Egerton MS 3126

CHARTULARY OR COUCHER-BOOK OF THE CISTERCIAN ABBEY OF WHALLEY, co. Lanc., founded at Stanlow, co. Chest., in 1172 and removed to Whalley in 1296, compiled temp. John de Lindley, abbot 1342-1377 (see the note at f. 30b), with additions down to the late 15th cent. on blank and added leaves at the beginning (ff. iib, 1-6), end (ff. 412b-420b), and between the sections passim. The latest documents copied in the original hand are dated 1346, but as a number of those dated 1343-1346 appear to have been added

during the course of the book's compilation (see e.g. ff. 145-147 b, 365b-366, 399b-412b passim), it seems likely that this process was begun somewhat earlier. The arrangement is by places, in 20 'tituli' or chapters, of which there is a list at f. 30b. A section of 15 papal bulls is included at the end of titulus iv, 'de ecclesia de Rachedale' (ff. 88-95); there is a contemporary table of contents at ff. 7-26b. The originals of deeds copied on ff. 78b, 116b, 230, 233, 235b, bearing press-marks corresponding to those given there, are now Add. Ch. 40015, 1060, Harley Ch. 52. H. 43(A), Add. Ch. 40016, 40013 respectively. The entire MS. was edited by W. A. Hulton, Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey, Chetham Soc., vols. x, xi, xvi, xx, 1847-1849 (the additions to the original compilation throughout being printed in an appendix); was used extensively by T. D. Whitaker, History of Whalley, 1801; and is the source of extracts printed in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. Caley, Bandinel, and Ellis, v, 1825, pp. 641-646. See also Brit. Mus. Quart., viii, 1933-1934, pp. 94-95; G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain, no. 1028. For other extant chartularies of the abbey, including Egerton MS. 2600 and Add. MS. 10374, see Davis, ibid., nos. 1026-1027, 1029-1030. Vellum; ff. iii + 420. 230 mm. x 150 mm. Mid XIV cent., with additions to late XV cent. Gatherings mainly of 12 leaves (i [added]6, viil8, viii-xiilll, xiv16, xix16, xxvii16, xxxi lacks 1, 2, xxxiii [last, added]6) with catchwords; iii-xxxii have contemporary numeration 1-29 at the foot of the first leaf, except xxviii from ,which the first leaf is lacking. The original parts of the MS. are ruled and uniformly written in a small charter hand with red initials, paragraphs, and underlining of the titles of deeds and other headings. ff. ii, iii are medieval pastedowns. A 17th-cent. ink foliation and marginalia are in the hand of Richard Gascoigne (cf. e.g. Add. MS. 40008), one of whose extracts from the MS. (pedigree of the Blackburn family, f. 393) is copied in Bodleian MS. Dodsworth 117, f. 23; see the letter from Edgar Lobel, 1934 (f. 1). Binding of bevelled wooden boards covered, 19th cent., with purple velvet and fastened with a silver-gilt clasp, hall-marked 1824-1825. The MS. apparently passed with the Abbey's site, in 1553, to Richard Assheton and remained in the hands of his descendants in the Assheton and Curzon families, Viscounts Curzon and Earls Howe, until sold at Christie's (sale-cat., 4-5 Dec. 1933, lot 173) as the property of the 5th Earl Howe 'removed from Penn House, Amersham'.