Egerton MS 3029

CHARTULARY Of the Perpetual Chantry or College of St. John Baptist, Shottesbrook, co. Berks. (founded in 1337 by Sir William Trussell, of Kibblestone, co. Staff., for a warden, five chaplains and two clerks), apparently compiled shortly after the termination of the suit respecting the church of Basildon in 1384 (see below) and the ordination of the additional chantry for the soul of William Fryth in 1386 (see f. 65), and containing deeds from 8 Hen. III (f. 25 b), with additions to 31 Hen. VI (f. 58 b). Lat. and French. The chartulary is concerned with the various possessions of the college, viz. :— lands and rents in Shottesbrook and the advowson of the church, the advowsons and rectories of Basildon and Ashampstead, co. Berks., lands and rents in Cookham, White Waltham, Waltham St. Lawrence and New Windsor, co. Berks., houses and shops in Birchin Lane, parish of St. Edmund, Lombard Street, London, etc. A topographical arrangement appears to have been originally intended ; but owing to mutilation (leaves are certainly wanting after ff. 1, 2, 58, 64, 65, 66, 111, 113, 122) and the fact that most of the documents have been entered repeatedly (e.g. a grant of the reversion of a house and lands in Shottesbrook occurs on ff. 9 b, 19, 19 b, 99 b) the volume is in considerable disorder, and the deeds relating to the London property (ff. 59-66, but see also ff. 57, 58), which cover the period 1294-1398, alone form a continuous series. The largest and most instructive group of instruments (ff. 67-111) resulted from the successful suit (1379-1384) for the appropriation of the rectory of Basildon, together with its dependent chapel of Ashampstead (for which see ff. 27 b, 34-39), to the college. Amongst them are :— (a) The articles propounded by John Bradewell, the warden, in the prosecution of his claim, with the depositions of local witnesses, which set out the early history of the college in detail and prove that its buildings and revenues suffered great damage about the time of the pestilence of 1348 [sic for 1349]. ff. 80 b-92 ;— (b) The foundation ordinance as confirmed by the Bishop and Chapter of Salisbury (another fragmentary but less inaccurate copy of which is on f. 112). f. 92. The MS. contains numerous extracts from public and other records, including the Domesday Survey (ff. 44 b, 54 b, 114), the " Extract Hundred Rolls " (see Rotuli Hundredorum, Rec. Comm., i, pp. 9-17 passim), 3 [sic for 4] Edw. I (ff. 48-50), the Register of Robert Wyville, Bishop of Salisbury, 1337 (f. 118), Perambulations of the Forest of Windsor in cos. Surr. and Berks. (the former printed by G. J. Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest, Selden Soc., p. 117), 28 Edw. I (f. 32), assessments of an eighteenth, 13 Edw. III, and of a fifteenth, 48 Edw. III, in Shottesbrook and White Waltham (ff. 30, 29 b), and of Peter's Pence in Shottesbrook, 16 Hen. VI (f. 58 b). A

letter in French, temp. Edw. III-Rich. II, proposes an exchange of properties (Winkles, in Bray, co. Berks., and Guilsborough, co. Northt.) then belonging to the Brocas family (f. 32) ; two other letters of the same period (f. 33 b), written by Richard [le Scrope, 1st Baron] Scrope, Steward of the Household, and Adam de Hertyngdon, Clerk of the King's Works, may be connected with the same family. On f. 44 is a note concerning a patron's right of self-presentation to a living, apparently taken from a commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX, lib. iii, tit. xxxviii, cap. 26, and stated to be by " Joh[ann]es Andrew " [Andreae]. Indulgences by William Whittlesey, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Simon de Sudbury, Bishop of London, to contributors to the college, in 1373, will be found on ff. 22, 33 b. A detached slip of vellum at the end (f. 124), headed " Lib[er]e tene[n]t[es] de Sottesbrok. A^o r.r. Henr. [VI] XV^o," contains information respecting holdings of the Prior of Hurley in Shottesbrook obtained from the same sources as entries on ff. 29 b, 56. Marginal annotations in several 16th cent. hands occur throughout. Vellum; ff. i + 124. 14 1/4 in. x 10 in. Late XIV-XV centt. Gatherings irregular. Stamped binding of limp brown leather, with flap and brass buckle, the strap or fastener wanting, 16th cent. The possessions of the college passed to the Crown under the statute 1 Edw. VI, c. 14, and (with the exception of the rectory, tithes, etc., of Shottesbrook) were granted to Thomas and Edward Weldon on 10 Aug. 1548 (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1547-48, p. 404). The chartulary was probably included in the grant, for on f. 122 b is the name Elizabeth Welldon. In an account of Shottesbrook, appended (pp. 119 et seq.) to J. Leland's Itinerary, 2nd ed. (1744), vol. v, Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, twice refers to chartularies of the college, and states that its original muniments, which, by 1694, had descended from the Weldons to Stephen Edwards, of White Waltham, were then (1711) in the hands of Francis Cherry, lord of the manor of Shottesbrook. These muniments may be identical with others stated elsewhere by Hearne to be in the possession of Sir Roger Mostyn, 3rd Bart. (see Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vi, pt.iii (1846), p.1447). The MS. certainly belonged to Sir Thomas Mostyn, 4th Bart. (bookplate of arms, with signature and number 2, dated 1744 (cf. Add. 40000), f. 1). No. 94 (cf. f. 1) in the list of Lord Mostyn's MSS. in Hist. MSS. Commission, 4th Report, App., p. 351. Sold at the sale of the 3rd Lord Mostyn's library (Sotheby's sale-cat., 13 July 1920), lot 17. From the Farnborough Fund.