An Elizabethan in Andover

In 1582, Peter Blake of Kings Enham was left tenements and lands in Andover at the death of his father, William Blake. The properties were bequeathed to him along with the direction to give out of the rents a yearly sum to the poor 'thereof yearly as I have done before thee, 7d in each pound at the least.'

The illustrated document is a rent roll - Hampshire Record Office reference 30M64/1 - listing Peter Blake's tenants and the rents due to him. With its illuminated parts including a view of Andover, decorated borders and coats of arms this is no ordinary rent roll. The text explains why it was drawn up; to show the world that Peter Blake was honouring his father's wishes.

The Rentroll of Peter Blake of Kings Enham, gent., of his lands and tenements in Andover in the County of Southampton left him by the will of his father W[illiam] B[lake] deceased 1582

I thank God for the deade, by whom theis weare bequeathed
And pray you for him by whom the same were also assuered
And do evermore as he requireth accordinge as herein insceweth

First to use the tenants frendly
if ought hath passed before hardly
Giving to the poor thereof yearley
as I have done before thee
7d in each pounde at the least
a little hath allwaies some taste
which out of theis sums will
never make great waste.

Remembering always what Matthew doth tell
a cheerful giver the lord loveth well

'Four Elizabethans in Andover' is the subject of a free lunchtime lecture in the Record Office cinema, 1.15pm-1.45pm on Thursday 30 July.

A winner of the Dissolution

The sale of property and lands following the Dissolution of the monasteries represented a bonanza for the landowners of England in the few years between 1536 and 1539. In Hampshire, Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later Earl of Southampton, was the major beneficiary, acquiring lands including the sites of both Titchfield Abbey and Beaulieu Abbey. He fashioned his country mansion from the shell of Titchfield Abbey for a fraction of the cost of building a new one.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office TOP313/2/33 - is an engraving described as the 'East View of Tychfield Abbey in Hampshire.' It shows the new gatehouse inserted into the nave of the church.

'Recycling the monastic buildings: Titchfield Abbey, Hyde Abbey and beyond,' is the subject of a free lunchtime lecture in the Record Office cinema, 1.15pm-1.45pm on Thursday 25 June.

A pamphlet, The Dissolution of the Monasteries in Hampshire, is available for purchase online.

Handel anniversary

When the German-born composer George Handel died 250 years ago on 14 April 1759 at Westminster, he had been settled in England for over 40 years.  He was a close friend of leading patron of the arts James Harris (1709-80). James’s son became the 1st Earl of Malmesbury, and it was among the extensive papers of the Earls of Malmesbury, with their fine series of literary and political correspondence, that a Handel autograph was discovered.

The autograph - Hampshire Record Office - 9M73/703 - is a rough, undated sheet of music improvised by Handel at the home of the Shaftesbury family, Wimborne St Giles, and ‘afterwards by desire of the company writt down in his own handwriting’.

A Hampshire Treasure

Along with documents and books relating to Hampshire and its people, we also hold a few other treasures which have a deep connection to records and their creation.

One such is the three-part seal matrix of Southwick Priory, made in around 1258 - Hampshire Record Office reference 153M88/1. It was pressed into wax to create the seal and attached to all official documents issued by the Priory and has been described as ‘the most complex surviving matrix of its kind’.

The seal matrix and sample seal is on display as part of the Hampshire's Treasures exhibition at Winchester Discovery Centre until 10 May 2009.

A Policeman's lot...

When police forces were set up in boroughs from 1835 under watch committees, their main purpose was to act against any disturbance of the peace. The Swing Riots of 1830 had caught the authorities by surprise; a standing police force meant they would be able to act much more quickly if such a thing happened again.

The illustrated documents - Hampshire Record Office reference 8M62/25 - are several pages from a policeman's notebook diary of 1856. The owner of the notebook is not known, though the internal evidence clearly points to a Basingstoke policeman. The diary contains notes on his daily, mundane work - speaking to householders about their polluting habits or conveying prisoners - but also snippets of excitement, such as apprehending a robber with help from the telegraph system.

