Records of Early English Drama
Editorial Apparatus
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RECORDS OF EARLY ENGLISH DRAMA
Records of Early English Drama
OXFORD
EDITED BY JOHN R. ELLIOTT, JR, and ALAN H. NELSON (University)
ALEXANDRA F. JOHNSTON and DIANA WYATT (City)
2
Editorial Apparatus
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
and
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2004
Toronto Buffalo
Printed in Canada
First published in North America in 2004 by University of Toronto Press Incorporated
ISBN 0-8020-3905-7
and in the European Union in 2004 by
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NWl 2DB
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this title is available from The British Library
ISBN 0-7123-4856-5
Printed on acid-free paper
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Oxford / edited by John R. Elliott ... [et al.J.
(Records of early English drama)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: 1. The records - 2. Editorial apparatus.
ISBN 0-8020-3905-7
1. Performing arts - England - Oxford - History - Sources.
2. Theater - England - Oxford - History - Sources. 3. Oxford
(England) - History - Sources. I. Elliott, John R. n. Series.
PN2596.O93O93 2004 790.2 09425 74 C2004-900153-1
The research and typesetting costs of
Records of Early English Drama
have been underwritten by the
National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Contents
VOLUME 2
INTRODUCTION
Historical Background 583
Drama, Music, and Ceremonial Customs
602
Institutions and Documents 626
Editorial Procedures 739
Notes 745
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 754
10 Town Plays by Non-Oxford Authors
856
1 1 The Anti-theatrical Controversy 860
12 Degree PJays 871
13 Anthony Wood on Oxford 873
14 Oxford Playwrights 896
15 Saints Days and Festivals 900
TRANSLATIONS 903
MAPS 760
ENDNOTES 1084
APPENDIXES
1 Architectural Drawing of Christ Church
Theatre (1605) 765
2 Technogamia, or The Marriages of the Arts
at Woodstock (1621) 772
3 The Royal Slave at Hampton Court
(1636/7) 790
4 New College Warden s Progress 795
5 College Lords and Merton s King of
Beans 797
6 Oxford Play Bibliography 800
7 Cast Lists 841
8 Chronological List of College
Performances 846
9 College Plays from Extra-Mural Sources
853
PATRONS AND TRAVELLING COMPANIES 1 145
GLOSSARIES
Introduction 1167
Latin Glossary 1172
English Glossary 1213
INDEXES
Index of Members of Oxford University
1221
Index 1245
Figure 1 Christ Church hall. Reproduced from Joseph Skelton, Oxonia antiqua restaurata,
vol 2 (Oxford, 1823), plate 107, by permission of the Library of the Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
Historical Background
The City
Oxford was an important centre of trade and government long before the scholars arrived in
the late twelfth century (see below, p 597). It lies at the heart of southern England where the
Thames curves round to the east and is joined by the River Cherwell. In Anglo-Saxon times
the site of Oxford was the meeting point of three contending communities - the kingdom of
the West Saxons to the south, Mercia to the north of the Thames, and the Danelaw encroaching
from the east through Buckinghamshire. 1 Two ancient trackways, one coming down from
the west off the height of the Berkshire Downs and the other coming along the valley from
the south, crossed the river near the present site of the city. 2 One ford was at North Hinksey
but it is probably the other one at the confluence of the Thames and the Cherwell that gave
the settlement its name, since it was here that the original religious community dedicated to
St Frideswide was established. 3
John Blair in Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire suggests that the borough of Oxford was laid out at
the instructions of^thelflzd, Lady of Mercia, daughter of King Alfred. She ruled Mercia
in name from 911 at the death of her husband, ^Ethelred, and perhaps in reality for several
years earlier. 4 Blair argues that there is strong evidence to suggest that Oxford, like London,
was built by the Mercian rulers around the turn of the tenth century in the vain hope of
preserving an autonomous Mercia. 5 At about the time the town was laid out the configura
tion of the marshy flood plain to the south of the town was altered by gathering the waters
into a new cutting tight round the south wall, thus giving the new town water defences on
three sides. 6 The importance of the town can be seen from the statement in the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle that Edward the Elder succeeded to London and Oxford and all that
belonged to them. 7
Once established, the town grew and flourished, becoming a rare medieval centre that had
no Roman predecessor. 8 There is archaeological evidence that the town was the site of a royal
mint. 9 The Thames, navigable at this time from Oxford to the sea, linked the town with
London and, almost as important, there were roads coming west from London and north from
Southampton. The road from Southampton intersected with the main road to the southwest
from London at Newbury and then continued north to Oxford. There it intersected both
with the river and the main London road to the Midlands, which followed the ancient route
584 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
from London northwest through Henley. These routes reflected the establishment of Oxford
as a strategic centre. Land and water transport systems were complementary. 1
Shortly after the town was established the region was once again devastated by Danish raids
from the east. In 1009 the army of King Swein of Denmark burned the town." It was rebuilt
on the grid established by /Ethelfbed with the High Street and Queen Street running east-west
and Cornmarket and St Aldate s running north-south - converging at Carfax. 12 At this major
crossroad St Martin s Church was built and became the centre of the life of the community
that continued to flourish. The building of the first bridge over the Cherwell at Pettypont
(about the site of Magdalen Bridge) greatly facilitated passage to and from London, and Oxford
became a place where national meetings were held. 13
After the Conquest Oxford maintained its strategic importance. The Norman governor,
Robert d Oilly, built the large motte-and-bailey castle in the west end of the town to increase
his control of the region. Also shortly after the Conquest a bridge was built over the Thames
at Grandpont (the site of Folly Bridge) facilitating travel to the south. During this period the
town began to grow outside its defences with the establishing of suburbs. As early as 1230 the
sheriff of Oxfordshire was using the castle as a county jail, making Oxford one of four leading
towns outside London that had a distinct character as seats of royal government in their shires,
as indicated by the presence of royal castles, county courts and gaols. 14
By 1086 the burgesses of Oxford held in common a large tract of land, Port Meadow, to
the northwest of the town. These men probably represented what was to become the Guild
Merchant, formed to safeguard the interests of the merchants and the emerging craft guilds,
particularly the two that formed the core of the town s prosperity, the clothmakers and the
leatherworkers. 1 - In 1147 the "citizens of Oxford of the commune of the city and of the guild
of merchants" could convey land belonging to the community and in 1 199 it was the Guild
Merchant that purchased the fee-farm of the borough. ""Trade both in the town and farther
afield flourished. Markets were held twice weekly on Wednesday and Saturday with an extra
market on Sunday in harvest time. 17 By the mid-twelfth century the market was centred on
Carfax with stalls spilling out into the adjacent streets, a custom dating from Anglo-Saxon
times. 18 In 1155 the king granted the Guild Merchant a charter that allowed its members
to trade free of all tolls in England and Normandy with the same privileges as the citizens of
London. 1 1 Oxford had become an important centre of trade and commerce but it slipped into
relative political obscurity under the Normans. There were no more parliaments and the
Norman barony centred on Oxford was a minor one. 20 The royal interest in Oxfordshire
shifted away from Oxford under Henry I to the hunting grounds at "Woodstock, where it
remained until the Civil War of the seventeenth century. However, if royal interest waned,
Oxford s central location and thriving commerce did make it an attractive venue for the
establishment of the institutions that would radically change the direction of the town s
development.
THE LATER MIDDLE AGES
This period saw three interdependent waves of immigration to Oxford with the establishment
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
of three different but related institutions - the monasteries, the University, and the friaries
(see below, pp 588, 591). The effect on the life of the town was mixed. The increase in popu
lation inevitably helped the economy of the town, which experienced a period of growth and
prosperity from the late twelfth century to the early fourteenth century, but the presence of the
scholars, in particular, created major problems. The residential colleges so familiar from the
early modern period did not yet exist; instead, scholars were lodged with the townsfolk. By
1192 the townsmen were complaining that it was hard to provide food for so many scholars.
Unscrupulous landlords charged exorbitant rents and scholars bitterly condemned the quality
of food for sale at very high prices. Rioting between the townsfolk and the scholars was a
common occurrence, growing in ferocity and organization. The first town record in these
volumes involves such an incident where a clerk (a scholar) was killed in a conflict with towns
folk on Midsummer Eve 1306 when the crowd was out celebrating the festival.
At the same time as the town was being transformed by the newcomers, its relationship with
the Crown was changing. With the purchase of the fee-farm in 1199 the Crown no longer held
the town directly but rented that right to the Guild Merchant as tenant-in-chief in return for
an annual fee-farm rent of 63 5d. 21 Two bailiffs were chosen to collect the rent and pay it
directly to the king. Before 1229, when a new guildhall was built on the site of the present
one near the corner of St Aldate s and the High Street, the Guild Merchant had met across
the street in a house adjacent to St Martin s. By 1172 the larger portmanmoot was meeting
in St Martin s churchyard. 22
The town declined during the later Middle Ages with a shift from manufacturing and
commerce to service trades dependent on the University ... well advanced by 1381. >23 The
Black Death contributed to this shift. Although both the University and town were hard hit,
properties left derelict by the death of citizens were acquired by academic foundations,
particularly to the east of St Mary the Virgin and south of the High Street, thus obliterating
some historic parishes and altering others (see below, p 593). Tensions between the towns
people and the scholars grew more strained and, although the old view that the coming of the
scholars reduced the citizens of Oxford to helots or subjects of a conquering people is some
what exaggerated, there is no doubt that the growing size and complexity of the University
created problems for the town and its people. 24 Three writs in particular issued by Henry in
exacerbated the relationship. In 1231 he fixed the rents on scholars dwellings in both Oxford
and Cambridge and as one scholar has put it in a time of rising prices, the pegging of rents
for the benefit of scholars was a source of ill-feeling between town and gown. In 1244 the
chancellors court was given jurisdiction over disputes concerning rents. In 1324 the chancellor
was given joint custody with the mayor and council over the assizes of bread, aJe, and wine. 2 -
The periodic town-gown riots that continued almost always led to an erosion of the rights
of the town. At the heart of the issue was the legal distinction between the scholars and the
townsfolk. The scholars were all in minor orders and so subject not to the civil courts but to
the ecclesiastical courts, in this case the chancellor s court. The culmination of the troubles was
the St Scholastica s Day riots, 10-13 February 1354/5, in which three scholars and several
townsfolk were killed with much destruction of property. The riots began in Swindlestock
Tavern standing in Carfax directly opposite St Martin s, when (according to the town s account)
586 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
two University men, beneficed clerics, threw wine in the face of the tavernkeeper. 26 There was
an inquiry that lasted a full year, during which the town was placed under interdict, closing
all the churches. The king (Edward in) took the University s part and the mayor and bailiffs
were deposed, all property was restored to the scholars, and the town was ordered to pay an
additional 250 in damages. 27 More lasting grievances were caused by giving the chancellor
sole custody of the assizes of bread, ale, and wine - in effect allowing the customers to set the
price of the basic commodities rather than the vendors. The University was also given control
over weights and measures, and the chancellor s court was given jurisdiction over any towns
folk involved in a fracas with members of the University. The incoming mayors were required
to take an oath to uphold the liberties and privileges of the University. Until 1825 the mayor
and council processed from the guildhall down the High Street to St Mary the Virgin on the
anniversary of the riots where they were required to offer a silver penny and, at least before the
Reformation, to pray for the souls of the victims.
THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Two population indicators 150 years apart help us understand the changing demographics of
the town. The poll tax return of 1377 listed 2,357 taxpayers in Oxford. By 1440 the citizens
complained to the Crown that they could no longer pay the fee-farm, claiming that only one-
third of the lay population had inhabited the town when the fee-farm was set while the rest of
the inhabitants, scholars and their servants, were exempt. 28 Almost eighty years later the second
population indicator, the lay subsidy for 1524, listed only between 431 and 442 taxpayers, the
majority in the distributive trades - that is, dealers in merchandise supplying the colleges and
their scholars with food, drink, candles, and clothing. 2 Throughout the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries the victualling trades held a position of prominence in both numbers and
representation as members of the city council. Unlike other provincial centres such as York,
Oxford had no wealthy primary producers or great merchants. The economy of the city was
based on the service trades and was thus dependent upon the University for its prosperity.
Although the university-based economy provided fairly secure employment at all levels and
the city escaped any prolonged recession between 1500 and the Civil War, the fact that the
colleges and the University were the major source of income for the townsfolk inevitably
affected the relationship between town and gown. 30
A further complexity was the presence of a large number of privileged persons who were
(normally) not freemen of the town nor scholars but employed one way or another by the
University and enjoyed its privileges. 31 These people are mentioned as early as 1290 and were
the subject of an agreement between the town and the University in 1459- 32 They were bedels,
manciples, cooks, barbers, the personal servants of the scholars, and sometimes members of
the building trades such as masons, carpenters, plumbers, and slaters, who were employed by
the colleges for the management and maintenance of their affairs and their properties. On the
whole, privileged persons were not freemen of the town and claimed the jurisdiction of the
chancellor s court rather than the municipal one.
Yet although it functioned much as an ecclesiastical court, by the sixteenth century the
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
587
chancellor s court was, like the municipal court, ultimately under royal jurisdiction: public
authority in Oxford, rather than being the monopoly of one body ... was divided between
two sets of royal officers, those of the borough and those of the university. " Royal officers,
particularly in troubled times, could use this double jurisdiction to their own advantage. In
the early sixteenth century the University feared its long-standing privileges would be eroded
by a reinvigorated town government. 34 The University authorities appealed in 1514 to their
diocesan, Thomas Wolsey, bishop of Lincoln, requesting a new royal charter. During the next
fourteen years while Wolsey was busy establishing his new Cardinal College in St Aldate s, work
on the new charter took its tortuous course. The provisions of what came to be known as
Wolsey s charter were finally made public on 14 July 1528.
The town attempted to appeal the charter to the first session of the Reformation parliament
in 1529 after Wolsey s fall. The highly public dispute between the University and the town
coincided with the national crisis generated by the king s desire for a divorce from Katherine
of Arragon. When asked about the validity of the king s marriage the University, led by the
aging chancellor William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, pronounced the marriage valid.
Henry was furious and, as Thomas Cromwell grew in power, he openly took the side of the
town, threatening to revoke many of the University s privileges. In May 1534 when the king
again asked the advice of the University, this time about the powers of the bishop of Rome in
England, the University knew what answer it had to give - that no foreign bishop, including
the bishop of Rome, had any powers in England. 3<p
The ancient tensions between the University and the town had been used by Cromwell as a
means to advance royal policy. Even after Cromwell s fall the privy council emerged as a body
ready and able to deal with town-gown disputes on a regular basis. 36 In this context the royal
appointments of the chancellors of the University on die one hand and the high stewards of the
town on the other came to be of key importance. Cromwell was apparently himself involved
in creating the office of high steward as a position closely tied to the Crown. 37 The high stewards
in the early modern period who have been identified were Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk,
a close adviser of Henry vin by at least 1535; the Catholic John Williams, Lord Williams of
Thame during Mary s reign (1553-8); Francis Russell, earl of Bedford (1559-63); Sir Francis
Knollys (1563-92); Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon (1592-6); Robert Devereux, earl of Essex
(1596-1601); Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere (1601-10), who resigned when he became
chancellor of the University; William Knollys, Lord Knollys (1611-31); and Thomas Howard,
earl of Berkshire (1631-49). 38 Oxford used its costly high stewards as arbitrators in internal
disputes and relied heavily on their support in struggles against the university or the Crown. 39
The best example in these Records of the way the stewards mediated quarrels with the University
is the settlement of the potentially nasty riot of 1597-8 by the earl of Essex on behalf of
the city and Chancellor Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, on behalf of the University (see
p 246 and p 1 1 12, endnote to Hatfield House Library: Cecil Papers MS 62/16 single sheet).
However strained the relationship between town and gown was in the Middle Ages, Carl
Hammer has argued that by the sixteenth century a symbiotic relationship had evolved between
the burghal host and the academic guest. 40 Although the constitutional relationship was not
always harmonious, the University and the town came to be mutually dependent in practical
588 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
matters. The University provided essential services to the town through the administration of
local franchises such as the assize of bread and ale, the enforcement of sanitary provisions and
the night watch. 41 It also served as a major local employer and the customer of the many goods
and services provided by the citizenry. The presence of two competing jurisdictions within a
single community was bound to create tensions and frictions, particularly when a large number
of the inhabitants had the boisterous belligerence of youth and virility. Nevertheless, particu
larly after the legal skirmishing over Wolsey s charter, the major divisions between the University
and the town found a mode of redress that avoided costly arbitration.
By the sixteenth century Oxford had taken on much of the geographical form that its central
core has today. The Dissolution of the monasteries brought about the demolition of the great
monastic buildings in the suburbs, providing new sites for the increasing number of secular
colleges and building materials for others. 42 Of the four wards the westerly two were largely
(though not exclusively) occupied by townsfolk while the eastern section of the town (particu
larly from St Mary s onwards) ... formed a virtual pagus academicus. Although the number of
taxpayers may seem remarkably low in 1524, modern scholars estimate the actual non-privil
eged population in the mid-sixteenth century (1547) [to be] about 5, 500-6, 000. >43
The town gradually shook off the economic decline of the late medieval period. In a time
of profound social and religious change the old medieval community dominated by the friars
and the great local religious houses was swept away. It was replaced by a Vigorous, opportun
istic, and eventually better-educated urban community, which by the seventeeth century
found its social outlets at one extreme in the multitudinous alehouses and at the other in
the sombre, city-subsidized Puritan lectures. The solid citizen looked to the craft guild and
the city to provide a measure of his status and to indulge his liking for ceremonial. 14 In 1542
Oxford was created a city when Christ Church Cathedral became the see of the newly created
diocese of Oxford. Roads were improved, its charters were confirmed and clarified, and in
1605 the city received a royal charter. In the early seventeenth century the Thames that had
silted up since the Anglo-Saxon period was again made navigable all the way to Oxford. The
royal hunting lodge at Woodstock became a favourite resort, first of Elizabeth and then of
the early Stuarts. 45
The renewed prosperity of the city is reflected in the records cited in these volumes. The
relevant city records survive only from 1554 when the chamberlains accounts record the first
payment to the king s minstrel. Except for the controversy over Wolsey s charter, there is little to
indicate religious and political turmoil. The events that led to the foundation first of Cardinal
College and eventually of Christ Church on the same site are nowhere in the records, although
Wolsey s great scheme caused the disappearance of one parish church and the alteration of a
major street, St Aldate s. That Princess Elizabeth was held prisoner in nearby Woodstock during
her sister s reign is nowhere mentioned and the trial and execution of the Oxford Martyrs
appears most prominently through the complaints of the two bailiffs for that year, Anthony
Welles and Thomas Winkell, that they had not been paid for che expenses they incurred feeding
the prisoners. 46 Yet these events of national significance must have affected the city and its
inhabitants. The high steward, Lord Williams of Thame, was responsible for Elizabeth during
her stay in Woodstock and escorted her there from the Tower in 1554. 47 Archbishop Cranmer
589
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
and Bishops Larimer and Ridley were tried for heresy in the University church of St Mary the
Virgin. After the trials Lord Williams, as high steward, presided with the mayor, John Wayte,
over the burnings, first of Latimer and Ridley on 16 October 1555 and then of Cranmer on
20 March 1555/6 just outside the city walls. 48
The Records end in the year that Charles i returned to the city where he had been so lavishly
welcomed in 1636, this time to take up residence with his court. In the troubled years leading
up to the Civil War the court had been increasingly at Woodstock, and the city and parish
records frequently refer to the ringing of bells as the king passed through the city on his jour
ney from London. The years of the Civil War were extraordinary ones in the life of the city.
From the king s arrival in 1642 until its surrender in 1646 Oxford was the royalist capital
of England housing not only the king and his court, but also the central law courts, the ex
chequer, parliament and a mint. 49 For the first time since before the Conquest, Oxford held
centre stage in the life of the nation, and the townsmen and scholars joined forces in a grim
effort to survive the deprivations of the war.
CIVIC GOVERNMENT
The civic government that evolved during the sixteenth century grew naturally from the struc
ture of the medieval Guild Merchant. The system was based on councils drawn from the ranks
of the freemen and a hierarchy of officers elected by the councils. Only freemen were allowed
to trade or pursue a craft within the liberties of the city and to take part in the series of councils
that constituted Oxford s civic government.
In theory, after 1554, the civic government of Oxford was based on a hierarchy through
which ... men progressed with the accumulation of experience or of years, the common
council being recruited from freemen who had served as constables, the chamberlains from
among the common councillors, the bailiffs from the chamberlains, the assistants from the
bailiffs, and the mayor and aldermen from the assistants. 50 Although the theory did not always
hold, largely because of the provision for compounding or buying a higher rank, a sense of
the functioning of each level of the hierarchy helps one understand the complex workings of
Oxford s civic government. The officers of the lowest rank were the four constables responsible
for working with the bailiffs to exercise police functions ... in each of the borough s four
wards. 51 Their work was inevitably shared with the University bedels. The members of the
council of Twenty-four were normally chosen from among former constables.
The next level of service was the oversight of the finances of the town. The chamberlains
served for one year only and that office was the first important step up the ladder of civic office.
Although former chamberlains continued as members of the common council, most moved
on to become bailiffs. Although the two bailiffs were ranked lower than the mayor, they had
clearly defined and independent powers. In origin they had been royal officials appointed to
collect the fee-farm. This continued to be one of their responsibilities and as long as the farm
was paid they were not responsible to the town for the funds they collected. Among their other
duties were keeping the peace and maintaining the town prison in the Bocardo at the North
Gate. After their term in office the former bailiffs remained members of the common council
590 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
and by the seventeenth century they were listed at the beginning of each year s minutes in order
of seniority after the bailiffs serving that year. The next step up for a freeman after serving as
bailiff was to become a member of the council of Thirteen, usually as one of the assistants.
In the council of Thirteen, the assistants worked with the more senior aldermen. Unlike many
other towns Oxford had only four aldermen, one for each ward. For a time in the sixteenth
century the mayor was chosen only from among the aldermen but later, after the pool of
candidates was widened to include the assistants, former mayors often became aldermen.
The chief officer of the town was the mayor who was elected annually by the council from
a restricted pool of candidates. In the sixteenth century men often served more than once. For
example, Ralph Flexney served four times and Richard Atkinson five times. In the seventeenth
century, as the religious troubles increased, several men including John Wilmot (1625, 1630),
Oliver Smith (1630), William Boswell (1630, 1633), and William Blake (1633) refused to
serve when elected and paid their fines." They did not, however, lose their place among the
Thirteen by their refusal.
Carl Hammer in his Anatomy of an Oligarchy: The Oxford Town Council in the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth Centuries has argued that the Oxford town government functioned as a porous
oligarchy, maintaining a solid core of experienced governors while at the same time providing
for the renewal of the system through the provision of compounding. " There were instances
of men coming from other towns such as William Matthew, the former mayor of Abingdon,
who compounded for a bailiff s place upon his arrival in Oxford in 1558 and was mayor by
1564. Such circumstances were unusual, however, and once a freeman entered the system by
election or payment he remained part of the governing elite. The major criterion for member
ship in the governing elite was wealth. This is clear from the lay subsidy of 1524 where virtually
all the council for that year appear on the lists. The aldermen (including the sitting mayor)
have an average assessment of well over 60 and the bailiffs about half that, slightly over 30.
The chamberlains, in turn, were assessed at about half the bailiffs level or slightly more than
15 whilst the average for the Common Council is about two-thirds of that for the chamber
lains or somewhat over 10."*" Occupation was also an important criterion for membership
on the council and most of the councillors were members of one or another of the powerful
craft guilds. Finally, Oxford s system of government where one office followed from another
ensured an experienced body of men as governors but it also ensured an elderly body of men
as governors. In 1584-5 the average age of the mayors councillors was 59, of bailiffs 52, and
of common councillors 49; the youngest mayor s councillor was 44 years old. 5
Religious History
Oxfordshire formed an important part of the episcopal see founded, with St Birinus as the
first bishop, at Dorchester-on-Thames in the seventh century. The Norman Conquest brought
no immediate change but later in the eleventh century the bishop s seat was transferred to
Lincoln. (The connection of Lincoln with Oxford is reflected in the fifteenth-century founda
tion of Lincoln College.) Not until the sixteenth century did Oxford itself become the centre
of a diocese, with the foundation of Christ Church both as a college of the University and as
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
591
a cathedral. However, from the Saxon period Oxford had grown both as a religious centre and
as an urban and commercial settlement. It has been noted that the Saxon minsters, like St
Frideswide s Minster, were generally extensive and complex establishments, centred on a
church and religious community but interacting economically with the surrounding district.
They also undertook pastoral care in that district, the parochia - a system of pastoral care that
preceded the later medieval organization of urban parishes. " St Frideswide s Minster probably
encouraged the settlement that was later formalized with its characteristic grid plan and forti
fied by the Saxons. Thereafter the town s commercial and strategic importance grew alongside
its importance as a religious settlement.
In the immediate post-Conquest period Oxford attracted an impressive number of religious
and scholarly foundations, which came in three identifiable waves - monastic, scholarly, and
mendicant. 57 The Augustinian priory of St Frideswide, the successor to the Anglo-Saxon
minster, was founded early in the twelfth century. Its church had probably been rebuilt by
1180 when the relics of St Frideswide were translated, but ten years later the priory buildings
were burnt. The church (which in the sixteenth century became, and still remains, the cathedral
of the diocese of Oxford) was the first building to be restored in the early thirteenth century.
A second Augustinian priory was founded by Robert d Oilly in 1129 on his manor of Osney
southwest of the town; it was elevated ro an abbey around 1 154. A later addition was Rewley
Abbey, established in 1280 on the west bank of the river northwest of the town as a house of
study for Cistercian monks. The need for such a house was the result of the second major wave
of immigrants to the town - scholars who had begun to gather in Oxford in the late twelfth
century, attracted by the increasing reputation of Oxford schools for advanced learning in
theology and law. 58 The third group of newcomers, the friars, began to arrive after 1221, attract
ed by the growing academic community. All four major mendicant orders had houses in the
suburbs of Oxford - the Dominicans to the south, the Franciscans just south of the castle, the
Carmelites in the northwest, and the Austin friars in the north. Two minor orders of friars -
the friars of the Sack or Penance and the Trinitarian friars - arrived in the thirteenth century
while the Crutched friars arrived in 1342. There were also two hospitals established in the
twelfth century, St John the Baptist and St Bartholomew s leper hospital, both outside the
East Gate.
In the two hundred years between the mid-twelfth century and the mid-fourteenth century
Oxford had been transformed from a trading and administrative centre favoured by the royal
house to a major religious and educational centre. H.E. Salter has cautioned, The religious
houses of Oxfordshire were not remarkable for wealth, antiquity or learning. 59 But wills,
including those of Oxford residents, reflect the importance of the religious houses to lay
people, and lay piety is equally reflected in the number of chantries established by Oxford
people in the parish churches of the town. 60 The eight religious foundations, according to
Barrie Dobson, constituted an agglomeration of varied monastic and mendicant settlement
unsurpassed elsewhere in England. Only St Frideswide and the later Benedictine community
of Canterbury College were actually within the walls of the town. All but one, a small house
of Trinitarian friars outside the East Gate, were ranged in a great arc around the western and
northern perimeters. " 1 Little trace beyond Christ Church Cathedral remains of these large
592 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
establishments but their presence during the period until Dissolution was a major factor in
the life and economy of the town.
The site of Christ Church is rich in historical layers, dating from the Anglo-Saxon founda
tion that was succeeded by St Frideswide s Priory. In 1524 the priory was suppressed (and,
incidentally, the nearby parish church of St Michael at the South Gate also demolished) to
accommodate Thomas Wolsey s grandiose design for Cardinal College. However, his fall in
1529 left the buildings incomplete and the great plan for a college that would form the heart
of the University s organization was left in abeyance. In 1532 Cardinal College was refounded
as King Henry viii College. During the next decade plans were formed to create a new bishop
ric of Oxford although the cathedral was established initially in 1542 at Osney, where the
abbey had been dissolved in 1539. The last abbot of Osney, Robert King, was appointed the
first bishop of Oxford. Within a very few years these two separate foundations - the college
on the site of St Frideswide s and the new cathedral at Osney - were merged. On the same day
in 1545 both the cathedral and King Henry vin College were surrendered to the Crown, and
in November 1546 the college and cathedral, now united, were founded again, when a charter
of foundation was granted to the cathedral church of Christ in Oxford - the beginning of
Christ Church on its present site. 62 Although, as James McConica notes, the charter did not
lay down the foundation of the academic college as such, it did effectively mark the estab
lishment of the unique double identity of Christ Church as both university college and city
cathedral. 63 The former priory church of St Frideswide, still remaining within the new build
ings, became both the college chapel and the cathedral church.
