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Title: The Key to the Family Deed Chest: How to Decipher and Study Old Documents, Being a Guide to the Reading of Ancient Manuscripts
Author: Thoyts, Emma Elizabeth
Language: English
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HOW TO DECIPHER AND STUDY OLD
DOCUMENTS.
[Illustration]
_THE KEY TO THE FAMILY DEED CHEST_
HOW TO DECIPHER
AND
STUDY OLD DOCUMENTS
_BEING A GUIDE TO THE READING OF
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS_
BY
E. E. THOYTS
(MRS. JOHN HAUTENVILLE COPE)
_WITH AN INTRODUCTION_
BY
C. TRICE MARTIN
ASSISTANT KEEPER OF H.M. RECORDS
SECOND EDITION
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW
1903
[Illustration]
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Just ten years ago this little volume made its first appearance.
Although many books on similar subjects have been written in that
time, none have exactly given the same information, and this second
edition has been decided upon. Additions and corrections to bring
the book up to date have been made, but much still remains, and must
remain, imperfect in so small a work on so large a subject, and the
present pages only profess to help beginners over some of the initial
difficulties they will meet with.
It has been urged that handwriting and its characteristics have nothing
to do with old deeds, but careful study of every line and letter is
useful, especially with regard to private letters, or when any question
arises as to whether the manuscripts are genuine or forgeries. That is
why the second chapter, on handwriting and descriptions of old ink,
paper, and paper marks and seals, was written, for all such items
_are_ of great importance.
A recent celebrated trial (the Shipway case, in which an old register
was altered) shows that careful attention to minute details is
necessary. Parish registers have not, and are not, at the present
moment protected against frauds of this kind, which are far less common
than might be supposed.
Old deeds are now bought and sold; it is a trade quite as much as
that in old books. Some years ago, in Edinburgh, a number of clever
forgeries were sold as genuine, which if they had been so would have
cleared up a historical question of great importance.
Many friends who helped me when I first wrote the book are, alas! dead;
only their letters remain, and from these I have used extracts in
revising this edition.
Mr. Trice Martin has most kindly read it through and criticised it, as
he did ten years ago, and if mistakes still remain, I trust my readers
will be lenient. It must, however, be remembered that I am writing only
about the class of deeds which are usually met with in old houses, and
not attempting to describe every description of charter or deed.
EMMA ELIZABETH COPE.
130, HYDE PARK MANSIONS, W.
_September, 1903._
[Illustration]
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
In the following pages I have tried to describe the things which
puzzled me when, as a beginner, I first essayed to read and understand
the old records of bygone times. Written in a language I knew not,
relating to customs no longer existing, all was strange and unfamiliar.
I toiled on; by degrees light dawned and the difficulties melted
away. The knowledge thus gained I have endeavoured, in all humility,
to write down as a possible guide and help to others who may, like
myself, prefer to follow antiquarian research by means of old deeds and
other manuscripts, as being the original source and most trustworthy
fountain-head of knowledge, and by this means to avoid as much as
possible repeating the assertions and mistakes of previous writers.
In the chapter on Paleography I have named the books which were
my guides, and in these pages I have tried to supply information
supplementary to what is already printed on the subject, rather than
repeat what has previously been explained. The growing fashion for all
kinds of antiquarianism creates a desire for books treating upon such
subjects, and this has induced me to write this book.
E. E. THOYTS.
SULHAMSTEAD,
_May, 1893_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION xi
I. HINTS TO THE BEGINNER 1
II. CHARACTER BY HANDWRITING 14
III. SAXON, NORMAN-FRENCH AND LAW LATIN 28
IV. OLD DEEDS 41
V. LAW TECHNICALITIES 53
VI. MANOR AND COURT ROLLS 70
VII. MONASTIC CHARTERS 86
VIII. PARISH REGISTERS 103
IX. PARISH OFFICERS AND THEIR ACCOUNT BOOKS 112
X. BOOKS ON PALEOGRAPHY 127
XI. OLD LETTERS 135
XII. ABBREVIATIONS, ETC. 142
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
SIGNATURE 23
EXTRACT FROM DOMESDAY 29
NORMAN-FRENCH DEED 34
FORM OF FINE 56
SHERIFF’S ROLL (NEVILLE MSS.) 65
COURT ROLL 76
ARABIC NUMERALS 79
READING ABBEY CHARTER 92
READING ABBEY CHARTULARY 94
PAPER-MAKERS’ INITIALS 136
SOME QUAINT LETTERS FROM OLD PARISH REGISTERS 137
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION.
Books written to teach any branch of human knowledge are, in most
cases, written by persons who have long known and used the knowledge
which they impart, and, perhaps for that reason, have more or less
forgotten the steps of the ladder up which they have climbed; but in
this case the process has been so recent that the difficulties and
dangers of each step have been remembered, and the reader accordingly
warned against them.
The meaning of the various kinds of documents which are likely to be
found among the title-deeds of an estate, or among the archives of a
parish or a corporation, are described without needless technicalities,
in a practical way, which will appeal to those who begin to work among
such material without previous knowledge.
The first step, of course, is to learn to read. This wants
perseverance and a quick eye, but regular practice will soon enable
the student to read any ordinary documents, which at first seemed
utterly unintelligible, and gradually the power of understanding really
difficult and obscure MSS. will be acquired. But this first step must
be thoroughly mastered, for to attempt to get information from old
writings without thoroughly knowing the forms of the letters, and the
different systems of abbreviations and contractions, would be like
trying to keep accounts without knowing how to add up a column of
figures.
And indeed paleography is the foundation of all history. There may be
historians, like the late Mr. Freeman, who have but little knowledge
of the science (he, I believe, boasted of his inability to read a
manuscript), but then such writers rely on the paleographic knowledge
of others, who have edited the manuscripts which they desire to use,
and they have, or ought to have, sufficient scholarship to judge
which are the best editions, and even occasionally to detect editors’
mistakes.
But an acquaintance with this branch of knowledge is often of the
greatest use to biographers and historians. It is much better, for
instance, to be able to judge whether a certain document is of the age
which it professes, or in whose hand a draft of a treaty is, than to
have to accept the opinion of someone else.
The mistakes made through want of this knowledge are common, and
sometimes very amusing. Familiar enough is the old story of the parish
priest in the time of King Henry VIII., who in the canon of the Mass,
in the prayer after taking the wine, read the word ‘_sumpsimus_’
as _mumpsimus_, because he had a thirteenth-century missal in
which _s_ and _m_ are much alike, and refused to alter his
mistake when it was pointed out to him. It was referred to by King
Henry VIII. in his speech to the Parliament in 1545, and, in fact, this
ignorant priest has ‘made himself an everlasting name’ for conservative
stupidity.
In more recent times, the historian of one of our beautiful
north-country abbeys talks of a gift of a silver chest by the founder
in the eleventh century. The reader wonders what this chest could have
been--was it a native work or imported? was it some ecclesiastical
ornament or merely a strong box? But on turning to the document on
which the account is based, the meaning is clear. It was not a chest
of silver, but an ordinary coin known as a mark of silver. The MS.
reads _unāmarcāargenti_. The writer of the book had not noticed
the contraction over the first _a_, divided the words wrongly, and
read it _unam arcam_, instead of _unam marcam_.
In another similar book the story is narrated of the ill-treatment
by a forester of an abbot whose house was near a royal forest. The
abbot was no doubt like the monk who made the celebrated pilgrimage to
Canterbury--
‘An outrydere that lovede venerye.
* * * * *
He yaf nat of that text a pulled hen
That seith that hunters been nat holy men.’
And perhaps the forester had good reason to complain of him. But in
the account of the quarrel, the forester is said to have gone into the
abbot’s kitchen and taken away his cabbages--not very likely things
for a forester to take, as he probably would have found something
far better worth carrying off. However, on looking at the MS. it
appears almost certain that what was read as _chous_ is really
_chens_, that is, _chiens_. In fact, they were the
‘Grehoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight,
For priking and for hunting for the hare,’
who were perhaps lying before the fire asleep after a long afternoon’s
coursing.
In the same case it is said that the forester’s treatment of the
tenants on one of the abbey farms is so bad that no one dare die there;
it is suggested, because the forester would not allow anyone to come
to administer the last consolations of religion. But the words _de
murir_, on which the observation is based, are merely a careless
scribe’s writing of _demeurer_.
In another book farmers are represented as using stones for fuel, which
are suggested to have been coal; but this results from mis-reading
_pet^arum_ (peat), as if it were _pet^arum_, a contracted form
of _petrarum_ (stones).
The spreading desire to know something of paleography is very
remarkable, and is much to be commended. For all persons who interest
themselves in the documents to which they may have access in the
possession of private persons, or in repositories not generally known,
are helping in the grand work of making clear the laws and customs
and mode of living of our ancestors, and thus constantly come across
information, not to be found in our more public collections of records,
which often throws light on many dark passages of history.
C. T. MARTIN.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
HOW TO DECIPHER AND STUDY OLD DOCUMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
HINTS TO BEGINNERS.
Fashion changes in everything; but these alterations go on so
imperceptibly, so gradually, that ofttimes we fail to recognise their
progress except by glancing backwards into the past. But the fashion
of handwriting and its changes are very forcibly brought home to us
when confronted for the first time with some old deed or paper; and a
feeling of helplessness reduces the amateur to the verge of despair as
the pages of unintelligible hieroglyphics are spread out, as unfamiliar
as Sanscrit or Egyptian characters. But perseverance conquers all
difficulties.
Every generation has its own particular type of writing. Compare, for
instance, any bundle of letters taken, hap-hazard, out of an old desk
or secrétaire; it is quite easy to sort them into bundles in sequence
of dates, and also guess accurately the age and position of the writers.
The flowing Italian hand, used by educated women early in the last
century, changed with fashion into the freer style of the succeeding
generation; this in the third generation had further developed into
the bold, decisive, almost masculine writing adopted by the more
strong-minded females of the latter end of the nineteenth century.
Of course, school-teaching is responsible to a certain extent for
handwriting. Our University men of to-day all, with few exceptions,
use a neat scholarly form of writing, free from flourishes, and with
simple capital letters and the small broken-backed Greek letter ε.
Compared with the scholar’s, the soldier’s writing is bolder and
rounder, while the clerk’s is still more distinct in type in its open
lettering, interspersed with curls and twists. So with most professions
it will be found that each has special characteristics; but these are
liable to change according to circumstances; thus, the clerk will
form his letters less distinctly after the need of great legibility
no longer compels him to carefulness. Self-education will often alter
a vulgar, ill-formed writing to a better, more studied style; and
writing is the clearest proof of both bodily and mental condition, for
in cases of paralysis or mental aberration the doctor takes it as a
certain guide. The writing of feeble-minded persons is like that of a
scarcely-educated child.
Looking back to the days when writing was a profession of itself, it
can easily be understood how it is that we find less variety among
old writings. For in those days, before printing was discovered, or
at least but imperfectly executed and understood, all books had to
be produced by hand, and were the work either of paid scribes, whose
duty it was to reproduce copies of well-known authors; or else copied
out by clerks or private secretaries at the dictation of the authors
themselves, who could seldom spare the time to commit their ideas to
paper, or, even if they did so, it was customary to have additional
copies made by professed scribes. Unacquainted with the subjects of
the books, and copying merely from verbal dictation, it is no wonder
that mistakes and misunderstandings often occurred, especially in
the spelling of place and personal names; for one man reading aloud
to several scribes, each would write down the names and words as
they sounded to his individual sense of hearing, for the constant
interruption necessary to ensure complete accuracy would cause the
process to be tedious and very lengthy.
Private correspondence, even, was carried on as a profession; writing
shops existed up to a comparatively late period; at present, in
out-of-the-way streets in London, one reads the notice ‘Letters written
here,’ though this generally means that letters may be sent to that
address.
Authors who indited or dictated their own books had them afterwards
transcribed neatly for preservation, and probably destroyed the
original notes, for of these comparatively few, if any, exist.
All the earliest scribes had a special education for their profession,
being sent to some monastery for that purpose; hence they were
either foreigners, or educated under foreign monks, either French or
Italian, and the effect of this teaching is clearly demonstrated by
the similitude which exists all over Europe between manuscripts of the
early Middle Ages.
In England the Norman Conquest overruled most of the previous customs
and styles. Vast crowds of Normans emigrated continuously to our
shores. This went on more or less for at least three or four centuries,
and then prejudice against foreigners asserted itself, and the Saxon
element, which still remained among the lower classes of the people,
gained the ascendant. In the reign of Henry V. alien priories were
suppressed, and foreign monks and priests no longer travelled backwards
and forwards from the Norman abbeys to the junior houses or cells in
England. The rich merchants, who resorted here from the Low Countries
and Germany, brought with them their own customs and fashions; and at
this time will first be noticed the use of a written character, like
the modern German, which steadily came more and more into use until the
end of the seventeenth century, when it died out and the style altered
to a rounder, freer hand.
So long as education was almost entirely monastic, or at least
conducted by teachers trained in monastic institutions, we find (as we
should naturally expect to do) a regularity, carefulness and formality
in the handwriting of the period; but so soon as England had shaken off
the authority of Rome and the educated communities had been scattered
and disbanded, a marked change took place in the quantity and quality
of all kinds of writing. The monks and nuns, rendered homeless by
the Reformation, returned to their native villages, thus spreading
education among all classes and creating a desire after learning. But
the primary cause of the alteration in handwriting, so very marked in
the sixteenth century, was perhaps attributable to the introduction
of the art of printing, which naturally was fatal to handwriting
as a profession. The scribe was no longer required to multiply the
author’s productions; so that lawyers and public office clerks only
remained out of the large class who had formerly earned their living
as professional writers. In the actual writing, also, a change took
place. The old elaborate letters were supplanted by the simple capitals
copied from the printer’s blocks. Some day, maybe, writing will die
out altogether; every year fresh improvements and inventions are
increasing; now type-writers and multiplying machines are used in place
of handwriting in many offices, while sooner or later typing by machine
will be universal.
A hundred years ago, very few if any of the labourers could either
read or write; even now, in out-of-the-way country places, there exist
people ignorant of these (to us) necessary arts. The marriage registers
of the eighteenth century prove to us the ignorance of the country
folk; frequently neither the contracting parties nor their witnesses
could write their names, using instead either some eccentric monogram
bearing a faint resemblance to initials--a memory perhaps of a bygone
and very slight amount of teaching--or oftener still we find in lieu of
name the old Christian cross, which has been in use by the illiterate
from Saxon times as a pledge of good faith and consent.
Previous to the nineteenth century, education in country places was
either altogether absent or provided out of the bounty of the squire or
parson, the teacher being some old ignorant person prevented by age or
bodily infirmity from pursuing active labour, and whose qualifications
were merely a smattering of the ‘three R’s,’ which, with plain sewing,
was the whole of his or her useful though scanty répertoire. Children
then were sent out to work at the age of nine or ten years, and earlier
if anybody could be found to employ them in service. When once placed
out, they had no opportunities of gaining further book knowledge,
and soon forgot the little they had learnt for want of practice or
stimulation, nor had they sufficient mental capacity to study by
themselves, except in very exceptional cases of natural genius.
If this was the state of things within the memory of those still alive,
we can well believe how very limited was the knowledge of handwriting
some hundreds of years ago, and can more fully understand that the
scribe was a very important personage, and took great pride in his work.
It is very rare to find mistakes or erasures in the lettering of old
charters. Varieties of spelling occur everywhere; a name is often
found spelt two or three different ways on the same page; but this is
easily explained if the work was written from dictation, especially if
pronounced to or by a foreigner. Our English language being so full of
unexpected variations of spelling, it is no wonder that names of people
and places suffered at the hands of a transcriber unacquainted with
the localities, and who merely wrote down the words as they sounded to
him. The actual spelling of words remained fairly constant. Certainly
to us they look very curious, for English orthography has undergone
innumerable changes; in course of time new words are being coined,
and old words alter not only in spelling, but also in meaning and
significance. If we wish for an example of Old English phraseology,
we have our present version of the Bible--which, being translated
into English in the seventeenth century, now sounds quaint, and in
many parts the sense of the words is a matter of dispute. If it be
compared with the Revised Version the changes which have taken place in
our language in the two past centuries become very evident. All this
must be borne in mind when the task of transcribing and translating
old writing is undertaken, and allowance must be made for all such
alterations both in style and spelling.
It has been said that a knowledge of Latin is indispensable to the
would-be transcriber of old deeds; this is not really the case for
ordinary antiquarian research, for the meaning can be discovered easily
with only very slight knowledge. Legal Latin consists so entirely of
set forms that when once these forms are familiar to the reader, they
are without any difficulty recognised, and are so little liable to
any variations that they are easily rendered into English. The most
important points being a correct and accurate attention to the names of
people and places, with the descriptions of the localities referred to.
As the use of Latin for legal transactions almost entirely superseded
the Norman-French language after the reign of Edward III. (although
it is an open question whether deeds were not duplicated into the two
languages), very few old deeds are met with in the latter language, and
those few are usually so well written and legible that they can easily
be understood with the help of a slight knowledge of modern French.
Indeed, a transcriber’s work properly consists chiefly in correctly
putting into modern handwriting the deeds which are only illegible
to those unfamiliar with the handwriting; in consequence an actual
acquaintance with the Latin grammar is less important than a correct
eye, quick to note every minute difference in letters. Every stroke
of the pen means something; bars or curves are the representatives of
absent words or syllables, and are never dashed down hap-hazard or
by accident. Therefore it is possible to understand the meaning of
the abbreviated portions correctly, although extension with absolute
grammatical correctness can never be ensured without study of the
language and a knowledge of its grammar.
One of the best methods of learning to read courthand is first to
devote a short time to the study of shorthand; any system will do,
it being merely a means of training the eye and brain into speedily
noticing small shades of difference, undetected except by comparison.
For in all kinds of shorthand the least stroke or dot, or even a change
in the position of a line, will entirely alter the spelling or meaning
of a word.
