RECORDS OF THE BOROUGH OF NOTTINGHAM BEING A SERIES OF EXTRACTS FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE CORPORATION OF NOTTINGHAM VOL. VI. 1702-1760 PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE CORPORATION OF NOTTINGHAM NOTTINGHAM: THOS. FORMAN & SONS M CM XIV PREFACE. Fourteen years have passed since the publication of the Fifth Volume of the Records of the Borough of Nottingham.' Some four years ago the General Purposes Committee and the Finance Committee of the City Council concurred in the desire to continue the series and to place before the citizens and a wider public the story of the old Borough during the first portion of the eighteenth century so far as it is told in the archives of the Corporation. Alderman Sir EDWARD FRASER, D.C.L., and Mr. Councillor EDWIN MELLOR, the Chairmen of those Committees, were keenly interested in the work. The editors of the previous volumes held appointments. on the Town Clerk's staff, and when their official connection with the City ceased, systematic research into the ancient documents was not continued. Happily the Council was able to retain the services of a Nottingham man enthusiastic in archaeological work and experienced in literary production. Mr. EVERARD LEAVER GUILFORD, M.A., of Clare College, Cambridge, now Lecturer in History at University College, Nottingham, is the editor responsible for the selection and transcription of the documents included in this volume. As the Records are brought down to more recent times a far greater number of papers are found to have been preserved. All these have to be examined, and the editor's task is thereby rendered more difficult. It is believed Mr. GUILFORD has made a wise choice from the mass of material at his disposal. He has included lists of Freemen who were admitted to that status in the period covered by the volume. Doubtless in these lists, and in the names of those who occupied official positions during that time many Nottingham citizens will have a personal interest. Amongst the Municipal Corporations Nottingham was one of the first to publish its mediaeval records. The story of the later centuries of town life should be equally welcome to the men of to-day. Past years all made their contribution to the great civic structure of the present. When I ceased to be Town Clerk it was permitted to me to retain an active interest in the publication of the present volume, and I am grateful for that privilege. This preface is written at the very kind request of my friend and successor, Mr. W. J. BOARD, who is happily interested in a Seventh Volume on which Mr. GUILFORD is occupied, and which will complete our Records to the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835. NOTTINGHAM, August, 1914. J. A. H. GREEN. |