1.
Bags of Secrets or ‘Baga de Secretis’ were used from the fifteenth century to keep court records from the most serious crimes, such as treason.
The trial records for these cases were removed from their main series and put in these bags for safekeeping.
2.
Gunpowder Plot trial records
This bag once held the records related to the Gunpowder Plot.
3.
Foam pillow
The bag was temporarily fitted with a bespoke pillow to give it shape. The pillow was constructed with layers of archival foam and a polyester cover.
4.
Latin inscription
The translated Latin inscription reads: ‘Sessions held at Westminster the 27th day of January [in 1606], before Charles earl of Nottingham, [Lord] High Admiral of England, and others, for Thomas Wyntour, gentleman, and others’
5.
Worn out text
The writing on the bag has worn away over time. Our conservationists used multispectral imagery to attempt to read more of the text, but the damage was too extensive. Our transcript comes from an earlier report from the Record Office.
6.
Made from leather
This bag is made from leather and would have contained parchments made out of animal skins.
7.
PRO Tag
The Public Records Office – now The National Archives – tagged each bag with its unique catalogue reference to help us locate them within our repositories. In this case, the reference is KB 8.
8.
Victorian stamp
The Victorian stamp of the Public Record Office, along with the general wear of the document, tells us the story of its life after its initial use in the trial.
9.
Drawstring
The original leather drawstrings are still attached to the bag and you can see the holes through which they would have passed to pull the bag closed and keep its secrets inside.
10.
Stitching
The bag’s opened left seam was temporarily stitched closed, using a thin linen thread. This ensured that there were no loose areas, and that all aspects of the bag were supported, preventing any potential stress to the outer layer of the skin and the inked text.