Next, I would advise the careful study of an old deed, one of those
written late in the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth century,
because these deeds give the phraseology or form of sentences, and
are often written in English in a fairly clear hand, freer from
contractions than earlier manuscripts, and the beginner has so many
new things to discover and learn that it is well to commence by not
attempting too much at the first start. An acquaintance with the style
of words used in legal language is a good groundwork to commence with.
Spread out the parchment before you; never mind the fact that only a
word or two, or even only a chance letter here and there catches your
eye. Then set to work to compare the letters of the words you do know
with the letters in other words which at the commencement looked so
strange to you.
It was in this way that Egyptian hieroglyphics were first successfully
studied.
Remember that three consonants seldom come together; no word is formed
without the help of one or more vowels; the final letter or letters
more often supply a clue than the capital letter or beginning syllable,
especially in the so-called courthands.
Beware of too imaginative guesses. Although this fault is easily
remedied, still, it is better to spell a word out letter by letter,
however unintelligible and depressing the result at first may be. It
is so easy to take a name or word for granted, and an idea once seized
upon is not quickly eradicated, and may bring about absurd results and
deductions.
Do not ponder too long over a word which puzzles you, but go on,
leaving gaps in your copy with a stroke underneath corresponding with
or leaving sufficient space for the missing word. These spaces can then
be filled in afterwards, when the general sense of the document has
been mastered, and the aspect of the particular style of writing has
become familiar. Then it will be found that words hitherto seemingly
unintelligible resolve themselves into readable form, and although
apparently impossible to decipher at the first reading, later on they
present no difficulty. A little practice and patience soon overcome the
difficulties of the first start, and after that the progress is rapid.
To begin by learning a variety of old alphabets seems to me so much
waste of time, although it would be a valuable groundwork to commence
with. The true alphabet for beginners lies in the contracted words,
whose missing portions must be supplied by the reader from the few
letters given, which are often not even one connected syllable, but
instead merely one or two letters out of the missing syllable clustered
together.
The reason for this style of writing was to save time and material.
With use, it grew into a complete system, a language of its own. At the
time it was penned, these contractions were no doubt perfectly familiar
to all, just as our modern abbreviations are. Of these last there are
more contractions in use nowadays than would at first be realized--our
daily correspondence is full of them; these may have originated from
the older system of contractions, relics of it, still left lingering on.
A few examples of modern abbreviations will not be out of place here,
as showing that a contracted form of writing is not so very difficult
or extraordinary after all.
=&=, and, derived from the Latin _et_; the second example,
which is still in use, can be traced in very old documents from et,
till gradually it assumed its modern shape.
=M^r=, mister or master; =S^r= for sir was formerly in common
use.
=C^o=, company; =C^{ie}=, _compagnie_ (French).
=etc.=, derived from the first three letters of the Latin word
_etcetera_.
The words ‘with, which, whereof, where,’ etc., were formerly
abbreviated; also =yr= for your, =ye= the, and many others
now obsolete.
Pounds, shillings and pence we still designate by the Latin £ s. d.
The long word ‘affectionate’ is seldom written in full; so, too, with
many other words there are recognised forms of contraction, and when
this is borne in mind the abbreviations of old deeds appear in quite a
different light, and we attack their difficulties with less dread of
failure.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
HANDWRITING.
Many books have been recently published on the subject of ‘Character
by Handwriting,’ but they are not very descriptive in detail, although
the theories and rules for character-describing by this means are both
clear and decided.
It is now no longer the rule to teach children to write entirely by
the aid of set copies, as was the case with our forefathers, who wrote
after one approved pattern, which children copied as nearly as possible
from the original set for them; therefore characteristic peculiarities
were longer in asserting themselves, and what is now considered a
‘formed’ handwriting was not developed till late in life.
There were, and still are, two divisions or classes of handwriting--the
professional and the personal; with the first the action was
mechanical, and exhibits few, if any, traces of personality. Yet even
in the oldest manuscripts there are certain defined characteristics
plainly shown. The handwritings of historical and celebrated personages
coincide to a remarkable degree with their known virtues and vices, as
criticised and detailed by their biographers.
As the art of writing became general, its form varied more and more,
becoming gradually less formal, and each person wrote as was easiest to
himself. Education, as a rule, has a far from beneficial effect upon
handwriting; an active brain creates ideas too fast to give the hand
time to form the letters clearly, patiently and evenly, the matter, not
the material, being to the writer of primary importance.
So, as study increased among all classes, writing degenerated from its
originally clear, regular lettering into every style of penmanship.
Of course a child’s writing resembles only the copy-book, of which it
is supposed to be an exact imitation; soon, however, the round curves
sharpen, the disconnected letters join without any breaks in the words;
the even lines and distances are no longer so carefully measured and
considered; eccentricities of style creep in, with sundry loops and
twirls, giving the whole a grown-up appearance--a decided individuality
of its own.
If the subject of handwriting as a test of character is carefully
studied it will be found that immediate circumstances greatly
influence it: anxiety or great excitement of any kind, illness or any
violent emotion, will for the moment greatly affect the writing. From
handwriting the doctor can hazard an opinion as to the mental state
of his patient. In all cases of paralysis the writing is temporarily
affected, and the patient is usually at first deprived of the power
of writing; when the mind recovers its consciousness and the muscles
their strength, the power returns, but with a feebleness not formerly
observed. Writing depends upon so many things--a firm grasp of the pen,
a pliability of the muscles, clearness of vision and brain-power--even
the writing materials, pens, ink and paper, all make a difference. It
is not strange, then, that with so many causes upon which it depends,
writing should be an excellent test of temperament and bodily health.
Any school-teacher or head of a college, through whose hands a large
correspondence passes, usually contracts a habit of forming conclusions
as to the mental and moral calibre of the writers, their social status
and natural bias of disposition. A round, childish handwriting is said
to show conceit and self-satisfaction. Ignorance and conceit are often
closely linked together. The uneducated generally have a very good
opinion of their own personal qualifications. The most youthful form of
writing is not, therefore, indicative of talent or general capacity,
and seldom shows any originality.
All needless flourishes and ornamentation are the result of egotism
and vanity. But be it remembered that any virtue exaggerated at
once becomes a fault; that whereas a little conceit is necessary to
stimulate ambition, the same in too great excess becomes egotistic
vanity. Genius is apt to overestimate its own depth and originality,
yet without any self-appreciation there is danger of a lack of effort;
despair prevents perseverance, and is a bar to any success.
Excitability, hastiness, and impatience are all seen in the handwriting
at a glance. A quick brain suggests words and sentences so fast, one
upon another, that though the pen races along the page it cannot
write down the ideas quickly enough to satisfy the author. With a
calm, calculating disposition this frantic haste is neither known
nor understood--such persons do not rush to conclusions, but ponder
over every subject. Intuitive perception in the excitable person
becomes judgment in a tranquil mind. Temper depends upon temperament.
The crosses of the letter ‘t’ are the index whereby to judge of it.
If these strokes are regular through a whole page of writing, the
writer may be assumed to have an even-placed temper; if dashed off
at random--quick short strokes, somewhat higher than the letter
itself--quick outbursts of anger may be expected, but of short
duration, unless the stroke is firm and black, in which case great
violence may safely be predicted.
Uncertainty of character and temper is shown by the variation of these
strokes to the letter ‘t’. Sometimes the cross is firm and black, then
next time it is light; sometimes it is omitted altogether, varying
with each repetition of the letter like the opinions and sentiments
of an undecided person. The up and down strokes of the letters tell
of strength or weakness of will; gradations of light and shade, too,
may be observed in these strokes. The sloping Italian handwriting of
our grandmothers is just what might be expected from women refined and
sensitive, grounded in several branches of study, well educated as a
whole, but not especially so in any one particular line. The absence of
any self-assertion is very strongly marked. The independence of their
granddaughters can be traced in every line and stroke of their pens.
Little or no distinction is observable between the writing of young
men and women nowadays. Even the graphologist dare scarcely hazard an
opinion as to the sex of the writer, but indulges in vague wording,
avoiding any direct use of personal pronouns.
Capital letters tell us many points of interest. By them originality,
talent, and mental capacity are displayed, as well as any latent
vulgarity or want of education. There are two styles of capital
letters at present in use. The high-class style employed by persons of
education is plain and often eccentric, but without much ornamentation.
The other may be called the middle class, for it is used by servants
and tradespeople having a fair amount of education, mingled with a
good deal of conceited ignorance and false pride. With these last
the capital letters are much adorned by loops, hooks, and curves,
noticeable principally in the heads of the letters or at their
commencement. Perhaps, for purposes of character delineation, it will
be better to give the characteristics, pointing out the style and form
of the letters peculiar to each.
Plain, neatly-formed handwriting shows an orderly mind, the result of
education. The whole tendency of education is to regulate the mind and
restrain the impulses. Education checks conceit, for the more anyone
knows, the more aware does he become of the wide amount there is to
be learnt, and how little is the knowledge possessed by the cleverest
scholars in the world.
It will generally be found that with writing having much resemblance, a
characteristic similarity also exists; therefore, to become proficient
as a graphologist, a careful study must be made of the writings
of those whose whole life and character, together with personal
peculiarities, are intimately known and understood, and from this
conclusions may be drawn and rules arrived at for future use.
Affection is marked by open loops and a general slant or slope of
the writing. A hard nature, unsympathetic and unimpressionable, has
very little artistic feeling or love of the fine arts; therefore the
same things which indicate a soft, affectionate disposition will also
indicate poetry, music, and painting, or one or other kindred subjects.
The first of these accompanies a loving, impulsive nature; with music
the impulse is replaced by perseverance; for natural genius cannot
expand without patient study. In painting three things are absolutely
necessary to produce an artist. Form, colour, light and shade--all
these three will influence the writing; but art of any kind is very
complex. Success implies a certain degree of ambition, and consequent
upon it is vanity and egotism; hence the artist’s signature is
generally peculiar and often unreadable, from its originality, egotism,
and exuberance of creative power.
Imagination and impulse do not tend to improve handwriting. The
strokes are too erratic, and the capital letters never follow the
copy-book pattern. Over-haste is visible in every line. A warm-hearted,
impulsive person feels deeply and passionately at the moment of
writing, and dashes off the words without regard to the effect they
will produce upon the reader. What is generally lacking is judgment
and the power of analytical thought. These important qualities may be
detected in disjoined words, which here and there may be seen even
with a handwriting in which impulse and sequence of ideas are leading
characteristics. The writer has evidently paused to think, although
unaware of it himself. These breaks give a power of criticism, combined
with clearness of intellect. Without breaks no common-sense is found,
but if they appear too often it shows a wearying and needless worry
over trivial details, and self-torment as to the opinions of other
people.
Truth and straightforwardness give even lines running across the
page and regular distances from one word to another. Tact is very
essential. This quality requires often slight deceptions to be allowed
or practised, white lies, or delusive silence; hence an unevenness in
the writing is observed. It is a deviation, although slight, from the
path of truth, and here and there the letters rise or fall below the
lines. Untruthfulness gives greater unevenness still; but do not rush
to conclusions on this point, for an unformed handwriting shows this
peculiarity very often, being merely due, not to evil qualities, but to
an unsteady hand employed in work to which it is unused.
Very round even writing in which the vowels are not closed, denotes
candour and openness of disposition, with an aptitude for giving
advice, whether asked or unasked, not always of a complimentary kind.
Blunt, crabbed writing suggests obstinacy and a selfish love of power,
without thought for the feelings of others. True selfishness gives
every curve an inward bend, very marked in the commencement of words or
capital letters.
Perseverance and patience are closely allied. In the former the
letter ‘t’ is hooked at the top, and also its stroke has a dark
curved end, showing that when once an idea has been entertained no
earthly persuasion will alter or eradicate it. Such writers have
strongly-defined prejudices, and are apt to take very strong dislikes
without much cause.
Calmness and patience also are frequently linked together--more often
in later life, when adversity has blunted the faculties, or the dull
routine of uneventful existence has destroyed all romance. Then the
writing has short up-and-down strokes, the curves are round, the
bars short and straight; there are no loops or flourishes; the whole
writing exhibits great neatness and regularity. Economy of living,
curiously enough, is marked by a spare use of ink. The terminals are
abrupt and blunt, leaving off short. Where economy is the result of
circumstances, not disposition, only some of the words are thus ended,
while others have open, free curves, and the long letters are looped.
Generosity and liberality may be seen likewise in the end curve of
every word. Where these characteristics are inconstant and variable,
the disposition will be found to be uncertain--liberal in some matters,
while needlessly economical and stingy in others.
[Illustration]
A person fond of society writes the capital letter ‘M’ with the three
upper curves on the same level. If the tail of this letter is carried
far below the line, there is vulgarity of mind and imperfect education.
Bars used instead of stops are the result of caution. The writer fears
lest his sentences should be misinterpreted by being run into each
other. When a bar is placed below the signature, it means tenacity
of purpose, coupled with extreme caution; perhaps, also, a dread
of criticism and adverse opinions. No dots to the letter ‘i’ means
negligence, a want of attention to details, with but a small faculty of
observation. When the dots are placed at random, neither above nor in
proximity to the letter to which they belong, impressionability, want
of reflection, and impulsiveness may be anticipated.
Ambition and gratified happiness give to the whole writing an upward
tendency. Hopefulness lacks the firmness of ambition, and appears only
in the signature which curves upwards, while the rest of the writing is
impulsive, without much firmness.
Sorrow gives every line of the writing a downward inclination.
Temporary affliction will at once show in the writing: a preoccupied
mind, full of trouble, cares little whether the letter then written
is legible or neat; hence the writing is erratic, uncertain, and the
confusion of mind is clearly exhibited in every line. Irritable and
touchy persons slope the flourishes only, such as the cross of the
letter ‘t’ and the upper parts of the capital letters. When the capital
letters stand alone in front of the words, and the final letters also
are isolated, it betokens great creative power and ideality, such as
would form an author and clever writer.
The most personal part of a letter or document is, of course, the
signature, but alone it is not a safe guide to character. The lines
placed below or after it tell a great deal more than the actual name.
A curved bending line, ending in a hook, indicates coquetry, love of
effect, and ideality.
An exaggerated, comma-like form of line means caprice, tempered by
gravity of thought, and versatility of ideas.
An unyielding will--fiery, and at the same time determined--draws a
firm hooked line after the name.
A wavy line shows great variety in mental power, with originality.
Resolution is shown by a plain line; and extreme caution, with full
power to calculate effect and reason a subject from every point of
view, is shown by two lines and dots, thus----:----.
To sum up the matter briefly, it will be observed that a clever person
cares very little about the form of his writing--it is the matter alone
which concerns him; whereas, with a limited brain-power, great care as
to appearance is taken. But human nature is never a simple combination
of elements, it is dependable upon a complexity of changes and chances.
It is said that with everyone a complete change takes place every seven
years. Motives and circumstances all leave decided marks upon the
character and mind of an individual. Not perhaps for years will innate
virtues or vices become apparent, which have lain dormant, awaiting
circumstances to develop them.
A collection of any person’s old letters is very curious. Written from
earliest childhood to extreme old age, a veritable life’s history lies
in the faded ink; and to study character from handwriting fairly it can
only be done from such authenticated examples.
Old letters written two or three hundred years ago are of great value
for the purpose, because, so far as they are concerned, all party
spirit and prejudice is dead, buried, and forgotten. Their biographers
no longer fear the consequence of a too candid and personal account,
and are therefore more likely to give a just and calm criticism of
character, weighing evenly in the balance both virtues and vices.
With historical characters it is curious to contrast the contemporary
biographies with the graphologist’s opinion of their handwriting, given
without knowing whose the writing was.
Any collection of old MSS. is interesting, as showing the various
styles of writing in vogue at different periods. Fashion or
circumstances had some influence on this point. Royal marriages with
foreign princesses brought England into contact with different nations.
Wars in strange lands introduced alien words into our vocabulary,
some of which speedily became naturalized, while others, voted slang,
remained only for a short while and then disappeared. New words are
constantly being coined, and take the place of others. This may seem a
trivial matter, and irrelevant to the subject of old writing, but any
points bearing on the subject must throw new light upon it and help to
elucidate it.
The personality of a writer can never be wholly separated from his
works. And in any question of date or authenticity of a document being
called in question, the value of graphology and its theories will be
found of the utmost importance; for the various changes in the style of
handwriting, or in the spelling of words, although perhaps so minute
and gradual as seldom to be remarked, are, nevertheless, links in a
chain which it would be extremely hard to forge successfully so as
to deceive those acquainted with the matter and well versed in its
peculiarities.
Marked characteristics are noticeable in the old Black Letter MSS. of
the early days before printing, and the authenticity of a deed, etc.,
may be decided by some slight peculiarity in its lettering.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER III.
ANGLO-SAXON, NORMAN-FRENCH, LATIN, AND OLD ENGLISH.
Although we are always told that our present English language is
directly derived from that of our Saxon forefathers, this information
gives us very little, if any, help towards deciphering the old
Anglo-Saxon documents. The Saxons, we are told, were not one nation,
but rather composed of an aggregate of tribes of Germanic and
Scandinavian origin, whose piratical instincts led them to seek
adventure by sea and land and form new colonies, just as at the present
day Englishmen go forth in search of fame and fortune in the uttermost
parts of the earth.
[Illustration: EXTRACT FROM DOMESDAY.[1]]
Thus the Saxon language, although derived from one identical base, was
a collection of dialects banded together, which, in its educated and
scholastic form, greatly resembled German in its construction.
The language of the Anglo-Saxon (so far as Great Britain is concerned)
has been classified under three distinct headings, the first being pure
Anglo-Saxon, _i.e._, the language as spoken by the first settlers,
with an admixture of Celtic or British; secondly, this same combination
with the addition of Danish; and thirdly, the three above-named
languages combined, with the further addition of Norman-French, having
in all a Saxon dialect for the basis, to which were afterwards added
new words brought into it by foreign invaders or emigrants from over
the seas. Since the invention of printing great changes have taken
place in our language, and to go back prior to that epoch reveals
greater changes still.
