The Boundaries of Monks Risborough
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THE BOUNDARIES OF MONKS RISBOROUGH ARNOLD H. J. BAINES In 903 the Mercian Witan authorised ealdorman /Ethelfrith to replace a lost landbook for East Risborough. The resulting record is here edited and translated; its authenticity is defended, the bounds are identified, and the meaning of 'heathen burial place' in charter bounds is considered. 90 years later the estate was mortgaged: the nature of this transaction is examined, and a genuine memorandum of reconveyance is extracted from a spurious charter. Before the Reformation, Monks Ris- reign of Edward the Elder; it illustrates the borough could claim to be the most highly position of the Crown north of the Thames in privileged liberty in Buckinghamshire, almost the last years of Mercian autonomy; its sub- a regality. As a parish, it was within the sequent movements throw unexpected light exempt jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Can- on the nature of the Anglo-Saxon mortgage; it terbury, and with Halton it constituted a dean- is the first Buckinghamshire charter to give ery outside the diocese of Lincoln [1], As a fully detailed bounds of the estate concerned; manor, it was held by the Prior of Christ and it provides the first record of the immense Church, Canterbury, and was for many pur- and ancient hedge separating the two Ris- poses outside the county. Its lord and his ten- boroughs, to which the method of hedge-dat- ants owed no suit to the hundred or even the ing proposed by Dr. Max Hooper [6] has been shire courts. If they were fined in the king's applied, with interesting results. courts the fines went to the Prior, who also claimed the chattels of felons and outlaws, and The charter is not a grant of land or maintained his own gallows [2], Monks Ris- privileges in the usual sense; it is a recognition borough was 'a Liberty of itself and therefore by the King and by the rulers of English Mer- ye Sheriffe of the County ought to have no cia of a landbook for East Risborough which processes within this Mannor, but only the had been lost in a fire which had destroyed all Bayliffe of the Mannor' [3]. These regalian ealdorman /Ethelfrith's muniments. He was rights were mostly of 11th century origin [4], given permission to rewrite them from mem- but the first step towards creating a privileged ory, and a cartula was drawn up confirming jurisdiction had been taken by a king of Mercia that this estate had been validly given by some time in the 8th or 9th century. The date Athulf to his daughter ^Ethelgyth in hereditary and the terms of his charter are unknown, right. The bounds of the estate and the witness since it was destroyed by fire shortly before list are given on the back of the document in 903, when King Edward and the Mercian another handwriting; this was not unusual in Witan authorised its replacement and thereby landbooks until c. 900 [7]. created a new root of title. As it stands, this charter has most of the The Monks Risborough charter [5], no. 22 usual features of a solemn royal diploma, (formerly numbered 21) of the Stowe manus- though it takes the form of a record of pro- cripts in the British Museum, now the British ceedings in the Mercian Council. It is not clear Library, is noteworthy on at least five other ac- whether /Ethelfrith ever attempted to recon- counts. It is among the most characteristic of struct the original landbook; later owners of the somewhat sparse public records of the East or Monks Risborough were clearly satisfied that this official record of what was ef• two unconnected archives strengthens confi• fectively a legislative act gave them an unques• dence in both. The Wrington charter was tionable title. This is the first charter in the edited by Birch [19] from two 14th-century area soon to become Buckinghamshire to in• cartulary copies, and will be cited· as W. clude a detailed boundary clause in the form customary in the much more numerous royal Stowe 22 needs hardly any emendation, grants of the middle and later years of the lOth though a few words are doubtful; the abbrevi• century. The bounds of the estate later called ations can readily be extended, the letters Granborough, within the St. Albans liberty, supplied being italicised. The resulting text is were set out by Offa in 792, but they are par• as follows. Uncertain readings are in square ticularly simple (two watercourses, a deer• brackets. fence and a Roman road) [8]. The vernacular charter of 845 relating to Wotton Underwood, Line another Canterbury peculiar, defines only the 1. Regnante Inperpetuum et mundi monar• corners of the estate [9]. Thus it seems unlikely chiamgubernante altithroni patris so bole that the lost charter, another Mercian grant of 2. qui crelestia