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Jenkyns Collection: Papers of Canon Henry Jenkyns (IV-V)

THE  PAPERS OF CANON HENRY JENKYNS (1795-1878)
Jenkyns  IV & V
This subfonds is of importance for the foundation and early history of the University of Durham, Oriel College in the 1820s and 1830s, and the Jenkyns and Hobhouse families.There are letters by many writers who appear in the  ODNB. Thomas Arnold (Headmaster of Rugby),William van Mildert(Bishop of Durham), Charles Manners-Sutton ( Speaker of the House of Commons) are  especially notable major contributors .

When the Jenkyns Papers were first studied at Balliol in 1978-1988, the prime interest was Richard Jenkyns, Master of Balliol, and that was reflected in the bias of the brief overall Guide (The Jenkyns Papers. A Guide, 1988), which passed over much other material superficially, in particular the extensive papers of the Master’s equally important younger brother Henry Jenkyns, Canon of Durham, which were on temporary deposit at the University of Durham 1979-1988.

The essentials of the life of Canon Henry Jenkyns have been outlined in the ODNB. He was born in 1795, son of John Jenkyns and Jane née Banister his wife. Henry Hobhouse (1776-1854, ODNB) was his first cousin, and became his father-in-law when he married his daughter Harriet: they had eight surviving children. His brother Richard, as mentioned above, was Master of Balliol (ODNB), and a sister, Jane Catherine, married Thomas Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church (ODNB). Henry Jenkyns, hereafter HJ, was a Fellow of Oriel 1881-1835, during which time he was private tutor to two sons of Charles Manners Sutton (ODNB).   Professor of Greek at Durham 1833-1839, and of Divinity 1839-1864, HJ was a Canon of Durham from 1839 until his death in April 1878, but was resident at Botley Hill near Southampton from 1864.   

When the Jenkyns Papers were received at Balliol by EV Quinn 60 years ago, they were contained in 6 tin deed boxes and 5 large cardboard boxes.These 11 boxes were shelved in groups designated I-VII by Quinn, but not otherwise processed, although a number of scholars were given access. The papers of HJ were in groups IV (three cardboard boxes) and V (one deed box and one cardboard box), which were further designated IVA, IVB, IVC, VA & VB in 1978. At Durham 1978-1988 bundles and gatherings of particular interest re the History of that University were designated, in notes made there, not without some confusions,  IVB.[A]-[C], IVC.A-K,VA.1a-1e,VA.2 & 3, and VB.1-19.

The Jenkyns Papers, of which HJ’s papers are a major part, have been examined and partially arranged several times, notably by John Jenkyns around 1912, with some weeding, and possibly cherry-picking re grandees. No list or description of his survives (although there are many of his pencilled annotations), but it appears that the arrangement of the Collection is still essentially as he left it. Three people have since compiled partial lists and descriptions: the present writer, who surveyed the whole Collection in 1978 and wrote the overall Guide published in 1988, but concentrated on material relevant to the History of Balliol on which he was then engaged; and Mr Pat Mussett and Dr CD Watkinson of Durham University, who studied the material relevant to the History of their University while it was on temporary deposit there. An incompletely legible photocopy of Mr Mussett’s notes, heavily annotated and extended by Dr Watkinson, was deposited at Balliol about 1993: this is now with miscellaneous material re HJ which was collected in the course of preparing the ODNB article about him, in Additional Jenkyns Papers (Jenkyns Boxes 35 & 36).

But at no time until recently (see the listing of the Vernon Papers = Jenkyns II ) has anybody attempted a searchable complete listing of any section of The Jenkyns Papers .This is such an attempt for all of HJ’s Papers, which were completely relisted, and where desirable repacked in archive folders , in 2012.
Nothing has been rearranged, however: this is a listing in order as found in 2012-2013. Previous coding has been preserved where clear, so that published citations can (hopefully) be traced. Where convenient, additional codings of low hierarchy were introduced in 2012. Anything cited before as Jenkyns IV should thus still be found under that code; anything cited as Jenkyns IV.A under that code, anything under Jenkyns IVA.[A] under that, and so forth. The system created by multiple custodians over 60 years is somewhat cumbersome, but has its logic.

Anything now designated “Additional” had not previously been examined at Oxford but had only been noted at box level. All of it was studied along with all the rest of Jenkyns IV-V at the University of Durham 1979-1988 by Mr Mussett and Dr Watkinson, whose notes may be helpful. But correlation of their notes with the material requires considerable patience, as (a) their purpose was to make notes on material of Durham interest, not to catalogue it for general benefit, and (b) it became evident that some shuffling of material had taken place either at Durham or at Balliol since they made their notes.
Some of these papers have been wet in the distant past but have dried out well. Some had long dead dusty fungal soiling which cleaned off easily leaving brown stain without structural damage. Many have pencil annotations by John Jenkyns, sometimes initialled by him. The pencil hand of EV Quinn is also evident here and there. Some of the pencil annotations re dates and identifications are incorrect, or without evidence. No annotations were erased, even if incorrect, and to avoid piling confusion on confusion   no new pencil marks at all were made in 2012.

The HJ Papers are now distributed between 14 uniform grey archive boxes as follows :-

Box 9  Jenkyns IVA.1-7.
Box 10 Jenkyns IVA.Additional 1 & 2.
Box 11 Jenkyns IVB.[A]-[C].
Box 12 Jenkyns IVB.Additional 1 & 2.
Box 13  Jenkyns IVB.Additional 3-7.
Box 14  Jenkyns IVC.A-E.
Caveat: Durham notes etc seem to use  IVC.B twice and equate  one instance  of IVC.B to IVC.[C!] which has been taken as IVC.C.
Box 15  Jenkyns IVC. F-K and IVC.A-K.Scraps.
Box 16  Jenkyns VA.1a.
Box 17  Jenkyns VA.1b.
Box 18  Jenkyns VA.1c.
Box 19  Jenkyns VA.1d.
Box 20 Jenkyns VA.1e.
Box 21 Jenkyns  VA.2 & 3.
Box 22 Jenkyns VB.1-10.
Box 23 Jenkyns VB.11-19.

- John Jones