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Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts

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The Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts consists of more than 22,000 pamphlets, broadsides, manuscripts, books, and news sheets, most of which were printed and distributed in London from 1640 to 1661. The collection represents a major primary source for the political, religious, military, and social history of England during the final years of the reign of King Charles I , the English Civil War , the Interregnum , and the English Restoration of King Charles II . It is now held in the British Library .

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35-573: Bookseller and publisher George Thomason (died 1666), who maintained a shop in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, methodically collected and preserved the works over two decades. The tracts consist of a broad range of writings, including sermons, songs, political speeches, debates, opinions, jokes, gossip, news reports, descriptions of the trial and execution of Charles I, accounts of Civil War battles, reports from Parliament, and several regularly appearing publications that historians consider

70-634: A manuscript catalogue to the university for £4,000 but the sale was not agreed. Thomason remained hopeful that they would be sold, and in his will dated 1664, he charged his three executors (Barlow, Thomas Lockey, and John Rushworth ) with selling the collection to the University on behalf of his children. After Thomason's death in April 1666, the negotiations fell through and the collection remained in Barlow's hands, until they were acquired about 1677–1679 by

105-400: A medieval ancient parish and subsequently became a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough then merged with neighbouring boroughs and the area it covered now forms around half of the modern London Borough of Camden . The area of the parish and borough includes the sub-districts of Camden Town , Kentish Town , Gospel Oak , Somers Town , King's Cross , Chalk Farm , Dartmouth Park ,

140-505: A thousand strong), the 1/19th and 2/19th, with the 3/19th established as a training battalion. These three St Pancras battalions were joined by a fourth, a Pals battalion , which joined a different regiment, the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) , as the 16th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade, (St. Pancras), (The Prince Consort's Own). It also established a training battalion, the 17th (Reserve) Battalion, which spent most of

175-638: Is now the terminus for the Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel . London Underground stations include King's Cross St Pancras . Immediately to the north of St Pancras churchyard is St Pancras Hospital , once the parish workhouse and later the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases . During the 18th and 19th centuries, St Pancras was famous for its cemeteries. In addition to the graveyard of Old St Pancras Church, it also contained

210-532: Is reputed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England; however, as is so often with old church sites, it is hard to find documentary or archaeological evidence for its initial foundation. One tradition asserts that the church was established in AD 314 in the late Roman period. There is little to support that view, but it is notable that to the south of the church was a site called The Brill , believed at

245-570: The Euston Road . The position of the railway termini on Euston Road, rather than in a more central position further south, is a result of the influential recommendations of a Royal Commission of 1846 which sought to protect the West End districts a short distance south of the road. National Rail stations include London King's Cross and St Pancras . St Pancras is one of the best-known railway stations in England. It has been extended and

280-634: The Second World War . There was strong opposition to the 1957 Rent Act , which led to a series of decisions that caused serious financial difficulty. John Lawrence and several other councillors were expelled from the Labour Party in 1958 but continued to serve as Independent Socialists. The Conservative Party won the 1958 council election. In 1960, a widespread rent strike in the district led to rioting in September. From 1859 to 1955,

315-479: The British Library's main building at St. Pancras . Because of their rarity and fragile condition, the originals are not available to general researchers. However, the library maintains paper facsimiles in its rare books collection, and in 1977 University Microfilms International released a set of 256 microfilm reels containing the entire collection. The microfilms are available at research libraries around

350-602: The Old Church, first King's Cross and later St Pancras . The new church is closer to Euston station . The parish of St Pancras was administered by a vestry until the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras was established in 1900. In 1965 the borough was combined with two others to form the London Borough of Camden . In the 1950s, St Pancras Council gained a reputation for left-wing radicalism and

385-783: The St Pancras produced dedicated military units for the British Army, initially infantry battalions and later anti-aircraft and searchlight regiments. A high proportion of the recruits were drawn from working-class districts of St Pancras, such as Camden Town . At the start of World War I, the St Pancras Battalion was part of the London Regiment and known as 19th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (St Pancras). The increase in wartime recruitment led to it being split into two battalions (each around

