Sir Charles Woollcombe’s Family Scroll of 1877
Sir Charles Woollcombe’s Family Scroll of 1877 is perhaps the most extraordinary artefact in the Woollcombe Family Archive. It is extraordinary for several reasons:
- It goes back to 1170 - further than any other document we have found;
- It is hand-written and hand-painted on a 1m wide – 10m long sheet of paper;
- The original was burned when Ashbury House burned down in 1877. The 20-year old Charles set to immediately to re-make it, probably better than before.
- He could do this because, by lucky chance, he’d taken the original papers and coats of arms away from Ashbury to his house two days before.[see History]
His great grand-daughter, Tamsyn, who now holds the scroll, generously commissioned a specialist photographer, recommended by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, to photograph the scroll. Then, her cousin, Nick Woollcombe, photographed each entry, and he and I typed them up so that, now, you can zoom into and read the different parts of it. Use the buttons below, or click on sections of the whole scroll reproduced on the right side of your screen, to access the digitally-reproduced scroll. And Click HERE to read Charles’ own story of making the Scroll and the Fire which destroyed Ashbury and his first edition of it.
There is much to enjoy in the scroll: the stories of Woollcombe Admirals, one of whom served with Nelson, Charles’ own story - all scribbled in the margins of the scroll: we have included these in this version in a purple border. There were some place names that we couldn’t read – and many things we don’t know about the scroll – like why Charles chose to include some entries in red, gold and blue circles or who updated it to the 1960s? Clearly, much work is still to be done by future, more skilled, archivists to reproduce the link-lines on the scroll, and reconcile Charles’ entries to national & municipal archives he mentions in some places.
But – this is a start and where, before, only a handful of Woollcombes ever saw this glorious scroll, now, through the generosity of Tamsyn Woollcombe, all Woollcombes will, for ever, be able to access, study and appreciate the extraordinary work of her great-grandfather. We thank them both for caring so much about the Woollcombe family.
