Diary for Friday, 3rd January, 2025

An early start to a very cold day. In the morning, I managed to download copies of the wills of Sir Francis Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak and of his son-in-law, Sir William Masham of Otes in High Laver, from the National Archives. What I was not able to do was to secure a copy of the will of Sir Francis's son, Sir Thomas Barrington: he apparently died intestate with debts of about £10,000, a sum equivalent to just over three years' income from his estates. Unfortunately, neither of the wills I obtained shed any light on their relationship with Oliver Cromwell, a subject of interest to me since reading the contrasting views of John Morrill and Andrew Barclay on Cromwell's putative relationship by 1640 with the 2nd Earl of Warwick, the dominant figure in the politics of Essex. After lunch, I had intended to go to the University of Essex's library but was deterred by the bitter chill in the wind. Instead, I tried to find a copy for sale or to borrow of John Morrill's recent biography of Oliver Cromwell. None was available and waiting until February, 2026 for the second edition seems a long time. An overture to the Cambridge University Library to secure access to its electronic copies of the three volumes of Cromwell's Letters and Speeches edited by John Morrill and his team ended in disappointment: the C.U.L. only allows access to the staff of the university and to students resident in Cambridge and to an alumnus like me only if on site. Given the cost of buying these volumes - and the fact that the nearest copies are held in Saffron Walden's public library and cannot be borrowed - an early trip to West Road in Cambridge will be necessary in the not too distant future.