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420-420: The area frequently in his plays. It was a rural area with a dispersed population until the growth of London in the late eighteenth century. In the 1790s Earl Camden began to develop some fields to the north and west of the old church as Camden Town . About the same time, a residential district was built to the south and east of the church, usually known as Somers Town . In 1822 the new church of St Pancras

455-741: The bookbinder Samuel Mearne on behalf of the Royal Library at the Palace of Whitehall . Mearne rebound the tract volumes in a uniform manner but was never paid for his work and so retained the collection. Eventually Mearne's widow sought and obtained the permission of the Privy Council in May 1684 to dispose of them on her family's behalf. Over the next four decades various members of the Sisson family (descendants of Samuel Mearne) endeavoured to sell

490-736: The boundaries of the ancient parish, all of which benefit from the distributions from the St Pancras Lands Trust and most of which are in South Camden Deanery in the Edmonton Area of the Diocese of London . In the Middle Ages it had "disreputable associations", and by the 17th century had become the "' Gretna Green ' of the London area". On that account Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson alludes to

525-480: The boundary with Clerkenwell , while a tributary of it – later known as Lamb’s Conduit - formed the southern boundary with Holborn . The course of this watercourse is now marked, in part, by Roger Street (formerly known as Henry Street). The tree which gave the Gospel Oak district its name, formed part of the boundary with neighbouring Hampstead . The boundaries of St Pancras include take in around half of

560-656: The cemeteries of the neighbouring ecclesiastical parishes of St James's Church, Piccadilly , St Giles in the Fields , St Andrew, Holborn , St. George's Church, Bloomsbury , and St George the Martyr, Holborn . These were all closed under the Extramural Interment Act in 1854; the parish was required to purchase land some distance away, beyond its borders, and chose East Finchley for its new St Pancras Cemetery . The disused graveyard at St Pancras Old Church

595-654: The collection on numerous occasions to Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer , the Bodleian Library , Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth , James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos , Frederick, Prince of Wales , the Radcliffe Library in Oxford and the antiquary and book collector "Honest Tom" Martin , but in each case the potential purchasers were put off by the high price asked. In January 1754 Elizabeth Sisson approached Thomas Birch one of

630-486: The collection several times to protect the more controversial works from destruction by government or opposition censors. Thomason appears to have entrusted the collection to the care of Thomas Barlow , provost of The Queen's College and former librarian of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford , and a future Bishop of Lincoln . Between 1660 and 1664 Barlow offered the tracts, together with two copies of

665-569: The collection to the new British Museum at Montagu House , where they were originally known as the "King's pamphlets" and added to the Royal Library Collection. In 1973, the museum transferred the Thomason Tracts to the British Library where they continue to be housed. According to Thomas Carlyle , the Thomason Tracts were; the most valuable set of documents connected with English history; greatly preferable to all

700-467: The core area of Fitzrovia and a part of Highgate . St Pancras Old Church lies on Pancras Road, Somers Town , behind St Pancras railway station . Until the 19th century it stood on a knoll on the eastern bank of the now buried River Fleet . The church, dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras , gave its name to the St Pancras district, which originated as the parish served by the church. The church

735-540: The forebears of modern newspapers. Thomason's collection represents approximately 80 percent of the published works released in England during this period. Thomason frequently made handwritten annotations on the tracts, providing such information as publication dates and the authorship of anonymous works. During the turbulent years of the Civil War and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell Thomason reputedly moved

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770-400: The main parish church, which was replaced by a new building in 1822, St Pancras New Church on the south side of Euston Road . The then-dilapidated Old Church continued in use but was reduced to the status of a chapel of ease . Most of the fabric of the Old Church building dates from a subsequent Victorian restoration. The ancient parish of St Pancras (also known as Pancrace or Pancridge )

805-509: The modern London Borough of Camden , including Camden Town , Kentish Town , Somers Town , Gospel Oak , King's Cross , Chalk Farm , Dartmouth Park , the core area of Fitzrovia and a part of Highgate . There are no motorways in St Pancras, and few stretches of dual carriageway road, but the district has great strategic transport significance to London, due to the presence of three of the capital's most important rail termini; Euston , St Pancras and King's Cross , which are lined up along

