In the year 1902, my father published his life's work on the genealogy of his family. It was called Fiske Family Papers and was a volume of 439 pages which carried the line back to circa 1310, from which date the family was domiciled in Suffolk. About twenty years before that book was published, my father had searched most of the church registers around Laxfield, and wider afield, where members of the family had resided. In Laxfield church chest he found a number of old deeds, wills, etc., dating from between 1368 and 1600 and made a few notes from them. Sometimes the name was spelt ffiske, sometimes Fiske and sometimes Fisk - due, no doubt, to the whim of the clerk scribing it. At a later date my father arranged to have these documents copied or photographed. But it was found that they were missing from the chest and presumed to have been stolen. Years after the publication of the book, I received a letter from a Mr. Roundell P. Sanderson of Morpeth in Northumberland. For £100 he offered me 58 old deeds, mostly bearing crown seals, all respecting my family, the earliest being dated 1368 and the rest of them covering a period of 300 years. From the list he sent me I recognised them at once as being those missing from Laxfield.
I conveyed the information to my cousin, William Saunders Fiske, a London solicitor and a well-known collector of works of art. He informed the bishop of the diocese and the incumbent of Laxfield, offering himself to defray all expenses if they would authorise him to claim the documents in their name as having been stolen from Laxfield church. But they were not interested and forfeited any claim they might have in them. Now apparently there is quite a traffic in ancient documents. I have had large catalogues of them sent to me from time to time. They have usually included deeds or documents associated with well-known names throughout the county. These deeds, apparently, have a ready market in America. It was therefore arranged for me to meet Mr. Sanderson at the Station Hotel at Newcastle and to see the documents. Unknown to Mr. Sanderson I was accompanied by a detective to overhear what was said.
Mr. Sanderson was a very charming elderly man. We went into the lounge and ordered tea. The detective strolled in shortly afterwards, took his seat at a table nearby, and ordered tea for himself. Mr. Sanderson produced a heavy cardboard box containing the deeds, which were all small, many of them bearing up to five seals. He had mounted each on white cardboard and in many cases had translated the Latin wording. I had no doubt that they were authentic and I asked Mr. Sanderson how they came into his possession, as they were undoubtedly stolen from Laxfield church. I told him that the gentleman at the next table was with me to hear his explanation and I suggested that he be invited to join us.
Mr. Sanderson was not hurt but on the contrary was quite pleased. Before his retirement, he told us, he was custodian and translator of ancient documents at the British Museum. He was a batchelor and for a holiday one year he stayed at a farm in Suffolk. He obtained the address of the farm from a handbook issued by the Great Eastern Railway. The holiday had been most enjoyable and Mr. Sanderson went again the following year. During that visit, the farmer told him that he had quite by accident discovered a secret drawer in his writing desk and in the drawer were a lot of old documents. He gave them to Mr. Sanderson. The farmer had bought the desk years before at an auction sale at Huntingfield rectory following the death of the Rev. W. Holland. That was all Mr. Sanderson knew about it and he claimed he had a good title to the documents which, he said, I could take away with me for inspection by the British Museum. I could then either return them to him or send him the sum of £100.
I was able to complete the tale that Mr. Sanderson told me. For I knew that at the time of his death the Rev. W. Holland had been compiling the Cratfield parish papers. No doubt, incumbents of surrounding parishes had allowed him to take their registers to his home. The Fiske papers from Laxfield church were amongst them and these latter Mr. Holland appears to have placed in the secret drawer of his desk. They were over-looked as a consequence, as after his death his widow completed his work and published it in 1895. The £100 was sent to Mr. Sanderson. The deeds, after some of them had been photographed, were then lodged in the Ipswich Public Library where they can be seen on application, together with several other documents that the family has since deposited there.
As published in the February 1949 issue of East Anglian Magazine (with thanks to Michael B. Fisk)