The writings of early chroniclers and poets are so full of words
and phrases now obsolete that many books and dictionaries have been
compiled to explain their meanings.
The Lord’s Prayer, as given in the Durham Book. This is a copy of the
Gospels of the Anglo-Saxon period. It was formerly in the Cottonian
Library, now in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum. It
is known as ‘Nero D. iv.’ Old Sir Robert Cotton had busts of the
Roman Emperors over his book-shelves, and the names survive), looks
to us hopelessly foreign--only a few words are familiar. The personal
pronouns ‘us,’ ‘we,’ ‘he,’ ‘him,’ and the preposition ‘to,’ as well
as the conjunction ‘and,’ are unchanged, but the verbs are conjugated
quite differently to the correct English of to-day; still, if we
would seek for a living example resembling old Saxon dialect, it can
easily be found in several parts of England, such as Devonshire,
Dorsetshire, and other counties, the country-folk still speaking almost
pure Anglo-Saxon, though this is fast dying out before the advance
of education and Board-school science. The Anglo-Saxon alphabetical
characters differ only from the Roman in the letter ‘w,’ written ƿ.
In their alphabet there are also two additional double letters--‘th,’
represented by the following letter þ, and ‘dh,’ ð, these last being
frequently used in the construction of words.
The early Saxon handwriting was bold and clear. Most of it now existing
consists of monastic copies of books or charters. The Saxons were a
clever and industrious people, plodding and practical. Their abbeys
were more of the nature of large seminaries or colleges, where learning
was carried on; and in this respect the northern parts of England
were better supplied than the south, a result caused probably by each
fresh influx of tribes landing on the northern and eastern coasts of
the country, and spreading inland from thence. There seems to be no
doubt that the reign of King Alfred did much to promote study and an
increased attention to literature, previously neglected except among a
few professed scholars.
A learned King would naturally set the fashion to his subjects, and
Alfred must have possessed immense energy. It was an extraordinary
thing for a middle-aged man to be able to educate himself sufficiently
to master the difficulties of a foreign language so opposed in
construction to his own native tongue as Latin, which in nowise
resembles Saxon. He must have toiled hard to have completed the many
translations from Latin into Saxon which are accredited to him.
Alfred was a popular hero, and, like all heroes, was invested by
tradition with the credit of every improvement in literature or art
which took place within his era. Be this as it may, there is no doubt
that he did stimulate his fellow-countrymen to make efforts towards
self-improvement, by setting them a practical example in himself. Such
examples are unfortunately rare; they must always be productive of good
results--an ‘ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept.’
From the time of King Alfred’s re-introduction of Latin into this
country it gradually gained ground as the language of scholars. Learned
ecclesiastics coming to England found it convenient as the medium for
exchange of thoughts and ideas. It was for many centuries the accepted
‘Volapuk,’ understood by all who professed any learning.
Rome was the light of the Western world, the centre from whence
religion and learning was disseminated to the less enlightened parts of
Europe. Careful study of the old authors necessitated an acquaintance
with both Greek and Latin. The emissaries of the Pope, either as
legates or missionaries, spread all over civilized Europe, and carried
with them the learning of their age.
Intercourse between England and France was somewhat checked by
dissensions and wars both at home and abroad, but with the Conquest
came a large body of monks. The chief wealth of Normandy was invested
in its rich abbeys, from whence Duke William had borrowed large sums
of money to fit out his expedition upon the security of his future
possession of England. These loans he honestly and amply repaid by
large grants of land out of his new kingdom; hence new abbeys sprang up
in England, filled with foreign monks, who brought over their language,
arts and sciences, to teach in the new country they had adopted as
their own. The language of the court was of necessity Norman-French,
which differs as much from the French of to-day as ancient from modern
English. But a knowledge of French makes these early deeds easy to
understand.
[Illustration: NORMAN-FRENCH DEED.]
The lower orders of the people clung persistently to their own old
Saxon tongue, a fact clearly demonstrated by the way the old Saxon
field-names are to the present day retained, and flowers, animals, and
matters of everyday country-life bear names of evident Saxon origin.
The Saxons were a conquered race, and as such became the servants of
their conquerors. The animals which in life they tended were eaten by
the Norman nobles, who called them, when used as food, by names of
French derivation. Thus the Saxon ‘sheep’ when dead became ‘mutton’;
‘pig’ turned into ‘pork’; ‘calf’ into ‘veal,’ etc.
With the names of many wildflowers French origin is traceable,
especially with cultivated sorts. We know the monks of the Middle
Ages were clever gardeners, and probably by them the wildflowers were
named. In Berkshire the village children call field-daisies ‘margs,’
abbreviated, without doubt, from the French _marguerite_. Among
garden flowers there are pansies, French _pensé_; gillyflower,
_giroflél_, and many others; but as a whole there are few words of
distinctly Latin origin to be found in the English dialects relating
to everyday affairs. Norman-French did not come into immediate use in
legal documents after the Conquest. The earliest deeds of the Norman
kings were written in Latin, but after a while French, the everyday
language of the upper classes, superseded it for law work--possibly
there were duplicate copies of the deeds in both languages--but
only for a comparatively short period, a statute being passed in the
thirty-sixth year of King Edward III. deciding upon Latin as the law
language of the realm, and from this date the use of Norman-French died
out, and the English language may be said to have commenced.
The growing dislike of the English to foreign prelates led to a
steady resistance of their claims, culminating in the Statutes of
Mortmain, Provisors and Præmunire, and finally in the suppression
of all alien priories and foreign cells. This stopped the influx of
French and Italian monks to our shores; so it was that, after nearly
four centuries, the Norman-French language died out and was forgotten.
During the Middle Ages, and until the time of the Reformation, the
monasteries still continued to be the principal seats of learning
throughout the country, and Latin held its ground among scholars and
lawyers.
The introduction of printing, and, finally, the changes wrought by the
Reformation, disturbed the pre-existing course of things. The English
language was gradually settling down into its present form, and about
the end of the fifteenth century it began more and more to be used for
law business transactions.
The law-Latin, as used in England, degenerated greatly; it became
interspersed with words of native origin, Latinized by the lawyer.
Old court-rolls especially are full of obsolete words; so, too, are
the public rolls, but there are now many dictionaries explaining their
meanings. Although of course, here and there an unknown word may occur,
yet the context will usually explain or help towards its significance.
The legal Latin became, finally, merely a series of mechanical forms;
these at last were translated into English. For this reason a careful
study of the wording of a deed of the eighteenth century in English
will show that it is the counterpart of the same class of document in
its older Latin form.
Latin, like Norman-French, had had its day and was dying out. Finally,
by George III.’s Act of Parliament the native language was ordered to
be used for law work, and now Latin has become obsolete, so far as
practical work is concerned. Understanding old legal Latin--once a
necessity for a lawyer--has now become an antiquarian profession. One
relic of Anglo-Saxon remained on in our language for many centuries.
The double letter þ, ‘th,’ will be found in the written copies of
monkish chartularies for place-names beginning with ‘th.’ Even so
late as the fifteenth century we find it freely employed in English
documents. I possess a copy of the criminal charges made against De
la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, for high treason, 1450. Throughout the
manuscript the Saxon þ appears in such words as ‘other,’ ‘that,’ ‘the,’
etc., which look curious written ‘oþer,’ ‘þt,’ ‘þe.’
The þ in some words was printed ‘y,’ which continued in use until the
last century. I am not aware of any place-names having been altered
by this change of lettering, but it is quite possible that some
changes may have occurred through it. It would be easy for a person
unaccustomed to the Saxon þ to mistake it for other letters, as ‘th,’
‘p,’ or ‘y’ must be followed either by a vowel or the consonant ‘r,’
‘ph’ in old documents being usually replaced by an ‘f.’
Of late years many absurd mistakes have been made by the Ordnance
Surveyors in their maps, who, mistaking the local dialect, or from
preconceived ideas as to what the names ought to be, have set down
many incorrectly. On this subject I wrote formerly in a paper in
the _Berkshire Archæological Magazine_. A man from the South
of England fails to comprehend the Northern or Western dialects.
Country-folk from the North cannot understand a word spoken by
Southerners; this also would account for errors. Spelling, of course,
has so much altered that it is no safe guide towards derivation;
phonetic pronunciation of a word is more likely to give a clue to the
origin. Field-names have been handed down orally from generation
to generation; and it is very curious to observe how faithfully the
phonetic sounds have been preserved among an illiterate people, long
after the meanings of the words have disappeared.
The Saxons named their fields from ordinary things, or surroundings, or
the animals who fed in the meadows. The following Saxon words may be
found occurring constantly as field-names:
_Æcne_, fruitful; _Æcer_, field; _Æbesn_ or _Æfesne_, pasture;
_Ata_, _Atih_, tares, or oats--the latter were common.
_Birce_, birch-tree.
_Cyrc_, _Cyrce_, _Cyrice_, _Circ_, _Circe_, church--the last two
most common; _Culfre_, a dove; _Cealc_, chalk; _Ceorl_, churl or
husbandman.
_Ent_, a giant; _Eorisc_, a bulrush; _Errich_, stubble; _Enid_
or _Ened_, a duck; _Emn_, even.
_Fearras_, _Ferris_, oxen; _Fearh_, a little pig; _Fearh-Cwæl_,
swine-fever.
_Getreminc_, fortress; _Gat_ or _Yat_, a Goat.
_Halga_, a saint; _halig_, holy; _Hyd_, hide, a land measure;
_Ham_, home, homestead; _Hurst_, or _Hyrst_, a wood; _Holt_, a
grove; _Hleotan_, to cast lots (meadows were held in lots, or
allotments, from a very early period, and so continued up to the
time of the Enclosure Acts); _Hluton_, part allotted; _Halm_,
stubble.
_Ith Yrnth_, arable; _Ilt_, a sow.
_Ley_, _Lea_, _Leaze_ or _Lay_, _Lye_, meadow or grassland.
_Neolnes_, more properly spelt _Neowlnes_, an abyss.
_On-œl_, a burning.
_Riip_, harvest.
_Sul_, a plough; _Stret_, or _Stræt_, a street or public highway.
_Wong_, a meadow; _Welig_, a willow; _Wegleast_, a going out of
the way; _Wer_, an enclosure.
As a whole the English language has changed more during the past
century than at any time of the preceding ages. Railway and telegraph
have brought all parts of the kingdom into closer contact, and
intercourse with foreign countries accounts for constant alterations in
language and customs. New words are introduced and old ones die out; it
is the same in every language.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
OLD DEEDS.
Among old family papers it is rare to meet with many dating further
back than the Reformation; first of all, this may be accounted for
by the enormous amount of land possessed by the monks, who, instead
of having to search through deeds, entered these grants and gifts of
property into their charter-book. The monastic estates, after the
Dissolution, were managed through the Augmentation Office; many of the
original deeds were destroyed or lost in the general confusion, and a
new distribution of the lands took place by the King irrespective of
the former owners, whose claims were totally ignored, although in such
grants or deeds of gift the name of the monastery formerly owning the
property is usually named.
The King must have realized large sums of money by these transactions,
which were carried out through, and in the names of, his commissioners
or agents, and not usually granted direct from the Crown; very little
of the land confiscated from the abbeys was retained as royal property,
but appears to have been almost immediately sold or granted away.
But to begin from the oldest reliable period at which deeds may refer
to, is to go back to the Norman Conquest, or, rather, to the time when
the lands had been distributed among the Norman noblemen, as described
in the famous Domesday Book, compiled, it is said, between 1080 and
1085. Reference is therein made to previous Saxon possessors; but
only in very few instances can any certain information be obtained of
private property prior to the eleventh century.
Private deeds do exist between the time of William I. and Richard I.;
from this latter King’s reign, about A.D. 1179, legal memory
dates[2]; but usually the earliest family deeds are of Edward I.,
because then it was that the legal era was fixed to commence. This
King has been, so far as regards manorial rights and customs, rightly
called the ‘English Solon.’ He passed innumerable Acts of Parliament
on the subject of legal matters; he revised the whole of the national
laws, retaining but improving existing arrangements. A most interesting
account of early English law and manorial customs is published by the
Selden Society. It is very rare indeed to discover private deeds
earlier than this; but, of course, every rule has its exception.
To prove a title to property it is now only requisite to show a twenty
years’ possession of it. Papers forming the title deeds to farms or
small holdings are seldom of any great age. The custom of depositing
estate records in the care of the family lawyer has tended to preserve
a few deeds; but, on the other hand, has resulted in much wholesale
destruction of useless but curious documentary evidence.
Vast numbers of deeds have been and are being sold when a lawyer’s
office has been broken up. These papers, having lain for years
unclaimed until the ownership was lost or forgotten, finally were
sold to some antiquarian bookseller or antiquary, or else the skin
was cleansed and used again, parchment being a valuable substance. It
is employed in many trades. From it size is prepared. Gold-beaters
employ it largely, and also to the book-binder’s trade it is essential,
besides having many other and varied uses.
Even now lawyers find great difficulty in preserving and storing the
deeds entrusted to their charge. The dangers of fire and damp are
conflicting, and to avoid the one may bring about greater risk from the
other cause.
Parchment being an animal substance (usually made from the skin of
sheep), if kept in a damp place, soon begins to decay and become
offensive, mites readily attack it, dirt and dust accumulate rapidly on
its external woolly surface--all these make a search among hoards of
old deeds anything but a pleasant or a cleanly occupation.
The usual storehouse for such collections was some unused garret or
stable-loft, where rats and mice ran riot and birds flew in and out as
they liked. Forgotten, perhaps, for several generations, the old papers
lay untouched till death or removal brought changes, and the deeds
were either placed in safer keeping, or else--alas! the most usual
course--were consigned to the flames as useless rubbish.
The quality of parchment varies much. That upon which early
deeds--those about the thirteenth century--are written, is in small
pieces, woolly in texture and of a dark brown shade. In the sixteenth
century the sheets are larger, smoother, and yellow, becoming whiter
in colour and more even as its preparation was better understood and
practised.
Vellum was a finer sort of parchment prepared from the skins of very
young or still-born animals. Of it the old manuscript books were made,
adorned with illuminations and miniature paintings, which required
a fine, smooth surface, and vellum was free from the flaws which
frequently occur in the skins of mature animals.
With the history of paper-making we have nothing to do. Paper was known
as early as the thirteenth century, but for law work in England it was
seldom, if ever, employed before the fourteenth century. The earliest
known examples are described as being made of silk manufactured abroad.
On the Continent it was used for illuminated work in the place of
vellum--at least, so Prou states, but does not tell us of any notable
examples.
The history of English-made paper is somewhat obscure. Ordinary
lesson-books, published for the enlightenment of the young, state
that the first English paper-mill was erected at Dartford, in Kent,
by Speilman, a German, in 1588. This, however, must be wrong, for in
that popular educator of the past generation, the _Saturday Magazine_,
a short account is given of early paper and its water-marks, and John
Tate is named as having a mill at Hertford, his device being a star
of five points enclosed within a double circle. John Tate the younger
is here stated to have made the paper for the first book printed on
English-made paper about the year 1496. It was written in Latin, and
entitled ‘Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum.’ His mark upon it was a
wheel. This mill existed for thirty-five years--1460 to 1496. This same
account goes on to say that the paper used by the early printers bore
great variety of marks: a bull, fifteenth century: the oxhead, with the
star between the horns, late fifteenth century; the black letter p;
the shears; an open hand, surmounted by a star; a collared dog’s head,
with a trefoil above it; a crown, an orb, a shield charged with a bend,
and many other devices. Hone, in his ‘Everyday Book,’ also gives a few
other marks. He mentions the orb as a foreign paper-mark existing as
early as 1301, and says it is the ‘oldest known mark.’
Hand-paper is the kind usually found used for early documents. It
was a convenient size for court-rolls or legal writings. The name
arose from its water-mark, that of an open hand with a star above the
middle finger. This is found both in England and Germany. Its date of
manufacture was certainly older than 1450. The actual device varied.
Sometimes the fingers were raised in blessing, sometimes it was a hand
encased in a glove or gauntlet. The star had sometimes five and at
others six points. On the wrist are the maker’s initials.
On some coarse whitish-brown paper of 1465 a garter was used; about
the same date a bull or bull’s head appears. This is found on some of
Faust’s earliest printed books. These were detached sheets: there was
no distinction then between book or letter paper.
A careful study of paper-marks would be interesting and valuable if
the authenticity or age of old papers or drawings were doubted, though
the question of forgery scarcely ever arises, for so much knowledge and
ingenuity would be required to produce a manuscript which would deceive
an adept and pass muster as a veritable antique, that fraud of this
kind is well-nigh impossible.
Paper was not known in France, and consequently not used, before 1130.
It did not reach as far north as Normandy until the fourteenth century;
therefore it is improbable that it found its way into England till
after this date, or, if so, only in very small quantities. The oldest
paper is coarse and rough, scarcely sized at all, so that the ink sank
into it like blotting-paper, making erasures impossible.
Supposing even that paper was made in England in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, the quantities produced here were very small and
inadequate to meet the demand; hence the chief supply was of foreign
manufacture even until a comparatively recent period. The tax on
English paper may have interfered with its production.
The Netherlands and Germany were the great paper-producing countries.
It was a State privilege, and the water-marks used were either the
arms of the royal patron or a crest or badge of the manufacturer,
so by this means the precise locality of some of these ancient
manufacturers may be ascertained. The Dutch paper bore the arms of the
country--_i.e._, the lion rampant, holding the sabre in one paw
and the arrows (?) in the other.
The history of old paper-marks sadly needs a Chaffers or a Cripps to
investigate the matter. No such collection has ever been attempted,
nor has the subject hitherto met with the attention it demands and
deserves. Perhaps, now that antiquarianism is becoming so fashionable,
this, like other kindred sciences, will find some followers.
