11/05/04 - Cumbria historic treasure preview

People and organisations who helped Cumbria County Council buy the third set of Lady Anne Clifford’s Great Books of Record are being given a preview of them. A reception to thank those who contributed in any way is being held at County Hall, Kendal, at 6.30pm on Wednesday, May 19.

Councillor Jim Webster, vice-chairman of Cumbria County Council, said:

“The county archive service is very grateful to a wide range of people who put in a lot of work to and helped with funding to make this purchase. The bulk of the funding was a £64,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, but the purchase would not have been possible without the generosity of Cumbria County Council’s Eden Local Committee, the Curwen Archives Trust, the Appleby-in-Westmorland Society, the Clifford Society, the Cumbria Family History Society, the Friends of Cumbria Archive Service and a number of individuals.”

Anne Rowe, archive service manager, said:

“The purchase has enabled the three sets of Lady Anne’s Great Book of Record to be brought together in one place for the first time in many years. That place is the Cumbria Record Office in Kendal and the volumes will be available there as a valuable resource for historians interested in the past of Cumbria and also in 17thcentury England in general”.

Councillor Webster will thank guests for their support of the purchase of the Great Books. Among those invited are Lord Hothfield, a descendant of Lady Anne. Also invited to be present are the chair of Cumbria County Council’s Eden Local Committee, Councillor Mary Warburton, and Cumbria County Council chief executive John Harwood.

Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676) spent much of her life fighting for her right to inherit her estates in Westmorland and Craven. The result of this endeavour was the Great Books of Record, part cartulary, or register, of all the documents relating to her family and her estates, many of which no longer survive, part family pedigree and part autobiography.

Since the Great Books represented a major undertaking and Lady Anne wanted frequent access to them, three sets of these great volumes were prepared, and kept separately at Appleby Castle, Skipton Castle and Lincolns Inn. Each set consisted of three volumes. Lady Anne frequently annotated the Great Books during her travels and each set is therefore unique.  Until now the third set has remained in private hands. 

All three volumes of the third set of the Great Books will be on show at the reception at County Hall and the volumes will form part of an exhibition about Appleby to be held in July.