| Description | These records cover all aspects of the financial administration of the college. Unfortunately, no financial accounting records survive (or were not recorded) from the college's earlier history. There are a large number of volumes of ledgers, journals and cash books which date from the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries to the 1980s and form a record of the college's daily, monthly and yearly financial transactions. These are supplemented by bank account books and almost a full run of account statements from the late 1870s to the early 1990s. For much of the twentieth century, the college also invested in a wide range of initiatives which included stocks and shares in various companies as well as loans to other institutions, notably convents. These activities were recorded in investment ledgers, registers, reports and correspondence with various financial management companies, particularly Witham & Co. A large section of the financial records concern donations bequeathed to the college by various individuals as part of their estate (property bequests have been catalogued in the Estate Records) and legacies (some of which were disputed) and other miscellaneous executors' papers. The financial records also contain papers on a number of funds set up by the college as a result of these bequests which were usually stipulated in the terms of the will, including the Bishop Wilkinson Trust Fund (which is still administered by the college today), the Ecclesiastical Education Fund, the Elizabeth Langstaff Fund, and others, many of which were designed to offer some form of financial support for students at the college. Finally, there are also financial records relating to specific groups involved in the college, including a long run of student ledgers from the 1850s until the 1980s, and the wages of groups of staff members, including maintenance staff, indoor workers, domestic staff, and part - time workers. |
| Admin_History | Since the formation of the college in 1808, the procurator was singularly responsible for the management of the college finances. This originated from the system established at the English College in Douai, although poor management of the finances at that institution was said to be the main reason for its downfall and, as a consequence, the procurator at Ushaw College was subjected to greater scrutiny by the presidents than his Douai predecessors. The autonomy of the procurator, and Ushaw College generally, to manage the college funds was also seriously curtailed by the diocesan bishops following the controversy surrounding the Sherburne-Heatley case, in which it was alleged that college funds had been misappropriated. |