In the _Antiquary_ magazine for November and December, 1895, may
be seen two articles I wrote on old water-marks of paper. The marks
were chiefly collected from the old family papers belonging to the
Pulestons of Emral. These papers were, I fear, burnt after the death of
my uncle, the late Sir Gresley Puleston, Bart.
As regards paper and paper-making, Mr. S. L. Sotheby published a costly
work. There is also a small book written by Mr. Richard Herring in 1863.
Another important part of a deed is the ink with which it was written.
Each scribe had his own particular receipt for making it, the principal
ingredients being oak-galls and sulphate of iron. Many chemicals
are recommended as restoratives for faded ink, but these should be
avoided as far as possible, as they are liable to stain and disfigure
the parchment, and in the end make matters worse. Familiarity with
particular handwritings after some practice will enable the reader to
make out otherwise unintelligible words without any other assistant
than a powerful magnifying glass.
If the ink is very faint the simplest and most harmless restorative is
sulphate of ammonia; but its loathsome smell once endured is not easily
forgotten; the experiment in consequence is very seldom repeated, for
the result is scarcely good enough to risk a repetition of so horrible
a smell, and it is liable to affect the MSS.
Coloured inks or pigments were seldom, if ever, employed for legal
documents. The use of these was restricted to the cloister, requiring
manipulation by an illuminator instead of a mere scribe. Red, blue, and
green were in use; these were mineral colours. The red was composed
either of red-lead or oxide of iron, the green from copper, and the
blue from lapis lazuli finely powdered, or else it, too, like the
green, was prepared from an oxide of copper.
Illuminating was a separate profession apart from that of writing. The
charter or missal was finished by the scribe, and then handed over to
the artist to be adorned with fanciful capital letters and elaborate
scroll-works. Such ornamentation was unnecessary for legal documents,
yet sometimes these had fancy headings, which, like the illuminations,
were put in after the writing was finished, as is proved by the
occasional omission of them, although space is left where they ought to
have been filled in.
Seals and sealing-wax deserve a few words. These came into use
gradually. The earliest deeds are very small, and have very small
insignificant seals. There are some very fine seals in the Record
Office Museum (formerly the Rolls Chapel).
It is said that neither the Saxon nor Norman noblemen could sign their
own names, but instead employed the Christian sign of the cross (still
in use among the illiterate) as their pledge of good faith, and to
witness their consent and approval. The use of seals as appendices
to deeds was a further proof that the deed itself was approved and
executed. A man’s seal or signet was always regarded as his most sacred
possession. It was destroyed after death to avoid its being used for
fraudulent purposes.
The use of signet-rings is very ancient. Many old Roman and Saxon
signet-rings have been dug up from time to time in various parts of
England. Small private seals bearing devices appear to have been
attached to deeds of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Many of the large wax seals are very beautiful, but few, alas! in
private collections of deeds exist in any state of perfection. The wax
used for them was either its natural colour or else a sealing-wax
of a very dark green, also black, or red; white, also, was used, now
discoloured by age into a dingy yellow. Besides the royal seals, each
abbey had its own particular seal, bearing either a view of the abbey,
a portrait of its patron saint, or its badge or shield. Many of these
are described by Dugdale in the ‘Monasticon,’ but he was unable to
discover the devices pertaining to the lesser houses or cells. The
fashion for large seals died out, till at last only royal grants or
similar documents of the sixteenth century have them attached. In the
Georgian period we find small private seals placed on the margins of
deeds. These were not always the arms and crest of the person against
whose signature they appear--perhaps belonged to the lawyer or one of
the contracting parties. Here it is that a knowledge of heraldry is
extremely useful.
The size and shape of a deed at first glance goes far with the
experienced reader to determine its age, even before a single word of
it has been read; likewise the general aspect will give a slight hint
as to the possible contents without deciphering any of it.
The deeds relative to the earliest grants of land are very small
in size, a marked contrast to the voluminous sheets of parchment
considered necessary to a modern conveyance or deed. The writing often
was minute, but each letter was carefully formed. Many early deeds are
in far better preservation than some of those written several centuries
later, when less attention was paid to the materials on which they were
indited, or the ink used.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
LAW TECHNICALITIES.
The two chief divisions into which all law deeds may be roughly
classified are the deed-pole and the indenture. The former is a square
piece of parchment, made by one person, such as a will or a bond, the
indenture being the work of several parties. Of this latter kind are
deeds of trusteeship, marriage settlements, mortgages, and sales or
transfers of land.
The indenture was so called from the fact that its upper edge was
vandyked, or indented--a very secure but primitive method of testing
authenticity; each party had a copy. These duplicates were written on
a single strip of parchment merely cut asunder afterwards, through a
word written between the two copies, such as ‘chirographum,’ so that
when required to be produced as evidence the two divided portions and
words would fit each other exactly--indisputable evidence of their
originality, both simple and ingenious.
A very common form of deed, met with among title-deeds, is the ‘Fine,’
technically so-called from its opening sentence: ‘Hic est finalis
concordia facta in curia Domini Regis’; the Sovereign’s name follows
with the year of accession, after which are the names of the buyer and
seller of the property, a full description of the amount of acreage,
tenements, etc. After warranting the whole for life to its purchaser,
the deed concludes with the sum of money paid for the property; this
is written in words, not figures. These deeds are more puzzling to
amateurs than any other. The ‘Fines’ are narrow strips of parchment,
two in number; they are closely covered with black lettering, making
them at first difficult to decipher.
This transfer of land by ‘fine’ originated at first from an actual suit
at law commenced to recover possession of the lands, and by this means
to establish a clear indisputable title to it; in course of time the
suit was discontinued, but the form of wording was retained by custom.
‘A “fine,”’ says Blackstone, ‘is so called because it puts an end
to the suit (from the Latin word _finis_, an end), which, when
once decided, puts an end not only to that suit, but also to all
other controversies concerning the same matter, for by this means an
absolute sale was effected, and all previous claims upon the property
were made void.’
Sale by fine is of very ancient date. Instances of it are said to be
known prior to the Norman invasion. We may, therefore, conclude that
it was probably an old Saxon custom, or was devised in later times
as a certain means to avoid dispute and disagreement arising from an
imperfect title of possession.
There are several legal varieties of ‘fines,’ but these are of little
consequence to the antiquary, whose interest lies only in the names,
dates, and localities mentioned, and, so long as the land changed
its ownership, cares little about the technical process by which the
transfer was made.
Another way of making a good title so as to legalize and effect a
complete sale of property was that known as ‘Sale by Recovery.’ This
also consisted of a law-suit, at first real, then imaginary.
[Illustration: FORM OF FINE]
The prescribed form was very complicated. Explanations of it are to be
found in most books on law subjects, but the matter lies in a nutshell.
One man desired to sell certain land which another man was anxious to
purchase, whereupon the would-be purchaser issued a writ, in which he
pretended to claim the land. At this stage of the affair a third party,
not really concerned in any way in it, was brought forward to warrant
the title of the real owner, who then came forward bringing a witness
proving ownership to his property; thus an undisputable title to the
land was established. A deed of recovery was then issued rehearsing the
whole transaction, agreeing that a certain sum of money, equivalent to
the value of the land, should be paid by the purchaser; and here the
bargain was concluded, and the curtain fell on the legal farce.
Some of these recovery deeds are quite works of art. They are written
in courthand on large squares of parchment, smooth and white. The
heading and capital letter are ornamented with scroll-work in pen
and ink. Generally an engraved portrait of the reigning Sovereign
was added. Part of this ornamentation was done by hand, and the rest
completed with steel engraving. The most elaborate deeds are those of
the Stuart monarchs, especially towards the end of the seventeenth
century, but after the time of the second George these well-executed
deeds disappear.
The oldest statute relating to Recoveries of which I find any mention
is of the commencement of the reign of Henry VII., but I have not met
with any as early in date as this.
A beginner finds much difficulty in deciding between deeds of sale
or appointment of trustees for the safe custody of land to secure
marriage portions and deeds of mortgage. All these three deeds are, in
point of size and general outline, nearly identical; the experienced
lawyer can detect them at once; he needs only to study what is called
the operative part of the document, avoiding any waste of time which
wading through the technical phrases involves.
One of the commonest forms of deeds met with relative to the sale
of land is that known as ‘Lease and Release,’ a method invented by
Serjeant Moore in the reign of Henry VIII., which, from its simplicity,
speedily became very popular, and superseded the other forms of sale.
The principal deeds referring to a Lease and Release are two in number.
The smaller of these is generally found wrapped up within the larger
parchment, as the two had to be kept together, being in reality part
and parcel of each other. The smaller parchment was the lease drawn up
between the parties; by it a formal lease for a year of the premises
or land was granted by the owner to the purchaser, but no mention of
any rent or sum of money is made in it, and herein is the difference
between the sale-lease and an ordinary lease, for in this latter both
the term of years and the yearly rental are expressly named.
The ‘Release,’ or larger parchment, is dated a day following the
lease which it cancels, hereby gaining its name of ‘release.’ It is in
reality the actual deed of sale, for the price paid for the land will
be found in it, and a full and complete warranty securing it for ever
to the purchaser.
An ordinary lease of premises is worded similarly to the above,
but differs from it in several ways; usually it is a larger sheet
of parchment. The term of years varies from three, five, seven, to
twenty-one, at a fixed rent paid either half-yearly or quarterly at
the four principal feasts, Lady Day, or the Feast of the Annunciation,
the Feast of St. John, or Midsummer, St. Michael and All Angels,
better known as Michaelmas, and the Feast of the Nativity, popularly
called Christmas Day. These deeds commence with the date of the day,
month and year, followed by the names of the persons contracting the
agreement, with those of their co-trustees, or witnesses, usually
selected from among relatives or connections by marriage, or else
immediate neighbours. An exact terrier of the land is given, its
locality, field-names, and acreage. Three parts of the way down the
sheet of parchment will be found the rent and term of years for which
the land is granted, together with stipulations as to repairs, rights
of ingress and egress; any services, customs or heriots, whether due in
kind or by payment; last of all comes the warrant against intruders.
Of course, with deeds of sale there are other legal documentary forms,
with variations of wording, but the two last above described are those
generally met with.
The oldest form of sale is called a ‘feoffment,’ or grant. Externally
it differs little in appearance from a ‘fine,’ at least as regards its
earliest form, both being very small, closely-written deeds; the first
was in the set lawyer type of handwriting, while a ‘fine’ was indited
in courthand.
A ‘feoffment,’ or grant, was the oldest and simplest form of document;
but in later times it was followed by a deed ‘of Uses,’ which required
many other deeds to follow in its wake before a permanent and
satisfactory sale was effected.
It is all these legal formalities which make the reading of old deeds
so unnecessarily confusing; their intricacies can only be mastered
by careful study of books on legal matters, and a comparison of the
several kinds of deeds above enumerated. A mortgage deed differs from
the sales or leases in several particulars: firstly, the term of years
granted is usually absurdly long--nine hundred or a thousand years,
perhaps; while in lieu of money the nominal rent of one peppercorn
yearly, or some equally insignificant equivalent, was demanded. In
place of the rent in an ordinary lease the real reason of the mortgage
is given in full, with the date and appointed place where and when the
borrowed money is to be repaid. Often the vicarage, or the parson’s
house, was chosen--perhaps considered as an additional guard against
fraud, and that the clergyman as a witness, being a disinterested
party, would see justice done on both sides. No mortgage deeds are old;
the older ones, if they existed, were probably destroyed as soon as the
transaction was finished. Most of those found among family papers are
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and refer to small pieces
of land or cottages, showing that even then the small owners became
involved in debts and difficulties, being obliged to raise money upon
their holdings, until finally the land itself had to be sold to satisfy
the demands of the creditors, the purchaser usually being the nearest
large landed proprietor, who paid a better price for what would join
on to and complete the area of his estate. These small holdings had
probably been accumulated bit by bit out of the waste. First, perhaps,
the settler rigged up a primitive dwelling, or hut, the old tradition
being that if a roofed dwelling with a chimney could be erected in one
night a claim to the land was thereby established. If undisturbed, the
squatter would gradually extend his boundaries; but a small rent was
generally demanded by the lord of the manor as an acknowledgment of the
encroachment; these little holdings are called ‘key-holdings,’ and are
to be found in all parts of England.
At present there is a growing desire to increase the number of small
proprietors; ‘fashion,’ it is said, ‘repeats itself periodically.’
Former experience showed the result of small holders to be a failure;
no land, however small in acreage, can be worked without capital; a
succession of bad seasons causes immediate loss and continuous outlay
without a compensating return; debts once begun are apt to accumulate;
all trades are worked cheaper on a wholesale scale. Bit by bit, as
failure comes, the small pieces of land will roll up into large
properties again, like balls of quicksilver separated only for awhile.
Many of the deeds of mortgage are sad and silent witnesses of the
gradual decay and downfall of old families. The squire raised money to
pay off trusts, legacies, and dowers. He pledged his mansion; and in
the inventory of his household effects we can study many queer facts.
Our ancestors’ homes were scantily furnished; such lists surprise
us, for they show what a very small amount of furniture was formerly
considered necessary to render a house habitable.
Among family papers there is often another class of deeds altogether:
one is a small square piece of parchment, with a huge seal attached;
this is often enclosed in a rough tin case or box. These are advowson
deeds, or presentation of Church preferment. The gifts of many Church
livings are in private hands. It was originally an hereditary property,
and there are cases of it of very great antiquity; but private family
deeds referring to church property are seldom found earlier than the
Jacobean period, and very seldom as old as that.
The earliest presentations or appointments to parochial duty were
no doubt purely ecclesiastical, but with the Norman accession the
secular and ecclesiastical affairs merged into closer proximity; it
was considered a religious privilege to rebuild or erect a church.
This the lord of the manor generally undertook, perhaps originally as
a private chapel or chantry. The appointment of an officiating priest
became an ecclesiastical matter, being often granted to the monasteries
by the patrons. To avoid the encroachment of lay interference,
Thomas à Beckett was the first to order that no clergyman should be
instituted to a living without a bishop’s approval and permission;
but there were often disputes on this subject. Few neighbourhoods
existed without a monastery somewhere in the locality, and from the
nearest religious house a candidate was probably selected; finally, the
right of presentation was claimed by the monastery, with whom it may
have, by custom or by deed of gift, previously rested. Some education
and a knowledge of Latin was essential for a priest, and education
was almost entirely confined to the monks or their pupils. Thomas à
Beckett, as Archbishop, issued his mandate on the subject of parochial
presentations as a means of retaining such institutions in episcopal
hands, and so avoiding any appeals to the Pope which might be made by
his legates or the abbots. With the monasteries the chantries also
passed away, soon being forgotten; numberless small unbeneficed chapels
were then allowed to fall into ruins, the sites even of these now
having been lost.
Deeds recounting the appointment of chantry priests are rare, and
always possess some points of interest; often chantry priests were
appointed by bequest, and sums of money left for their maintenance.
These appear, however, to have been entirely distinct from the parish
priest, although perhaps the office may eventually have merged into one
and the same.
There seems from earliest times to have existed a jealousy between
Cathedral bodies and the monks; but as the monastic orders waxed more
and more wealthy and influential, we lose sight of the contention, and
on all questions of early Church history there yet needs an impartial
writer to decide many matters which at present are still uncertain,
and are viewed by different writers according to their own particular
religious bias, whether Anglican or Roman; hence as history they are
too prejudiced to be entirely relied upon.
[Illustration: SHERIFF’S ROLL (NEVILLE MSS.). (_See page 66._)]
A sheriff formerly was the most important personage in his county,
being the ambassador or representative of the Sovereign. He was
appointed directly by the Crown; even at the present day the names of
three county gentlemen are written down and supposed to be presented
to the King, who pricks the name of the man chosen to be sheriff; but
really the names follow in sequence, each out-going sheriff adding
a fresh name to the list previous to his own being erased as having
served his turn.
The formal deed of appointment as sheriff was a narrow parchment strip,
with a fine seal attached to it; his discharge from office was a very
unimportant-looking document.
The sheriff’s roll was the yearly bill of expenses incurred in the
King’s name by his sheriff or representative; as a rule they are not
very interesting, although here and there the names of men appointed
to local offices may appear, facts which might interest the local
historian; but he would have to wade through the contents of many rolls
before he extracted any information worth his attention, and much
time would have to be expended over such a search. These rolls are
long broad strips of parchment stitched together; the upper edge is
sometimes cut square, and at others cut into a point or peak.
The wording runs as follows:
‘In Magno Rotulo de anno ... Regis ... in Comitatu----’
A list of the sheriffs of England (Henry I. to fourth year of Edward
III.) is to be found in the thirty-first report, page 262, of the
Deputy Keeper of the Public Records. A list of sheriffs is published
(Public Record Office: Lists and Indices, No. IX.). In some counties
sheriff-lists with additional genealogies and notes have been compiled,
giving a very good county history of the oldest families of the shire.
A royal pardon was a deed-poll with a beautiful seal attached to it.
It commenced with the Sovereign’s name. The writing was exact and
well executed. The deed was divided into clauses or sections, the
commencing word of each being written in very clear black letters.
After the word ‘Sciatis’ comes the royal license and the name of its
recipient, who is forgiven ‘all rebellion and insurrection against the
Crown, all homicide, felony, robbery or participation with such,’ and
the pardoned subject is permitted to retain his possessions: the word
‘Perdonamus’ coming about the centre of the document. Unfortunately no
information is given in the charter in any way as to the particular
cause for pardon being granted or the offence committed. This can only
be guessed at by the help of English history, and a probable reason be
assigned from among the many disputed accessions, civil wars, religious
controversies of bygone centuries, all probable sources of high treason
against the Crown.
Few old families were exempt from charges of treason if they chanced
to take any part in public affairs or were known to have been stanch
adherents to prohibited religion.
A bond is a small paper or parchment--on one side written in English,
on the other in Latin--the promise to repay or pay money due; generally
the bond is in Latin, and the conditions of it written in English.