The relationship between the two identities of Christ Church could be delicate although
from the start the dual identity seems to have been recognized. By 1847 the cathedral was
criticised for being primarily a college chapel from whose worship the laity was excluded. 64
The extremely delicate balance of the civic and University functions, although found only
at Christ Church, is perhaps dimly reflected in the relationship between the colleges and the
Oxford parishes in the medieval and early modern period, when colleges owned the livings of
so many parishes. (In 1326, for example, the bishop of Lincoln acquired the advowsons of All
Saints, St Michael at the North Gate, and St Mildred - the last was suppressed to make way
for Lincoln College in 1427.)
The increased prosperity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries mentioned above (p 591)
was reflected in renewed building not only of colleges, monastic foundations, and dwelling
houses but also of churches. Altogether nineteen medieval Oxford parishes are recorded
although not all were within the town liberties: St Giles and St Mary Magdalen, both to the
north of the city, were in Northgate hundred and so strictly not in Oxford. H.E Salter notes,
however, that from 1349 onward wills dealing with property in those two parishes were proved
not in the hundred court but in the mayoral court. (The city eventually purchased Northgate
hundred in 1592.)"
Five parish churches are recorded in the eleventh century: St Ebbe, St Martin, St Mary the
Virgin, St Michael at the North Gate, and St Peter in the East. 66 St Frideswide s Minster was
also in existence at that period (the earliest certain record is of 1004). 67 St Frideswide s Church
evidently retained a parochial function until the late thirteenth century, when its parochial
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
593
functions and the associated revenues were transferred to St Edwards, the contiguous parish to
the north, on the south side of the High Street. 68 St Michael at the North Gate and St Peter in
die East, which functioned as parish churches by 1086, may originally also have been minsters.
Both were wealthier than other parish churches in Oxford at the time; St Peter s also seems to
have been designed as a potential centre for pilgrimage: architectural evidence reveaJs that the
crypt was built to accommodate the display of an important relic. 69 John Blair, noting this
evidence, also draws an analogy with other late-Saxon foundations, noting that the existence
of two or more minsters seems a characteristic feature of the late Anglo-Saxon Mercian towns. 70
Although the available evidence is very inconclusive it does indicate the established importance
of Oxford and its religious life by the immediate post-Conquest period.
Four more eleventh-century foundations are recorded: St Edward the Martyr, St George in
the Castle, St Mary Magdalen, and St Mildred. By 1200 there were nine more: All Saints, St
Aldate, St Budoc (refounded after the destruction of the original church during the building
of the castle barbican), St Cross Holywell, St Giles, St John the Baptist, St Michael at the South
Gate, St Peter le Bailey, and St Thomas, built by Osney Abbey in the western suburbs. 71
Surveys and tax assessments from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries show fluctuations
in the relative wealth of the parishes, which in turn reveal aspects of the varying prosperity of
the town and the University. All Saints and St Martin - both located in the town centre, and
St Martin in addition being the church used by the town corporation - were consistently the
wealthiest, although St Martin s relative prosperity declined slightly in the sixteenth century.
St Peter le Bailey, almost as rich as All Saints in the fourteenth century, had suffered a dramatic
decline by the sixteenth, attributed to movement of wealthier residents out of the parish.
Conversely, the suburban parishes of St Thomas, to the west of Oxford, and St Mary Magdalen,
to the north, showed a decided rise in prosperity by the mid-sixteenth century, as wealthier
townspeople increasingly settled there. Local economic change may be reflected here: the
victualling trades, especially brewing, had grown increasingly important. 72
Both the churches of St Martin and St Mary the Virgin held places of peculiar importance
in local life - the former as the church adopted by the town government for ceremonial use
and the latter as the University church, where congregations and degree ceremonies were
regularly held from the thirteenth century onward. The town corporation shared responsibil
ity with the parish for the upkeep of St Martin s Church, as the University helped to sup
port St Mary s, although town-gown friction seems to have existed, unsurprisingly, in both
parishes. 73 But townspeople no doubt had mixed views, at best, of the fact that several churches
were demolished and parishes reformed by landowning founders of colleges. The building of
Merton College resulted in the takeover of the parish church of St John the Baptist in 1292 as
the college chapel. 74 The bishop of Lincoln, when Oxford was still within the Lincoln diocese,
acquired the advowsons of three town churches -All Saints, St Michael at the North Gate, and
St Mildred - in 1326; in 1427, when Lincoln College was built, the three were combined into
a collegiate church and St Mildred s was suppressed. 75 Wolsey s grandiose plans for his proposed
Cardinal College involved the demolition, in 1525, of the church of St Michael at the South
Gate and the merging of its parish with the contiguous St Aldate s. 76 Barrie Dobson has suggested
that the town (like contemporary Cambridge) might have taken a less than positive view of
594
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
this evidence of the University s health: The multiplication of academic colleges ... is so far fror
-t.ng a thesis of urban prosperity that it could be seen by the burgesses as an objection-
able symptom of their own decay. 77
The histories of both the churches of St Martin and St Mary the Virgin reflect the difficult
itionship between the town and the University. St Martin s, often surnamed Carfax after
itral location, was one of the wealthiest and most prominent Oxford churches and
certainty among the early foundations. Wood claims that it is of a most ancient erection and
>eyond all record ; certainly the exact date of its foundation is not known, but King Cnut
granted ,t to Abingdon Abbey in 1032." Its location and early establishment may have contrib-
c Martins becoming, by the late twelfth century if not earlier, the official town church
appropriated by the town corporation for its regular worship and ceremonial use, with seats
emg reserved for the mayor and councillors. In recognition of this status the corporation
assisted the parish in maintaining it. The parish historian Carteret Fletcher suggests that the
church s identification with the town as a corporate body made it a focus for town-gown
dissension: The church was used by the citizens as a fortress.... In 1321 complaint was made
to the king that the citizens had raised the walls of the aisles and crenellated them. 79 It may not
be a coincidence that the crucial riots of St Scholastica s Day 1354/5 began at the Swindlestock
Tavern, which stood at Carfax directly opposite the church. At any rate the church maintained
its official position, as a 1579 decree of the city council reflects: all freemen of the city, with
their families, were to come to the sermon at Carfoxe every Sunday and holiday on pain of
a fine of 12d. 80 The city lectureship was also established at St Martin s in 1586.
St Mary the Virgin, located on the High Street to the east of the town centre, occupied an
equally and perhaps (in town and parish terms) more equivocally special position: recorded
first in the Domesday Book, it seems to have been appropriated as the official University
church from the mid-thirteenth century or earlier. 81 The University congregation met there
for four hundred years until the new convocation house was built in 1637. (When the original
was converted into a cafe in the late twentieth century, mindful of history, it retained the
name The Old Convocation House. ) The chancellor s court, Acts, and degree ceremonies
were held in the church until the mid-seventeenth century; University sermons have been given
there weekly since the fifteenth century. The parish did benefit from the special position of
St Mary s in that the University and also Oriel College, which held the advowson from 1326,
assisted considerably in the maintenance and repair of the church. 82 Nonetheless, there was
evidently friction too, as the parish historian E.S. Ffoulkes has pointed out: Parishioners had
no right of entry to the Congregation House; nor to any part of the church in which University
services and sermons, or Oriel services and sermons, were then going on. (Parishioners did
however have an equal right with Oriel and any other college within the parish boundary to
burial within the precincts; other members of the University had to ask the permission of the
parish. Ffoulkes remarks drily that in the circumstances the parish might seem to have had
small power of refusing; and now and then its consent was secured by a bequest. ) 83 On the
other hand, the parish was home to the confraternity of St Thomas the Martyr, which acted
as a focus for both town and gown parishioners and is discussed in more detail below.
In general the parish records reflect a range of responsibilities undertaken by the parishes
SQS
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
as part of the administration of the life of the town: churchwardens accounts record regular
expenses on the purchase and repair of church goods, the maintenance of the building and the
ground surrounding it, charitable support of the poor and sick, and the raising of arms and,
on occasion, soldiers. All the parish churches benefited from parishioners wills, and numerous
chantries, chapels, masses, and lights were maintained by private bequests as well as by parish
fraternities and craft guilds.
Among the parishes whose records have been extracted for these volumes, most had guilds
and fraternities that variously maintained chantries and lights and provided for needy members:
the religious guilds were dedicated variously to God, the Holy Trinity, and a range of saints
including the Blessed Virgin, St Andrew, St Clement, St George, St Michael, and St Thomas.
Records of the guilds date generally from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries although at
least one guild at St Peter le Bailey is recorded in 1270." The religious guilds and the various
craft guilds also recorded as maintaining lights and regular masses at a number of Oxford
churches were not open to all: the poorest were inevitably excluded because membership
demanded the payment of dues. Despite this, Eamon Duffy has argued that such guilds
functioned very much as part of parish life. 85 The overall prosperity of the parish of St Michael
at the North Gate presumably benefited from the chantries of St Clement and St George,
which are interesting as having individual proctors, hosting their own annual ales and keeping
their own accounts.
In the parish of St Mary the Virgin, the confraternity of St Thomas the Martyr from its
foundation in response to the Black Death in 1350 was one of the few places in Oxford where
the three distinct classes - members of the University, privileged persons, and townsfolk -
came together in acts of communal piety. For two hundred years this confraternity served as
a neutral meeting ground for all inhabitants of the town. Carl Hammer, in his analysis of the
surviving evidence of the guild, has concluded that there was no institution in Oxford which
in its origins, aims, ongoing connections and composition so clearly reflected the interlocking
of "Town" and "Gown" as did the guild (and the chantry) of St Thomas the Martyr. 86 Another
aspect of the life of the parish that reflected civic rather than University life appears in the
records of the light maintained in the church by the fifteenth century Cooks guild. 87
In addition most of the churches owned property that brought in at least a little rent. But the
regular recording by the churchwardens of income from ales and hockings shows how, in many
if not all parishes, the interests of traditional festivity and of fundraising went hand in hand.
The maintenance of festive as well as strictly religious traditions was of course severely
challenged by the Reformation. Eamon Duffy s comprehensive study has shown very strikingly
how profound and pervasive was the impact of religious change, enforced by government, on
the lives of ordinary people and on the communal life of parishes throughout the country.
On the purely financial level the strain of replacing many items of church furnishings and
vestments - not once but several times under different regimes - was considerable. But Duffy
also argues that the cumulative changes enforced on traditions of worship - the dropping of
popular saints days and holidays from the calendar, the banning of lights before saints images,
the dissolution of chantries, and the suppression of religious guilds - must inevitably have
caused profound disturbance to communities. 88 Parish records - both churchwardens accounts
596 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
and inventories - suggest the drawn-out struggle to steer a safe course through the religious
and political storms of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. On the whole, churches in
Oxford inclined to conformity with the established religion, despite inevitable confusion and
dispute as the country lurched from Henry vin to Edward vi to Mary to Elizabeth in one
century, and through civil war in the next. It is hard to be certain from surviving parish records
exactly what the attitudes of parishioners were and how far the acceptance of change in any
one parish reflects genuine conviction among individuals (incumbents or parishioners) rather
than political caution. Extant inventories of St Martins, for instance, show a parish making
sedulous efforts to keep up with the alarming changes and reverses of official religious opinion
from the mid-sixteenth century - although these inventories do not necessarily show that
St Martin s was more eager to conform than other city parishes. 89 The inventory of 1547 includes
mass books, altar cloths, and a mention of Our Lady s shrine; in 1552 these are replaced by
communion tables, communion books, and no mention of the Virgin; shortly after Queen
Mary s accession (20 November 1553) a longer inventory lists goods and ornaments gevyn
to the churche ageyn by Mr Alderman Tryssher hys wyffe as well as other goods brought in
(presumably from safe keeping in private houses) by parishioners, including altar cloths, altar
stones, mass books, and a sakryng bell from Richard Whittington, who, incidentally, became
mayor from 1558 to 1566. 90
The incumbents of St Mary Magdalen seem also to have inclined to conformity with the
religious establishment: under John Baker, vicar in the early Elizabethan period, altars were
removed, wall paintings whitewashed, and tables of the commandments bought. The sale of an
olde saye coot of grene wyche was made for wettsontyd - identified by the VCH as presumably
a vestment - may in fact indicate another aspect of parish life: since the record also states that
the coat was made for the lord, it may refer to the lord in a summer game (see p 108). 11 In
this particular parish it is also just possible that it was made for the lord of the hundred, who
donated it back to the parish for fundraising purposes - which would remove its possible
religious significance.
St Mary the Virgin showed the characteristic local efforts at conformity, whether because of
the church s official University status or not is not certain: the churchwardens sold plate and
vestments under Edward vi, restored altars and repaired a defaced statue under Mary, and under
the vicar William Powell conformed to the Elizabethan settlement in 1558. The last vicar before
the Civil War, Dr Morgan Owen, being chaplain to Archbishop Laud, demonstrated Laudian
tendencies in restoring the south porch, with a statue of the Virgin and Child above it; the
statue was mutilated in 1642. 92
St Michael at the North Gate also seems from its records to have attempted religious conform
ity, although the changes as elsewhere were gradual and so perhaps reluctant. Laudian and
Puritan influences seem to have alternated in the seventeenth century: the chancel was re
arranged and new altar rails installed in 1634-5 but these changes were reversed in 1641.
It has been suggested that Puritanism was a feature in the parish of St Peter le Bailey more, and
earlier, than in other Oxford parishes: an instance of possible puritan vandalism is recorded
in 1584 and by 1593 the parishioners had adopted the puritan practice of sitting for com
munion. Parish opinion was evidently not by any means uniform, however, and old practices
597
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
continued - although not without objections. In 1634, for instance, two parishioners were
proceeded against for causing a disturbance when the May Day garland was brought into
church, and for trying to stop the Whitsun festivities, as well as for refusing to bow at the
name of Jesus. 3
By contrast the records of St Peter in the East, although they suggest the usual Oxford
attempts to conform with the religious establishment of the time, also indicate unreformed
and traditionalist feeling in that parish at least. 94
The University
ORIGINS
It is not possible to affix a firm date to the moment at which the group of individual teaching
masters who had assembled in the late twelfth century at a provincial town on the upper reaches
of the River Thames became incorporated as a university, after the model of Paris and Bologna,
from which most of them came. 95 In die Middle Ages Oxford was pan of the diocese of Lincoln
and it was the bishops of Lincoln who were empowered by the pope to appoint Oxford s
chancellors. 96 While Robert Grosseteste has traditionally been regarded as the first occupant of
this office c 1225, an earlier document from c 1214 accords this honour to Geoffrey de Lucy. 97
Royal confirmation of Oxford s corporate status, extending the chancellor s jurisdiction to
many aspects of life in the town as well, followed in a series of charters issued by Henry in as
noted above (p 585)."
Why the town was chosen as the site of such an institution can only be a matter of con
jecture. Richard Southern points to Oxford s importance in the twelfth century as a centre for
the trying of ecclesiastical court cases, thus affording masters and students the opportunity
of studying both the theory and practice of canon and Roman law. 99 This circumstance may
explain why Oxford, and shortly thereafter its eastern offspring Cambridge, developed along
essentially secular lines, despite both universities dependence in their early centuries on the
patronage of the church. They existed not as seminaries but as centres of what we today would
call higher learning. While most Oxford students were expected to take holy orders eventually,
their stay at the University, especially if limited to an undergraduate course of study, was
intended to give them a general education in the liberal arts that led, as often as not, to a civil
rather than to an ecclesiastical career.
The early chancellors of the University were picked from among the resident masters and
exercised their duties in person. In time, however, it became the custom to delegate the chancel
lor s powers to one or more deputies ( commissarii ), the chief of whom was the vice-chancellor,
who was elected by congregation, an assembly of regent masters (that is, resident teachers
holding the MA). IO After the Reformation the chancellor was appointed by the king, who
usually chose him from among his privy councillors. By this time the position had come to be
regarded as largely ceremonial, with the actual job of running the University being performed
by the vice-chancellor. Congregation also appointed other officers such as the two proctors,
elected annually, whose duties were manifold but can best be described as disciplinary; and
598 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
the six bedels, divided into three esquire bedels and three yeoman bedels, who were servants
of the proctors and whose duties lay generally in assisting them in enforcing the statutes,
customs, and privileges of the University. Yet another deliberative body called convocation,
consisting of both regent and non-regent masters, exercised the final authority of framing
statutes and of settling matters unresolved by congregation. 101 Although this assembly rarely met
more than once or twice a year, it functioned, in theory at least, as the supreme governing body
of the University. (Today it meets solely for the purpose of electing the Professor of Poetry.)
CURRICULUM
Throughout the period covered by these volumes, academic instruction in Oxford was in the
hands of the four faculties, those of arts, theology, law, and medicine. The vast majority of
Oxford students were associated with the arts faculty since the last three subjects could be read
only after the student had received his MA. Upon admission a student s name was recorded in
a ledger-book, often called a buttery-book, of the college or hall in which he resided so that
a daily record might be kept of his consumption of food and drink. (Such of these books as
have survived are often our only way of knowing the names of the men who lived in a college
or hall at any given time.) The student then enrolled under a specific master, from one of the
faculties, who became his tutor and who theoretically taught him all of the subjects in the
curriculum until he received his degree. In the sixteenth century the introduction of specialized
lecturers and Regius Professors added a new dimension to an Oxford education, but the old
idea of a single continuous relationship between master and pupil survives to this day in the
institution of the moral tutor. m After the choice of tutor had been made the student was
required by the statutes to appear before the vice-chancellor and sign his name in the University
matriculation book. As a fee was required for this, however, students frequently put off formal
matriculation until shortly before they were ready to supplicate for their BA degree. Matric
ulation books, therefore, rarely tell us when a student actually entered Oxford. Indeed, if a
student failed to take a degree, his name may not appear in any official University document.
The curriculum studied by the undergraduate at Oxford was much the same throughout the
period covered by these volumes. The medieval trivium - grammar, rhetoric, and logic -
formed its core and was studied over a mandatory period of residence of four years. Bachelors
were expected to stay another three years until they became masters and for this they studied
the quadrivium - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. All seven subjects were taught
both theoretically through lectures and practically through exercises called disputations, in
which the student would practise orally what he had learned, either as an opponent (who
proposed the subject of debate) or as a respondent (who answered it). The question put to
one of the candidates for a doctorate in Civil Law in 1593, for example, was Whether actors
be disreputable ( An histriones sint infames? ), to which the respondent answered in the
affirmative ( Sum ). 103
By the late sixteenth century statutory requirements concerning such matters as residence,
attendance at lectures, and participation in exercises had become so numerous and complicated
that virtually no student could truthfully claim to have fulfilled all of them. Consequently
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
almost every degree required a grace or dispensation from congregation or convocation, so
that supplication for grace to proceed to a degree became itself a statutory requirement.
Degrees were conferred at a July commencement ceremony called the Act. This, however, was
not the end of the matter since the BA degree did not become official until the candidate
determined on Egg Saturday (the Saturday before Ash Wednesday) of the following year,
while the MA degree was not official until the candidate incepted at the following Act. 104 Both
determination and inception consisted of further disputations, requiring further fees, although
both the exercises and the fees might occasionally be waived by the obtaining of further graces.
Candidates for doctorates in law, medicine, and theology faced similar procedures.
Once the new MA had completed his inception he was admitted to membership in con
gregation and entered a period of either one or two years of necessary regency, during which
he was obliged to give lectures, preside over disputations, and perform other duties prescribed
by congregation. His necessary regency completed, the regent master was then expected, usually
as a condition of his college fellowship, to join one of the faculties of law, medicine, or theo
logy in order to obtain either a second baccalaureate or a doctorate. At this point he became
a non-regent master, losing his seat in congregation but gaining one in convocation. Some
five to seven years might be spent in obtaining these further degrees, for a total of fourteen
to sixteen years residence in Oxford. In the sixteenth century only about three per cent of MAS
went on to study law since those seriously intent on becoming lawyers preferred to move on to
the Inns of Court in London. The faculty of medicine had even less business, conferring on
average fewer than two degrees per year over the whole century. Only theology, which attracted
some ten per cent of Oxford students to take higher degrees, can be said to have flourished. 105
These figures are hardly surprising given the fact that during most of this century only a
quarter of the entering students made it as far as the BA. Of some two thousand total members
of the University in 1600, the overwhelming majority were undergraduates who stayed in
Oxford for less than four years.
HALLS AND COLLEGES
Until 1488 the University itself possessed only one building, or rather one part of one building.
Congregation House consisted of a single large room on a lower level of the church of St Mary
the Virgin, on the High Street, with another room above it used as a library. 106 The church
itself, although known as the university church, was actually the property of Oriel College.
In 1488 construction was completed on the University s second building, the Divinity School
on the ground floor and Duke Humfrey s library above. The latter, and subsequently the
Bodleian, were called the public library because both were open to all members of the Univer
sity as well as to qualified visitors. The addition of the Bodleian quadrangle constructed between
1613 and 1621, greatly expanding the library space while providing new schools for the
faculties, completed the building works undertaken by the University during the period
covered by the present volumes.
From this it will be seen that the University made no provision of any sort for the housing
of its members. In the early years of Oxford s existence students lived either in private halls,
600 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
of which there were more than a hundred in the fourteenth century, or in lodgings with towns
people, like Chaucer s Nicholas in The Miller s Tale. Students in Nicholas situation, con
temptuously referred to in an early University statute as chamberdeacons, were encouraged
to take up residence in an official hall or college. 107 Endowed colleges were first founded in the
mid-thirteenth century (University, Balliol, Merton), although it was not until the sixteenth
century that they came to dominate the University s academic life and to house most of
its students. By 1505 the number of Oxford halls had fallen to fifty-two, by 1537 to eight,
accommodating only about 260 students. 108 By 1642 the number of Oxford colleges had
risen to eighteen, variously founded by members of the royal family, charitable prelates, and
pious merchants. (Three other colleges, all associated with the religious orders - Canterbury,
Durham, and Gloucester Colleges - failed to survive the Reformation.) 09
Each college was headed by a master who might bear the title of president, provost, warden,
principal, dean, or rector, depending on the whim of the founder. Collectively the masters were
known as the heads of houses and from the mid-sixteenth century on the vice-chancellor
was always chosen from their number. Each college provided a number of fellowships for the
cleverer students and stipends (called exhibitions ) for poor scholars. Fellows and exhibitioners
were thus said to be on the foundation. Most colleges also made room for paying customers
or commoners, who matriculated in increasing numbers toward the end of the sixteenth
century and included many offspring of the nobility. 110 Indeed, the influx of commoners
succeeded in doubling the size of some colleges, such as Queen s, in only a few years time.
The wealthier colleges also provided for boy choristers to sing in their chapels and in three
instances (Christ Church, Magdalen, and New College) set up separate grammar schools for
their instruction. (The word chorister in Oxford parlance referred exclusively to boys; adult
members of a choir were called singing-men. ) Meals were taken in the hall, with the master
and senior fellows (sometimes accompanied by noble commoners ) typically seated at a high
table on a raised platform while the junior members sat at lower tables." 1 Masters were required
to reside in their colleges (in the medieval colleges their quarters were always located directly
above the main gate), and their lodgings were often spacious enough to include a second,
private hall. It is probably these private halls that are referred to in documents recording plays
in the presidents lodgings. Such smaller, originally private halls survive at Magdalen, Merton,
and St John s, although the warden s hall in Merton has been converted into a middle
commonroom (that is, a graduate student lounge).
By far the wealthiest college was Christ Church, the only royal foundation in Oxford.
(Queen s College, named after Queen Philippa, was not founded by her; Balliol was named
after a king of Scotland but founded by his widow.) Begun by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525
Christ Church was refounded in 1546 by Henry vin, who merged it with the chapter of
the cathedral church in nearby Osney, where the diocese of Oxford had first been created in
1542. It is for this reason that the word college is never used as part of Christ Church s name.
Next in wealth of endowment, although barely half as rich as Christ Church, came Magdalen
and New College. Then, with another drop of fifty per cent, came All Souls, Corpus Christi,
Merton, Queen s, and St John s, followed far behind by Balliol, Brasenose, Exeter, Lincoln,
Oriel, Trinity, and University. (Three colleges are omitted from consideration here -Jesus,
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 601
Pembroke, and Wadham - because they were all founded shortly before 1642: of these, only
Jesus appears in the Records, beginning in 1622.) Christ Church was also by far the largest of
the colleges, with over one hundred men on the foundation and by 1605 a total membership
of over three hundred. (At Christ Church fellows were called Students, always with a capital
S. ) In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the main period represented by the
records in this collection, the other colleges with the largest number of members were Brasenose,
Exeter, Magdalen, New College, Queen s, and St John s." 2 Some colleges drew their members
primarily from geographical areas designated by their founders - Exeter from the west country,
Jesus from Wales, Lincoln from its county namesake, and Queen s from Cumberland and
Westmorland. Others gave preference to particular grammar schools - Christ Church to
Westminster, New College to Winchester, and St John s to Merchant Taylor s." 3 The frequent
references in the diary of Thomas Crosfield, fellow of Queen s, to sending letters or loaning
costumes to the North constitute an example of the use to which such knowledge can be put
in understanding the records in the present collection.
Further historical notes on individual colleges may be found in the Document Descrip
tions below.
Drama, Music, and
Ceremonial Customs
Drama in the Colleges and University
In addition to the analytical account given here, readers are referred to Professor Elliott s essay
Drama in The History of the University of Oxford. 1 Elliott observes (p 642) that complaints by
such opponents of theatre as Stephen Gosson and John Rainolds had no practical effect on
the performance of academic plays in Oxford. Anti-theatrical discourse as it bears on Oxford
is considered in Appendix 11.
COLLEGE PLAYS, 1485 TO 1565
The sole Oxford college known to have engaged in plays before the reign of Henry vni is
Magdalen, where records of performances survive in relative abundance from 1485-6, following
a less certain entry for 1483-4. An entry in 1486-7 for le capp mayntenaunce may suggest
a court satire but we are on more solid ground with King Solomon - evidently written by
Thomas More and performed c 1495 - and with St Mary Magdalene (patron saint of the
college) - written by John Burgess, performed in 1506-7, and perhaps revived in 1517-18. 2
(Edward Watson composed a play to earn an academic degree in 1511-12.) Magdalen mounted
interludes occasionally from 1502-3 ( interlude may or may not have been another word for
play ). Its dramatic performances in the early years are most often associated with Christmas
when datable within the year, less often with Easter (1495-6, 1509-10, 1519-20) - a logical
occasion for a play of St Mary Magdalene. Plays were performed in the college s hall from
1531-2 (and doubtless earlier), and certain ones are designated as comedies from 1534-5
and as tragedies from 1539-40. Through the reign of Henry Vlll internal evidence for plays
outside of Magdalen occurs only for Lincoln and Merton Colleges in 1512-13, New College
in 1524-5, and Cardinal College (a comedy) in 1529-30.
In a notebook entry for 1541-2 Alexander Nowell of Brasenose College refers, somewhat
enigmatically, to my play in Englishe. Far more substantial, measuring by the survival of texts
and allusions, are plays from the pen of Nicholas Grimald, associated with Balliol and Merton,
speculatively dated to the 1540s (see Appendix 6:1-2). Of his eight known titles - Archipropheta,
Christus Redivivus, Athanasius sive Infamia, Christus Nascens, Fama, Protomartyr, Troilus, and De
Puerorum in Musicis Institution^ - texts of only the first two survive, in continental imprints.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 603
After Henry vin s reign, Exeter College produced comedies in 1547-8 and 1550-1; New
College produced plays in 1552-3. Trinity College seems to have borrowed costumes for a
play in 1556-7, before producing Terence s comedy Andria c 1559 and a spectacle in 1564-5
(on Trinity Sunday, its feast day). In 1554-5 the dean and chapter of Christ Church decreed
that henceforth comedies would be supported to the extent of two per annum at 1 each,
while tragedies would be supported to the extent of two at 2 each, for a maximum of four
plays per academic year, with equal emphasis on Latin and Greek; if fewer than four, then in
similar proportions. (No record survives of any Oxford play written or performed in Greek.)
The decree constitutes evidence of a flourishing dramatic tradition not recorded in financial
records.
Magdalen College performed comedies and tragedies with some regularity to 1561-2.
In 1550-1 and 1551-2 the college paid for the construction of a theatre, probably a set of
demountable scaffolds erected in its hall exactly in the manner of contemporary Cambridge
colleges (see below, p 608). In 1559-60 a new term, spectaculorw, enters the Oxford
college records: the spectacle at Magdalen for 1560-1 may have been John Bales Three Laws.
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PLAYS, 1566 TO 1591
Queen Elizabeth s royal visit to Oxford in August 1566 set its academic plays on a new course,
following a pattern established by a royal visit to Cambridge in 1564. 3 Even more than
Cambridge, however, Oxford University as a corporate body became the producer of plays
for royal visits, in the sense that the vice-chancellor and his deputies selected the plays and
oversaw their financing, furnishing, and mode of production. The arrangements made for 1566
were followed - with variations - for royal visits in 1592, 1605, and 1636. Preparations usually
began with an official letter from the chancellor to the vice-chancellor requesting the provision
of suitable entertainments. The letter stressed that each college and hall, as well as each student
(with the exception of poor scholars), was to bear an appropriate share of the financial burden.
