Oliver Claude Pell: Collections on Weights and Measures

Oliver Claude Pell (1826-1891) was born on 3 September 1826 at Pinner, Middlesex. He was educated at Rugby, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1843 (B.A., 1848; M.A., 1857). He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1848, and was called to the Bar in 1851. Pell was J.P. and D.L. for the Isle and Ely, and was Chairman of the Isle of Ely County Council, 1888-1891. He died on 17 October 1891.

Papers of Pell connected with historical weights and measures, and in particular with his contribution to P.E. Dove, ed., Domesday studies, I (London, 1888), pp. 227-385, on 'The Geldable Unit of Assessment of Domesday' (223 folios).

I. Letters to Pell, 1888-1889, from the following: A.N. Palmer (nos 1-3); W.L. de Gruchy (4-7); C. Elton (8); C.F. Keary (9 and 11); F.W. Maitland (10, 12 and 14); [Sir] John Evans (13, 16 and 18); and C. Roach Smith (15 and 17), 30 September and 3 October 1889.

II. Transcripts and notes by Pell and others on historical weights and measures, with particular reference to the Domesday Survey and the Isle of Ely, including (fos 123-124) a letter from F. Seebohm to Pell sending extracts from the cartulary of St Bertin, 7 March 1885 (in pencil).

Received with the Francis Jenkinson collection, 1923.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Oliver Claude Pell: Collections on Weights and Measures, MS Add.6462