Grants awarded in 2005

This account book details work carried out by Hardstaff at Newstead Abbey between 1758 and 1760 for William, 5th Lord Byron, great-uncle of the poet, at the time when the so called 'Wicked' Lord Byron was poised for this descent into financial ruin.

This is the earliest surviving mathematical book in English. It consists of 144 unnumbered leaves and contains 11 woodcut illustrations of the counters used to help with calculations. It is the only known complete copy of the 1537 edition. Eight succeeding editions have survived.

The bifolium, which contains readings for Holy Week, comes from a magnificant gospel lectionary which is likely to have been owned by the Cathedral in the Middle Ages and dismembered in the Reformation. Canterbury Cathedral Archives already had a bifolium from this lectionary.

James Scott was a minor Scottish portrait painter, born c. 1802, who arrived in London with a letter of introduction from Sir Walter Scott to Sir Thomas Lawrence. The journal, the second of two or perhaps more volumes, chronicle his artistic training at the Royal Academy Schools, his life in London and his early commissions.

This is a group of six documents which pertain to a secret and unsuccessful attempt by the 5th Lord Byron to lease Newstead Park for 21 years from 25th March 1776. They illuminate the strained relations between the 5th Lord and his son.

The Royal Society contains a fine library of early scientific books and manuscripts. The four books were De Momento quo gravia by Francesco Spoleti, Venice, 1686; Epistola ad amicum by Henry Pemberton, London, 1722; Institutions Newtoniennes by Pierre Sigorgne, Paris, 1747; and Philosophiae recentioris... by Benedetto Stay, Rome, 1775 .

This early 13th century manuscript Bible in one volume is one of about 250 medieval books lost from Durham Priory Library. Four inscriptions link the manuscript with named monks at Durham.

This collection of 31 letters includes letters from Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and his artist wife, Margaret Macdonald Macintosh, to Jessie Newbery, the artist wife of the Director of the Glasgow School of Art.

Stowell (1800-58) trained for the Congregational ministry at Blackburn Academy, served pastorates in North Shields and Masborough and became President of Cheshunt College in 1850. The manuscript contains 240 pages and is a substantial work of some 90,000 words.

The Alanbrooke archive is primarily manuscript and large - 87 boxes. Alanbrooke's judgement was critical to the Allies' success in winning the Second World War and so these papers are of international repute and regularly consulted.

In 1789, Douglas made an advantageous marriage to Catherine North, the eldest daughter of the former Prime Minister. The letters contain much information about life at Court and Princess Caroline of Brunswick, to whom Lady Sheffield and Lady Glenbervie were ladies-in-waiting.

Jean Hartley and her husband founded the Marvell press, which in 1955 first published poetry by Philip Larkin. Her personal papers cover her connections with Larkin and other writers including Ted Tarling, Tony Harrison, Barrie Rutter and Maurice Rutherford and in the literary life of Hull generally.

This collection includes loose drawings by George Gilbert Scott Senior (1811-78), founder of an architectural dynasty, of buildings in England, France and Germany and 5 notebooks on restoration projects. The purchase includes sketchbooks by his son George Gilbert Scott Junior (1839-97).

John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) is one of the most important artists in the history of English watercolour painting. By 1804, he had met Dawson Turner, the Great Yarmouth banker, antiquarian, bibliophile and collector and in 1812 moved to Great Yarmouth. The letters provide a valuable insight into Cotman's complex personality.

Elaine Feinstein's archive embraces the whole range of her literary output: poetry, fiction, prose, criticism, biography, translation and drama. It comprises manuscripts, annotated typescripts, marked proofs and correspondence with a large circle of writers including Martin Amis, A. S.

The collection represents the East Anglian portion of the working library of heraldic and genealogical manuscripts collected from the 1960s onwards by Miss Joan Corder of Ipswich. The material includes bound volumes of visitations, ordinaries, collections of arms, crests and pedigrees; grants and confirmations of arms and estate maps.

The collection fills 250 boxes and conatins material from the 12th to the 20th centuries, including nearly 800 medieval deeds relating to Lilleshall Abbey, Wombridge Priory, Shrewsbury Abbey and their estates. A further 300 deeds reflect two centuries of the Lilleshall estate in private ownership after the dissolution of the monasteries.

The Slade Bindery comprised Roger Powell (1896-1989), Peter Waters (1939-2005) and the calligrapher Sheila Waters (b. 1929). The Guard Book contains 174 pages of book cover designs, tooling patterns, leather and marbled paper samples, illustrations and original art works.

The Sutherland Papers are the archive of the Leveson-Gower family, successively Earls Gower, Marquesses of Stafford and Dukes of Sutherland. Their former home in Staffordshire was Trentham Hall, designed by Sir Charles Barry and demolished in 1911.

This defence of regicide was printed on or before 13th February 1649, some two weeks after the death of King Charles I. In 'The Tenure', Milton is developing his theory of civil liberty.