Egerton MS 3712

CHARTULARY OF THE AUGUSTINIAN PRIORY OF WOMBRIDGE, co. Salop (founded 1130-1135); circ. 1500 (after 15 June 1493). Latin and, occasionally, English. Contains unabbreviated copies of royal, papal, episcopal and private charters, 12th cent.-15 June 1493 (the last dated entry, f. 69), arranged topographically except for some royal charters, papal bulls (one with copies of the rota, monogram and signatures, ff. 84b-85), etc., grouped at the end (ff. 79-93b). At ff. 86-89b is copied a judgement by papal judgesdelegate, 1294, in a dispute between Wombridge and Robert de Warr', portioner of the church of Wroxeter, co. Salop (including an elaborate description of the seals appended to the original), of which another contemporary copy, formerly used as the binding, is f. 97. Abstracts of the complete contents of the MS. by George Morris, 1824, are printed in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1st ser., ix, 1886, pp. 305-380; xi, 1888, pp. 325-348; 2nd ser., i, 1889, pp. 294-310; ix, 1897, pp. 96-106; x, 1898, pp. 180-192; xi, 1899, pp. 331-346; xii, 1900, pp. 205-228. G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 1958, no. 1066. Vellum; ff. v+97. 305 mm.× 225 mm. Circ. 1500 (after 15 June 1493). Gatherings, i⁸ (1 cancelled, lacks 2), ii⁶, iii⁸, iv⁸, v¹⁰, vi^l2 (3, 7 cancelled), vii⁸- x ⁸, xi¹² (3, 8, 12 cancelled), xii⁶. Catchwords in ornamental scroll labels. F. 1 is a flyleaf. The charters are numbered by topographical sections in contemporary marginal roman numerals (II = 100, C = 120); the first section begins with charter no. ii, indicating the loss of a leaf before f. 2. A 19th cent. ink foliation by Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1-100, omits 2 (intentionally, see 3-5, altered from 2-4) and wrongly suggests the loss of further leaves by omitting 46 and 50: (46) = vi⁷ , a cancel, and (50) = a supposedly missing leaf conjoint to 49 (f. 47), to which the conjoint leaf would in fact have been vi³ , a cancel. There is no loss of text apparent at either point. Written in single column, mostly in one cursive hand, with red titles and initials, some decorated (Christ with a three-forked beard, f. 89b), decorative penwork and occasional drawings of notaries' marks. ff. iv and v are conjoint binding leaves, bound in reverse order (the correct order being ff. v, vb, iv, ivb) from a late 13th cent. Antiphoner written in England, containing material for Lauds of Sunday II to Matins of Sunday III in Lent. The use differs somewhat from Sarum. Brown hide binding with gold tooling by Lewis, 1827, see f. iii. The name of Thomas Forster, last Prior of Wombridge, is written on ff. 1 and 97b. The MS. belonged in 1824 to [Thomas] Lloyd, who found it in a sizeshop; see Trans. of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Soc., 1st ser., ix, 1886, pp. 305-306. Bought from Stewart and Wheatley in 1827 by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., (Phillipps MS. 3517); Phillipps sale, Sotheby's, 27-28 June 1938, lot 443; subsequently owned by G. P. Mander (Sotheby's sale-cat., 22-24 Feb., 1954, lot 12).