simul et terrena moderatur. roughly the same period, included a dozen Illius etenim incarnationis. anno. landgemceru. The bounds of an estate were dcccc 0 common knowledge; the land involved lay 3. iii. Indictione vero sexta. Contingit quod iuxta notissimos terminos [10] round which the redelfrido duci omnes hereditarii libri grantee and the king's servants could walk or 4. ignis vastatione conbusti perierunt; Tali ride with local guidance. The record of such a igitur necessitate cogente predictus circuit, and indeed the charter as a whole, 5. dux rogavit eadweardum, redelredum were in principle only a supplement to the fad• quoque et redelfledam qui tunc prin• ing memory of mortal man. The bounds of cipatum Monks Risborough were no doubt settled long 6. et potestatem gentis merciorum sub pre• before 903, but the description in the charter dicta rege tenuerunt. Omnes etiam sena• must be taken as relating to their state at or tores merciorum soon after that time. 7. ut ei consentirent et licentiam darent alios Iibras rescribendi; Tunc illi unia- The Text of the Charter 8. nimiter omnes devota mente consenser• The text of Stowe 22 has been printed in the unt ut alii ei libri scriberentur eadem collections of Kemble [ 11] (cited as K), modo Thorpe [12], Birch [13] (cited as B) and Pier• 9. quo et priores scripta erant In quantum quin [14]. Kemble did not print the bound• eos memoriter recordari potuisset. aries, but they were given in the Museum 10. Si vero quoslibet recordari minime catalogue of selections from the Stowe MSS potuisset. tunc ei ista kartula in [15] in 1883. The charter was included in the 11. auxilio et adfirmatione fieret. ut nullus Ordnance Survey Facsimiles [16], and Dr. F. eum contentiose cum aliis libris G. Parsons [17] published a photographic re• 12. affligere valuisset. nee propinquus production with a transcript and commentary nee alienus quamvis aliquis homo in 1936. There is an independent witness to the ali quem Latin text; it is almost identical with that of a 13. de vetustis libris protulerit quem prius similar record [18] by which King Edward, at fraudulenter vel in bora ipsius incen- the request of .t'Ethelfrith, confirmed his title 14. dii vel alio quolibet tempore per furtum to Wrington in Somerset. This is dated 904; abstraxisset. Novimus namque quod the indiction points to 903, but may have been omnia simply copied from the Monks Risborough 15. qure in hoc mundo contingere solent charter. Close agreement between texts from aliquando citius aliquando vero 77 16. tardius ex memoria mortalium delapsa adulf dedit eastren risberge. edelgide filie sue. deveniunt. nisi in scedulis littera- .Ia tine. 17. rum caracteribus adnotantur: Qua prop• Stowe Ch. 22 ter in hac kartula Innotescere. ratum 18. atque gratum satisque commodum Variant Readings duximus de illa videlicet terra ret prem 1. Inperpetuum : in perpetuum B; imper• easteran petuum W. 19. hrisan byrge cuius quantitas est .xxx. cas• 3. Ethelfritho W. satorum quod earn adulf redelgyde 5. Edwardum W 20. filire sure cum hereditaria libertate in- et Elredum et Ethelfledam W. propriam ac perpetuam donavit 6. merciorum: ciorum interlined m MS; hereditatem: Merceorum W (Verso). 8. consenserunt: concesserunt W. 21. +Dis synt pa land gemrero. JErest ofpam rescriberentur K. garan lnnan pa blacan h gee an . of pre- 12. valuisset: voluisset W. 22. re hegcean nyper in nan pone fulan br6c 13. vel in bora: in bora B; vel bora W. of dam fulan brace wipwestan randes 16. cedulis W. 23. resc panon on prere ealdan die wiawestan 17. annotantur W. pa herde wic. of prere die pcet innan. 18. comodum W. 24. wealdan hrigc on eadrices gemrere. 19. cassatorum: cassatae K; cassatorum B, andlang eadrices gemrere pcet innan W. The noun is properly second-declen• cyne- sion masculine. 25. bellinga gemrere andlang gemrere pcet on redelgydre K, B. icenhylte. andlang icenhylte op pone 20. ac: ad K, B. 26. hredenan byrgels. panon on cynges strret. 22. wipwestan: wip westan B. up andlang strrete on welandes 23. witlwestan: wid' westan B. 27. st6cc. of pam stocce nyper andlang 27. [dre ]t: perhaps [ef]t. rahheges [dre]t on beg leage of drere 33. ead( nod]: perhaps ead(wig]. leage nyper Translation 28. dret eft on drene garan. The following translation is offered: 29. + eadweard rex. + eadelred. + redelflred. Reigning for ever and governing the monar• + (plegm]und archiepiscopus. + wilferd chy of the world, the offspring of the Father episcopus. enthroned on high, who at the same time rules 30. + wigmund episcopus. + werferd epis• (or sets bounds to) things in the heavens and copus. + eadgar episcopus. on earth. Since in the 903rd year of His incar• + wig[hel]m episcopus. + ceolmund nation, and truly in the sixth indiction, it hap• episcopus. pened to ealdorman JEthelfrith that all his 31.