Add MS 74083

Walpole Papers. Vol. cccxiv. ( ff.). John Relfe [ Rolfe ? ]: Bound vol., compilation of notes on parliamentary practice and procedures ( for instance: " Of adjourning Prorogueing and dissolving Parliaments ", p.47 ), with precedents and chronological lists of some Parliamentary officers such as Speakers, and lists, with dates, of events such as addresses to the sovereign, royal speeches on the opening of Parliament, etc.. The great majority of entries date from the 17th cent.; entries stop at the Queen's Speech to Parliament, 25 May 1702 ( p.188 ) and the last note seems to have been made after 2 July and before 20 August 1702 ( p.304v ). " E libris Joh[ann]is Relfe" written on the first page, and much of the text and notes are in the same hand; the same hand is found in J. Rolfe to O. Le Neve ( 1706; Egerton MS 2720, f. 315 ). Little is known of the writer except that he appears to have lived in Norfolk. The writer/ owner may have been Jonas Rolfe, ( b. 1677, d. 1725 ), Town Clerk of Lynn 1711, and father of Edmund, later election agent for Sir Robert Walpole. Two other hands at least can be found ( p.18 ) in the marginal notes; an instruction to another in J. Rolfe's hand to copy an entry is to be found on p. 27; a number of the entries have been deleted and/or corrected. Marginal numberings, markings and notes. Entries have been numbered in the margins. The manuscript is probably a working document, rather than a first draft, and has been compiled with reference to the journals of both Houses of Parliament ( pp. 18, 185 ). Possibly compiled for the guidance of an M.P., a lawyer with parliamentary business, such as Jonas Rolfe, or of an official of either House. Vellum covers; a number of blank pages; paginated, including blanks; loose index partly in the main hand found in the volume inserted near the beginning of the volume; marginal notes; [ circa late 17th cent.- 1702 ].