MSS. in the Public Record Office

- RELATING TO NORFOLK.

COMMUNICATED BY

WALTER RYE, Esq.

To the inexperienced topographer or genealogist, the immense bulk of our national records is the greatest hindrance to their use. Bewildered by the extent of the field before him, he knows not where to begin, and-crede experto-loses no little time before he learns how to apply his labour successfully. Of course, no printed directions can ever supersede the necessity of gaining practical knowledge by personal experience; but I venture to hope that the few following memoranda, honestly copied from my note book, into which they were jotted from time to time for my own use, may be of service to some yet younger archæologist than myself.

The documents relating to Norfolk preserved in the Public Record Office may be broadly divided into three classes, viz., those, complete in themselves, which relate exclusively to Norfolk; those which form separate skins of rolls relating to the whole country; and those which, like the last, relate to the whole country, but, unlike them, are not divided into shires, but contain entries relating to all counties jumbled up together.

I. Of the first class, I should think the earliest are the Ministers' Accounts of the Lands of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, which are mostly the stewards' accounts of his different lands, giving the receipts from rent, &c., and all manner of deductions, as wages, purchases of cattle, &c. They extend from the reign of Henry the Third to that of Edward the Second, consist of 613 rolls or packets containing one skin or more each, and relate (i.a.) to the following Norfolk localities

There are many Court Rolls, or portions of court rolls, once belonging to the Augmentation Office, the references to which will be found in an index on shelf 5 of division J of the New Search Room. Among them are some relating to the manors of

Many of these (e.g. Kellyng and Sharyngton) are of a very early date, but there are no complete series.

Of documents of which a series exists, the Feet of Fines are perhaps as early as any. A longer account of them than I could give here will be found in the Introduction to the Notes of them about to be published by this Society.

The Subsidy Rolls, which were records of the Exchequer, date, for Norfolk, from the 30th Edward I., for the end of whose reign there are six rolls (numbered 11 to 13.)

149

149

There is no subsidy roll for Norfolk for the reign of Edward II., but for the 1st Edward III. there is a splendid roll (1), which, though now imperfect, still contains seventytwo long skins, written on both sides in double columns, giving the names of, on a moderate estimate, 37,000 persons, with the sums at which they were rated, arranged under the villages and towns where they resided.

This roll positively forms a Post-office Directory of the period, and though so long is well worth searching. A still finer one exists for 6 Edward III. (), extending over eighty-one membranes, and from this date the Subsidy Rolls are as plentiful as they are valuable.

The Coram Rege (Crown Pleas), Quo Warranto, Assize, Coroners, and Gaol Delivery, Rolls, which are generally taken as one class, and to which the references run consecutively in order of date, form also another extremely valuable series.

The Crown Pleas contain, besides inquiries relating to crown property, all manner of entries relating to criminal matters, as presentments of illegal rescues, sudden deaths, murders, duels, false money, &c., &c., and afford most curious pictures of the inner life of our county in bygone times.

Here, for example, are found particulars of the great riot on Tombland between the monks and citizens, with the names of those hung for participation in it.

The earliest for Norfolk are three rolls of Crown Pleas for 34 Henry III., (1250) containing respectively 26, 35, and 1 membranes. In all there would seem to be some 125 rolls, (containing an immense number of skins) exclusively relating to our county.

The names of most of the other rolls of this class sufficiently

1 All these rolls belong to the Crown side of the Queen's Bench.

explain their contents. The Gaol Delivery Rolls, so called because the criminals were delivered over to the jurors to receive their fate from their hands, usually begin by stating the fact of the prisoner's capture, and then give the reasons for it, (something in the same way as in our present indictments,) and the record of the prisoner putting himself upon the country, and conclude with the verdict, and sentence if he were guilty. Among them are very many amusing and interesting entries, two instances of which will suffice.

In the roll for 1 Edward II. is the trial of John de Trows and Alice his wife, who were arrested by William Gilbert and John Starling, constables of North Wold, for a suspicion they had against them, "p eo qd vixerunt in magnis t voluptuosis expū ultra facultate bonoz suoz." But the clerk and the jury seemed to think this suspicion not sufficient, for the entry concludes "et qz causa captōis ñlla est, Et etiam jur sup hoc examinati dicut qd in ñllo male godun? Id pde Johes Alic eant quieti."

In the 6th Edward II. John the son of Peter, of East Lexham, is charged with killing John Ballok. It seems the latter had stolen two pieces of bacon from Emma, the wife of William Rooks, in East Lexham, who had raised a hue and cry (hutesium) after him, whereupon he fled and was pursued by Fitz Peter into the open field (campo) of the same town, where he turned on his pursuer with a drawn sword and insulted him; upon which Fitz Peter hit him over the head with a hatchet, and, as the roll concisely puts it, the said John Ballok "statim obijt." Fitz Peter being acquitted for what we should call justifiable homicide.

The very important evidence that the thousands of thousands of entries, similar to the above, give on the domestic life and habits of our ancestors, at a period when history is nearly silent about them, cannot be overvalued.

Among the Miscellaneous Records of the Chancery are many relating to our county, e. g.

2nd Rep. of Dep. Keeper of Public Records, p. 57.

Roll of names of those assigned to protect the sea and maritime parts of (i. a.) Norfolk, and of the names of the knights of the shires (4 memb.) 61. Inquisitions de prisis taken at Lynne, &c., 3 Edward II. (3 memb.)

61. Names of those having a knight's fee who were not knights in 6 Edward II.

65. Certificates of number of ships in Norfolk and Suffolk (4 memb.)

3rd Rep., p. 189. Roll of names of knights who held in capite in Norfolk and Suffolk in 45 Edward III.

36

Petition of the Bishop of Norwich to the King, and roll of the names of ecclesiastics in his diocese who have not paid the subsidy in 46 Edward III. (2 memb.)

191. Certificates of guilds taken 12 Ric. II., two bundles containing 137 and 263 membranes, very many of which relate to Norfolk.

A paper on these very interesting records will be found at p. 105 of this volume.

192. Knights' fees of the Duke of Norfolk,

1 Henry IV. (22 memb.)

193. Names of the creditors of John Duke of Norfolk in 10 Henry VI. (5 memb.) 202. A few proofs of age; about half-a-dozen relating to Norfolk.

Another species of Chancery Records are the Chancery Records in Filaciis, comprising royal and other letters, petitions, &c., which have been not unaptly termed the State Papers of early history.