Add MS 42055

REGISTER OF FEES, RENTAL, EXTENT, etc., of Culford, co. Suff., the property of Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Latin. Apparently one of a series drawn up under William Curteys, Abbot 1429-1446, of which further examples (all, except where otherwise stated, for co. Suff.) are Brit. Mus., Add. MSS. 34689 (Fornham), 45951 (Palgrave), 14850 (Redgrave, etc., f. 1; Rickinghall, f. 85); Cambridge Univ. Lib., Add. MS. 6874 (Harlow, co. Essex) and Bodley MS. Gough Suffolk 23 (Coney Weston). Transcriptions of others are in the registers of William Curteys (Add. MS. 7096, f. 39, Stanton; Add. MS. 14848, f. 200, Oakley; f. 204, Thrandeston). The contents of the MS., which is divided into two parts, are as follows:-

A. (1) Statement of the evidence for the title of the Abbey to Culford (beg. 'Culford contulit sancto Edmundo Thurketel Dreing'), followed by various memoranda and deeds, of which most appear in other Bury registers, see The Pinchbeck Register, ed. Lord William Hervey, 1925, i, pp. 6, 281, 282, 336; ii, pp. 220, 287, which the present MS. explicitly cites as 'Registrum W.P.' (e.g. ff. 1, 4); Harley MS. 743, ff. 235-235 b; and Add. MSS. 14847, f. 36b, 14848, ff. 24-26, 34689, f. 4. Characteristic of the whole series are the headings 'Que sanctus Edmundus habuit ibidem tempore Willielmi Conquestoris' and 'Que Abbas clamat ibidem' (both f. 1) which follow after the initial statement of title, the former introducing here the relevant portion of the Feudal Book of Abbot Baldwin (see D. C. Douglas, Feudal Documents from the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, p. 7). ff. 1-8.

(2) De Inquisicione Feodorum Domini Abbatistam liberorum tenencium quam custumariorum of 22 Edw. III [1348-1349], showing the holdings of tenants in Culford. Ends 'Finis Rentalis predicti.' ff. 8-22 b.

(3) 'Bunde siue Limites Ville de Culford'. A statement of the bounds, followed by a note that further evidences concerning Culford might be seen in 'Rubeo Registro Abbatis extractas extra rotulos Curie in verbo Culford'. f. 23. B. (1) An extent of Culford, including the manors of Culford Hall and 'Esthalle', revised in Nov. 14 Hen. VI [1435] and showing the tenants and amount of each holding. For similar revision of a Bury rental in the following year, see Add. MS. 14848, f. 201b (Hoo in Oakley). ff. 25-47.

(2) A Rental of Culford, revised 22 Edw. III [Jan.-May 1348], the holdings of tenants being classified according to their nature and size. Another copy is in Add. MS. 14849, ff. 19b-22b. ff. 47b-51. Vellum; ff. ix + 56. 16 in. x 10 in. XV cent. [1429-1446]. Gatherings of twelve leaves, except the last, which is of eight, with catchwords, and mostly numbered in the lower right-hand corner. Made in two parts, of which ff. 1-24 form the first and ff. 25-56 (ff. 52-56 are blank) the second, but bound together in an apparently contemporary binding, vellum with leather thongs, and kept rolled. Inserted inside the binding is a bisected leaf (ff. ii, vi, vii, viii) from a 13th cent. MS. of what are described (f. viii) as the sermons of Petrus Comestor but more usually known as the Allegoriae of Hugo de Sancto Victore, see Migne, Patr. Lat., clxxv, coll. 754, 791-797 and 809-825 passim; Cat. Royal MSS., i, p. 90, on 4. D. VII, art. 2, a St Albans MS. which has the passages in the order given here on ff. 227-227b and 231-232. At f. 1 is a pen-work initial with partial border, with which cf. Add. MS. 34689, f. 1 and Cambridge Univ. Lib. Add. MS. 6874 (reproduced by J. L. Fisher, 'The Harlow Cartulary', Trans. Essex Arch. Soc., xxii, pp. 239-270). At f. 51 is a note in a 16th cent. hand on the foliation; on f. 1 is a 16th cent. foliation '10' though there is no apparent loss of material; another foliation (ff. 1-27) in the same hand runs from ff. 25-51. The MS. does not appear in M. R. James's list of Bury registers printed in Engl. Hist. Rev., xli, 1926, pp. 259-260. British Red Cross Society's sale-cat., Christie's, 22 Mar. 1917, lot 1674. Quaritch's cat. no. 430, 1929, item 622.