The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-16

Sessions, Southwark Sessions, pre-
sensations from the borough of South
wark, documents relating to the poll
tax, papers dealing with ward assess
ments Of 1850, a large quantity Of or
iginal documents submitted to the
courts of aldermen, and q great num-
Der Of corporation. books, including
nine draft, minute books of committee
and curtis of the corporation. In u
large iron chest Wer found, il a state
of disorder, bundles of deeds, copies of
wills n marriage settlements, many
OF the former being apparently the title
deeds OF property purchased by the
corporation. These We're not listed IN
any of the preserved records, and the
report of the investigators stated en-
phatically that the foregoing ~evinces
so much. laXity in the preservation of
these valuable documents that we feel
1t our duty to call attention to the
state of. affairs" .........
Even since that time comparative
ly little has been done to preserve and
decipher the papers. In the chamber
.lain's department the condition of at
fairs was even worse. A room be-
meath the loggfa leading from the
.Guildhall to the reading-room was full
of other papers, some, in sacks, a few
in ,boxes,and many. lying loosely on
the. floor. The walls were damp, and
a large number of the documents were
damaged by water; others were mil
deWed and Verminous. Many import
ant documents were entirely destroy
ed. Some were so rotten that they
could not be handled. The writing on.
a number was entirely o~bliterated,
The room was dirty and o~vercrowded.
In twenty-five sacks were found mis-
c"ellaneous papers said to have been
saved from a fire which destroyed a
0h n - haT~ IN I 700 r,,-oIA-- 49,. $1,000
stuck together, so that 1t was impos-
sible to separate them. Among them
were printed briefs and letters from
the king authorizing. collections to be
made for certain purposes in clubs
and churches. Though. hundreds of
the papers were unimportant, hum
dreds were of historic interest, and a
number related to the, rebuilding of
London after the great fire of 1865.
There were orders Tor. the payment of
money for stalking out and clearing
the streets, for the rebuilding Of st.
Pauls and parish churches. On these
documents were found the autographs
of Sir Christopher Wren, the lord
mayor, the archbishop of Canterbury,
and the bishop Of London. .
More Fire and Plague Relics.
In other boxes were found accounts
for the lighting and paving of London
and interesting statements of the col
lections of money which were made
for the poor and the sufferers through
the great fire and the great plague.
Accounts relating to the rebuilding of
St. Paul's and royal and other enter
tainments were also found, but not a
single clue as to whether these inter-
esting documents were indexed in any
shape or form. -
Though DR.. Sharpe-has been engag-
ed fortabout' fifteen years in the iabori-
Gus task of chronicling a calendar of
letter books of the city Of London a
vast amount of work still remains to
be done. ( A resolution passed many
years ago by the common council that
these historic documents should be
rescued from oblivion" has never been
carried out in it's full meaning, and in
1907 only a third of the calendar of
the letter books had been completed.
In that year the court of common
council gave it's sanction for three
rolls of pleas which were much di1api-
dated to be mended, but added that
this was to be done "at a cost not ex-
oeeding E5." The volume Of
letter books are preserved among the
archives at the guild hall, and the
earlier volumes of the collection con
tain the chief. if not the only exist
ing, record of the proceedings of the
court OF mmo council before the
fifteenth century. On the fly leaf of
one of these in the sixteenth century
handwriting is the following illuma
mating passage:
Memoranda that this Boke was lost
and was lackyng of a long seasoun
until the With day of July in the
xxxijth yere of the reign Of Kyng
Henry the With, iSthat Robert Broke
coen' seriaunte espied out the seid
Boke and caused 1t to be redemyd UNI
to the Chambre of London. etc, die ct
ammo predicts.
This particular volume had sfallen''
intosthe hands of a gentleman" who
was a friend of the common ~serieant.
and on July j, 1910, the latter was told
to make an offer of EOS for the books
surrender. Scarcely a week later the
common serjeant brought the volume
into. court, and solemnly ii that
body that he had spent all the money
in tracing the books and had gained
no benefit therefrom, but now would
return the book to its proper place.
If, as DR.. Sharpe suggests, there
ma be references to Shakespeare
buried in the mass of documents
which lie untouched and unexamined
1t will take many years at the present
rates of progress before such records
are found, and it is almost certain
that a representation will be made to
the city fathers SO that the help of
experts may be enlisted In the lone
and laborious search.
Al Director.
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