The chief beneficiary of this stipulation was Christ Church, exempted in 1635-6 from making
even a proportional contribution in exchange for the use of its facilities. Christ Church
apparently won its privilege because as a royal foundation it traditionally acted as host to the
sovereign, and because its hall was exceptionally capacious. Accordingly, although actors were
drawn from various colleges, Christ Church men tended to predominate.
John Bereblock, writing in Latin, gives short plot synopses of the three plays presented during
Queen Elizabeth s 1566 visit but fails to name their titles or authors. Miles Windsor s account,
in English, lists the three plays as Marcus Geminus, a Roman history play in Latin by Tobie
Matthew of Christ Church; Palamon and Arcite, a dramatization of Chaucer s Knight s Tale
by Richard Edwards, master of the children of the Chapel and a former Oxford student;
and Progne, a Latin tragedy by James Calfhill, a doctor of Christ Church. Windsor, who
performed in Edwards play, appears not to have attended the other two productions but
provides a list of the actors who appeared in all three plays. This list includes the name of Tobie
Matthew, who may be presumed to have acted in his own play, a practice not uncommon
among academic playwrights. Windsor also provides a wealth of amusing detail about the
604 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
queen s reaction to Palamon andArrite, principally in the draft version of his work, which only
came to light in the preparation of the present collection. 4
The years immediately following the 1 566 royal visit witnessed a noticeable increase in play
activity among Oxford colleges. Merton performed plays in 1566-7 (Wylie Beguylie and
Terence, Eunuc/ms) and 1567-8 (Plautus, Menaechmi, and Edwards, Damon and Pithias). Corpus
mounted its single recorded play in 1572-3 (apparently for Lord Strange), as did Exeter in
1585-6. Queen s put on two plays (a tragicomedy at Christmas 1572-3 and Wotton s Tancredo
in 1585-6), as apparently did All Souls (1574-5, 1579-80?). More important, St John s
now joined Christ Church and Magdalen as a principal producer of plays, and financed the
construction of a hall-theatre in 1568-9. After 1585-6 no Oxford college other than Christ
Church, Magdalen, and St John s is known from financial records to have mounted plays,
although all continued to give support, financial or otherwise, for royal visits.
Colleges also cooperated with the University to offer plays for visits by noblemen, especially
for visits by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, who served as chancellor from 1564 to his death
in 1588. On 5 May 1569 Thomas Cooper, dean of Christ Church, wrote to thank Leicester
for his determination to see your Vniuersitie, as I am informed, the fiftenth of this present
moneth : We haue also in readinesse a playe or shew of the destruction of Thebes, and the
contention betwene Eteocles and Polynices for the gouernement therof. but herein I thinke we
shall be forced to desyre your Honours fauorable healpe for prouision for somme apparaile
and other thinges needefull. A visit by Leicester in 1582, with his nephew Sir Philip Sidney
in tow, gave rise to a huge - and well-documented - burst of dramatic activity, recalled in a
sermon by Laurence Humphrey. A year later, on 10-13 June 1583, Oxford received a visit
from Albert Laski, palatine of Siradia, duke of Poland. New construction was undertaken on
the Christ Church stage, while the professional poet and dramatist George Peele was paid for
his services on 26 May. A lengthy description of the event was published by Holinshed in the
second edition of his Chronicles (1587). In January 1584/5 Leicester made a final appearance,
generating elaborate expense lists in the Christ Church accounts for both a tragedy and a
comedy. Christ Church also paid for the carriage of stuffe from ye reuills and backe agayne.
While agreeing in 1583-4 to restrict professional playing at Oxford, Leicester, apparently
on his own initiative, intervened to protect and even encourage college plays (see p 195):
As I like and alowe all thease statute and article aboue writtew and namelye in the
fiuth article do thinke the prahibicio of common stage players very requisite so wolde
I /not 1 haue it meant theare bye theat the tragedies cowmodies & other shewes of
exercises of learninge in that kinde vsed to be sett foarth by vniumitye mew should
be forbedde but acceptinge them as commendable and greate furderances of learninge
do wish them in anye wise to be cowtinuid at set times and incresed ... and the youth
of the vniudTsitye by good meanes to be incurragid to the decent and frequent settinge
fourth of them.
Accordingly, students of certain colleges continued to perform tragedies commodies & other
shewes of exercises of learninge in that kinde until the eve of the Civil War.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 605
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PLAYS, 1592 TO 1604
The Records are relatively silent about the plays performed for the royal visit of Elizabeth
in September 1592. The only surviving eyewitness account is that of a Cambridge spy,
Philip Stringer, who did not write up his notes until eleven years later. By then he seems
to have forgotten everything except the names of the two plays and his impression that they
were but meanly performed (see p 223). Other evidence (see pp 222-4) tells us, however,
that one of the plays was Leonard Hutten s Latin comedy Bellum Grammaticale, not printed
until 1635 but originally performed in Christ Church as early as 1581 (the 1592 version
was fitted out with two new prologues and an epilogue by William Gager); the other play
was Gager s own Rivalss, a Latin comedy (now lost) that was first performed in 1583 for
the state visit of the Polish prince palatine, and, like Bellum Grammaticale, revived as a
Shrovetide entertainment in Christ Church a few months before the queen s visit. The fact
that Christ Church recorded expenses of only 31 2s 2d for the stage & towards plaies
suggests that they were indeed more meanly set forth than in 1566, while resort to two
plays already in the year s repertory may indicate that inadequate warning of the queen s
visit was given to the University.
The royal visit of 1592 seems to have exhausted the colleges. Not until 1596-7 did St John s
resume its dramatic activities, beginning with a comedy, but as if to make up for lost time, it
scarcely missed another year between then and 1640. Christ Church resumed activities for a
single year, 1598-9. (Christ Church had produced its first of many nil entries for comedies
and tragedies in 1583-4; with a few exceptions these must be read as evidence of non-
performance.)
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PLAYS, 1605 TO 1635
King James, Queen Anne, and the young prince Henry all participated in a royal visit to Oxford
in August 1605. The Records show that four plays were presented in Christ Church, three in
Latin for the king, all written or adapted by Oxford men, and one in English especially written
for the queen and prince by the queen s favourite court poet, Samuel Daniel. Costumes were
imported from the master of the revels in London. The Latin plays seem to have been chosen
to demonstrate the three kinds of classical drama as labelled by Vitruvius. 6 Alba, co-authored
by Robert Burton of Christ Church, was a satyr play featuring shepherdesses, hermits, various
gods and goddesses, and a magician. A cast of students exclusively from Magdalen College
presented Ajax Flagellifer, a Latin play based upon Sophocles tragedy. Finally Matthew Gwinne of
St John s provided an allegorical comedy, acted by the students of that college, called Vertumnus
siveAnnus Recurrent, known in English as The Year About. At Vertumnus the king was soe
overwearied ... that after a while he distasted it, and fell a sleepe, when he awaked, he would
have bene gone, sayinge I marvell what they thinke mee to be, w/th such other like speeches
shewinge his dislike thereof, yet he did tarrye till they had ended yt, which was after one of
the clock. The queene was not there that night (see p 299).
A quasi-royal visit occurred in 1612-13, when Count Palatine Frederick v, who had married
606 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
into the royal family, attended a comedy at Magdalen College supervised by Thomas Gates.
For this event we have, unfortunately, no more than the bare record.
Meanwhile St John s College maintained its playing tradition in full force. Christ Church
resumed its dramatic activities irregularly from 1605-6 to 1618-19. From 1616-17 comes a
rich list of expenses for the theatre in the hall, including stage and scaffold-, for a quire of paper
to write out the play (a tragedy) twice; and finally, 18s paid for vizards lost and broken, and
for the loan of other(s). Magdalen College mounted spectacles in 1606-7 and plays irregularly
from 1612-13 to 1619-20, with one final play in 1634-5- Documentary evidence for college
performances in the Records, limited after 1620 almost exclusively to St John s, is supplemented
by bibliographical information concerning surviving or lost play texts from various colleges
as noted in Appendix 6:1-3.
Of all plays performed by students of Oxford through 1642, the most notorious by a wide
margin was Barren Holyday s Technogamia, which earned its dubious fame not for its original
performance at Christ Church on 13 February 1617/18 but for a repeat performance before
James I and his court at Woodstock on 26 August 1621, a Sunday. In the wake of the perform
ance, sarcastic comments and satirical verses circulated in such abundance that they are segreg
ated here in Appendix 2.
THE ROYAL VISIT OF 1636
The opulence of the 1605 plays at Christ Church was perhaps more than matched by the
entertainment of Charles I at the same hall in 1636, the last occasion on which plays were
presented to a monarch in Oxford. The plays were William Strode s The Floating Island and
William Cartwright s The Royal Slave. Between performances the king and queen were treated
to George Wild s Love} Hospital, performed in St John s hall. This was the only time that a
royal party ventured out of Christ Church to see a play. Archbishop Laud, a former president
of the college, financed the play from his own funds to celebrate the college s new quadrangle.
(A fourth play, Jasper Mayne s The City Match, was written for the occasion but not performed.)
The two Christ Church plays inspired perhaps the most vivid eyewitness appreciation to be
found in this collection, that of Brian Twyne (pp 543-5). It is important to note, however, that
the 1636 royal plays, although written and acted by Oxford men, were in all other respects the
product not of Oxford but of the king s purveyors of court entertainment. The scenery and
costumes were provided by the office of the works and the office of the revels; the music was
written by William and Henry Lawes and performed by the king s musick and other professional
musicians; student actors were specially coached by Joseph Taylor, leader of the king s men at
the Globe; candelabra were brought from Whitehall Palace and reassembled in Oxford to provide
lighting. In contrast to the choice of learned, academic plays for King James, all of the 1636
plays were comedies, and all, by royal command, were written in English, thus confirming
William Cartwright s remark in the epilogue to The Royal Slave:
There s difference twixt a Colledge and a Court;
The one expecteth Science, the other sport.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
Perhaps because of this, The Floating Island, a political allegory extolling monarchy, was
generally dismissed as incomprehensible by the courtiers, despite its scenic wonders. The
Royal Slave, however, an exotic romance about a Persian prisoner miraculously rescued from
a pagan sacrificial altar, got a warm reception from the entire court, especially the queen, who
asked to see it again performed at Hampton Court. What she saw both there and in Oxford,
however, was not representative of Oxford culture but an imitation of the usual type of Stuart
court entertainment.
THE FINAL YEARS
In a 1636 letter to the University (see p 539) Archbishop (and Chancellor) Laud advised that
the scenery and costumes left over from the royal performances be laid up in some place fit,
so that if any are willing to set forth, need the use of any, or all of these things, it shall be ..
lawful, and free for them to have and to use them. Laud proposed that one copy of an inventory
be kept at Christ Church, another elsewhere for safe keeping (he suggested the University
Registry). He thought that members of a later student generation might wish to revive the
performance tradition and would need an inventory to recreate the theatre from the parts that
now went into storage. (A similar inventory, dated 1640, has survived at Cambridge.) 7 But
when Charles i took up residence in Christ Church in 1642, there is no evidence that he ever
requested further dramatic entertainment.
AFTERMATH
At the Restoration of Charles n a revival of the custom of royal dramatic entertainments was
contemplated in Oxford but soon abandoned. Timothy Halton, a fellow of Queen s, tells us
that in July 1661 a committee was formed to plan the reception of the new king in Oxford
and that the play is made by Dr. Llewellyn. He fears, however, that the plan cannot be carried
out because they are so in want of actors and may have to make use of the professional players
from the Red Bull theatre, then in Oxford. 8 Halton undoubtedly was referring to the lack of
experienced student actors engendered by the eighteen-year hiatus in dramatic activities, rather
than any shortage of willing volunteers. While the professional companies in London - including
the one at the Red Bull - quickly reorganized at the Restoration, Oxford s academic drama
never recovered from this break in its traditions. Charles n returned to Oxford in September
1663 and James n in September 1687, but neither University nor Christ Church accounts list
any payments for drama. In 1664 Christ Church attempted to revive the custom of Christmas
revels by staging a comedy called The Tricks composed by a student named Richard Rhodes.
This, however, according to Anthony Wood, led only to extensive damage to the hall and
general drunkenness and wantonness. Wood adds that Jasper Mayne, the unperformed play
wright of 1636, tried to encourage the cast by saying he liked well an acting student, but the
college accounts reveal that this was the last such play to be performed in Christ Church hall. 9
It was, indeed, virtually the last student play to be performed in Oxford until the founding of
the Oxford University Drama Society more than two centuries later.
608 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
Academic Play Venues
Oxford college comedies, tragedies, and interludes were almost all performed either privately
in the masters lodging, or publicly in the college hall. While little is known about private
performances, public performances can be reconstructed in some detail.
Most Oxford halls known to have been used for the public performance of plays survive
more or less intact. These include the medieval halls of Magdalen (72 6" x 29 3"), Merton
(78 x 27 ), New College (79 x 32 8"), and Trinity (59 6" x 30 6"). The hall of St John s
was built c 1500 but increased by the length of one bay in 1616 (its final dimensions were
82 6" x 26 6")." The available floor space of all these halls was reduced by the depth of their
entrance screens. Christ Church hall (114 6" x 39 9"), completed in 1529, has no internal
entrance screen, so its entire length was available to the theatrical designer. 12 The surviving
hall of Exeter (75 6" x 27 6") was built in 1618, long after its known play performances
(1547-8, 1550-1). l3 The surviving hall of Queen s, which produced a tragicomedy in 1572-3,
was built as late as 1714. "*
Only the halls of Christ Church (Figures 1 and 4), Magdalen (Figure 2), Merton, and
St John s (Figure 3) served as academic drama venues of any significant duration. Of the three
smaller venues, most - but not much - is known about how Magdalen s hall was transformed
into a theatre for a few days each year. Account entries employ suggestive nomenclature,
including proscenium in 1538-9 and 1551-2, scenam in 1552-3, and theatrum from
1553-4 onward. Carpenters spent from three to eleven days removing (and subsequently
replacing) dining tables and installing (and subsequently removing) theatrical scaffolding. Rope
and candles or lamps were purchased, doubtless for performances at night. The expenditures
on wood and on sawyers, which continue from year to year, suggest a work in progress.
For want of sufficiently detailed evidence, perhaps the only way to reconstruct a typical
Oxford college theatre is to assume a substantial similarity to the typical academic theatre at
Cambridge, characterized by a stage platform across the width of the hall near the high-table
end; a pair of stage houses facing one another across the length of the stage platform; raised
scaffolding for the seating of distinguished guests behind the stage; raised scaffolding for
lesser spectators along the lower end and side walls; and standing room or sitting room along
the floor. 15
Back in Oxford, Magdalen College paid painters to write names for the performance in
1560-1 and purchased hair for women or a wig in 1561-2. In 1556-7 some college, probably
Trinity, borrowed costumes from the master of the revels in London, providing for three kings,
two dukes, six counsellors, one queen, three gentlewomen, one young prince, six maskers, and
four torch-bearers.
More abundant information survives from the royal visit of Queen Elizabeth in August 1566,
when a theatre was specially constructed in Christ Church hall. Workmen included the very
carpenters who had perfected their art in the construction of the Magdalen College theatre
since 1551-2. Although college accounts do not clearly distinguish work on the theatre from
other college works (see pp 1 13-23), they do reveal that carpenters helped to take downe the
stage &C scaffolde (see p 119) and that Goodwife Davis supplied board and studs about the
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
609
SCALE OF FEET
2C .10 40 50 00 70 SO
Figure 2 Ground plan of Magdalen College. Adapted from Historical Monuments in the City
of Oxford, opposite p 72.
n
:7"^s^SP
^ ,; T> v W ^ ; y^y/a;
SCALJ1
V ^ of 7 n .f -r
Figure 3 Ground plan of St John s College. Adapted from Historical Monuments in the City
of Oxford, opposite p 104.
SfAlCt
tO JO 4C
Of FEET t3 /<5r// CFNTURY C 1 MODfRN
Figure 4 Ground plan of Christ Church hall. Adapted from Historical Monuments in the City
of Oxford, p 34.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
houses of ye stage (see p 120). John Bereblock (see pp 136-41), who observed the end result,
describes the walls and the ceiling of the hall as lined with gold panelling to create the effect
of an ancient Roman palace (Veteris Romani Palatij ). While scaffolds for the audience were
placed at one end of the hall and along the side walls, boxes for the more important spectators
were built at the top of the scaffolds, and ordinary spectators ( populus ) stood around the stage.
The stage platform may have been placed at the west end of the hall, opposite the screen,
with a throne for Elizabeth, who sat facing the audience." Scenery for the plays consisted of
classical stage houses, resembling magnificent palaces ( magnifica palatia), which also served
as the actors dressing rooms. This may have been a typical academic theatre, elaborated
with a throne for the queen behind the stage; nevertheless, information to support a full
reconstruction is wanting.
Observers of the 1566 Christ Church plays commented on two further matters. First, a
doorway was pierced at the level of the first storey through the end wall of the east range of
the main quadrangle; then a gallery was hung within the stairwell leading to the antechamber
of the hall. This tremendous engineering feat was undertaken merely so the queen could walk
from her lodgings to the hall without descending to ground level. 17 (Though the doorway
was closed up again, its outline can still be traced in the north wall of the corner stairwell.)
Second, the crowd pressed so unrelentingly on a stairway near the hall - perhaps in the same
stairwell - that three people were killed by falling masonry and others injured. (The queen
sent her surgeon, but the play went on.)
Very little information survives concerning the plays performed for the royal visit of 1592
apart from the fact that the venue was Christ Church hall. In all probability the stage was taken
out of storage at the last minute and set up as in 1566.
A great deal of information, by contrast, survives about the theatre erected for the royal visit
of James i and his family in August 1605. This time an entirely new theatre, with a fresh and
contemporary design by Inigo Jones, was constructed in Christ Church hall under the direction
of Simon Basil, the kings comptroller (subsequently surveyor of the works), and by consultation
with Sir Thomas Chaloner. While the Records (see pp 277-321) testify to much activity and
expense (including a cost of 177 for the Kings cowminge ) as well as to the participation of
Jones, who is reported to have been paid 50 for his efforts (see p 301), the crucial document
for understanding the new theatre is an architectural drawing in the British Library, identified
and analysed at length by John Orrell (see Appendix 1). Jones created a perspectival theatre -
the first known in England - enhanced by the use of periaktoi. Spectators expressed amazement
that the stage picture could change not only for the change for each show each day but also
for the change of scene in one and the same play (see p 306, as translated).
Unusually for a college theatre, the stage platform (at the upper end of the hall) was raked.
Moreover, three sides of the stage were closed off by the periaktoi, which by coordinated
rotation produced three different scenic backdrops. The main seating scaffolds at the lower
end of the hall were also raked, with benches curving round in roughly concentric arcs. At
the centre-point of those arcs stood a platform for the king s throne. For this particular king,
however, the innovation was not a success. Perspective theory locates the privileged viewing
point at the point of sight, along the principal axis and somewhere in the middle of the
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 61 1
audience. But James had never been planted in the middle of any audience and refused to
sit where he ought. At his own insistence his seat was moved farther from the stage - but
too far back for easy hearing. Thus he neither saw nor heard as Jones intended. Some of
the 1605 plays were nevertheless a hit, helped no doubt by costumes secured from London
(see pp 288 -93).
Inigo Jones served once more as principal designer for the royal visit of Charles i and his
consort in August 1636. "The scaffolding of 1605 may well have been recycled, but Jones
replaced the antique periaktoi with modern stage shutters thrust out in successive pairs from
stage left and stage right to create even more astonishing scenic transformations, which were even
more dependent on perspective theory. We have noted above (see pp 6067) the contribution
made by court professionals, Brian Twyne s rapturous description of the end result, and the
queen s desire to revive Carrwright s The Royal Slave at Hampton Court. William Laud s
reminiscence captures nicely the degree to which drama had become visual effect: I caused
the University to send both the Clothes, and the Perspectives of the Stage (see p 541).
Meanwhile, an occasional glimpse may be gained of dramatic activity in St John s College
hall, as for example during the performance of The Christmas Prince over the winter of 1607-8.
Events were first organized around a fire blazing there as well as in the college parlour over
several successive nights in late October and early November. Thomas Tucker, elected Christmas
prince, was carried in triumph about the hall and thence to his chamber (see p 342). A
prefatory show called Am Fortunae was not thought worthye of a stage or scaffoldes, and
therfore after supper ye tables were onlye sett together, which was not done w/thout great toyle
& difficullty by reason of ye great multitude of people (which by ye default of ye Dore-keepers,
and diuers others, euery manw bringinge in his freindw) had fild ye Hall before wee thought
of it (see p 347).
Subsequent projects were deemed worthy of a complete theatre, although a performance
that should have gone forward on Holy Innocents Day (28 December) had to be deferred a day,
the Carpenters beeing no-way ready w;th the stage or scaffold s (see p 355). A subsequent
Bill of expences - a rich source of theatrical information - includes an expenditure of 5
to the Carpenters for setting up the stage scaffolds twise and lending boardes etczttra and
1 for nayles (see pp 359-60). Other plays were performed privately in the lodging (see
pp 361-2.) The academic term was to have begun on Monday, 1 1 January, but because of
frost, as also by reason the hall was still pestered with the stage and scaffolds which were
suffered to stand still in expectation of the Comedy, the president simply postponed the
beginning of term for one week (see p 362).
In 1636 Henry Burton published the story of a carpenter who, undertaking to mend a Stage
in S. lohns Colleidge on the Satturday night, worked into Sunday morning that the Stage
might be ready against the Munday following. Suffering divine punishment he fell backward
from the Stage, being not farre from the ground, and brake his neck, and so ended his life in a
fearfull Tragedy (see p 558). Nevertheless, Archbishop Laud selected the hall for the perform
ance of a supplementary play for the royal visit of August 1636, at a cost to himself for the
stage & Comedy of 394 13s (see p 531).
All in all, the plays presented in St John s College hall on its stage and scaffolds were more
612 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
representative of academic drama at Oxford than the extravaganzas presented for royal con
sumption at Christ Church.
Entertainment in the Colleges and University
For almost the whole of the period covered by the Records, academic prohibitions alternated
with college or University sponsorship of public or private entertainment. The earliest known
prohibition by the University is dated c 1300. University College enacted prohibitions by
statute in 1292, Queen s in 1340, New College c 1398, All Souls in 1443, Magdalen in 1483,
Merton in 1484-5, Balliol in 1507, Corpus in 1516-17, Brasenose in 1521, and Christ Church
c 1546 and c 1550. Merton College enforced its prohibitions by order in 1499-1500, the
University in 1500-1. A comprehensive restriction against performances by professional acting
companies, promulgated by the University in 1584, is discussed elsewhere (see below, p 614).
Academic sponsorship of entertainment is exemplified for the early years by Exeter s support
of a play in 1360-1 and Mertons payment for a Ynayyng^ in 1386-7. The play in this instance
was probably extramural, while the mayyng/ was probably a festive repast provided by the
college on or about the first of May. The two events may be taken as representing two hypo-
thetically distinguishable kinds of activity - on the one hand academic support for extramural
performers, whether the performance occurred outside or within the college, and on the other
hand support for activities in which members of the college were the performers.
Extramural entertainers hired by the colleges or University for intramural performances are
discussed below under Travelling Entertainers and Music and Dance: Town and Gown. Here
it may simply be noted that external musicians were listed in academic accounts with much
scribal ingenuity, not only as the familiar buccinatores, histriones, musici, tibicines, and
tubicines, but also as fidicines, fistulans, spondiales, and symphonisti. Such performers
are recorded at Merton from 1431-2, New College from 1460-1, All Souls from 1467-8,
and Queen s from 1541-2, The University as distinct from its colleges paid performers from
as early as 1471-2 (the king s trumpeters). Players or musicians were recorded at All Souls
from 1467-8, at Magdalen from 1485-6, and at Queens from 1541-2. In addition satrape
from the town provided vocal music to Merton College from at least 1505-6 and possibly to
Magdalen College as early as 1485-6.
BOY BISHOPS AND COLLEGE LORDS
On 5 December (St Nicholas Eve) or less commonly on 28 December (feast of the Holy
Innocents) at least four colleges sponsored ceremonies of the boy bishop: Durham College
from 1399-1400, All Souls from c 1440, Lincoln from 1456-7, and Magdalen from 1482-3-
Magdalen maintained the tradition until at least 1529-30, Lincoln until at least 1539-40."
Many Oxford colleges appointed a lord, often for the Christmas season, following the
ancient and popular tradition of the lord of misrule. 20 A king of beans ( Rex fabarum ),
apparently celebrated on the vigil of the feast of St Edmund (19 November), is recorded at
Merton College from 1485-6 to 1539-40. Entries in the same accounts record an annual
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 613
Tire, evidently a festive gathering at which members of the college enjoyed the wintertime
comforts of a good fire and refreshments. (Judging from variations in the names of the principals
over successive years, the fire was distinct from the king of beans.) Further evidence concerning
Merton s king of beans is gathered in Appendix 5.
A useful description of a college lord occurs in a Magdalen school exercise book (c 1512-27):
this boye playd the lord yester day a mong his cowpanyounce a poyntyng eufry man his
office, oon he mayd his carver an other his butlere: an other his porter, an other bi cause ... he
wold not do as he cowmandyd hym he toke and ... to bete hyme ..." (the phrase to bete hyme
means beat him thoroughly ). Magdalen account books contain an enigmatic reference to a
lord in 1559-60. John Ponet s Apologie (1554-5) alludes to a (possibly fictional) New College
lord and minion from an earlier decade. An antiquarian note here dated c 1559 refers to a
Princeps Natalicius or Christmas Prince at Trinity College, while a letter of 3 April 1599
reveals that Christ Church usually chose an emperor but that year chose a boy of evidently
feminine aspect as empress. Richard Carnsews diary (1574-5) alludes to the appointment of a
lord at Broadgates Hall (later Pembroke College), while Richard Madox s diary notes under
January 1581/2 Richard Latewar s oration in ye name of kyng aulrede and a savage who ...
yelded his hollyn club. Peter Heylyn reports (1617-18): November 20 Mr Holt chosen Lord
(Chrwtmas Lord of Magdalen college) & solemnly inaugurated on ye 2d of lanwtfry following:
In w/;/ch I represented the Embassador of the Universitie of Vienna. No doubt this was a
jocular rather than a formal representation of the University of Vienna.
Events at St John s College over the 1607/8 festival season (30 October to 13 February) are
recorded in extraordinary detail in a manuscript text dubbed by modern editors, appropriately
enough, The Christmas Prince. Enterprising students resurrected a ceremony that had lain
dormant for thirty years (since 1577-8), when John Case was lord. Thomas Tucker was elected
prince by ballot on 30 October 1607 after John Towse refused the office. The full season
comprised eight plays or playlets, followed by a ninth (Periander) that was probably an independ
ent event. Meanwhile Christ Church responded with a satirical play called Yuletide. The full text
of The Christmas Prince provides an unrivalled view of the festive life of an early seventeenth-
century Oxford college. 21
OTHER ENTERTAINMENT
Oxford colleges indulged in further varieties of entertainment, some familiar from more secular
venues, some defying exact definition. Canterbury College funded degree feasts beginning in
1395. All Souls paid for a hobby horse in 1467-8. Spectacles are recorded at Magdalen from
1559-60 to 1606-; . Trinity College paid for a spectacle in 1564-5. Christ Church provided
masques (or maskes ) and mummings in 1598-9, while the records of St John s, from 1586-7
onward, are replete with shows, sports, interludes, merriments, masques, and a mock-show,
while a founders show is recorded with some frequency from 1621-2 onward. Another event,
called an exercise, appears in the accounts from 1598-9 to 1601-2, described in 1600-1 as
An exercyse of the Students in Latin Verse acted in Master prident Lodging. From 1593-4
comes a single reference to a salting : judging from more elaborate records surviving at
614 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
Cambridge, this was a mock-academic ceremony characterized by general irreverence and
sophomoric humour." Finally, probate records, beginning as early as 1427-8, occasionally
record the private ownership of musical instruments by individual members of various colleges.
Travelling Entertainers
The first travelling entertainers known to have been paid by the colleges were anonymous
histr/onibw/ paid by Canterbury College in 1410-11. The first entertainer or entertainers
whose patron is named visited Merton in 1431-2 under the patronage of Humphrey, duke of
Gloucester. In the over one hundred years between these visits and 1541 we have evidence
of fourteen more patronized troupes, four sets of entertainers, and a number of anonymous
troupes identified in the University records by their place of origin. No other entry for playing
companies (as opposed to trumpeters and pipers) appears in the University records until
1575-6 when the players of the chancellor of the University, the earl of Leicester, were paid 20s
by Magdalen College. Three years later in 1578-9 the players of Leicester s second wife, Lettice
Knollys, countess of Essex, were paid 10s for paines taken in the qwire the last holie daies.
