The Dodsworth MSS consist of 160 bundles or volumes of transcripts, notes, family trees and so on. They are not a primary historical source as such but may in some instances be the the best source now available.
The volumes are numbered from 1-160 except that there is no number 77. It has of course been common to refer to them in Roman numerals I - CLX rather than 1-160.
These are the same as / correspond to (but not exactly in the same order) to Bodleian Library MSS 4143-4199 and 5000- 5101 (numbers 4200 - 4999 not being used).
If you think this is bad enough, now consider that Dodsworth's own system was entirely different.
He grouped his documents in largely alphabetical sequences:- A through Z followed by AA through ZZ, then AAA through ZZZ and continuing with letters in circles, letters in squares, and letters in triangles. As Joseph Hunter noted, though these sequences were themselves incomplete, placing the items in a different order breaks the continuity and causes confusion.
An especially useful volume for anyone interested in the Beaumonts - of Whitley - is no. 133 corresponding to 5074 in the Bodleian series and letter K in Dodsworth's own system. These appear to be notes Dodsworth took when he visited Whitley Hall in August 1629.
I wondered whether R.H. Beaumont (of Whitley, 1749-1810, the antiquary) had had any hand in the cataloguing? He certainly spent time at Oxford and used information from the Dodsworth MSS. But I think the numbering was already done long before his time, and when he refers to Dodsworth's MSS (for example in the 1796 Family Tree in this archive) he uses the number sequence 1-160.
Many of the 160 "volumes" comprise well over 100 pages or folios, and I have no doubt that fairly often more than one item (such as a summary of a deed or will) is placed on a page. There are some original indexes, and there are several catalogues available but I have found none which is in any sense complete.
However, some extracts and copies were made, and these have the advantages (a) of being arranged topgraphically, by Wapentake (eg Agbrigg), and (b) of being easily available online. No doubt some errors have been made as is almost inevitable when a large amount of text is copied out, so these (being copies of copies) are even less of a primary source. But they are certainly useful.
We can also use the West Yorkshire Archives online catalogue of surviving Whitley deeds, where we can see for example:-
- that some but perhaps not all of the documents Dodsworth saw there in 1629 still exist,
- that some which one would expect to have interested him, are still there, and yet it seems he did not note them.
References:
For the MSS themselves:
Falconer Madan, Summary Catalogue of Western MSS in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1937), vol. ii, part ii, covers the Dodsworth MSS (4143-5101) on p.865 to p.961.
For Dodsworth's system:- Joseph Hunter, Three Catalogues..., (1838) p.77.... and Hunter's notes against each item (I-CLX) are important, as not everything there was noted in Falconer Madan's catalogue, though in general terms Hunter's notes are less full.
An old catalogue:- Bernard, Catalogi librorum Manuscriptorum Angliae at Hiberniae (Oxford, 1697), vol. 1 pp.187-233.
For the topographical transcripts:-
Catalogue of the Harleian MSS (1808), vol. 1 pp. 443-444:- MSS 793-804. Agbrigg is in 803.
Yorkshire Arch Journal, volumes 6, 7, and 8 for the Agbrigg items, and a reprint issued in 1884 by the Yorks. Arch. & Top, Assn.
The Agbrigg deeds etc noted show, against each, the source using Dodsworth's system, with headings showing typically where each item was found. It would appear that the numbers indicate folio or page numbers. I have not checked this widely but deeds seen at Whitley Hall are in "K" Series with numbers between about 85-149, generally corresponding to those folio numbers in Dodsw. MS. 133 and 5074 in the other system.
Enjoy!
EMB July 2020
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