Executorship papers of William Roby (died c.1785), jeweller, 1785-1786

The collection contains three notebooks with illustrated paper covers. They comprise:

An inventory of the part of the stock of William Roby consisting of 'diamonds, pearls, gold, watches. plate, jewellery' taken by order of his executor and containing lists of items annotated with sums of money. 1786 (MS 173/1)

Two account books recording debts paid into and out of the estate of William Roby containing lists of names annotated with reasons for the payments, dates and sums of money, 1785-1786 (MS 173/2/1-2)

The collection gives few clues about William Roby, his family or his executors, and, crucially, the location of Roby's business is unknown. From internal evidence, it is clear that he was a jeweller dealing with gold, watches and plate. The accounts contain a reference to a James Roby, presumably a relation and perhaps his executor. Being a jeweller, it is possible that he may have been a freeman of The Goldsmiths' Company or some similar trade guild.

The collection has been divided by document type into two series.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

LANGUAGE: English

This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make published use of any material from this collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can be difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.

The collection was given to The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts in December 1966