In 1584, in a move similar to one taken in Cambridge in 1575, Convocation decreed:
that no common stage players be permitted to vse or do anye such thinge wnh in the
precincte of the vniumitye And if it happew by extraordinarye meanes yat stage players
shall gett or obtane leaue by the maior or other wayse yet it shall not be lawfull for anye
master bachiler or scholler aboue the age of eighteene to repaire or go to see anye such
thinge vnder paine of imprisowment And if any vnder the age of eighteene shall presume
to do anye thinge cotrarye to this statute the parrye so offendinge shall suffer opew
punishment in St Maries Church accordinge to the discrecion of the vichauncellor or
Proctors (see p 195). "
From this time on players were regularly paid by the University not to play. Only three records
may indicate that travelling companies were paid to play thereafter by University officials.
The first is a payment to the lord admiral s men in 1587-8, which follows immediately after
an entry in which Leicester s men were paid the same amount (20s) vt cum suis ludis sine
maiore Academic molestia discedant ( so that they would depart with their plays (or pastimes)
without greater trouble to the University ). The second is a payment to Queen Anne s men in
1613-14 and the third is to the king s men in 1615-16, where, among a total of five payments
by the vice-chancellor to performers related to the royal family, there appears a payment of 40s
to the players. Neither of these last entries is followed by a qualifying proviso.
Despite the 1584 statute, it is clear that common stage players still found ready clients in
the city itself. The University could not enforce a prohibition against players in the city and
the decree made it clear that it was the individual members of the University who were to be
punished if they attended plays sponsored by the mayor and council, not the city officials. The
presence of players in the city and the apparent laxness of the University in enforcing its own
decree have allowed the survival of such eyewitness accounts as Henry Jackson s touching and
immense!
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
11Illllt ,,,ely informative description of a contemporary performance of Shakespeare s Othello in
1609-10 by the kings men (see Appendix 10), as well as the extraordinary information
Thomas Crosfield that in 1633-4 players lodging in the King s Arms had brought fourteen
plays with them (see p 514).
Although Crosfield s diary records many kinds of entertainers that were on the road during
the 1620s and 1630s, there is no record of payment in the city accounts after 1617. Two circum
stances may explain the disappearance of the evidence. One is the increasing tendency to give
the mayor what amounts to a petty cash allowance. This is revealed by studying the accounting
patterns in the audited corporation accounts. By 1640 the allowance had become an advance
of 5 to the incoming mayor and a repayment to the outgoing mayor of 35. : " The players
may have been paid from this purse, after which the payment was noted in accounts that do
not survive. Another place where such payments and other payments to entertainers may be
hidden is in items for the recorder and other civic officials of repayment for entertainment
at the assizes. "
The city and the University shared the same geographical space and just as citizens and
tourists today attend concerts in the Sheldonian Theatre and plays in the colleges while members
of the University support local cultural activities, so in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
members of the University went to plays in the city while citizens were invited to shows in the
colleges (see p 371). The colleges also hired local musicians for their special events and sometimes
for their college plays. The performances of Othello and The Alchemist by the king s men
described by Henry Jackson in 1610 were sponsored by the city who paid 20s for the perform
ance on 5 August. Crosfield s diary tells us that there was much to be seen for money in ye
City in 1630-1, beginning with plays and going on to animal acts - a list of entertainment
possibilities familiar from the Coventry records in the same period. 20 Crosfield also records two
performances each of two well-known puppet plays - William Sands The Chaos of the World
and William Gosling s Destruction of Jerusalem between 1628 and 1635-
The city fathers of Oxford were consumers rather than producers of culture. Unlike their
counterparts in many other important provincial cities, they seem not to have ventured into
sponsoring pageantry or drama. They were, however, generous patrons of itinerant entertainers.
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries they were particularly generous to those
attached to the royal house who were frequently in the city because of the royal residence in
nearby Woodstock. Of the over eighty payments to travelling entertainers from 1554 to 1617,
over sixty per cent were to performers associated with the reigning monarch. Queen Mary s
players performed in the guildhall in 1556-7. Queen Elizabeth s jester entertained the mayor
and council three times between 1560 and 1567. r Her bearwards - first Richard Dorrington
and then Ralph Bowes - were paid fourteen times between 1560 and 1581 and again in
1597." The first baiting was part of the entertainment for the earl of Bedford, then the high
steward of the city. Entertainers travelling under Elizabeth s patronage visited four times between
1565 and 1572, and the newly formed queen s men played in the city nine times between
1585 and 1599, and on three occasions (in 1589-90, 1594-5, and 1598-9) they were paid
by the University not to play. There were thirteen visits of three Jacobean royal troupes.
The king s men were in Oxford eight times from 1603 to 1622. Anne of Denmark s troupe
616 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
visited four times and Prince Charles once. The king MynstrelW were paid in 1554-5
even though Mary had been on the throne since 19 July 1553, and her minstrels were paid as
the quenes Mynstrells in 1556-7.
The last category of royal servants paid by both the council and the colleges consisted of men
who were as much civil servants as they were entertainers. These were the trumpeters who first
appear at the end of Elizabeths reign and with increasing frequency during the Stuart period.
It was the practice of the trumpeters to demand fees from the city and the colleges when the
monarch simply passed through the city on the way to Woodstock. Thomas Crosfield notes
that the city fathers refused to pay the trumpeters in 1630-1 when they demanded some fee
from ye towne as due as they had ye time also of their being there before to the displeasure
of the lord chamberlain. Some years later the city formalized its refusal to pay such fees by an
order taken on 3 September 1638:
Item whereas somwe of the kjnges servants in respect the kinge by accident rode through
this Cittie in his progresse doe demaund frees of Master MaiowrThe opinion of this house
is That the kinge not Comwinge in State noe frees are due vnto them It is therefore agreed
that if master Maioz^r be questioned concerninge the same that hee shalbee defended at
the Cittie chardge. 2 1
The colleges, however, continued regular payments to the Stuart trumpeters leading to the
impression that the travellers were exploiting the desire of the University to curry royal favour
to their own advantage.
Leicester s men were the most frequent non-royal players paid by the city. They were paid
by the city five times, twice while his players were still styled Lord Robert Dudley s players
before he became chancellor of the University in 1564, and an additional two times by the
University. In only one year, the year of his death in 1588, was the company paid by both the
city and the University. In 1585-6 the city paid his musicians rather than his players. This
was in the period immediately after the establishment of the queen s men when Leicester s
acting company, deprived of some of its star actors, seems to have been somewhat in eclipse. 30
The admiral s men made five visits between 1586 and 1596, including the one to the University
in 1587-8.
The players of Leicester s second wife, Lettice Knollys, visited three times between 1576
and 1580. On one occasion (1576-7) the city not only paid the company but also spent
what appears to be 6s on a banquet. During the Christmas season in 1578-9, as we have
seen, the company helped out the choir at Christ Church. The same company under the
patronage of the new earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, may have come in 1585-6 but were
definitely in Oxford in 1589-90 and again in 1596-7, the year he became high steward.
The players of the earl of Sussex came twice, 1572-3 and 1575-6, and were paid in March
1573 under the name of the lord chamberlain s players after he was made lord chamberlain.
Single visits were also made by the players of the earls of Oxford (1556-7), Warwick (1561-2),
Pembroke (1595-6), Derby (1595-6), and Hertford (1605-6), and Lords Strange (1592-3)
and Morley (paid to play by the city but to go away by the University in 1594-5).
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
CIVIC PLAY VENUES
Little is known about the conditions under which visiting entertainers performed in Oxford.
There are three specific references to playing in the guildhall. The first two are for Queen
Mary s players in 1556-7 and Warwick s men in 1561-2. On 17 February 1579/80 the
council passed an order that no Mayor of this Cytie or his deputie frome henceforth/ shall
geve leave to any players/ to playe wz thin the Guilde hall or the Lower hall/ or in the Guilde
hall courte w/thowt consent of the Counsell. This argues that all three areas of the guildhall
may have been used by players. Possibly as a result of this order, no acting companies were
paid by the council until 1585-6 when the ban was lifted for a possible performance by
the earl of Essex s players. No playing place is mentioned in subsequent entries although the
guildhall remained the logical place for the performances for the city and it has been suggested
that Henry Jackson s description of Othello and The Alchemist in 1610 argues for an indoor
theatre such as the guildhall. 31 Two inns are also associated with plays. In 1559-60 Dudley s
players performed at mr Cogans. H.E. Salter has identified Coggan s establishment as the
King s Head, an inn run by the Coggan family from 1556. SaJter describes it as a second class
inn with an approach from Cornmarket and another from Sewy s Lane, and it had a large yard
where the plays could be given (Figure 5, p 618). 32 From the evidence of Crosfield s diary, a
second inn, the King s Arms that still stands at the corner of Holywell and Parks Road, became
popular as a playing place in the seventeenth century. 33
Music and Dance: Town and Gown
The complex interrelationship between the musicians who performed for both the University
and the city is perhaps best understood from the vantage point of 1631-2. By that year the
demand for secular music in Oxford was great enough that a second troupe of waits was set
up solely for the benefit of the University. This troupe was led by John Gerrard, a former
city wait, who secured permission from the vice-chancellor to recruit six others to form the
university music. In return they promised to perform both loude musicke in ye Wynter
morninges to wake up the students in all the colleges and halls and Very commendable lowe
musicke whenever it should be wanted. In addition they were allowed to perform one benefit
concert each year in each of the colleges and halls. Besides Gerrard, the University musicians
at this time were John Pollie, Thomas Hallwood, John Stacy, Thomas Jones, and their boys
Francis Taylor, Thomas Curtise, William Rogers, and John Moore, making a total of nine,
although in his original agreement with the vice-chancellor Gerrard had specified seven as
the befittinge number for a right broken consort (see p 502).
The establishment of the second official troupe of musicians was a major innovation and
one that was not welcomed by the city musicians. Until 1632 musicians from the city had
provided music for the colleges. The records of five colleges show regular annual payments to
musicians while six others show occasional payments. Magdalen paid regularly for music at the
bursar s feast, settling to an annual 5s by 1593-4. In 1603-4 New College began a regular
payment of 6s 8d to musicis oppidanis. Merton provided a similar sum from 1590-1, and
618
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
Figure 5 The King s Head Inn (1863), by permission of the Bodleian Library.
Figure 6 17th-c. woodcut of Penniless Bench, reproduced from the VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 333,
by permission of the General Editor.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
from 1592-3 Queens normally spent at least 10s a year on wind players. St John s, however,
was the greatest patron of music, spending sometimes over 7 in a year on music that was often
associated with their plays. This rich source of patronage may have been one of the reasons
William Gibbons (father of the composer Orlando) for the decade of the 1580s returned to
his native city of Oxford from Cambridge, where he had been head wait of both the town and
the University.
Brian Twyne s Notes on the History of the University Music, compiled in 1632, gave three
arguments for the establishment of University musicians. The first was an appeal to historic
precedent. Citing a court case heard before the chancellor s court in 1501 involving a musician
(a stranger ) and two sets of Oxford musicians, Twyne concluded (with no evidence beyond
the fact that the case was tried in the chancellor s court) that there were .2. companies of
Musitians in Oxford; ye one for ye Vniutrsities vse, ye other for yeTownes vse (see p 499).
His second argument was that music was one of the liberal sciences; men of the city had no
right to practise it since ye profession of ye liberall sciences belongeth wholly to ye vniu^rsitie
(see p 503). His third argument again cited historic precedent. City musicians had been paid
by the members of the University on a regular basis and were therefore to be considered
priuiledged persons. However spurious the arguments, the University musicians were established
and St John s seems to have taken on the responsibility of providing their livery. The Jesus
College accounts, which begin in 1631 2, include regular payments of 10s to the University
music. Both New College and Queen s continued to pay the city musicians until 1635 6
after which they switched their payments to musicis academicis.
In addition to their prescribed duties, the University musicians agreed to make themselves
available for all occasions of ye vniu^rsitie (see p 502). One such occasion seems to have been
the royal visit of 1636. Although the music for the plays themselves was composed by the
court musicians Henry and William Lawes, 2 for Vniu^rsity Musicke appears at the end
of the extensive Christ Church expense account for the event and Archbishop Laud paid 1
to both the Vniu^rsity Waytw and the Towne Wayrrf for their performances at St John s.
Perhaps the local musicians provided incidental music for the plays. On earlier occasions the
Records show numerous payments to local musicians in connection with college plays.
The opportunity to earn significant money from sources other than the city explains the
unusual arrangements between the city musicians and the city. In some towns, such as York,
Exeter, or Norwich, the waits were recognizable town servants with regular payments for their
wages and their liveries." This was not the case with the Oxford waits. Indeed it was not until
1632-3, the year after the establishment of the University musicians, that the issue of payment
to the city musicians was systematically addressed and provision made for their Cloakes. At
that time the city council minutes stated that the waits were to be paid for playing to this
Citty on the King Hollidayes and when the Mayor cometh from London and other publicke
meetings.
This decree formalized the long-standing custom of civic-sponsored music on the occasion
of civic ceremonies. Music was frequently part of the entertainment at the election of the new
mayor and bailiffs that took place on the Monday before St Matthew s Day (21 September).
The Serjeant at mace rang the great bell of St Martin s Church summoning the burgesses to
620 DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
a service of morning prayer. The election was then held and if funds were available, there
followed an election dinner for all the freemen - sometimes as many as six hundred in the
seventeenth century." A few days after the election the mayor then went to London where he
took his oath before the barons of the exchequer. On his return to Oxford he was sometimes
(as in 1561) greeted by a trumpeter.
Music was regularly part of the riding the franchises that took place, weather permitting, in
August or September. Rather than riding or walking the franchises, the mayor and his party
circumnavigated the city largely by boat. The trip began on the Cherwell at Magdalen Bridge
and travelled first south, then west across Christ Church Meadow to the Isis, and then
north to Godstow. There refreshments were traditionally served and music was often played.
The mayor and party then left the boats and walked across Port Meadow and beyond to
the Cherwell where they once again took to the river, finally arriving back where they had
begun at Magdalen Bridge.
Music was also part of the 17 November Accession Day celebrations held for Elizabeth in
1573-4, 1574-5, and 1576-7. In 1575-6 the same payment was specified as for her
Coronation daye. An unusual entry for 1585-6 speaks of musicians for the daye ofTryvmphe.
The official musicians played at the proclamation of King James in 1603. An ordinance of
16323 makes clear the nature of the music at civic occasions: Musitions to haue such allowance
for playinge on the kinges hollidaies & other tymes to the Citty as the mayor & thirteene shall
thinck fitt. The musicians traditionally played at Penniless Bench at St Martin s, Carfax
(Figure 6, p 618; see p 11 10, endnote to OCA: C/FC/1/Al/OOl ff 337v, 338). They also
frequently played at guild dinners.
The terminology relating to musicians in Oxford is, as so often elsewhere, slippery. From
time to time the term wait does appear in these payments but the payment was equally or
more likely (especially in guild accounts) to musicians or for musicke. In 1602-3 an order
was given that no musicians but waits were to play w/ thin this Cytie & suburbes. Any other
musician was to be imprisoned. Yet from that year until 1628-9, when a new group of musi
cians was admitted freemen and named waits, the term was used only once in 1606-7. During
the same period, there were two payments for musicians at the Tailors election dinners
(1610-11 and 1619-20). The chamberlains also recorded payments for Musitions at the
Accession Day ceremonies in 1605-6 and when the mayor rode the ffranchises that same year.
Music was again paid for at the franchise ceremonies in 1613-14 and 1614-15 ( trumpeters )
and in 1618-19 ( Musicke ), and most significantly the Towne Musick was ordered to be
present at Penniless Bench during the civic celebration marking the happie &c safe Retorne
of the Prince in 1623-4. Clearly some, if not all, of these references (if the order of 1602-3
was still in effect) were to the waits. The last record of an election of a wait, that of William
Stronge in 1639-40, refers to the event as an election of one of the Musitions of this Cittie.
We can be sure that a record involved waits if the term was used but the fact that the term was
not used does not mean that payment was not to a wait.
The first musicians to be named as town waits were George Ewen and George Buckner in
I577_g, when they had apparently been relieved of their positions and asked to hand in their
scutchins or silver medallions of office Will suche tyme as farther order shoulde be taken. *
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 621
The keykeepers duly recorded the receipt of the scutcheons in their accounts. In lieu of a
regular retainer or livery the scutcheons were the only official indication of which musicians
were, indeed, the city musicians. Ewen had been named in the records four times: in 1573-4
for playing at Accession Day, in 1574-5 for playing at the election dinner, in 1575-6 for both
the election dinner and coronation festivities, and once in 1576-7 for the Accession Day
events. Nothing more was recorded but the difficulties seem to have been resolved since the
waytw played at the election dinner in 1579-80.
In 1582-3, when William Gibbons arrived from Cambridge, he was made a freeman of the
city, paying the officer s fee of 4s 6d, and given the Scuttchins of oure Waym. Apparently
he had been made chief wait and had charge of all the scutcheons, a fact duly noted by the
keykeepers in the next year. Gibbons rented a tenement in St Martin s parish from William
Frere, a wealthy member of the town council. 37 Young Orlando, who would gain national fame
as a musician himself, was baptized at St Martin s in December 1583. 18
In 1587-8 George Buckner became head wait and the three scutcheons were to be delivered
to him. In particular, Ynr Gybbons is to make one more to be likewise Delivered to the said
George. Nothing more is heard of Gibbons as a wait or musician in Oxford. He returned to
Cambridge in 1589 and by 1591 was apparently once again University wait and head town
wait. Despite the order that Buckner was to receive the scutcheons from Gibbons in 1587-8,
the keykeepers continued to record that they were in Gibbons possession. Indeed, the notation
continued until 1615-16, twenty years after Gibbons death in Cambridge in 1595. Subsequent
appointments of Oxford waits made a great point of requiring that the new waits supply their
own scutcheons, which they were to leave to the city when they left office. Evidently Gibbons
never gave the scutcheons to Buckner but sold them or took them with him to Cambridge.
George Buckner was made free in 1596-7, along with another musician, Leonard Major,
but Buckner was dead by his own hand by August 1599. He had been living in a property
in the parish of St Mary Magdalen owned by the University; as a suicide his entire estate of
18 19s lOd was forfeit to the University (see p 258).
The next wait to be admitted was John Baldwin the elder, made free on the payment of the
officer s fee and 2s 6d for a leather buckett in 1602-3. That year the waits played for the
proclamation of James i. There follows a long silence in the records but in 1628 Baldwin was
once again named as wait with his son John Baldwin the younger. 3 The other waits named
were Sampson Stronge, who had been an apprentice, and three others who paid the officer s
fee and the price of the leather bucket. These were John Gerrard (who later founded the
University music), Philip Golledge, and Richard Burren. Details surrounding these appoint
ments included the requirement that each wait produce a scutcheon before he receive his first
payment at Christmas and that all waits hand in their scutcheons once a year as was the custom
with the Serjeants at mace and their maces. The council specified that they had the right to
name replacements. Possibly in the long period where no new waits were named, the waits
themselves had been naming replacements. During this period a man named George Payne
seems to have been named a wait. In 1637-8 William Stronge (referred to only as Sampsons
sonne ) and William Hilliard and his eldest son were also named as waits. Stronge s official
appointment appeared in the 1639-40 minutes where he was to replace Payne. In 1638 it
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
was decided to limit admission to the waits to those who had first served an apprenticeship,
perhaps a roundabout way of ensuring that the job could pass freely from father to son.
The names of two other city musicians who do not appear in the Records - William Higgins
(1608) and Thomas Bennett (1636) - can be recovered from the records of the chancellor s
court for this period/"
Although REED volumes cover only secular music, it should be kept in mind that all of the
musicians named here had other sources of income, some of which would have involved them
in liturgical music. In addition, among the University waits, John Gerrard was a licensed
alehousekeeper and also ran a musical instrument and book shop. The inventory of his shop
compiled at his death in 1635 gives a good idea of the variety of instruments available in
Oxford (see p 530). Francis Jones became an assistant to the first Heather Professor of Music,
Richard Nicholson, and Thomas Curtise was an organist at Magdalen College. Many of the
city waits also ran taverns. All of these musicians gave private lessons to students wishing to
learn the gentlemanly arts of playing the lute or the viol/
One of the other gentlemanly arts in the early seventeenth century, especially if a student
had pretentions to become a courtier, was dancing. The need for a dancing master is listed
in a seventeenth-century Christ Church document along with the necessity of engaging a
riding master, fencing master, and master of instrumental and vocal music. 42 The dancing
schools of Oxford were so renowned in this period as to influence a father in the choice of a
university. 4 The most prominent school (and the one that appears in these records) was in
the Bocardo, the building near the North Gate that belonged to the city and served as a jail.
The school was begun before 1606 by John Bosseley, a musician of the city. His son, also
John, was still teaching dance there in 1661. Among the courtiers trained at the school were
Lord Percy of Alnwick, John Evelyn, and Prince Charles (after the battle of Edge Hill). 44 The
school is first mentioned in a council minute for 18 September 1606, when John Harington
was seeking to sublet part of the property from Bosseley. The latter was given a new lease in
May 1610 for thirty-one years at the annual rent of 26s 8d. An indenture drawn up at the
same time details the property. One restriction put on its use was that no one was to dance
in and vppon the said Demysed Roome Sollere or Chamber . . . betweene the Howres of twoe
of the clocke in the afternoon and ffive of the Cloke in the fforenoone. In the next year
Bosseley was granted a licence to transfer his lease to Thomas Charles, musician. Bosseley
senior seems to have died between this date and 1626-7 when Charles was instructed not to
let the school to a Mr Sett. In 1635-6 Bosseley s son John and William Stokes, who is said
to have bredd vpp the said lohn Bossely thexecutor and other the Children of the said lohn
Bossely Deceased, sought a new lease. The property was viewed in order to adjust the rent.
The indenture that accompanies the new lease allowed the school to hold classes all day, with
hours of silence from 10 PM to 5 AM.
Local Entertainment
From the convent of Benedictine nuns at Godstow we have rare and early evidence of an abbess
of misrule tradition on the feast of the Holy Innocents contained in a letter written to the
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
abbess by Archbishop Pecham in 1284. The other religious houses that were so much a part
of the life of Oxford in the later Middle Ages have left us little evidence of entertainment
activity. None of the three men s houses that could be considered within the geographic scope
of this collection - the Cistercian abbey of Rewley or the two houses of Augustinian canons,
Osney and St Frideswide - has left any trace of their day to day activities in household
accounts that survive.
By contrast the abundance of evidence from Oxford parishes dating back to 1423 is remark
able. It is as if the scholars who served the parishes understood the value of the written records
and encouraged their churchwardens to preserve them on parchment rolls, not in the paper
books favoured by the wardens in the country parishes. Similarly, generations of scholarly
parishioners preserved the accounts, in some cases lovingly pasting them into large guard
books." It is to the scholarly instincts of generations of Oxford churchmen that we owe such
a wealth of detail.
The Records tell us little of the kind of parish drama that was a feature of the country parishes
in the surrounding areas. 4 " Despite the popular picture from Chaucer s Miller s Tale of thriving
parish drama in Oxford, little evidence of such activity survives. Only St Peter in the East has
any hint of true drama. Merton College paid players from the parish for a performance in
Holywell in 1469. There is also evidence from the St Peter s churchwardens accounts that they
rented out their costumes in 1488-9 and 1495-6. But if they did not pursue the performance
of plays, Oxford parishes were seemingly unusual in the enthusiasm with which they pursued
the custom of gathering money at Hocktide - the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter.
The custom was that groups of young men or women of the parish would go into the streets,
capture members of the opposite sex, and hold them to mock ransom until they had given
them money. The young people would then move on to their next victim. Although there is
some evidence of men engaged in hocking in Oxford, the overwhelming number of entries is
for young women undertaking the gathering. The reason for this is not far to seek. The number
of well-to-do young men attending the University clearly made the game worthwhile. An
eyewitness account of an early sixteenth-century Oxford hocking survives in a Magdalen school
exercise book, c 1512-27, where the writer complains that wether I wold or no I was fayne
to giue them suwwhat.
The survival of hocking customs of the parishes into the seventeenth century reflects the
unique situation of Oxford as a University town. 47 Clearly the presence of the students meant
that the parishes were unwilling to give up such an easy source of income. St Michael at the
North Gate was still sending its women into the streets on Hock Monday and holding a
Whitsun ale in 1642. The parishioners of St Martin, St Mary Magdalen, and St Peter in the
East were hocking until 1640. There is even a rare entry in the late Jesus College records of
2s 6d being given To the hocking women in 1635-6.
All the parishes with surviving evidence held ales at Whitsun and only the evidence of St Mary
the Virgin lacks indication that the event included some form of music or customary activity.
The only years when no ales were recorded in these records were the years of Edward vi s reign
and 1626 when an order was issued 20 April prohibiting them by reason of the tyme of
infection and danger. Some parishes occasionally leased a house in which to hold their ales.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
For example in 1517-18 St Peter in the East paid George Coke 3s 8d Tor hys hows at wytsontyd
and in 1576- St Mary Magdalen paid one of their own tenants, Dr John Case, 4s for the
use of his howsse at Whytsontyde. In 1610-11 Thomas Burnham asked the parish for 10s
for the use of his house for the Church ale. St Mary Magdalen specified the use of their
church house for the ale in 1614-15. The lease of the church house of St Aldate drawn up on
30 January 1569/70 specifies that the tenant, Richard Williams, must vacate the premises for
the space of fifteine dayes yearely at or aboute the feaste of Penthecost yf church ale or whiteson
ale for the whole parish of saynte Tolles aforesayde shalbe at the sayde feaste Penthecost there
be kept in the same house. 48
All five parishes with extended runs of records - St Martin, St Mary Magdalen, St Michael
at the North Gate, St Peter in the East, and St Peter le Bailey - noted payments to minstrels
for their ale and the only roll from St Michael at the South Gate also recorded payment of 2s
to a minstrel in 1501-2. Only St Michael at the North Gate does not specifically name a May
or summer pole.
An antiquarian record gives All Saints a kinge game in 1482-3. St Peter le Bailey twice
recorded expenses for mending the gowne and kyrtell (1537-8, and 1540-1) of the
queen - presumably the May queen. In 1561-2 St Mary Magdalen sold for a shilling an
olde saye coot of grene wyche was made for the lord for wettsonryd. Finally, the early records
of St Peter le Bailey speak of a pageant lion and dragon (1468-9). Although scattered among
many entries that simply record the profits from the Whitsun ales, this evidence argues
that the parishes of Oxford had annual festivities with many of the features of the country
parishes elsewhere in the Thames Valley. 49 The only activity missing from these records is
the custom of Robin Hood gatherings, although they were part of the Whitsun events in
nearby Woodstock. 50 Most of the parishes were still holding occasional ales in the 1630s. This
is considerably later than in most other parts of the country, although the pattern for ales
is similar in much of the equally conservative surrounding countryside in north Berkshire
and Oxfordshire.
Blood sports, although they appear infrequently in the Records, seem to have been a
constant part of the life of the town. Bearbaiting, particularly when the queen s bearward
was in town, was a popular entertainment. There is no mention of a bear pit but a reference
from the Magdalen school copy book (c 1495) places the baiting inside the precincts of
the castle. There was a bullring at an unspecified location as early as 1414, one in Carfax
until 1616, and another outside the North Gate, which was inside the parish bounds of
St Mary Magdalen. 51 Thomas Crosfield provides a graphic description of a bullbaiting in
St Clement s parish in 1635-6.
Aside from the apparent popularity of blood sports, the picture one gains from the entertain
ment records of Oxford is one of great decorum. 52 Yet underlying this decorum the constant
town-gown tension occasionally found expression during traditional celebrations. Three
instances of rowdy confrontation between scholars and townsfolk during festive activities occur
in these records. The earliest, for 1306, took place on Midsummer Eve when a clerk, Gilbert
Foxlee, was killed. The second was the 1598 May game confrontation between some youth
of the town, including the mayor s son, William Furness, and the authorities of the University.
DRAMA, MUSIC, AND CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS 625
The description includes cross-dressing, a woman decked out as a May queen, and morris
dancing. The third instance took place in 1617 when Actors in the Rydeing Company disguised
vpon May day" were held to be in contempt, not of the University but of the mayor and
council. These last two references may speak to a traditional May game riding that was not
part of the licensed celebrations of the city or the parishes but rather a more subversive
activity. The Holywell prosecution involving a maypole incident in 1641 also attests to an
undercurrent of rowdiness and dispute more familiar in records from the countryside and
other parts of England. 53
Institutions and Documents
Most of the documents that provide evidence for dramatic and secular musical performance
in Oxford may be assigned to particular institutions, organized here under Colleges, The
University, and civic, guild, ecclesiastical, and legal headings. Institutional documents are
listed under the institutions to which they logically belong, rather than under the libraries
where they are currently housed.
