COLL ARCH

Reference code

COLL ARCH

Title

College Archives

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

The original statutes laid down strict rules for the preservation of the archives (statute 35) which were under the control of the bursars. The College had a considerable archive from the foundation, as it received the records of the alien priory estates with which it was endowed, and many of these were already 200 years old; some of the original wooden boxes survive though not the chests specified in the statute. A wall of drawers (as at Winchester College) seems to have been built in the Bursary, a drawer for each estate. In 1724 a summary catalogue or digest of the contents of these drawers was drawn up by 'Honest' Tom Martin but the archives were subsequently moved to the new College Library, while retaining the arrangement by estate. The historic records thus passed from the bursars' control and by the 19th century were in some disarray - in 1859 Provost Hawtrey refers to a 'more than Egyptian darkness' confronting the user. Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte reported on them for the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1883 but his list was not exhaustive, and while it is clear that some provosts and bursars (especially Provost Goodall and George Bethell) took an interest it was not until 1908 that J.P. Gilson of the British Library was employed to start the cataloguing. He began with the Eton and Windsor deeds but the project was abandoned in 1914. In 1939 Noel Blakiston of the British Museum, an Old Etonian, began the series of catalogues of the drawer contents still used today. He continued in this task until 1973. Patrick Strong, the first professional archivist, was appointed in 1966.

Date

17th - 20th century

Content description

The papers listed here are old lists (including Martin's Digest, whose annotations show it was still in use in the 20th century), and notes on the records and on Eton material housed elsewhere. Many documents are clearly rough notes or drafts