FSG grant to transcribe 17th Century Documents

In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was common for military engineers to hire out their services. In the State Papers held at the National Archives in Kew there is a remarkable survivor from this era – a survey of 22 of these forts by a Dutch Engineer, probably working for the Board of Ordnance.

This grant will support Dr Esther van Raamsdonk of Utrecht University to transcribe and translate the cryptic shorthand notes in English-influenced early modern Dutch. British historian Paul Pattison will then use his extensive knowledge of these forts to provide a considered opinion on the significance of the documents and any new insights which are brought to light.

There are 22 forts in these 400 year old papers. This project will initially concentrate on the castles at Pendennis and St Mawes in Cornwall. It is intended that the results will be widely disseminated including in the FSG journal FORT. 

These papers were first reported in FORT volume 11 in 1983 in an article by John Kenyon: "A Hitherto Unknown Early Seventeenth Century Survey of the Coastal Forts of Southern England: a Preliminary Outline" following the discovery of the documents by FSG Member Charles Trollope in 1982.

Commenting about the value of this project Paul and Esther explained that they expect three valuable new insights “Firstly we will gain a snapshot of the condition of each fortification in the early seventeenth century, providing a new milestone in the buildings’ development up to that point, and since, including the involvement of Dutch engineers as part of the history of English fortifications. Secondly, we expect to learn more about the development of the castles and fortifications before the time of the survey. As we found in our test case, Yarmouth Castle, the surveyor had sought to understand the history of the buildings he was working on. Finally, we hope for exciting new evidence for lost or poorly understood aspects of the castles, such as rooms, entrances, gun batteries etc. that were to be removed or updated as a result of the survey. This includes, in the case of St Mawes castle, the tantalising possibility of angle bastions either existing or proposed at the time of the survey, as they are shown on an accompanying sketch”.

The Castle Studies Group have also provided a grant which will focus on the castles in the Cinque Ports – Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Dover, Sandgate and possibly Camber.