Hussey Files

On completion of the Gordon Ward index, it is intended to turn the attention of the Volunteers working in the Library to the Hussey Files. Arthur Hussey, who died in 1941, at the age of 79, was for fifty years a member of the KAS, for 32 years as a member of the Council, and from 1927 to his death, a Vice President. During that time, according to his obituary notice, he was a most diligent student of wills in the Canterbury Probate Registry, and of various MSS in the Chapter Library, and his contributions to Archaeologia Cantiana were most valuable. Between 1911 and his death in 1941 he published over thirty articles in Arch Cant.

He left his Research notes to the society, and these are contained in 300 files in the Library. The files are of two main types, both arranged alphabetically; one type concerning the history of a particular family, the other concerning places and the people connected with them. The existing index to the files lists the names of the files, but gives little or no information as to contents. The purpose of the work on which the Volunteers will be invited to embark, is to provide a summary of the contents of each file. It is no part of this exercise to attempt an in-depth academic study of the content of the files—Hussey will already have drawn on them in his published articles—and the extent to which new thoughts may be derived from his basic material is a matter for expert historians and genealogists to determine, if they so wish. However, they, and family history researchers, might have an easier task in using the files if we were able to provide a useful summary of the contents of each file.

It is intended that work on the files should start in the autumn, and that sometime towards the end of 2004 or early in 2005, the results should be posted on the website.