Dr. Sarah Demelo was assisting a researcher when she came across a handwritten letter pasted in a book. The letter was written by Sir Thomas Fairfax, Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentarians during the english civil wars. What is it like to discover such a document amongst the millions of items housed in the UK’s network of ‘special collections’?
The University of Essex Special Collection lives within its own microclimate where the temperature is kept rigidly between 18C and 20C (64F to 68F) and the humidity level between 40% and 60%.
Within its collection of between 20,000 and 30,000 items is an 18th-century copy of Philip Morant’s The History and Antiquities of Colchester.
In the summer of 2020, Dr. Demelo, director of special collections at the university’s Albert Sloman Library, opened the book to help a visiting researcher.
“I had an appointment to do research on Dutch refugees in the 17th century in Colchester,” said Dr Demelo. “I was helping him with his research and I looked at Philip Morant’s History of Colchester, which is a well-known book on the area, and I was flipping through the pages and I came across a letter that appeared to be in the hand of General Sir Thomas Fairfax .
“I saw it and because we have quite a bit of Siege of Colchester source material I know quite a bit about it so when I saw it I squealed and had a little bit of a moment but then there are a lot of questions.” .”
The authenticity of the letter, addressed to a wealthy justice of the peace named George Walton, who lived in Great Burstead in Essex, has now been established.
“It took a bit of verification and we found out that it was indeed signed by him and it has his seal and it is dated 1648,” said Dr. Demelo.
“The charter was essentially a pass given to wealthy gentlemen during the Second Civil War that allowed them to travel ‘unmolested’ by the New Model Army of Parliamentarians.
“In this case, Mr. Walton could keep his horse and his possessions.”
In return, Mr. Walton would have sworn allegiance to Oliver Cromwell and possibly made a payment to the Parliamentary cause.
“No one had seen that letter,” Dr. Demelo said.
“I spoke to my predecessor here of 30 years and he hadn’t seen it and when I spoke to the Essex Historical and Archeology Society, which owns the collection this book is part of, they said ‘Oh, we’d heard rumors about that, but we had completely forgotten about it.
The Siege of Colchester would last 11 weeks.
“You know from the Fairfax letter in February 1648 that four or five months later the siege of Colchester happens and it was a terrible time and people starved to death,” said Dr Demelo.
The letter was one of several items that the original owners of the book had pasted into the Siege of Colchester section of the volume.
“You come across a lot of articles hidden in books,” said Dr. Demelo. “You often find personal notes, inscriptions, notes to others, notes to oneself and it’s fascinating because you can see the person behind the book.
“Part of our duty in the archives and special collections is to be guardians and make sure that books, works of art and everything [are kept safe] so that something that is 400 years old can be seen in another 400 years”.
While the Fairfax find might be the most exciting letter in the university’s collection, it’s not the most poignant.
Dr. Demelo said that praise could well go to a letter written by TE Lawrence.
“We have a series of letters between Jim Ede, former Tate curator and founder of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, with TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.
“It was a correspondence that went on for several years in the early 1930s and one of the last letters we have from Lawrence to Ede was dated May 5, 1935.
“In it he talks about the new bike he bought and how it ‘goes like it sucks’ and that it was a luxury.”
In the letter, Lawrence speaks of his delight at owning the Brough, which he says is “an altogether wonderful machine” and compares it to a Rolls-Royce car.
“Within a month he would have an accident on that motorcycle and it would take his life,” Dr. Demelo said.
“To have that foresight in looking at some of this material, you see the person behind it, from the tragedy to the happiness, all those things that make humanity what it is, really.”
One of the most unusual parts of the collection is the five separate copies of the Malleus Maleficarum that belonged to the same man, a baker’s son who rose through the ranks of the church to become Archbishop of York.
Born in Colchester in 1561, Samuel Harsnett built up an extensive and varied library, many of which were theological titles.
“But he also looked at witchcraft, demonology,” Dr. Demelo said, “and he had five copies of the Malleus Maleficarum, originally written by Heinrich Kramer.
“The versions we have are by Jacob Sprenger, so the copies we have are from the mid-16th century.
“One of the things with special collections is that what might seem like a simple little book could be incredibly dangerous.
“What was written in it was used to justify the murder and torture of countless men and women just because they thought differently. Basically, it was a schematic of how to torture to get a confession. Some of it was extraordinary.”
“There’s a section that describes what to do if a witch takes your penis and, yes, we could look back and laugh out loud, but this was serious business, and people died because of these books and these ideas.”
Dr David Prosser, chief executive of Research Libraries UK, said the type of material found in special collections across the UK is “rich and varied”.
“What we have in the UK is this incredible network that stretches from the largest institutions like the British Library and the National Archives to the various special collections in our universities to local libraries and museums,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s the content of a particular article that’s important. Sometimes it’s the context that’s important. And other times it’s what’s hidden, like the Fairfax letter, that’s important.”
He said that a key area of work for those involved in special collections is outreach work in which various objects are brought into public spaces, such as schools.
“It helps bring the story to life,” he said.
However, those involved in caring for heritage held in libraries, he said, were concerned about how such collections would be protected.
“Preserving, managing and cataloging is a highly skilled job and while within the academic library community we feel very privileged to do what we do, we know that some areas are struggling in terms of funding,” he said.
“The fear is that some of the collections, especially at the local authority level, may not have the resources they need.
“The collections we have help us understand our past and see the path that has led us to the world we live in.
“Each item in our collections is further proof, a brick on that road.
“If we don’t properly care for these collections, or reduce our acquisition of contemporary material, we reduce that understanding, resulting in a diminished sense of who we are.”
Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk
Add Comment