Documents that cannot be linked to a particular institution are described under supplement
ary headings: these include court or diplomatic documents, private correspondence, personal
records, histories and reminiscences, play texts, and poems and songs. To enable the reader
to locate document descriptions where the category is not obvious, marginal codes have been
supplied as a finding aid: see Symbols (p 2) for explanations.
While most documents are described in considerable detail, an exception may be made for
any item currently housed in the Bodleian Library, most of whose manuscripts are already
described in print. Thus Ashmole and Rawlinson MSS are described in nineteenth-century
Quarto catalogues, while others, including those from the important Anthony Wood col
lections, are described in the Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library,
Falconer Madan (ed), 7 vols (Oxford, 1895-1953). The number assigned to each manuscript
by the Summary Catalogue is here given after its shelf-mark, preceded by the symbol sc. 2
No attempt is made to tabulate the complete contents of poetic or antiquarian miscellanies.
Relationships between REED entries that occur in more than one manuscript or later printed
texts are generally analysed in full.
Duke Humfrey s Library, which has retained a separate identity within the Bodleian Library,
is shortened in academic parlance to Duke Humfrey : in Duke Humfrey thus means on the
reference shelves of Duke Humfrey s Library within the Bodleian Library.
The histories and archives of many Oxford institutions, academic as well as civic, are available
in an ongoing series of volumes published by the Oxford Historical Society.
The Colleges
All Oxford colleges founded before 1642 retain physical custody of their archives with the single
exception of All Souls, whose archives are housed in the Bodleian Library. College archives are
generally housed in a muniment room that is physically and administratively separate from
f *J *7
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
the library. Cataloguing ranges from the meticulous (New College, St John s) to the minimal
(Lincoln, Oriel, Trinity). College libraries are the likely repository of materials of a literary
character, such as letters and diaries.
Most Oxford colleges had at least two bursars, sometimes more, who had separate areas
of responsibility but who also checked each other s work. It is not unusual, therefore, to find
multiple hands in a given document and multiple entries for the same expense. Some accounts
are annual, others semi-annual, quarterly, or weekly. The accounting year usually began at
Michaelmas (29 September) but there are important exceptions to this rule, such as The Queen s
College, whose accounting year began in July. Where quarters were indicated they almost
always began on Michaelmas (29 September), Christmas (25 December), Lady Day (25 March),
and the nativity of St John the Baptist (24 June). Sometimes the terms are named (Terminus
Natalitii ), more often they are numbered (Terminus 2 US ). Unless the actual calendar date is
given, an expense may be datable only within the accounting period. An audit of each term s
accounts was held in the first week of the following term, culminating in a formal dinner often
accompanied by musical entertainment.
Bursars accounts were kept in stages, from rough notes to engrossed accounts prepared for
an audit, which usually occurred in November: the amount of detail available for extraction
is generally in inverse proportion to the degree of refinement. The weekly accounts preserved
at St John s, for example, or the quarterly disbursement books at Christ Church, are a good
deal more chatty than the final accounts, which tend to lump individual payments into such
categories as Other expenses ( Varia Expensae ), which are of little or no value to a REED
editor. The paucity of information about dramatic activities at such colleges as Brasenose and
University is largely due to the fact that only the final accounts have survived. Any general
izations about the amount of dramatic activity in a particular college must take such facts
into consideration.
Readers requiring a more detailed understanding of college accounting practices are referred
to Sir William Blackstone s Dissertation on the Accounts of All Souls College Oxford (London,
1898), composed in 1753 for the benefit of the future bursars of All Souls (Blackstone had
been bursar in 1747 and 1751). Blackstone aptly concludes that the accounts are, as Alexander
Pope said of man s world in the first epistle of his Essay on Man (1.6), a mighty maze, but not
without a plan.
Unless noted otherwise, the descriptions that follow are based on Oxford, in Encyclopaedia
Britannica, llth ed; and VCH: Oxford, vol 3. For ease of reference colleges are listed here in
alphabetical order rather than by date of foundation.
ALL SOULS COLLEGE
All Souls College was founded in 1438 by Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury. (The
name is now commonly spelled without the apostrophe.) Its head is a warden. It is the only
Oxford college with no undergraduates (except four Bible clerks).
Most of the archives were deposited in the Bodleian Library in 1966 (ownership and control
of access remain with the college). New shelf-marks conform to the new storage arrangements:
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
see E.F. Jacob, All Souls College Archives, Ovmiensia 33 (1969), 89-91. The general Bodleian
f-mark for the material is MS. D.D. All Souls ; c. stands for carton. Access is via Charles
I nee Martin, Catalogue of the Archives in the Muniment Rooms of All Souls College (London,
h a copy, annotated with the new shelf-marks, is kept in Duke Humfrey.
All Souls College Inventory
The inventory is of goods given to the college by its founder, Henry Chichele, archbishop of
Canterbury.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.268, no 210; c 1440; Latin; parchment; 2 mbs sewn
together in roll form; mb 1: 600mm x 277mm, mb 2: 580mm x 288mm; writing on both sides in 2
and 3 cols.
All Souls College Foundation Statutes
Oxford, All Souls College Archives; 1443; Latin; 42 4 iii (following flyleaves are uncut: the number
represents 3 double leaves), ff 1-40 have needle marks on the outer edges, suggesting that they were
previously sewn in a different format (upside down?), then unstitched and resewn; 308mm x 219mm
(204mm x 122mm); unnumbered; excellent condition; decorated initial capitals, the opening initial
is absent, suggesting original plans for an illumination, headers are enlarged and written in red ink;
contemporary leather binding, 45mm x 42mm seal pendant.
All Souls College Bursars Accounts
These are on parchment, and constitute the final annual accounts. There are also some paper
rolls, comprising draft accounts. Those examined proved identical with the final accounts. For
some years only the draft rolls survive. Accounts of one or the other type survive for all years
since 1446, except the following: 1461-2, 1463-4, 1466-7, 1468-9, 1471-3, 1475-9,
1482-3, 1485-9, 1490-1, 1492-4, 1496-8, 1503-4, 1512-13, 1548-9, 1566-7, 1569-70,
and 1581-2.
The accounting year began on 2 November (All Souls Day). There is no division into
quarters or terms. For a detailed analysis of how the accounts were compiled, see the treatise
of Blackstone, cited on p 627.
Excerpts have been taken from the following rolls within the boxes listed.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.278; 12 rolls in box including accounts for:
1467_8; Latin; parchment; 8 mbs attached serially; 390-707mm x 268-306mm (324-662mm x
210-75mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; first mb badly frayed. The draft account for this year also survives as a paper roll
and is included in this box.
679
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
1479-80; Latin; paper; 15 sheets attached serially; 215-400mm x 294-310mm (176-350mm x
170-294mm); modern pencil numbering; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-
end date on dorse of last sheet; sheet 1 in poor condition; wrapped with modern paper label and tied
with ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.283; 14 rolls in box including account for:
1567-8; English and Latin; parchment; 8 mbs attached serially; 388-660mm x 242-50mm (378-
660mm x 2 17- 50mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date
on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.284; 15 rolls in box including accounts for:
1572-3; Latin; parchment; 6 mbs attached serially; 250-742mm x 161-200mm (164-738mm x
155-200mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on
dorse of first and last mbs; tied with string.
1574_5; Latin and English; parchment; 7 mbs attached serially; 331-536mm x 198-207mm (125-
525mm x 171-207mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
1576-7; English and Latin; parchment; 6 mbs attached serially; 457-528mm x 204-19mm (415-
520mm x 187-219mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with pink ribbon.
1578-9; Latin and English; parchment; 5 mbs attached serially; 255-644mm x 230-9mm (207-
635mm x 201-27mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
1579-80; English; parchment; 5 mbs attached serially; 533-743mm x 242-51mm (481-724mm x
182-248mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first mb; tied with pink ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.286; 8 rolls in box including accounts for:
1591-2; English and Latin; parchment; 15 mbs attached serially; 528-789mm x 246-55mm (410-
789mm x 217-55mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date
on dorse of last mb; tied with contemporary parchment tab and tie attached to final mb.
1592-3; English and Latin; parchment; 18 mbs attached serially; 478-720mm x 242-58mm (396-
720mm x 212-58mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date
on dorse of last mb; tied with contemporary parchment tab and tie attached to final mb. The draft
account for this year also survives as a paper roll and is included in this box.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.287; 9 rolls in box including accounts for:
630 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
1597-8; English and Latin; parchment; 1 1 mbs attached serially; 545-652mm x 255-64mm (505-
648mm x 225-64mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with pink ribbon.
1599-1600; Latin and English; parchment; 12 mbs attached serially; 540-652mm x 225-40mm
(160-640mm x 195-240mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-
end date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
1600-1; English and Latin; parchment; 11 mbs attached serially; 303-770mm x 315-25mm (303-
760mm x 243-310mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.288; 9 rolls in box including accounts for:
1602-3; English; parchment; 8 mbs attached serially; 550-800mm x 290-300mm (180-800mm x
240 95mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
1604-5; English; parchment; 9 mbs attached serially; 540-785mm x 295-310mm (540-785mm x
240-310mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.289; 8 rolls in box including accounts for:
1607-8; English; parchment; 15 mbs attached serially; 250-640mm x 290-8mm (250-640mm x
233 -98mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with pink ribbon.
1609-10; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs attached serially; 240-758mm x 305-21mm (196-
758mm x 275-315mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with pink ribbon.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.290; 8 rolls in box including account for:
1613-14; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs attached serially; 4l8-800mm x 290-300mm (298-
800mm x 246-300mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with twine.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.291; 7 rolls in box including accounts for:
1615-16; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs attached serially; 459-640mm x 290-310mm (360-
640mm x 236- 300mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end
date on dorse of first and last mbs; tied with string.
1616-17; English; parchment; 12 mbs attached serially; 400-722mm x 295-300mm (220-722mm x
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
248-300mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with string.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.292; 9 rolls in box including accounts for:
1618-19; English; parchment; 13 mbs attached serially; 198-804mm x 288-98mm (198-804mm x
243-98mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only; tied with string.
1620-1; English; parchment; 11 mbs attached serially; 250-708mm x 293-303mm (250-708mm x
243 -99mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only; tied with string.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.293; 10 rolls in box including accounts for:
1623-4; English; paper; 17 sheets attached serially; 370-406mm x 302-lOmm (80-406mm x 168-
310mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse of
first and last sheets; tied with white ribbon.
1626-7; English; parchment; 11 mbs attached serially; 242-688mm x 298-310mm (242-678mm
x 278-310mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on
dorse of first mb.
1627-8; English; parchment; 12 mbs attached serially; 85-748mm x 300-5mm (85-748mm x 190-
302mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse of
first and last mbs; tied with white ribbon. The draft account for this year is a paper roll stored in the
box catalogued as MS. D.D. AJ1 Souls c.294.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.294; 10 rolls in box including accounts for:
1628-9; English; parchment; 13 mbs attached serially; 133-674mm x 298-305mm (93-674mm x
246- 305mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with string.
1629-30; English; parchment; 1 1 mbs attached serially; 274-765mm x 298-301 mm (text area varies,
maximum 765mm x 190mm, mb 1 1 is blank); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars
names and year-end date on dorse of first and last mbs; mbs 8 and 9 decayed; tied with string.
1630-1; English; parchment; 11 mbs attached serially; 330-820mm x 305-12mm (330-820mm x
290-312mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first and last mbs; tied with string.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. D.D. All Souls c.295; 10 rolls in box including accounts for:
1632-3; English; parchment; 13 mbs attached serially; 424-598mm x 309-15mm (332-598mm x
232-312mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
632 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
of last mb; tied with pink ribbon. The draft account for this year also survives as a paper roll and is
included in this box.
1633-4; English; parchment; 16 mbs attached serially; 298-738mm x 298-305mm (298-738mm
x 225-305mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on
dorse of last mb; tied with white ribbon.
1635-6; English; parchment; 11 mbs attached serially; 4l3-740mm x 303-7mm (334-728mm x
212-305mm, mb 11 blank); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-
end date on dorse of last mb; tied with string. The draft account for this year also survives as a paper
roll and is included in this box.
1636-7; English; parchment; 12 mbs attached serially; 359-672mm x 305mm (264-672mm x 202-
305mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse
of first mb; tied with pink ribbon. The draft account for this year also survives as a paper roll and is
included in this box.
1637-8; English; parchment; 1 1 mbs attached serially; 356-712mm x 310mm (356-712mm x 268-
310mm); unnumbered; accounts written on recto only, bursars names and year-end date on dorse of
last mb; tied with pink ribbon.
BALLIOL COLLEGE
Balliol College was founded c 1263 by John de Baliol. Its head is a master.
Access to the archives is via John Jones, The Records of Balliol College Oxford: A List
of Records in the Custody of the Archivists (1981 typescript). The earliest known bursars
accounts, 1544-68, were loaned to the Rev. Andrew Clark in 1909 and never returned. Clark s
translation of excerpts, now Bodl.: MS. Top.Oxon e.124/9-10 (sc 35441), contains nothing
of REED interest. Extant accounts were rebound in 1920.
Battells books 1576-1642, in fair condition, were consulted but yielded no REED items.
Buttery books 1598-1642 (1600-1, 1603-6, 1608-10 missing) were too fragile to be
consulted.
Balliol College Statutes
Oxford, Balliol College Archives, Statutes 1; c 1507 (near contemporary copy of 1507 college statutes);
Latin; vellum; i + 47; 292mm x 197mm (232mm x 154mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated
opening capitals plus closing design; good condition; leather bound on wood studded with detailed
tooled design, loop on bottom of spine for chain, 2 clasps, both of which are broken.
Balliol College Register
The register contains various notes regarding college business and meetings, correspondence,
and notes on miscellaneous matters relating to the college.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Balliol College Archives, First Latin Register; 1514-1682; Latin and English; paper; iv + 188;
348mm x 228mm (338mm x 192mm); partial contemporary ink pagination; late 17th-c. leather binding,
original binding of late 14th c.-early 15th c. made from illuminated parchment psalter pages preserved
within the later binding front and back.
Balliol College Bursars Accounts
In all three of these volumes, the accounts were kept semi-annually, the first half-year com
prising 18 October to 7 July, the second half-year comprising 7 July to 18 October.
Oxford, Balliol College Archives, Computi 1568-1592; 1568-92; Latin; paper; iii + 117 + iii; 210mm x
580mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in parchment, modern ink title written on front cover: N 22
Bursar s Accounts. (1559-) 1568 to 1592.
Oxford, Balliol College Archives, Computi 1592-1614; 1592-1614; Latin; paper; 118 leaves; 210mm x
580mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in parchment, 17th-c. ink title written on front cover: N 23
Liber Bursar: Ab Ann: Dom: 1592. Ad 1614.
Oxford, Balliol College Archives, Computi 1615-1662; 1615-62; Latin and English; paper; 229 leaves;
210mm x 580mm; partial modern pencil foliation (1-157); bound in parchment, 17th-c. ink title
written on front cover: N 24 Liber Bursar: Ab Ann: Dom: 1615 Ad 1662.
Persons, Briefe Apologie
The passage excerpted in this volume is Persons own translation into English of a Latin original,
now lost, in an autobiography he started writing in 1598. A mid-seventeenth-century transcript
by Fr. Christopher Grene survives in the library of Stonyhurst College, Lane (Collectanea P,
vol 1, ff 222-33). It has been published in J.H. Pollen, sj (ed), The Memoirs of Father
Robert Persons, Miscellanea, n, Catholic Record Society (London, 1906), 12-36 (with an
English translation).
[Robert Persons.] A BRIEFE I APOLOGIE, I OR DEFENCE OF THE CA- I tholike Ecclesiastical
Hierarchic, & subordi- I nation in England, erected these later yeares by our holy Father Pope Clement
the eyght; and im- I pugned by certayne libels printed & publi- I shed of late both in Latyn & English;
by some vnquiet persons vnder the I name of Priests of the I Seminaries. I Written and set forth for the
true information and I stay of all good Catholikes, by Priests vnited in due subordination to the Right Reuerend
Arch- \ priest, and other their Superiors. I Hebr. 13. vers. 17 I Obedite pmepositis vestris, dr subiacete eis, &c. \
Obey your Superiors, and submit your selues vnto I them. I 1. Thess. 5- I Rogamus vos fratres, corripite
inquietos. I We beseech yow brethren represse those that are vn- I quiet amongst yow. I [device] I Permissu
Superiorum. I [Antwerp, 1601). STC: 19392.
Ely, Certaine Briefe Notes
[Humphrey Ely.] CERTAINE I BRIEFE I NOTES VPON A I BRIEFE APOLOGIE SET I out vnder
634 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
the name of the Prie- I stes vnited to the Archpriest. I Dravvne by an vnpassionate secular Prieste \friend
to bothe partyes, but more \frend to the truth. \ Wherunto is added a seuerall answeare I vnto the
particularites obiected I against certaine Persons. I FORTE EST VIRUM, FORTIOR EST I REX,
SED SVPER OMN1A VIM- I CIT VERJTAS ET MANET IN I ETERNUM. 3. Esd. 3. I [device] I
Imprinted at Paris, by PETER I SEVESTRE. I [rule] I With Priuiledge. [1602]. src: 7628.
The excerpt comes from a separately paginated section following the half title on p 313: [device] I AN
ANSWEAR OF I M. DOCTOR BAGSHAW I to certayne poyntes of a li- I bell called. I An Apologie
of the subordination I in England.
BRASENOSE COLLEGE
Brasenose College was founded c 1509 by William Smith, bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Rjchard
Sutton of Prestbury, Cheshire. Its head is a principal. No archives survive from its predecessor,
Brasenose Hall.
Access to the archives is via a catalogue prepared by the National Register of Archives (1966
typescript), of which an annotated copy is available in the library. Further documents are
described by Jeffery, The Bursars Account Books, pp 19-30. The accounting year began
and ended on 21 December (St Thomas Day).
A complete set of final bursars accounts survives for 1516-1662 on parchment rolls now
bound flat. Limited to general categories of expense, these have yielded no REED entries.
Alexander Nowell s Notebook
This manuscript was bought by Brasenose College in 1859 from the Dawson Turner sale (no.
353), and deposited in the Bodleian in 1891. A table of contents made shortly thereafter is
keyed to the old ink foliation and a note on the flyleaf points out correctly that some of the
leaves seem to have been inserted at wrong places. The manuscript was subsequently repaired
and refoliated, though not reorganized or rebound.
The current folio 45 was once a loose sheet and has no connection with the remainder of
the contents, which constitute a scrapbook of miscellaneous papers in Nowell s hand, including
three undated prose prologues to Westminster School plays by Terence and Seneca. The leaf
is primarily devoted to a list of books with prices. It can be dated by its numerous references
to printed books and to Oxford contemporaries of Nowell, who was a student and fellow of
Brasenose College (1520-43) and became headmaster of Westminster School in 1543.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Brasenose College MS. 31; c 1535-61; Latin and English; paper; xiv + 35 + iv;
150mm x 210mm; modern pencil foliation superseding 2 earlier foliations, one in pencil, the other
in ink; some leaves have 2 or 3 cols; 19th-c. leather and board binding, title stamped on spine: Noelli
Litere &c.
Brasenose College Bursars Roll of Account
Due to its poor condition BNC Arch: U.B.21 is no longer produced for examination.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, U.B.21; 1582, 1634-8; English; paper; 96 leaves; 190mm x
310mm; modern pencil foliation; 17th-c. stamped calf and board binding, badly worn. The accounts
are bound in random order.
Brasenose College Senior Bursars Accounts
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.2.41; 1631-2; English; paper; 41 leaves; 190mm x 305mm;
partial modern pencil foliation (1-20, last approximately 20 leaves blank, with a few notes of expenses
for 1638); bound in original vellum, title in ink on front cover faded and largely illegible.
Brasenose College Junior Bursars Accounts
The accounts survive in an eleven volume series (A.8.1-11) covering the period 161 1-12 and
1627-41, with some gaps.
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.8.5; 1631-2; English and Latin; paper; i + 96 + i; 600mm x
222mm (566mm x 212mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card
binding.
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.8.7; 1634-5; English and Latin; paper; 69 leaves; 591mm x
222mm (570mm x 200mm); partial modern pencil foliation; generally good condition with some wear
to outer leaves; 3 separate smaller vols sewn together, each retaining its contemporary leather binding
with ink title.
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.8.10; 1639-40; English and Latin; paper; 72 leaves; 590mm x
225mm (566mm x 218mm); partial modern pencil foliation; generally good condition with some wear
to outer leaves; 3 separate smaller vols sewn together, each retaining its contemporary leather binding
with ink title.
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.8.11; 1640-1; English and Latin; paper; 85 leaves; 596mm x
223mm (576mm x 213mm); partial modern pencil foliation; generally good condition with some wear
to outer leaves; 4 separate smaller volumes sewn together, each retaining its contemporary leather
binding with ink title.
Brasenose College Statutes (A)
This manuscript is a copy of the 1521 statutes for Brasenose College amended by Sir
Richard Sutton.
Oxford, Brasenose College Archives, A.2.3; 1681; Latin; parchment; ii + 27 + iii; 235mm x 164mm
(187mm x 93mm); contemporary ink pagination; margins marked in red, some title capitals; good
condition; contemporary leather binding with blind tooled decoration.
636 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
CANTERBURY COLLEGE
Canterbury College was founded in 1363 by Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, with the
concurrence of the Cathedral Priory of Christ Church, Canterbury. It stood on the site of
what is now Canterbury Quadrangle in Christ Church. Its head was a warden. Shortly after
its dissolution in 1540 it was incorporated into Christ Church (see p 637).
Expenses for Inception at Canterbury College
These expenses are excerpted from the register of William Molash, prior of Christ Church,
Canterbury. A number of entries in the register appear to have been copied from earlier
registers or other documents, including the one transcribed here, with their dates left approxim
ate or incomplete.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 165; 1427-57; Latin; parchment; ii + 177 + i; 220mm x 300mm;
modern pencil foliation replacing contemporary foliation; 17th-c. leather and board binding, badly
worn at corners.
Expenses for a Degree Feast at Canterbury College (AC)
A history of the college, with transcriptions of documents, is Pantin s Canterbury College.
Professor Elliott failed to trace Cant Cathedral Archives: Cart. Ant. O.151.3.b and indeed
some ten per cent of the materials transcribed by Pantin were marked not found in the
course of a 1974 search of Canterbury Cathedral archives.
W.A. Pantin (ed), Canterbury College, Oxford, vol 3, Oxford Historical Society, ns, 8 (Oxford, 1950
for 1943-4).
CARDINAL COLLEGE
Cardinal College was founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 on the site of what is now
Christ Church. Dissolved in 1530 after Wolsey s fall from power, it was refounded in
1532 as King Henry vm College and subsequently incorporated into Christ Church (see
p 637).
The only surviving account book, now in the PRO, covers the last full year of the college s
existence under its original name.
Cardinal College Expense Book
The accounting year ran from 1 November to 1 November; the accounts are complete for all
four terms.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
London, Public Record Office, E/36/104; 1529-30; Latin; parchment; vi + 28 + vi; 390mm x 300mm;
19th-c. stamped ink foliation (1-24, omitting a fragmentary leaf and the cover leaf at beginning), also
18th- and 19th-c. ink pagination (1-54, omitting first fragmentary leaf): original cover leaf (pp 1
now bound backwards; 19th-c. leather and board binding, stamped on spine: Expences C
College Oxon, on p 1 in contemporary ornamental hand: Expend Collegij Cardinalis Oxon. Folio 3
of the document gives the date: Primus Terminus Quinti Anni, ie, 1529, the fifth year after foundation
of the college in 1525-
CHRIST CHURCH
Christ Church was founded in 1546 by Henry vin, consolidating Canterbury and Cardinal
Colleges (see p 636 and also p 592). Thoroughly idiosyncratic, Christ Church is both a cathedral
and an academic foundation: it is never called a College ; its members are called Students
(always with a capital S ); its head is a dean; it has always admitted substantially more scholars
than any other Oxford college; and it is considered Oxfords only royal foundation.
Archives are housed in a muniment room in Blue Boar Quadrangle. Financial and adminis
trative records are accessed via E.G.W. Bill, Catalogue of Treasury Books (1955 typescript).
A supplement, begun by Mrs. J. Wells, awaits completion.
Treasurers (or treasury) accounts run from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, divided into four
thirteen-week terms (numbered). Some accounts removed by Anthony Wood in the 1660s
survive in the Bodleian Library.
Statutes
Christ Church Cathedral and College Foundation Statutes
Statutes survive in a single MS comprising Henry vin foundation statutes, three versions of
Edward vi statutes (ff 47-60v, 65-114, 115-56v), and notes and drafts pertaining to each.
The first of the Edward vi statutes bears internal marks of collation - here ignored - against
the statutes of Corpus Christi College.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, D.P.vi.b.l; c 17th c.; Latin and English; paper; v + 209 + ii; 309mm x
209mm (264mm x 206mm); modern pencil foliation for whole collection, some items within the
collection bear contemporary ink foliation; good condition; antiquarian(?) calf binding.
Financial Documents
Christ Church Treasurers Accounts
Rolls were prepared each December for the audit, totalling all receipts and expenses for the
year. They contain draft accounts later copied into the engrossed computi and are excerpted
here only when the computi are not extant. Substantive differences are noted in the endnote to
638 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
each record. ChCh Arch: iii.c.l contains the accounts for 1528-9, 1545-8, 1597-8, 1602-6,
1609-15, 1617-20, 1622-3, and 1629-30.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.l; 1527-1630; Latin; paper; 286 leaves; 390mm x 470mm;
modern pencil foliation; originally rolls, now bound in vellum and board.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Top.Oxon c.23 (sc 30777); 1581-2; Latin; paper; 6 leaves; 340mm x
210mm; foliated 43-8 in ink; originally rolls, now bound with miscellaneous Christ Church papers.
Christ Church Disbursements
Individual volumes survive for 1548-9, 1577-87, 1589-1631, and 1641-4 (another series takes
over after this date). They list both internal and external expenses and were kept quarterly, with
specific dates usually assigned to each expense.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.21; 1578-9; English and Latin; paper; ii + 87 + ii; 297mm x
191mm (245mm x 190mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1578-1579.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.24; 1581-2; English and Latin; paper; ii + 86 + i; 290mm x
196mm (286mm x 181mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition, some cutting apparently
to remove entries; some enlarged title capitals; contemporary leather rebound onto modern board,
contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1581-1582.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.25; 1582-3; English and Latin; paper; ii + 91 + i; 294mm x
199mm (210mm x 183mm); modern pencil foliation (2 folio 65s, labelled V and b ); good con
dition, some cutting of leaves to remove entries; some decorated capitals; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1582-1583.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.27; 1584-5; English and Latin; paper; ii + 80 + ii; 294mm x
196mm (290mm x 185mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather rebound
onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine, modern
embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1584-1585.
Oxford Christ Church Archives, xii.b.28; 1585-6 plus cancelled fragments from 1586-7; English
and Latin; paper; i + 87 + i; 295mm x 201mm (292mm x 163mm); partial modern pencil fol.ation;
good condition; contemporary leather rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink t.tle on front
cover, modern embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1586.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.29; 1586-7; English and Latin; paper; ii + 1 14 + ii; 291mm x
198mm (273mm x 153mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather n
bound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1 [6] 586-1 [6] 587.
639
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.31; 1588-9; English and Latin; paper; ii + 135 + ii; 303mm x
195mm (246mm x 155mm); partial modern pencil foliation; fair condition, some pages cut to rer
entries, and some pages torn, water damage to final leaves, no substantial loss of mformanon; contempo
ary leather rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed
on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1588-1589.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.32; 1589-90; English and Latin; paper; ii + 77 + i; 297mm x
200mm (251mm x 159mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1589-1590.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.33; 1590-1; English and Latin; paper; ii + 90 + i; 288mm x
193mm (264mm x 179mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather re
bound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1591.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.34; 1591-2; English and Latin; paper; ii + 89 + i; 294mm x
194mm (277mm x 172mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather rebound
onto modern board, modern embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1592.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.35; 1592-3; English and Latin; paper; ii + 1 15 + i; 291mm x
195mm (265mm x 149mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather re
bound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1592-1593.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.43; 1598-9; English and Latin; paper; i + 82 + i; 298mm x
192mm (292mm x 179mm); modern pencil foliation; fair condition, some cutting of leaves to remove
entries, water damage to initial and final leaves destroying up to /3 of damaged folio, paper conservation;
contemporary leather rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern
embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1598-1599.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.44; 1599-1600; English and Latin; paper; i + 70 + i; 304mm x
198mm (279mm x 168mm); modern pencil foliation; fair to poor condition, water damage causing
destruction of initial and final leaves, all leaves have washed/running ink, paper conservation; modern
leather rebound onto board, modern pencil title on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1599-1600.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.45; 1600-1; English and Latin; paper; ii + 82 + i; 323mm x
210mm (306mm x 173mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine,
modern embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1600-1601.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.49; 1604-5; English and Latin; paper; i + 84 + i; 330mm x
203mm (293mm x 187mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
640 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
"*
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.50; 1605-6; English and Latin; paper; ii + 74 + i; 349mm x
220mm (34lmm x 178mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine,
modern embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1606.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.52; 1607-8; English and Latin; paper; ii + 74 + i; 294mm \
198mm (291mm x 179mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine,
modern embossed title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1607-1608.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.53; 1608-9; English and Latin; paper; ii + 74 + i; 315mm x
198mm (298mm x 158mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine,
modern embossed tide on spine: DISBURSEMENTS 1608-9.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.57; 1612-13; English and Latin; paper; ii + 80; 3l6mm x
197mm (306mm x 175mm); partial modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, second flyleaf
loose, some minor insect damage; contemporary leather, leather ties partially preserved, contemporary
ink title on front cover, antiquarian ink title on spine, modern ink title on spine: DISBURSEMENTS
1612-13.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.60; 1615-16; English and Latin; paper; iv + 91 + i; 310mm x
194mm (272mm x 168mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather re
bound onto modern board, contemporary ink title on front cover, modern title printed on spine:
DISBURSEMENTS 1615-16.
