Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (Volume 10, PT. 6) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... THE MANUSCRIPTS OF LORD BRAYE, AT STANFORD HALL, RUGBY. Lord Beate's The manuscripts mentioned in the following pages have been found at different times within the last few years stowed away in no order in one of the lumber rooms at Stanford Hall. Since the date of my first visit to his house, Lord Braye has caused many of them to be arranged and bound in volumes. The collection may be said to consist of four parts, the Browne MSS., the Cave MSS., the Peck MSS., and the Stuart MSS., although this arrangement has not been observed in the calendar. The Browne MSS. belonged formerly to John Browne, of Twickenham and of Eydou, co. Northampton, who was clerk of the Parliament during a great part of the seventeenth century. For some unknown reason, he retained for himself and his descendants a certain number of the official documents that passed through his hands, instead of depositing them among the archives of the House of Lords. Many of them were indeed transcribed by him into the Journals of that assembly, which have since been printed, but some interest attaches to the autographs. At Stanford are preserved various depositions and examinations with regard to the Earl of Strafford, Lord Digby's anonymous letter to Sir Lewis Dyves, which was produced as evidence against him, Sir John Hotham's letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons, concerning the King's attempt to enter Hull, the original of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the intercepted letter from the young Duke of York making arrangements for an escape from England, and various drafts and memoranda in the hands of Littletou, Williams, Pym, and other Parliamentary leaders of the time of Charles I. Many of the documents, however, have not been entered in the Lord's Journals, or otherwise printe...