Bonds were made out on the sale of property, or for mortgages or
legacies; they occur in numbers among family papers.
If the deed does not begin with the King’s name in whose reign it
was made, the year of the reign will be found at the end. It must be
remembered that Henry VI. and Charles II. are both puzzling, owing
to civil wars, and both reckoned from the date of the death of the
previous Sovereign. Henry VI. is reckoned from 1422, and includes the
whole period till his death--forty-nine and a half years--of which only
thirty-eight and a half years he actually was King. Charles II. is
reckoned from the year 1649.
These are the principal kinds of deeds met with among family papers,
being the commonest legal forms. If others are found of an unusual
character they should be put aside for closer investigation when
practice has given greater experience, or be submitted to an expert for
examination.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI.
MANOR AND COURT ROLLS.
The oldest account of an estate is to be obtained, not from deeds of
purchase and mortgage, but from its own private records, called court
rolls, a most curious class of documents, puzzling to the antiquary
because they contain local words obsolete and not recognisable through
derivation. Manor rolls are a study in themselves, a subject hitherto
overlooked. They give us an insight into the most primitive form of
local government, showing the manner in which lawlessness and disregard
of laws were kept under before a regular magisterial jurisdiction
came into existence. The local manor court occupied the position and
did the work now undertaken by the magistrates, County Court judges,
and County Councils. When complaints are raised as to an excessive
imposition of fines for trivial misdemeanours by any of these modern
means of justice, I would advise the complainants to study some old
court rolls, wherein may be read the fines imposed for offences no
longer punishable. The villager was fined if he kept dogs or pigeons,
for trespass in the woods, stealing brushwood, for illegal fishing,
for fighting, for allowing animals to stray and become impounded. Nor,
unless he was a freedman, was he allowed to marry or give in marriage
without his lord’s permission. All this sounds very arbitrary and
severe; in reality it probably was not so. The bond between landlord
and tenant must have been a very close one. They were drawn into near
connection one with another; the well-being of one meant the welfare
of the other. Nor was the meting forth of justice left solely in the
hands of the lord of the manor, but rather to the twelve jurymen who
formed the court itself. Certainly this self-government opened a means
for unfair influence and revenge of petty quarrels. This was guarded
against as far as possible. A very common item brought before the court
was the accusation of wrongful information laid by a man against his
neighbour in direct opposition to the ninth commandment.
There were two sections of manor courts--the Court Leet and the Court
Baron. The former dealt with offences committed by the tenantry, and
contained much that is entertaining and curious; the other was occupied
with the tenants and their holdings, of which they had every year to
give account to the lord of the manor. Upon the death of a tenant, or
the expiration of the lease, new presentments were made to the landlord
for admission to the premises, or a fresh life added to the lease from
time to time. In these rolls we find notices of heriots and other old
services due from the tenants of certain lands; indeed, these old
customs are not yet wholly extinct, though they have frequently fallen
into abeyance. On some estates heriots are still due, but, as a rule,
have for many generations been compounded for by a money payment, just
in the same way that feudal service passed into small sums of money and
finally died out, or eventually took the form of money rent.
On many farms it was part of the rent to give the landlord yearly,
geese or cheese. In a small farm of ours in Cheshire the tenant had to
give a cheese yearly, cart coals, keep a dog and a fighting-cock for
his landlord.
The manorial history of England would carry us back very far did we
attempt to trace it to its earliest beginnings. Perhaps the very
first step towards it was the settlement of the Saxon tribes, who,
in appropriating and distributing the land, laid the foundation of
hereditary ownership. There is no rule or limit as to how many manors
there might be in each parish. Clearly the parish was the older
division of the two; nor can the creation of a manor be dated in any
way, for many of the old manors were subsequently split up into two
or more lesser ones. The affixes or manorial names are known to have,
in some instances, varied with the family who held the land. Almost
without exception these manorial names were directly derived from
the possessors. Few are older than the Norman period, perhaps having
supplanted those in existence previously. Where double parochial
names are used, the first is usually Saxon, the affix being a Norman
addition, showing the fusion of the two races, which, though living in
close proximity, were yet totally distinct from each other.
During the Middle Ages manors were further subdivided, easily to be
accounted for in this way: The owner of a manor was at first start the
tenant of some wealthy and powerful nobleman, who, owning vast tracts
of land, sublet it out in manors, which were after some generations
bought outright, or looked upon almost as freehold. The tenant was the
resident squire of the place, living on the land, and farming it with
the assistance of his children and dependents. After a time the family
grew up, the sons married and needed homes of their own. In those days
no one moved far away from the birthplace. What was more natural than
that the squire should provide homes for his children close around
the old manor-house, and, dividing off the property by the manorial
boundaries, give to each a portion for self-maintenance? This accounts
for the large, old-fashioned farmhouses to be found in most country
parishes. The history of each farm, if investigated, will furnish a
curious proof of the conservatism with which certain boundaries were
preserved, and the manors regarded as sections seldom subdivided except
into recognised lesser manors.
Society was very primitive two or three hundred years ago. It was
then possible to live comfortably and make a living out of the land.
No foreign grain was imported to affect the prices of corn in country
places. Competition was unknown, and the people led a quiet, uneventful
existence, following in the footsteps of their forefathers. Gradually
changes have come about. The old race of yeomen has died out; the few
that are left make us forcibly regret that this should be the case.
The yeoman was a man of good education and long pedigree; he belonged
to the largest section of English society, called ‘middle class.’
Agriculture was his profession; he seldom left home, consequently had
few opportunities of spending money; the character and personal history
of every human being on the place was intimately known to him, for
the villagers lived and died in their native villages. The roads were
bad, therefore traffic from place to place was restricted to what was
absolutely necessary. Posts and passenger coaches were rarities, and
when first started met with little patronage from the majority of the
people.
To return to the manorial courts. These were held but once during the
year. It was the annual audit of the freemen on the estate, the ‘Visus
franciplegii,’ as the opening words of the court roll states.
Quarter sessions were held four times in the year, while the sheriff’s
tourn took place half-yearly. These inquired into matters of public
interest and public expense, whereas the manor court dealt with trivial
matters pertaining to the manor itself. The sheriff’s tourn and the
manorial court were almost identical in object; the first was the
representative of the Crown dispensing justice to the King’s subjects;
in a lesser radius and degree the lord of the manor had a similar
office to fulfil.
[Illustration: COURT ROLL. (_See page 75._)]
Manors were ruled by custom, and customs varied in different places.
The general aspect of a court roll will always be found to be
identical. The older rolls are in Latin, but, like the deeds, the later
ones are written in English. The earliest ones are literally ‘rolls’
closely written on parchment in the handwriting called by the French
‘minuscule.’
Every court roll has at its commencement the name of the manor written
either above or on the margin. The opening words read thus: ‘Visus
franciplegii cum curia.’ After this is the name of the lord of the
manor, the date of the day and month, followed by the King’s name and
the number of years since he ascended the throne.
_Esson._, on the margin, is the abbreviation for _essonium_,
an excuse--namely, the jurymen who pleaded absence from the court.
Following this are the names of the twelve jurymen present, and then
the work begins.
In the older rolls the presentment of offences are the principal items;
latterly only the tenants and their leases employed the attention of
the court at its annual sitting.
The first thing to consider was usually the assize--licensing, so to
speak, of bread and ale. By this means fraud and adulteration were held
in check. The right of brewing ale was a privilege not to be infringed
without penalty; the fine imposed was at the rate of 1_d._ for
each illegal brewing; the offenders are generally women.
Any damage to crops or fences, highways needing repair, quarrels ending
in bloodshed, neglect by which animals were permitted to stray and
become seized by the hayward or pinder--all such offences are found
chronicled in the court roll. Last of all is the sum total received
in fines, signed by the names of the two officers appointed to
superintend the assize.
A court roll is always written throughout in one handwriting, without
any private marks or signatures. From the writing, they are generally
the work of a professional scribe or clerk who must have had a regular
education--first as a Latin scholar, secondly as an accountant, and
thirdly probably learnt to write before he learnt Latin. Mistakes or
erasures are seldom to be detected; therefore the rolls must have
been carefully copied at leisure from rough notes made at the time;
moreover, the spelling of the surnames is fairly constant, which would
not be if written from dictation.
Up to the Reformation period the court rolls were cherished as being
valuable records, providing standards for future reference; hence we
find, until then, a fairly perfect sequence of these yearly rolls,
after which a break occurs, and only a casual roll here and there is
preserved. No guide to court rolls would be complete unless the oldest
form of the Arabic numerals is given and explained.
The Roman numerals are the oldest method of writing figures in Europe,
but gradually the so-called Arabic figures (really of Indian origin)
were introduced, superseding the former style. To Gerbert, otherwise
known as Pope Silvester II. (he died in 1003), is attributed their
introduction
[Illustration: xiith century. xiiith century. xivth century. xvth
century.]
from the East to the West; anyway, from the twelfth century, the Arabic
numerals rapidly came into use. The 0 was not invented before the
twelfth century. A curious resemblance is traceable between the figures
of the alternate centuries. Our present style of figures has grown out
of the older ones, but is bolder in outline and curve. The figure
5 has passed through most variation, while 6, 8 and 9 have scarcely
altered at all.
It must be remembered that before 1752 the Old Style was still used
in England. The year therefore commenced on March 25th instead of, as
it does at present, on January 1st. When the calendar was corrected
in 1752 eleven days were omitted, and September 2nd was followed by
September 14th. The people bewailed it, and contemporary skits are
numerous, echoing the popular cry of ‘Give us back our lost eleven
days.’ On the Continent the alteration had taken place long before. In
some English parish church registers we find confusion as to the actual
year date to be used for the months between Christmas and Lady Day.
This uncertainty may be observed before 1750. In many country places
the old style was maintained long after the year 1752.
I have a very curious old calendar of 1483; in it the saints’ days are
veritable red-letter days. Many of the saints named are unknown to us
either by name or legend, but in court rolls only the principal saints’
days are mentioned as those on which the court sat.
Some months seem to have been more favoured with saints’ days than
others. The following list, though by no means complete, gives the
chief English saints:
_January._
1. Circumcisio Domini.
13. St. Veronica.
13. St. Hilary.
25. Conversion of St. Paul.
_February._
1. St. Bride, or Bridget.
2. Purification of the Virgin, or Candlemas Day.
24. St. Matthias the Apostle.
_March._
1. St. David.
2. St. Chad.
4. St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr, A.D. 253.
14. St. Benet, or Benedict.
18. St. Edward.
19. St. Joseph, the Virgin’s husband.
20. St. Cuthbert.
25. Annunciation of the Virgin. Lady-Day.
_April._
23. St. George.
25. St. Mark the Evangelist.
_May._
1. St. Philip and St. James the Less, Apostles.
2. St. Athanasius.
3. Invention (or discovery) of the Holy Cross.
5. St. Hilary, Bishop of Arles. The two saints of this name are
confusing, but this St. Hilary is rarely mentioned in English
documents.
26. St. Augustine.
_June._
11. St. Barnabas, Apostle.
13. St. Anthony of Padua.
22. St. Alban.
24. Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Midsummer Day.
29. Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.
30. St. Paul, Apostle.
_July._
2. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.
15. St. Swithin.
22. St. Mary Magdalen.
25. St. James the Great, Apostle.
25. St. Christopher. Lammastide.
_August._
1. St. Peter ad Vincula, or St. Peter in chains.
5. St. Oswald.
6. The Transfiguration of our Lord.
15. The Assumption of the Virgin.
21. St. Bernard.
24. St. Bartholomew, Apostle.
28. St. Austin, or Augustine.
29. Beheading of St. John the Baptist.
_September._
1. St. Egidius, or Giles.
8. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.
14. Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
21. St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.
29. St. Michael and All Angels. Michaelmas.
_October._
4. St. Francis of Assisi.
9. St. Denis, or Dionysius of Paris.
17. St. Audry, or Etheldreda.
18. St. Luke the Evangelist.
21. St. Ursula, and 11,000 virgins.
25. St. Crispin.
28. St. Simon the Canaanite, Apostle.
_November._
1. All Saints’ Day.
2. All Souls’ Day.
11. St. Martin. Martinmas.
16. St. Edmund.
21. Presentation of the Blessed Virgin.
22. St. Cecilia.
25. St. Catherine.
30. St. Andrew, Apostle.
_December._
6. St. Nicholas.
8. The Conception of the Blessed Virgin.
13. St. Lucy.
21. St. Thomas, Apostle.
25. The Nativity of our Blessed Lord. Christmas.
26. St. Stephen.
27. St. John, Evangelist and Apostle.
28. The Holy Innocents.
29. St. Thomas à Beckett.
The saints’ days were brought before the people in many ways--in the
village feasts, or the dedication of churches, in the mural paintings
which covered the church walls, and in the Christian names given at
baptism. In the old rolls the date of the month is never mentioned,
the principal feast-day nearest to it being used instead.
Saints’ days, as holidays, were probably the most convenient days for
assembling together for business.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII.
MONASTIC CHARTERS.
Every abbey of any importance kept a chartulary--in other words, a
catalogue of its possessions in the copies of grants of land all
collected within one or more volumes--a carefully compiled work, giving
all the benefactions and privileges of the foundation, entered by the
scribe or secretary of the establishment, who must have spent many
hours of his life over the work, for these books are rarely found to
be the work of more than one, or at most two, men--one handwriting
continuing on until replaced by another. Great care and neatness was
used in the formation of each black letter--even and perfect as the
most exact printing ever done by machinery. Each charter was emphasized
with an elaborate capital letter, and the index or headings to them
were filled in after the writing was finished, as is proved by the
fact that these were sometimes never completed. The probability is that
they were the work of another artist or illuminator, and appear to have
been sketched in with a brush or hair pencil, the writing having been
executed with a quill pen. Colour is sometimes employed to embellish
and ornament the work, but in the oldest chartularies colour, usually
red, is only used to mark special passages, or, as in Domesday Book,
to point out names of persons or places. The largest work on English
monasteries was compiled by Sir William Dugdale; but in so extensive a
work as the ‘Monasticon’ too much was undertaken; it was impossible to
search deeply enough into existing records for information concerning
every religious house throughout England. Therefore, although a
valuable foundation to start with, much more may still be ascertained
from manuscripts, public and private, particularly with regard to the
lesser religious houses or cells to foreign abbeys.
Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons was a missionary undertaking,
therefore it encouraged the foundation of organizing centres; but
these seem at first to have rather taken the form of bishoprics than
abbeys; still, information as to the early Church in England does not
exist sufficiently in detail to permit us to state clearly the actual
religious work or its method of working.
Later on the Saxon abbeys partook rather of the nature of large
training colleges, where learning was carried on.
The mission of St. Augustine extended the monastic system, and spread
Christianity to a wider extent. It also encouraged the resort hither of
foreign monks. Great rivalry existed between the English bishops and
these foreign missionary priests, a feud which never seems entirely to
have died out. The largest number of English abbeys sprang up after the
Norman Conquest. The invaders manifested their religion by bestowing
large grants of lands as votive offerings and in token of gratitude,
while Duke William’s honest repayment of the loans given him for the
equipment of his armada brought over hundreds of priests and monks
to take possession of their new territories. Church building was a
religious work often undertaken for the expiation of sins. Voluntary
work is always the best of its kind. To this day the remains of the
old Norman abbeys surprise us with their solidity of structure and
elegance of design. They must, indeed, have been beautiful when the
interiors were fitted up with corresponding magnificence. At first
the monks were poor--they were given land, not always of the best,
often in wild and unfrequented regions; but by frugality, skill and
industry, they soon brought it into a fertile state, and lived on its
produce and the gifts of their patrons. The Cistercians were great
wool-dealers, and we know how much English cloth was prized at home
and abroad for its goodness of quality. In course of time the monks,
by their labours, became rich. The need for toil being over, they sank
into indolent affluence; instead of hard-working communities, they
became wealthy landowners. The abbots were miniature kings, ruling over
their vassals and dependents, living in almost royal state, surrounded
by their court. The history of monastic England extends over very many
centuries, even if its commencement is only placed at the arrival of
St. Augustine in A.D. 597, or later still, with the Norman
invasion.
Changes of all kinds took place in those long centuries. Large abbeys
had sunk into poverty, and others arisen in their places. The monks
had been subdivided into orders, each having its own peculiar rules.
The oldest of these was the Benedictine, or Black Monks, who held most
of the largest monasteries--as many as 156 in number. From this Order
arose the Cistercians, even more severe in their regulations--popular
in England, probably from having had an Englishman as their founder,
Stephen Harding, head of the Monastery of Citeaux (Cistercium) about
the year 1125. This order had been approved by the Pope twenty-five
years previously. Gasquet gives the names of 86 Cistercian houses
in England, the Cluniac as 26, and Carthusian as 9. These lesser
orders had each its own distinctive rules, but, as the above figures
show, were less popular than the older orders of monks. The number
of nunneries was also very large (Gasquet gives 140). These were
principally of the Benedictine Order. I have seen it stated that there
was only one house of White Nuns in England, that of Grace Dieu, in
Leicestershire, but this is not correct.
As the old Benedictine Order relaxed in severity, the Cistercians
came forward, and when these were no longer conspicuous for piety and
austerity, there arose the wandering missionaries known as Friars, who
were also eloquent preachers, a marked contrast to the half-educated
clergy. These friars were mendicants, bound by oath neither to possess
land nor money, nor to enjoy luxury. They went about preaching
throughout the country; it was the old story of the ‘house divided
against itself being unable to stand.’ The friars preached against the
monks, and the monks opposed the clergy, ending in the downfall of the
three rivals under Henry VIII.
The first order of friars was of Spanish origin, founded by Dominic
A.D. 1204, and confirmed in 1215. They wore a brown habit of
coarse hair-cloth. A few years later St. Francis of Assisi founded
the Grey Friars, called after him Franciscans. These came to England
A.D. 1224, where they became very popular. Like the monks,
lesser orders arose out of these. The Premonstratensians gained little
ground in England, but the Augustinian or Austin Friars had many
followers, both men and women.