Christ Church Computi
These rolls, now deteriorated, contain the final accounts, copied from the Christ Church
treasurers accounts, after they had been approved at the audit. Rolls survive for 1549-51,
1560-3, 1569-72, 1575-85, 1587-8, 1590-2, 1596-1608, 1611-13, 1615-16, and
1619-24.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.6(b.); 1581-2; Latin; parchment; 3 mbs sewn at top; 655mm x
345mm (648mm x 330mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.6(c.); 1583-5; Latin; parchment; 3 mbs sewn at top; 701mm x
262mm (658mm x 258mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.6(f); 1591-2; Latin; parchment; 3 mbs sewn at top; 790mm x
342mm (740mm x 243mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; good condition, tear
to bottom of mb 1.
(.A]
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(a.); 1597-8; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn at top; 785mm x
363mm (732mm x 243mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(b.); 1598-9; Latin; parchment; 4 mbs sewn at top; 824mm x
381mm (754mm x 322mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(c.); 1600-1; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at
top plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 4, lesser mb blank save for regnal
date, seems to have served as a wrapper); 780mm x 335mm (694mm x 329mm); unnumbered; enlarged
and decorated title capitals; written front to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to
text on front to enable reading of entire col without turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(d.); 1601-2; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at
top plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 4 and serving as a wrapper); 702mm x
321mm (625mm x 310mm); unnumbered; enlarged title capitals; written front to back, text on dorse
written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without turning roll;
good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(e.); 1603-4; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at top
plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 4 and serving as a wrapper); 750mm x
357mm (723mm x 339mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.7(g.); 1605-6; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at top
plus a smaller mb sewn to foot of mb 4 and serving as a wrapper); 695mm x 286mm (656mm x 275mm);
unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back, text on dorse written upside
down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.8(a.); 1606-7; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at top
plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 4 and serving as a wrapper); 744mm x
342mm (735mm x 336mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.8(b.); 1607-8; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs (4 large mbs sewn at top
plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 4 and serving as a wrapper); 720mm x
357mm (669mm x 338mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.8(d.); 161 1-12; Latin; parchment; 4 mbs (3 large mbs sewn at
top plus a smaller mb originally sewn to foot of mb 3, but now detached, and serving as a wrapper);
642 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
716mm x 31 1 mm (715mm x 301mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written
front to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of
entire col without turning roll; fair condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.8(e.); 1612-13; Latin; parchment; 4 mbs (3 large mbs sewn at top
plus a smaller mb with a contemporary tie sewn to foot of mb 3 and serving as a wrapper); 820mm x
315mm (818mm x 315mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; generally good condition, some minor insect damage.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.8(f.); 1615-16; Latin; parchment; 3 mbs sewn at top; 755mm x
365mm (729mm x 354mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front to back,
text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col without
turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.9(a.); 1619-20; Latin, English, and French; parchment; 5 mbs
sewn at top; 690mm x 330mm (644mm x 329mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals;
written front to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading
of entire col without turning roll; fair condition, rodent damage to mb 4 causing some loss of informa
tion, some minor insect damage.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.9(b.); 1620-1; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn together at top;
615mm x 340mm (570mm x 328mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front
to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col
without turning roll; good condition.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.9(c.); 1621-2; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn together at top;
785mm x 370mm (755mm x 360mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front
to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col
without turning roll; fair condition, rodent and insect damage to mb 5, some material wear (ink lost).
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, iii.c.9(d.); 1622-3; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn together at top;
670mm x 400mm (6lOmm x 383mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title capitals; written front
to back, text on dorse written upside down with respect to text on front to enable reading of entire col
without turning roll; generally good condition, some material wear leading to loss of ink.
Christ Church Battells Books
These are weekly records of commons, kept from early September, usually from the second
Friday of the month, the week being divided from Friday through Thursday. The accounts for
each week are followed by a category of Extra Expenses.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, x(i).c.43; 1606-7; English and Latin; paper; iii + 55 + i; 578mm x
214mm (565mm x 202mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, contemporary ink title and modern pencil year date on front cover, some
643
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
contemporary ink calculations on front cover, modern embossed title on spine: MICH. 1606 to
M1DS. 1607.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, x(i).c.44; 1607-8; English and Latin; paper; ii + 55 + i; 600mm x
222mm (577mm x 220mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary leather
rebound onto modern board, modern pencil year date on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
MICH. 1607 to MIDS. 1608.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, x(i).c.48; 1611-12; English and Latin; paper; ii + 56 + i; 565mm
x 202mm (542mm x 195mm); modern pencil foliation; fair condition, minor insect damage plus
water damage causing loss of information; modern board, embossed title on spine: SEPT. 161 1-
SEPT. 1612.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, x(i).c.50; 1613-14; English and Latin; paper; ii + 58 + i; 568mm x
210mm (543mm x 205mm); modern pencil foliation; fair condition, water, insect, and mould damage,
some loss of information; contemporary leather rebound over modern board, contemporary ink title
on front cover, modern embossed year date on spine.
Christ Church Receipts
Individual volumes survive for 1593-4, 1596-1617, 1620-1, 1623-7, 1629-31, and 1641-2.
These were kept quarterly, with specific dates usually assigned to each receipt.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xi.b.16; 1613-14; English; paper; ii + 59 + i; 340mm x 218mm
(318mm x 213mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, water damage has led to warping
of binding, no loss of information apparent; contemporary leather rebound over modern board, con
temporary ink title and antiquarian pencil year date on front cover, modern embossed title on spine:
RECEIPTS 1613.
Royal Visit Expenses
Christ Church Expenses for the Royal Visit
The sheets of Bodl.: MS. Rawlinson C.878, originally loose, appear to be rough accounts, with
many deletions and obliterations, and to have been transcribed in edited form onto the sheets
now contained in Bodl.: MS. Top.Oxon e.9. The latter comprises loose sheets that were given
to Anthony Wood by the treasurer of Christ Church in 1667, along with other Christ Church
documents. They appear to be a fairer copy of the rough accounts contained in Bodl.: MS.
Rawlinson C.878, ff 1-9 (see p 1098, endnote to Bodl.: MS. Rawlinson C.878 ff 1-9, for
discussion of substantive variants).
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson C.878 (sc 12712), 1566; English; paper; 9 leaves; 210mm x
150mm. Bound into an 18th-c. volume of English Historical Miscellanies and foliated 1-9.
644 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Christ Church Expense Sheet
This sheet is composed in the first person and the figures match the expenses reimbursed to
Robert Mooneson in Bodl, MS. Rawlinson C.878. The document is perhaps Mooneson s
personal expense account.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Top.Oxon c.22 (sc 30776); 1566; English; paper; single sheet; 340mm x
Omm; writing on one side only. Bound with a collection of papers borrowed from Christ Church by
Anthony Wood in 1667 and foliated 55 in ink.
Christ Church Expense Account for Plays
This document was prepared by a scribe for Dr Samuel Fell, treasurer of Christ Church, to be
submitted to the University for reimbursement of Christ Church s expenses on the plays for
the royal visit of 1636. The sheet was discovered among the deanery papers when the archives
were moved to their present location in 1969. For a fuller description and analysis of this
document, see John R. Elliott and John Buttrey, Royal Plays at Christ Church, pp 93-109.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, D.P.iii.c.l, item 27; 1636; English; bifolium; 290mm x 380mm;
unnumbered; accounting entries written across the full width of the 2 inner pages; stored in a box of loose
sheets. On the back of the sheet, in addition to the signatures of the 3 delegates, are 4 endorsements.
One reads: The Account for the Vniumity. Wherby there is due to Dr. ffell 243 li. 15 s. 6 d. Another,
initialled by Fell, reads: Christschurch found only the carpenters worke for the stage & scaffoldes.
The other two appear to have been added later, at different times. One reads: Charge of Entertaining
the King by the University. 1636. The other, probably the last to be written, gets the year wrong: The
chardge of the vniuersitye plays exhibited to his maiesty a.nno 1638.
Dean and Chapter Documents
Christ Church Chapter Book
This volume was called The Black Book by Dean Liddell, who made extracts from it in the
nineteenth century (ChCh Arch: D&C.i.b. 1). The first eighty-six pages are blank. On page 87
occurs the following title in a sixteenth-century hand: Registrum eoruw quae acta sunt in
Domo nostta. Capitulari per Decanum vel Subdeacanum et Canonicos omnes aut eoruw
maiorew partew in Ecclwia Christi Oxoniae ... Anno domini 1549 octavo die Marcij./
The remainder of the volume contains decrees and official correspondence of the dean and
chapter of Christ Church to 1646.
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, D&C.i.b.2; 1549-1646; Latin; paper; 449 leaves; 210mm x 310mm;
modern pagination; bound in 17th-c. leather, written inside front cover in an 18th-c. hand: The
Subdean s Book.
645
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Letter of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church to the Chancellor
Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, MS 2502/15; 10 December 1566; English; paper; bifolium;
312mm x 225mm (265mm x 160mm); addressed to the earl of Leicester, chancellor of the University.
Bound in a guardbook and paginated 651-4 in modern pencil.
Letter of Thomas Cooper, Dean of Christ Church, to the Chancellor
Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, MS 2503/273; 5 May 1569; English; paper; bifolium;
310mm x 220mm (235mm x 180mm); addressed to the earl of Leicester, chancellor of the University.
Bound in a guardbook and paginated 273-6 in modern pencil.
Memorandum of the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church
Oxford, Christ Church Archives, D.Pii.c.l, item 6; 4 January 1605/6; English and Latin; paper; bifolium;
310mm x 200mm (173mm x 152mm); modern pencil numbering; good condition; stored in a box
of loose sheets.
Miscellaneous Documents
William Withie s Notebook
Withie, who was a fellow of Christ Church, kept this notebook from 1578 to 1581.
London, British Library, MS Sloane 300; 1578-81; Latin and English; paper; iv + 60 + iv; 295mm x
195mm; 19th-c. ink foliation; 19th-c. leather and board binding (before f 1 is an unfoliated fragment
of the original vellum cover).
William Gager s Commonplace Book
This manuscript contains miscellaneous literary works by Gager, including fragments of scenes
from Oedipus and Dido. The earliest datable piece is from 1578, the latest from Decem
ber 1590. 3
London, British Library, MS Additional 22583; 1578-90; Latin and English; paper; ii + 102 + i;
210mm x 175mm; contemporary ink foliation; 19th-c. stamped leather and board binding, stamped
on spine: Poems of William Gager.
Letter of Bishop of Llandaff to Sir Thomas Lake
The bishop of Llandaff from 1601 to 1617 was Francis Godwin. The letter concerns his son
Thomas Godwin, who had matriculated at Christ Church in 1604.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
London Public Record Office, SP/15/37; 3 November 1605; English; paper; bifolium; 200 mm x 305mm;
Idressed ,n scnbal hand: To the Right Wo%Ml our very loving fTreind Sir Thorns Lake Knight;
T ^ d ; fterem / hand P robab y ^ T ho^ Godwyn for a Schollers place in Chwies Church
November 1605. Bound in a guardbook and foliated 128-9.
Letter of King James to Christ Church
The letter is a copy of the original in the hand of Sir Thomas Lake. Folios 134-5 of this volume
contain a letter of thanks from the bishop of Llandaff to Lake, dated 20 November 1605, for
procuring the royal letter. Thomas Godwin proceeded BA from Christ Church in 1608.
London, Public Record Office, SP/15/37; 14 November 1605; English; single sheet; paper; 190mm x
280mm; endorsed: xiiijo November 1605. Thomas Godwin for a Schollers place in Chwres Church
Oxon. Bound in a guardbook and foliated 130.
CORPUS CHR1STI COLLEGE
Corpus Christi College was founded in 1517 by Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester. Its head
is a president. Archives are housed in an underground vault beneath the Fellows Building, near
the library.
No single catalogue of the contents of the archives, perhaps the largest in Oxford, was avail
able at the time of inspection. One is currently in progress, to be published in microform.
The college manuscript collection, arguably the richest in Oxford and housed in the Bodleian
Library until 1985, was transferred to the archive vault pending repairs to the Bodleian stacks.
The archives and the manuscripts remain distinct collections. For library documents cited in
this volume, see under Miles Windsor s Narrative (p 696) for ccc: MS 257; Letter of Henry
Jackson to D.G.P. (p 648) for ccc: MS 304; and Appendix 1 1 for ccc: MS 352.
Corpus Christi College Statutes
Oxford, Corpus Christi College Archives, A/4/1/1; 13 February 1527/8; Latin; parchment; iii + 94;
344mm x 232mm (271mm x 175mm); contemporary ink foliation; some enlarged title capitals; good
condition; contemporary calf binding with blind tooling, founder s seal on oval pendant (90mm x
60mm).
Corpus Christi College Bursars Accounts
The bursars accounts at Corpus are contained in the so-called Libri Magni. Most of these
were originally parchment booklets but were bound in leather by the Bodleian in 1931, each
volume containing ten to twelve years of accounts and foliated at that time. The accounting
year, divided into four numbered terms, ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas.
An analysis of selected accounts may be found in G.D. Duncan, An Introduction to the
Accounts of Corpus Christi College, Appendix 2, History of the University, vol 3, pp 574-96.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
647
Oxford, Corpus Christ! College Archives, C/l/1/4; modern leather binding, tooled with clasps, embossed
title on spine: C.C.C. LIBRI MAGN1 IV 1558-1564 1566-1570.
Extracts from:
f [9]: 1565-6; English and Latin; parchment; 15 leaves; 338mm x 206mm (305mm x 160mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; excellent condition.
f [7]: 1568-9; English and Latin; parchment; 9 leaves; 275mm x 277mm (247mm x 187mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
Oxford, Corpus Christi College Archives, C/l/1/5; modern leather binding, tooled, embossed title on
spine: C.C.C. LIBRI MAGNI V 1571-1580.
Extract from:
f [8v]: 1572-3; English and Latin; parchment; 12 + i; 338mm x 276mm (312mm x 246mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
Oxford, Corpus Christi College Archives, C/l/1/6; 1581-99; modern leather binding, tooled, embossed
title on spine: C.C.C. LIBRI MAGNI VI 1581-1599.
Extract from:
f [10]: 1582-3; English and Latin; parchment; i + 9 + ii; 336mm x 225mm (307mm x 215mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
Oxford, Corpus Christi College Archives, C/l/1/8; modern leather binding, tooled, embossed title on
spine: C.C.C. LIBRI MAGNI VIII 1611-13 1615-24.
Extracts from:
f [9]: 1611-12; English and Latin; parchment; 1 1 + i; 383mm x 316mm (322mm x 270mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
f [10]: 1615-16; English and Latin; parchment; 14 + i; 389mm x 310mm (350mm x 260mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
f [14]: 1617-18; English and Latin; parchment; 15 + i; 362mm x 291mm (258mm x 207mm); un
numbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
f [11]: 1618-19; English and Latin; parchment; 12 + ii; 34lmm x 34lmm (301mm x 326mm), 2 cols;
unnumbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
648 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
f [1 11: 1619-20; English and Latin; parchment; 12 leaves; 351mm x 295mm (332mm x 288mm),
2 cols; unnumbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
-3; English and Latin; parchment; 12 + ii; 345mm x 243mm (317mm x 203mm), 2 cols;
unnumbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
Oxford, Corpus Christi College Archives, C/l/1/9; modern leather binding, tooled, embossed tide on
spine: C.C.C. L1BRI MAGNI IX 1625-1628 1630-1641.
Hxcract from:
mb [9]: 1635-6; English and Latin; parchment; 10 mbs; 420mm x 360mm (4l3mm x 359mm), 2 cols;
unnumbered apart from continuous modern pencil foliation of volume; good condition.
Episcopal Visitation to Corpus Christi College
21M65/A1/26 is the register of Robert Home, bishop of Winchester, from which the charges
and replies of the episcopal visitation to Corpus are excerpted. This manuscript also yields
records pertaining to visitations to New College (see p 146).
Winchester, Hampshire Record Office, 21M65/A1/26; 1560-79; Latin and English; parchment; ii +
119 + i; 405mm x 302mm (text area varies); contemporary ink foliation; good condition; bound in
brown calf over boards with an 18th-c.(?) red calf spine, title on board cover and on second flyleaf:
"Home 1560 to 1579.
Letter of Henry Jackson to D.G.P.
Jackson s letter is in a volume compiled by William Fulman (1632-88) sometime after 1662,
as materials toward a history of the college. This forms the current volume 10 of Fulman s
collection of papers. Folios 79-207 are devoted to copies of the works of Henry Jackson
(1586-1662), folio 79 bearing the heading Liber Henrici Jacksoni, Oxon. Coll. Corp. Chr.
Alumni, 1600. Extracts from sixty-nine letters written by Jackson are given, together with
miscellaneous information about his life, the first half of which was spent as a student and
fellow of Corpus. The originals of these letters, including the one describing performances of
Othello and The Alchemist at Oxford in 1610, have not survived.
Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 304; c 1662; English; paper; 207 leaves; 215mm x 160mm; modern
foliation; original board binding, endorsed in William Fulman s hand on f 1: Historiae Collegii Corpons
Christi Lib. III. De Viris Illustribus, et Scriptoribus.
DURHAM COLLEGE
Durham Priory first sent monks to study at Oxford in the late thirteenth century. About 1380
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Prior Robert Walworth and Bishop Thomas Hatfield oversaw the founding of Durham College,
later refounded as Trinity College (see p 677). While Dobson s estimate that over a period of
150 years nearly half of all Durham monks studied here may be overblown, its educational
importance to the Priory was clearly very great. Landless and deriving its entire income from
appropriated churches, the college was nevertheless expected to provide shelter, sustenance, and
books for eight monks and eight secular scholars. Its support of boy bishops occurred during
a brief period in which it was in financial difficulty. 4
Accounts survive among the muniments of Durham Cathedral.
Durham College Accounts
Account rolls are extant for 1389-1537, yielding relevant material only for 1399-1402. The
accounting year in this period normally began and ended on the day after the Ascension.
Durham, Durham University Library, Durham Cathedral Muniments Oxford Ac.1399-1400; 1399-
1400; Latin; parchment; single mb; 600mm x 280mm (text area varies); unnumbered.
Durham, Durham University Library, Durham Cathedral Muniments Oxford Ac. 1401-2; 1401-2;
Latin; parchment; single mb; 835mm x 270mm (text area varies); unnumbered.
EXETER COLLEGE
Exeter College was founded in 1314 by Walter de Stapledon, bishop of Exeter. First known as
Stapledon Hall, it became known subsequently as Exeter Hall and finally as Exeter College.
(A secondary foundation occurred in 1566 under Sir William Petre.) Its head is a rector.
Its account books, among the earliest in Oxford, provide the basis for the history of the col
lege contained in Boase, Registrum Collegii Exoniensis, pp i-clxxxiii.
Archives, housed in a former kitchen beneath the rector s lodgings, are consulted in the
library. A.V. Bradley and J.M. Cockayne, Archives of Exeter College, Oxford, 2 vols (1977),
is available in Duke Humfrey as Bodl.: MS. R.Top 671.
Battells books 1600-35 (EC Arch: A. iv. 15-21) and a weekly expense book for 1596-8
(within EC Arch; B.i.16) yielded no REED entries.
Exeter College Rectors Accounts
Oxford, Exeter College Archives, A. 1 ; 10 July-17 October 1361; Latin; parchment; single mb; 280mm x
694mm; written on 1 side only; endorsed at top: Compotus Robmi de Clyste Rectoris domz/.r de
stapildonhall Oxonia super receptw suis & experuis /i officio Rectorie 1 , a die sabbati proxima post
festum translacionis Sana\ Thome martiris anno domim millwmo CCCmo. seximo. pr/ mo vsqf ad
proximam diem saba/v post festum sancti dionisij proximam post sequentfw anno supradicto. This
document was misdated 1360 by H.T. Riley, Exeter College, Oxford, Historical Manuscripts Commis
sion, 2nd Report, Appendix (London, 1871), 128-9.
650 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Exeter College Archives, B.i.16:
1547-8; Latin; parchment; single mb; 540mm x 840mm; unnumbered; written on both sides, entries
are in linear blocks with no headings or marginal rubrics. Contains the accounts for the whole year,
with two quarters on each side. Exact dates are given for each of the four quarters, which begin at
Michaelmas.
1550-1; Latin; parchment; single mb; originally measuring approximately 540mm x 840mm, but half
is now torn away; unnumbered; written on both sides, 2 quarters on each side. Entries referring to
expenses for comedies belong to a term of which the heading is partially torn but which appears to have
run from approximately Christmas to Easter.
Oxford, Exeter College Archives, A.n.9; 1566-1639; Latin; paper; 367 leaves; 200mm x 300mm; modern
pencil foliation; bound in vellum and board, on spine in I7th-c. hand: Rector s Accounts 1566 1639,
front cover inscribed H. The accounting year ran from All Saints Day to All Saints Day and was
audited on 2 November.
GLOUCESTER COLLEGE
Gloucester College was founded in 1298 to educate the Benedictine monks of Malmesbury
Abbey on the site of a former establishment belonging to Gloucester Abbey. It was dissolved
in 1541, purchased by St John s College in 1560, renamed Gloucester Hall, and leased out as
a student residence. During Elizabeth s reign it continued to be noted for Catholic sympathies.
In 1714 it was refounded as Worcester College. Very little remains of its records.
Letter of Richard Croke to Thomas Cromwell
Richard Croke had been Greek tutor to Henry vin in 1517 and was later appointed as special
envoy to Italy from 1529 to 1531 to gather opinions of canon lawyers on the validity of the
king s marriage. From 1532 to 1545 he was canon and subdean of King Henry vin College
in Oxford.
No year is given but it may be deduced from internal references to current events.
London, Public Record Office, SP/1/82; 26 January 1533/4; English; paper; bifolium; 285mm x 175mm;
later red cloth binding on boards gilded at corners and spine, remains of red wax seal on f 122. F [1]
has 2 signatures by Richard Croke and is endorsed in the same hand as the text: rede thys laste To the
right honorable and my synguler good Maister Maister Crowwel, f [Iv] is dated thys night the xxvj
of January at Oxforde. Now bound in a volume of letters to Cromwell with Croke s notes, memoranda,
and drafts; foliated 122-3v in modern pencil and stamped 106-7.
JESUS COLLEGE
Jesus College was founded in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth, acting under the persuasion of Hugh
Price. Its head is a principal.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Archives are kept in a muniment room above the library. The college possesses no financial
or administrative records before 1631 . A handlist by D.L. Evans and J.N.L. Baker is availabl
from the archivist.
Jesus College Statutes (A)
This manuscript is an antiquarian copy of the 1622 statutes.
Oxford, Jesus College Archives, ST4; 18th c; Latin; parchment; ii + 68 + iii; 296mm x 200mm (225mm x
129mm); contemporary ink pagination; excellent condition; contemporary calf binding, now rather
worn, with some decoration, embossed title on front cover: STATUTA COLL: IESU OXON.
Jesus College Bursar s Book
The accounting year runs from 30 November to 30 November. There is no division into terms.
Oxford, Jesus College Archives, BU:AC:GEN:1; 1631-50; English; paper; vi + 205 (final 105 leaves
blank); 200mm x 300mm; modern pagination; bound in stamped calf, text on spine faded and illegible.
LINCOLN COLLEGE
Lincoln College was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, bishop of Lincoln. Its head is
a rector.
Archives, formerly kept in the Gate Tower, are now in the Senior Library (in the de
commissioned All Saints Church).
The earliest surviving accounts date from 1455. Pre-1600 accounts are called Computi ;
post-1600 accounts, Calculi.
Lincoln College Computi
The accounting year runs from 21 December to 21 December and is divided into quarters.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 1; 1456-1513; Latin and English; paper; iii + 182 + iii;
299mm x 103mm (260mm x 87mm); intermittent contemporary ink foliation (some folios have no
visible numbers but are included in this sequence) which is followed here, occasional antiquarian ink
foliation for some years; generally good condition; modern board binding with leather spine, ink title
on spine.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 2; 1486-1510; Latin and English; paper; ii + 282 (origin
ally 7 separate booklets of 27, 43, 49, 33, 39, 43, and 48 leaves) + ii; 390-420mm x 120-30mm (350mm
x 110mm); contemporary ink pagination of each booklet separately, with modern pencil letters a and
B F to distinguish number sequences; much wear and damage along inner edges but little text lost,
generally legible except for fading in F; modern cloth-covered board binding with leather spine and ties.
(lS - INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 3; 1511-25; Latin and English; paper; iv + 145 + iv;
443mm x 1 59mm (408mm x 135mm); modern pencil foliation (occasional contemporary ink foliation
for some years); modern board and leather binding. Contains the accounts for 1511-13 1514-17
1519-21, and 1523-5.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 4; 1525-38; Latin and English; paper; i + 161; 430mm x
157mm (388mm x 1 19mm); modern pencil pagination (occasional contemporary ink foliation for some
\x-.irs); Lur condition, water damage has resulted in substantial loss of information for many folios; modern
board covers with modern leather spine, ink title on spine.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 5; 1538-60; Latin and English; paper; iv + 172; 429mm x
149mm (424mm x 128mm); modern pencil foliation (occasional contemporary ink foliation for some
years); occasional decorated initial capitals; generally good condition, previous water damage, now
restored; modern board binding with leather spine, ink title on spine.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 6; 1560-80; Latin and English; paper; iv + 149 + iv;
418mm x 151mm (400mm x 124mm); modern pencil foliation (occasional contemporary ink foliation
for some years); occasional decorated title capitals; generally good condition, previous water damage,
now restored; modern board binding with leather spine, ink title on spine.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 7; 1580-90; Latin and English; paper; v + 158 + iii;
425mm x 152mm (401mm x lllmm); modern pencil foliation (occasional contemporary ink foliation
for some years); modern board and leather binding.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 8; 1590-1600; Latin and English; paper; ii + 172 + ii;
412mm x 137mm (394mm x 121mm); modern pencil foliation (occasional contemporary ink foliation
for some years); modern board and leather binding.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives, Computus 10; 1576-7; English; paper; 11 + v; 300mm x 100mm
(289mm x 98mm); unnumbered; fair condition, previous severe water damage, leading to substantial
loss of information, repaired; modern leather binding over contemporary leather binding with notes
of various expenses on its front cover, ink title on front cover of modern binding.
Lincoln College Calculi
Sheets formerly were bound but now exist in loose gatherings for each year. Some are badly
deteriorated and do not yet possess genuine shelf or class numbers. The calculus for 1610-11,
now missing, was seen by Andrew Clark, Notes from Lincoln College Accounts, 8 vols (Bodl.:
MS. Top.Oxon e. 109-16), a partial translation and summary of the college financial records.
The caJculus for 1617-18, containing, according to Clark, a reference to William Davenant and
other references to musicians, is now too fragile to touch. Other missing calculi are 1600-1,
1601-2, 1611-12, 1617-20, 1622-3, and 1628-40.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1604-5; English and Latin; paper; 14 leaves; 407mm x 152mm
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
653
(395mm x 147mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, previous water damage, now
restored.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1607-8; Latin and English; paper; 16 leaves; 457mm x 178mm
(448mm x 157mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, previous water damage, now
restored.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1612-13; Latin and English; paper; 19 + i; 423mm x 166mm
(407mm x 149mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1613-14; Latin and English; paper; i + 21 + ii; 404mm x 153mm
(385mm x 129mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, previous water damage, now
restored.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1614-15; Latin and English; paper; 16 leaves; 413mm x 162mm
(375mm x 148mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1616-17; Latin and English; paper; 16 leaves; 391mm x 154mm
(366mm x 146mm); modern pencil foliation; fair condition, considerable physical damage to ff 13-16,
leading to loss of information, rest of MS water damaged and fragile.
