18 
an entire history of it, had not upon some disgust prohibited 
the publication. The original 1 manuscript is now in possession 
of Thomas Fairfax of Menston, Esquire.” 
There is a most unaccountable error concerning this collec¬ 
tion in Memoirs of the Proctectoral House of Cromwell. It is 
there stated that Sir Thomas Widdrington published his 
Analecta Eboracensia in 1660. 2 3 
Analecta Eboracensia represents the first known attempt to 
preserve the memory of the historic events of the Northern 
Capital, and was completed nearly a century before Francis 
Drake, the great historian of York, published his Eboracum. 8 
Thomas Widdrington was a barrister of Gray’s Inn, Holborn, 4 
his coat of arms being preserved in one of the compartments 
of the bay window of the Hall there. 5 * He was Recorder of 
York during the reign of the unfortunate Charles I and the 
Commonwealth, and represented that constituency in Parlia¬ 
ment in 1654, 1656, and 1660. 
He spent some years in collecting and arranging materials 
for his local history, and offered to the Mayor and Corporation, 
that in publishing the book, he would be pleased to dedicate 
it to the “ Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, Common Council, and 
Citizens.” It was generally felt that a man occupying a 
position so high and influential as that held by Sir Thomas 
might have attempted something of a more material character 
for the advancement of the city, such as obtaining an Act of 
Parliament for the improvement of the navigation of the Ouse, 
etc. Nor can it be said that the people, greatly reduced as 
they were in resources by the events of the recent Civil War, 
1 Drake speaks of the Menston MS. as a copy. In Anecdotes of British 
Topography (1768). p. 547, and Gough. British Topography (1780), p. 418, the same 
statement appears. 
2 Noble. M.. Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell (pub. 1787), vol. i, 
p. 428. 
3 Drake’s work appeared in 1736. 
4 He was admitted in 1618, and his elections were as follows :—Barrister 
16— ; Ancient 1639 : Bencher 1639 ; Lent Reader 1640 ; Serjeant 1641. 
5 These arms are figured in Dugdale’s Origs. Jurid., p. 303, being copied 
from the window at Gray’s Inn. 
