In my view, the question of "title deed" or "estate paper" is not one to
which there is a black and white answer which can be used to apply on every
occasion, as a document is not only an item in its own right but also
(usually) part of a collection, the archival arrangement of which is of the
utmost importance .
We must therefore consider the original arrangement of a collection which we
are cataloguing. Otherwise, in our eagerness to catalogue the individual
items "correctly", we may lose any insight we might have gained from the
documents about the administration of the organisation.
If a collection contains deed bundles which include leases, this may
indicate that the estate administration organised their affairs by
individual property and it would therefore be wrong to remove the leases
from the deed bundles.
On the other hand, a collection might include bundles of leases for diverse
properties, which might indicate that the estate was regarded as whole for
administrative purposes and in this case it would again be inappropriate to
alter the original order of the documents.
Sue Baxter
Buckinghamshire Record Office
***These views are my own and should not be taken necessarily to reflect the
views of my employer***
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