Oxford, Lincoln College Archives; 1641-2. No longer available for examination.
MAGDALEN COLLEGE
Magdalen College was founded by William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, with a charter
in 1448, expansions from 1458, and statutes in 1480. (Note distinction in spelling between
Magdalen College, Oxford, and Magdalene College, Cambridge.) Its head is a president.
Archives are divided between the Muniment Tower and the Founder s Tower (readers are
accommodated in the latter). The earliest surviving bursar s roll (discovered in 1980) dates
from 1478-9, while regular accounts date from 1481 (with some gaps). Draft accounts were
kept on paper rolls, formal computi on parchment rolls: both, bound flat in the nineteenth
century, lack shelf-marks. The accounting year ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, only
rarely divided into terms.
Not systematically catalogued, internal financial and administrative records are briefly
described in C.M. Woolgar, A Catalogue of the Estate Archives of St. Mary Magdalen College,
vol 1 (1983 typescript), 60-2 (part of a 7-volume set), available as Bodl.: MS. R. Top. 680a.
Magdalen College Statutes
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, MS 277; 15th c.; Latin; parchment; vii + 53 + ii; 291mm x 226mm
(224mm x 167mm); contemporary ink foliation; decorated initial capitals; good condition; modern
leather binding over board, original cover preserved, 2 modern clasps top and bottom.
654 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
The version of the statutes found in MC Arch: MS 277 has been collated with:
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, MS 276; 15th c.; Latin; parchment; i + 52 + ii (modern paper fly
leaves); 306mm x 223mm (235mm x 135mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script, decorated initial
Capitals; good condition; modern parchment binding, ink title on front cover, embossed title on spine.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, MS 278; 15th c.; Latin; parchment; i + 61; 301mm x 239mm
(208mm x 135mm); contemporary ink foliation; illuminated initial capital, initials of capitula are
decorated; good condition; contemporary wood binding bound over with embossed leather, 2 clasps,
both broken.
Magdalen College Battells Books
There survive three volumes of weekly lists of those dining in hall, including guests. They were
originally loose bifolia and were bound together, with other fragmentary accounts, in the
nineteenth century. The year is seldom given and must be deduced from internal evidence.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, CP 8/49; 1477-86; Latin and English; paper; i + 111 + ii; 300mm x
105mm; 19th-c. pencil foliation (several blank leaves); many leaves bound out of order; 19th-c. leather
and board binding, stamped in gold on red on spine: Bursary Book Magd. Coll. Oxon. 1477-86.
Contains summaries of the bursars annual accounts for 1476-7 and 1483-4, and the battells accounts
for 1485-6 and 1486-7 (complete).
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, CP 8/50; 1490-7; Latin; parchment and paper; i + 137 + i; leaves
of varying sizes, averaging 310mm x 1 10mm; 19th-c. pencil foliation; 19th-c. leather and board bind
ing, stamp on spine Bursary Book Magd. Coll. Oxon. 1490-99. Contains the battells accounts for
1490-1 (complete), 1493-4 (lacking Term 2), 1494-5 (Term 4 only), and 1496-7? (Term 4 only).
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, CP 8/51; 1501-8; Latin and English; paper; ii + 123 + ii; leaves
of varying dimensions, typically 350mm x 130mm; 20th-c. pencil foliation (some leaves blank, some
leaves bear notes on dating, in ink, in the hands of antiquarians Anthony Wood, John Rouse Bloxam,
and William Macray); 19th-c. binding, stamped Bursary Book Magd. Coll. Oxon. 1501- . Contains
the battells accounts for 1501-2? (Terms 1 and 4 only), 1502-3? (Terms 1 and 4 only), 1506-7, and
1507-8 (both complete). In both of the latter years the start of the academic year was delayed because
of plague: the first term began on 8 November.
Magdalen College Libri Computi
Libri computi 1482-1620, formerly bound into large guardbooks, have been (or are being)
reconstituted as individual parchment booklets, identifiable by date.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1482-3; Latin; parchment; 18 leaves; 308mm x
216mm (240mm x 169mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1483-4; Latin; parchment; 20 leaves; 303mm x
255mm (218mm x 138mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1485-6; Latin; parchment; i + 17; 284mm x
183mm (194mm x 164mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary parchment bind
ing, resewn but with original cover, contemporary and antiquarian ink year dates on front cover (plus
some contemporary rough account notes).
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1486-7; Latin; paper; 10 leaves; 295mm x 218mm
(225mm x 187mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1487-8; Latin; parchment; 14 + i; 286mm x
203mm (207mm x 177mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary parchment cover
bound within modern card cover, contemporary ink title on cover plus some rough workings.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1488-9; Latin; parchment; 13 + i; 287mm x
207mm (208mm x 137mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1490-1; Latin; parchment; 14 leaves; 315mm x
227mm (255mm x 188mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1495-6; Latin; parchment; 13 + iii; 279mm x
197mm (233mm x 152mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1496-7; Latin; parchment; 12 leaves; 298mm x
225mm (230mm x 155mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1502-3; Latin; parchment; 13 + i; 310mm x
216mm (233mm x 166mm); modern pencil foliation; decorated initial capital on f 1; good condition;
modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 11 November 1506-11 November 1507; Latin;
parchment; 15 + i; 304mm x 246mm (249mm x 214mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition;
modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1507-8; Latin; parchment; 16 leaves; 300mm x
220mm (252mm x 187mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1508-9; Latin; parchment; 15 leaves (final leaf
is uncut at top, so ff 15 and 16 are joined); 319mm x 226mm (257mm x 195mm); modern pencil
foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 11 November 1509-11 November 1510; Latin;
parchment; 16 leaves; 342mm x 240mm (293mm x 209mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition;
modern card binding.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1510-11; Latin; parchment; 11 + i; 336mm x
.5mm x 218mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1511-12; Latin; parchment; 12 + ii; 335mm x
24mm (279mm x 207mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1512-13; Latin and English; parchment; 1 1 + i;
333mm x 228mm (254mm x 163mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1517-18; Latin; parchment; 15 + i; 332mm x
218mm (291mm x 170mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1519-20; Latin; parchment; 19 + v; 324mm x
267mm (267mm x 213mm); modern pencil foliation, partial contemporary ink foliation; good condition;
modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1520-1; Latin; parchment; iii + 18; 358mm x
277mm (335mm x 250mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1529-30; Latin; parchment; 23 + i; 330mm x
285mm (288mm x 273mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1530-1; Latin; parchment; ii + 13; 418mm x
284mm (412mm x 255mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1531-2; Latin; parchment; 18 + ii; 397mm x
259mm (327mm x 231mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1533-4; Latin; parchment; i + 26; 330mm x
248mm (248mm x 236mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1534-5; Latin; parchment; 12 + ii; 356mm x
254mm (315mm x 235mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1535-6; Latin; parchment; 11 leaves; 350mm x
265mm (304mm x 222mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1537-8; Latin; parchment; i + 14 + ii; 380mm x
288mm (295mm x 216mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1538-9; Latin; parchment; 12 + v; 393mm x
287mm (252mm x 222mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1539-40; Latin; parchment; 10 + i; 418mm x
302mm (388mm x 255mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
657
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1540-1; Latin; parchment; 11 leaves; 412mm x
300mm (293mm x 224mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern card binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, Liber Computi; 1541-2; Latin; parchment; i + 13; 404mm x
295mm (301mm x 211mm); modern pencil foliation; excellent condition; modern binding.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/5; 1543-59; Latin; parchment; i + 244 + i; 336-518mm x
239_346mm (292-495mm x 150-279mm); modern pencil foliation; good condition; guardbook
with parchment binding of original accounts, embossed title on spine: LIBRI COMPUTI S. M.
MAGD. COLL. 1543-1559.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/6; 1559-80; Latin; parchment; i + 258 + i; 535mm x 350mm
(467mm x 317mm); partial modern pencil foliation; reasonable condition, substantial water damage
leading to loss of information; modern white parchment binding, title embossed on spine: LIBRI
COMPUTI S. M. MAGD. COLL. 1559-1580.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/7; 1586-1605; Latin; parchment; i + 173 + i; 598mm x
365mm (428mm x 269mm); partial modern pencil foliation; decorated initial capitals; good condition;
modern white parchment binding, title embossed on spine: LIBRI COMPUTI S. M. MAGD. COLL.
1586-1605.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/8; 1605/6-19/20; Latin; parchment; i + 125 + i; 396-
570mm x 305-60mm (36l-536mm x 230-307mm); partial modern pencil foliation; some accounts
in 2 cols; generally good condition, damage to some final leaves resulting in loss of information; modern
white parchment binding, title embossed on spine: LIBER COMPUTI S. M. MAGD. COLL.
1606-1620.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/9; 1621-2; Latin; parchment; 8 leaves; 547mm x 345mm
(511mm x 290mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment binding, original leather
ties, contemporary ink date on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/10; 1622-3; Latin; parchment; 8 leaves; 572mm x 362mm
(499mm x 304mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment binding, original leather
ties, contemporary ink date on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/11; 1623-4; Latin; parchment; 8 leaves; 530mm x 343mm
(502mm x 317mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment binding, contemporary
ink date on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/12; 1624-5; Latin; parchment; i + 8 + i (paper flyleaves);
535mm x 340mm (513mm x 300mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment bind
ing, original leather ties, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/13; 1625-6; Latin; parchment; 8 leaves; 528mm x 335mm
658 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
(510mm x 310mm); unnumbered; good condition, minor insect damage; contemporary parchment
binding, original leather ties, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/14; 1626-7; Latin; parchment; i + 8 + i (paper flyleaves);
508mm x 336mm (482mm x 300mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment
binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/15; 1627-8; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
492mm x 360mm (480mm x 287mm); unnumbered; good condition, some insect damage; con
temporary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/16; 1629-30; Latin; parchment; i + 7 + i (paper flyleaves);
507mm x 360mm (484mm x 308mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment bind
ing, original leather ties, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/16a; 1630-1; Latin; parchment; 6 leaves; 513mm x 356mm
(476mm x 262mm); unnumbered; poor condition, considerable water and insect damage, leading to
loss of information. Bound with LCE/16.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/17; 1631-2; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
523mm x 347mm (488mm x 323mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contempor
ary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover, antiquarian
ink year dates on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/18; 1632-3; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
495mm x 350mm (450mm x 310mm); unnumbered; good condition, minor insect damage; contempor
ary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/19; 1633-4; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
490mm x 360mm (449mm x 320mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; contempor
ary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/20; 1634-5; Latin; parchment; i + 5 + i (paper flyleaves);
489mm x 351mm (446mm x 308mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment bind
ing, leather ties extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/21; 1635-6; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
502mm x 366mm (443mm x 323mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment
binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary red ink title on front cover (plus contemporary
ink note, written upside down on front cover, but unrelated to title).
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/23; 1637-8; Latin; parchment; i + 6 + i (paper flyleaves);
516mm x 366mm (494mm x 334mm); unnumbered; good condition; contemporary parchment bind
ing, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/24; 1638-9; Latin; parchment; i + 5 + i (paper flyleaves);
510mm x 362mm (480mm x 287mm); unnumbered; good condition, minor insect damage; contempor
ary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink titles on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/25; 1639-40; Latin; parchment; i + 5 + i (paper flyleaves);
516mm x 390mm (488mm x 332mm); unnumbered; good condition, minor insect damage; contempor
ary parchment binding, leather ties partially extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCE/27; 1641-2; Latin; parchment; i + 6 (paper flyleaf); 507mm x
366mm (464mm x 307mm); unnumbered; good condition, minor insect damage; contemporary parch
ment binding, leather ties extant, contemporary ink title on front cover.
Magdalen College Draft Libri Computi
The draft computi are cited in the present volume only if they differ significantly from the
computi or supply missing years.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCD/1; 1552-79; Latin; paper; i + 502 + i; 405mm x 275mm
(343mm x 231mm); partial modern pencil foliation; generally good condition, minor insect damage
and wear to some papers, certain leaves wholly or partially cut out; contemporary(?) leather binding
with blind tooling, later embossed title on spine: LIBER COMPUTI S. M. MAGD. COLL.
1552-1578.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCD/2; 1582-1614; Latin; paper; i + 186 + i; 421mm x
278mm (410mm x 240mm); partial modern pencil foliation; some accounts in 2 cols; good con
dition; antiquarian tooled leather binding, embossed title on spine: LIBER COMPUTI S. M.
MAGD. COLL. 1582-1614.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, LCD/3; 1621-42; Latin; paper; i + 328 + i (many of final
167 folios blank); 428mm x 281mm (410mm x 195mm); partial modern pencil foliation; some
accounts in 2 or 3 cols; good condition; antiquarian cloth on board, embossed title on spine: LIB
COMP 1617-1643.
Magdalen School Copy Book
This volume was apparently compiled by a Magdalen School grammarian. It consists chiefly of
personal letters and school exercises, the latter comprising short English passages to be translated
into Latin and probably composed c 1495-9. See Nelson (ed), A Fifteenth Century School Book.
The letter of Thomas More on folio 85v has been edited by E.F. Rogers, The Correspondence of
Sir Thomas More (Princeton, 1947), 3-4.
London, British Library, MS Arundel 249; c 1495-9; Latin and English; parchment and paper; ii + 120
+ iii; 170mm x 220mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in stamped leather and board in 1967.
660 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Episcopal Visitation of Magdalen College
Folios 44-74 of this volume contain the report of an examination of the fellows of Magdalen
by a commissary of Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester, on 20-7 January 1506/7.
A transcript of this report made in 1900 constitutes MS 787 in the Magdalen College Archives
and claims to contain a collation with a second copy of the Register found at Farnham Castle
in 1899, whose present location is unknown. 5
Winchester, Hampshire Record Office, 21M65/A1/18; 21 September 1506-June 1510; Latin; parch
ment; ii + 150 + iv; 280mm x 380mm; modern foliation; leather-cased parchment cover.
Magdalen School Exercise Book
Folios 35-49 of this volume comprise a fragmentary set of Latin/English exercises, probably
composed by a Magdalen school master. 6
London, British Library, MS Royal 12.B.XX; c 1512-27; Latin and English; paper; ii + 49 + ii; 145mm x
215mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in stamped leather and board in 1930.
Magdalen College Vice-Presidents Register
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, VPl/Al/1; 1547-1839; Latin and English; paper; i + 520 + i;
305mm x 200mm; partial modern foliation; bound in leather and board, in ink on flyleaf: Incipit
hoc Registrum ann. 1547. sc. l mo Edw. 6". Contains miscellaneous records of college adminis
tration.
Letters of Complaint Regarding Abuses at Magdalen College
These letters are included in a collection of sixteenth to nineteenth century manuscripts
pertaining to Magdalen College presidents compiled in the nineteenth century by Dr John
Rouse Bloxam.
Oxford, Magdalen College Archives, MS 655a; 19th c.; paper; English and Latin; 348mm x 212mm (text
area varies); contemporary ink and pencil pagination, some parts of which may indicate the sequence
of a previous compilation; 19th-c. paper over board, embossed title on spine: The Presidents of S. M.
Magdalen College Vol. 1.
Excerpts from:
Complaint of Edward Gellibrand: c 1584; English and Latin; paper; bifolium; 296mm x 204mm
(288mm x 193mm); originally unnumbered; good condition. Now bound within guardbook and
paginated 321-4 in modern pencil.
Complaint of William Cooke: c 1584; English; paper; bifolium; 266mm x 177mm (212mm x 160mm);
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
originally unnumbered; good condition. Now bound within guardbook and paginated 329-32 in
modern pencil.
Complaint of Simeon Pett: c 1584; English; paper; bifolium; 295mm x 200mm (275mm x 190mm);
originally unnumbered; good condition. Now bound within guardbook and paginated 337-40 in
modern pencil.
Letter of Nicholas Bond to Lord Treasurer Dorset
Bond was president of Magdalen College; the earl of Dorset was Thomas Sackville, lord treas
urer of England and chancellor of the University.
Maidstone, Centre for Kentish Studies, U269 Cl; 11 September 1592; English; paper; bifolium;
300mm x 195mm; unnumbered; writing on 2 inner pages only; endorsed in later hands.
MERTON COLLEGE
Merton College was founded in 1264 (at the latest) by Walter de Merton, then translated to
Oxford in 1274. Its head is a warden. It is unique among Oxford colleges in having maintained
for nearly three hundred years a daily chronicle known as the college register.
Archives are preserved in a designated space but produced for readers in die library. Accounts
have been preserved from 1276. Access is via W.H. Stevenson, Merton College Calendar of
Records, 2 vols (1891 typescript), available as Bodl.: MS. Top.Oxon d.46l/l and 461/2. This
has been supplemented by a handwritten list, in three volumes, photocopied by the National
Register of Archives in 1961.
The following yielded no REED entries:
I/ 4278. Paper roll, in Latin, listing rewards over two years to various persons. Dated c 1525
by Stevenson but more likely 1487-8. Contains some Cambridge references.
21 4305d. A bundle of miscellaneous letters, inventories, and fragments in Latin. Includes a
room inventory by Edmund Bunny.
3/ 4600-25. Annual computi of John Wylyot s foundation for poor scholars, or Portionists,
to 1550, in Latin.
4/ 3964-4048. Subwarden s accounts, 1276-1642, in Latin.
5/ 4283. Receipts for payments by the college, 1608-39, in Latin.
6/ Miscellaneous proctors , chaplains , and supervisors accounts, in Latin.
Merton College Supervisors of Founders Kin Accounts
Oxford, Merton College Records, 4109; 1386-7; Latin; parchment; single mb; 578mm x 213mm
(552mm x 208mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 4114; 1400-1; Latin; parchment; single mb; 733mm x 272mm
662 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
(676mm x 263mm); unnumbered; generally good condition, some physical damage leading to minor
loss of information.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 4115; 1410-11; Latin; parchment; single mb; 380mm x 203mm
(329mm x 197mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Merton College Bursars Accounts
Merton s accounting system is unique among Oxford colleges. Instead of the usual four terms,
Merton divided its accounting year into three four-month periods. Moreover, a different bursar
was responsible for each period, yielding the following system (with each period beginning
and ending on the Friday before the dates listed with the exception of the 1489-90 account
in which the periods begin and end on the Friday after):
1st bursar: 1 August -25 November
2nd bursar: 25 November-25 March
3rd bursar: 25 March- 1 August
Each of three bursars kept his accounts on a separate roll, the third - the senior bursar -
compiling a Computus Generalis, in which he audited the work of his juniors and added
their totals to his. Thus some 1,098 rolls would have been produced from 1276 to 1642. Up
to 1360, however, rolls survive only in fragments; from 1360 to 1400 at least one roll survives
for about half the years; from 1400 to 1479 some years are represented by all three rolls; early
Tudor rolls survive in irregular numbers; from 1537 to 1585 almost every year is represented
by at least one roll; and from 1585 to 1642 all rolls survive complete. Pre-1585 rolls (MCR:
3612-3965), mostly parchment but some on paper, survive in various degrees of preservation;
post- 1585 rolls, all parchment, have been bound flat into two volumes.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3754; 1431-2; Latin; parchment; 2 mbs; 602mm x 302mm (527mm
x 285mm); unnumbered; written on front only, contents of roll noted on dorse; reasonable condition
with some rodent damage.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3785; 1469-70; Latin; parchment; single mb; 631mm x 310mm
(51 1mm x 295mm); unnumbered; written on front only; good condition with some insect damage.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3808; 1489-90; Latin; parchment; 2 mbs; 615mm x 287mm
(570mm x 284mm); unnumbered; written on front only; antiquarian notes on dorse; fair condition
with significant loss of text due to rodent damage.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3932d; 1566-7; Latin; parchment; single mb; 580mm x 387mm
(481mm x 384mm); unnumbered; written on front only, reasonable condition with some damage.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3932e; 1567-8; Latin; parchment; single mb; 583mm x 476mm
(536mm x 465mm); unnumbered; written on front only; reasonable condition with some damage.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3944c; 1572-3; Latin; parchment; single mb; 683mm x 505mm
(530mm x 485mm); unnumbered; written on front only; good condition, minor insect damage.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3.1; 1585-1633; Latin; parchment; i + 262 + ii; 410mm x 300mm;
modern pencil foliation; late-17th-c. tooled leather binding, repaired in 19th c., on spine in gold leaf
on red background: Liber Rationarius Coll: Mert: I. 1585-1633.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 3.2; 1633-52; Latin; parchment; ii + 126 + ii; 380mm x 230mm;
modern pencil foliation; rebound in 1975, preserving the gold leaf text on red background on spine
of original binding: Liber Rationarius Coll: Mert: II 1633-1652.
Merton College Registers
Register 1.2 has been published in two volumes by the Oxford Historical Society: Salter (ed),
Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 14831521; and Fletcher (ed), Registrum Annalium
Collegii Mertonensis 152167. The first 202 pages of Register 1.3, containing the annals to 1603,
have been published by the Oxford Historical Society: Fletcher (ed), Registrum Annalium
Collegii Mertonensis 1567-1603. The archives contain a handwritten Subject Index to the
Merton College Register Vol. II A.D. 1567 to 1730 (MCR: 1.5.S), compiled anonymously
about 1890.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 1.2; 1483-1567; Latin; paper; 357 leaves; 270mm x 380mm (text
area varies); modern foliation; originally written on loose sheets, now bound in I6th-c. oak boards, on
spine: Coll: Merton Registrum Vetus. 1482-1567.
Oxford, Merton College Records, 1.3; 1568-1731; Latin; paper; iv + 400 + xxv; 260mm x 390mm
(text area varies); modern pencil pagination; inside margins heavily cropped in 19th c. rebinding, note
at the top of f [i] reads: Registrum cowmune Domus sive collegij scholarium de Merton in Oxon 1567.
precium xiij s. iiij d.
NEW COLLEGE
New College was founded by William of Wykeham in 1379. Its head is a warden. Its bursars
accounts are more or less continuous from 1381-2.
Archives, housed in the Muniment Tower built at the time of foundation for that purpose,
are accessed via Francis W. Steer (ed), The Archives of New College, Oxford (London, 1974).
New College Statutes
Oxford, New College Archives, 9429; 14th c.; Latin; parchment; iii + 44 + iii; 41 1mm x 294mm
(318mm x 209mm); contemporary ink foliation; illuminated initial capital, decorated tide capitals for
each section, title script for each section highlighted in red; excellent condition; contemporary parch
ment binding with 3 plaited cord ties partially extant, founder s seal pendant (lllmm x 63mm).
664 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
The version of the statures found in NC Arch: 9429 has been collated with:
Oxford, New College Archives, 9431; 14th c.; Latin; parchment; i + 43; 408mm x 293mm (311mm x
224mm); contemporary ink foliation; illuminated initial capital, decorated initial capitals for each
chapter, title script, foliation, and chapter number given in red ink; generally good condition, some
minor water damage to initial leaves; modern brown leather binding.
New College Hall Books
Hall books are notebooks of weekly accounts of commons, with the names of all visitors at
meals. They were kept by the seneschal or steward. Several notebooks are bound into each
modern volume. Weekly accounts run Saturday to Friday - but there are many gaps, both
of weeks and entire years, and actual years are often conjectural (inserted slips mark the
probable break between years).
Oxford, New College Archives, 5527; 1396-1418; Latin; paper; ii + 145 + iii; 301mm x 109mm
(271mm x 90mm); contemporary pagination of some individual years; 2 cols; good condition; 17th-c.
leather binding over board with modern replacement ties, antiquarian ink title on spine.
Oxford, New College Archives, 5529; l478?-99; Latin; paper; 278 + i (paper inserts indicating change
of year not included in count); 310mm x 106mm (298mm x 104mm); unnumbered; 2 cols; generally
good condition, some paper torn, minor insect damage; 17th-c. leather on board with modern ties,
antiquarian ink title on spine.
Oxford, New College Archives, 5530; undated (antiquarian dating: 1501P-44); Latin; paper; iii + 289
+ i (paper inserts indicating change of year not included in count); 31 1mm x 100mm (302mm x
80mm); unnumbered; 2 cols; generally good condition; 17th-c. leather on board with modern ties,
fragments of original parchment MS binding preserved, antiquarian ink title on spine.
New College Bursars Accounts
The accounts were kept from Michaelmas to Michaelmas. Headings such as Internal and
External Expenses are subdivided into the usual four terms.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7713; 1460-1; Latin; parchment; 6 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
3,299mm x 295mm (3,l62mm x 274mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7720; 1469-70; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
3,509mm x 281mm (3,447mm x 277mm); unnumbered; condition generally good, some rodent
damage leading to loss of information.
Oxford New College Archives, 7722; 1479-80; Latin; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 4,157mm x 238mm (3,992mm x 193mm); unnumbered; condition generally good although
initial mb(s) now lost, minor damage leading to loss of information.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
665
Oxford, New College Archives, 7477; 1524-5; Latin; parchment; 9 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
5,441mm x 238mm (5,279mm x 193mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7488; 1533-4; Latin; parchment; 1 1 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
5,383mm x 370mm (5,306mm x 365mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7489; 1534-5; Latin; parchment; 10 mbs now unstitched and glued to
form continuous roll; 4,366mm x 340mm (4,295mm x 302mm); unnumbered; good condition, original
initial mb now absent.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7493; 1536-7; Latin; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
3,770mm x 349mm (3,564mm x 345mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7495; 1537-8; Latin; parchment; 6 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
4,636mm x 316mm (4,593mm x 312mm); unnumbered; good condition, rodent damage leading to
minor loss of information.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7522; 1552-3; Latin and English; parchment; 10 mbs unstitched and
glued to form continuous roll; 4,430mm x 288mm (4,393mm x 282mm); unnumbered; condition
generally good, insect damage leading to minor loss of information.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7553; 1575-6; Latin; parchment; 11 mbs (the llth of which is blank)
stitched to form continuous roll; 5,744mm x 317mm (5,126mm x 307mm); unnumbered; good con
dition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7556; 1578-9; Latin; parchment; 8 mbs unstitched and glued to form
continuous roll; 4,352mm x 287mm (4,124mm x 229mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7563; 1582-3; Latin; parchment; 9 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
4,762mm x 291mm (4,743mm x 24lmm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7564; 1583-4; Latin; parchment; 12 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 7,339mm x 291mm (7,195mm x 222mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7576; 1590-1; Latin; parchment; 11 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 7,340mmm x 277mm (7,318mm x 221mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7586; 1597-8; English and Latin; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 5,102mm x 280mm (4,792mm x 213mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7588; 1599-1600; Latin; parchment; 10 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 5,542mm x 258mm (5,274mm x 230mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7590; 1600-1; Latin; parchment; 7 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
666 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
4,460mm x 252mm (4,179mm x 222mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capital in MS header; good
condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7593; 1602-3; English and Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 3,759mm x 297mm (3,651mm x 268mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capital and
enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7595; 1603-4; Latin; parchment; 6 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
4,314mm x 280mm (4,126mm x 277mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capital and enlarged title
script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7596; 1604-5; Latin; parchment; 5 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
3,969mm x 221mm (3,721mm x 219mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged title
script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7599; 1605-6; Latin; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form continuous roll;
5,126mm x 296mm (5,012mm x 289mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged title
script in MS header; certain notes made in a second hand throughout; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7600; 1606-7; Latin; parchment; 11 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 4,882mm x 287mm (4,768mm x 282mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged
title script in MS header; generally good condition, minor insect damage leading to negligible loss of
information.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7603; 1607-8; Latin; parchment; 9 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 4,806mm x 299mm (4,732mm x 296mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged
title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7604; 1608-9; Latin; parchment; 11 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 5,411mm x 268mm (5,375mm x 265mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged
title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7606; 1609-10; Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form continuous
roll; 6,764mm x 333mm (6,683mm x 330mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and enlarged
title script in MS header; generally good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7611; 1612-13; English and Latin; parchment; 11 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,536mm x 294mm (6,507mm x 289mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; good condition.