Henry VIII.’s first attack on religious houses was made upon those
whose yearly incomes did not exceed £200. But the work thus begun
did not end here. It is said that 376 small monasteries were doomed;
of these 123 escaped immediate dissolution. Throughout 1535 and
the succeeding five years the work of suppression was carried on.
During that time the monks foresaw that ultimately they were doomed,
and had time to sell or hide their choicest possessions before the
Commissioners appeared to claim them. Then no doubt many valuable
manuscripts and papers were destroyed, or else either hidden or removed
out of the country. In several places some of these buried treasures
have come to light after being concealed for a long time. In this way
a beautiful copy of the Reading Abbey Chartulary was preserved for two
hundred years, having been concealed in a secret chamber adjoining a
chimney-stack in an old manor-house at Shinfield, only discovered by
workmen during some repairs in the eighteenth century.
[Illustration: READING ABBEY CHARTER.
(_Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale. Kindly lent by Lord
Fingall._)]
This book[3] is a good example of its kind, being perfect as the day
when it was first hidden away. In it are written the grants of lands
from the Abbey’s second foundation by Henry I.[4] Vast possessions
given bit by bit--generally by those families whose ancestors lay
buried in the abbey church, for whose souls prayers were desired. The
inventories of relics are very curious, and the vestments also are
described. There is a long list of the books in the abbey libraries of
Reading and Leominster. All the books in this long list disappeared, no
one knows where or how. Two volumes, a missal and a book of hours, said
once to have been part of the abbey library, were sold by auction in
1889. Nor was Reading the only instance of the total disappearance of
valuable monastic manuscripts. Gasquet speaks of the wanton destruction
of manuscripts at this period, and says that they were sold for all
kinds of uses.
Mr. Maskell, ‘Monumentæ Ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,’ reckons there
must have been more than 250,000 volumes of Church service books
in use, and that they must have been destroyed to prevent men from
following the worship of their forefathers. A most interesting article
on ‘Ancient Prymers,’ the service books of the people, appeared in the
_Antiquary_ of March, 1892, written by Mr. Henry Littlehales.
[Illustration: READING ABBEY CHARTULARY.
(_Photographed by Mr. A. A. Harrison, of Theale._)]
The original deeds or grants of land to abbeys are seldom met with
among private documents. The wording differs little from that of an
ordinary grant, except that the donor gives for the good of his soul
and the souls of his ancestors. Sometimes very interesting details
may be gathered from the foundation deeds of chantries, with the
appointment of a priest to celebrate Mass and offer up prayers for the
dead, receiving in return a salary derived from lands or else given at
once in money.
Original grants from the Crown to abbeys are seldom dated the day or
year they were written, except that they conclude with the names of the
bishops attesting them and the witnesses who were present, although
sometimes the King’s reign is given, or the episcopal year of the
archbishop or diocesan bishop.
The names of the English archbishops and bishops are important as
supplying the date of undated charters. Of the latter the contracted
names of the sees are all given in Wright’s ‘Court-hand Restored,’
but neither there nor in any other book is mention made of the Norman
bishops,[5] who frequently appear as witnesses to monastic charters.
_Bishoprics of Normandy, etc._
Name of See. Modern Name.
Archbishopric: Rothomagensis. Rouen.
Bishopric: Baiocensis. Bayeux.
„ Abrincatensis. Avranches.
„ Lexoviensis. Lisieux.
„ Ebroicensis. Evreux.
„ Cadomensis. Caen.
„ Sylvanectensis. Senliz.
„ Bellovacensis. Beauvais.
„ Atrebatensis. Arras.
„ Constantiensis. Coutances
„ Sagiensis. Séez.
„ Ambianensis or
Samarobrivensis. Amiens.
As likely to be a help towards affixing the date of undated charters I
append a list of the archbishops and chancellors of England from the
Conquest to the fourteenth century; also a few of the bishops of the
same period.
_Archbishops of Canterbury._
Stigand 1052–1070
Lanfranc 1070–1089
Anselm 1093–1109
Ralph of Escures 1114–1122
William of Corbeil 1123–1136
Theobald 1139–1161
Thomas à Beckett 1162–1170
Richard 1174–1184
Baldwin 1185–1190
Reginald Fitz Joscelin 1191
Hubert Walter 1193–1205
Stephen Langton 1207–1229
Richard le Grand 1229–1231
Edmund Rich 1234–1240
Boniface of Savoy 1245–1270
Robert Kilwardby 1273–1278
John Peckham 1279–1292
Robert Winchelsey 1294–1313
Next to Canterbury came the important bishopric of London. The latter
was a very large and powerful diocese, originating first at Dorchester
A.D. 634, dividing into two sees, Winchester and Sherborne, A.D. 705,
which were further subdivided, the latter into Sherborne and Wells,
and the Winchester see into Selsey and Ramsbury (Corvinensis); all
reuniting in 1075 into the powerful bishopric of Old Sarum, eventually
removed to Salisbury, 1218. Thus it will be seen that Winchester and
Sherborne were the chief bishoprics, the others being offshoots of
later creation.
* * * * *
The Bishops of Salisbury commenced under Herman (died 1077), previously
known as Bishop of Sherborne (Scirburniensis).
Osmund, died Dec. 3, 1099.
Roger, elected 1102, consecrated 1107, died 1139.
Jocelin de Bailul, died a Cistercian Monk at Waverley Abbey,
1184.
Hubert Walter, 1189, translated to Canterbury, 1193.
Herbert Poore, 1194.
Richard Poore, 1217. The see then transferred to New Sarum or
Salisbury.
Robert Bingham, 1228.
William of York, 1246.
Giles de Bridport, 1256.
Walter de La Wyle, 1263.
Robert de Wykehampton, 1271.
Walter Scammel, 1284.
Henry de Braundeston, 1287.
William de La Corner, 1289.
Nicolas Longespée, 1293.
Simon of Ghent, 1207.
Roger de Mortival, 1315.
_Bishops of Winchester who were Chancellors of England._
William Giffard, introduced the Cistercian Monks into
England 1100–1129
Nicholas Ely 1268–1282
John Sandall 1316–1320
Adam Orlton 1333–1345
William Edyngdon, first Prelate of the Order of the
Garter; the Bishops of Winchester have ever since
retained this honour 1345–1367
William de Wykeham. Introduced the Perpendicular
architecture into England; built Winchester
College and New College, Oxford; rebuilt part
of his Cathedral. A great reformer of abuses 1367–1404
Henry Beaufort (Cardinal) increased the St. Cross
Almshouses; took a prominent part in the burning
of Joan of Arc. See Shakespeare’s ‘Henry VI.’ 1404–1447
William de Waynflete, first Provost of Eton.
Founded Magdalen College, Oxford; continued his
master’s (William de Wykeham’s) reformation of
abuses, etc. 1447–1487
Thomas Wolsey, the celebrated Cardinal Wolsey of
history. Held the see _in commendam_ 1528–1530
Stephen Gardiner. He figures as one of the most
prominent ecclesiastics during the reigns of
Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary. His life is
part of the history of those times 1531–1550
_Chief Justices of England._
Odo of Bayeux and William Fitz Osbern, Earl of
Hereford 1067
William de Warren and Richard Fitz Gilbert 1073
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey, Bishop
of Coutances, and Robert, Count of Mortain 1078
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux 1087–1088
William de St. Carileph, Bishop of Durham 1088
Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham 1094–1100
Robert Bloett, Bishop of Lincoln 1100–1107
Roger Le Poor, Bishop of Salisbury 1107–1139
Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester 1154–1167
Richard de Luci 1154–1179
Ranulph Glanville 1180–1189
Hugh, Bishop of Durham, and William, Earl of Essex 1189
Hugh, Bishop of Durham, and William Longchamp,
Bishop of Ely 1190
William Longchamp alone 1190
Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of Rouen 1191–1193
Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury 1194–1198
Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of Essex 1198–1213
Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, native of
Poitiers 1214–1215
Hubert de Burgh 1215–1232
Stephen Segrave 1232–1234
Hugh Bigot 1258–1260
Hugh Le Despenser 1260
Philip Basset 1261
Ralph de Hengham 1273–1289
Gilbert de Thornton 1289–1295
Roger Brabazon 1295
_Chancellors of England._
Herfast, afterwards Bishop of Elmham 1068
Osbern, afterwards Bishop of Exeter 1070–1074
Osmund, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury 1074–1078
Maurice, afterwards Bishop of London 1078–1083
William de Beaufoe, afterwards Bishop of Thetford 1083–1085
William Giffard 1086–1090
Robert Bloett 1090
Walderic 1093
William Giffard 1094–1101
Roger Le Poor 1101–1103
William Giffard 1103–1104
Walderic 1104
Ranulph 1108–1123
Geoffrey Rufus 1124–1135
Roger Le Poor 1135–1139
Philip 1139
Thomas à Beckett 1154–1162
Ralph de Warneville 1173–1181
Geoffrey, the King’s son 1181–1189
William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely 1189–1197
Eustace, Bishop of Ely 1197–1199
Hubert Walter 1199–1205
Walter Grey 1205–1213
Peter des Roches 1213–1214
Walter Grey 1214
Richard de Marisco 1214–1226
Ralph Neville 1226–1244
Walter de Merton 1261
Nicolas de Ely 1263
Thomas Cantelupe 1265
Walter Giffard 1265
Godfrey Giffard 1267
Richard Middleton 1269–1272
Walter de Merton 1272
Robert Burnell 1273–1292
John Langton 1292
William Greenfield 1302
William of Hamilton 1304
Ralph Baldock 1307
The witnesses were chosen from the King’s chief officers, with a few
local magnates. This will sometimes be a valuable guide to locality
when the county is not named. But as a rule the name of the county is
written on the margin, and also the name of the place, together with a
brief index of the contents of the charter.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII.
PARISH REGISTERS.
The study of parish registers is quite apart from that of old deeds.
The writing of the former begins at the period where the latter usually
end, for deeds written in the seventeenth century are regarded by the
antiquary as ‘modern’; but then comes the most difficult handwriting of
all to decipher, because the old race of scholarly clerks had died out
and been replaced by less educated men.
Parish registers are unique in many ways. They contain information
nowhere else obtainable. Sometimes, besides the mere repetition of
names, there are inserted scraps of original information, for the
clergyman had undisputed control of the volumes until 1652, which
remained usually in the keeping of his deputy, the parish clerk, and
either of them could enter in the books whatever he pleased.
Every now and then an outcry arises as to the condition and care of
parish registers, and desire is expressed that they should be deposited
in a large public office similar to the Public Record Office; but
anyone who has wished to make or obtain extracts from the registers
at the diocesan registries is well aware of the trouble and expense
involved. Search fees soon mount up. As regards expense and difficulty
of searching, the Registers of Ireland are far worse than England. Many
are the known instances where the precious volumes have been purposely
mutilated, or by neglect suffered to fall into decay and illegibility;
but, as a whole, it is wonderful to see the excellent condition and
preservation of these old records, which, if once removed out of
their own parishes into a large public collection, would lose all
individuality, and become merged in the mass of manuscripts which are
more or less buried in every large library.
It is a pity that some arrangement cannot be made to ensure
preservation by a few copies being printed of each register.
Transcribing is gradually being undertaken privately, but ought to be
worked on a more systematic plan with uniformity throughout England.
The Parish Register Society prints volumes, but there is no special
library or collection of transcripts, printed or MS., and the British
Museum refuses to buy any because they are not ‘original,’ which, by
the way, could not legally be bought or possessed by anyone.
The printing of a few copies would not in any way affect the fees
accruing to the clergy from researches, but rather tend to increase
them, for at present much information is lost because its whereabouts
is unknown. It is this question of search-fees which causes such a
steady resistance on the part of the resident clergy to any such
project. But in spite of this the work has been begun already, and some
day will be a public affair, and not left to private enterprise. The
registers of many parishes are printed, or have MS. transcripts all
ready for the press; nor is the expense as great as might be imagined.
A few copies unbound may be produced at a cost of from £3 to £10, and
can easily be covered by subscription.
It is not unusual, when applying by letter for extracts from an old
register, to receive a reply of apology from the clergyman recommending
a personal search on the part of the inquirer, as the information could
not be sent owing to inability to read the unfamiliar old handwriting.
This would be avoided if a typed or printed copy properly indexed
were at hand for reference, while on any important matter, where an
attested copy from the original was necessary, it could be obtained
as heretofore, for legal work the original must be consulted, and a
certificate obtained from the clergyman.
The history of English parish registers commences from the Reformation
year of 1536, copied from the Spanish idea. Whether any previous system
had existed we are unable to say, for information on the subject is
lacking. Here and there fragments of registers are known earlier than
the above-quoted date, but these are the exception, not the rule.
Deaths noted down by the chantry priests or monks are found on the
margins of old monastic breviaries, when prayers for the souls of the
departed had been desired.
The subject is one of vast importance, for without proper registration
it is impossible to decide the legality of a marriage or prove
legitimacy of offspring, both necessary points of law where inheritance
of landed property is concerned.
The scheme of parochial registration, as devised by Henry VIII.’s
shrewd minister Cromwell, was only copied from a like plan long in use
abroad.
The idea at first, being new to the English people, met with much
opposition, being mistaken for a new species of taxation. Nevertheless,
Parliament ordered it to be carried out under penalty of fines, and,
being found a valuable institution, was submitted to, until custom
fully established it. Thus our parish registers cannot be older than
1536. Though in a few instances earlier MSS. exist they are the
exception, for the order did not become general till two years later,
therefore 1538 may be reckoned as the year when registers may be said
to have in reality begun in England.
At first the registers were carefully written, the entries being in
Latin. After a while less care was taken. The notes were made on
rough strips of paper called ‘clerk’s notes,’ and were supposed to be
entered at fixed intervals in the book; but often this was irregularly
performed, and the strips were mislaid and lost before they could be
copied. In some parishes both the clerk’s notes as well as the old
register book may still be seen and compared. Very few persons know
that these are the original entries, and I believe ignorance of the
fact excludes them as legal evidence. The religious uncertainty of the
succeeding reigns caused the question of registration to be ignored,
but Queen Elizabeth issued several commands on the subject, notably
that by which transcripts were yearly sent at Easter to be preserved
among the diocesan records.
Most of the old parish register books now existing are transcripts made
according to Queen Elizabeth’s command, as can be seen at a glance, for
the handwriting is uniform throughout, which could not have been the
case if the notes made by the clerk had been periodically copied into
the book. Curiously, the date of these Acts is not known. The bulk of
the transcripts date from 1558. Another more stringent Act, to ensure
yearly copies being made, was passed upon James I.’s accession to the
throne, and the clergyman’s name was to be affixed to each page as
witness that the copy was faithfully exact. Had these wise regulations
been carried out to the letter, and in the spirit that was intended,
we should now possess an invaluable corroboration of the accuracy of
the parish registers; but alas! the transcripts to be found in the
diocesan registries are meagre and imperfect. Years and series of
years are missing, and the entries are so lacking in detail as to be
practically useless. In some dioceses no transcripts remain--Rochester,
for instance.
Personal search can, of course, be made among the diocesan registers,
and this is strongly to be recommended, for any mistakes in a
transcript render it not only valueless, but mischievous. Extracts from
registers are the most dangerous material a genealogist has to deal
with. Unless further authenticated by wills and old deeds to confirm
the relationship, it will be found no easy job to piece together
these broken links in the chain of evidence, and without wilful
misrepresentation being intended, mistakes may and will occur.
Take, for instance, any name, and try to trace out the pedigree with
the help of the parish register only. At first it is easy enough,
whether worked backwards or forwards, but after the first three or
four generations have been worked out all certainty of relationship is
lost, and becomes confused.
The handwriting of the parish registers is a combination of the old set
law-hand and the personal handwritings mentioned in the second chapter.
Original entries (_i.e._, entries made at the time of performing
the religious ceremony) are seldom met with before the middle of James
I.’s reign, by which time the Latin language had fallen into disuse.
The Commonwealth Government passed an Act of Parliament appointing
paid registrars to every village (1653). These were often illiterate
men, whose only accomplishments consisted of being able to read and
write, and whose zeal and discretion alone regulated the keeping of
the register books. This duty was often but ill-performed, especially
when age and infirmity overtook the registrar, who continued in office
until death relieved him of his duties. No second registrar seemed in
any case to have been appointed, nor did the Act of Parliament provide
for such a contingency, and the work of keeping the registers devolved
again upon the clergyman and his assistant clerk.
For several years after the Restoration of 1660 the registers were
irregularly kept, and very erratic. The old race of educated clerks
was gone. Formerly, when the registers first began, clerkships may
have been filled by men educated in the monasteries, who, when turned
adrift, were glad to employ themselves as priests’ chaplains or private
tutors as a means of livelihood.
Until the last century very few small schools of any kind existed for
the poorer classes, except those provided by charitable bequests. These
were few and far between, and could be of little benefit to the masses
of the people. No wonder, then, that the ill-paid clergy were obliged
to be content with very uneducated men to serve in the capacity of
clerk. The registers of the latter part of the seventeenth century are
indited in every variety of illegibly bad writing.
The chief difficulty of reading the old registers lies in the immense
variety of forms a name was capable of passing through, owing to the
laxity of English spelling and pronunciation. The people only knew
their own surnames by oral tradition, and were entirely dependent upon
the parish clerk, who wrote down the name as it sounded to him, and
as sounds have a different effect on different persons, the commonest
names often appeared in very strange and unrecognisable disguises
before they finally crystallized into their modern forms. Eeles,
Yeeles, became Wells.
It is not unusual to find items of miscellaneous information jotted
down at random by the clergyman among the entries of births,
marriages, and deaths. Heavy falls of snow, disastrous floods,
periods of drought, storms of any kind, were all events of great
local importance in country places, and would remain for a long time
as traditional landmarks in their annals. Alas! such items are rare,
and are now rendered impossible in the printed columns of the modern
register books.
