found in a drawer in an antique chest that he was working on. We recently received a document written in 1804 that had been found in a wall in a cottage in Tetbury, Glos, in 1949. This find was of particular interest because it illustrates the social structure the parish of Charlton near Malmesbury around the time that Nelson was killed at Trafalgar. The Schedule
The Schedule

It is a schedule of Assessed Taxes which included duties on houses, windows, carriages and servants. 93 people, of whom 52 are described as poor, are listed with their occupation or status. The completeness of the picture is confirmed by the 1801 census (for which no personal details were kept), which counted 88 families. The document suffered somewhat by its immuration, and subsequent treatment with adhesive tape, but the paper of the time, made from rags as opposed to wood pulp, is very durable and only one name is lost. 

By a strange coincidence a few weeks after this document was deposited we received a similar for Tisbury, dated 1825, which was found in a wall space in a house in the village, lived in by one of the assessors. It seems that filing away tax returns was taken to rather extreme lengths...

 


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500th Anniversary of Henry VIII

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Apr 7, 2009

2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Henry VIII. The future king was the second son of Henry VII, born at Greenwich on 28 June 1491. He acceded to the throne on 21 April 1509, following his father’s death. Henry’s reign saw the dissolution of the monasteries and the establishment of the Church of England, as well as wars against France and Scotland. However, he is perhaps most famous for his private life – school children down the ages have learnt the little rhyme “Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived” to try to remember the fate of Henry’s six wives.  
Deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII 
Deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
    
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre holds several documents relating to Henry’s third marriage to Jane Seymour. Henry became engaged to Jane, who was already his mistress, a mere one day after the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn on 19 May 1536. Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wolfhall in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire: the couple were married there on 30 May 1536. Henry gave his new queen a large number of estates and manors by way of a settlement. These three documents, (see above image), from the archives of the duke of Somerset in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, are the title deeds to the properties.
Close up of deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
Close up of deeds of properties given to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII
Although they lack their seals, which have been detached and lost, they each have a portrait of Henry and lavishly decorated initial lines. In 1537 Jane died in childbirth, giving birth to Henry’s only son, who later became King Edward VI. It is widely accepted that Jane was Henry’s favourite wife - after her death the court went into an extended period of mourning, and Henry was buried next to her after his own death in 1547. 


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