300-year-old document found down the back of the couch
An Eketāhuna resident wants to return a 300-year-old parchment document to its place of origin, but 200 years of its existence are a mystery.
Cheryl Banks’ father found the parchment document down the back of a couch. She’s not certain exactly when he made the intriguing discovery, but guesses it was in the late 1940s.
After her parents married in 1947, Banks said they lived in a house in Waltons Ave, Masterton, with a second-hand couch that had rolled arms and was covered in a rough canvas.
Banks recounts the family tale that one day her father was sitting on the old couch when he put his hand down the back and pulled out the parchment.
Now 69, Banks remembers the parchment being around when she was aged around 5 and that it fascinated her.
“It was sitting at home in his writing desk.
“We weren’t allowed to open it up,” Banks told Stuff.
Her father died 30 years ago, and since her mother died 10 years ago, it has been in Banks’ possession, kept in an old family writing desk.
Still reluctant to open the folded parchment, Banks said she would like to return it to where it came from, which she presumes is England.
“I would like it to go to the right place.” But how to find that place?
The parchment, signed in 1735, appears to be an agreement for one year between a Matthew East and James Tillyar.
Banks wondered if it was an employment contract, however, Dr Peter Whitehead, the National Library’s collection care leader, said it is a lease.
Whitehead said it is not the first time he has come across parchment documents found in a sofa.
Before moving to New Zealand, Whitehead worked in English archives where parchment manuscripts were common. His work as a parchment conservator included dealing with medieval court scrolls found in a sofa.
“It could well be that behind the sofa, under a cushion, would be considered a safe place.”
Parchment was popular for legal documents for its robust structure, with sheepskin preferred because if someone tried to scratch anything, it was obvious it had been tampered with, Whitehead said.
However, in England property leases were not considered hugely important for a long time and many documents were thrown away when property transactions became computerised, he said.
In New Zealand, although the National Library has a number of parchment documents and the Treaty of Waitangi is written on parchment, Whitehead said there hasn’t been much call for his parchment conservation skills.
Whitehead said the parchment looks to be in good condition.
His advice to Banks was to find out if there was a connection between the names in the document and residents of the Wairarapa.
Families emigrating to New Zealand from the UK would have brought possessions with them, including parchment documents, he said.
Banks planned to also research any further details that can be deciphered from the contract, including land information.
She marvelled at her father’s find: “When things go down behind the couch, it’s the simplest of places to find things and people don’t look.”
As for the couch that harboured the parchment, that was replaced in the 1970s, she said, upgraded for a more modern piece of furniture.