The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-06
ANCIENT RECORDS
MAY Be IN VAULTS
Shakespearean Papers May
Be in Guildhall, London
SYSTEMATIC SEARCH
DIR. Sharp Wants to Ransack DEPOSIT
tories in London for Old Docu-
ments, Many of Which Are
Believed to Be Valuable

/ ttHlSs HAdbf VI A@~f-
Believed to Be Valuable
| From the London Standard.
The possibility of Sni.:.espeare records
being among the large quantity of Hn-
examined documents in the vaults of the
Guildhall. as stated by Dr. Sharpe, be
fore the Royal Commission on PUBIC
Records has aroused keen and wide
spread interest Dr. Sharpe, as records
clerk 10 the city corporation, has been
| engaged for many years decipherins an
cient records of the city, and has alfeaay
ruhlisherd. ander the erection OF Inc
authorities, a number OF volumes bearing
on the research already made and the
important discoveries found in the
archives of the Guildhal The doc',-
| ments which lie untouched in the city
records office are very valuable but un-
less some attempt is made to rescue them
ii is probable that some will be lost en-
tirely. Professor Wallace is anxious that
systematic search be made and the
corporation will, 1t is expected, be APP
preached in the near future in the nope
that some more light will be thrown on
the life of Shakespeare.
! responsible official told one of our
| representatives on Saturday that 1t was
| only last year that a new Charter closet
| had been finished for the holding OF tue
| ancient charters, many of which bore the
| Signatures of historical personages, out
were in an extremely dilapidated condl-
ton Even after the new chambers
| were built he said, 1t was found th2t
| the temperature of the strong room in
| the town clerks department was OFTEN TOO
| high. and damage wns caused TO the
| bindings of the volumes We have also
| been collecting parish records from all
| the churches and old public buildings
where such existed. They were brought
| here in cart loads and were in such 2
J state that dsinfectants had to be used
before they could be handled. Many OF
these records related to the great plague
of London, and were written about that
| time in beautiful handwriting. These
have not been indexed or catalogued yet,
and it will take many years before the
| work is accomplished.
1t is not surprising to learn that many
documents have been irretrievably lost,
| for it is only now that the record office
| at the Guildhall Is beginning to see a
way out of the unutterable chaos which
/
tury ago. So late as the year 1859 the
| library committee sent resolution tc
| the court of common council pointing out
| the danger which overshadowed the val
liable papers buried In the vaults. The
appeal emphasized the fact that there
are among the records of the corpora
/ ton in the custody of the town clerh
manuscripts of great historical interest,"
and importance which 1t is desirable
should be rescued from the oblivion tt
| which they are at present consigned.
An Inventory of Treasures
| An inventory of the treasures was de
termined on and the result showed tina
even where charters. had been translated
the interpretations were in many in
stances wrong, and in other cases m
trace of the original documents was to b
found. The record room was a vaulte'
chamber beneath the council apartment
and when an examination was made th'
,results somewhat appalled, the investiga
tors. Vast quantities of original paper
and documents relating to the mayor
court proceedings under writs of dover
ETC., were lying rotting in damp corners
Papers bearing royal signatures were full
of vermin, and lay huddled among others
mildewed and decaying. There were sew
eral hundred rolls of inventories of or
lphans' effects, Old Bailey sessions, Lon
ldon sessions. Southwark sessions, pres
entations from the borough of Southwark
documents relating to the poll tax, pa
pers dealing with ward assessments OF
1860, large quantity OF original docu-
ments submitted to the courts of alder
men, and a great number of corporation
books, including nine draft minute books
of committees and courts of the corpora
ton. In a. large iron chest were found
in a state of disorder, bundles of deeds
copies of wills and marriage settlements
| many of the former being apparently the
title deeds of property purchased by tho
corporation. These were not listed In any
/ of the preserved records. and the report
of the investigators stated emphatically
that "the foregoing evinces SO mucf
llaxity in the preservation of these val
liable documents that we feel 1t our duty
to call attention to the state of affairs. y
Even since that time comparatively lit
/ tie has been done to preserve and de-
cipher the papers. In the chamberlain S
/ department the condition of affairs was
| even worse. A room beneath the loggia
| 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 large number of the docu-
ments were damaged by water; others
were mildewed and verminous. Many i'm
portant documents were entirely de-
strOyed. Some were SO rotten that they
could not be handled The writing on a
number was entirely obliterated. The
| room was dirty and overcrowded In "a
sacks were found miscellaneous papers
said to have been saved from fire which
/ destroyed a chamber I'm 1885, numbers
| We're found stuck together, SO that 1t was
impossible 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 were of his
torfc interest. and a member related to
the rebuilding of London after the great
fire of 1866. There were orders for the
payment of money for stalking out and
clearing the streets. for the rebuilding
of st. Paul's and parish churches. On
these documents were found the auto
! graphs of Sir Christopher Wren, the
lord mayor, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, and The Bishop of London
In other boxes were found accounts