216 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 228. 



" The President and Council of the Camden Society 

 respectfully submit these circumstances to your Grace 

 with a full persuasion that nothing which relates to the 

 welfare of English historical literature can be unin- 

 teresting either to your Grace personally, or to the 

 Church over which you preside ; and they humbly 

 pray your Grace that such changes may be made in 

 the regulations of the Prerogative Office as may assi- 

 milate its practice to that of the Public Record Office, 

 so far as regards the inspection of the books of entry 

 of ancient wills, or that such other remedy may be 

 applied to the inconveniences now stated as to your 

 Grace may seem fit. 



"(Signed) Braybrooke, President. 



Thomas Amyot, Director. Thos. Stafleton. 



Henry Ellis. Wm. Durrant CoorER. 



J. Payne Collier, Treas. Peter Levesque. 



Harry Verney. Thos. J. Pettigrew. 



H. H. Milman. John Bruce. 



Joseph Hunter. Beriah Botfield. 



William J. Thoms, Sec. Bolton Cokney. 

 Chs. Purton Cooper. 



25. Parliament Street, Westminster, 

 13 April, 1848." 



As the Archbishop stated his inability to afford any 

 relief, The Camden Society availed themselves of the 

 appointment of the Commission to inquire into the 

 Law and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical and other 

 Courts in relation to Matters Testamentary, to address 

 to those Commissioners, in the month of January, 1 853, 

 a Memorial, of which the following is a copy : 



" To the Right Honourable and Honourable the 

 Commissioners appointed by Her Majesty to 

 inquire into the Law and Jurisdiction of the 

 Ecclesiastical and other Courts in relation to 

 Matters Testamentary. 



" My Lords and Gentlemen, 



" We, the undersigned, being the 'President and 

 Council of the Camden Society, for the Publication of 

 Early Historical and Literary Remains, beg to submit 

 to your consideration a copy of a Memorial presented 

 on the 13th April, 1848, by the President and then 

 Council of this Society, to his Grace the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, praying that such changes might be 

 made in the regulations of the Prerogative Office as 

 might assimilate its practice to that of the Public Re- 

 cord Office, so far as regards the inspection of the books 

 of entry of ancient Wills, or that such other remedy 

 might be applied to the inconveniences stated in that 

 Memorial as to his Grace might seem fit. 



" In reply to that Memorial his Grace was pleased 

 to inform the Memorialists that he had no control 

 whatever over the fees taken in the Prerogative Office. 



" The Memorialists had not adopted the course of 

 applying to his Grace the Archbishop until they had 

 in vain endeavoured to obtain from the authorities of 

 the Prerogative Office, Messrs. Dyneley, Iggulden, 

 and Gostling, some modification of their rules in favour 

 of literary inquirers. The answer of his Grace the 

 Archbishop left them, therefore, without present 

 remedy. 



" The grievance complained of continues entirely 

 unaltered up to the present time. 



" In all other public repositories to which in the 

 course of our inquiries we have had occasion to apply, 

 we have found a general and predominant feeling of 

 the national importance of the cultivation of literature, 

 and especially of that branch of it which relates to the 

 past history of our own country. Every one seems 

 heartily willing to promote historical inquiries. The 

 Public Record Offices are now opened to persons en- 

 gaged in literary pursuits by arrangements of the most 

 satisfactory and liberal character. His Grace the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury gives permission to literary men 

 to search such of the early registers of his See as are in 

 his own possession at Lambeth. Access is given to the 

 registers of the Bishop of London ; and throughout 

 the kingdom private persons having in their possession 

 historical documents are almost without exception not 

 only willing but anxious to assist our inquiries. The 

 authorities of the Prerogative Office in Doctors' Com- 

 mons, perhaps, stand alone in their total want of sym- 

 pathy with literature, and in their exclusion of literary 

 inquirers by stringent rules, harshly, and in some in- 

 stances even offensively, enforced. 



" We have the honour to be, 

 " My Lords and Gentlemen, 

 * Your most obedient and very humble servants, 

 (Signed) Braybrooke, President. 



John Bruce, Director. W. H. Blaauw. 



C. Purton Cooper. W. Durrant Cooper. 



J. Payne Collier, Treas. Bolton Corney. 



W. R. Drake. Henry Ellis. 



Edwd. Foss. Lambert B. Larking. 



Peter Levesque. Fredk. Ouvry. 



Strang ford. Wm. J. Thoms, Sec. 



25. Parliament Street, Westminster, 

 January, 1 853." 



A Report from that Commission has been laid before 

 Parliament ; and a Bill for carrying into effect the re- 

 commendations contained in such Report, and trans- 

 ferring the powers of the Prerogative Court to the 

 Court of Chancer}', has been introduced into the 

 House of Lords. The Bill contains no specific enact- 

 ments as to the custody of the Wills. 



Now, therefore, is the time for all who are interested 

 in Historical Truth to use their best endeavours to pro- 

 cure the insertion of such clauses as shall place the Wills 

 under the same custody as the other Judicial Records 

 of the country, namely, that of Her Majesty's Keeper 

 of Records. 



With Literature represented in the House of Lords 

 by a Brougham and a Campbell, in the Commons by 

 a Macaulay, a Bulwer, and a DTsraeli, let but the 

 real state of the case be once made public, and we have 

 no fear but that the interests of English Historical Li- 

 terature will be cared for and maintained. 



