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Arthur Agarde, Elizabethan Archivist: His Contributions to the Evolution Of THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST Arthur Agarde, Elizabethan Archivist: His Contributions to the Evolution of Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/61/1/56/2749714/aarc_61_1_j347t26600p5246q.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Archival Practice Maggie Yax Abstract In his various capacities as deputy chamberlain of the Exchequer, antiquary, scholar, and writer, Arthur Agarde (1540-1615) played an integral role in Elizabethan society—a society in which recordkeeping activities and use certainly reflected the political climate. The rise of England as a nation-state not only created a spirit of insular nationalism but also en- gendered political, religious, and legal controversies. During this era, antiquarian scholars increasingly consulted Britain's vast accumulation of documents to research the past and help settle debates. This dramatic growth in the use of historical records pointed out the need for improved recordkeeping procedures. An examination of Agarde's life and career reveals his contributions to an evolving archival practice, especially in description, arrange- ment, and preservation. n 1540 Henry VIII was on the throne of England and the Abbey of Wal- tham had finally relinquished its property to the Crown.1 The dissolution of monasteries was nearing completion. That same year, Arthur Agarde, I 2 son of Clement, was born at Foston in Derbyshire. The details of his early life and education are not clearly known; however, speculations suggest he may have been educated at Cambridge3 and/or one of the Inns of Chancery.4 What is certain is that Agarde was educated for the law but left the legal profession for a career as clerk and deputy chamberlain in the King's Treas- 1 Roger Lockyer, Tudor and Stuart Britain 1471-1714 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964), 78. 2 The Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Agarde, Arthur." * The Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Agarde, Arthur." 4R. J. Schoeck, "The Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries and Men of Law," Notes and Queries 199 (1954): 418. 56 The American Archivist, Vol. 61 (Spring 1998) ARTHUR A GARDE, ELIZABETHAN ARCHIVIST ury, commonly called the Exchequer.5 During his tenure there, he described and arranged hundreds of public records housed in the Treasury. Agarde's descriptions improved the state of British records and contributed to an evolv- ing archival practice. Two factors necessitated an improvement of record- keeping activities: the proliferation of English records throughout preceding Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/61/1/56/2749714/aarc_61_1_j347t26600p5246q.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 centuries, and an increased interest in their use for historical and scholarly purposes as well as administrative functions in Tudor England. Agarde's life spanned seventy-five years of British history, during which time changes occurred rapidly. Five monarchs ruled—Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and James I. As early modern England and a growing sense of nationalism emerged, religion, politics, and scholarship were in tur- moil. Religion fluctuated from Henry's Reformation to Mary's devotion to the Catholic Church, and back again to the Church of England; politicos rose to power and fell from favor overnight; William Camden wrote his history of England, Britannia; Shakespeare was writing great drama; and the Society of Antiquaries was founded as scholars increasingly looked to the past. The unprecedented developing awareness of England as a nation-state required a "science of statecraft" based on evidence and models from historical docu- ments.6 In Tudor England, "scholars, churchmen, and statesmen. .were con- cerned with establishing their new world on newly denned foundations, but these foundations had themselves to be recognizably a part of the ancient world of classical or Biblical antiquity."7 There was no dearth of resources to consult in building a new foundation from historical models because the preceding centuries had produced many thousands of documents. The period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the end of Edward I's reign in 1307 has been identified as significant in the history of English records. A shift from reliance on memory and the oral tradition to the written word as witness took place in England during this time. Those two-and-one- half centuries also saw the production, retention, and use of records multiply dramatically, a growth which may be both an indication and a consequence of the spread of literacy.8 Prior to 1066, records were preserved only if they found their way into an ecclesiastical archives, and though secular documents had little chance of surviving, they probably contributed much to the creation 5 Thomas Hearne, ed., A Collection of Curious Discourses Written by Eminent Antiquaries. (London, 1775), 2:421. 6 Philip Styles, "Politics and Historical Research in the Early Seventeenth Century," in English Historical Scholarship in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, edited by Levi Fox (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 49. 7 Stuart Piggott, "Antiquarian Thought in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," in Fox, English Historical Scholarship in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 98. 8 M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066-1307, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Black- well Publishers, 1993), 1. 57 THE AMERICAN ARCHIVIST of Domesday Book in 1086.9 The few existing archives and records were housed mostly in churches and consulted occasionally for scholarly purposes10 or early administrative uses.11 One notable result of using records to write his- tories was the Venerable Bede's church history in the eighth century. Throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages, the creation and preservation Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/61/1/56/2749714/aarc_61_1_j347t26600p5246q.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 of records increased and resulted in a growth of both secular and ecclesias- tical archives.12 The roots of the proliferation of English documentation seem to lie in the production of Domesday Book. This survey, conducted by William the Con- queror to measure the extent and value of English property-holdings, was the first major endeavor to put administrative concerns in writing,13 although some earlier efforts can be found. Nonetheless, the appearance of Domesday Book set a precedent. The next century saw the establishment by Henry I of the Exchequer, whose financial activities produced numerous records in a variety of forms such as wooden tallies and large rolls of parchment called the "pipe rolls."14 M. T. Clanchy maintains that these twelfth-century pipe rolls marked the birth of bureaucracy.15 A further development in English recordkeeping activities can be attrib- uted to Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury and a court official in the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries. Walter was the first to deliberately order the creation of multiple copies of a document. The sole purpose of Walter's mandated third copy, called the "foot of fine," was for preservation in the Exchequer. This has been identified as the inaugural set of records made strictly for archival reasons, and it may be the success of Walter's feet of fines series which prompted the government to make copies of royal letters for addition to what might be called, anachronistically, the archives.16 One can cite several other examples up to and including the quo warranto pro- ceedings, another large survey taken during the reign of Edward I for ad- ministrative purposes. The recording of this survey, and that of Domesday Book, marked an era of substantial growth in records production. 9 Susan Kelley, "Anglo-Saxon Lay Society and the Written Word," in The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe, edited by Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 45, 51. '"James Gregory Bradsher and Michele F. Pacifico, "A History of Archives Administration," in Man- aging Archives and Archival Institutions, edited by James Gregory Bradsher (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 22. 11 Simon Keynes, "Royal Government and the Written Word in Late Anglo-Saxon England," in McKitterick, The Uses of Literacy in Early Mediaeval Europe, 226-56. 12 Bradsher and Pacifico, "A History of Archives Administration," 22. 13 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 26. 14 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 57. 15 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 35. 16 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 68-69. 58 ARTHUR AGARDE, ELIZABETHAN ARCHIVIST As records accumulated during this period as well as others, little was done to organize or inventory the thousands of documents lying and multi- plying in palace and monastery alike. Prior to the sixteenth century, systems for the organization and retrieval of information to enhance use were far more difficult to create than the records themselves.17 Some indexes were Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/61/1/56/2749714/aarc_61_1_j347t26600p5246q.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 made, such as those to parliamentary statutes and other law books created near the end of Edward Fs reign.18 Other early efforts to enhance access to records included the production of cartularies, collections of charters copied into registers. Though these terms were sometimes used interchangeably, registers grew to have a broader meaning as copying and listing various doc- uments took several forms.19 Most medieval efforts to assist
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