Durham E-Theses Accounting, Management and Control at Durham Cathedral Priory c. 1250-c. 1420 DOBIE, ALISDAIR,JOHN How to cite: DOBIE, ALISDAIR,JOHN (2011) Accounting, Management and Control at Durham Cathedral Priory c. 1250-c. 1420, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/609/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 ACCOUNTING, MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL AT DURHAM CATHEDRAL PRIORY c. 1250-c. 1420 [in one volume] Alisdair John Dobie Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Durham 2011 Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent of the author and information derived from it should be acknowledged. © Alisdair Dobie 2011. All rights reserved. 1 Alisdair John Dobie Accounting, Management and Control at Durham Cathedral Priory c. 1250-c. 1420 Abstract This is the first study to be undertaken with the objective of documenting and analysing the accounting records and systems of Durham Cathedral Priory, from which survives one of the largest collections of medieval accounting material in the United Kingdom. It moves beyond the traditional focus of accounting historians on manorial compoti to examine a network of non-manorial accounts and a range of accounting forms beyond the charge and discharge statement. A substantial body of non-accounting primary material is also used in the investigation including charters, registers, and general chapter and visitation records. This study finds that a culture of accounting permeated the activities of the house at all levels from the controls surrounding the receipt of the hundreds of quarters of grain consumed by the house each year to the issue of the individual daily loaf. It also identifies a complexity in the accounts not always appreciated by historians who have consequently misinterpreted and misquoted figures taken from the account-rolls. In this period the accounts show a responsiveness to changes in the environment and fortunes of the house by the refinement of existing forms and the introduction of new types of financial record. The care given to the preparation of accounts and the detailed investigation of accounting and financial matters in the regular visitations to which the house was subject allow a refutation of general allegations of carelessness and inaccuracy in the preparation and presentation of accounts. The accounting system at Durham was an important and effective control in the functioning of the house and in the exercise and enforcement of its rights. 2 Table of Contents Page Abstract 2 List of Tables 4 List of Illustrations 6 List of Appendices 7 List of Abbreviations 8 Acknowledgements 11 Section I: The accounts, their context and key questions Chapter 1: Monasticism, economic developments and monastic finances in England in the later Middle Ages 13 Chapter 2: Durham Cathedral Priory: activities and assets 56 Chapter 3: The accounting material and key questions 91 Section II: Detailed analysis of the accounting records Chapter 4: Accounting formats and processes 116 Chapter 5: Debtors, financial management and creditors 159 Chapter 6: Accounting as a management tool 188 Section III: Causes, catalysts and conclusions Chapter 7: General chapters and visitations 231 Chapter 8: Conclusions 258 Bibliography 267 3 List of Tables Page Table 1: Number of monks resident at Durham and in the cells 57 Table 2: Monastic officers, obedientiaries and officials 67 Table 3: Bursars’ experience – Oxford and other offices 80 Table 4: Number of bursars who held other positions during their monastic career 82 Table 5: Number of extant accounting records by office from the earliest record to the Dissolution 100 Table 6: Years from which accounting material survives by office or activity 1270-1421 102 Table 7: Incidence of accounting record by type 107 Table 8: Incidence of accounting record by type: livestock 109 Table 9: The bursars’ accounts 1278-1417: income 130 Table 10: The bursars’ accounts 1278-1417: expenses 132 Table 11: Summary of differences between detailed and summarized bursars’ accounts 139 Table 12: Form of abacus, c. 1391 147 Table 13: Waste entries from the bursar’s schedule of waste and decay 1418/9 148 Table 14: Arrears from the great chirograph by term and year 166 Table 15: Waste and decay 1350-1417 168 Table 16: The bursars’ accounts 1278-1417: overall income and expenditure 171 Table 17: The funding of the serviens of Pittington’s superplusagium 1309/10 174 Table 18: The bursars' accounts 1278-1417: receipts