A surgeon in Alton

Over the many years of its existence, the Diocese of Winchester has created a wealth of records relating to a variety of subjects. One of its lesser-known functions was the licensing of physicians and surgeons. Surviving records are for the late-17th to mid-18th centuries.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office reference 21M65/E13/2/6 - is a 1693 testimonial signed by three men of standing as to the suitability of Thomas Anker of Alton to practise as a surgeon. The testimonial includes a list of people helped and includes one man whose thumb was broken and cut off, but cured! Interestingly, surgery was then known as 'chirurgery' and a surgeon as 'a chirurgeon,' words which still survive in modern German.

On Thursday 26 February, 1.15pm-1.45pm, there is a free lecture in the Record Office cinema providing an introduction to the records of the Diocese of Winchester: Bishops, bell-ropes and a ballad

Wee whose Names are hereunto subscribed doe
hereby Certify that Thomas Anker of the Towne
and parish of Alton in the County of South[amp]ton and
Diocesse of Winchester is a parson very well
Experienced in the Art of Chirurgery and hath
donne Many Eminent Cures with good Successe
so that Wee Judge him fittly qualifyed to bee
Incouraged in the publicke practice thereof
Wittnesse oure hands this Eleaventh day of August
Anno do[m]in[i] 1693

Hen[ry] Butler, vicar
W[illia]m Bissell  )
W Knight              ) Cyrurgeons

And wee doe farther Certify
that the said Thomas Anker
is a p[er]son well afected to the
p[re]sent Gov[er]m[en]t and Conformable to
the Liturgy of the Church of England

Cured as Followeth

Katherine Burrow and a hundred moore
Jonathan Bushell’s little finger bone brooke and Cured
Geo[rge] Smith a peice of his finger Cutt and Cured
Mr Bowlings son was shott in the Eye
John Burrow Cured of an ulcer in his shoulder
Nich[olas] Mearch had his hand Cutt almost off and Cured
Robert Turner’s thumbe was broke and Cutt off and Cured
Daniell Netter Cutt in the Legge with an Axe and Cured
Tho[mas] Mearch had a swelling in his hand and Cured
Hen[ry] Hamond had  a Knife through his hand and Cured
Nicholas Eede had bene with sev[er]all Cyrurgeons and none would doe, but was Cured

A sketch of Fareham

Mercer and Crocker's Hampshire Directory of 1871 describes Fareham as a parish and market town, twelve miles south-east of Southampton. It is a station on the South Western Railway. The parish is situated on Fareham Creek, and includes the hamlets of North Fareham, Catisfield, Wallington and Funtley… The principal trades carried on are brick-making, pottery and tanning… There is a Philosophical Institute, a Bank, County Lunatic Asylum, Union Workhouse, Sessions House and two new forts'

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office reference 26M76/Z7 - is a copy of a watercolour showing the view from Mr Edwin Cawte's house onto West Street, Fareham. The original watercolour was made in 1881 by James Gray, an artist related to the Cawte family. According to the 1871 directory, Edwin Cawte was a butcher, living at 75 West Street.

First arrivals

Knowle, in the parish of Fareham, was selected as the site of the Hampshire County Asylum for Pauper Lunatics under the provisions of the Pauper Lunatics Act, 1845. However, it was not until 1852 that Knowle Hospital was ready for patients.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office reference 48M94/B6/1/1 - is a list of the first patients to arrive at the new hospital. Each patient was given a number upon admission and William Wrapson, who arrived along with 5 other men on 13 December 1852, was assigned admission Number 1. These first patients were chargeable to Fareham Poor Law Union and over the following months each of the other Poor Law unions in Hampshire sent patients to Knowle. Most had been previously accommodated in the asylum at Grove Place, near Southampton, which closed down just a couple of years later.

