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Description: | The original owner of this pocket book can be identified with a fair degree of certainty. It is a small leather-bound Gallen Almanack and prognostication for 1646 with a number of tables of information and a calendar and with three blank pages for each month. Intermittent entries have been made up to 17 Oct, after this a brief record has been jotted down for almost every day. There are also notes of monies received and memoranda on the flyleaves.
The owner was of parliamentarian sympathies and to judge by the entries regarding the surrender of Newark at the beginning of May, a fairly influential one.
"[May] 4 To the leaguer at N about the Treaty.
enterd the Treaty
5 Continued it: The king came privately to the Scotch Commanders at Kellam.
6 Treaty ended N agreed to be surrendred
7 Met with L Bellas: enterd the Towne
8 Newarke yeuilded up: entred the Towne,
Returned to Lincolne
9 with Mr Rayner, Farnols, Perkins: Committee: The king marched with the Scots to Newcastle"
This strongly suggests that the writer was a member of the County Committee: that he had borne arms is suggested by the entry for 20 June "Disbanded and Reduced our foote Regt."
The entries at the end of the year while the owner was in London frequently note work in chambers and sometimes the number of clients and there are occasional entries as "sealed Mr Saltmarshs articles" (14 Dec) showing that he was a lawyer. There are references to Committees with Sir Antony Irby and others (e.g. 11 & 18 Dec) and the diarist dined at various dates with Sir John and Sir William Brownlow, Colonel King and Colonel Rossiter among others, which reinforces the suggestion of close association with the County Committee for Lincolnshire.
A list of chief rents received on 11 September, written in at the front of the book gives the names of several tenants who are to be associated with Great Ponton, in particular "of Thomas Rastell for 4 yeares chiefe rent for the house he bought of John Aiscough". The conveyance of a house and land in Great Ponton from John & James Aiscough to Thomas Rastell in 1638 is LD/88/18/20. The lord of the manor was John Archer, son of Henry Archer of Theydon Garnon, Essex, who had purchased the manor by 1615. John was born in 1598, entered Gray's Inn in 1617 and was called to the bar in 1620. He was MP for Essex 1656 and subsequently serjeant (1658) and justice of the Common Bench (1659, quashed 1660, appointed by Charles II in 1663. In the latter year he was knighted). His chief claim to fame is his subsequent refusal to surrender office at the request of Charles II and he remained judge until his death in 1682, despite a royal prohibition against the exercise of his office. Although born and buried at Theydon Garnon and an MP for Essex he had strong connections with Lincolnshire and was a member of the Committee fot the County from its inception in Feb 1643.
There are a number of entries which support the contention that John Archer was the owner of the pocket book. On the back flyleaf is jotted a list of memoranda "3 of leasing Downer's farme" In 1634 Anne Archer, widow, conveyed to her son John a messuage and farm in Great Ponton tenanted by Edward Downer [LD/88/9/2]. Several references in the diary are to Colonel [Edward] Rossiter a member of the County Committee and one of the commanders of the force besieging Newark in 1646, and include that of his marriage on 25 June. When Sir Edward Rosseter of Somerby made his will in 1661 he named Serjeant Archer as one of his Supervisors [LD/88/30/3]. Likewise, the diarist mentions Cosin Saville. The Savilles of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were an extensive and involved clan, but it may be noted that John Archer's first wife was Margaret youngest daughter of Sir George Saville, first baronet of Thornhill.
Another factor which supports the identification is the manner in which the muniments of the Archer-Houblon family including those of the Newtons of Barrs Court and Culverthorpe have been scattered and have now been deposited in groups of various size in the Gloucester, Bristol, Berkshire and Essex Record Offices as well as at Lincoln. Unfortunately, the papers now in the MONSON collection and BRA 288 and LD/88 do not include any in the hand of John Archer with which a comparison can be made, other than some extremely neat signatures on title deeds. These are in striking contrast to the crabbed and occasionally indecipherable writing in the pocket book. | Temporal: | 1646 | Source: | Lincolnshire County Council | Identifier: | http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/Re... | Go to resource |
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