LJeayes

Mediaeval and Early Modern charters and muniments of Lady Lucas. Originally catalogued by I.H.Jeayes in 1920.

Jeayes introduced his catalogue as follows: 'The Deeds, which number about a thousand, cover the period from the 12th century to the end of Qu. Elizabeth's reign, A.D. 1603, though a few later ones will be found included, which have been thought worthy of notice for their intrinsic value, or for their seals & signature, or for other points of interest. There are many Royal Charters, among them being the following, viz. No.916. A confirmation by Henry III of the grant made by Prince Edward his son (afterwards King Edward I) to John de Grey, of the manor of Russhthon, Co. Chester, dated at Windsor, 15 Dec. 1263. The two first witnesses were the King's nephew Henry, son of Richard 'Regis Alemannie' (viz. Richard Earl of Cornwall, 2nd son of King John elected King of the Romans and of Almaine in 1256), and William de Valence, the King's 'brother' (viz. William, Earl of Pemboke who married Eleanor, sister to Henry III). Only a fragment of great seal remains. No.682. Charter of Edward II granting to Ralph fil. Radulphi fil. Ricardi a weekly market on Wednesdays at his manor of Silsoe, and a fair every year on the 30th April and 1st May 'unless either market or fair be to the harm of neighbouring fairs or markets', dated 10 Nov. 1319. The central piece only of the great seal has escaped destruction. No.1. Letters patent of Edward IV appointing his 'dear cousin' Edmund Grey, of Ruthin, treasurer of England in the place of the Earl of Worcester, 24 June, 1463. It has a fine impression of the great seal, chipped at one side. No.12.Letters patent of Richard III confirming a charter of his late brother Edward IV, which granted to Edmund Grey, Baron Hastings, Ruthyn etc. the Earldom of Kent, with an annuity of 20 from the revenue of the county of Kent, 19 Aug.1484. The great seal is broken (the original creation of the Earldom is dated 30 May, 1465). No.158. This Deed covenants for an exchange of the manors of Priestley and Gravenhurst between Henry VIII and Sir Henry Grey of Wrest, and it bears, on the top the sign manual of the King, 'Henry R.' It is dated 4 June 1541. It is, however probable that this is not a written but a stamped signature. It is known that in the latter years of the King (he died in 1547) a stamp was used for formal documents. Other and later royal charters, bearing great seals more or less damaged, are chiefly licences to owners of land held from the Crown 'in capite' (in chief) to alienate or dispose of them, or else, pardons for alientions already made without licence from the Crown. In either case the result was the same, viz. payment of a fine to the Exchequer. Of such a character is No. 866, a Parson by Qu. Elizabeth for the disposal without licence, of lands in Upper Stondon. But this Deed has two additional points of interest, for it is a splendid example of the calligraphy of the day, and, among the occupiers of the lands disposed of is the name of a 'William Shakespeare'. One would like to identity him with the Poet or the Poets family. The date being 1587, the Poet would be about 23 years old, rather young perhaps, to be an occupier of land so far from his home, and in a country with which I am not aware he or his family were ever connected. We must therefore reluctantly give up the idea,though it might be profitable to ascertain if a family of Shakespeares was settled in the neighbourhood of Upper Stondon. The Deed has a somewhat defaced impression of Qu. Elizabeth's later and more elaborate seal. (A finer specimen of the same seal is the detached seal No. 971). Of the general collection of Deeds the following are worthy of the note for various causes, viz. No. 283. On this document, dated in 1304 the interest lies in a clause whereby William de Broy of Broybury in Cainho binds himself to be responsible for the a payment of 40 shillings towards a subsidy for a crusade in Holy Land and for gold of the Queen of England for the time being. The exact wording is 'quadraginta solidos in subsidio terre sanote levandos pro vol - untate crucesignatorum et ad aurum regine Anglie que pro tempore fuerit'. The crusades, however, were well over long before this, the eighth and last being in 1270. The Soldan took Acre in 1292 when the Christians were driven out of Syria. It is possible that the King who at this time (1304) wanted money badly for the pay of his army in Scotland made use of this method of increasing his revenues, a method which would be likely to appeal to the devotion and chivalry of his subjects namely the promise of a new crusade to deliver the Holy Land from the Turks. No.330. This is a Deed relating to property in Great Cainho but it is not, as we should expect, dated from that place from Paternoster Row, London. The reason may be that it was possibly drawn up by one of the witnesses who is described as a 'scriptor' or scrivener. The date is 1368 which takes back Paternoster Row as a habitat of Laywers for 550 years. No.500. A covenant by which Walter Ponde sells to Thomas Snow 'a plase' (evidently a brewhouse), with 'a querne, a cheste ,a grete panne.... with all the tubbes and fatys (vats) and bere beying within', with a proviso that Walter (spelt quaintly, under the circunstances, 'Watyr') shall have when he enters the said 'plase', 'metes and drynggis (drinks) with a chambre durynge his life, and the said Watyr to doo the wyrke of the said Thomas at syche times as he labur, not hyrtyng hymselfe'. The concluding words almost tempt one to suggest that friend Watyr may have been the archetype of 'Wearie Willie' or the present-day canny labourer. No.579. Here we have a Deed dated 25 April in the 24th year of Henry VII (1509). Henry died on the 21st April of that year, so had been dead four days. The explanation is found in the fact that in those days news was slow in travelling and doubtless had not yet reached so out ot the way place as Henlow where the Deed is dated. The following Christian names and Surnames are rather out of the common. Christian Names. Avery, Elcota, Huelma, Inherena, Roysian Rumenilda, Sapientia, Ylloria. Surnames. Whitebred (and in one case its French equivalent Blaunpain) Toprest or Tupprest, Lawdesop, Slaywryte, Spendelove, Travayl, Barlicorn, Leper, Makehayt, Welyco and Ricardus cum-barba (Richard with a beard). There are also found in this, as in other collections, some curiosities in rent-tenures, the commonest of all are, a rose or red rose at Midsummer, a pair of white gloves value 1/2d. or 1d. and 'granum piperis' (perpetuated in our perppercorn rent). Other tenures here are, a pair of gilt spurs, and arrow, a pound of cummin, a clutch or bunch of gillyflowers, a root of ginger, and a 'flos solsequli'. This last is rather puzzling, a flower that follows the sun, and obviously some form of Helianthus or Sunflower, or possibly a Heliotrope. But it was payable at Easter which is now at any rate early for these flowers. The rent of Newbery manor in Flitten in 1559 was 17 and eight dozen pigeons. The early Deeds are written in Latin with a few in Norman-French. Where the word 'French' is not added to the enclosed epitomes it may be concluded that they are in Latin as English was used only sparingly even as late as A.D. 1400. (Signed) I.H JEAYES. Writtle. Chelmsford. 17 March, 1920'

