Records

In the year 1800, the House of Commons voted an Address to His Majesty King George III. on the state of the Public Records of this kingdom, and the necessity of providing for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the same; and humbly represented that the Public Records of the kingdom are in many offices unarranged, undescribed, aad unascertained; that many of them are exposed to erasure, alteration, and embezzlement, and are lodged in buildings incommodious and insecure, and that it would be beneficial to the public service that the records and papers contained in many of the principal offices and repositories should be methodized, and that certain of the more ancient and valuable amongst them should be printed; and humbly besought His Majesty, that He would be graciously pleased to give such directions thereupon, as He in His wisdom should think fit.

The first commission, bearing date the 19th of July 1800, states, “that We, considering the premises, and earnestly desiring more effectually to provide for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the said records and papers, and reposing great trust and confidence in your fidelity, discretion, and integrity; —

“Have authorized and appointed, and by these presents do authorize and appoint you the said William Henry Cavendish Duke of Portland, William Windham Baron Grenville, Henry Dundas, Henry Addington, William Pitt, Sir Richard Pepper Arden, Frederick Campbell (commonly called Lord Frederick Campbell), Sylvester Douglas, Sir John Mitford, Sir William Grant, Robert Dundas, and Charles Abbot, and any three or more of you, to make a diligent and particular inquiry into the several matters which our faithful Commons have, in the above-mentioned report of their proceedings, represented as fitting to be provided for by our royal authority.”

“And to the end that Our royal will and pleasure in the premises may be executed with the greater regularity and expedition, We farther by these presents will and command, and do hereby give full power and authority to you or any three or more of you, to nominate and appoint from time to time such person of ability, care, and diligence, as ye shall think fit, to be and act as your Clerk or Secretary, for the purpose of aiding you in the execution of these presents; and also to nominate and appoint in like manner such several persons of ability, care, and diligence, as ye may think fit, to be Sub-Commissioners, to be employed under your direction and controul in the premises; and more especially to methodize, regulate, and digest the records, rolls, instruments, books, and papers, in any of Our public offices and repositories; and to cause such of the said records, rolls, instruments, books, and papers as are decayed and in danger of being destroyed, to be bound and secured; and to make exact calendars and indexes thereof; and to superintend the printing of such calendars and indexes, and original records and papers as ye shall cause to be printed.”

The Commissioners have in consequence published several volumes of the Records, which contain documents of the highest importance to the owner of landed property, to the family historian, and to the topographical writer, as well as assist in the elucidation of the manners and customs of the times to which they belong; while to the general historian they are invaluable, as opening new sources of the most valuable and authentic information, which previously had been virtually closed against his researches.

The portions of the Records already published have been printed literally from the originals, with all their abbreviations and peculiarities preserved. This renders them difficult to be read by the inexperienced in ancient manuscripts; and since county historians and other topographical writers make frequent extracts from these ancient records, to establish facts concerning persons, places, and property, I have thought it useful to give a detailed article on this subject, which may be equally useful in the library as in the printing-office.

The Commissioners have also published several volumes of Calendars and Indexes to many classes of Records.

To enter into a history, however brief, of the various public Records, would be foreign to the objects of the present work: for such information the reader is referred to publications that treat especially upon the subject. It is sufficient for the purpose to state, that each of the King's Courts of judicature registers its acts and proceedings upon rolls of parchment, which are called the Records of the court to which they belong; for instance, the Chancery Rolls, which contain the registration of all matters which pass under the great seal of England, are divided into classes; particular rolls being appropriated to the entry of particular matters. Thus, the Norman Rolls contain entries chiefly relating to Norman affairs; the Scotch Rolls comprehend those which regard Scotland generally; the Parliament Rolls embrace matters touching the Parliament; the Fine Rolls, entries respecting fines paid to the king for grants of liberties and privileges. The Close Rolls preserve copies of letters directed to individuals for their sole guidance and inspection, which, being private, are for this reason folded up, and closed with a seal; while the Patent Rolls, on the contrary, contain copies of letters which, though bearing a seal on their lower margin as a mark of authenticity, are not closed, but remain patent or open, to be shown to all men: these convey directions or commands of general obligation, or are given to individuals for their particular protection, profit, or personal advantage. A few only of the Chancery Records have been here enumerated; but sufficient has been stated to show the reader that each species of roll has its distinguishing characteristic.

A Chancery roll is composed of a number of skins of parchment so connected that the top of the second is attached to the bottom of the first, the top of the third to the bottom of the second, and so on; the whole being rolled up in the manner of a piece of cloth in a draper's shop, or of carpet in the warehouse of the manufacturer.

