H. S. Offler Papers

Personal research papers, chiefly drafts and notes in relation to material edited for posthumous publication by his literary executors. With the notes is a box of microfilms of Ockham manuscripts.

Hilary Seton Offler was born in Hereford on 3 February 1913, and won a scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, two months before his 16th birthday. He studied History at Emmanuel College, won a Lightfoot Scholarship with work on the pontificate of Boniface VIII and held a research fellowship at Emmanuel College from 1936 to 1940, working on Louis IV (Louis of Bavaria, holy Roman Emperor), and beginning work on an edition of the complete works of William of Ockham (overseen by J.G. Sikes).

Offler served during WW2 with the Royal Artillery in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Shrivenham, and with the 40th (Highland) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment on the front line in the Western Desert, in Tunisia with a Free French flying column (where he was awarded the Croix de Guerre), Sicily, Normandy and Bremen.

After a brief lectureship at Bristol University, Offer was appointed Reader in Medieval History at Durham in 1947, and Professor of Medieval History in 1956. He married Betty Elfreda Jackson in 1951, lived in Durham and was a member of the Senior Common Room in University College. He contributed to A Short History of Switzerland (OUP, 1952), but otherwise published little while at Durham, and was known to discourage younger colleagues from what he might regard as 'premature' publication. He continued work on the edition of William of Ockham, having been made a joint literary executor of J.G. Sikes in 1941, and re-working much of Sikes' material.

Alongside his editorial work on Ockham, Offler worked on archives relating to medieval North East England, notably work on William of St Calais (Bishop of Durham, 1081-1096) and an edition of Durham Episcopal Charters 1071-1152 for the Surtees Society, for which he served as Secretary (1950-1966) and President (1980-1987). His literary executors (Dr A. I. Doyle and Mr A. J. Piper) compiled a number of his draft articles for posthumous publication as North of the Tees: studies in medieval British history (Variorum, 1996), along with his edition of De iniusta vexacione Willelmi episcopi primi ... (Camden Society, 1997) and the fourth volume of Ockham's works.

Offler retired from Durham University in 1978, but continued to live in Durham and died on 24 January 1991.

The collection has not yet been sorted or catalogued. For this reason, it is not normally possible to consult the collection.

Donated to Durham University by the literary executors of H. S. Offler. Microfilms are recorded as accession number Misc.2014/15:17.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The contents of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.

Records of Offler's literary executors include the library of Alan Piper and papers of Ian Doyle.

Biographical notes above are drawn from P.D.A. Harvey, Hilary Seton Offler 1913-1991, in Proceedings of the British Academy (number 80, 1993), p.433-452.

Editions of the following: 

• Guillelmi de Ockham Opera politica (Manchester, 4 volumes, with J. G. Sikes, R. F. Bennett et al, 1940-1997)
• Durham episcopal charters, 1071-1152 (Gateshead, Surtees Society v.179, 1968)
• De iniusta vexacione Willelmi episcopi primi per Willelmum regem filium Willelmi magni regis (Cambridge University Press, Camden 5th Series v.10, 1997)

Articles and monographs by Offler include: 

• William of St. Calais, first Norman Bishop of Durham, in Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland (v.10, 1950)
• The tractate De iniusta vexacione Willelmi episcopi primi, in English Historical Review (v.66, 1951)
• A short history of Switzerland, with E. Bonjour and G. R. Potter (Oxford, 1952)
• Empire and Papacy: The Last Struggle, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (v.56, 1956)
• Medieval historians of Durham (inaugural lecture, 1958)
• The Date of Durham '(Carmen de Situ Dunelmi)', in Journal of English and Germanic Philology (v.61, 1962)
• The Origin of Ockham's Octo Quaestiones, in English Historical Review (v.82, 1967)
• A Medieval Chronicle from Scotland, with J. M. Todd, in Scottish Historical Review (v.47.1968)
• Rannulf Flambard as Bishop of Durham 1099-1128, in Durham University Journal v.64, December 1971
• The three modes of natural law in Ockham: a revision of the text, in Franciscan Studies (v.37, 1977)
• Peter Brightwell (1938-1979), in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (v.57, 1980)
• Church and Crown in the fourteenth century: studies in European history and political thought, ed. A. I. Doyle (Aldershot, 2000)
• reviews within English Historical Review, Durham University Journal, Erasmus, Journal of Theological Studies and elsewhere (1936-ca.1979)

See also A List of the historical writings 1936-1978 of Hilary Seton Offler... (Durham, 1978).