1 In the way of Language, there is this drawback to the prezent volume. As all the old Anglo-Saxon Charters were copied in the King's writing-den, and thus their dialect got alterd, so these Wills must have all been copied in London, and their dialect more or less spoilt. Still, some do keep strong dialectal marks. De, dey for the, they,' bun be, tho to, ayder either, til to, quan when, quiche which, pis es these are, os as, 3eifi given, volle (Devon), full, deliuery deliver, howght owd, schal shall, chete sheet, chippe ship, sholde sold (22/31), here year, yerth earth, zhely yearly, &c. &c., will be useful to Morris, Skeat, Sweet, and other dialect-workers. The ryte heires' of 18/7 goes, with other like words elsewhere, to show that the guttural gh was not sounded as the fonetists would hav us believ. One of the oddest spellings I've noted, is gogement for 'judgment.' For the Cockney 'ham am,' 'heldest eldest,' see H in List of Words; also W, for w insted of v. The Notes, foot and end, are not so full as I could have wisht; but I had no time to fish for more. One of the blessings of being a Director is, that when you want specially to work at a favourite subject—my Old-Spelling Shakspere it was this time—you have to put it aside, and take up an altogether different one that you 're out of tune for, because your Society must have a Text out by Christmas to fill up its year's issue. Hence the present volume has been done against time, and hasn't the notes from Tanner's Notitia Monastica, and all the County Histories, that it ought to hav. But I've done the work as well as I could in the time allowd; and Mr. J. Horace Round and Mr. J. Challenor Smith for people and places, Miss My. Lambert for Romanist. services, Mr. W. G. Stone for Jonetis genets, and some places in Lewis, Mr. E. Peacock for some Lincolnshire names, Prof. Skeat and other friends, hav to some extent supplied my shortcomings, and earnd my hearty thanks. To my = of Latin contractions hav now and then gone astray-see Notes, p. 135, 137. The reader will charitably remember the old adage, Quod adest boni consule. You must not looke a giuen horse in the mouth.' 1616. Withal's Dict. by B. R. p. 578. For Dress, see Gowns, Blue, Green, Russet, Scarlet, Sangwyn,' &c. For Ornaments, see 'Maple, Sink-foil, Baleys, Oyche, Ruby, Silver,' &c. For the Statue of Lady Warwick naked, see her Will, 116/9. For a Brass of Wife and 7 Children, 81/9. 1 See the List of Words. friend Miss Teena Rochfort-Smith, I am also indebted for the List of Words and Places in the first 8 pages of the book, and for soothing my soul when, on certain evenings, I was grinding at the rest of that wearing work', by singing me all my old favourite mezzo-soprano songs, 'Che faro', 'Lascia ch'io pianga', 'Cangio d'Aspetto', 'Adelaide', 'Voi che sapete', 'Du bist die Ruh', 'Ave Maria', 'Non e ver', 'Ruth', 'Oh rest in the Lord', 'Oh for the wings of a dove,' &c. &c. May all opprest Indexers hav the like sweet consolement ! British Museum (5 p.m., under the Electric light), Dec. 5, 1882. 1 The Lists don't profess to be exhaustive, tho they took a long time. Bequests of Souls are not indext, as they're in nearly every Will. Of other frequent bequests, only a few samples are given. Early English Text Society. ORIGINAL SERIES, No. 78. 1882. THE FIFTY EARLIEST ENGLISH WILLS. ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Mr. Round and Mr. Challenor Smith now find, alas! that a few Wills near to 1400 A.D. (including at least two printed by Dugdale) escaped Mr. S.'s note-book. So we must have another volume some day. Miss Marx will start at copying the fresh Wills, as soon as Huon and The Four Sons of Aymon are clear for our Extra Series. p. v, l. 5; p. 4, 1. 