The most useful and least troublesome way to catalogue the contents of
a parish register for reference is to write out the year, and below it
enter the births, marriages, and deaths, with the names occurring under
each heading, but without taking the time or trouble to copy the dates
of day or month, these last being only required for law investigations,
and for which purpose a signed certificate from the clergyman direct
from the originals only would be received as evidence.
Parliamentary blue-books have been issued on the subject of parochial
registers, and a most useful pamphlet is issued by the Parish Register
Society every few years, giving as complete a catalogue as possible of
all registers of which up to the present day printed copies or indexes
have been made.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IX.
PARISH OFFICERS AND THEIR BOOKS.
Among the contents of the parish deed-chest wherein registers are
supposed to be safely kept are often found other books and papers,
seemingly of little interest or importance, but in reality very likely
to yield curious and original scraps of information, with glimpses
into the life of the poorer classes during the past centuries. Some
day these old account books, now flung aside as worthless, will be of
great importance in an antiquary’s eyes, for they give lists of all the
residents in the parish, from the squire to the lowest and poorest,
showing the social status of each; and further, are of value when
compared with the parish registers, as giving a clue to the length of
residence of inhabitants who, if of the middle class, sooner or later
served their turn as parish officers; and if paupers, were entered as
recipients of parochial charity.
Previous to this century the churchwardens, overseers, road surveyors
and parish constables held office for one year only, being elected at
the annual Easter vestry; now re-election is _supposed_ to take
place, but the post is usually carried on from year to year without
opposition.
Apparently some rule of yearly income or rental governed the election,
or else certain tenements were represented in rotation by their
tenants, for widows were liable to serve, in which case a son or some
near neighbour was deputed to act in the woman’s name.
Now the custom of yearly change has died out, and a churchwarden once
elected goes on from year to year, until sickness, old age, or death
renders some fresh arrangement absolutely necessary. This statement
was ‘caught up’ by the reviewers of this book, but, nevertheless, it
is perfectly true. Surely, if in those old days, when education was
so sparsely distributed, and even reading and writing looked upon
as sciences--if then it was possible to find men able and capable
of directing local affairs, it seems strange that now so few are
considered fit for the post, when every day-labourer’s son is taught
drawing and essay-writing in addition to his elementary studies.
The office of churchwarden is very old. Now it has lost most of its
prestige, and the churchwarden is almost forgotten except on the
Sundays when collections are made; formerly each villager took a
personal interest in affairs which some day he himself would probably
be called upon to manage.
The two churchwardens of a parish represented the rival interests of
its inhabitants: the parson _versus_ the squire and his tenants.
Each officer had his clients’ interests to uphold and consider. The
most onerous duty before the present system of Poor Law, however, fell
upon the overseer of the poor, in whose hands rested the responsibility
of the proper distribution of the public funds in the shape of bequests
and legacies; to him came applications for relief, and with him also
were mooted all questions relating to the disposal of paupers, both
dead and alive. Edward III. forbade the giving of alms to able-bodied
men, but no regular Poor Laws were invented till Henry VIII. was King.
The first Acts of Parliament relating to Poor Laws were passed towards
the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign. It was absolutely
necessary to make some fresh statutes applicable to the new state
of affairs consequent upon the Reformation. Previously most of the
charity had been distributed or directed by the monks, and after these
were dispersed and their lands seized by the Crown and sold, their
unfortunate dependents were rendered still more dependent, and all the
severe laws against vagrancy and beggars made by the Tudor sovereigns
could not abate the nuisance or solve the difficult question, while
doles and gifts of bread or alms served only to increase the evil
through toleration.
Worse and worse the state of things became, till towards the end of the
last century the climax was reached; there were then whole families
of paupers who, generation after generation, made no effort towards
self-support either for themselves or their offspring. These last were
brought up entirely on charity, clothed, fed, and apprenticed, till
finally married by charity, the fees being paid out of the charity
money; nor did the matter end there, for, probably, after the lapse of
years the wedded couple with their children (if they became chargeable
to the parish) were returned to their native village, again to become
recipients of its charity till death claimed them, and the parish paid
the funeral expenses.
The first commission upon the Poor Laws took place in William IV.’s
reign, and since then reform has gradually been at work. In many places
public charity is still abused; but no real good can be effected at
once, and every effort must be proved by long and fair trial, under
which all unsuitable experiments will fail, and only the practical
and beneficial ones will survive the test. Of course, relief and
outdoor assistance were left very much to the discretion and honesty
of the overseer, whose accounts were yearly scrutinized at the Easter
vestry, when the parochial accounts were discussed. Sometimes these
discussions were considered of sufficient importance to be entered in
the parish books. Questions as to the ownership and distribution of
pews in the church, repairs to the edifice, by whom they were to be
done, boundaries, and whose business it was to keep in order certain
roads lying between rival parishes--all such matters came forward for
consideration, and, finally, the officers for the ensuing year were
elected, and the books handed over to the new churchwardens.
Perhaps a further check upon miscellaneous entries being made in the
books was that all the accounts had ‘to be passed’ at the nearest
Sessions and signed by the presiding magistrate, who was some
neighbouring squire.
The parish constable is now replaced by the policeman supplied by the
county, as visible representative of the law in rural places.
One entry often found among the old accounts was of repairs done to the
village stocks, frequently used to punish petty offences, especially
drunkenness. The pound, too, often needed mending; fines for allowing
animals to stray and become empounded are among the most frequent
entries in old manor court rolls. In many places a hayward was a
regularly appointed officer for this purpose, whose duty it was to
capture the animals and attend to them until they were reclaimed by
their owner or sold to defray expenses. In Berkshire the hayward, or
pinder, gave a tally to the person who brought the beast found on his
land, and he did not deliver the beast until its owner produced the
tally, proving that compensation for damage had been properly paid, as
well as expenses for keep during its detention.
The offices of overseer of the poor and of road surveyor, the latter
called waywarden, are not of any great antiquity; nor are they of
consequence so far as regards the old account books, in which their
elections are often not even mentioned. As to the constable, we only
get a casual glimpse of his duties when we read a list of his expenses
incurred in conveying some delinquent parishioner to the county gaol,
or of journeys taken to distant places to enquire into the antecedents
of paupers, or in taking them back to their own villages.
It is the overseers’ accounts which are really curious--those long
lists of garments bought to clothe the paupers and their children, the
old apprentice forms by which the children were placed out in service
so soon as they were capable of earning a stray sixpence towards their
own keep. Cruel as it seemed to be to send out such young children
to work, it was, in reality, the kindest thing that could be done
for them, for it gave them a chance of thoroughly learning a trade
and so becoming independent and working for themselves. With all our
modern Poor Law organization and schemes of education, I believe in
the end we shall eventually return to the old system of juvenile
apprenticeships--a far more practical method of teaching than any mere
class instruction.
Maybe a bundle of old papers are rolled together among the account
books. These may be the orders for the removal of paupers back to
the village they called ‘home,’ a custom first originated by some
Acts of Parliament passed by Charles II. At the same time the parish
officers were commanded and forced by penalties to provide for paupers
removed back into their parish, and, to prevent fraud, written proofs
as to the proper home or residence of the paupers had to be obtained
and produced; these papers are called ‘settlements.’ Paupers are now
removed back to the workhouse of their own district if they can prove a
certain length of residence.
The parish officers did their best for the welfare of their charges:
they provided the old women with spinning-wheels, so that they could
earn a trifle for themselves, while the men were set to work on the
road; when failing in health they were tended by a parish nurse,
and if sick the doctor saw them. Sometimes they were sent to Bath or
Cheltenham to be cured by the far-famed waters. For many years these
old annuitants lingered on, till we read the last entry paid for
burying Goody or Goodman So-and-so.
Any public event which required to be celebrated by the ringing of the
church bells is sure to be mentioned among the ordinary expenses.
There are in the old books (those of that unsettled time when the
religion of the State varied according to the Sovereign in power,
during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties) many notices of the alterations
wrought both in town and country places. The church goods were first
catalogued by order of Edward VI.’s Ministers; rich vestments, altar
hangings, and numerous vessels are named in the first list, but later
on, under Queen Elizabeth, the parish churches were further despoiled,
till there was little left for the Puritans to remove, and in the later
lists only the old service books and books of religious instruction
are left to the churchwardens to chronicle. Although instances as
early as 1287 are on record, the erection of pews was an innovation
only introduced by degrees after the Reformation. The destruction of
screens and the removal of altars caused altar rails and communion
tables to be used instead. Then came the terrors of civil war. Upon
the churchwardens devolved the duty of providing burial for soldiers
slain in battle. Such burials were not often in the churchyard, but
on the boundaries of parishes, the expenses being defrayed equally
by both parishes; this was probably an old custom in warfare, but it
was carried out as late as the Commonwealth. A battle was a public
calamity, and the responsibility of providing interment for the slain
was therefore a public duty.
After the Restoration of Charles II. the churches were repaired and
the royal arms restored. Later on we find some parsons resigning their
work from nonconforming scruples; at this time, too, are notices
of excommunicated persons. The Puritan zeal was aroused by James
II.’s injudicious attempt to restore Catholicism; and attendance at
church, first commanded by Queen Elizabeth, was further enforced by
an order that taking of the Sacrament should be regarded as a test
of conformity; for disobedience the punishment of excommunication
was inflicted upon the churchwardens’ application to the bishop. The
Recusants, as papists were called, were treated with great severity and
injustice, and heavily fined for their religious beliefs.
Any fresh Act of Parliament with reference to fees or taxes was soon
noted in the parish books. Fees varied in different places, according
to custom. Prior to the eighteenth century fees for burial within the
church were payable to the churchwardens, but afterwards became the
parson’s perquisite. These entries in the churchwardens’ books may
lead to the identification of vaults and interments not noted in the
parish register, and consequently forgotten. The burial of strangers
was always charged for at a higher rate; for paupers the parish paid
the expenses, and the tax of 3d. on each burial, as levied by Act of
Parliament, was not enforced. Taxes were levied on many things under
the Georges, but none were more obnoxious to the people than the birth,
marriage, and death taxes, of which the clergyman was made to act as a
most unwilling tax-gatherer.
The window-tax fell heavily on old manor houses pierced with
innumerable windows and skylights. It was then that many windows were
blocked up to avoid payment.
In the last century are many entries of payment for the release of men
seized for service in the army or navy; when the father of a family
went away, his wife and children were left to be provided for by
charity, and the first payment by the churchwardens for his release was
in the end the cheapest.
A list of rails (spelt usually ‘rayles’) surrounding the churchyard
reminds one of another almost obsolete custom, that of each person
repairing the rail in the fence next to his property or for which
he was liable. The liability was attached to the land, though custom
decided whether the owner or the occupier was the person to do such
repairs.
Last, not least, in the parish chest were bundles of old papers,
technically known as ‘briefs.’ In the account books all church
collections were duly entered. Originally collections were more of the
nature of voluntary rates, for the name of each donor is given and the
sum he gave, varying in accordance with his social position and means.
The origin of church collections is obscure; no doubt the offerings
given at the Sacrament were always devoted to the relief of poverty and
distress.
To regulate and restrict the right of levying collections Acts of
Parliament were passed, and no collection was allowed to be made
without a proper license called a ‘brief’; but the issuing of these
grew to an alarming extent. Briefs were issued for all sorts of
emergencies and disasters, principally for damage by fire, there being
then no insurance offices; and the old buildings, once set alight, were
seldom rescued from total demolition. A complete list of early briefs
would be curious, but would be so extensive as to fill a large volume.
The subject has not met with the interest it deserves, but I believe
now it is beginning to be studied.
The churchwardens probably kept few, if any, accounts prior to
the sixteenth century, therefore any older church collections are
unrecorded or only mentioned by chance.
In an old parish book of Sulhamstead are entries of the following
collections:
1670. Collected towards the redemption of English captives in Turkey;
and, again, in 1680, a similar collection took place. It puzzled me
much why such a small Berkshire parish should subscribe so liberally
for the release of slaves; but this was explained on discovering that
Turkish pirates infested the seas, and even landed with impunity on
the Western coasts, and carried off prisoners, both men and women,
to become slaves. The main road to the West ran through Berkshire;
travellers along it doubtless brought tales of such wild deeds,
which lost nothing in the telling, and excited the sympathy of the
country-folk.
In 1699 money was again collected; this time to redeem 300 captives
detained by the King of Morocco.
In 1678 funds were collected towards the rebuilding of St. Paul’s
Cathedral, destroyed twelve years previously in the Great Fire of
London. Many papists all over England added their contributions to this
collection.
1699. Collection was made for the French refugees and Vaudois settled
in Switzerland, who had fled at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
To inhabitants of Sulhamstead village this may have had a keener
interest in that Samuel Morland, afterwards made a baronet, the son
of a former rector, Rev. Thomas Morland, was sent out by Government
in 1655 to inquire into the condition of the Waldenses, and he wrote
thereon a book descriptive of the country and its inhabitants. Martin
Morland, another son of the rector, had returned to his old home--at
the Restoration; he resigned his living in 1665--for here two of his
sons were born.
1687. Brief for loss by fire in Aylesford.
1689. Loss by fire at Bishops Lavington, Wilts.
1690. Ditto, East Smithfield.
Town of Stafford.
Town of Bungay, Suffolk.
1690. In the parish of St. George’s, in the borough of Southwark.
In the Town of St. Ives, Huntingdonshire.
Five collections for fires in different counties made in one small
parish within a year!
In 1703, brief for refugees in the Principality of Orange.
After 1703 the givers’ names are no longer entered.
The parish doctor was regularly engaged by the churchwardens. In 1774
the agreement for Sulhamstead was made and signed by the doctor, and
witnessed that he ‘should do the business of surgery and apothecary,
broken bones excepted, for the yearly sum of five guineas’! No wonder
that these hard-worked physicians lacked skill, and relied more upon
practice than education for what talent they did possess.
The perambulation of parish bounds was another vestry question, upon
which rested disputed tithes. In entries of tithe old field-names,
now forgotten, may often be recovered. The commutation of tithe also
was discussed, and in some places the parson made agreements with his
parishioners on the subject. Visitation fees came before the vestry,
and sending copies of the register to the Diocesan Registry was, or
ought to have been, an annual occurrence. Any dispute seems to have
come within the vestry’s jurisdiction, and all dry subjects were washed
down with plenty of ale, an item regularly entered among the expenses.
Perhaps it was at the vestry that the village urchins came up to claim
rewards offered for the extermination of vermin, their instinctive love
of sport being further developed by their love of gain. Foxes are among
the animals named on the list, together with stoats, sparrows, etc.,
and the prices paid for this wholesale destruction seem very high.
The spelling of many of the old account books is decidedly phonetic
and original, but as a whole they are legible and neatly kept. They
need nothing to explain their meanings as to what class of information
their pages will yield, except a guide such as I have endeavoured to
give, for the books of one parish closely resemble all others.
The history of a parish can never properly be written if the parish
books are missing. The value of these books is not fully appreciated,
and they are too often thrown aside as useless rubbish.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER X.
BOOKS ON PALEOGRAPHY AND KINDRED SUBJECTS.
Part of a guidebook’s business is to direct people’s attention to other
similar works likely to be of use to them.
Few accomplishments can be learnt with the aid of only one book on
the subject, and paleography is a combination of many elements. Few
English writers have expended their genius in books on handwriting;
it has not in this country been looked upon as one of the sciences.
Abroad the subject has been more studied, especially by the French, in
whose language many valuable books on it have been compiled. The type
required for the abbreviations is expensive; small editions only were
issued, and many valuable works are in consequence rare and little
known, being only met with in public libraries or among collections of
old books. Thus seventeen volumes of ‘La Bibliothèque de l’École des
Chartres,’ published in Paris between the years 1839 and 1886, will
fetch as much as £30; ‘Album de la Paléographie’ (Quantin, 1887), £6;
‘Elements de la Paléographie,’ par Natalis de Wailly, two volumes,
1838, £3 3s.; ‘Musée des Archives Nationales,’ 1872, £1 10s.
A very useful book, less expensive than the above, was written by Prou,
published in Paris by Alphonse Picard, éditeur, 82, Rue Bonaparte;
and cheaper still than this is the ‘Paléographie des Chartes et des
Manuscrits du XI. au XVII. Siècles,’ par Alphonse Chassant, published
by Auguste Aubry, Rue Dauphine 16, Paris. The best-known cheap book on
the subject, however, is a small paper-bound volume, ‘Dictionnaire des
Abbréviations Latines et Françaises,’ par Alphonse Chassant, published
by Jules Martin, 19, Boulevard Haussmann, Paris, at the low price of 2
francs 50 centimes; it has already reached a fifth edition.
There are also books on paleography written in German, Spanish and
Italian, but these are seldom met with in England.
Now let us see what our own countrymen have done towards elucidating
our national manuscripts. The list will not be a long one.
It must be borne in mind that first of all four separate languages are
required, namely, Anglo-Saxon, Norman-French, Latin and Old English.
For the first of these, the standard work is Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon
dictionary; a second-hand copy may be bought for 8s. 6d. It contains
the alphabet and grammatical peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon language,
besides the dictionary of words.
For Norman-French, all that is required at first start is a familiarity
with the modern language. Any good, old-fashioned dictionary will be of
assistance, and later on Roquefort’s dictionary, Lacombe’s Burguy, and
the glossary in the Supplement to Ducange, may be resorted to, to solve
difficulties.
Latin and English may be studied together, the one being translated
verbatim from the other.
The standard English work upon handwriting as a whole is called ‘The
Origin and Progress of Handwriting,’ by Astle; it was published in
the beginning of this century. A good copy is now worth two or three
sovereigns, though I have seen it advertised for 12s. 6d. This book
deals with every kind of known writing from its earliest existence.
There are facsimiles of Hebrew, Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, and other
languages, besides specimens of English charters of each century.
