Issue 10, Summer 2018 Kent Archives is set for a busy summer. In this edition of our newsletter we introduce you to our joint project with Findmypast to digitise our parish register collection. The image in our header is from the first Cranbrook parish composite register [ref. P100/1/A/1], and is just one of the thousands of registers that will be digitised. We are also in the middle of transferring the remaining historic records of the Diocese of Canterbury from Canterbury Cathedral Archives to the Kent History and Library Centre to join its probate records, which have been held by Kent Archives since 1946. At the same time, archive cataloguing of one of Maidstone’s major papermaking collections is nearly complete; further World War I commemorative activities are underway; and work continues on the Catalogue Transfer Project and Manorial Documents Register Project for Kent. Document in Detail: Diocese of Canterbury Medieval Fragments [DCb/PRC/50/5] Mark Ballard, Archive Service Officer Among many other records of great value within the records of Canterbury Diocese are the ‘medieval fragments’ [DCb/PRC/49 and DCb/PRC/50], which in the post-Reformation period came to be used as covers, or ‘end-parchments’, for the probate registers. If we can judge by the dates of the act books and wills and inventories registers they covered, this recycling became a habit during the episcopate of Archbishop Matthew Parker (1559-1575). It is perhaps ironic that at precisely the time that Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, probably both closet Roman Catholics, were still being employed to write motets for the Chapel Royal, such disrespectful treatment was being accorded at Canterbury to their medieval predecessors. But just as whitewashing over medieval church wall-paintings has, in the long run, protected as well as obscured them, this has enabled musical notation to survive which otherwise might have been binned, burnt, stolen or simply lost. Many of the fragments contain musical notation, and one remarkable example is DCb/PRC/50/5. On one side is Detail of the ‘Descendi in ortum meum’, with elaborate initial D two voices from a motet, 'O cipressus', dated c1430-40 by and decorative dragon, contained in DCb/PRC/50/5. Professor Brian Trowell. On the other side is part (not all) of a setting of 'Descendi in ortum meum', the text of an Antiphon for the Procession after Trinity Sunday. This leaf was employed in the re-binding of the very first wills register of Canterbury consistory court, DCb/PRC 32/1 (in use from 1396 to 1455). When in the 1960s another fragment, part of an illuminated psalter found entirely separately, was sold at Sotheby’s to the British Museum, Margaret and Ian Bent identified within it the two missing voices of the same antiphon, and attributed the whole to the great early 15th century composer John Dunstaple, a piece of joinery which must strike a layman as the most astounding musicological feat. Digitisation of Kent’s Parish Registers with Findmypast Jonathan Barker, Archive Collections Officer A joint project between Kent Archives and the popular online genealogy website Findmypast is currently un- derway to digitise and make available online the parish registers held at the Kent History and Library. The project will cover registers dating from as early as 1538 to 1918, and includes records of baptisms, marriag- es, banns and burials. It is anticipated that the images will be available to be viewed online at Findmypast from January 2019, and will be free to access in the archive searchroom and across all of Kent's ninety-nine libraries. Once complete, the images will complement the 2.5 million digitised Canterbury Archdeaconry par- ish records held at Canterbury Cathedral Archives that Findmypast have already released. The Project When we were planning the project, our priority was that we would not compromise on the quality of the im- ages. Other archives have opted to digitally scan their old black and white microfilm to make their collections available online quickly, but this was not something we wanted to do, as microfilm is often old and of variable quality. Kent Archives would create completely new, high quality, full colour digital images from the original records. It was also very important that Kent County Council retained the intellectual property rights over the digital images, so the decision was taken to digitise the registers in house. This was not an easy decision to make, as it would have been far simpler to allow another company to do this for us. However, we felt that it was crucial for Kent Archives, and our depositors, that we retain control of all digital surrogates, both now and in the future. We knew that to enable this project we would need to invest in dedicated staff and ad- vanced digital equipment. Scope Over 2500 registers have been included for digitisation. This is an enormous project, and a first for the