Welsh Journals

Caernarvon Borough Records.* By GLYN ROBERTS, M.A. WHEN I was first invited to address the Society on a subject connected with the Caernarvon Borough Records, I approached the task with undue optimism. Some familiarity with the records encouraged the belief that it might be possible to deal with them in a way which would fit your aims and interests. Even if a bibliographical account was out of the question, I could at least examine, with particular reference to the records, the factors which have affected the preservation or destruction of local records in general. A great legal historian once said that losses of records may happen in various ways by wilful destruction, accident, decay or irregular removal from the proper custody. Destruction may be the work of the king's enemies, of rioters or of the custodians themselves."1 The student of local records knows that this grim and comprehensive catalogue does not exaggerate the dangers to which they have been subject, and authenticated examples of destruction are only too common. But it soon became apparent that the Caernarvon borough records have no history, and that it was not easy to adduce chapter and verse to prove the operation of the calamities enumerated. At the same time, the history of the town itself is full of incidents which must have affected the records, and certain tentative suggestions may be based upon them. I can only apologise in advance for the inevitable absence of specific detail and the consequent vagueness of the conclusions. Certain limitations in the scope of this inquiry must be emphasised at the outset. From the very nature of its original establishment as a royal borough, a great deal of An Address given at the Annual Meeting, August, 1935. 1 Sir F. Pollock, The Use of Local Records (Cymmrodorion Trans- actions, 1914-15, p. 13).