17th century land book to be restored

The Great Parchment Book, 1639, was passed to The Honourable The Irish Society when it was reconstituted by Charles II in 1662.

It is a detailed survey of estates consolidating contracts and particulars of rental lands in the County of Londonderry and enrolling the details into one volume.

The volume contains important historical information about the County in the early seventeenth century.

It is one of the few surviving documents from the seventeenth century and provides detailed lists of holdings and names.

Derry City Council will be involved in the restoration of the book which was badly damaged in an eighteenth century fire that tore through the Guildhall in London.

A document presented to Derry City Council's Development Committee explains: "A fire in 1786 at the London Guildhall destroyed an unknown number of the Irish Society's records.

"Fire (and water) damage is evident in many of the documents, notably in the loss of text due to charred edges, and some remain in extremely fragile condition, such as the 1639 Great Parchment Book.

"While some of the lost documentation is available elsewhere, documentation key to the reconstruction of early tenant lists and early social history has been irretrievably lost.

"The surviving folios of the volume are now stored in 6 boxes, loosely tied into bundles dealing with particular lands of the various London Companies and the Irish Society. Much of the text is still visible – if occasionally distorted."

Derry City Council is now set to embark on a project to restore the artefact in partnership with a range of relevant funding bodies including: The Honourable The Irish Society, London Companies, Manuscripts Conservation Trust, Esmee Fairbairn Trust, the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC), JISC, and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

According to the report to Council: "A list compiled at the time identified some of the lost items as 'a number of new leases pertaining to property in Londonderry and Coleraine … transactions between the Crown and the City before and after King James' charter of 1613, a volume containing a copy of the Articles between the Crown and the City respecting the plantation' as well as receipt books, treasurers' accounts and the 1767 survey.

"However, early in the 19th century Henry Schultes, Secretary of the Irish Society, described the attempt to rescue and identify damaged and destroyed material as 'badly done.'

"He noted that 'no care was taken to investigate the burnt fragments, they were pronounced useless and thrown together in a mass and deposited in that state under more than half a ton of rubbish consisting of city records burnt to crusts.'"

This is hopefully set to change with the archive project scheduled to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the building of the City Walls in 2013.