Three volumes of Letters and State Papers with four MS books

Vol 1 contains notes in the hand of Fulk Onslow, Clerk of the Commons, of speeches made and Acts of Parliament concerning Mary Queen of Scots, amongst others. Vol 2 shows the inner workings of the Parliament Office at moments of crisis such as the trial of the Earl of Strafford. Vol 3 covers the civil war period with a contemporary account of the Battle of Worcester and a letter from the 14 year old Duke of York to his father Charles I, partially written in code which has then been deciphered. The Manuscript books date mostly from the 17th century when the procedure of the House was being developed and systematised and themselves probably represent one aspect of that process. Illustrated at plate II of AR