Surtees Society

The society was established on 27 May 1834 by James Raine, following the death (on 11 February) of the renowned County Durham antiquarian Robert Surtees.

[1] Raine and other former friends of Surtees created the society to honour his memory and carry on his legacy, with the focus on publishing documents relating to the region between the Humber estuary and Firth of Forth in the east and the River Mersey and the River Clyde in the west, the region that had once constituted the kingdom of Northumbria.

The Surtees Society was constituted on 27 May 1834 at a meeting held at Durham, and Raine was appointed its first secretary.

[5] From this time Raine devoted great energy and industry to the interests of the society, editing 17 of its volumes, and establishing it on a permanent basis.

It proved the pioneer of many similar English regional and county publishing societies, which adopted its rules and methods.