1; p. 155, col. 2, 1. 10; for Hampshire, read Dorsetshire p. vi, 1. 1, after "BROWNE", insert "(alias atte Grove)." 1. 4; p. 45, 46; for Thomas (Bathe), read John. 1. 5; p. 47, 1. 8; for Weston, read Weston Underwood. 1. 16, for Hornsey, read (Hornsey) p. vii, 1. 8, for English Wills, read English Will p. xi, note. Read "Perhaps of his Bocce too. is at 39/6; and his 'Koke of London' at 94/11. book, is bequeathd on p. 50, 1. 18." His name 'Jankyn Clerk' The Pore Caitiff, a Wycliffite p. xv, 1. 8, for schal, read schel. p. 5, 1. 5. Johane my doughter, my sone is wyf. She was daughter of Roger, Lord De La Warr, the hero of Crécy and Poictiers (by his 2nd wife Alianore, dau. of John, Lord Mowbray), and heiress in her issue (by the half-blood) to her two brothers, successive lords. It was through her that the Barony of De La Warr came into the West family.-J. H. R. p. 5, 1. 5. paled black and white. That is, striped vertically. It would be blazoned in Heraldry-"paly sable and argent." Joan, Lady Abergavenny, in her will (1434) bequeaths a similar "Bed of Velvet, white and black paled, with Quyshions, Tapettes, and formers that long to the same bed.”—J. H. R. p. 5, 1. 28. Sir Nichol Cliston knyght. Sir Nicholas de Clifton, of Clifton (then Cliston), near Preston, Lancashire. He was in the French wars with his father-in-law, Sir Thomas West, and was made Governor of Ham in Picardy, 1383.-J. H. R. p. 5, 1. 29. Thomas Cliston here sone. He accompanied Henry V. into France, 1415, and fought at Agincourt with his brothers.-J. H. R. p. 5; p. 50; p. 136. Bequests of English Books. Mr. Challenor Smith has lately noted gifts, in 1433, of the Story of Joseph, St. Patrick's Purgatory, Alquin's Sermon, and Piers Plowman. In the Will of Eleanor Purdeley, widow, of London, Commissary Court, 1433: "libros Anglicanos, videlicet the Storie of Josep, Patrikek purgatore, and ye sermon of altquyne." Bequest of "librum vocatum piers plowman."-Will of Thos. Roos, Commissary Court, 1433. Mr. Round notes a bequest of "my Book of Tribulacion " by Sir Lewis Clifferd (the Lollard) in 1404. p. 6, 1. 6. a scochon of my lordes armes and of myn Iparted. Their two coats were impaled, a practice which had then recently replaced "dimidiation" (cf. p. 117, 1. 5).-J. H. R. p. 6, 1. 25. my lord Sir Thomas West. Son of Sir Thomas, 1st Lord West, but was not himself summoned. Fought at Crécy, 1346; d. 3 Sept. 1386.J. H. R. to the cops. p. 6, 1, 29. a vestiment Some light may, perhaps, be thrown on this by a passage in the will of Joane, Lady Abergavenny (1434)— "I wool that the foreseyd Freers have a hool sute of black, that ys to sey, a Chetepyl, two Tunicles, three Coops, with my best pair of Candlestecks of silver wrethen, and my best sute of Vestments of Cloath of Gold, with Peacocks, with auter clothes, and aubes, and alle that longeth thereto, for a memorial perpetuelie to use hem every yere at the Anniversary of my Lord my Husband and of me." I think that "the cops of the hows" must mean the community.-J. H. R. p. 9, 1. 2; p. 149, col. 2, 1. 14; p. 185, col. 1, 1. 10. the lordes In of Cherlton. This is "the Inn (town-house) of the Lord Cherlton." John of Cherlton was summoned to Parliament as "Johanni de Cherlton de Powys" (he was lord of Powysland) from 1382 to 1400. And this will is dated 1395.J. H. R. p. 12, 1. 17. seynt mary Kirk of Beverley. This noble church had been originally a chapel of ease, but was endowed out of the prebend of St. Martin, 1325, as a Parish Church, on condition that its vicar provided two chaplains, to celebrate service daily at the altars of St. Mary and St. Martin, and that he should be present with his priests, in a regular habit, all processions of the prebendal church of Beverley (Originalia, 3 Edw. III.).