Search FNL grants since 1931

This 'little book' written by Charlotte when she was 13, was thought to be the last of the little books still in private hands. In 2021 FNL donated 7 little books from the Blavatnik Honresfield Library to the joint ownership of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the British Library and the Brotherton Library (University of Leeds). FNL was determined to raise the funds needed to buy the manuscript and donate it to Brontë Parsonage and successfully raised the $1.25m required within just a few months thanks to many generous donors.

The terrier is a beautifully preserved account of Thomas Yardley’s land with a few drawings and scratchy cartoon letters, on two pieces of parchment sewn roughly together, and then again sewn on a cloth binding at the title end. Some twenty-four estates are referred to in the roll. It is extremely valuable in terms of information on this area of Worcestershire for which we hold very little from this period.

This set of design drawings for the ‘Campanula’ tea and coffee service, which was designed by French designer Paul Follot (1877-1941) for Wedgwood. There are ten drawings in the set, drawn in pencil on tracing paper and paper. The design drawings and the extraordinary finished pieces, which were also acquired, fill an important gap in the V&A Wedgwood Collection, and are a wonderful example of the Wedgwood company’s tradition of working with innovative artists to create their designs. 

Thomas Plume's Library is an extraordinary survival. In 1704 Dr Thomas Plume (1630-1704), Archdeacon of Rochester, bequeathed his collection of c. 8,000 books to his birthplace, Maldon, to establish a public lending library in the redundant Church of St Peter.In the early 20th-century, when Thomas Plume’s Library was still a lending institution, many books went missing. Since 1987 the Trustees have been actively buying replacement books – in a few cases the originals.

The writer of the letter was John Munro Mackenzie, Chamberlain of the Lews from 1848 to 1854, and the recipient was Charles Wilson, a distinguished architect based in Glasgow who had designed Lews Castle. The letter described delays in the final completion of the plastering and decorating of the new Lews Castle which, the Chamberlain hoped, would be ready in time for an imminent visit by Sir James Matheson, owner of Lews Castle and proprietor of the Island of Lewis from 1844, with family and guests.  The visit would likely have been one of the first by Sir James to his new stately home.

It is a manuscript of 206 pages and has four sections. The first three are acre books of Pinchbeck (1595), Spalding (1617) and Cowbit (1640), all written in different secretary hands.  The fourth section consists of seven pages of indexes compiled in the 19th century. The sections were bound into the book in the early 19th century. Each of the acre books shows the areas of the lands and their owners.  The Pinchbeck section also shows the tenants of each land holding. 

Dating from when the Lodge was opened on 1 January 1840, the minutes chronicle 25 years of activity and provide fascinating insights into life in the local community. Although the terminology used, referring to “Brothers”, “Grandmasters”, sashes, aprons and other regalia, suggests that the organisation was an official masonic lodge, there is no record of it as such.  An entry referring to it as a “Sick Benefit Society” confirms that it was one of the numerous friendly societies that sprang up during this period, providing crucial support in times of sickness or other impediments to work. 

The Anglo-Zulu War (1879) was fought between the British and the Zulu kingdom of Cetshwayo kaMpande. It is one of the foremost campaigns of imperial expansion into Africa, with victory enabling British political and economic aims in the region. This 170-page manuscript diary, with sketches and albumen prints, records the experiences of an Officer or Non-Commissioned Officer in the 5th Company, Royal Engineers during this conflict.

The Refuge Assurance Company was founded in 1858 by James Proctor and George Robins in Dukinfield, Cheshire. It soon grew to become the major insurance company based in the North West and in 1890 Proctor employed the nationally celebrated architect, Alfred Waterhouse to design a new headquarters building in Manchester. Alfred’s son, Paul, joined him in practice in 1891 and together they completed the building design. The archive as it complements and supplements existing records within our drawings and manuscripts collections, in particular that for two past RIBA Presidents, Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905) and his son, Paul Waterhouse (1861-1924).

Written up by Harvey whilst a student at Queens’ College (1824-7), this book provides an eyewitness account of the aftermath of what was perhaps the most important event in the history of enslavement, the revolution of 1791-1804 that occurred in Haiti.  There, for the first time in history, a violent uprising of enslaved people had brought about the establishment of a new nation state, thereby offering a stark warning to all those who continued to profit from slavery and heralding the possibility of an end to the slave trade.