The reader will, from this description, readily understand that the word “roll” (rotulus, à rotare, to turn round) is but a synonym of the word “volume” (volumen, à volvere, to roll), and that, from the longitudinal connexion of its component skins, a reference made from any entry upon it, to a preceding or succeeding one, will be literally and properly expressed by the words vide supra and vide infra. He will likewise clearly comprehend that not only the interior, or intus, of the roll, upon which the characteristic entries have been made, will necessarily be kept clean and free from atmospheric influence, but also the greater part of the exterior, which is denominated the dors. This circumstance afforded the scribes an opportunity, which they readily embraced, of using the dors for entries and memoranda that were frequently very different in their character from those contained on the intus of the roll.

The Rolls of the courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, contain the proceedings of those Courts; and they differ from those of the Chancery, not only in the nature of their contents, but also in the form in which they are made up. A roll of these courts consists of an indefinite number of skins sewn or attached together with a strong ligature of parchment at the top, and the subject is written both on the intus and dors, precisely in the same way as a book or letter is written; after the intus is filled, the subject is continued on the dors. In using this kind of roll, each skin, when perused, is turned back over the head of the rest, and brought down immediately after that which just before had been the last of the series; until, the whole having been thus in their order revolved, the first skin is again brought into its original position. The entire mass, being unprotected by pasteboard or other unyielding covers, is perfectly flexible, and, having been rolled up in the manner of a quire of paper, which it is desired to reduce to its smallest compass, is confined in its position by a piece of tape or other adequate ligature.

For every regnal year of a King's reign there is one or more of each class of rolls appropriated; according to the quantity of business done, so is the number of each class of rolls: for instance, the Patent Rolls of the 1st of Edward the Fourth, extending to six rolls or parts, as they are called, contain the enrolment of all the Letters Patent made during that year; the Charter Rolls of the same year, all the Charters granted in that year; as the Close Rolls do all the Letters Close issued in that year.

In quoting an entry from a roll, it is usual for writers to state first the name of the roll on which it is to be found: as, Rot. Pat. (Rotulus Patentium). Rot. Claus. (Rotulus Clausarum), the word “Litterarum” being understood in the two preceding cases; Rot. Fin. (Rotulus Finium), &c. Then follows the year of the king's reign. Should the roll be divided into parts, the part also is specified; as, p. 1. or pars 1., p. 2. or pars 2. The next circumstance noticed is the particular skin or membrane on which the entry occurs; as, m. 23. If the entries on the skin have numbers attached to them, the number also (n. 1., &c.) is cited: and if the entry is made on the back or dors of the roll, that circumstance is expressed by adding d, or in dorso (i.e. “on the back”) to the quotation; for, should this be omitted, the entry will very naturally be sought for upon the intus of the roll. Citing, then, an entry, from the Patent Rolls for instance, we will suppose the quotation to run in the following form, “Rot. Pat. 13 Edw. III. p. 2. m. 23.;” which would be thus rendered in English: “On the twenty-third skin of the second part of the Patent Roll of the thirteenth year of Edward the Third.”

Before quitting this part of the subject, it may not be unimportant to state that, on examining a roll, it is not an unfrequent circumstance to meet with entries which are cancelled, or crossed out with the pen; but, to prevent suspicion that this has been unfairly done, the reason for the cancellation is generally added at the side: as, “Quia supra,” — “Because it has already been entered above;” “Quia alias inferius,” — “Because it has been re-entered in other words below;” “Quia in Rot. Fin.” — “Because it is entered on the Fine Roll” (to which roll it more properly belongs); &c. This kind of cancellation, which was performed, as of course, by the person who discovered the error, must not be confounded with a cancellation by judgment; which latter was a function of the Lord Chancellor, who, when Letters Patent or Charters were adjudged void, was the person who condemned or cancelled them.

The terms cancellation, erasure, expunging or expunction, obliteration, elision, and deletion, — words each employed to denote a different method adopted to prevent faulty passages or minor errors from standing as parts of a composition, — having been frequently used indiscriminately one for another, the reader may not be displeased to be here reminded of their original significations. To treat, then, of each in the order in which it has been named; —

Cancellation

denotes the drawing a pen several times obliquely across a passage, first from right to left, and then from left to right, in the manner of lattice-work. (The word is derived from cancella, a lattice.)

Erasure

implies the removal of a faulty portion by the application of the knife. (From erado, I scrape out.)

Expunging or expunction

(both derivations from the same verb, expungo, I prick or dot out,) was a method by which the clerk neatly expressed that a word, or part of a word, was to be omitted; as “sententence.” Leaving out, then, the under-dotted, or expuncted letters, the amended word will be sentence.

Obliteration

is the slovenly method, still frequently employed, of completely covering the error with ink, so that not a letter thereof can be traced. (From oblitero, I blot out.)

Elision

is the act of striking out the erroneous matter by a simple dash of the pen. (From elido, I strike or dash out.)

Deletion

is the wiping away the ink while it is yet wet, and then continuing the writing over the space which had been in the first instance occupied by the error. (From deleo, I wipe out.)

