Manuscripts | Laurence Sterne Trust

The Collection | Manuscripts

As part of the Laurence Sterne Trust’s aim to make the Collections at Shandy Hall as widely accessible as possible, we are currently digitising all the Sterne manuscripts and those printed items which are not recorded in the English Short Title Catalogue. We shall then proceed to digitise printed material which is only known to exist in a handful of copies.

We are pleased to be able to say that a number of private owners of major Sterne collections have agreed to allow the Trust to digitise and host images of their material on this web-site. These items will start to appear once the Trust’s own Collections have been up-loaded. We hope to persuade some institutional collections to follow the very generous example of the North Yorkshire Public Record Office, who allowed us to put on-line the Chapman letters relating to Sterne’s preaching in Coxwold.

We aim to gradually upload images of all unique manuscripts to this website in order to provide a valuable research tool for Sterne scholars and enthusiasts, please contact Shandy Hall for enquires about image permissions and visiting the collection for research purposes.

Please find below a selection of some of the manuscripts in the collection, to find a specific item in The Laurence Sterne Trust Collection use the search bar at the top right of this page.

Tithe Receipts: Given on the receipt of donation to the church.

Tithe receipt for Stephen Croft from Laurence Sterne, 30 November 1745

Tithe receipt for Stephen Croft from Laurence Sterne, 30 November 1745 | Laurence Sterne Trust

The Laurence Sterne Trust

The Collection | Manuscripts