Charles Travis Clay Archive of Family Papers with William Snowdon Robson family papers Charles Travis Clay (1885-1978), son of John William Clay of Rastrick and Alice Caroline Pilleau; and Violet Clay (1892 - 1972), daughter of William Snowdon Robson and Catherine Emily Burge Robson, wife of Charles Travis Clay. Collection arranged and catalogued 2018 by Miriam Buncombe Genealogical wheel made by Charles Travis Clay, based on an earlier wheel by his father John William Clay TABLE OF CONTENTS P. Foreword i Note on arrangement iii Box list v I. ARCHIVE INVENTORY 1. CORRESPONDENCE 2 CTC personal correspondence: general mixed correspondence (chronological) 2 Family 8 Friends 9 special occasions (public) 10 special occasions (personal) 11 education 11 CTC professional correspondence: war service 12 Colonial Office; India Office; House of Lords 12 Library research and publications 13 CTC correspondence: other recipients 17 2. CTC DIARIES AND VERSE 18 3. PERSONAL AND FAMILY 19 Clay family photos 19 Charles Travis Clay personal materials 19 Balliol: Charles Travis Clay materials relating to Balliol College, Oxford 20 Rastrick House 21 Clay family 21 4. CTC PROFESSIONAL MATTERS 23 Charles Travis Clay materials relating to military service 23 CTC professional activities in Westminster 23 5. CTC RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS 25 6. CTC PERSONAL GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH CLAY/PILLEAU 28 7. EDITH CLAY 36 8. ROBSON 37 Robson family records and correspondence 37 Research on William Snowdon Robson 40 Robson family history 43 II. INDEX OF PERSON NAMES 44 Foreword The Clay collection centres around the papers of Charles Travis Clay (1885 – 1978). It includes his extensive personal and professional correspondence, with materials relating to his military service during the First World War, his employment with Lord Crewe in the Colonial Office and India Office from 1908, and his career as Librarian to the House of Lords from 1922. The collection also contains notes and correspondence relating to his publications on British regional history, with a particular focus on Yorkshire, and long-term contribution to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, as well as other publications such as those for the Roxburghe Club. In addition, Charles undertook fastidious research into his own family genealogy, gathering information and source evidence from archives and various international experts. Materials relating to several other family members are included in the collection: Dr Henry Pilleau, Joseph Travis Clay, John William Clay, Alice Clay and Edith Clay. There are also limited materials on the family home, Rastrick House, and the Clay family mill business. The second part of the collection relates to Violet Clay’s ancestral family, namely the Robson family. This comprises correspondence between the three Robson sisters – Kathleen (m. Cyril Gay), Violet (m. Charles Travis Clay) and Diana (m. John Robson) – and collected materials relating to William Snowdon Robson, who was twice elected as an MP, first for Bow and Bromley and subsequently for South Shields. He was appointed Attorney General in 1908. Both Harold Robson, son of William Snowdon Robson, and Rachel Maxwell- Hyslop, daughter of Charles Travis Clay, undertook research into William Snowdon Robson, and notes and sources pertaining to this research are included in the collection. First and foremost, this collection offers excellent insight into the biography and character of Charles Travis Clay. It paints a rich picture of Clay as a man who was both kind and thoughtful on a personal level, and extremely capable and energetic in his professional and research activities. He was generous with his time and expertise, regularly travelling to give lectures to local history societies such as the Bedfordshire Historical Society and the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society, as well as answering genealogical enquiries from professional researchers and amateurs with equal verve, often offering to send spare copies of works from his own collection to amateur researchers in North America. Within his family life, too, he appears to have been an engaging correspondent, with Violet writing ‘My darling Charlie, I can’t tell you how I enjoyed getting your letter – it is quite the most wonderful and nicest letter in the world, and only a person like you could have written it.’ The large collection of letters between Charles and Violet give an excellent insight into their developing relationship and the growth of their family. CTC’s extensive genealogical research regarding his own family pedigree through the Clay and Pilleau lines and in his correspondence with other genealogical researchers is an excellent starting point for research into the history of many different families. Whilst much of his pedigree work was published, his notes and correspondence demonstrate his methodology and reasoning, and include notes from source manuscript material discovered in various archives and in private family collections. Some of the families whose histories are touched upon by CTC’s work include: Clay, Pilleau, Pezé, Perigal, Franklin, Hill and Daval. Whilst Clay considered himself only an amateur historian (in spite of his nomination to become a Fellow of the British Academy), his research in connection with his publications as part of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and Journal (YAS and YAJ) was exceptionally i thorough, and this is reflected in his notes and correspondence, for example on Paynel Fee and Lacy Kirkminsterbottom. Herein are numerous references to source materials held in both archives and private collections. The correspondence indicates that CTC had access to certain materials through acquaintances fostered through connections made at Balliol College, Oxford and during his time in Westminster. These references may provide invaluable evidence of less well known early British source material, as well as offering information on the provenance of numerous charter materials. There is also material relating to a biography of Bob Brandt, a close friend from Oxford, who was killed in action during the First World War. This was published for private circulation, and these papers are a moving account of Charles’ dedication to his fallen friend. Clay corresponded extensively with a great number of historians, including Christopher Brooke (University of Cambridge), John le Patourel (Professor of Mediaeval History, Leeds), Roger Mynors (Professor of Latin, Oxford/Cambridge), Dorothy Whitelock (Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Cambridge), and Christopher Cheyney (Professor of Mediaeval History, Cambridge). This correspondence preserves debates on various avenues of historical research between the foremost experts of their generation. More broadly, the collection offers fascinating insights into British socio-political history of the twentieth century. Correspondence with friends and colleagues from the Colonial Office posted overseas describes political life in India and Africa as well as the perception from overseas of the handling of colonial politics in Westminster. A. L. Kennedy’s letters, posted while working abroad with the intelligence service during the First World War, provide an equally fascinating view of French, Swedish and Romanian politics. In addition, the continuing correspondence with House of Lords friends such as Harry Verney offers a wonderful, if somewhat oblique, insider commentary on the changing face of politics over two world wars and into the post-war years, with discussion, for instance, of the 1922 general election and the merits of a Labour government in 1945. Edith Clay’s photos and diaries of travels between 1911 – 1933 offer an additional perspective on Europe between the wars, though sadly the diary from her 1933 travels in Germany, corresponding to a photo album from the same trip, have been cut out at some point. Finally, the collection traces the trends, developments and difficulties within the world of historical research and publication throughout the twentieth century. Clay’s correspondence records the anticipated resistance to the election of a female member, archaeologist Mrs Esdaile, to the Society of Antiquaries in the 1930s, increasing difficulties in funding the publication of the Complete Peerage, and trouble managing the changing preferences for styles of editorship for the Complete Peerage. Moreover, it records several sales and acquisitions of manuscripts and books, for example the YAS acquisition of the Bacon-Frank manuscripts. Further to this, there are some surprising topics covered by the collection, such as discussion of the impact of the changing political mood on plantation life in Kingston, Jamaica, during the nineteenth century, revealed in the letters of George Atkinson. * ii Note on arrangement Listing All files or groups of records have been assessed in overview and are listed within the inventory according to their approximate contents. However, items have not been listed at an individual level in every case. For example, not every letter has been individually listed, nor has every individual pedigree sketch been listed. As a result, the inventory does not cover every topic and personal name mentioned within the body of these papers. It has not been possible to identify every person within the photographic materials. Errors in the transcription of names cannot be excluded. Where information has been added for clarity, it is included in square brackets. Where the reading of a source is unclear, information is included in square