After this short, but, it is hoped, satisfactory explanation of the nature and circumstances of a roll, the reader will proceed to an analysis of the contracted language in which records have been composed.

The marks placed above letters to denote omissions are either a right line ( ¯ ), or a circumflex (~). The former of these marks above a vowel denotes that an immediately subsequent m or n has been omitted; as, vēdāt for vendant, bonū for bonum, terrā for terram: the latter mark, when seen above or through a letter, whether in the middle or at the end of a word, signifies that some letter other than m or n is to be supplied, as ṽl for vel, ip̃e for ipse; or that more letters than one are required, as aĩa for anima, for aliter, Wintoñ for Wintonia, for nobis, for mandatum. The circumflex is sometimes continued over or through two letters; as, for occasione, for nullum. Some persons, however, employ the straight line through a consonant, instead of the circumflex, to denote the omission of one or more letters; as, for vobis, for quod.

A small letter placed above the line (hence called a superior letter) indicates an omission of which such letter forms a part; as, don^c for donec, pⁱus for prius, q^os for quos, s^a for supra, tⁱ for tibi.

The four following double characters occur in Sir Francis Palgrave's “Parliamentary Writs,” in each of which the superior immediately surmounts its subjacent letter, having been cast with it by the founder as if they had been but one character: — , for mihi; , for nisi; , used for qui and quia; , for tibi.

The apostrophe is sometimes used as a mark of abbreviation, generally after an initial capital, but sometimes also in other parts of the word.

A point or dot, placed after a letter, is frequently used as a sign of final abbreviation; as, ass. no. diss, for assisae novae disseisinae, di. ; fi. s. for dilecto et fideli suo, e. for est, plurib. for pluribus.

The signification of the following characters is fixed and positive: —

• This symbol, sometimes called the c cursive, or c reversed, denotes com or con: as, , committo; , contra. Before the adoption of the present elegant type, this character was represented in printing by an old-fashioned figure of 9; as, , commune. In the “Parliamentary Writs,” a turned c supplies its place; as, , competere.
• This represents the es plural and is possessive in the termination of Old English nouns: in later times it was much used for the is final of Latin genitives. In the extract from Richard of Devizes, immediately to be given, it has been uniformly thus employed.
• This character, which resembles the cedilla of the French (ç), is sometimes employed as the representative of the diphthong æ in particular records; as, , terræ.
• or Each of these characters represents est, simple or in composition; as, simple, est; in composition, interest.
• or These also denote est: they sometimes stand for ess; as, ee, esse; êet, esset.
• &, 7, and are abbreviated forms of the conjunction et. They were not, however, used indiscriminately, as in the subsequent praxis, but are peculiar to MSS. of very different periods of time.
• et cætera.
• & etiam.
• This ascending recurved flourish, which is sometimes cast separately by the founder, that it may be placed after a simple consonant, but which is most frequently cast with it, both forming together one compound character, denotes the omission of er or re: as, or , cerno: or , gerens: or , gregis: or , camera: or , remunero: or , præter (Note. — Per, which has its specific symbol, is never represented by this character): or , serviens: or , terra: or , tremens: or , fuerit: or , versus: or , duxerit; — stands also for xor, as or , uxorem. When er is omitted after one of the ascending letters b, d, or h, its absence is generally denoted by the circumflex line drawn across the upright stem of the letter: as , taberna; , consideratum; , hæres.
• This character, when alone, represents De, when the word begins a sentence.
• The small d, when alone, likewise denotes de; and in accounts it represents one of the cases of denarius. It may also be used arbitrarily; and then, like all letters standing alone, its meaning must be discovered by an examination of the context.
• A contracted form of manucaptor or manerium. It is an arbitrary sign, and may represent other words, the sense of which must be sought from the context.
• or This is the specific representative of per: but it sometimes also denotes par and por; as,, parte; , tempore.
• This character uniformly represents pro.
• This, annexed to a word, denotes the postpositive conjunction que.
• quod.
• or quia.
• Rex and its cases; also Regina and its cases.
• This character, which is found at the end only of a word, usually represents the rum of plural genitives: it is sometimes, however, used as a general termination; as, for Alienoram, for Eborum or Eboracum, for Windesores.
• This character, which occurs mostly in Old French, represents, in composition, the syllable ser; as, , servaunt: alone it means sire; with a superior ^r, ^r, seigneur.
• th Saxon: as, , ther; ^t, that.
• Another form of the Saxon th.
• This symbol is the representative of the final us, except, as an almost general rule, when terminating datives: as, , Augusti; , Deus; , mandamus; , prius. It also denotes os or ost in the preposition post; thus, or .
• Ʒ The usual function of this abbreviation is that of denoting the us final of datives; as, tribƷ, tribus; omnibƷ, omnibus: but it likewise represents the final et; as, debƷ, debet; habƷ, habet: and sometimes stands for a general termination; as, quilƷ, quilibet; scilƷ, scilicet. For the last purpose it is still in ordinary use, but under a disguised form; as viz. for viƷ.
• Xp̃c Latin names derived from the Greek are usually printed with the Roman letters which most nearly resemble in their form those of the original language: thus X stands for the Greek chi (X), p for the rho (P), and c for the sigma (S). Xp̃c consequently represent the word “Christus”: by substituting the required letter for the c, we shall have the various cases of the noun; as, Xp̃i, Xp̃o; Christi, Christo, &c.
• The cross is met with in some records and charters, and in such cases generally precedes the subscription of his name by a bishop. It is not used as a word, but apparently as a compendious profession of faith, or else as a silent invocation of the Divine aid. This was also the sign by which persons who could not write were accustomed to attest instruments, their names being added by those who could. An imitation of this mark is still in use among uneducated persons; as,
  “John Thomas,”
• The following points are met with in ancient MSS.
  the comma; sometimes also used as a period, and the ancient colon, or semicolon: used frequently as a full stop.
• This character denotes the commencement of a paragraph in Domesday-book.
• and These marks are, in some records, placed at the commencement of sections and of independent lines.

