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Special Collections

Durham Cathedral Library Collection Description

Collection Level Description: J.J. Howe Collection

Collection Level Description: J.J. Howe Collection

Collection name: J.J. Howe Collection
Collection code: GB-0036-JJH
Date range: 1616-1842
Extent: Volumes and loose documents, c.2.9 metres x 0.3 metres
Language: English with some Latin
Created by: John James Howe (d.1937), collector
Contents:
A collection of mostly deeds and court papers from Durham in particular, but with material also from various other parts of England, and beyond, probably gathered together by Cuthbert Mills Carlton (1832-1892). He was a Durham journalist, antiquarian and author of History of the Charities in Durham, (Durham 1872) and The Monumental Inscriptions of Durham, (Durham 1880). The Durham material features documents from the chancery court. This includes a file of documents for a case between Nicholas Hodgson and Thomas King in 1616 and papers for a variety of cases in 1643, along with files and particular cases from the later eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries. The deeds include groups for "Hunters" tenement in Fleshergate in Durham and a dyehouse in Watergatestreet, property in Ryhope and South Shields, and Bradley Hall and manor from the later seventeenth and earlier eighteenth centuries. Outside Co Durham, there is a collection of deeds concerning Elizabeth Williams, widow of Thomas Williams of Gloucester, who remarried John Essington in 1671, and the consequent settlements of property, covering Gloucester and Breconshire, along with isolated items for London and Greenwich, Kent, and a quantity of material for Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Arguably the collection's most significant group of material is from the diocese of Durham, including part of a probate act book for 1588, three precedent books from the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, a quantity of bishop's transcripts for Co Durham parishes, and a1716 terrier for Northallerton vicarage. There is also material from the city of Durham, featuring lists of jurymen, alehouse owners, members of the saddlers' and curriers' companies, and an extensive set of bills for the 1807 election. In addition, there are some transcripts of early 19th century parish registers from Montreal (Canada).
Carlton also made extensive extracts from records himself, and the collection includes a number of indexes to wills and marriage licences, and extracts from other Durham records, some acquired from the London record agents Drury and Page. Carlton's own writings are few, but there are some papers on various topics and chapters for possible histories of Durham.
All this came to Howe from Carlton, and Howe was also given by Canon Greenwell, James Raine's Testamenta indexes of marriage bonds, administrations and wills compiled in 1826, with an index to that volume, compiled by R.W.
About the creator:
Howe was second and then chief clerk of the Durham District Probate Registry where he worked from 1886, retiring in 1929, and dying in 1937.
Arrangement:
The material is numbered in bundles
Provenance:
Bequeathed to the Cathedral Library by Howe in his will of 1935, proved in 1937
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:
Online catalogue available at http://endure.dur.ac.uk:8080/fedora/get/UkDhU:CathedralCatalogue.003/XTF
Related collections held at Durham:
A copy of C.M. Carlton's The Monumental Inscriptions of Durham, (Durham 1880) in the Chapter Library (ref. L929.5) has Howe's name in it, dated 1886.
Related collections elsewhere:
Howe bequeathed 6 volumes of manuscript extracts from wills, administration bonds, probate act books and marriage bonds from the diocese of Durham, 1576-1735 and 1889-1894, with an index, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central Library where they are in the Family History Room, reference L929.3. He also bequeathed manuscripts relating to the Ancient Guilds of Freemen of Durham to the Durham town clerk and an index to Dublin wills to the registrar of the Newcastle and Durham Probate Registry; these have not yet been identified.
Bibliography:
For Carlton, see various newspaper obituaries pasted inside the copy of his The Monumental Inscriptions of Durham, (Durham 1880) held in the searchroom at Durham Cathedral Library

Date last modified: 8 July 2010