Old Manuscripts

[hazel....@gmail.com]

*Ann Pickering brought to her husband, John Vaughan, manors and lands in Westmorland, Cumberland and Yorkshire which are noted on Laughton's MS, see Familiae Minorum Gentium, volume 3, page 993: https://archive.org/details/familiaeminorumg03hunt/page/1156.

I'd like to check the names of the places against the original manuscript, as I believe that quite a few discrepancies arose in Mr. Monk's copy. However, but don't know where to find it. I asked at the British Library and got a rather non-committal answer "it is not something I am familiar with to be honest" from someone in the Manuscripts and Maps department.

I don't suppose there are books or, better still, a website that list the names and numbers of old manuscripts with a summary of the content of each, along the lines of the Harleian and Bodleian books, and where they are stored? Failing that, how is the researcher to go about finding them, short of consulting every archive in the country?

Any tips would be welcome!

Hazel Bargiel (nee Pickering)

*Ann Pickering of Killington married as her 3rd husband John Vaughan, though she continued to use her 2nd husband's name, Knevett, her first husband's name, Weston, having already been superceded.

I believe the places have the following modern names:
WESTMORLAND: Killington, Firbank, Old Hutton, Hutton Roof, Meathop, Newby, Kirkby Lonsdale, Barbon
CUMBERLAND: Birkby, Torpenhow, Moresby, Distington, (modern equivalent of Willendesworth not found), Culgaith, Scaleby, Houghton, Linstock, Rickerby, Kirklinton, Hethersgill
WEST RIDING: Sedbergh
NORTH RIDING: Scruton, Wigginton, Askrigg, Whitwell (modern equivalent of Hedley not found), Huntington
EAST RIDING: Ellerton, Kirkham, Bielby, Acklam
WALES: (modern equivalent of Claseborough not found)

[taf]

On Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 9:16:40 AM UTC-7, hazel....@gmail.com wrote:
> *Ann Pickering brought to her husband, John Vaughan, manors and lands in Westmorland, Cumberland and Yorkshire which are noted on Laughton's MS, see Familiae Minorum Gentium, volume 3, page 993: https://archive.org/details/familiaeminorumg03hunt/page/1156.
>

> I don't suppose there are books or, better still, a website that list the names and numbers of old manuscripts with a summary of the content of each, along the lines of the Harleian and Bodleian books, and where they are stored? Failing that, how is the researcher to go about finding them, short of consulting every archive in the country?
>
> Any tips would be welcome!

Ugh! it looks like FMG is the only published work _ever_ to refer to such a manuscript, at least by that name. Since in FMG it is referred to as a collection of Yorkshire pedigrees, your best bet would probably be via the community of Yorkshire historians, who are more likely to know of this manuscript, its current location, and any alternative name it may bear.

taf

[Peter Stewart]

It may refer to John Laughton, the university librarian of Cambridge at
the end of the 17th century.

Peter Stewart

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[tahiri]

The part quoted above refers to 'manors and lands' so the following
that I saw a few days ago should be helpful?
"The National Archives (UK) has today announced that it has now
completed its programme to update the Manorial Documents Register (MDR)
and make it available online. The Register is the official index to
English and Welsh manorial records. It provides brief descriptions of
documents and their locations in public and private hands.

Further details, and boxes to search the Register, by manor or by
manorial documents, are at

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-search

[hazel....@gmail.com]

Thanks for all your responses. I'll follow up a few leads and let you now how I get on.
Hazel

[Ian Goddard]

On 30/06/2022 17:16, hazel....@gmail.com wrote:
> *Ann Pickering brought to her husband, John Vaughan, manors and lands in Westmorland, Cumberland and Yorkshire which are noted on Laughton's MS, see Familiae Minorum Gentium, volume 3, page 993: https://archive.org/details/familiaeminorumg03hunt/page/1156.
>

The full note is even less helpful in that it goes on to say that "These
names are from a copy by Mr Monk."

The introduction to Vol 1 says of Hunter:
"After his death a large number of his Manuscripts became the property
of the British Museum. They are numbered Add. MSS. 24,436-630,
24,864-885, 25,459-481, 25,676-7, 31,021."

If the source was a copy in the possession of Hunter then it might be
amongst those.

[hazel....@gmail.com]

As Familiae Minorum Gentium was published by the Harleian Society and the Vaughan family tree is in MS. 430, I looked it up in Manuscripts in the Harleian Collection, vol 1, but the content seems to be a register of petitions only. However, there's a Discent of Vaughan & Herbert in the same volume at page 446, code 817, article 71. I'll follow this up before trying any of the other leads you suggest.

Incidentally, on the same page, article 90, there's a Pedegree of Pykeringe, with the Marriage of Wotton to their natural Daughter. The fact that "their" is mentioned as opposed to "his" gives me hope of finding out the name of the mother of Hester, whose father was Sir William Pickering.

Thanks for pointing out the introduction to FMG, Ian; I don't tend to read them. Is Add. a person or are we talking about Additional Manuscripts here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additional_manuscripts)?

John Laughton, the Cambridge University librarian, fits the bill as the author of the Laughton MS, Peter, as he was a Yorkshireman. He gave ca. 2000 books to Trinity College, Cambridge during his lifetime (no mention of manuscripts): https://bookowners.online/John_Laughton_d.1712.

The reason I'm keen to see the original manuscript is because a fellow Pickering researcher has taken the fact that Bickley is mentioned as a manor on Mr. Monk's copy to mean that the Pickerings of Killington also had holdings on the North York Moors. However, Bickley was never a manor but rather a geographical feature, which a quick check of the Manorial Documents Register bears out – thanks for pointing this out, tahiri. Birkby in Cumberland, on the other hand, was a manor, and fits more logically into the list of manors and lands belonging to Ann Pickering. I wanted definitive proof that the name of the manor had been misread before I put my fellow researcher right. However, if Bickley is correct, it would tie the Pickerings of Westmorland nicely in with the Pickerings who remained in Yorkshire.