Add MS 50121

THE LILLESHALL CHARTULARY Chartulary of the Augustinian Abbey of Lilleshall, co. Salop. (founded 1144-8); temp. Henry III, after 1237 (ff. 52-53b), with additions to 15th cent. Latin and French. G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 1958, no. 577. The contents are dated temp. Henry I [between 1100-1135]-early 15th cent. The original 13th cent. compilation begins at f. 23, but is now preceded by later material bound in subsequently, including (ff. 2-13b) a quire from a register of the Cluniac priory of Wenlock, co. Salop, containing material dated 1342-1344, and now concluding

(f. 13b) with a catchword, 'capellis predictis', mid 14th cent. Davis, ibid., no. 1008. Also includes:- (a) Fifteenths in Bradford hundred, 14th cent. f. 17;-

(b) Receipts of Lilleshall, including rents in Nantwich, co. Chest., 13th cent.

ff. 47b-48;- (c) Statutes of the Legatine Council of London, 1237. Printed, with collation of the present MS., in Councils and Synods, II, ed. F. M. Powicke and

C. R. Cheney, 1964, pp. 245-59. ff. 52-53b;- (d) Taxation of temporals of abbeys in Shrewsbury archdeaconry, late 14th cent. ff. 54-55b;- (e) Valor of Lilleshall possessions in Northwich hundred, with archidiaconal procurations, early 14th cent. f. 64;- (f) Rental of Buildwas, early 14th cent. f. 65;- (g) Rental of Lilleshall property in Shrewsbury, of the fee of the church of St Alkmund, late 14th cent.

ff. 87b-88;- (h) Valor of a portion of the vicariate of St Alkmund, late 14th

cent. f. 89;- (i) Taxation of St Alkmund parish, Shrewsbury, late 14th cent.

ff. 89b-90;- (j) Vicars of North Molton, co. Devon, to 1461. f. 92. An index to the contents, 17th cent., is bound in as ff. ii-xxii. Bodl. Lib. MS. Top. Salop.d.3, a transcript of the present MS. by R. Eyton, 1855, was used in his Antiquities of Shropshire, 1854-60. Belonged to Sir Richard Leveson, 1604 (the abbey was granted to James Leveson in 1539); said by Eyton to have been exchanged for the Shrewsbury cartulary, now Aberystwyth, Nat. Libr. of Wales MS. 7851, with Sir Richard Lee, 2nd Bart., of Langley and Acton Burnell, 1638; said to have been with John Smith, of Acton Burnell, early 18th cent.; by 1838 in the possession of George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland, and his successors thereafter. See Davis, ibid.

Vellum and (ff. ii-xxvii) paper; ff. xxvii+94. 350 x 260mm. (ff. 2-13, 280 x 200mm.). Temp. Henry III-XV cent. F. 1 is a vellum flyleaf with conjoint stub and ff. 2-13 an added quire. Gatherings (from f. 14), i10 (4 cancelled), ii8, iii8, iv10, v12 (11 cancelled), vi4, vii10 (f. 72 is a leaf stitched to f. 71b), viii12 (irregular), ix12. Written in single columns in several 13th-15th cent. hands, with some rubrication and a few red and blue initials in the earliest portion of the MS. Binding of brown leather on boards with ornamental metal clasps and stepped corner guards with bosses (the top right and bottom left guards on the front cover are missing), and diamond shaped plates with bosses in the centre of the covers, 15th cent. 'LILSHVLL' is stamped in gilt on the front and back covers. Ff. ii-xxvii are an index and notes on paper, 17th cent., bearing the watermark: Giles Durand, a horn. See W. A. Churchill, Watermarks, 1935, no. 314. Ff. xxiv-xxvb comprise extracts from a Haughmond register, here described as 'penes D. Edwardum Jones de Salop armiger . . . 1644', of which Harl. MS. 466 is possibly a surviving fragment.