Harley MS 1513

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Additions to the Calendar include: St David, St Chad (f. 2r), St Patrick (f. 2r), St Cuthmann of Steyning (Sussex) (f. 2v); St John of Beverley (ff. 3r, 5v), dedication of the church in Clapham, Sussex (1 July, f. 4r); St Ethelreda and St Frideswide (f. 5v).

Marginal additions by late 15th/early 16th-century hands relating to St Patrick and St John of Beverley (ff. 74v and 165r).

John Mochelgrove (d. 1458. i.e. January 1459), armiger, probably to be identified with John Michelgrove of Michelgrove, Sussex (known as John Faulconer), MP in 1445-1446: his obit added to the calendar margin under 27 January 'M quod bone memorie nobilis vir Johannes Mochelgrove armig. die sabbati in festo sancti Juliani episcopi mane hora sexta quasi completa ex hoc seculo migravit ad domino anno domini millesimo cccc^mo quinquagesimo octavo at anno regnis regis Henrici sexti tricesimo septimo cuius memoria sit in benedictos in secula seculorum' (f. 1r).

Thomas Wolf (d. 1465): his obit added to the calendar margin under 16 November (f. 6r; see Wright 1972).

Anne Apsley (d. 1483), wife to John Apsley: her obit added to the calendar margin under 19 October (f. 5v; see Wright 1972).

John Apsely, probably John Aspley of Michelgrove and Thakenham, Sussex (b. 1445, d. 1507), Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex: his obit: 'Obitus Johannes Apsley' (October) (f. 5v).

Thomas Wellys (b. 1507), son of Johannes Wellys and Margaret Schelly (perhaps a member of the Shelley family that inherited Michelgrove through the marriage of Elizabeth Michelgrove, posthumous daughter of John Michelgrove, and John Shelley): his birth added to the calendar margin under 1 August 'Hac die fuit natus Thomas Wellys filius Johannes Wellys and Margarete Schelly anno domini m. ccccc vii^o et anno regis Henrici septimi xxiii^o'(f. 4v; see Wright 1972).

Allen Bathurst (b. 1684, d. 1775), first Earl Bathurst, politician and descendent from the Apsley family (for the genealogy, see Julia Alexander Hankey, History of the Apsley and Bathurst Families (Cirenchester: Savory, 1889)): given by him to the Harley collection, as inscribed by the Harleian librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 'Hunc et insequentem codicem D.D. Alan Bathurst Arno [?] filius D. Benj. Bathurst militis' (f. i recto) and in the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808): 'Codex membranceus in fol. ampliori quem una cum illo qui sequitur, Domino meo dono dedit Alanus Bathurst (nunc Baro Barthust de Batlesden)'.

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), Duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.