Royal pardon of King James I for Hugh Currer of Kildwick, North Yorkshire, in Latin, very large manuscript charter on parchment [England, 9 June 1604]

Singlesheet document, with 57 long lines in chancery hand, important words in larger version of same, uppermost line with ornate penwork cadels, two large penwork initials encased with scrolling hairline penwork and foliage, folds and small marks, else in excellent condition, most of impression of Great Royal Seal still present, and attached to single set of parchment tags at foot of document, chipped away at one corner, slightly rubbed at front, but inscription still very legible, 517 by 665mm.

The Currer family had owned part of the Kildwick estate (that until the Reformation the property of Bolton Abbey), since 1559, and the subject of this pardon, Hugh Currer, acquired the last part of it in 1614 (the kitchen range is all that probably now survives of the Tudor and Jacobean Kildwick Hall, now a hotel). The family held pro-parliamentary and anti-monarchist beliefs, and doubtless this is what this pardon was intended to excuse them from, offered as a royal olive branch. Hugh Currer's son would later enter the Parliamentarian side during the first Civil War with the rank of lieutenant-colonel and a permanent garrison established at Kildwick Hall.