Originally founded in 1863 to promote interest in the history and archaeology of the Huddersfield area, the Yorkshire Archaeological Society expanded its purview in 1870 to cover the whole of Yorkshire. In 1884 it began publishing its Record Series, which aimed to make historical information available through the reprinting of original documents, diaries, letters and charters. First printed for the society in 1941, this work comprises three seventeenth-century surveys. The first, introduced and edited by Thomas Stuart Willan (1910–94), addresses the manor of Wensleydale, and the remaining two, introduced and edited by Ely Wilkinson Crossley (1863–1942), are concerned with the areas - then known as lordships - of Middleham and Richmond. Providing details of property and land ownership, tenancies, dispute resolution, and farming, this work remains a valuable resource for local historians as well as scholars of seventeenth-century British history and historical geography.