ar- chives service. Digitisation projects have been undertaken before, but nothing on this scale. Before any digiti- sation could start, the finding numbers for all of the parish registers had to be checked by the archivists for consistency, and where necessary, were re-catalogued. This was very important, as the image file names would need to include the archive catalogue reference, so they had to be correct. Staffing For the project Kent Archives has recruited two full time digitisation staff: Soniya Lal and Alison Linklater. Alt- hough the project has been in the planning stage for some time, the digitisation itself began in late January 2018. Soniya and Alison have proved to be exceptionally dedicated and enthusiastic staff, and have far ex- ceeded project expectations. [Below:] Soniya [left] and Alison [right] hard at work digitising the parish registers. Digitisation Project of Kent’s Parish Registers with Findmypast Jonathan Barker, Archive Collections Officer Equipment Two Bookeye 4 Professional overhead book scanners were purchased to undertake the digitisation: an A1 Bookeye 4 for the larger registers, such as the landscape orientated marriage registers; and an A2 model for the standard size registers. Although the reprographic studio is already equipped with a sophisticated PhaseOne camera and CaptureOne software, the Bookeye 4 scanners were chosen for several reasons. Be- ing foot operated, the scanners allow good handling of the volumes. An auto de-skew and book curve correc- tion setting also allows the volumes to be fully supported in a book cradle, but for the resulting image to ap- pear flat. Furthermore, an autocrop setting allows the post production resizing to be kept to a minimum. De- spite these features, some of the volumes cannot be digitised using the Bookeye 4 scanners, and will be dig- itised using the PhaseOne camera, particularly those registers that are tightly bound or extremely fragile. All images are being created as a preservation TIFF master, and a production JPEG. Look out for updates on the project’s progress in our autumn newsletter. The Archive of the Diocese of Canterbury Mark Bateson, Assistant Service Manager – Archives and Local History In accordance with a decision by the Church of England, a large quantity of ar- chival records of the Diocese of Canter- bury is being transferred from Canterbury Cathedral Archives to the Kent History and Library Centre. The transfer marks the reunification of this important archive to something like its original integrity, after being split in recent years between the re- positories in Canterbury and Maidstone. It is normally better to keep archival collec- tions together because the internal parts correlate with each other, providing con- text and meaning. Two parts of the archive deserve particu- lar mention as outstanding examples of their type. First, ‘the probate records for Canterbury, in part because of its particu- lar relationship with the archbishop, have a wealth, extent and completeness proba- bly unparalleled in any other diocese’ (F. Kent Archives staff in the process of relocating the archive of the Diocese of Canter- Hull, Guide to the Kent County Archives bury from Canterbury Cathedral Archives to the Kent History and Library Centre. Office, p107). Second, speaking of the Canterbury act and deposition books, the core element of the ecclesiastical court material, eminent canon law historian Charles Donahue Jr. says: ‘these books taken as a whole represent the most substantial surviv- als of records from an English diocesan court’ (The Records of the Medieval Ecclesiastical Courts Part II: England, p105). In the case of the court material, the archive dates back to the fourteenth century; in the case of a group of literary fragments, the tenth. The older records, some written in abbreviated Latin, can pre- sent challenges to those without the necessary skills and experience: rest assured the Archives and Local History Team can help with those! The archive is a rich source for historical investigation. Family and local historians, and anyone interested in the history of parish churches, their clergy, or simply that of the established Church, will find a treasure trove of material. Canterbury Diocese covered between half and two thirds of Kent, from Thanet up to the River Medway. Since Kent Archives already holds the archive of the Diocese of Rochester, the acquisition of the Canterbury Diocese archive consolidates our holdings of ecclesiastical records and completes the picture as far as the records of the two Kent dioceses are concerned. Lady Rose Weigall of Ramsgate and Louise, Grand Duchess of Baden: A Friendship that Survived the War Rob Illingworth, Community History Officer and Julia Booth, Time2Give Volunteer, Kent Archives During our research for Kent and Medway’s First World War Timeline we have been exploring the letters and papers of the Weigall family [collection ref.