—J. H. R. p. 12, 1. 18. the vekery of the same Kyrke. John de Brydlington had been appointed vicar in 1403 (Lansd. MSS. 896, viii. fo. 189).-J. H. R. p. 12, 1. 22. seynt gylys spetyll. Said to have been founded by "Wulf" before the Conquest. Belonged to the Archbishops of York till Walter Giffard, in 1277, exchanged it with the Priory of Wartre for a wood. It consisted of a Master and brethren, and, at the Dissolution, contained five poor men.—J. H. R. p. 16, 1. 8. Rowenhale: possibly so called as being a native of Rowenhall, Staffordshire. p. 37. Rychard HADDOKE, of the Lee, Essex. Mr. H. W. King, of Leigh Hill, Leigh, Essex, the well-known Essex antiquary (p. xi, abuv), had Stephen Thomas's Will prepared for printing before I issued it. He writes to Mr. Challenor Smith: "Richard Haddoke is one of the ancestors (whether lineal or not,) of the great Admiral Sir Richard Haddock of this place [temp. Charles II and James II], and his scarcely less distinguished son, Admiral Nicholas Haddock, and some 6 or more Naval Captains of that remarkable family. There are brasses of their Ancestors in this Church, and of, possibly, that identical Richard named in the will [1419], as he died 1453." p. 45, 46. For Thomas Bathe read John Bathe. p. 70, 1. 23. breed and herynge. A century later (1528) Thomas Mathew of Colchester, on being tried for heresy, abjured, and was ordered, as part of his penance, to spend 4s. 8d. a week, during Lent, in buying bread and herrings for the poor of the town.-J. H. R. p. 70, 1. 25. Laffarebrugge. Langford bridge on the Blackwater, between Witham and Maldon.-J. H. R. p. 109, 1. 10. the frere prechours of Gloucestre. See an excellent account of this Dominican House (founded circ. 1239) by the Rev. C. F. R. Palmer (Arch. Journ. xxxix. 296).-J. H. R. p. 135. Sir Thomas West, knight. Died 17 April, 1405, and was buried at Christchurch with his ancestors, having bequeathed £100 to its canons that they might keep annually the "year's minde" for himself, his father, mother, and wife.-J. H. R. p. 135. Of the Benedictio Viduæ here described, there is a famous instance in English history. Eleanor, sister of Henry III. and widow of William Earl of Pembroke (who d. 15 April, 1231), had taken this vow, but subsequently (7 Jan. 1238) married Simon de Montfort. The vow had been taken before Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard, Bishop of Chichester. The former protested against her second marriage, and the Baronage, then jealous of Simon, raised such an outcry that he had to go to Rome and pay heavily for a dispensation. It is clear, I think, that the historians who treat of this marriage (Blaauw, Pauli, Prothero, Shirley, &c.) must have been ignorant of the technical character of Eleanor's vow, which they seem to confuse with taking the veil. But the chroniclers' words distinctly refer to the Benedictio viduæ : -"in præsentiâ sancti Edmundi Cantuarensis archiepiscopi et sancti Ricardi Cicestrensis episcopi solemne votum castitatis emisit."-T. Wykes; "in cujus præsentia dicitur ipsa Alienora votum fecisse continentiæ vidualis, vestibus utens tinctura carentibus.”—Matth. Paris. Philippa, widow of Guy (d. 28 April, 1351), eldest son of Thomas Earl of Warwick, took this vow 11 Aug. 1360. The Memorandum of it is preserved, and is a good illustration of the service. "11 die mensis Augusti, An. Dom. 1360, apud Warwick, dictus Venerabilis Pater, altam Missam in Pontificalibus, in Ecclesiâ Collegiatâ beatæ Mariæ Warwici antedictâ celebrans, votum castitatis Philippe nuper uxoris Domini 1 Reginald (Bryan) Bishop of Worcester. |