A lost generation

The loss of so many men during World War One meant that spinsterhood became a reality for an army of women. The ageing spinster had always been looked on with scorn by society; the typical image being a plain, shrewish woman with few charms. In the early years of the war, when our document of the month was produced, that image was still intact. After the war, when its full cost could be counted, the image of the spinster became overlaid with tragedy.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office reference 73M83/3f - is one of a large collection of postcards collected throughout the life of Laura Jane Boxall.

Come along to Our Last Thursday Lecture, 'Their Name Liveth For Evermore' on Thursday 27 November, 1.15pm-1.45pm. Free, in Record Office cinema.

Travels in Egypt

When Edgar Bonham Carter visited Egypt in 1899, it was to work on preparing law codes for the Sudan. Although busy, he was still able to visit ancient sites such as Heliopolis, now buried beneath a Cairo suburb, and Giza.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office 38M49/G4/2/9 - is a postcard to his parents in Petersfield describing a visit to the Pyramids in Nov 1899.

I came out here eight miles from Cairo at the foot of the Great Pyramid for a change and to see the Pyramids. Shall return Monday. As the post leaves here tonight I again find myself without time to write a letter. Have been up to the top of the Pyramid this afternoon. As I drove out here on Friday I passed Charlie [Bonham-Carter] with mounted infantry returning. Have been slightly seedy but am now well.

Visit 'Out of Egypt', an exhibition of diaries, letters and artefacts brought back from Egypt, from 11 October to 16 November in the City Space at Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street

Life in a debtor's prison

With little chance of release until debts were paid, the experience of prison for debtors was a truly miserable affair. One such sufferer, a clockmaker by the name of Joseph Shelley, was imprisoned in the Westgate, Winchester in August 1727.

The illustrated document - Hampshire Record Office W/K5/8 page 99 - is his petition for release. It gives a vivid description of what it was like to languish in gaol, with no bed or clothes on his back and having to beg for scraps from those passing by. The document is a chance survival, rescued by W H Jacob, the Winchester Councillor and antiquarian, who pasted it into one of his scrapbooks. Luckily for Shelley the petition must have had some effect as it appears from the court records that by October he had been released.

To This Honorable Bentch
The Humble Petichon of Joseph Shelley Clockmaker now Prisner in the Citty hole of Westgate

Humbley Beggs Leave to lay befor your Worshipps the Miserey and hardship that I now undergoe in the said hole of Westgate and have Endured this for above too months parste…

Humbley sheweth that your Petictener has nothing left in the world to suporte Him Nor that your Petictener has not a frend that is able to helpe him, and your Petichoner has solde that small mater which he Had to suporte him, all Exsept too peases of Clockwork Unfinished, which I Humbley begg that your worshipps will be pleased to Grante me liberty, of having my tools Broate into the Gate, that I may finish the to peases of work when sold will Raise as mutch money as I am now Confined for, Your Petichoner Hubley beg that you will be pleased to Consider the Hard Shipp which I Laber under for I have no Bead to lay on & nor has my Close bin of my Back for 59 nites, and what is yet wors, I have Neither Money no Vitells to Eate, Nor Can I Gitt a dropp of water butt what I am forsed to beg of Som Bodey that Pases by, for I have Nott seen aney of the Sargants this six weakes Nor Can I Git Somutch as a Quarte botel into the Prison this I beg you will be please to Consider, for without Some timely Release I must of nesety Perish And in duty bound shall for Ever pray for You.

Digging for victory

During the Second World War, restrictions on imported food supplies meant the public were encouraged to look to their gardens and grow their own food as much as possible. The Dig for Victory campaign offered useful advice on the best way of doing this and also about the nutritional value of vegetables. Not surprisingly, the national diet improved during these years.

The illustrated document is a poster from a district council file relating to the Dig for Victory campaign - Hampshire Record Office reference 29M75/DBC20. It is part of our free exhibition 'Digging in the Archives,' on show in Hampshire Record Office reception from 4 August to 31 October, which examines horticulture through the ages and features artwork inspired by the archives.