and expenditure before financing 175 Table 19: Mutuaciones and soluciones debitorum in the bursars’ accounts 1278-1421 183 Table 20: Lists of creditors 184 Table 21: Tithe income of Durham Cathedral Priory 1293- 1436 191 4 Table 22: Total income of Durham Cathedral Priory 1420 191 Table 23: Holy Island receipts 1328 and formerly 192 Table 24 Auditors’ yield calculations on the manor of Bewley 1377/8 197 Table 25: Values (£-s-d) attributed to the manors of Durham Cathedral Priory 203 Table 26: Accounting material surviving from the office of granator 1295-1421 211 Table 27: Accounting, financial and management controls incorporated into the statutes of the chapters of the black monks 234 Table 28: Years from which visitation and related documentation survive 239 Table 29: Financial and management matters raised at visitations 1306-1408 240 5 List of Illustrations Page Illustration 1: Mortmain licence of 1292 278 Illustration 2: An indenture from 1351/2 279 Illustration 3: The head of the bursar’s account of 1278/9 280 Illustration 4: The head of the bursar’s account of 1390/1 (B) 281 Illustration 5: Extract from the expense section of the 1390/1 (A) bursar’s account 282 Illustration 6: Holy Island Status of 1326 283 Illustration 7: Bursar’s summary account of 1313/14 284 Illustration 8: Bursar’s summary account of 1376 285 Illustration 9: Indentured bursar’s summary account of 1396/7 286 Illustration 10: Form of abacus, c. 1391 287 Illustration 11: The waste section from the bursar’s schedule of waste and decay 1418/19 288 Illustration 12: The tallie and ‘balancing-off’ sections at the foot of the bursar’s account of 1292/3 289 Illustration 13: Pardon of royal subsidy of 1298 290 Illustration 14: Loan agreement of 1255 291 Illustration 15: Papal excommunication of 1308 for late payment of debt 292 Illustration 16: Local loan agreements of 1308/9 293 Illustration 17: Absolution from excommunication for unpaid debt of 1,750 marks of 1310 294 Illustration 18: Bond for £1000 of 1384 295 Illustration 19: The head of the granator’s account of 1415/16 296 Illustration 20: The baker’s and pantler’s accounts from the granator’s 1305/6 summary account-roll 297 Illustration 21: Bursar-granator indenture 1425/6 298 Illustration 22: Monthly malt deliveries from the 1315/16 granator’s account 299 6 List of Appendices Page Appendix 1: Officers and obedientiaries 1250-1430 300 Appendix 2: Other offices to which six or fewer references exist 313 Appendix 3: Account-end dates for the main estate officers and manors 314 Appendix 4: Account-end dates for livestock, proctors, obedientiaries, cells and other 318 Appendix 5: Dates of Pentecost 1278-1421 327 Appendix 6: Extracts from the bursar’s account of 1349/50 328 Appendix 7: Payments (£) by tally from the bursar 333 Appendix 8: Granator account transcription and extracts 336 Appendix 9: Price and wage indices 1278-1421 342 7 List of Abbreviations Durham Cathedral Archives1 Archiep. Archiepiscopalia Cart. Cartuarium DCA Durham Cathedral Archives (formerly known as Durham Cathedral Muniments) Ebor. Eboracensia Finch. Finchalia Loc. Locellus Misc. Ch. Miscellaneous Charters Pap. Papalia Pont. Pontificalia Pr. Reg. Priory Register Reg. Regalia Reg. Parv. Registrum Parvum (Prior’s Register) Sacr. Sacristaria Spec. Specialia Account-rolls of all Durham officers, obedientiaries, manors and cells are cited by their name and date in the following form: granator, 1401/2 The account-roll of the granator for the year 1401/2. References to the account-rolls of the bursars, which are much longer than those of other officers, also indicate in which section a particular entry is to be found, e.g. bursar, 1334/5, tallie. Other Sources ABFH Accounting, Business and Financial History AHJ Accounting Historians Journal AHR Accounting History Review 1 The abbreviations and references for items held in Durham Cathedral Archives follow the style given in the catalogue of holdings available at http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/dcd/dcd guide.xml#node.1.4.7.1.10.1.1. 8 Annals Barlow, F. (ed.), Durham Annals and Documents of the Thirteenth Century (Surtees Society, 155, 1940) CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls CClR Calendar of Close Rolls CER Calendar of Exchequer Rolls CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls Coldingham Raine, J. (ed.), The Correspondence, Inventories, Account Rolls, and Law Proceedings of the Priory of Coldingham (Surtees Society, 12, 1841) Collectanea Blakiston, H.