Add MS 37771

CHARTULARY or "Coucher Book" of Selby Abbey, co. York. Latin. The foundation charter of William the Conqueror is included (f.11). The charters are arranged under places, beginning with Selby, except the royal charters, the majority of which are given together at the beginning. The main part of the book is written in a hand of the early 14th cent., with rubricated headings and (as far as f. 175 b) initials alternately in red and blue. Many additions have, however, been made, in various later hands, some of them on inserted leaves and two on the first leaf, before the tabulae; the latest document is of 1442 (f. 45 b). In the printed edition (see below), ii. p. 235, a document is given as of 1445, but the date should be 1345. On f.1 b is an alphabetical tabula of places in a 15th cent. hand, with later additions, and on ff 2-7 b one in a 14th cent. hand arranged in the order of the documents, but with several omissions. The book was folio'd by the antiquary Richard Gascoigne, who has added a note on the foliation, 18 Oct. 1620 (f. 222). Several of the original documents are included in the Selby Charters (Add. Ch. 45798-45961). Another Selby chartulary is in Vit. E. xvi. ff. 97-162 b). Published as The Coucher Book of Selby, ed. J. T. Fowler, Yorksh. Archaeol. and Topogr-. Assoc., Record Series, vols. x. (1891) and xiii. (1893). Vellum; ff. 222. 1 ft. 1½ in. x 8¾ in. xiv., xv. centt. On f. 1 is the following unsigned note:- "This Bouke was delyuered to me by maister Robert Rogers [al. Selby, last abbot of Selby] vppon Fryday the xxviite day off July Anno Regni Regis Henrici VIII xxxvte [1543] at his house in Gowthorp In Selby, Sir Georg Goode beyng present his Chapleyn." The writer was possibly Sir Leonard Beckwith, who acquired the Abbey from Sir Ralph Sadler soon after it was granted to him by the Crown in 1540. From his son Roger it passed to Edward Talbot, afterwards 8th Earl of Shrewsbury, and from him, about the end of the 16th cent., to Sir Thomas Walmsley. The chartulary is referred to by Tanner (Not. Monast., p. 638) as in the possession of Thomas Walmsley, Esq., in 1620, aud later in that of Charles Walmsley. On the marriage of Catherine Walmsley, the last heiress, to the, 7th Lord Petre of Writtle in 1712, it passed with the property into the Petre family (cf. W. W. Morrell, Hist. and Antiquities of Selby, ch. 5, and Add. Ch. 45875-45912), and finally it was purchased by Sir Thomas Brooke in May, 1868 (Coucher Book, i. p. xviii.). In modern brown morocco binding and case.

Selby Abbey; W.R., Yorkshire: Chartulary, early 14th cent., with additions.: Lat.

Chartularies, Wiltshire: Selby Abbey, co. York, with additions.: early 14th cent.: Lat.

includes:

• f. 1 Robert Selby, alias Rogers; Abbot of Selby: Surrender of the Selby chartulary: 1543.
• f. 1 Sir George Goode, Chaplain of the Abbot of Selby: Witnessed surrender of Selby Chartulary: 1543.
• f. 11 William I of England: Foundation charter of Selby Abbey: circ. 1070.