Victoria County History - Huntingdonshire
A History of the County of Huntingdon: Volume 2
Pages xvii-xviii
A History of the County of Huntingdon: Volume 2. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1932.
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The editors desire to express their thanks to all those who have helped to make this volume complete, particularly to the Earl of Sandwich for access to his valuable collection of family papers, without which the later Parliamentary History of the County could not have been written with the completeness that has been attempted. The editors wish to express their obligation to Prof. L. B. Namier, M.A., for calling their attention to the importance of this collection, and for notes and advice for this article which closely follows the theories which Prof. Namier has set out in his works. They also thank Prof. J. E. Neale, M.A., for reading the proofs of the article and offering suggestions. They are indebted to Mr. R. M. Osborne, J.P., for the loan of Pettis' Survey of St. Ives; and to Mr. J. W. Winter, town clerk of Huntingdon, Mr. G. Dennis Day, M.A., LL.B., town clerk of St. Ives, and Mr. Fred. Searle, mayor of Godmanchester, for giving facilities for examining the records under their charge and otherwise supplying valuable information. To Mr. S. C. Ratcliff thanks are due for notes regarding the office of Lord-Lieutenant of the county.
For assistance by reading proofs, giving information, and other means, the editors wish to make acknowledgment to the Earl of Crawford, K.T., F.R.S., the Rev. T. H. W. Clapton, B.A., Mr. R. H. Edleston, F.S.A., Mr. H. C. Elgood, Mr. C. A. Elgood, Mr. Fred. Harvey, Mr. Reginald L. Hine, F.S.A., Mrs. Macleod, the Rev. T. Outram Marshall, B.A., Miss G. M. Peete, Mr. Fred. W. Pym, Mr. John Ramply, Mr. George Fydell Rowley, D.L., J.P., Mr. C. F. Tebbutt, Mr. David Vesey, Mr. F. M. Warren, J.P., Col. Rt. Hon. Josiah C. Wedgwood, M.P., D.S.O., Mr. George G. G. Wheeler, and the Rev. Oscar Wade Wilde, M.A.
Acknowledgment is also due to Mr. S. Herbert Wood for the loan of the engraving from which the frontispiece has been made; to the Rev. H. T. Havard-Jones, M.A., for the loan of a map; to the late Mrs. Emery for permission to reproduce several old drawings; to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments and the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office for permission to reproduce architectural plans of several churches; and to the Cambridge and Huntingdon Archæological Society for the loan of blocks. With a few excecptions the photographs are by Mr. G. H. Tyndall, of Ely.
Since the publication of the first volume, the History has sustained severe losses by the deaths of Mr. Herbert Ellis Norris, F.Z.S., the Rev. Canon W. M. Noble, B.A., and Mr. John Brownbill, M.A. Mr. Norris, whose name appeared on the title-page of the first volume, began as a boy to collect manuscripts, books, pictures, newspaper cuttings, and literary and historical material of every kind relating to Huntingdonshire. Thus for nearly sixty years the collection and arrangement of this material became the absorbing recreation of his life and made him an authority on the history of the county. He was a frequent contributor to Notes and Queries and to the local press, and author of several of the Hunts. Occasional Sketches. He further compiled a bibliography of Hunts. books, etc., mainly derived from his own collection. He generously gave the editors of the History full access to this store of information. He read the proofs of the first volume of the History and would have given similar help with regard to the present volume, had not failing health prevented him. He left his collections to his native town of St. Ives, where they are being carefully preserved for the use of future historians of the county. Canon Noble was ever ready to help historical students and had a profound knowledge of the history of Huntingdonshire, especially on genealogical subjects, gleaned from exhaustive studies of ancient wills, parish registers and other similar documents. He was to have written the histories of some of the parishes in this volume, but ill-health prevented his completion of any, except that of his own parish of Wistow. Mr. Brownbill's connection with the Victoria History of the Counties of England is of long standing; as early as 1904 he became associated with Dr. William Farrer in the editorship of the volumes for Lancashire, where his special interest lay, and since then he had more or less continuously helped with the work of the History. He did not live to correct all the proofs of the work he did for this volume. His shy and unassuming disposition militated against the recognition which his work merited.