William Phillimore Watts Phillimore (formerly Stiff) MA BCL (27 October 1853 – 9 April 1913) was an English
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
,
genealogist
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
and publisher.
Early life
William Phillimore Watts Stiff was born on 27 October 1853 in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
, the eldest son of Dr William Phillimore Stiff M.B. Lond., M.R.C.S. Eng., of
Sneinton
Sneinton (pronounced "Snenton") is a suburb of Nottingham, England. The area is bounded by Nottingham city centre to the west, Bakersfield to the north, Colwick to the east, and the River Trent to the south. Sneinton lies within the unitary au ...
, Nottingham, afterwards superintendent of
Nottingham General Lunatic Asylum
Sneinton Asylum was a psychiatric hospital at Sneinton in Nottingham.
History
The Nottingham General Lunatic Asylum was the first such asylum to open in the United Kingdom. It was designed by Richard Ingleman of Southwell. The foundation stone ...
, and Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Watts of Bridgen Hall,
Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.
History
B ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
. In 1873 William Stiff senior changed the family surname by royal licence to Phillimore, his great-grandmother's maiden name.Tiller 2004. William junior studied at
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...
in 1876.
Career
Phillimore was a solicitor. In 1897 he founded the publishing business which bears his name. From 1888 onwards, he advocated the formation of local record offices, and to that end prepared bills to be put before Parliament.
Phillimore initiated the foundation of several record publication societies: the Index Library (afterwards the germ of the
British Record Society
The British Record Society is a British learned society that focuses on publishing historic records, or, more specifically, indexes to such records. In recent years, the Society has concentrated on the publication of name indexes to English probat ...
) in 1887; the Scottish Record Series (afterwards
Scottish Record Society
The Scottish Record Society is a text publication society founded at Edinburgh in 1897, but with earlier roots as the Scottish section of the British Record Society (founded 1889). Since its establishment it has published numerous volumes of cal ...
) in 1896; the
Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire
The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, generally known as the Thoroton Society, is Nottinghamshire’s principal historical and archaeological society. It was established in 1897, and takes its name from Dr Robert Thoroton who published the first ...
in 1897; the
Canterbury and York Society
The Canterbury and York Society is a British text publication society founded in 1904. It publishes scholarly editions of English medieval (pre-Reformation) ecclesiastical records, notably episcopal registers.
History and activities
The Society ...
in 1904, publishers of English medieval ecclesiastical records; and the Irish Record Society in 1909. He was a corresponding member of the
New England Historic Genealogical Society
The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, founded in 1845.
NEHGS provides family history services through its staff, original scholarship, website,Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, n ...
, and the
Chicago Historical Society
Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the int ...
.
Personal life and death
Phillimore married Jane Graham in 1887 and they left one surviving son, Wilfred Henderson Phillimore.
Phillimore died on 9 April 1913 in
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...
, Devon.
Legacy
The publishing house he founded, Phillimore & Co., later based in
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
, West Sussex, became a prominent publisher in the fields of
local history
Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small bu ...
and
family history
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family a ...
, and survives as an imprint of
The History Press
The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...
Pedigree
Pedigree may refer to:
Breeding
* Pedigree chart, a document to record ancestry, used by genealogists in study of human family lines, and in selective breeding of other animals
** Pedigree, a human genealogy (ancestry chart)
** Pedigree (animal ...
Work'' (1900)
*''The Family of Middlemore'' (1901)
*''The Family of Holbrow'' (1901)
*'' Heralds' College and
Coats of Arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...
regarded from a Legal Aspect'' (1904)
*''Law and Practice of
Grant of Arms
A grant of arms or a governmental issuance of arms are actions, by a lawful authority such as an officer of arms or State Herald, conferring on a person and his or her descendants the right to bear a particular coat of arms or armorial bearings. ...
'' (1905)
*'' Changes of Name'' (1906)
*''The Family of Phillimore'' (completed by Lord Phillimore, and published in 1922).
Edited by Phillimore
*''1297 Coram Rege Roll''
*''Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, episcopi Lincolniensis 1209-1235''
*''Irish Will
Calendars
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
''
*''County Pedigrees: Nottinghamshire''
*upwards of 200 volumes of ''
Parish Register
A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...
s'', ''
Inquisitions
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
'', ''Will Calendars'' (chronological lists of wills) etc.
*''
Gloucestershire Notes and Queries
''Gloucestershire Notes and Queries'' was an illustrated quarterly magazine of the history and antiquities of Gloucestershire published from 1879 under the editorship of the Reverend Beaver Henry Blacker (1821–90).''Who Was Who'', 1897–1916 A & C Black Ltd, 1920
*''The Genealogist'', vol. 30 (October 1913)