Add Ch 75505-75519

THE CAXTON DEEDS. Fifteen deeds relating to the Caxton family of Little Wratting, co. Suff. It has been suggested that the William Caxton referred to in these deeds is William Caxton the printer, but this hypothesis cannot be conclusively substantiated. See further R. Holworthy, 'The Caxton Deeds', in catalogue of exhibition of books at the Town Hall, Tenterden, 1951 (a copy of this catalogue is Add. MS. 71098 C); T. C. Skeat, 'The Caxton Deeds', B.M.Q., xxviii, 1964, pp. 12-15, where the arguments for and against any identification with Caxton the printer are clearly summarised; N. F. Blake, 'William Caxton and Suffolk', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, xxix, part 2, 1962, pp. 139-53, where the deeds are fully calendared, and 'William Caxton and Suffolk: a supplement', ibid., xxx, part 1, 1964, pp. 112-15; J. Backhouse, J. Barr and M. Foot, William Caxton, British Library, 1976, no. 1. These deeds were first discovered in 1922 by Richard Holworthy, afterwards Archivist to Kent County Council, among the muniments of Edward Turnour, 7th Earl Winterton, at Shillinglee Park, co. Sussex. Lord Winterton was a descendant of Henry Turnour of Haverhill, who acquired the manor of Little Wratting in the late 15th century. In 1941, the deeds were sold, at Holworthy's instigation, by Lord Winterton to the bookseller Alan Keen, who in the following year sold them to James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, acting on behalf of Kemsley Newspapers Ltd. In 1942, Kemsley Newspapers placed the deeds on deposit in the British Museum as Loan MS. 25. In 1962, Roy Thomson, Esq., afterwards Lord Thomson of Fleet, who had purchased Kemsley Newspapers in 1952, presented the deeds to the British Museum. Two further deeds from the same group, dated 1450 and 1456, were sold at Sotheby's, 28 Nov. 1961, lot 538, for £35 to C. W. Traylen Ltd. of Guildford, who in turn sold them to Francis Edwards Ltd. They were purchased from Edwards by Harold Charles Gilbert (Harley) Drayton, the financier, who intended presenting them to a 'Museum for the Eastern Counties' which he hoped to establish. These supplementary deeds are dated 1450 and 1456; neither mentions William Caxton. The second is the quitclaim linked with Add. Ch. 75516. They are described in detail in Blake, 'William Caxton and Suffolk', p. 153, and Blake, 'William Caxton and Suffolk: a supplement'. The supplementary deeds were purchased by Lord Kemsley with the main group in 1942, but for some reason were not deposited in the Museum, although they were seen at the Museum together with the main group of charters by Sir Henry Thomas, Principal Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, at this time: see further, Blake, 'William Caxton and Suffolk: a supplement'. Drayton died in 1966; the present whereabouts of the two supplementary deeds is not known. A calendar of the present deeds drawn up in 1942 (by Holworthy?), a copy of the catalogue of the 1951 Tenterden exhibition and a set of photographs of the deeds made by Kemsley Newspapers, originally placed with the Caxton Deeds, have now been incorporated as Add. MS. 71098 A-C. Presented, with Add. MS. 71098 A-C, by Lord Thomson of Fleet, 14 July 1962.