Original Charters Relating to the City of Worcester : in Possession of The

SKETCH sf MEDIEVAL a>da.pted yroiry Littleb\jry's ^diyWfess T^/5MA.RTlVs Priory Ferry. ST JOHN'S \ ST PETERS. 1. Sidbury or Sothebury. 18. St. Alboneslone. 37. Way to the Bromyards. 2. Frog Lane. 19. Church of St. Helen. 38. Dolday. 3. Grene l.ane. 20. St. Mariestrele. 39. Angel Strete. 4. Site of Castle. 21. Frercnstrete. 40. Trinity Lane. 5. Great Gale. 22. The Water Wharfe. 41. The Golde Cross. 6. Castle Lane. 23. CoUestrete. 42. Samson's Stile. 7. Le Sanctuarye. 24. Hucksterestret. 43. The Garden i\farket. 8. CATHEDRAL and Priory of the 25. Nelderestrete. 44. St. Nicholas" Church. Blessed Marie. 26. Gloversstrete. 45. St. Clement's Church. 9. Bishop's Palace. 27. Keyenstrete. 46. The Cornchepynge. 10. Church of St. Peter the Grent. 28. Poywykeslone. 47. Baxsterstrete. 1 1 . Cemetery Stairs. 29. St. Andrew's Church. 48. Mealchepyngestrele. 12. Siche Lone. 30. St. Alban's Chapel. 49. Cornchepyngestrete. 13. Church of St. Michael in Bedwar- 31. Bridpott. 50. St. Swithin's Church. dyne. 32. Rotherchepynge. 51. The Uyldchalle. 14. St. Mane's Stayr. 33. Enort. 52. Hospital of St. Wulstan. 15. Stodemcrysknolle. 34. Wodestante Strete. 53. Hospital of St. Oswald. 16. Bishop's Street. 35. Houndeslone. 54. Okie gaol lane. 17. All Saints' Church. 36. Shipmonslone. 55. St. Martin's Church. ORIGINAL CHARTERS RELATING TO THE CITY OF WORCESTER. I IN POSSESSION OF THE DEAN AND CHAPTER, AND BY THEM PRESERVED IN THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY. EDITED FOR THE WORCESTERSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY BY THE REV. J. HARVEY BLOOM, M.A., Rector of Whilchurch, in the County of Warwick. for tlje Worcestershire Historical Societg, BY JAMES PARKER AND CO., OXFORD. 1909. INTRODUCTION. documents must inevitably be of higher interest than a copy, ORIGINALif that to considerable atten- even copy chance be contemporary ; yet tion has been paid to monastic cartularies, and comparatively little to the original deeds from which they were compiled. The present volume deals with part of the collection of such deeds now in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, and forms the most important part of Class B, section z, of their archives, the section including charters, leases and other parchment documents relating to Worcester and its suburbs. These have been in part utilized by various writers in the past, and some few have been printed in exfenso, but the greater number have not previously been calendared or in any manner systematically dealt with : Dr. Peter Prattin- ton constructed a very brief list in 1824, dealing with 240 documents, but this had become entirely disarranged and useless when Bishop Edmund series in in an Hobhouse examined the 1881 ; 1908 entire rearrange- ment was carried out, at the request of the Dean and Chapter, by the editor of the present volume, covering the whole of the archives then remaining. This was done in too short a space of time to admit of any carefully planned arrangement, but the documents were sorted into five classes, and numbered and arranged in charter-boxes in chronological and topo- graphical order. In consequence of this haste some documents were misplaced, and a few others put together in an ambiguous section under the general title Worcester. A careful study deed by deed has led to the identification under streets, &c., of many of these latter, and they will be found in their proper places in the following pages, although their numeration has not been altered. Very many of these deeds are torn and fragmentary, and nearly all much discoloured by years of neglect, so that restoratives have been necessary in many cases. The arrangement of the Chapter archives is as follows : A. Bound volumes. B i. Deeds relating to places outside Worcester. B 2. Deeds relating to Worcester and its suburbs. C i. Accounts of Obedientiaries. C 2. Accounts of Provosts or Bailiffs of Priory Estates. ba iv INTRODUCTION. D. Manor Rolls. E. Letters and Papers. wherever F. Deeds not originally part of the series. Most of these possible have been handed back to their proper owners, viz., the Bishop of Worcester, the Bishop of Ely, and the Chapters of Norwich and Winchester. The most interesting deeds are undoubtedly those relating to the jurisdiction or rather administration of the Diocese sede vacante, dating back as they do to the time of the original agreement made between Archbishop Boniface and the Prior and Convent in 1268, but this apparently was only a settlement between the three parties interested of an ancient and customary right which had not hitherto been adequately defined, but it is thirty years earlier than the commencement of the great