Commonplace book of English verse, prose (mainly sermons), and miscellaneous information, compiled by John Beetham

Archive Collection
XML
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS Lt 31
  • Dates of Creation
      ca.1670-1690
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      English
  • Physical Description
      1 vol. (219 ff.) The signature of Charles H. L[ardner] Woodd [sic], 1847, is on f.2r, and his bookplate inside the front cover. Pencil number "RS/689" on final pastedown. Bound in blind tooled sheep, 5 spine ridges, spine damaged.

Scope and Content

As well as the verse, separately indexed, the volume contains ff.1-2: signatures; ff.3v-8v: family records, also "bullings"; ff.11-29: sermons (one by Ainsworth); ff.30-40r: arithmetical tables, remedies, cryptograms, etc.; f.42v: remedy and bill of debt; ff.43-63: sermons, one by Mr Furneval [?]; ff.66r-72: sermon by Mr Hawkesworth; f.73r: ink recipe; f.74: the malt sermon; f.75v: sententious precepts; f.76r: The prophesie of Heuah the Walshman (prose); ff.76v-78v: list of the compiler's one-sign word symbols; f.79r: a record frost November to April "1683"; f.80v: spire burning in year 3 Eliz.; Pontefract sessions complaint of man of 68 whose wife 65 had two children 5 and 3; ff.81r-88v: sermon; ff.89-107: further sermons, one by Mr Waterhouse, with record of more "bullings" 1674; ff.108-128: two further sermons, one by Mr Richardson; f.129v: coal accounts?; beaching of monster "fish" at Grimsby, year 6 Eliz; heights of Robin Hood and Little John (?); remarks on Italian women and Italian livestock; f.160r: record of hanging of John Oldroyd in 1682 on Holberd Moore for murder in 1679; ff.160v-162v: signatures; ff.163-186: two sermons, by Mr John Jackson and by Edward Rayner [? Reyner] of Lincoln; ff.184-186: blank; ff.187r-219r: sermons, one by John Jackson

Administrative / Biographical History

John Beetham's parents Robert (baptised in Kendal; 1590-1669) and Ellen, and his father's father John, of Underharrow, are recorded, as are his first wife Elizabeth (died 1654) with her parents (Craven) and maternal grandparents (Hardcastle), their children and grandchildren born up to 1690; John's second wife Isabell Anderson (no issue); his third wife Anne Anderson and one son.

Access Information

Access is unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Bought from P. M. Hill, March 1971

Note

In English

Other Finding Aids

The poems are indexed in the BCMSV database http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/bcmsv/intro.html

Custodial History

Owned variously by members of the Beetham and Dearlove families, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles H. Lardner Woodd

Personal Names

Beetham John b. 1622