Our collection

Our collections include:   

• Official records of Derbyshire County Council and its predecessors.
• Records of Derby and Derbyshire Quarter Sessions.
• Archives of many other Derbyshire public bodies including hospitals, courts, local councils and the Derby probate registry.
• Archives of the Diocese of Derby and of over 400 Anglican parishes in the county.
• Archives from Derbyshire schools, industries, businesses, societies, charities, estates, families and voluntary groups.

These collections include original:

• Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from the 16th century onwards.
• Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials in non-conformist chapels from the 17th century onwards.
• Personal and estate papers from major Derbyshire families.
• Wills and probate records of Derbyshire people from 1858 to 1961.
• Cemetery records for most of Derbyshire from the 19th century.
• Electoral registers from 1832.
• Manuscript and printed plans from the 17th century onwards including estate plans, tithe maps, enclosure maps and early ordnance survey maps.

George Woodward collection:

The George Woodward collection is also held by Derbyshire Record Office.

The artist George Murgatroyd Woodward was born in around 1765, and grew up in the Derbyshire village of Stanton by Dale. He spent a number of years working for Earl Stanhope of Chevening, before resigning his position in 1791 in order to embark on a career as a caricaturist. He died in 1809 at the Brown Bear Tavern in Covent Garden.

The Woodward collection at Derbyshire contains 218 drawings by Woodward, including his earliest known drawings, a series of pen and ink sketches produced when still in his teens, as well as a series of portraits of actors in Shakespearean roles executed between 1782 and 1787, depictions of the earliest balloon flights in England and a number of preparatory drawings for his published caricatures. 

There are also 220 prints based on designs by Woodward. During his brief career Woodward collaborated with some of the best known caricaturists of the day in order to produce his prints, and the collection includes examples of work produced in conjunction with Thomas Rowlandson, Isaac Cruikshank and Thomas Newton.   

Woodward was more interested in the humour to be found in everyday life than in high politics and his caricatures provide a fascinating insight into the tastes and fashions of 18th century England. Use this database to browse through some of his prints and drawings. For further information please contact Derbyshire Record Office, quoting reference number D5459.