May I take advantage of the list to sound out colleagues about a proposal that has been put to me.
The records of Devon Quarter Sessions include a series of maimed soldiers' petitions for annuities, 1660-1695 (mostly relating to Civil War injuries). I had always naively assumed that these could be found in all QS collections, but this appears not to be the case. However, a quick search of A2A suggests that there are collections of petitions and related papers in Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Gwynedd, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire, and a group at the National Library of Wales. There are probably others lurking among QS rolls which A2A doesn't pick up.
These papers are of obvious interest to students of the English Civil War and its aftermath, and a colleague in the HE sector has asked me whether a national project to digitize them would be likely to receive support from local record offices. The plan would be to seek funding from, for example, the AHRC and recruit a team to tour the country and produce digital images. The cost to local offices would therefore be negligible or non-existent, though some arrangements would need to be made to accommodate portable scanning equipment for a limited period.
So that I can give some meaningful feedback, it would be very useful to know from colleagues
(a) whether there are collections of these records which are not on A2A or otherwise generally known about, and
(b) whether in principle you would be happy for some people with a digital camera to come and make copies of them.
Thanks and best wishes,
John Draisey
County Archivist
Devon Record Office
Great Moor House
Bittern Road
Sowton
Exeter EX2 7NL
Tel: 01392 384253
Fax: 01392 384256
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Web site: http://www.devon.gov.uk/record_office.htm
Devon County Council web site: http://www.devon.gov.uk
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