Scope and Content
The scrapbook has been formed by cutting pages out of a leather bound minute book to make room to items to be stuck to the remaining blank pages. The cuttings are not arranged in any particular sequence. The contents are mostly newspaper cuttings and printed election material. The page numbers were applied to the volume by the archive service.
page 1 - Cutting re. Lord Beaconsfield & Mr Gladstone. Obituary and report of the funeral of 'The Late Mr Roff' - W Roff senr (1811-1897) from the Beds Times 4 December 1897 [not stuck to page].
page 2 - cuttings re - theft from Mr Roff 14 Sept 1872, aldermanic election, April 1880, improvements to Roff's Dining Rooms and an elocutionary contest held at the rooms, 1880, suggestion of a portrait of Mr Coombs for the council chamber, 1887 - six other cuttings of no Bedfordshire interest.
page 3-4 - invitation cards to the memorial service for his late majesty the king at St Paul's Church, 20 May 1910,
page 5 - invitation to the stonelaying for the new Bunyan memorial Hall, Elstow, 19 May [1910?],
page 7 - Memorial of householders of the Borough of Bedford objecting to the proposed increase in the proportion of boarders allowed to masters in the Bedford Modern School.
page 9 - Translation of the ordinance of Robert de Parys, and of Bishop Beaufort's ratification thereof.
page 10 - schedule of property of the St John's Hospital
page 11-13 - Cutting re. The Dobrudsha, 26 May 1877.
page 14 - Cutting of letter by G L Roff, son of Councillor Roff of Bedford, now and for many years past a resident of European Turkey, c1877. Cutting of a letter from an Australian explaining his objection to the Imperial Federation. Cutting - Farewell to Mr Joseph Roff - by the people of Ballarat East [Australia] on the occasion of Mr Roff leaving to visit England.
page 15 - Reports of Mr Isaac Roff's travels in Australia and his death at his brother Joseph's house in Ballarat East. Details of the will and estate of the late Mr Joseph Roff late of Ballarat East, who died at Windsor, 1893.
page 16 - Cuttings on Business enterprise in Bedford, 1889, Messrs Roff & Warton's steam flour mill, 1892 and the price of bread.
page 17 - William Roff's letter to the British and Foreign Confectioner & Baker and the reply, 1896.
page 18 - W Roff junior's paper on Russian prisons and the exile system - which he was to have given at the Bedford Liberal Club but was incapacitated by loss of voice.
page 19 - Cuttings 'A Life of Christ found in Thibet', 'Progress in High Street, Mr Roff's bakery & confectionery' (14 Sept 1889) and 'Marriage of Miss Roff' [to Mr George Alexander Spencer].
page 20 - Cuttings on the old Bedford Corn Exchange [1903] and Bedford Girls' Schools [1882].
page 21 - Cutting - the mayoral banquet, 5 December 1911.
page 24 - Cutting - Imperial Parliament, 1885.
page 25 - Mr W E Forster MP and his constituents [in Bradford]
page 26 - new rules of debate for the house of commons.
page 27 - The Bedford Schools, the Mayor's Garden Party, an address by mr C P Trevelyan MP on secondary education, 23 July 1912.
page 28 - presentation of a mayoress' gold chain to Bedford, 30 May 1902.
page 29 - Mayor's resignation received, 1903. Corporation in Chapel - an elector's complaint at the appearance of the mayor at the Bunyan Meeting 18 October 1912, Municipal elections 1912.
page 30 - Report on Roff leading the deputation to the Urban Sanitary Authority in support of a petition to keep the power of lighting the town with electricity in the hands of the authority and not to delegate it to a company, 1893-4.
page 32 - the Waterwork's enquiry, 1885.
page 33 - Rev John Brown's proposed Liberal meeting at Wilden, 1884, election matters 1885.
page 34 - Bridge discussion 1877, waterworks accounts and committee - collapse of the vote of thanks 1885-6.
page 35 - Church and state, nonconformists of Biggleswade.
page 36-37 politics 1877, 1880, the new county council, 1888.
page 38 - Vote of condolence to the Empress Eugenie. Transvaal war.
page 39 - New Girls' Schools.
page 40-45 National Reform Union, 1881-1887
page 46-47 Mr Roff's lecture on Ireland, 1887.
page 48-49 Dissestablishment
page 50 - Presentation to Mr Whitbread
page 51 - Report on Bedford Town Council, 1878.
page 52 - Sewage Farm, 1878. The law of Distress and law of distraint, 1882.
page 54-55 Ireland, 1887.
page 57 - lecture on Liberal legislation for the past fifty years given at Wootton, 1883.
page 58-59 - the new bridge question, 1877, 1911
page 60 - resistance to the Education Act, 1905.
page 62-63 - Church dissestablishment, 1879.
page 64 - Sir W Harcourt on the tithe question.
page 66-73 - The archdeacon and vicar of Bedford on nonconformity, 1880, disestablishment, religious affairs, 1870s.
page 74 - Lord Herchell in Bedford
page 77 - unreformed corporations
page 78 - the Indian press on the annexation of Cyprus.
page 79 - Sir William Harcourt, 1879.
page 80 - The Irish Coercion Bill, 1881, The Rev Alfred Peet's reply to Mr Denton of Rushden, 1886, National Reform Union.
page 84 - election of Bedford mayor, 1898, Bedford municipal election, 1897.
page 85 - Marshal Canrobert and the coup d'etat.
page 86 - election pamphlet by James Howard, 25 March 1868.
page 87-113 election ephemera including songs, addresses, press cuttings, satires, cartoons. (various elections) Includes the following: The Old Whig Agent's Lament (Tennysonian Metre), The Battle of the Reform League, 1868, A Radical's Song to the tune Death of Nelson, Lines suggested by the last Tory publication The Bible by one who has a bible signed Anti-Satan, 1868, Bedford Liberal Song to the tune We Don't Want to Fight, 1880, Bedford Borough Election tune Bonnie Dundee with the chorus 'Then up with the Yellow', 1880, Ye Farmers of England, Tory Trickery! by Duncan McNab, Entries for the grand annual municipal handicaps, 1871, The Great Municipal Sweepstakes for 1869, The Mutton Music Hall, Well Street Bedford A Grand Entertainment, 1868, Bedford Boro' Handicap sweepstakes anticipations by Nemo, 1868, 'Who voted for the cat...' 1868, Revival of the Bedfordshire Races, The Poly-Whit-niac trio, The Political Pilgrims' Progress, Important Notice delightful building sites in that very eligible swamp adjoining the proposed new bridge, 'De Ricci is a gentleman...' c1885-6,
page 117 - Facts worth knowing about the vote os censure (The Financial Reformer, 1 Feb 1879).
page119-231 not used
page 232-237 and back inside cover - more election material (various elections) including: To the electors of the eastern ward by Henry Burridge (elected), Duncan Cromartie and William Roff jun (not elected), 1896. Address to the Burgesses of the Eastern Ward by Henry Burridge, 1896, The Squatters' Defeat in Nov 1850, Rally Liberals All to the tune of Men of Harlech, 'Poor Ezra, Poor Ezra, what have you been at' 1887,