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Surtees Society
Formation	27 May 1834
Type	Historical society
Registration no.	1003812
Legal status	Charity
Purpose	Historical study and research
Headquarters	Durham, England
Region served	Former Kingdom of Northumbria (northern England and southern Scotland)
Official language	English
Activities	Research and publication
Collections	Library, archives
Website	surteessociety.org.uk

The Surtees Society is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 1003812) based in Durham in northern England. The society was established on 27 May 1834 by James Raine, following the death (on 11 February) of the renowned County Durham antiquarian Robert Surtees.^[1] Raine and other former friends of Surtees created the society to honour his memory and carry on his legacy, with the focus on publishing documents relating to the region between the Humber estuary and Firth of Forth in the east and the River Mersey and the River Clyde in the west, the region that had once constituted the kingdom of Northumbria.^[2] Membership of the Society is by annual subscription (currently £50). Members receive the book published for the year of subscription.

History

The Surtees Society was constituted on 27 May 1834 at a meeting held at Durham, and Raine was appointed its first secretary.^[2]^[3] It was modelled in part on the Scottish Bannatyne Club (founded c. 1823) and Maitland Club (founded 1828).^[4] At the 27 May meeting, 94 members were elected, and by 1 July the number had risen to 100.^[5] From this time Raine devoted great energy and industry to the interests of the society, editing 17 of its volumes, and establishing it on a permanent basis. It proved the pioneer of many similar English regional and county publishing societies, which adopted its rules and methods.^[3]^[2]

Between 1855 and 1895 the society's secretary was Raine's son, James Raine the younger.^[6]

Publications

As of 2021, the society has published 226 volumes, mainly concerning the counties of Durham and Northumberland.^[8] Included among the works published are volumes covering the documents of monasteries, including Finchale Priory, Coldingham Priory, Fountains Abbey, Hexham Priory, Whitby Abbey and Brinkburn Priory.

Other records include wills and inventories from Yorkshire, obituaries from Durham Cathedral, heraldic visitations, documents from various archbishops of York and bishops of Durham, and records from the cities of York and Durham.

The society has also published editions of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Lindisfarne Psalter. In recent years it has published three volumes of material relating to Cumberland or Westmorland (including the cartulary of Lanercost Priory) jointly with the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society.^[8]

Publications are distributed by Boydell & Brewer.^[9]

Officers

Presidents

1834–37 Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch
1837–40 Edward Maltby
1840–43 Richard, 3rd Baron Braybrooke
1843–46 Charles, 3rd/5th Earl Fitzwilliam
1846–49 Henry, 2nd Duke of Cleveland
1849–63 Charles Thorp
1863–65 Algernon, 4th Duke of Northumberland
1865–84 Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch
1884–1901 William Stubbs
1901–18 Henry, 7th Duke of Northumberland
1918–24 William Brown
1925–30 Alan, 8th Duke of Northumberland
1931–38 Henry Gee
1939–45 Hensley Henson
1945–52 Alwyn Terrell Petre Williams
1953–61 Frederick Maurice Powicke
1962–73 John Herbert Severn Wild
1980–87 Hilary Seton Offler
1987–2002 Richard Barrie Dobson
2002–20 Richard Sharpe
2020–present Angus J. L. Winchester

Secretaries

1834–49 James Raine
1849–52 William George Henderson
1852–54 John Pedder
1854–95 James Raine Jnr
1896–1916 William Brown
1916–20 Henry Gee
1920–50 Alexander Hamilton Thompson
1950–66 Hilary Seton Offler
1966–74 W. A. L. Seaman
1974–99 A. J. Piper
1999–2000 Alan J. Heesom
2000–3 Lynda Rollason
2003–4 Anne Orde
2005–15 Michael M. N. Stansfield
2015–present Richard I. Higgins

Treasurers

1834–42 Robert Henry Allan
1834–73 John Gough Nichols
1843–47 William Greenwell
1847–57 William Henderson
1857–82 Samuel Rowlandson
1881–95 J. T. Fowler
1882–4 J. W. Barnes
1884–91 J. G. Robinson
1891–1932 John George Gradon
1932–49 Henry Lawrence Gradon
1949–61 A. B. Peacock
1961–62 W. Madderson
1962–71 Frank Stone
1971–81 M. R. Binks
1981–86 T. R. Gregory
1986–92 J. M. McMinn
1992–95 Michael Youll
1995–98 James Ramsbotham
1998–2000 Michael Carr
2001–13 Brian Cheesman
2013–15 Peter Maggs
2015–present John Marsland

Editors

1968–79 C. Roy Hudleston
1980–99 A. J. Piper
1999–2011 Margaret M. Harvey
1999–2013 Richard Hugh Britnell
2011–present Angus J. L. Winchester
2011–present Alan J. Heesom
2020–present David Crouch

References

^ Bell 2004a, "Surtees, Robert".
^ ^a ^b ^c Bell 2004, "Raine, James".
^ ^a ^b Carr 1896, p. 176.
^ Levine 1986, p. 41.
^ Thompson 1939, p. 19.
^ Fowler 1904, p. 172.
^ Mrs. Alice (Wandesford) Thornton (1875). The Autobiography of Mrs. Alice Thornton, of East Newton, Co. York. Society.
^ ^a ^b Royal Historical Society listing of Surtees Society publications
^ "Boydell & Brewer Publishers". boydellandbrewer.com. Retrieved 8 December 2017.

Bibliography

Bell, Alan (2004), "Raine, James (1791–1858), antiquary and topographer", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23023 (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Bell, Alan (2004a), "Surtees, Robert (1779–1834), historian", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26790 (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Fowler, J. T. (1904), Durham University: Earlier Foundations and Present Colleges, London: F. E. Robinson & Co.
Levine, Philippa (1986), The Amateur and the Professional: Antiquarians, Historians and Archaeologists in Victorian England, 1838–1886, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-53050-7
Thompson, A. Hamilton (1939). The Surtees Society, 1834–1934, including a catalogue of its publications with notes on their sources and contents, and a list of the members of the society from its beginning to the present day. Surtees Society. Vol. 150. Durham: Surtees Society.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Carr, William (1896). "Raine, James". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 47. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 175–176.