Source:NRS catalogue entry RH5
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| NRS, RH5 | |
|---|---|
| Originally written in English 1189-1305 |
| National Records of Scotland catalogue | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1189-1305 |
| Title | List of Documents Transferred from Public Record Office, London |
| Reference | RH5 (link to catalog entry) |
| Repository | National Records of Scotland |
| Access status | Open |
| Location | Off site |
| Level | Fonds |
| Finding aids | Paper catalogue |
| Format | Text |
| Language | English |
| Archival history | This list gives details of medieval Scottish documents which have been transferred from the Public Record Office (The National Archives), London, to the National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh. These documents had presumably been taken to London by English officials during the period after 1296 when an English administration was operating in Scotland. (For details see E. L. G. Stones, 'Anglo-Scottish Relations, 1174-1328: Some Selected Documents' (1965), pp. 75-76.) The transfer of nine documents was authorised in 1937 by the Public Records (Scotland) Act, 1937, sec. 4 (see First Schedule for list of documents). These documents are listed below as RH5/1-9 (see dates 1189, 1194, 1218, 1245, 1251, 1281, 1282 and 1284). The remainder, listed as RH5/10-225, were transferred by authority of a Direction and Declaration of the Master of the Rolls dated 29 July 1948 (see '110th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records', pp. 16-21). (Certain post-medieval documents were also returned in 1948, but these have not been included in class RH5 and are not listed here.)
A small group of documents of Scottish interest was transferred to Edinburgh from the Chapter House, Westminister, at a much earlier date. Nine such documents are listed as RH5/226-230. It has so far proved impossible to discover why these documents were transferred or by whose authority. The documents RH5/227, 228 and 229 are preserved within sheets of foolscap which bear the handwriting of Thomas Thomson, Deputy Clerk Register of Scotland from 1806 to 1839, and the whole group may perhaps have been borrowed by Thomson for his work on the first volume of the 'Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland'. Three other documents may be presumed to have been sent to Edinburgh at the same time. The first is an indenture, dated 30 December 1292, which lists various Scottish muniments whose custody was transferred by King Edward I to the Chamberlain of Scotland ('Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland', i, 113-17). This document (National Archives of Scotland: SP13/1) bears the seal of John Balliol as king of Scots and is therefore the English counterpart of the indenture (Stones, op. cit., p. xxxii, n. 1). Secondly, the two earliest Scottish parliament rolls, of 10 February and 2 August 1293, which were among the English Exchequer records when they were printed in 'Foedera', I, ii, 786-7, 791, had been moved to Edinburgh by the time they were again printed in 'Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland', i, 288, 445-9. In spite of attempts to withdraw from the English records a consistent group of documents which originated in Scotland, there remain certain anomalies. The indenture of 30 December 1292 mentioned above, which is now in the National Archives of Scotland, is an English record. At least two documents remain in the Public Record Office which, on the principles applied, could have been transferred to Edinburgh. One is an extent of lands in Carrick, made in 1260 (reference C145/10/21; printed, 'Scottish Historical Review', xxxiv (1955), pp. 48-9). The other is a fragmentary brieve of the Guardians of Scotland, dated 1292 (reference E39/1/29; see 'Lists and Indexes', no. xlix, p. 111). At the same time it should be noted that certain papal bulls addressed to persons in Scotland and now in the Public Record Office are properly kept there, because they were issued at the instance of the king of England; for example the bull of 1235 printed in Stones, op. cit., 17-18. The situation has been further complicated by the transfer of certain documents, again on unknown authority, to the British Museum (now British Library). These are receipts from the period 1289-92. Three have been printed, in J. Stevenson, 'Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, 1286-1306', i, 94, 131, 146-7, and again in J. Stevenson, 'Illustrations of Scottish History' (Maitland Club, 1834), pp. 33-4. Four receipts by Sir William Bisset remain unprinted: BL, Harleian Charters 46.E.6, 7 and 47.F.27, 28. RH5/231 was returned by The National Archives, London, to NAS on 13 May 2005, after agreement by its Keeper of the Records, under s3 (8) of the Public Records Act 1958 (c. 51). |
Sources
- "Catalogue search". NRS Online Public Catalogue. National Records of Scotland. 9 Nov 2007.