Add MS 74948

ARTHUR AGARD, AL. AGARDE, ANTIQUARY: Abstract of the Great Domesday; circa early 17^th cent. Copy. Latin and Old English. Agard (1540-1615), a clerk in the Receipt of the Exchequer from 1570 and one of its two deputy chamberlains from 1603, had completed his abstracts of the Great and Lesser Domesdays by Mar. 1599. The present manuscript comprises (ff. 1-101) entries drawn from each of the thirty-one counties represented in Great Domesday, concluding with a selection of 'Clamores de Eurewicscira' and 'Clamores in Lincolnia'. Individual entries, copied in a Secretary hand, are each prefaced by the rubricated name of the landowner in italic script. Names of counties, in their Domesday forms, were copied by the scribe at the head of each section and subsequently expanded to running-heads in the hand of the Essex antiquary Thomas Jekyll (d. 1653), clerk of the papers in the King's Bench, who added the index of contents (f. 102) that is tipped in at the end. His hand also occurs in some additions made on f. 3 of Harley MS 5167, Agard's abstract of the Lesser Domesday, covering Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, that is fellow to the present volume and bears the same watermark. The Harley MS figures as item 1 in William Holman's catalogue (Egerton MS 2382, f. 153v) of Jekyll's manuscripts, which is dated 25 July 1715. Of three contemporary copies of Agarde's Domesday abstract survive among the Library's collections Cotton MS Faustina C.IX, ff. 61-161, comprising Great Domesday only, bears the signature, dated 5 Mar. 1598 [i.e. 1589], and annotations of Joseph Holland, Cotton MS Julius C. I was transcribed by William Camden, and Lansdowne MS 329, which is the closest in physical presentation to the present manuscript and Harley MS 5167, bears a watermark similar to Briquet no. 3642 (from a document dated 1581). Agarde's index rerum to Domesday is Bodleian MS Top. Gen. C. 32. For further details see Elizabeth M. Hallam, Domesday Book through Nine Centuries, 1986, and 'Arthur Agarde and Domesday Book', in Sir Robert Cotton as Collector, ed. by Christopher Wright, 1997, pp. 253-261. Purchased from Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh, 23 Sept. 2000.

Paper: ff. ii+109. Circa early 17^th cent. Contemporary covers of limp vellum, incorporating remains of two leather ties, secured by six leather thongs and lettered in ink on the spine 'LIBER DOMESDAY.'. Watermark, traced in pencil on f. 105v, similar to Heawood, no. 1769 (dated to 1616). Leaves folded to provide vertical guidelines for copying of text, with catchwords added at the end of individual gatherings. Cancellation of leaves during copying signalled by paste-down stubs following ff. 68, 70, 88 and 90, with vellum strips for strengthening inserted following ff. 98 and 101. Contemporary foliation in ink from 1 to 101. Miscopyings on f. 72v corrected on paste-down slip and on f. 99 in different hand. Marginal annotations on ff. 51v, 61, 77v added in an unidentified hand; numerous marks of emphasis in the form of pointing hands. Jekyll's autograph contents-list pasted on a separate slip (f. 102) at the end. Contemporary pressmark comprising number '.2.' above the letters 'dm.' jotted in ink inside front cover (f. ii), along with modern annotations 'PR ID 1177' and 'h s' in pencil, and printed fragment, text reversed. Allegedly belonged to Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (d. 1716), though not included in Sotheby's sale-cat. of 7 Nov. 1966, lots 106-154. Owned, before 1986, by John McG. Hotson of Edinburgh: see Lyon and Turnbull sale-cat., Edinburgh, 23 Sept. 2000, lot 28 (with plate).