Durham Cathedral Library Collection Description
Collection Level Description: James Raine Manuscripts
Collection name: James Raine Manuscripts
Collection code: GB-0036-RAI
Date range: 1575-1847, most early 19th century
Extent: 162 volumes numbered 1-131, 5.6m of which 1.2m is 0.45m high and 4.4m is 0.4m high
Language: English
Created by: James Raine (1791-1858), creator
Contents:
James Raine has left a quantity of papers, bibliographies and notes which he used in his publications, especially his works on St Cuthbert and North Durham, along with an unpublished history of Meldon. There is a considerable variety of material in addition to this though. Most of it reflects his broad antiquarian interests but some of it probably stems from his various other activities. As librarian to the Dean and Chapter he may well have accrued the various files of genealogical enquiries and pedigrees. Certainly this post allowed him to explore the medieval deeds of the cathedral and the registers of the bishops of Durham - volumes of extracts of which he has left - and also to compile extracts of the letters of the seventeenth century Dean Comber and to draw up a catalogue of the library of his own contemporary Dean Hall. As second master at Durham School, he would have produced for himself and needed to have to hand the various volumes of accounts and other documents about the school from his time. As a surrogate in the Durham consistory court, the indexes to cases in the collection would have been invaluable, along with a volume of copies of wills. Finally as a Durham clergyman, he had access to the city's parish registers and has left volumes of extracts from them.
Furthermore, his overriding antiquarian interests led him to acquire and make notes on more documents and topics than those immediately relevant to his occupations. One particular feature of his collection is the quantity of election addresses and other papers, mostly for Durham elections, but some for elsewhere, from his own time and back to 1729. Some of these he gathered himself, but others came from such as [Ralph] Gowland, Hugall and Garret. He also acquired other records about the City of Durham, such as its grassmen's accounts 1623-1759, a mayor's book of 1626, a record of the sale of Robert Surtees's library and many more single manuscript and printed items. In addition, there are volumes on tithes in Co Durham and Northumberland, notes on Co Durham parishes, correspondence with his friend John Hodgson, documents to do with the bishops and palatinate of Durham, memoirs of the Revds William Emerson and Thomas Wright, letters of Lord Wharton 1693-1695, a Northumberland visitation of 1575 and extracts from a number of the Mickleton manuscripts.
About the creator:
James Raine was born at Ovington in 1791, the son of James Raine and his wife Anne, daughter of William Moore. Educated at Richmond Grammar School, he became second master at Durham School in 1812 (held to 1827) and also librarian to Durham Dean and Chapter in 1816 (held until his death). Ordained deacon in 1814 and priest in 1818, Raine was presented by Durham Dean and Chapter to Meldon rectory in Northumberland in 1822 which embroiled him in lengthy litigation over the tithes there, only finally resolved in 1846. He was also principal surrogate in the Durham consistory court from 1825 and held the living of St Mary the Less in the South Bailey, Durham, from 1828. For his literary work, he was awarded a Lambeth MA in 1825 and a Durham DCL in 1857.
Raine's enthusiasm as an antiquary and topographer was stimulated by his friendship with Robert Surtees (d.1834), who received considerable assistance from Raine, as did the other local historians John Hodgson (d.1845) and Cuthbert Sharp (d.1849). Raine became literary executor to Surtees and published volume 4 of his History of Durham in 1840. He had already similarly edited volume 3 of part 2 of Hodgson's History of Northumberland in 1827. His own publications featured an 1828 account of the 1827 excavation of St Cuthbert's burial place, and then, in 2 parts in 1830 and 1852, the History of North Durham, to complement Surtees's work by covering those detached parts of Durham in such as Norhamshire and Holy Island. He also published on Durham Cathedral, Auckland Castle, Catterick Church, and Marske along with a memoir of his friend John Hodgson. To honour his late friend Robert Surtees, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Surtees Society in 1834, whose stated object was to publish unedited manuscripts relating to the area from the Humber to the Forth and dating from before the Restoration. As its first secretary, Raine was indefatigable and edited some 17 volumes, establishing it as a model for subsequent similar societies elsewhere.
As librarian at Durham Cathedral, he finally engineered the publication of his predecessor Thomas Rud's magisterial catalogue of the Cathedral's manuscripts in 1825, including in it his own catalogues of the antiquarian collections of Allan, Hunter and Randall.
Raine lived in the South Bailey Durham, and then at Crook Hall in Durham from 1834 where he died in 1858. He had married Margaret Peacock in 1828 and they had 3 daughters (Anne, Margaret and Jane) and a son, James (1830-1896), later chancellor and canon of York Minster.
Access:
Open for consultation.
Usage:
Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Librarian (e-mail Library@durhamcathedral.co.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.
Catalogues:
Late 19th century manuscript list, some volumes itemised
Related collections held at Durham:
Add Mss 19, 146, 151 and 196 are Raine's correspondence, Add Mss 28 and 153 are volumes of antiquarian notes of his and Add Mss 148 and 149 are his annotated copies of his book on St Cuthbert. Add Ms 293 is his scrapbook of his restoration of Durham St Mary the Less. Add Ms 214/1 is a photocopy of an 1855 lecture of his.
Related collections elsewhere:
A catalogue of his library sold at auction in 1859 after his death is in Durham University Library: George Hardcastle, Catalogue of the valuable library of the late Rev. Dr. Raine : to be sold by auction, at Crook Hall, in the city of Durham, on Monday, February 28th, 1859, .... A number of these books are now in Durham University Library.
Aside from letters of his in Durham University Library (to various 1841-1854: Add Mss 833), Durham County Record Office (to Edward Blore 1814-1824: D/X 1015), the British Library (to J Hunter 1834-1851: Add MS 24874), Edinburgh University Library Special Collections (to David Laing 1835-1852: La iv 17) and Newcastle upon Tyne University Robinson Library (to Walter Trevelyan c1825-1858: WCT), there are some of his notebooks (including his Testamenta Dunelmensia) held by the Newcastle upon Tyne Society of Antiquaries on deposit at Northumberland Record Office at Woodhorn (SANT/BEQ/24), a volume of his transcripts about Robert of Holy Island, bishop of Durham, in York Minster Archives (Add Ms 50), signs of his use and examination of records of the Durham consistory court in its archive at Durham University Library ASC (DDR/EJ/CC) and his papers as the founding secretary/editor of the Surtees Society also at Durham University Library ASC (SUS).
Bibliography:
A. Marsden, A Raine Miscellany (Surtees Society 200, 1991), p.1-8.
P. Atkinson, "The Family of James Raine: a Remarkable Blacksmith", Veterinary History (Vol.15 No.1, 2009) p.62-67.
Date last modified: 8 July 2010