Search FNL grants since 1931

These papers are derived from the activities of the Hastings mercantile and political family of Milward, whose prominence in the town was further enhanced by the marriage in 1754 of Edward Milward (1723-1811) to Mary Collier, one of the five daughters of John Collier.

Whenever war with France threatened, the men of the maritime towns of Sussex hurried to obtain Letters of Marque and Reprisal – licences granted by the Crown giving authority to fit out an armed vessel and use it in the capture of enemy merchant shipping, and to commit acts which would otherwise have constituted piracy. These papers relate to the exploits of three such vessels, all equipped by Hastings merchants during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) – the privateers Lyon and Fox, and the cutter Triton.

In about 1970 a young articled clerk at a solicitor’s firm in the Sussex market town of Battle was required by his principal to clear old papers from a room above the stables in the office yard. Most were destroyed, but the young man could not bear to consign a few of them to oblivion; he knew that the ones he could read were of importance and guessed, quite rightly as it transpired, that those he could not were probably very old.

Fifty years later that articled clerk, now a pillar of the legal community in the West of England, decided that it was time to realise the value of what he had salvaged. His haul formed Lots 376-380 at the Clevedon Salerooms in March 2018.

The Library was very pleased to acquire a substantial manuscript commonplace book by Richard Fry (1759-1842) largely dating from the early 19th century. Fry is an interesting figure in the history of 19th-century Congregationalism and Unitarianism and the subject of a major controversy in 1798. Born at Devonport into a Congregational family, he trained for the ministry first at the Western Academy, Bridport, and then from 1778 at Homerton Academy in London. He entered the ministry at Warminster, Wiltshire, in 1781, and in 1785 he moved to Billericay in Essex. His ministry was at first uncontroversial, and he enjoyed some success, but his religious opinions gradually altered and a number in his congregation detected a departure from orthodox Calvinism.

One of two grants awarded to Dorset History Centre in 2018 enabling them to acquire original designs from the Poole Pottery.These colourful, attractive items form part of a much larger business archive which was dispersed at the point of the company's liquidation in 2003. This resulted in two large sales of archival material in both London and Dorchester. Much of the archive was acquired for DHC by a coalition of public and private fundraising across Dorset, but significant parts of the archive went into private hands. DHC has been involved in selective and intermittent acquisition of Poole Pottery material to add to the principal archive ever since. The bulk of the archive was catalogued in 2009 thanks to a grant received from The National Archives via its cataloguing grants programme and can be accessed online.

One of two grants awarded to Dorset History Centre in 2018 enabling them to acquire original designs from the Poole Pottery.These colourful, attractive items form part of a much larger business archive which was dispersed at the point of the company's liquidation in 2003. This resulted in two large sales of archival material in both London and Dorchester. Much of the archive was acquired for DHC by a coalition of public and private fundraising across Dorset, but significant parts of the archive went into private hands. DHC has been involved in selective and intermittent acquisition of Poole Pottery material to add to the principal archive ever since. The bulk of the archive was catalogued in 2009 thanks to a grant received from The National Archives via its cataloguing grants programme and can be accessed online.

Winster is a beautiful and historic village in the Peak District National Park.  In the mid-18th century it was a prosperous lead mining town but when the mines flooded, the industry died and the population shrank.  The village’s former prosperity is visible in the fine bu

In 2017, the Charles Dickens Museum was approached by a private collector in America and given a rare opportunity to consider acquiring material before the remainder of the collection was sold. The collection – which we believe was the largest private collection of Dickens material in the world – had been amassed over a period of 40 years.

We have acquired over 300 items including 145 autograph letters, 54 manuscript items, 25 books from Dickens's own library and 33 artworks.

This acquisition brings outstanding material into a public collection where it can be accessed, researched and displayed, thereby extending the knowledge and appreciate of Dickens’s life and work.

These documents provide crucial material relating to the first generation Marriotts of Cotesbach Hall, now occupied by the 8th generation of the family and where, through the efforts of many, we now have the most wonderful facility (principally HLF funded), namely an environmentally controlled archive which is accessible to the public, schools, researchers alike. Amongst the collection are documents relating to the purchase of Cotesbach Estate in 1759, which will fill in many missing pieces of an intriguing story.

The Cornwall Record Office already held the Helston Borough archive, as well as the Argal manor collection but the former was conspicuously light on Poor Law and settlement papers and this was because that content had, at same point in the past, been separated off from the Borough archives, as represented in the documents which were offered to the Record Office. The Office was very keen to acquire this collection to augment what was already a very extensive Borough archive and to provide a much better resource for the study of the family and social history of this key Cornish town which received its first charter in 1336.

‘The Lyghfield Bible’, illuminated manuscript on vellum, late 13th century.

It is almost certain that the Lyghfield Bible was produced in Paris by professional scribes and illuminators in the later 13th century. Paris was the centre of the production of 'Pocket Bibles', of which the Lyghfield Bible is a fine example. Pocket Bibles brought all of the books of the Bible into one volume of a small format, and were produced in large numbers from the later 13th century onwards. The volumes were designed for personal learning and devotion, and they were particularly convenient for scholars and travelling preachers.

The script of the Lyghfield Bible is tiny but impeccable, with its Latin written in two columns on fine vellum. Each book of the Bible begins with a tiny exquisite illumination.

The Bible is a highly important addition for our collections.