In 1920 Lady Lucas commissioned Isaac Herbert Jeayes, sometime assistant keeper of the British Museum [he retired in 1913] to create a descriptive catalogue of the charters and muniments in her possession. He first arranged and catalogued those numbered 1-971; his arrangement is rather difficult to follow, and he did not separate manorial and legal documents from other items. He then seems to have come across further documents, which he catalogued as Appendix I-139. The other documents seen by him he listed as bundles only (bundles 972-1032). In 1936 Lady Lucas deposited nearly all the items covered by Jeayes' catalogue and appendix along with things on the bundle list and other material not seen by Jeayes. The material not seem by Jeayes and additional deposits made by the barons Lucas were catalogued under a hierarchical catalogue with the prefix L. This meant that, until the era of the computerised catalogue the archive service had one set of documents with the references L1-971, LApp1-137 and other documents with reference L1/ to L33/. With the arrival of online cataloguing this became confusing and so the material catalogued by Jeayes became prefixed LJeayes; although this alteration was not made to the references on the documents themselves only on the catalogue and the boxes containing them. Although this material is treated as a separate Fonds on the catalogue it is in fact a sub-fonds of the Lucas collections as a whole. When the rest of the Lucas collection was catalogued it was decided that certain documents in LJeayes were better placed within the hierarchical catalogue and approximately 122 documents were moved to L26. These are noted in the catalogue as see L26/#.

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