Bellot Papers
Date range: 18th-20th centuries
Medium: Archive
This diverse collection of papers relating to the Bellot, Hale, Killer and Thyer families was donated in 1969 by Hugh Hale Bellot (1890-1969), Professor of American History and later Vice-Chancellor at the University of London.
The collection contains correspondence, diaries, volumes of poetry, scrapbooks, personal and household accounts, marriage settlements, title deeds, probate records, and photographs. The collection also includes manuscripts, typescripts and proof copies of publications on legal history by Hugh Hale Bellot’s father, Hugh Hale Leigh Bellot (1860-1928).
Among the papers are some 60 items relating to Robert Thyer (1709-1781), Librarian of Chetham’s Hospital from 1732 to 1763 and editor of The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Samuel Butler, with Notes (1759). He was the step-father of Elizabeth Killer, whose grand-daughter Frances married William Henry Bellot in 1847. Among Thyer’s papers are: a protection from arrest which Richard Vaughan, 2nd Earl of Carbery, issued to Samuel Butler in 1667; a transcript of some of the verse remains of Butler; 28 letters from Robert Thyer; a collection of his essays and verses; and papers relating to his wife Silence.
The collection is also relevant to medical history: the Bellot family included several surgeons, practising especially in Stockport, including Joseph, William Henry and Thomas Bellot. John Egerton Killer (1767-1854), related by marriage to the Bellot family, was instrumental in establishing the Stockport Dispensary for the Poor, and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
See also:
Further information:
- Catalogue available via Special Collections reading rooms.
- Robert Thyer’s letters and speeches are discussed and extracts therefrom printed in Edmund Ogden, ‘Robert Thyer. Family Letters and some Speeches written for Public Recitation’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, vol. 47 (1930-1), pp. 58-83.
- See also Edmund Ogden, ‘Robert Thyer, Chetham's Librarian, 1732-1763’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, vol. 41 (1924), pp. 90-136.
- Note in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 52 (1969-70), pp. 237-8.
- David Parkes, ‘Documents Relating to Samuel Butler (1613–1680)’, Notes and Queries, volume 40, issue 3, 1 September 1993, pp. 324–5.
Location:
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