General
For an overview of the scope of the catalogue, see the
About page.
The catalogue is a work in progress. All the Wolley Charters are
described and no new data remains to be added, but further editing and
standardisation of names may be expected to facilitate searching.
It is not yet possible to cross-search the Catalogue of Wolley
Charters in conjunction with other British Library databases.
For other manuscript material in British Library collections
relating to Derbyshire, its neighbouring counties and families, see Manuscripts
Online Catalogue at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts.html
However, please note that at present descriptions of only a few of the
manuscripts bequeathed with the charters by Adam Wolley (Additional MSS
6666-6718) are included there. Summary records for the rest of the collection
will be added later in 2005.
Quick search
Enter a single term (word or number), a hyphenated term, two
consecutive terms or terms joined by 'and', 'or' 'and not'.
For place and personal names, you may enter either the modern
spelling or a variant.
Truncate with a * if you are uncertain of the spelling.
Capital letters and quotation marks are not required.
| e.g. |
duckmanton |
| |
fleur-de-lis |
| |
john statham |
| |
jeayes and 2219 |
| |
french and not vellum |
| |
pierrepo* |
If your search terms are matched anywhere in the description,
even if they are in different parts of the record, an extract will be displayed
on the Search Result screen. Click on the Wolley Charter number to see the full
record.
Advanced Search
On the Advanced Search screen, you can direct your search to
particular parts of the record. You may enter search terms in more than one
box.
Charter Ref. No.
If you know the number of the charter in the Wolley Collection,
enter it here as a lower case roman number, followed by a full stop and an
arabic number.
e.g. ix.37
Personal names are recorded in the form found in the document,
but where the same person or family occurs with different spellings elsewhere
in the collection, or where the modern form of name can be established with
certainty, variants are being added in brackets to facilitate searching. Please
note that whilst most of grantor and grantee names have been edited in this
way, work on the witness names is still in progress.
Enter surname, forename or both, combining and truncating with*
as for the Quick search.
| e.g. |
sacheverell or saucheverel |
| |
ralph sacheverell |
| |
bakep* |
In medieval names, two key components may not be searchable as
adjacent terms. For example Richard son of Adam de Stanton will be found by
entering 'Richard and Stanton' but not by entering 'Richard Stanton'.
Click in the appropriate box to search Witness, Grantor or
Grantee names separately or together.
Browsing names
Alternatively, click on Browse indexes of names to see lists of
the personal names of witnesses, grantors and grantees arranged in alphabetical
order and displaying variant spellings which appear in the documents.
To jump to a chosen point in the alphabet, click the appropriate
letter on the heading bar.
Click on a name to copy it to the Name box on the Advanced search
screen, then click the Search button.
Place
Place names are entered in their modern form if known. You are
advised to search on this form for parishes and larger geographical units.
Original spellings with their modern equivalents are recorded in the Full list
of places.
| e.g. |
kingsmead |
| |
kirk hallom |
| |
ashley* |
Place names occur frequently in this catalogue as components of
personal names. If you are seeking a place as the subject of a transaction you
may retrieve some unwanted hits.
The Place name search option targets those names which occur in
the Contents field, not the Full list of places. If you wish to search on the
original spelling of a place name in the Full list, you should use the Quick
search option.
Year
To search on a single year, enter the same date in both boxes as
start and end date.
e.g. 1574 to 1574
To search on a span of years, enter corresponding start and end
dates.
e.g. 1300 to 1320
To search for everything before a certain date, leave the first
box empty and enter the date in the second box.
e.g. to 1190
To search for everything after a certain date, enter the date in
the first box and leave the second box empty.
e.g. 1700 to
It is not possible to search accurately on regnal years.
Type of document
Enter a term (in the singular) describing the type of document.
Remember that you can combine this with other elements in the
Advanced search
| e.g. |
Type of document |
|
release |
| |
Year |
|
1230 to 1270 |
Content
Enter any word or words which you would expect to find in the Content
description. This free text search will find keywords which are not proper
names and do not occur elsewhere in the record. It will also find field
boundaries etc. in their original spellings.
| e.g. |
water-mill |
| |
peppercorn and rent |
| |
dyngley bank |
Language
Enter one or more languages in full.
| e.g. |
french |
| |
latin and english |
Medium
The medium is the material on which the charter is written. In
this collection, the medium is either paper or vellum [used for all types of
animal skin].
Bibliography
Use this field to search for charters mentioned in selected
secondary sources such as Birch's Catalogue of Seals.
e.g. birch
Seal
Enter words relating to the colour, method of attachment, device,
owner etc.
| e.g. |
brown wax |
| |
embossed |
| |
wyvern* |
| |
ralph pippard |
Failed searches
Some common reason why searches fail are:
Typing errors and variant spellings.
Use the Modify search button and try again.
Forename and surname are not adjacent.
Insert 'and' between the elements and try again.
Some elements of medieval names treated as adjuncts rather
than surnames.
Insert 'and' between key elements and try again.
Not all personal names are standardised in modern or
preferred form [witness lists are only partially edited].
Use Browse list to identify variants.
Advanced place name search does not retrieve all toponyms
or original spellings.
Enter search term in Quick search and try again.
Quick search retrieves too many hits.
Use Advanced search to target or combine fields and refine name search by
function.
The Wolley Charters do not refer to the persons or places sought.
Contact details
If you have any queries about the content or use of this
catalogue, please contact
Rachel Stockdale
Department of Manuscripts
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London, NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7749
Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 7787
Email: rachel.stockdale@bl.uk
If you wish to purchase reproductions of Wolley Charters, please
see http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/reproduction.html