Egerton MS 3663

REGISTER OF RAMSEY ABBEY

Register of the Benedictine Abbey of Ramsey, co. Hunt.; early 14th cent. Latin and Anglo-Norman French (ff. 43, 43b, 93, 93b). The contents include copies of papal, royal, episcopal and private charters, fines, inquisitions, statutes, pleas, lists of fees and much other miscellaneous matter, partly arranged by subject, mostly temp. Edward I. The original register consists of ff. 22-132b; eight leaves (ff. i-viii in the original numeration) containing copies of papal bulls have been excised at the beginning, and at least fourteen leaves (ff. cxlvii-clx) are wanting at the end, as can be determined from the original contents list at ff. 13-15. A slightly later contents list at ff. 19-21 includes a note of the additional matter 'in principio libri' to be found at ff. 1-12 but not the copies on f. 12b of two letters of Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, 8, 19 Jan. 13¹⁹/₂₀ . An incomplete contents list at f. 4b is written in the same hand as legal extracts relating to l310, etc. added to f.3. A 17th cent. contents list in English on f. ivb relates particularly to boundaries. Copies of the spurious charters of Edgar (imperfect at the beginning), Edward the Confessor and William I are included at ff. 22-27b (P. H. Sawyer, Anglo- Saxon Charters, 1968, nos. 798, 1030; H. W. C. Davis, Regesta Regum Anglo- Normannorum, i, 1913, no. 95). For this and other Ramsey chartularies see G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 1958, nos. 787-800, and for a list of original Ramsey charters, account rolls, etc., see J. A. Raftis, The Estates of Ramsey Abbey, Toronto, 1957, pp. 331-332. Vellum; ff. viii + 132. 290 mm. ×210 mm. Early xiv cent. Gatherings, i⁴, ii⁸, iii⁶ (5 cancelled, f. 17 an inserted leaf), iv³ (? 1 cancelled), v⁸ (lacks 1-4), vi¹⁰ 1-5 numbered i-v in lower margin), vii⁸, viii⁸, ix¹⁰ (1 and 9 cancelled), x⁴, xi⁸, xii¹⁰ (7 cancelled), xiii⁴, xiv¹⁴, xv¹², xvi¹² (catchword), xvii² (2 cancelled), xviii² (2 cancelled), xix⁸. The initial leaves of gatherings xiv-xvii are numbered I-IIII in the lower margins; the end leaves of gatherings xv and xvi are also numbered. Ff. iv and vii are flyleaves. A contemporary roman foliation ix-cxlvi (i.e. 116: c=70; lxviii is repeated four times, cxi is omitted, f. 84 is unnumbered) runs from ff. 22-132, and an early 17th cent. foliation 1-127 (f. 112 unnumbered) runs from ff. 5-132. Written in several early 14th cent. hands, with later additions. Some penwork initials and decoration. Notes in 16th-18th cent. hands on ff. ivb, vi, and in the margins. The annotation 'scripsi' (f. ivb and passim) resembles the hand of Sir Henry Spelman. Various names written in a 16th cent. court hand on f. 16 include 'Maister Mildmay', 'Monsieur Chastilion', 'Comp[ut]us Thome More' and 'William Dodington'; the name 'Mary Gamble' (or 'Gambel') is written on f . 16b. Marginal notes and underlinings in the text of the names of St John (ff. 30b, 32, 34) and Ripton (ff. 34b, 62b, 98b and 101) suggest that the manuscript was in the possession of Sir John St John, to whom the manor of Abbot's Ripton was granted in 1541, and his family. The manuscript was lot 556 in the Craven Ord sale of 25-27 June 1829, and was afterwards MS. 3791 in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. (his notes, f. ib, and the Middle Hill stamp, f. ii). Sotheby's sale-cat.

1 Dec. 1947, lot 75.