840-747: The sheepskins in the Tower and other places, for informing the English what the English were in former times; I believe the whole secret of the seventeenth century is involved in that hideous mass of rubbish there (Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the constitution and government of the British Museum. Many of the publications that comprise the collection are exceedingly rare. In fact, some are not known to exist anywhere else. The tracts are bound into some 2,000 volumes and housed at

875-468: The time to have been a Roman Camp. The Brill was destroyed during the urbanisation of the area, without any archaeological excavation to assess its age and purpose. The church is certainly very old; it was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and there is evidence to suggest it predated Domesday by several centuries. A chapel of ease was subsequently established at Kentish Town to supplement

910-402: The trustees of the newly established British Museum , loaning him the 12 volume catalogue, but again nothing was to come of the sale during Elizabeth Sisson's lifetime. Finally, in 1762, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute purchased the collection on behalf of King George III for the bargain price of £300 (a fraction of the cost of forming the collection). In that same year King George III donated

945-462: The war on Wimbledon Common . During World War I these three front line battalions were deployed: St Pancras was originally an Ancient Parish that ran from a point a little north of Oxford Street , extending north to include part of Highgate , and from today’s Regent's Park in the west to the road now called York Way in the east. These boundaries encompass much of the current London Borough of Camden . The former River Fleet formed part of

980-587: The world. George Thomason (book collector) George Thomason (died April 1666) was an English book collector. He is famous for assembling a collection of more than 22,000 books and pamphlets published during the time of the English Civil War and the interregnum . Thomason's collection was formerly known as the "King's Pamphlets" after King George III , but is now called the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts . During

1015-405: The years just before the outbreak of war a great number of writings covering every phase of the questions in dispute between king and people were issued, and in 1641 Thomason began to collect these. Working diligently at his task for about twenty years, he possessed nearly 23,000 separate publications in 1662, and having arranged these in chronological order he had them bound in 1983 volumes. Thomason

1050-674: Was concerned in Christopher Love 's plot in 1651. After many vicissitudes the collection was bought in 1761 from his descendants by George III , who presented it to the British Museum . In 1973, the museum transferred the Thomason Collection to the British Library . St Pancras, London St Pancras ( / ˈ p æ ŋ k r ə s / ) is a district in central London . It was originally

1085-512: Was dedicated as the parish church . The site was chosen on what was then called the New Road (now Euston Road ) which had been built as London's first bypass, the M25 of its day. The two sites are about a kilometre apart. The new church is Grade I listed for its Greek Revival style ; the old church was rebuilt in 1847. In the mid-19th century two major railway stations were built to the south of

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1120-459: Was established in the medieval period to serve five manors: two manors named St Pancras (one prebendial, one lay), Cantlowes (Kentish Town) , Tottenham Court and Rugmere (Chalk Farm) . By the end of the nineteenth century, the ancient parish had been divided into 37 ecclesiastical parishes, including one for the old church, to better serve a rapidly growing population. There are currently 17 Church of England parishes completely contained within

1155-585: Was given to the removal of remains than in the 19th century. Old St Pancras Church and its graveyard have links to Charles Dickens , Thomas Hardy , and the Wollstonecraft circle. Open spaces in the district include: The name “St Pancras” survives in the name of the local parliamentary constituency , Holborn and St. Pancras . One of the political wards in Camden is called St Pancras and Somers Town; however, ward boundaries are chosen to divide

1190-619: Was left alone for over thirty years until the building of the Midland Railway required the removal of many of the graves. Thomas Hardy , then a junior architect and later a novelist and poet, was involved in this work. He placed a number of gravestones around a tree, now known as "the Hardy Tree". The cemetery was disturbed again in 2002–03 by the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link but much more care

1225-423: Was referred to as "the most freakish borough in London.” The council refused to take part in civil defence preparations for war which local councils were obliged to provide. The Home Office monitored Mayor John Lawrence , and as of 2016, still refuses Freedom of Information requests related to him on the grounds of protecting national security. Housing was in excess demand after the damage and disruption of

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