Who was our first searcher?

The first searchroom register, on exhibition during the Borthwick's 60th anniversary, 2013

The first searchroom register

The Borthwick opened in 1953, under Rev J.S. Purvis, with a formidable research reputation. The first Borthwick searchroom register, beginning in 1953, contains the names of many distinguished researchers and academics. Among them were Rotha Mary Clay, Michael Clanchy, W.G. Hoskins, Maurice Barley, J.J. Scarisbrick (who, during 1954, was researching his thesis on the English episcopate 1529-35), Kenneth Monkman (who rescued Laurence Sterne’s house, Shandy Hall) and Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby (historians of life in the Yorkshire Dales).

Two young academics, Barrie Dobson and Claire Cross, both of whom later joined the University of York History Department, came in 1955 and 1957 respectively. Other archivists also visited, including Michael Roper (later to be Keeper of Public Records, 1988-1992) and Reginald Sharpe France (the first Lancashire County Archivist, 1940-1976).

To take an example of one page, covering June to July 1960, one can see the names of R.A. Marchant, Maurice W. Beresford, C.R. Cheney, Hugh Aveling O.S.B., H.M. Colvin, Robert T. Holtby, and A.G. Dickens. Dickens had been using the archive since its days in the Diocesan Registry, when access had difficult. He greatly respected the scholarship of J.S Purvis and he much appreciated the new premises.

Mrs T in 1980

Mrs T in 1980

However, the first name in the Borthwick searchroom register was not that of an academic but of a professional genealogist, Mrs Muriel Thompson. Her name appears regularly through to the 1980s, as does that of her daughter, also a professional genealogist.

Mrs Thompson – "Mrs T." – also worked for the Borthwick in its earlier days: first as assistant archivist during 1957-58, during the Carnegie scheme to catalogue the archives, and again in 1970-1, when she worked one afternoon a week sorting the parish register transcripts.

Mrs T. was a good friend to the Borthwick and much loved by the staff. In 1980 the Borthwick celebrated her 80th birthday with a special birthday party.

The University Registrar, John West-Taylor came to the party because before the founding of the University, when he was secretary to York Academic Trust, his office was at the Borthwick, and so he knew Mrs T. well.