Record revealed
Hoax letter signed by ‘Jack the Ripper’
This is one of hundreds of letters in police files claiming to have been written by the infamous Whitechapel Murderer – otherwise known as 'Jack the Ripper'.
Series
Lisle Papers
Catalogue reference: SP 3
What's it about?
SP 3
Correspondence of Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, the acknowledged illegitimate son of Edward IV, and of Lisle's second wife, Honor Grenville, previously the wife of Sir John Bassett. The circa 3,000 papers, mostly out-letters of a private...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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SP 3
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Title (The name of the record)
- Lisle Papers
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Date (When the record was created)
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1533-1540
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Description (What the record is about)
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Correspondence of Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, the acknowledged illegitimate son of Edward IV, and of Lisle's second wife, Honor Grenville, previously the wife of Sir John Bassett. The circa 3,000 papers, mostly out-letters of a private nature, date from the time when Lisle was resident in Calais (then English), acting as Henry VIII's Lord Deputy there.
Lord and Lady Lisle corresponded with a wide range of family, family retainers and servants, and political and social acquaintances at court and in the counties. Their main correspondent was John Husee, Lisle's agent and secretary, based in London, whose letters are full of valuable political detail.
The papers were confiscated when Lisle was arrested on suspicion of treason in 1540.
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Separated material (A cross-reference between records that are related by provenance but now kept separately)
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A considerable number of the letters strayed at some time out of the series into
A few papers can also be found in the Cotton, Harleian and Royal Manuscripts in the British Library. These strays were included in the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, and some were printed in The Lisle Letters.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Grenville, Honor, 1533-1533
- Plantagenet, Arthur, 1480-1542
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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18 volume(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
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Available in digital format
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Litigation
- Treason and rebellion
- Crime
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
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The papers remained with other confiscated papers in the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, which was located in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey, until 1832. Then the State Paper Commission requested the Home Office to order the transfer of the Lisle Papers to the State Paper Office (where the Commission was based) in order to facilitate its work. Although the Lisle Papers were moved, they were not in fact included in the State Papers, but remained in the custody of the State Paper Office until its amalgamation with the Public Record Office in 1852.
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- The records are calendared in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII ed J S Brewer J Gairdner and R H Brodie (London 1862-1930). Please speak to staff at the Map and Large Document Room enquiry desk for the precise location. Many are printed in full in a modernised form in The Lisle Letters ed M St C Byrne (Chicago 1981). A condensed edition was published as The Lisle Letters: An Abridgement ed M St C Byrne selected and arranged by B Boland (Chicago 1983) .
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C13545/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
208,922 records
Within the department: SP
Records assembled by the State Paper Office, including papers of the Secretaries...
You are currently looking at the series: SP 3
Lisle Papers
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