Records of the Dean and Chapter of Saint Paul's Cathedral, London.
The bulk of the records, deposited in 1980, relate inter alia to the constitution, administration, services, finances and fabric of the cathedral; the Peculiar jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter (including probate); and the estates of the Dean and Chapter and cathedral officials. They have been catalogued together within the range Mss 25121-821. Other archives of the Cathedral were lodged with Guildhall Library in the 1960s and later. They consist mainly of manorial and estate records deposited by the Church Commissioners, and probate records deposited by the Public Record Office. They have different ranges of manuscript numbers. Records of the cathedral which have been independently acquired by the Manuscripts Section are also included in the arrangement. The provenance of these items, where known, is reflected in individual catalogue descriptions.
The archives of the cathedral were sorted and boxed in the 18th and 19th centuries by a succession of cathedral officials, most notably WH Hale (Archdeacon of London, 1842-70) and Revd W Sparrow Simpson (Cathedral Librarian, 1862-97). The press marks devised by Sparrow Simpson in particular, with loose items in two series of boxes ("A" and "B") and volumes in two cupboards, East ("E") and West ("W"), and then on shelves "A" onwards within them, remained in use until the archives were transferred to Guildhall Library in 1980. These press marks were published in H Maxwell Lyte's list of the cathedral archives, printed as an Appendix to the Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in 1883. (An annotated copy of this list, which remains an access point for many modern users, is available at the enquiry desk.) However, many of the records deposited by the Church Commissioners and the Public Record Office do not have St Paul's press marks, since they did not pass through Sparrow Simpson's hands. The LMA catalogues continue to indicate the St Paul's press marks, and a concordance of references is available. The press marks can also be found using the classification search. The arrangement of Mss 25121-821 is as follows: Mss 25121-610, items generally arranged to reflect Maxwell Lyte's published list; Mss 25611-17A, old lists of records and other redundant finding aids (these are further discussed in the introductory note to miscellaneous records, CLC/313/P); Mss 25618-821, items not mentioned in Maxwell Lyte's list, many without press marks. A fuller breakdown is available in the hard copy catalogue available at the enquiry desk.
The cathedral archives appear to have been well protected from damage during World War Two, and to have suffered little or no loss. However, the same was not true of administrative books and papers which were too recent to have been added to the archives, and which may have been stored in the Chapter House. Any such papers perished when the Chapter House was destroyed by enemy action in 1940. The sole known survivor, which bears obvious fire damage, is the Seal Book, 1931-40 (Ms 25660/8, section CLC/313/C). A full history of record-keeping at St Paul's prior to the transfer of the archives to Guildhall Library is given in Geoffrey Yeo's "Record-keeping at St Paul's Cathedral", Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol.8, no.1 (April 1986), pp.30-44. The bulk of the records of the Diocese of London held by LMA have been catalogued separately, but the activities of diocese and cathedral were often closely interlinked and their records stored in close proximity within the cathedral. Indeed, many diocesan records were among the records transferred from the cathedral to Guildhall Library in 1980 and are now included among Mss 25121-821. Those records of the diocese which directly relate to the cathedral, especially those which concern the "Old Work" (the portion of the cathedral built before 1256 and, uniquely, the responsibility of the Bishop of London, not the Dean and Chapter; see section CLC/313/H), are included in the catalogue. A few records of provincial dioceses, chapters, monasteries and other ecclesiastical institutions outside London, which had strayed into the cathedral's custody, were also deposited at Guildhall Library in 1980. In most cases these records were catalogued and assigned a Guildhall Library manuscript number (with any St Paul's press mark acknowledged) and then transferred to the appropriate local repository. These records are excluded from the catalogue.
The majority of the cathedral's archives have now been catalogued by Guildhall Library/LMA. However some of these are only partly processed and have incomplete catalogue descriptions. Those partly-processed items which were arranged by Sparrow Simpson and/or described by Maxwell Lyte can be requested using Maxwell Lyte's list and the concordance of St Paul's press marks/Guildhall Library Manuscript numbers. The remainder were scheduled briefly in 1999 and 2002 by Christine Faunch and Stephen Freeth as CF1-136 (a copy of the schedule is held at the enquiry desk). They should therefore by requested by these CF references. This partly-processed material will be included in the computerised catalogue as soon as full catalogue descriptions are compiled in each case. However at present they do not appear in the computerised catalogue, and must be searched for separately. Guildhall Library/LMA also holds various uncatalogued records, comprising deeds, leases and estate papers received from the Church Commissioners, mostly 19th century. These items are not routinely produced, and anyone requiring access should discuss how to go about this with a member of staff.
