Category Archives: Uncategorized

This year, Easter falls early with Good Friday being celebrated on the 25th March.  This date has other significance, as, prior to 1752, it marked the first day of the new year, roughly coinciding with the spring equinox.  It is known as … Continue reading →

What has caught my eye recently has been the accounts sent to Sir Bellingham, 5th Baronet, concerning the education of his two daughters, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Catherine (Kitty) Graham between 1776-1779. As you can see, from one example below, the two … Continue reading →

A popular hobby during the nineteenth century was the collecting of autographs; within the Graham Family papers there is a good example of this, an Autograph Album, thought to have belonged to Sir Bellingham Graham 7th Bt. The album contains … Continue reading →

Amongst the papers of Mary Shiffner,(1815-1894), who was the fondly regarded Mother-in-Law of Sir Reginald, 8th Baronet, there survives a delightful fortune-telling style Victorian parlour game, which is charming in its simplicity.  Twelve different questions have been posed on a different piece … Continue reading →

The Graham family papers also include those belonging to the Cage and Slingsby families who had been resident at Kippax Hall, West Yorkshire and received a regular income from the coal mined there.  Elizabeth Cage died without issue in 1710 and … Continue reading →

This week, project volunteers have been continuing apace, working through various tasks connected with the Graham family papers; from cleaning filthy deeds with smoke sponges, sorting more vouchers and correspondence, to transcribing an inventory of the effects of Sir Henry Ingram, … Continue reading →

One of the most interesting elements of any archive collection is seeing how other people go about their daily business and what things are of interest.  I was charmed to read, in a letter from William Todd to Sir Reginald Graham … Continue reading →

This morning I popped in and wished a Happy New Year to the local Latin Group. Currently, they’re transcribing and translating one of the Court Rolls for the Manor of Kippax, located to the north of Pontefract. We discussed several questions, but the one which set the detective hound … Continue reading →

It’s been a perfect opportunity in the lead up to Christmas to invite project volunteers to attend a Thank-you lunch for all their hard work over the year, thus acknowledging their contribution and providing an opportunity to meet other people working on different aspects … Continue reading →

Whilst the project volunteers have been making steady progress on the estate vouchers and the papers of Sir Guy, Lady Katherine, Sir Richard and Lady Beatrice this week, I’ve been very self indulgent; going through some earlier material which has … Continue reading →