OU on the BBC: History Detectives - A letter and a prayerbook

BBC

The cases

Neil Oliver investigates a letter supplied by The West Highland Museum in Fort William which appears to describe the hiding place of secret gold stolen from Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Simon Carter in Preston saved a small, slightly tattered book from a garden bonfire. It’s missing a cover, and some pages. Inside, there is a date: 1624. Jeevan Deol investigates the origins of the book, and enters the terrifying world of Catholic persecution in the 17th century.

The clues

(some resources that the History Detectives used in the programme)

Charlie's Gold

Links

The ‘45 Association for historical information on the Jacobite period and the 1745 uprising.

Documents

For background reading on the Battle of Culloden and the Jacobite uprising:

Tales of The Morar Highlands
Alasdair Roberts, Birlinn Ltd (8 Jun 2006)

The ‘45: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the untold story of the Jacobite rising
Christopher Duffy, Phoenix (5 April 2007).

Organisations

National Library of Scotland to find the original 1934 article referred to in the programme which was written by Robert E Groves in Scottish Country Life Magazine and incorporated in Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) Magazine.

To obtain permission to dig a site in the Highlands contact:
The Highland Council Archaeological Service or the owner of the site.

How to date paper and ink

Pen, Ink and Evidence: a study of Writing and Writing Materials for the Penman, Collector and Document Detective
Joe Nickell and Charles Hamilton, Oak Knoll Press.

Writing Antiques
George Mell, Shire publications,
An overview of the history of paper and ink and their quality through the ages.

Professional Paper conservation in the UK

The National Archives
The Institute of Conservation (ICON), a charity devoted to the conservation of cultural heritage in the United Kingdom. The website includes information about conserving various materials.

For the history of paper making: British Association of Paper Historians (BAPH)

The National Archives Preservation Department issues leaflets on caring and preserving your historic documents – Tel: 0208 392 5200.

The Paper Identification Database
Gives examples of wove and laid types of paper and what to look for.

Paper conservation in Scotland: National Archives of Scotland

The Prayer Book

Links

For information on John Heigham (1568–1634), see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (available through bookshops, by subscription online and in public libraries).

For history about the crime of recusancy during the Elizabethan era:
The Recusant Historian’s Handbook
J A Hilton

Documents

Information on illegal Catholic printing presses:
Luthers Life Collected from the Writings of Himselfe, and other Learned Protestants, together with a further shorte discourse, touchinge Andreas Melanchton, Bucer, Ochine, Carolostadius, Svinglius, Calvine and Beza S. Omers: John Heigham, 1624
Authors:  Brereley, John Anderton, Lawrence, (c. 1575-1643).

For references to John Heigham:
"The Percy-'Fisher' Controversies and the Ecclesiastical Politics of Jacobean Anti-Catholicism, 1622–1625". Timothy H Wadkins, Church History, Vol. 57, No.2 (Jun, 1988), pp.153–169.

A Catalogue of Catholic books in English printed abroad or secretly in England, 1558–1640
Antony Francis Allison, Arundel Press (1956)

Catholics in Britain and Ireland, 1558–1829
Michael A Mullett, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1998

To see one of the original printed prayer books:
Sixe Spirituall bookes; full of merveuilous pietie and deuotion. And first, certaine deuout and godlie petitions. Commonlie called, the Jesus Psalter
Publisher: St Omer: for john Heigham, anno 1624

British Library Reference: English Short-title catalogue entry s5316, system no. 006207275. STC (2nd ed), 14570.

Five Hundred Years of Printing
S.H Steinberg, London and New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press and The British Library (2001)
This work describes the pivotal role that printing has played in the development of human civilization. and covers the history of printing with movable types through several periods.

Organisations

The American Society of Church History. 

The House of Lords Record Office houses An Acte to reteine the Queenes Ma Subjects in their due Obedience, date: AD 1580–1  Vol. IV Page: 657-658 – this gives brief information on the penalties for practicing Catholicism. 

First broadcast: Friday 21 Sep 2007 on BBC TWO

History Detectives in more depth: