A major source of information about Whitby is kept in Whitby Museum and known collectively as The Burnett Papers. The late Percy Burnett (1903–1972) was Deputy Treasurer to Whitby Urban District Council. He assembled a very large collection of manuscripts, both loose-leaf and books, and transcribed these, translating from Latin where necessary. This collection was bequeathed to Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society on his death, and was largely deposited in North Yorkshire County Record Office. Where both the original document and the transcript can be compared, it is clear that Burnett's work was meticulous.

Burnett also made transcripts of other documents which remained in private hands. From time to time the originals of such transcripts re-surface and can be photocopied if not acquired. When this happens and comparison is made with the transcript, it is again clear that the work was accurate. It is safe, therefore, to assume that where documents exist only in Burnett's transcripts, and the original can no longer be traced, such transcripts are almost certainly equally accurate.