Hall of Fame

The Anglo-Saxon Charters ‘Hall of Fame’ provides information on a wide range of antiquaries, collectors, and other scholars, who have contributed in their very different ways to the development of this field of study.

Antiquaries

​A biographical register of collectors, antiquaries and scholars known to have taken interest in Anglo-Saxon charters, covering the period from the mid-sixteenth to the end of the 20th century; several of the main figures are accorded the distinction of their own page (below).

• Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631). A statesman, and an antiquary, whose spectacular collection of manuscripts forms the basis of the national collection in the British Library.
• Sir William Dugdale (1605–86). A protégé of Sir Henry Spelman, and the archetypal antiquary of the seventeenth century.
• George Hickes (1642-1715).
• Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726). A pioneer in the study of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts; and among the first to appreciate the special value of charters for palaeographical purposes. 
• Thomas Tanner (1674-1735). 

Antiquaries, collectors and scholars in the eighteenth century

• Benjamin Thorpe (1781–1870). A significant Anglo-Saxon scholar in his own right, who became a friend and mentor of John Mitchell Kemble.
• Joseph Bosworth (1787-1876).
• John Mitchell Kemble (1807-57). Pioneer in the study of Old English language and literature; pioneer in the study of Anglo-Saxon charters, and Anglo-Saxon history; pioneer in the study of Anglo-Saxon archaeology; and much else besides. See sidebar for additional links to Kemble, his scholarship and his family.
• John Earle (1824-1903).
• W. G. Searle (1830-1913). 
• Walter de Gray Birch (1842–1924). A highly productive scholar, based in the British Museum. Editor of the Cartularium Saxonicum: a Collection of Charters relating to Anglo-Saxon History, published in three volumes between 1885 and 1893.
• William Henry Stevenson (1858-1924). Set new standards in the editing and analysis of charters, and delivered the Sandars Lectures, in Cambridge, in May 1898, on 'The Anglo-Saxon Chancery'.
• G. B. Grundy (1861-1948). A classicist by profession, who became a pioneer in the systematic study of the vernacular boundary-clauses in Anglo-Saxon royal diplomas.
• Hector Munro Chadwick (1870–1947). Author of Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (Cambridge, 1905), among many other works; encouraged his pupils Florence Harmer, Jane Robertson and Dorothy Whitelock to produce editions, with translations and commentary, of the corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters in the vernacular.
• Sir Frank Stenton (1880–1967). Author of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1943), and of The Latin Charters of the Anglo-Saxon Period (Oxford, 1955).
• Mary Prescott Parsons (1885-1971). Her work on Anglo-Saxon charters, in the late 1930s, focussed on the physical features of single-sheet charters of the eighth and ninth centuries.
• Florence Harmer (189x–1967). Editor of Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (1914), and of Anglo-Saxon Writs (1952).
• Agnes Jane Robertson (1893–1959). Editor of Anglo-Saxon Charters (1939).
• Dorothy Whitelock (1901–82). Editor of Anglo-Saxon Wills (1930); editor of English Historical Documents c. 500-1042 (1955), 2nd ed. (1979).
• Richard Drögereit (1908-1977). Author of 'Gab es eine angelsächsische Königskanzlei?' ('Was there an Anglo-Saxon royal chancery?'), published in 1935.
• Pierre Chaplais (1920–2006). Reader in Diplomatic at the University of Oxford (1957–87), and a major influence on the modern study of charters and of other diplomatic records.
• Nicholas Brooks (1941-2014). Author of The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (1984), and editor, with Susan Kelly, of the Charters of Christ Church, Canterbury, 2 vols. (2013).
• Patrick Wormald (1947-2004). Authority on the development of law and legislation in the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods.

Page maintained by SDK.

October 2011