Fifty earliest English wills in the Court of Probate, London : A. D. 1387-1439 : with a priest's of 1454 / copied and edited from the original registers in Somerset House by Frederick J. Furnivall

TO
J. CHALLENOR SMITH, ESQ.,
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT FOR LITERARY ENQUIRY, IN THE REGISTRY OF THE COURT OF PROBATE, SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON.

MY DEAR SIR,

You will remember how the Wills in this little volume came to be copied.

You had, and have, in the Probate Court those twenty-eight Boxes of Inventories of Testators' goods which the Executors and Administrators of our Forefathers were bound to exhibit to the former Officers of the Archbp. of Canterbury. Among these Inventories we Shakspereans always hoped to find those of SHAKSPERE and his fellows, and all other Worthies of the great Eliza's reign. And since I first saw the Boxes and their contents at Doctors' Commons some dozen years ago, I always meant to have a turn at them. Opportunity at length being favourable, I got leave in the spring of 1881, from the kind and enlightend Judge and Chief of your Court, Sir James Hannen, to test these Inventories, and see whether Shakspere's was likely to be among them. If it was, I intended to get money from the Treasury or by subscription, for making and printing a Calendar of these documents.

The Inventories could of course only be handled by an Officer of the Probate Court; and on you was put the dusty,

dirty, and tiresome job of diving into, and picking out from, all parts of the twenty-eight Boxes, samples of the little and big rolld-up Inventories that each contained; then unrolling them, and showing them to me. The work lasted for four months.

The kindness and patience that you exhibited in this wearisome and annoying task,—which yielded such a poor result, [About 3 per cent. of the Inventories were of the 15th and 16th centuries; the rest were all after 1660. Not one of Shakspere's time turnd up, tho' that of his granddaughter's surviving husband, Sir John Barnard, was found. I've printed it for the New Shakspere Society.] —and the knowledge of men, of places, and things which you displayd, won my warm admiration and gratitude.

You laid me under further obligation by telling me all the earliest English Wills in the Registry, of which you had long before made a list, in the faith that I, or some grubber of like kind, would turn up and ask where he should go to work.

Whenever, then, you were prevented, by other official calls and attending to other searchers, from unrolling dirty little bundles of Inventories for me, I—with your help in difficult bits—copied the Wills you told me of; and here they are in print, dedicated, by Sir James Hannen's leave, [He will not of course see this Dedication till a copy of this little volume is sent him.] to you, an Officer of whom he and his whole Court may well be proud. I but speak the opinion of the late Colonel Chester—the best authority in the world—as well as of every other frequenter of your Room, when I say that you are an admirable Head of your Department, courteous, helpful, learned, and efficient.

Would that I could say that Department was in a state worthy of you, your Chief, Sir James, and the Royal Court of Probate of England.

You have in that Court, Wills needful for the family and

social history of England. There are many men and women wishing to work at them. What does the Treasury give you for the purpose? One underground and badly-lighted room in which only 6 folk can work at once. The consequence is, that, with your many applicants, you can often give a worker only 3 or 2 days a week for his work, and he cannot go regularly in for it.

The Manuscript room at the British Museum is bad enough; but your Enquiry room is far worse. If only Sir James had the old power of torture, and could apply thumbscrews or racks to all the Lords of the Treasury—I'd let the First Lord off, tho—he would soon set matters to rights, and give you a room worthy of your Department and his Court. But the Museum is now building a proper MS. room. And so I trust the Treasury will speedily follow suit at Somerset House; put you up a handsome Library for your workers, make you a Keeper, with the Museum-Keepers' salary, and then let you compile and print a Catalog of the Inventories. [There are of course no end of other Wills and Documents in the Registry that need calendaring or cataloging. The Treasury is in no way alive to the urgent wants of this Office or the Record Office.]

Again thanking you heartily for your help and kindness, and wishing you happiness and health,

I am, Very truly yours,F. J. FURNIVALL.

3, St. George's Square, Primrose Hill, N.W. December 4, 1882.