Welsh Journals

RADNORSHIRE RECORDS. Notes on some original historical sources. TN the 17th and 18th centuries, when historical writers first turned their attention seriously to writing the histories and topographies of their native towns and shires, the original records and manuscripts were difficult of access, many of them being in private collections up and down the land. Many such records are still in the hands of private owners, but during the last century all state papers have been in the control of the Master of the Rolls, while in 1869 the Historical Manuscripts Commission was established to make known the place and contents of collections of manuscripts with the result that there is to-day a mass of material available for research. If this material had been available to earlier historical writers we would not be faced with so many irritating gaps such as we find even in such monumental works as Rev. Jonathan Williams's History of Radnorshire." By far the most fruitful source of historical material is the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. Here are collected under one roof many documents of national importance ranging from Anglo-Saxon charters to modern diplomatic correspondence. It has been estimated that the Record Office contains at least 40,000,000 documents, many of which have been calendared, and some printed, in abstract or in full. The Public Records fall roughly into three main divisions, Chancery, Exchequer, and Judicial. Of the Chancery Records, the most important are Patent, Close. Charter, Liberate, Fine, Parliament and Statute Rolls, Inquisitions and Chancery Warrants. Patent Rolls were delivered open, with the great seal affixed, and were addressed to all the king's subjects. They contain grants of land, offices and privileges, creations of peerages, charters. They commence in the early 13th century and have been fully calendared down to the early years of the reign of Elizabeth.