The Paleographic Society was started in 1873, and their yearly volumes
contain exact representations of the old documents, but these cost £1
1s. each. They are valuable as having the facsimile and its transcript
side by side, but as yet they have only selected very old charters,
not considering mediæval English deeds worthy of consideration.
Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon dictionary is the standard work on this subject.
Some Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were published in 1878 by command of
the Queen, upon the recommendation of the Master of the Rolls, the
work being undertaken by General Cameron, director of the Ordnance
Survey, with translations added by W. Basevi-Saunders. The charters
selected were those among the archives of Canterbury Cathedral, as
they give three centuries of Anglo-Saxon history, A.D. 742 to
A.D. 1049. This work now fetches £2 2s.
A collection of early Anglo-Saxon charters, those of Abingdon Abbey,
has been issued in the ‘Rolls Series’ in two volumes.[6] Other
Anglo-Saxon documents have been printed and translated at various times.
Domesday Survey has been reproduced by a photographic process, and is
extremely clear and well executed; it is also published in four volumes
in a more readable type, but still abbreviated. Each county can be
obtained in a separate volume. The translations are not given; this for
the student is rather an advantage than otherwise.
No subject has been more studied than Domesday Book. Translations,
explanations and dictionaries have been written upon it. These are
very valuable as explaining the obscure points and giving the modern
acreage, as compared with the carucate, bovate and hide. To understand
a county history these must be closely compared. Many of the manors
named in the old Survey are now lost. It must be remembered that waste
lands and commons were not always mentioned, nor were churches or
any property which was not taxable. For this reason Domesday often
disappoints us by its meagreness of detail, but it forms the beginning
or basis from which an inquiry may be started, and to pursue it through
the centuries which followed, the public rolls and manuscripts are the
only means of information; of these Domesday will prove valuable as a
key.
The really practical book on old English writing best known and most
popular, because neither complicated nor expensive, is Wright’s
‘Court-hand Restored,’ price £1, compiled in 1846 to meet a long-felt
want, for Latin having ceased as the law language, lawyers no longer
were obliged to know old legal forms and words as part of their
profession, although they often felt the need of understanding them
where any search through old deeds was requisite. Since then this book
has passed through nine editions, the last of which was brought out in
1879, edited and improved by Mr. C. T. Martin, of the Public Record
Office.[7] It contains alphabets in all styles, facsimiles of all
classes of English writing, with translations, a glossary of obsolete
words and place-names, supplying a valuable textbook to paleography,
giving the reader all the information necessary for studying old deeds.
Since then (1892) Mr. Martin has compiled a fuller and more elaborate
glossary, called ‘The Record Interpreter,’ 10s. 6d. The amateur will
need no other books if he is provided with these two volumes. A list
of abbreviations taken from the Pipe Rolls was issued among the yearly
volumes of the Pipe Rolls Society, price 12s. 6d. The fourth volume of
‘The Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense,’ edited by the late Sir Thomas
Duffus Hardy, in the Rolls Series of ‘Chronicles and Memorials,’ also
contains a list of contracted words and their explanations. Its price
is 10s. 6d.
The study of old deeds brings in its train a multiplicity of other
subjects bearing upon old customs and legal formulæ, some of which were
complicated. All the writers upon the law explain these formalities;
‘though now antiquated so far as the actual law work and procedure
is concerned,’ they give the ancient methods; of these ‘Blackstone’s
Commentaries’ is the best known.
Jacobs’ ‘Law Dictionary’ is another similar book; also ‘A New Law
Dictionary,’ by J. Nicholson. But these books are now out of date; they
may by chance be met with at sales or on bookstalls, where they may be
bought for a few shillings. Perhaps an advertisement in the _Exchange
and Mart_ might be successful in obtaining replies. Of guides to
various branches of archæology there are plenty lately issued since the
subject became fashionable.
‘Record Searching,’ by W. Rye, gives a glimpse into the various public
collections of books and MSS., and the class of information likely to
be derived from manuscripts.
‘How to write the History of a Family,’ by Phillimore, is a similar
work, useful to genealogists.
‘How to write the History of a Parish,’ by J. C. Cox, LL.D.
The information contained in all these three last books might be with
advantage remodelled and extended. They are in reality indices to help
the archæologist and put him in the way of obtaining information.
A charming little book, full of information, has been written by Mr.
Chester Waters, upon Parish Registers, price 3s. 9d. Every clergyman
should possess a copy of it.[8] On Church History there are recently
published two very good 1s. volumes, called ‘Illustrated Notes on
English Church History,’ by Rev. Arthur Lane; small engravings of all
the English cathedrals and many handsome and celebrated churches are
given, but no descriptions of them. A very good series of Diocesan
Histories has been brought out by the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. These may now be bought second-hand at 1s. per volume.
For derivation of words and place-names there is no better guide than
Taylor’s ‘Words and Places,’ and Edmunds’ ‘Place-names’; both these
are trustworthy, and have become recognised authorities; and also
Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon dictionary.
Quality rather than quantity should be the antiquary’s motto in his
choice of a library, but antiquarianism and archæology require many
books of reference, and it is well to know those books most likely to
be of permanent use instead of wasting room upon volumes not required
after the first reading. Upon Manor Rolls there is a very clever work
lately issued by the Selden Society (volume ii.). It gives much new
information on Manorial Customs. All the volumes issued by this society
are very interesting. They are edited by F. W. Maitland. Upon Monastic
History there are many very interesting books, mostly published by
Burns and Oates, London.
A list of useful books might be extended indefinitely, especially if
brought up to date. Archæology is a cumulative science gleaned from
varied sources. The antiquary usually is possessed of more brains than
money, but if he is fortunate enough to possess both, a large library
will be to him a never-ending source of amusement.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XI.
OLD LETTERS.
There were always two divisions of handwriting: the formal hand,
employed for clerk’s work, and a freer, less mechanical, less careful
style, used for private correspondence. Writing was a profession, and,
as late as the sixteenth century, when it was necessary to communicate
with persons at a distance, a professional scribe was employed to
write the letter. Even now in slums may be seen the notice of ‘Letters
written here,’ though this chiefly refers to it being a shop address
to which letters may be directed. But letter-writing was rare, and did
not become general till after the sixteenth century; even then it was
restricted to the upper classes of society. I have in Chapter IV. given
a brief account of the paper used in England. Letter or post paper was
made of a square uniform sheet, folded; it was known as ‘Pot paper,’
from its water-mark. This varied slightly, the jug or water-pot being
much more elaborate in some examples. It came principally from abroad,
either the Low Countries or Germany; each separate factory very likely
adopted a distinct shape; the makers’ initials are to be found upon the
band across the pot, but are difficult to read, nor so far as I know is
anything known about the manufacturers or their names.
[Illustration: (1561) (1563) (1623)]
The three above marks are taken from some old letters, and are good
types of their kind; a more careful study of water-marks would show the
dates of undated papers, and be a safeguard against forgery.
The writing of old letters I have placed after the chapter on
registers, because the latter forms a link between the clerical and
personal handwritings. The letters have changed entirely from the
old black-letter style to a similar style, like that still in use in
Germany, and assuming a distinct character.
[Illustration: SOME QUAINT LETTERS FROM OLD PARISH REGISTERS.]
Therefore, not only was the material for letter-writing (_i.e._,
paper) of foreign manufacture, but also the handwriting bore close
resemblance to foreign styles. This may have resulted from the original
Anglo-Saxon element in the nationality of the people, aided by the
constant immigration of merchants from the Low Countries, who came
over to England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and
established various branches of trade, chiefly in linen or woollen
goods. They naturally introduced also the fashions and customs of
their own nations. Added to this was the marriage of the King, Richard
II., with the German Princess Anne of Bohemia, followed closely by
the religious zeal of the Reformers, bringing Germans and German
ideas strongly to the fore in English politics. The earliest printers
were German, and about the time of this invention the small letter e
written backwards first came into use. Family deeds are usually only
legal matter, but here and there are found among them old letters
and papers of value. Lifelong imprisonment was often the result of
a thoughtless committal of ideas into tangible form. Letters were
dangerous witnesses, and as such were destroyed as soon as read. The
posts and messengers were not safe from inspection; spies were employed
freely on all sides, and men, not afraid to suffer for their opinions,
nevertheless did not care to risk their necks by needless imprudence.
The earliest newspapers had a blank column left to be filled by the
sender with the latest intelligence or local news. These were fitly
called ‘News letters.’ The phraseology of a seventeenth-century letter
seems to us strange on account of the conjugation of the verbs, the
use of ‘hath’ in place of ‘has,’ and the absence of all unnecessary
adverbs; the sentences, too, are longer. The commencing words and the
final winding up of letters have both changed in the past two hundred
years.
With the eighteenth century we see these changes gradually settling
down and altering into the modern forms. The old English y^e for ‘the,’
and the abbreviated & for ‘and,’ and the (symbol) (d) written in its
antiquated shape, still remain, but the German letters by degrees are
given up.
The writing of each generation is most distinctly marked; the dates
from it may be approximately fixed without any difficulty, as well as
the age and character of the writer.
It has been said that the introduction of cheap postage, and the
immense increase of everyday correspondence, has ruined handwriting,
while the typewriter is quickly becoming universal, and banished
for ever the art of composition. True, the short letters of to-day
will not bear comparison with the neat, voluminous diary-letters,
full of graphic scenic descriptions, which our grandparents were
wont to compile for the benefit of relations left at home; now,
when similar correspondence is undertaken, it is copied out by the
typewriter or printed, for few people will take the trouble to read
manuscript compositions. Looking beyond the opening years of the
nineteenth century, we see a marked paucity of ideas and carelessness
of calligraphy in the correspondence. In the seventeenth century men
were the chief correspondents on matters of business; few letters are
preserved except on such topics, which is a pity, for a letter must
always be a unique production, the best evidence procurable of the
writer and his times.
There is little to be said on the subject of old letters. Practice in
reading them makes the lettering familiar, and gives facility which no
guidebook could explain; letters, both ancient and modern, will assume
a new interest when the little trifling, characteristic peculiarities
of the writer are examined by their aid. Old receipts, expense-books,
and farm accounts are found in plenty among old papers. These are
valuable as giving long-lost field-names and other details of parochial
history; but what we should prize now would be descriptions of people
and places as they existed some hundreds of years ago.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XII.
ABBREVIATIONS, ETC.
In most books treating of ancient handwriting, the abbreviations and
contractions are put forward as the most important part; certainly it
is necessary to study them carefully, but it was never intended by the
old scribes that they should be regarded as a language in themselves.
At first they were used to save time and space, then, by degrees,
they increased in multiplicity as well as complexity, till banished
altogether by the invention of printing, upon the advance of which the
professional scribe disappeared.
The contracted words most frequently used are not always necessary to
the sense of the sentence, which may be arrived at without them. It
is a waste of time to puzzle over a word after its meaning has been
arrived at. Many persons who require MS. extracts from public offices
take rough notes with the letters of the contracted word; these can be
extended afterwards at home, when there is time to seek in dictionaries
for the abbreviation or its meaning; with practice the opening words
of a sentence will very often supply the context. The oldest forms of
contraction are a straight line over a word or a curve; these indicate
that a portion of the word only is present, but no clue is given as to
the letters left out, or else the straight line may mean _m_ or
_n_.
Later on the straight line above a word came to represent the letters
_m_ and _n_. In words where these letters were duplicated
the second one was omitted and the line placed above to indicate its
absence. This continued in use until late in the eighteenth century.
Com̄on meant ‘common,’ and com̄endation ‘commendation.’ If a curved
line was over the end syllable of a word, it meant one or more letters
omitted at the end of a word.
Verbs are the most troublesome class of contracted words, for a
contraction over a verb may mean any syllable, according to the proper
grammatical conjugation. Here it is that knowledge of the Latin grammar
is a necessity. The meaning of the sentences may often be deciphered
without extending the words, and the correct conjugation of the verbs
can be added afterwards by another person, if the student’s knowledge
of Latin is too limited to accomplish this with accuracy. Certain signs
or contractions are fairly constant in their meanings, always taking
the place of special syllables. Thus a bold apostrophe above the line
will be found to indicate ‘er,’ ‘ir,’ ‘or,’ ‘re.’
[Symbol] = ur.
ʒ = et, us. In Domesday ‘et’ is written ⁊.
[Symbol] = ram, ras, ris.
[Symbol] = is.
ꝰ = us, ous, os.
A small letter over a word shows that a syllable is left out of which
this letter formed part.
The letter ‘p’ had a system of its own, frequently used in old deeds
and also in old letters:
ꝑ = per, par, por.
[Symbol] = pre.
ꝓ = pro.
In old court rolls ‘and’ is written ‘[Symbol]t,’ and ‘est’ appears
as ‘÷,’ especially in courthand law deeds.
A line drawn through the head of the letter ‘[Symbol]’ means also the
addition of other letters, as _is_, _e_, etc. This contraction in names
is apt to be confused with double ‘tt.’
It is said that our alphabet did not formerly contain as many letters
as at present. The letters ‘i’ and ‘j’ were identical until a recent
period. ‘W’ is said to have been derived from two ‘u’s,’ and is always
so written in old deeds, joined together, while ‘u’ and ‘v’ were used
indiscriminately. In old manuscripts the shortstroke letters were
formed alike; thus ‘n,’ ‘u,’ ‘w,’ ‘i,’ are merely strokes or minims,
difficult to distinguish, more particularly where any of these letters
occur side by side in the formation of words; to count the strokes is
the only guide. Practice and a knowledge of likely words to be employed
solve the knotty point.
The chief difficulty of all lies in the correct rendering of names,
for these have perpetually changed in their spelling. In a single
deed several different forms may be observed, the result of clerical
copying. Even with names the system of abbreviation was carried on,
especially among court rolls; this will be noticed in such surnames as
‘Couper’ written ‘Coup,’ ‘Shepherd’ as ‘Shep.’
In certain styles of mediæval writing the terminals of words are
carried upwards with a long sweep, and are confusing in their
resemblance to abbreviation marks. Here, again, practice alone
accustoms the eye to decide whether a word is complete or not.
Dots and other kinds of stops in writing have only come gradually into
use in their present significance, and the use of these is now less
observed than early in the last century.
In the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, as in Roman inscriptions, the dot is
freely used to denote contractions as well as to divide the words
from each other. In Domesday this is also noticed; but with later
manuscripts the dot, or point, such as is used in Norman times, fell
into disuse in favour of lines or curves for the abbreviated syllables.
Upon the introduction of printing our various kinds of stops are first
observed. It is said that the Elzevirs invented some of them. The
reversed semicolon is commonly observed in some manuscripts.
Sooner or later, in any antiquarian search, the printed sources of
information will be exhausted, and are not unfrequently found to be
untrustworthy, especially existing county histories, which, being
compiled by men unacquainted with every minor detail of the locality,
are naturally liable to confuse places of similar names. Nor is it
possible in so large a subject as a county history to enter minutely
into the separate parish histories of places and people. Thus after
awhile the untrustworthiness and insufficiency of book-knowledge will
be discovered, and some more original source of information become
desired. Manuscripts exist in plenty, but are of little value unless
studied personally; for professional readers, although able to read
quickly and correctly, only give the information desired; whereas in a
personal search one subject opens out fresh clues to others of equal
importance, and new light is continually being thrown upon hitherto
unnoticed points; moreover, only by a personal investigation can the
antiquary be certain that he has obtained _exactly_ what he
required. There are now plenty of opportunities open to the public of
seeing the old documents pertaining to various offices and societies,
besides private collections, but without some previous knowledge of
the old handwritings, etc., this permission is practically valueless.
Therefore, ‘Persevere and practise’ is the best motto I can give to
those interested in the matter, for proficiency comes quickly to those
who seek it; and, as in all subjects, ‘Nothing succeeds like success.’
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
APPENDIX.
LEGAL MEMORY.
(_See page 42._)
‘WHITCHURCH RECTORY,
‘READING,
‘_October 12, 1892_.
‘DEAR MISS THOYTS,
‘I must even send you an instant reply to your note, in order to
satisfy your perplexity.
‘I was many years searching for the reason why legal memory began with
Richard I. I once asked an eminent Q.C. the question, and though he had
been a Law Lecturer, and was shortly afterwards put upon the Bench, he
could not tell me why--he only knew the fact.
‘It is one of the signs, good or bad, of the present times, that your
sex will not, like their mothers and grandmothers, be satisfied with
being told the fact, but will be told why.
‘Now the “why” of this is just as follows: The Norman Conquest upset a
great many Saxon titles to estates, but not all. And on the voidance
of a Norman who had no title but his own right hand, the Saxon would
try to recover, and, I suppose, not unfrequently succeeded, by reason
of being on the spot and putting on the Norman’s shoes while they were
warm. Hence endless litigations, because the more distant Norman kin
inherited at least this much--contempt for a Saxon.
‘By A.D. 1179 things began to settle down and Norman and
Saxon to be amalgamated, and it was then, or perhaps rather later,
_agreed_, in the High Courts, that in questions of title you
should not go behind the above date.
‘Now this is not inconsistent with what you may have read in Selden,
vol. ii. I have not read it, but I offer this solution--that it
(_i.e._, Selden, vol. ii.) does not mean to speak of manorial
law in respect of the High Court of Justice of the Realm, but of the
intra-manorial regulations of court leets and court barons.
‘Yours sincerely,
‘JOHN SLATER.’
THE END.
_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London._
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From photos kindly lent by Mr. A. Harrison, of Theale.
[2] See Appendix.
[3] The property of the Earl of Fingall from his ancestors the
Wollascots.
[4] A complete copy of the Chartulary was made by me through the
kindness of the Earl of Fingall.
[5] A list of French Bishops will be found in ‘Gallia Christiana,’ or
in ‘Neustria Pia.’
[6] This also contains a good glossary of Anglo-Saxon words.
[7] Who has kindly revised this little volume.
[8] Only procurable second-hand.
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
corrected silently.
2. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
3. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.
4. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
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