Dear Fellow Members,
I have received the following request from Roger Cockett who is researching
the Cobham Family.
Can anybody help? Responses to me please at [log in to unmask]
Yours sincerely, Ted Connell, Kent Archaelogical Society
http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/research.htm
I wonder if you know anyone who can help with this? I am researching the
Lords Cobham of Cobham Hall, Kent and elsewhere. Unfortunately in 1605,
Henry Brooke, the then Lord Cobham, was attainted by King James I and the
contents of the muniment room at Cobham Hall were taken (for reasons which
escape me) to the house of William Cecil, Hatfield House - where they
remain.
The whole of the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House were calendared by the
Historical Manuscripts Commission in 24 volumes between 1883 and 1976. A
summary of these is available at British History Online and I can see that
it includes the Cobham Hall material. The Cecil Papers were also microfilmed
a few years ago and copies deposited at the British Library and at an
American library. The Hatfield House archivist now requires that readers
should first look through the 127 microfilms at the British Library, before
going to Hatfield to see the originals.
However, I now see that an American company, ProQuest, has made digital
scans of all the Cecil Papers at Hatfield, in order to make them available
on the internet. I have in fact confirmed with Dan Dyer of ProQuest that
this work has been completed and that they are available "to academic
institutions to purchase". These scans will of course be of much higher
quality and legibility than the old microfilms.
I see from the ProQuest website that one of their "Partners" for access to
their material is the Ancestry Library at Ancestry.com. This is apparently
not available to domestic subscribers, but the Kent Libraries Service does
have access. So, I have duly accessed the ProQuest material via Ancestry.com
via Hartley Public Library, but searches of "All databases" in the "Ancestry
library" show up nothing at all for Cecil or Hatfield.
Does this mean that there is "academic" material which Ancestry, or at least
Kent Libraries, cannot access? It is quite possible, as ProQuest may well
make high charges for what must have been an expensive digitising operation.
Getting a sensible answer out of Ancestry is difficult.
Neither Kent Libraries, nor the Archives seem actually to have heard of the
Cobham manuscripts in the Cecil Papers - which is not surprising as they
have been out of the county for over 400 years.
Maybe there is a friendly University which has access and could help
All regards
Roger
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