Caulfield: The Council Book of the Corporation of the City of Cork

Caulfield, Richard. The council book of the corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643, and from 1690 to 1800. Surrey: J. Billing and Sons, 1876

Richard Caulfield's The Council Book of the Corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643 and from 1690 to 1800 are proceedings of the muncipal authorities of Cork as they took place. Caulfield's work is an attempt to provide a faithful record of history rather than romantic version.

Caulfield, Richard. The council book of the corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643, and from 1690 to 1800. Surrey: J. Billing and Sons, 1876

Caulfield, Richard. The council book of the corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643, and from 1690 to 1800. Surrey: J. Billing and Sons, 1876

Richard Caulfield's The Council Book of the Corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643 and from 1690 to 1800 are proceedings of the muncipal authorities of Cork as they took place. Caulfield's work is an attempt to provide a faithful record of history rather than romantic version.

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Richard Caulfield's The Council Book of the Corporation of Cork from 1609 to 1643 and from 1690 to 1800 are proceedings of the municipal authorities of Cork as they took place. Caulfield's work is an attempt to provide a faithful record of history rather than a romantic version.

He identified two methods of writing history. The first is to present the facts as they are and leave it to the reader to form his own impressions. The second is to present what the impressions have made on the writer's mind and present them to the reader. Caulfield intended to marry both methods together by presenting a series of samples and extracts to give a truer picture of the times. He used sources in the Library of the British Museum , the Bodlein library, Oxford , the Treasury of the Corporation of Cork and other sources.

Caulfield notes that the Council Book for the years between 1643 and 1690 were lost. These documents were kept in a separate volume and appear in Smith's 'History of Cork' but he was unable to find them despite his enquiries. The Corporation's work was discontinued during the period of the Civil Wars in England , Scotland and Ireland in the 1640s and 1650s. The period which is missing corresponds to the period between the English Civil War and the Williamite Wars.

Richard Caulfield (1823-1887) was secretary, librarian and custodian of the Royal Cork Institution and librarian for Queen's College Cork. It said of him that on several occasion he was chosen to referee the various sides in significant historical and theological disputes. He was acquainted with and respected by the members of the clergy, Cork city dignitaries, lecturers, professors and the student body of Queen's College who attended his funeral when he died at the age of 64.