Register book, which Mr. Willis Bund has already edited for the Society. The series includes the confirmation of the agreement by the Prior and Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, and gives the full text of the to lost it does original document which was supposed be ; not, however, add any further particulars to those already known. The declaration made by the Proctors of the Prior, in the Consistory Court held by Cardinal Ottobon in Winchcombe Church, on the Feast of St. Peter-in- Cathedra, 1265, is of interest not only in showing how the decree was promulgated, viz., to representatives of the divers Rural Deaneries of Gloucestershire, but for the curious fact that only one of the three is proctors commissioned to appear cared to act : no explanation however given, but the plural form in which the original was cast led to the correction of the Document to the singular. The formal acknowledgment of the Prior's rights is also found in an inspeximus of a letter from Bishop Nicholas, under the hand of Ralph de St. Denis, Notary of the Holy Roman See, the said letter bearing date Epiphany, 1266. There are also entries on a roll of the dispute with the Abbey of St. Peter, Gloucester, disputing on the one hand the Prior's right to visit, and on the other the steps he took to enforce it, giving the arguments of both Prior and Abbot, and their several answers. The more important of these documents have been printed in full in the Appendix, and throw an important additional light upon the sede vacante one cannot see Register ; quite why they were not entered therein, but that volume does not appear to be retrospective. Another interesting deed is that in which William, Archdeacon of Arre"ou, acting as Administrator of the See of Canterbury, orders the Prior of Worcester to act, sede vacante, on death of Bishop William de this Geynesburh; is dated at London the ;th Ides of October, 1307. INTRODUCTION. V Very curious is a short letter written in French by the Prior to one Richard de Wyke, styling himself Chaplain of our Lord the King, politely tin at first it refusing his request to give lodgement to Polain ; sight seems a very serious document for so small a request, and the Prior speaks seriously of his inability to oblige, and points out that the Bishop has already complained of the excess of sojourners, and he proceeds to add that were he to grant the Chaplain's request some mischief-maker would certainly acquaint the Bishop, and he himself would be severely blamed. It at least shows the esteem in which a horse was then held, and the care over the smallest details of Monastic economy, if there is not a more subtle meaning in the expression. A second document in French, given in the Appendix, is the text of a letter from Edward the Third directed to the Abbot of Evesham, the Prior of Worcester, and a Knight of the Shire, Sir John atte Wood, urging the speedy collection of a loan of 600 marks, and calling on them to appoint a committee of 12 persons, composed of Regular and Secular clergy and laymen, to collect 50 marks each. This is dated iyth June, 1370. It is interesting to note from the Cellarer's rolls that the sum was repaid, not indeed by the King, but by his executors after his death. Another deed gives the close of a dispute between the Religious and thes ecular clergy of the city, anent the ringing of the bells for prime and curfew ; the monks maintaining that the bells of the town churches disturbed their devotions, and infringed their ancient privileges. The matter was carried to Rome, and the Pope appointed as his commissioner the Abbot of Pershore, who found that the Cathedral authorities had justly complained. He accordingly summoned the clergy of the town with their Holy Water bearers, part of whose duties it may have been to ring the bells, and declared that they were not to sound the prime and curfew until the Cathedral bell had given the signal. It may be noted that some of the clergy could not be found, an absence that was possibly not entirely accidental. The bulk of the documents consist of grants of lands and rents to the Priory, prior to the statute of mortmain, and leases by the monks and their successors of the same lands. In this connection it will be remembered that acre half in every and acre the common fields ; and every burgage, tenement, toft, and croft in a town, was held of some lord, either of the or far more of another directly King, frequently subject ; and it sometimes happened that a series of lords had interest in the property, each owing some service to the lord above him, and receiving some service from the tenant below him. Such a tenant in fee held rights in which he had a life interest, and which were heritable.

Load more