Irish Society pledge cash towards book

A delegation toured the “Story of Derry exhibition” at the Tower Museum and later visited the Guildhall to view the major refurbishment currently underway.

During their visit the group also presented a cheque for £1000 towards the Great Parchment Book project that Derry City Council’s Heritage and Museum Service is working on with partners from London and Londonderry.

The volume - known as the Great Parchment Book - is a survey that was compiled in 1639 by a Commission instituted under the Great Seal by Charles I, to survey the estates in the County of Londonderry which Charles had recently claimed as forfeit from the City of London, consolidating all contracts and particulars of all rental lands and enrolling details into one volume.

The volume therefore contains hugely valuable information about the County of Londonderry in the early seventeenth century.

Craig McGuckian from the Council’s Heritage and Museum Services explained the significance of the Great Parchment Book.

“The project has developed from a series of discussions, with all partners, about the use and access of the seventeenth century archive collections relating to The Irish Society.

“The objective of the partnership is to enable the development of a series of projects which will help to create access to the archive collections, and to create greater awareness and understanding of the historical heritage and links between the two cities of Derry and London.

“The year 2013 marks the 400th anniversary of the building of the Derry City Walls. This anniversary, alongside the UK City of Culture celebrations, presents the City with a unique opportunity to mark the Plantation of Ulster and highlight the momentous changes that this has had on the City,” he added.

Bernadette Walsh, archivist with the Heritage and Museum Service added: “The manuscript forms part of the collection of The Honourable The Irish Society whose records have been held at LMA since its merger with the Corporation of London Records Office in 2005.

“The volume was passed to The Irish Society when it was reconstituted by Charles II in 1662. A fire in 1786 at London’s Guildhall destroyed a large number of the Irish Society’s records.

“This is one of the few surviving documents from the seventeenth century that provides detailed lists of holdings and names.”

A project team consisting of representatives from the University of Ulster (UU), the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at Kings College London (KCL), London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), and the Centre for Digital Humanities at University College London (UCL) has been assigned to the project.

The project team envisaged the project consisting of a number of stages which will ensure the conservation, digitisation, transcription, and creation of access to a unique and valuable historical asset.

An interdisciplinary partnership will enable conservators and archivists from London Metropolitan Archives, digital humanities specialists from Kings College London and University College London, and academics from the University of Ulster to create access to a previously inaccessible manuscript.