Add MS 40626

CASSIOBURY PAPERS. Vol. II. Court-book of the halimote of Cashio manor, in Watford, co. Hertf., 1238-1460: a volume similar to the preceding. For some of the rolls used in the compilation see Hist. MSS. Comm., Rep. on various Collections, vii, pp. 302, 306. The original portion, executed in Mote's cellarership, beg. "Extracta rotulorum . . . Halimot' apud Kaysho in octabis apostolorum Petri et Pauli anno r.r. Henrici XXII" [6 July 1238], but there are gaps due to loss (or, as at f. 15, illegibility) of the rolls, and a leaf seems to be lost after f. 1. From 40 Edw. III to the end of the reign it was perhaps made up at short intervals, but new series begin at 1 Ric. II (imperfect at the end, 7 Hen. V), and at 1 Hen. VI, the latter ending Wed. after St. Dunstan, 38 Hen. VI [21 May 1460]. The tallage for 5 Edw. I (f. 18) gives only three names, the rest being assessed together at 20s. The names of the assessors are added. Probates of a few wills are noted, 2 Ric. II-4 Hen. V (ff. 95-126), but several of the wills are not recited. In a plea at a court on Thurs. aft. Whitsunday, 21 Ric. II [30 May 1398] (f . 111 b), reference is made to a disseisin during the Peasants' Revolt ("tempore insurrectionis communium") in 1381. Vellum; ff. 156. 18 in. x 13 in. xiv-xv centt. Gatherings normally of 8 (temp. Hen. VI of 12) leaves; catchwords in the second series only. The binding (17th-18th cent.) was rough calf, slightly blind-tooled. After the Dissolution the manor was given in 1545 to Sir Richard Morison (al. Moryson), the diplomatist, whose inscriptions are on f. 7 b in Greek, with a quotation from Hesiod, (sic) and in Latin on f. 15 b, "Sum Ricardi Morisyn." It passed, by the marriage of his great-granddaughter Elizabeth to Arthur, 1st Lord Capell, into the family of the Earls of Essex; see Vict. C. Hist., ii, p. 453. Presented with Add. Ch. 64919-66125 by Adela, Countess of Essex.