Royal MS 14 B I

ROLL of 'Cognomina conquisitorum Anglie cum domino Willelmo duce Normannie et conquestore Anglie': one of the rhyming compilations of surnames reputed to have some connexion with a lost bede-roll of Battle Abbey, but the true origin of which is somewhat obscure. The present form contains 379 names, preceded by the verses :

'Dicitur a bello Bellum locus hic quia bello Angligene uicti sunt hic in morte relicti. Martiris in Christi festo cecidere Calixti. Ex tunc preteritos numerus presens notat annos. ccclxx.'

These are followed by a couplet giving the date of the Conquest. At the end three couplets (the second is a chronogram) give the dates of the pestilences of 1349, 1361, and 1381. This form of the list is substantially the same as that printed by Hearne (Liber Niger Scaccarii, 1774, p. 522) from a copy which belonged to William Worcester dated 1419. A longer variety of it is in Harley MS-838, f.8b. The Duchess of Cleveland (Battle Abbey Roll, 1889) sets aside this text and that of Brompton (see 8 B. VI, art 11, and 13 E. IX) and bases her list on the rhyming text of Leland and the two alphabetical lists (a) of Holinshed, and (b) of Stowe and Duchesne; but it is evident that the two alphabetical lists are really derived from the rhyming texts, and it appears that the compiler of them used this form as well as that printed by Leland. List beg. 'Bastard, Baignard, Brassard, Maignard'; ends 'Banastre, Murle'.

Vellum roll. 3 ft. 7 in. x 7¹/₂ in, XV cent, Endorsed in a 16th cent. hand, 'I pray whan you haue lokyd and taken your plesure then immediatly to send hym home agayne. By your brother Wylliam Cheyne'. Not in the old catalogues.