162 
Records of the Borough of Chesterfiely.* 
are due to Mr. Alderman Gee, Mayor of Chesterfield, 
-. for the spirit and enterprise that he has shown in caus- 
ing the publication, at his own expense, of all that remains of the 
records of the ancient Borough of Chesterfield. Publication is the 
chief conservative source that we possess in the preservation of our 
old muniments. When it is known that an intelligent public have 
before them printed lists or transcripts of archives, the consciences 
of Chapter Clerks, Town Clerks, and other responsible officials, 
will be considerably quickened. 
It is most melancholy to note the shameless carelessness that has 
characterised the custody of the Chesterfield archives during the 
past one hundred years. In 1789, that celebrated local antiquary, 
Dr. Pegge, drew up a schedule of the evidences, charters, etc., 
that were then in the Chesterfield Corporation chest. This list 
is bound up with Dr. Pegge’s MS. Derbyshire Collections, which 
he bequeathed to the College of Arms. It is printed in full in 
this volume. Mr. John Cutts, for so many years Town Clerk of 
Chesterfield, soon after his appointment, did a most practical and 
serviceable work in printing a list of ‘‘all charters, deeds, books, 
books of account, and all documents and effects belonging to the 
Corporation of Chesterfield.” This list was printed in 1857. 
Since that date nothing has been lost. Would that Dr. Pegge had 
* “Records of the Borough of Chesterfield ;” being a series of extracts 
from the Archives of the Corporation of Chesterfield, collected by G. Pym 
Yeatman, Esq., of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law. Chesterfield : Wilfred 
Edmunds. 