The necessity of printing records in the most literal manner having been for a long time generally admitted, Editors have been constrained to invent characters by which to denote erasures, cancellations, interlineations, and other peculiarities which occur upon the face of them. These characters, though strictly editorial, are nevertheless deserving of notice here.

• Cancellations, using the term in a comprehensive sense, are denoted by Sir F. Palgrave, in his “Parliamentary Writs,” by placing an upright trefoil (trefle — the club of the French playing-cards) at the commencement of the elided passage, the conclusion of which he indicates by a reversed trefoil: thus, .
• Interlineations are expressed by their being included between brackets: [ ].
• Words written upon erasures, or apparently added to the text after it had been originally written, are placed between inverted commas: ”“.
• Sir Francis likewise employs critical marks, by which he directs attention to evident as well as apparent errors in the original, as also to the point at which an apparent deficiency exists.
• Doubtful readings, and words which are apparently clerical errors, are preceded by the upright parallel, ||.
• Readings which are evidently erroneous are stigmatized by the obelisk or dagger, † .
• And apparent deficiencies are denoted by the insertion of an asterisk, *, at the point where the omission appears to have taken place.
• and • These two characters occur also in the last-named work, the meaning of which is by no means clear. They appear to be imperfect imitations of private marks made by the writers of the documents.
• Mr. Hardy, in his “Close Rolls,” has adopted a system somewhat different from that of Sir F. Palgrave.
• All errors, whether of commission or omission, the first-named gentleman denotes by drawing a line under the wrong word, or under the interspace in which the omission should have been inserted; leaving the ascertainment of the kind of error to the discrimination of the reader.
• Elisions of one or a few words are represented in his work by means of thin wire placed over the surface of these words, which are grooved by a file for the purpose of its reception, and which, when thus printed, have the appearance of having been dashed out with a pen. Cancellations of greater extent are indicated by including the cancelled matter between two thick perpendicular lines, curved at their extremities and formed like the printer's brace, but without its receding middle. These, for convenience, are here exhibited in the horizontal position
• Words written on an erasure are printed between these marks `´.

To assist the reader in comprehending the foregoing explanations, and as an exercise to his ingenuity, an interesting tale, of sufficient length for the purpose, has been selected from the History of Richard the First. This historiette, which was written by the monarch's namesake, Richard of Devizes, and which abounds in very interesting particulars, was lately, for the first time, given to the public in a printed form by the “English Historical Society:” to their publication we are indebted for our text. The reader, having carefully studied the preceding symbols, may now proceed to an examination of the language of this story. This, which has been purposely contracted with every species of abbreviations common to the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, he will proceed to extend into full words, verifying his performance, when completed, by comparing it with what immediately follows, which he will find to be the same narrative in an uncontracted form. Having acquired some degree of facility in extending the contracted forms, he may then advantageously reverse the process, and proceed to a reduction of words at length to a contracted state. A little practice will soon enable him to apply his newly acquired knowledge in the elucidation of whatever form of record or of ancient document may come before him. This acquirement he may find extremely useful, and he may possibly thence derive a certain degree of distinction; since this has to the present time been a branch of knowledge entirely confined to a small portion of the learned, and to the few typographical readers whose employments have more immediately required its cultivation. A translation is added, followed by a few explanatory notes.

In conformity with a practice which has hitherto much obtained in Record printing, c has been substituted for t in the terminations tio and tia: this usage, the propriety of which has been questioned, has been here followed, in order that the student's eye may be accustomed to its recurrence elsewhere. The diphthongs æ and œ have been also for the same reason represented by the simple e.

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