Oxford New College Archives, 7614; 1613-14; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,218mm x 311 mm (5,991mm x 309mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; generally good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7615; 1614-15; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
continuous roll; 6,759mm x 309mm (6,749mm x 307mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and
enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7617; 1615-16; English and Latin; parchment; 10 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,919mm x 307mm (4,819mm x 304mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; generally good condition, some physical damage.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7619; 1616-17; Latin and English; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 3,907mm x 292mm (3,846mm x 262mm); unnumbered; good condition; modern
cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7621; 1617-18; Latin and English; parchment; 12 mbs sewn to form
continuous roil; 5,583mm x 306mm (5,517mm x 305mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and
enlarged title script in MS header; good condition; modern cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7623; 1618-19; Latin and English; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,684mm x 305mm (4,566mm x 285mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script; good
condition; modern cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7624; 1619-20; Latin and English; parchment; 8 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,720mm x 305mm (4,704mm x 297mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; good condition; modern cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7626; 1620-1; Latin and English; parchment; 1 1 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,737mm x 303mm (4,579mm x 297mm); unnumbered; good condition; modern
cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7629; 1621-2; English and Latin; parchment; 9 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,285mm x 308mm (4,1 10mm x 306mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; good condition; modern cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7631; 1622-3; Latin and English; parchment; 10 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 5,202mm x 304mm (4, 641 mm x 302mm); unnumbered; decorated initial title cap
ital and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition, minor insect damage to mb 1; modern
cataloguing mark on label tied to roll.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7633; 1623-4; English and Latin; parchment; 10 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 4,771mm x 304mm (4,751mm x 298mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7635; 1624-5; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 5,528mm x 255mm (5,496mm x 253mm); unnumbered; enlarged and decorated title
script in MS header, some decorated initial capitals in main body of text; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7637; 1625-6; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
668 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
continuous roll; 5,599mm x 280mm (5,444mm x 276mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7638; 1626-7; English and Latin; parchment;13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,574mm x 299mm (6,439mm x 277mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script and
decorated capitals in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7640; 1627-8; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 7,130mm x 304mm (6,995mm x 249mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capitals
and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7642; 1628-9; English and Latin; parchment; 10 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 5,294mm x 305mm (5,109mm x 279mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7645; 1630-1; Latin and English; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,516mm x 301mm (6,386mm x 296mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capitals
and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7647; 1631-2; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 7,193mm x 298mm (6,833mm x 295mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capital,
decorated title capitals, and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7650; 1632-3; English and Latin; parchment; 15 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 8,093mm x 297mm (7,666mm x 266mm); unnumbered; illuminated and decorated
initial capitals and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7651; 1633-4; Latin and English; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 7,046mm x 296mm (6,721mm x 274mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capitals,
other decorated capitals, and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7653; 1634-5; English and Latin; parchment; 1 1 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,315mm x 288mm (6,202mm x 271mm); unnumbered; illuminated and decorated
initial capitals and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7655; 1635-6; English and Latin; parchment; 12 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,295mm x 300mm (6,237mm x 281mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capital,
decorated title capitals, and enlarged title script in MS header; generally good condition, rodent damage
leading to negligible loss of information.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7656; 1636-7; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 6,880mm x 298mm (6,848mm x 280mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capital,
decorated initial capitals, and enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7657; 1637-8; English and Latin; parchment; 13 mbs sewn to form
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
669
continuous roll; 7,386mm x 287mm (7,013mm x 276mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and
enlarged title script in MS header; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7660; 1638-9; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 7,159mm x 293mm (6,639mm x 277mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and
enlarged script in MS header; excellent condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7661; 1639-40; English and Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 7,376mm x 291mm (7, 164mm x 271mm); unnumbered; decorated initial capitals and
enlarged script in MS header; generally good condition, minor rodent damage.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7663; 1640-1; English and Latin; parchment; 15 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 8,333mm x 289mm (8,1 67mm x 266mm); unnumbered; illuminated initial capital
in header, enlarged title script in header and other parts of MS; good condition.
Oxford, New College Archives, 7665; 1641 2; English and Latin; parchment; 16 mbs sewn to form
continuous roll; 8,055mm x 295mm (7,361 mm x 277mm); unnumbered; enlarged title script in MS
header; good condition.
New College Bursars Long Book
These are draft accounts kept by the bursar and supply one entry for the year 1629-30, for
which the annual account is missing. A similar volume containing drafts for some of the years
between 1621 and 1634 (Steer 1126) yielded no REED entries.
Oxford, New College Archives, 4200; 1626-31; Latin; paper; i + 256; 160mm x 460mm; unnumbered;
bound in original vellum.
Episcopal Visitation to New College
See under Episcopal Visitation to Corpus Christ! College (p 648) for Hampshire Record Office-
21M65/A1/26.
Robert Townshend s Expenses
These accounts were kept for Robert Townshend, who matriculated at New College in 1 593
at the age of twelve as a private pupil of the warden, Arthur Lake, whose hand appears on
some pages.
Oxford, New College Archives, PA/L2; 1592-5; English; paper; 21 loose sheets; 210mm x 150mm
average (text area varies); unnumbered; some sheets worn and defective.
670 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Letter of Arthur Lake to Lady Townshend
Oxford, New College Archives, PA/L2; 3 April 1594; English; paper; single sheet; 229mm x 209mm
(152mm x 180mm); unnumbered; fair condition.
ORIEL COLLEGE
Oriel College was founded by Edward n in 1326. Its head is a provost.
Archives, housed in a muniment room underneath the treasury, are produced for readers
in the ibrary. The internal financial records remain under the administrative authority of the
treasurer.
Annual treasurers accounts, called The Style, survive from 1409 but are missing from 1416
to 1449 and 1527 to 1582. Access is via C.L. Shadwell, Treasurers Accounts from 1409 to
1526, 10 vols (1878-99 handwritten transcript), available in the library, and a card index.
Accounts were kept from Michaelmas to Michaelmas.
Oriel College Treasurers Accounts
This volume appears to have been kept in book form from the beginning rather than as rolls
or loose sheets, as a note on folio 9 refers to it as hoc novo libro chartaseo.
Oxford, Oriel College Archives, S.i.C.l; 1583-1649; English; paper; 391 leaves; 235mm x 350mm;
modern foliation; bound in vellum, written on cover, in modern hand: Oriel College [Rental] Accounts
from 1583 to 1649"; stamped on spine: Oriel College Oxford Style 1583 to 1649.
THE QUEEN S COLLEGE
The Queen s College was founded in 1341 by Robert Eglesfield, chaplain of Philippa, queen
consort of Edward in (the article, insisted on by purists, is sometimes omitted in this collection;
also compare The Queen s College, Oxford, and Queens College, Cambridge). Its head is a
provost.
Archives, housed in a muniment room near the bursary, are produced for readers in the
library. Access is via N. Denholm-Young, Calendar of the Archives of the Queen s College/
4 vols (1931 typescript), available as Bodl.: MS. R. Top. 694. A transcript of the computus
rolls (or Long Rolls ) 1340-1470, by C.L Stainer and J.R. McGrath, 10 vols, is library MS
453 (vols 9-10 are indexes to vols 1-8).
The Queens College Long Rolls, 1340-1592
The surviving accounts begin in 1340 and continue throughout our period with some gaps.
A few of the rolls are in deteriorated condition and could not be examined. Until 1592 the
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
accounts survive as individual rolls; after that, in three bound volumes. They are divided into
subject headings but not into terms. The accounting year is 7 July to 7 July.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P131; 1541-2; Latin; parchment; single mb; 888mm x 575mm
(708mm x 561mm); unnumbered; sections of 4 cols, otherwise 1 col, dorse is in 2 cols; fair condition,
some physical damage leading to actual loss of information.
Oxford, The Queens College Archives, 2P146; 1558-9; Latin; parchment; single mb; 950mm x 672mm
(781mm x 655mm); unnumbered; 1 section of 4 cols, the rest 1 col only; reasonable condition, some
wear to central portion of mb.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P150; 1563-4; Latin and English; parchment; single mb;
930mm x 610mm (858mm x 604mm); unnumbered; 1 section of 4 cols, the rest 1 col; good condition.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P156; 1572-3; Latin; parchment; single mb; 836mm x 603mm
(762mm x 567mm); unnumbered; 1 section of 4 cols, the rest 1 col; fair condition, some damage to
left side of mb leading to minor loss of information, minor insect damage.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P161; 1583-4; Latin; parchment; single mb; 797mm x 663mm
(667mm x 598mm); unnumbered; 1 section of 4 cols, the rest 1 col; good condition.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P162; 1584-5; Latin; parchment; single mb; 770mm x 626mm
(562mm x 591mm); unnumbered; good condition, some wear to central section of mb.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P163; 1585-6; Latin; parchment; single mb; 803mm x 570mm
(661 mm x 545mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P164; 1586-7; Latin; parchment; single mb; 900mm x 668mm
(779mm x 610mm); unnumbered; generally good condition, some physical damage.
Oxford, The Queens College Archives, 2P165; 1589-90; Latin; parchment; single mb; 845mm x 662mm
(795mm x 636mm); unnumbered; good condition.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, 2P167; 1591-2; Latin; parchment; single mb; 810mm x 668mm
(745mm x 624mm); unnumbered; fair condition, water damage causing some loss of information to
top right of roll.
The Queen s College Long Rolls, 1592-1657
The accounts are divided into subject headings but not into terms. Some entries continue past
the 7 July close of the accounting year; see, for example, p 408 under 1614-15.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, LRA; 1592-1610; Latin and English; parchment; i + 38 + i;
396mm x 268mm (375mm x 222mm); modern pencil foliation; 1 and 2 cols; good condition; con
temporary binding, embossed leather binding (very worn) with restored spine.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, The Queens College Archives, LRB; 1610-28; Latin; parchment; ii + 45 + i; 393mm x 270mm
>lmm); modern penal foliation; 2 cols; good condition; contemporary embossed leather
>mdmg (very worn) with replacement spine, modern rebinding.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives, LRC; 1628-57; Latin; parchment; i + 58; 392mm x 298mm
30mm x 285mm); partial modern pencil foliation; 2 cols; good condition; contemporary embossed
leather binding with modern (replacement) cloth ties, replaced spine.
The Queen s College Statutes (A)
This is an antiquarian copy of the 1340 statutes for The Queens College.
Oxford, The Queen s College Archives; 1583; Latin; parchment; i + 48 + i; 335mm x 242mm (243mm x
16lmm); contemporary ink pagination; good condition; contemporary leather binding with elaborate
blind tooling to front and back covers.
ST JOHN S COLLEGE
St John s College was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas White. Its head is a president.
Archives, housed and consulted extramurally, preserve virtually complete accounts from
1568-9 forward. Access is via a card index. A guide to the index, by H.M. Colvin and M.G.A.
Vale (1983 typescript), is available in Duke Humfrey as Bodl.: MS. R. Top.700.
Archival items found to be without REED interest include chest books, buttery books,
miscellaneous early correspondence, other college registers, visitation documents, inventories,
building accounts, and antiquarian scrapbooks.
St John s College Register
This volume contains records of benefactions, elections to fellowships, and decrees of the
governing body.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Admin. i.A.l; 1557-91; English and Latin; paper; iii + 310 + vii;
371mm x 273mm; contemporary ink foliation; some enlarged and illuminated capitals; written front
to back; good condition; modern calf binding with some embossing on front and back covers, title on
spine: I Register 1557-1591.
St John s College Computus Annuus
The accounting year was from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, divided into the usual four terms.
The annual audit was held on 20 November and expenses between 29 September and the audit
are sometimes included in the account for the previous accounting year. The volumes in this
series are uniformly labeled Computus Annuus. Twenty-four volumes survive for the period
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
1568-1642. Some contain a single years accounts, some more than one. Missing are 157^
1588-98, and 1604-16.
Oxford, St Johns College Archives, Acc.i.A.l; 1569-72; English and Latin; paper; xvi + 14 + xx; 340mm x
152mm (323mm x 135mm); contemporary ink pagination; written front to back; good condition,
lower part of each page missing, possibly rodent damage; modern board binding with brown cloth cover,
title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1568-72.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.2; 1578-81; English and Latin; paper; i + 41; 405mm x
148mm (400mm x 142mm); modern pencil pagination; written front to back; good condition; con
temporary leather binding with cloth ties, rebound within modern board binding, title on spine:
COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1579-80.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.3; 1581-2; English and Latin; paper; ii + 32 + i; 4 18mm x
140mm (384mm x 95mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back, verso of folios often blank;
good condition; contemporary leather binding, rebound within modern board binding, title on spine:
COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1581-82.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.4; 1582-3; English and Latin; paper; i + 27; 4l9mm x
149mm (387mm x 133mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition; con
temporary leather binding with leather ties, rebound within modern board binding, title on spine:
COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1582-83.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.5; 1583-4; English and Latin; paper; iv + 45 + ii (first 2
opening flyleaves are modern, others contemporary inserted pages, end flyleaves are modern); 443mm x
168mm (412mm x 121mm); partial modern pencil foliation; good condition; modern board with
leather spine (possibly remnants of contemporary binding?).
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.6; 1584-5; English and Latin; paper; ii + 26 + xx; 488mm x
171mm (481mm x 107mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition, some
water damage; contemporary leather binding, leather ties lost, rebound within modern board binding,
title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1584-5.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.8; 1586-7; English and Latin; paper; 22 leaves; 496mm x
169mm (468mm x 100mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition, some
insect damage; contemporary leather binding, leather ties lost, rebound within modern board binding,
title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1586-7.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Ace. I. A. 10; 1598-1604; English and Latin; paper; 174 leaves;
445mm x 172mm (409mm x 130mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition,
some insect and water damage; contemporary leather binding, leather ties lost, rebound within modern
board binding, title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1598-1604.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.ll; 1616-17; English and Latin; paper; ii + 30 + ix; 566mm x
215mm (562mm x 182mm); contemporary ink pagination and modern pencil foliation; written front
674 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
to back; fair condition, somewhat fragile, cover worn; contemporary leather binding, wording on
cover largely worn.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.l.A.12; 1617-28; English and Latin; paper; i + 274 + v;
59mm x 150mm (367mm x 127mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; decorated
capitals on cover; good condition; contemporary leather binding with ties, contemporary ink title on
cover worn.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.15; 1628-34; English and Latin; paper; iii + 174 + i;
383mm x 140mm (357mm x 141mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; very poor
condition, severe water damage, rebound with conservation but most leaves are at best only partially
extant or legible; modern board binding, title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1629-34.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.16; 1631-2; English and Latin; paper; 31 + xiv; 545mm
x 204mm (524mm x 179mm); contemporary ink foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals in
headings on f 1; fair condition, some water damage; contemporary leather binding with dates (largely
illegible) on cover, rebound within modern board binding, title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS
1631-32.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.17; 1633; English and Latin; paper; 31 leaves; 568mm x
210mm (520mm x 137mm); contemporary ink foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals in
headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with 1633 on cover in contemporary
ink, ties lost, rebound within modern board binding, title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1633.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A. 18; 1633-4; English and Latin; paper; ii + 32 + x; 577mm x
21 Omm (478mm x 134mm); partial contemporary ink foliation covering used leaves only, written front
to back; enlarged capitals in headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with leather
ties, contemporary ink title on cover: 39 Computus Annuus 1633 4.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A. 19; 1634-5; English and Latin; paper; iii + 32 + xiv; 560mm x
215mm (516mm x 189mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals in
headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with leather ties partially preserved,
contemporary ink title on cover: 40 Computus Annuus 1634 5.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.20; 1635-6; English and Latin; paper; ii + 34 + iii; 564mm x
207mm (476mm x 184mm); contemporary ink foliation to f 29, then modern pencil foliation to end;
written front to back; enlarged capitals in headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather
binding with leather ties partially preserved, contemporary ink title on cover: 41 Computus Annuus
1635 6 1635 1636.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.21; 1636-7; English and Latin; paper; ii + 40 + ii; 580mm x
214mm (540mm x 205mm); incomplete contemporary ink foliation; written front to back; enlarged
capitals in headings on f 1; good condition; modern board cover.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.22; 1637-8; English and Latin; paper; iii + 41 + iv; 574mm x
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
675
215mm (514mm x 165mm); incomplete contemporary ink foliation; written front to back; enlarged
capitals in headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with leather ties, contemporary
ink title on cover: 43 Computus Annuus For ye yearw 1637 8, later ink title on spine: 1637-8.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.23; 1638-58; English and Latin; paper; i + 138 + xiv;
407mm x 155mm (356mm x 1 13mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition,
early pages badly water damaged and illegible, later pages in good condition, paper conservation has taken
place; modern board cover, title on spine: COMPUTUS ANNUUS 1638-58.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.24; 1639-40; English and Latin; paper; i + 38; 577mm x
211mm (505mm x 147mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals in headings
on f 1; fair condition, some water damage but little text lost; contemporary leather binding with con
temporary ink title on cover: (.)6 Computus Annuus ad 1639 40.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.25; 1640-1; English and Latin; paper; i + 42 + xi; 564mm x
206mm (513mm x 122mm); incomplete modern pencil foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals
in headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with ties, contemporary ink title on
cover: 44 Computus Annuus 1640 !.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.i.A.26; 1641-2; English and Latin; paper; ii + 42 + vi; 576mm x
214mm (501mm x 164mm); incomplete modern pencil foliation; written front to back; enlarged capitals
in headings on f 1; good condition; contemporary leather binding with ties partially preserved, con
temporary ink title on cover: 45 Computus Annuus ad Festww Michae/is 1641 2, later ink title on
spine: 1641.
St John s College Computus Hebdomalis
Accounts are divided into four numbered terms per year, each term of thirteen (or so) numbered
weeks. There is no division into subject headings. All weeks run Monday to Sunday. The first
week of the first term was identified as the one that included Michaelmas but the weeks that
included the three subsequent term-days (Christmas, Lady Day, St John s Day) were holidays.
As a consequence the first weeks of Terms 2-4 were identified as the ones that followed their
term-days. What otherwise would have been the first weeks of Terms 2-4 were counted instead
as the last weeks of Terms 1-3. Thirteen volumes cover the period from 1593 to 1642. Missing
are 1623-5, 1626-7, 1628-30, 1633-7, and 1639-42.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.v.E.l; 1593-8; Latin and English; paper; i + 67; 440mm x
174mm (391mm x 155mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition; con
temporary leather binding with leather ties partially preserved, contemporary ink title on cover: 20
Computus hebdomadalis Liber computus hebdomadalis 1593 Liber Hebdomadalis Incip/f 1593
Michaelmas Explicit 1598 Michaelmas.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.v.E.2; 1598-1604; Latin and English; paper; i + 82 + ix;
452mm x 163mm (417mm x 157mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition,
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
some insect damage; contemporary leather binding with contemporary ink title on cover: 21 Compute
>madalis Liber Hebdomadalis anno domino 1603 1598 1599 1600 1601 1602 1603 1604.
Oxford, Sc John s College Archives, Acc.v.E.3; 1600-1; Latin and English; paper; iii + 53; 439mm
166mm (424mm x 132mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition;
contemporary leather binding with contemporary ink title on cover: Computus Hebdomaaalis
Michaelmas (...) 160O, bound within modern board binding with title on spine: Computus
Hebdomadalis Michaelmas 1600-1601.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.v.E.4; 1604-14; Latin and English; paper; i + 132 + i; 406mm x
Ib2mm (385mm x 148mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition, some
significant wear; contemporary leather binding with leather ties partially preserved, contemporary ink
title on cover: 22 Computus Hebdomadalis Liber Hebdomadalis Incip/r 1604 Michaelmas 1604 ad
Explicit 1613 Annuncuzr/0 1614.
Oxford, St Johns College Archives, Acc.v.E.6; 1614-23; Latin and English; paper; i + 133 + i; 410mm x
156mm (386mm x 151mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition, some
insect damage; contemporary leather binding with contemporary ink title on cover: 23 Computus
Hebdomadalis Liber Hebdomadalis Incip/r 1614 Annuncidft o Beatae Explic/ / 1623 Michaelmas.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.v.E.8; 1627-8; English and Latin; paper; ii + 52; 446mm x
176mm (435mm x 162mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; fair condition; contempor
ary leather binding with leather ties, contemporary ink title on cover: 4 Computus Hebdomadalis
Michaelmas 1627 ad Michaelmas 1628.
St John s College Christmas Prince
See Appendix 6:1 for modern editions.
Oxford, St John s College Library, MS 52; 1607-8; English and Latin; paper; ii + 265; 304mm x 190mm
(284mm x 173mm); contemporary ink pagination (in 2 sequences); coloured illuminations and ink
drawings; excellent condition; contemporary leather binding, embossed and set with gold leaf. Though
the entire MS is conventionally called The Christmas Prince, the first part, with its own pagination
sequence, consists of a verse history of the college. By the same token The Christmas Prince is some
times identified as MS 52, Part 2.
St John s College Short Books
These are drafts of the final accounts but often more detailed. They are labelled on the spine
Bursar s Private Accounts in a modern hand and are also referred to as Short Boob. Three
volumes cover the period 1616-42. Missing are 1623-5, 1626-9, 1631-3, 1634-5, 1636-8,
and 1639-40.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.m.D.l; 1616-22; English and Latin; paper; i + 96; 400mm x
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
677
144mm (346mm x 137mm); modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition; modern
board binding, title on spine: BURSAR S PRIVATE ACCOUNTS 1616-22.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.m.D.2; 1625-31; English and Latin; paper; i + 123 + i;
402mm x 157mm (393mm x 152mm); partial contemporary ink pagination, then modern pencil
continuation; written front to back; excellent condition; contemporary leather and board binding with
leather ties, antiquarian title on cover: 2 Bursar s Private Accompt 1625 6 1629-3[0]1.
Oxford, St John s College Archives, Acc.ni.D.4; 1633-46; English and Latin; paper; ii + 207; 390mm x
146mm (363mm x 126mm); incomplete modern pencil foliation; written front to back; good condition;
contemporary leather and board binding with contemporary ink title on cover: 1633 to 1645 1633 4
1636 1639 1644 1645 1646 "from 1633 4 ... 1646, antiquarian ink title also on cover: 3 Bursar s
Private Accompt.
Letter from the Vice-Chancellor to the Chancellor
The vice-chancellor at this time was Richard Baylie, president of St John s, and the chancellor
was Archbishop Laud.
London, Public Record Office, SP/16/344; 16 January 1636/7; English; paper; 2 leaves, originally bifolium;
175mm x 295mm; unnumbered; writing on first 3 pages; endorsed on f [2v]: The History of Turners -
Printing. &tc. 16. lanz^ry .1636. Baylie has dated the letter lanuary 16 .1636. Now bound in a
guardbook and numbered 20.
TRINITY COLLEGE
Trinity College was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope, incorporating grounds and buildings
of Durham College (see p 649). Its head is a president.
Most archives are kept in a muniment tower but financial records are housed in the bursars
office under his jurisdiction. Access is via manuscript handlists, including one compiled by the
National Register of Archives and another by the History of the University project.
Trinity College Bursars Books
These books contain annual accounts kept from Michaelmas to Michaelmas, divided into the
usual four terms.
Oxford, Trinity College Archive, I/A/1; 1556-1600; Latin; parchment and paper; 436 leaves; 260mm x
380mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in leather in 1799, embossed antiquarian title on spine:
Computi Bursariorum Ab Anno Fundationis Ad Ann. Dom. MDC. The volume is complete except
for the absence of the accounts for 1557-8, 1558-9, and 1559-60 (see p 678).
Oxford, Trinity College Archive, I/A/2; 1600-31; Latin; paper; iii + 345 + iii; 300-45mm x 192-
231mm (264 -304mm x 149 -222mm); continuous modern pencil foliation (individual accounts have
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
contemporary ink foliation in some cases); generally good condition; antiquarian leather binding,
some tooling on front and back covers, embossed antiquarian title on spine: Computi Bursariorum
Ab Anno MDC. Ad Annum MDCXXXJ.
Oxford, Trinity College Archive, I/A/3; 1631-95; Latin; paper; iii + 384 + ii (f 384 is partial and blank);
291 -387mm x 183-246mm (274-380mm x 136-206mm); modern pencil foliation; generally good
condition; antiquarian leather binding, some tooling front and back, embossed antiquarian title on
spine: Compvti Bvrsariorvm Ab. Anno MDCXXXI Ad. Annw MDCXCV. From our period of
interest, the years 1639-42 are missing.
Notes on a Trinity College Bursars Book (AC)
Missing bursar s accounts (1557-8, 1558-9, 1559-60) may have been borrowed by Thomas
Warton (the accounts were unbound before 1799), now the sole authority for a performance
of Terence in 1559 (see p 101). A fellow of Trinity until his death in 1790, Warton has gained
a reputation for forgery. 7
Thomas Warton, The History of English Poetry From The Close of the Eleventh To The Commencement of
the Eighteenth Century. To Which Are Prefixed Two Dissertations, i. On The Origin of Romantic Fiction In
Europe, n. On the Introduction Of Learning Into England. Vol. 2 (London, 1778).
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
University College, believed to be the oldest college in Oxford, was founded c 1249. Its head
is a master.
Archives are maintained in a specially designated site. While no finding aids have been
published, a catalogue is currently in progress. As each segment is completed, a copy is deposited
with the National Register of Archives. Bursars accounts, transcribed and edited by A.D.M.
Cox and R.H. Darwall-Smith, have recently been published by the Oxford Historical Society,
ns, 39 (1999): 1381/2-1470/1, and 40 (2001): 1471/2-1596/7.
University College Statutes
The statutes exist in three copies, each contained in the chancellors registers. The transcription
in this collection is taken from QUA: NEP/Supra/A, which is described below (see under
University Registers, p 680). It represents the earliest, if not a contemporary, version of the
statutes.
The version of the statutes found in OUA: NEP/Supra/A has been collated with the versions
registered in the following:
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/C; 14th c.; Latin; parchment; ii + 159 + ii; 334mm x
218mm (240mm x 166mm); contemporary ink foliation; decorated capitals and markers throughout,
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
illuminated capitals; good condition; antiquarian calf binding with blind tooling, antiquarian ink and
modern embossed titles on spine.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/B; 15th c.; Latin; parchment; ii + 141 + ii; 335mm x
225mm (225mm x 179mm); contemporary ink foliation; decorated capitals and coloured markers
throughout, illuminations; generally good condition; antiquarian calf binding with blind tooling,
antiquarian ink and embossed title on spine.
University College Bursars Accounts
The college retains nearly two hundred bursars rolls dating from 1381 to 1616. These were all
examined and yielded only one entry of interest (1578-9), due to the fact that the expenses
were not itemized beyond very general categories.
Oxford, University College Archives, BU1/F/171; 1578-9; Latin; parchment; single mb; 794mm x
620mm (766mm x 540mm); unnumbered (modern pencil catalogue reference on dorse); 3 cols; written
on recto only; good condition; contemporary ink note on dorse: Rich/W Jennins Anno 1578.
University College Bursar s Journal
Oxford, University College Archives, BU3/F1/2; 1623-38; English and Latin; paper; 96 leaves; 378mm x
146mm (375mm x 129mm); unnumbered; generally good condition; contemporary leather binding,
ties extant, rough accounts worked on front and back covers, contemporary ink and modern pencil
titles on front cover.
University College General Accounts
Oxford, University College Archives, BU2/F1/1; 1632-67; English and Latin; paper; i + 223 + i;
422mm x 174mm (404mm x 145mm); contemporary ink pagination (first page of MS labelled p 9);
good condition; antiquarian calf binding, title embossed on spine.
Oxford University
The history of Oxford University is summarized above (pp 597-601). The Oxford University
Archives (OUA) are housed in the main tower of the Bodleian Schools Quadrangle. Individual
documents are produced for readers in Duke Humfrey. In lieu of a catalogue access is via a
shelf-list compiled by Strickland Gibson (1929-45 typescript) available in Duke Humfrey as
Bodl.: MS. R.Top. 628M/1-3. For a general description of documents by type, seeT.H. Aston
and D.G. Vaisey, University Archives, in Paul Morgan (comp), Oxford Libraries Outside the
Bodleian, 2nd ed (Oxford, 1980), 200-5; see also Reginald Lane Poole, A Lecture on the History
of The University Archives (Oxford, 1912).
Generally speaking, only the more formal administrative and financial documents remain in
QUA. Many items that might be expected to be housed there, or that were in fact once housed
680 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
there, are now in the Bodleian Library. Examples are the antiquarian collections of the first
two keepers of the archives, Brian Twyne (1633-43) and Gerard Langbaine (1644-58), and
the numerous manuscripts left behind by the University s first historian, Anthony Wood
(1631-95). Some documents, notably the early registers of matriculation and degrees, of
the chancellor s court, and of congregation and convocation, have been published by the
Oxford Historical Society.
UNIVERSITY REGISTERS
Chancellors Registers
The volume OUA: NEP/Supra/A is the oldest extant University register. It was copied beginning
c 1350 as an official record of statutes and privileges, from documents dating from the thir
teenth and early fourteenth centuries. It continued in use for some 250 years, being several
times rearranged and rebound.
The manuscript has been edited in part by Anstey, Munimenta Academica, and by Gibson,
Statvta Antiqva Univenitatis Oxoniensis.
This register also contains the University College statutes transcribed in this collection (see
p 4) and collated with the versions registered in OUA: NEP/Supra/B and OUA: NEP/Supra/C
(see pp 678-9).
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/A; c 1350-1600; Latin; parchment; i + 125 + i;
315mm x 206mm (224mm x 197mm); contemporary ink foliation superseding a partial system in
contemporary ink and some modern pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary brown calf
binding (repaired in 1886 and resewn in 1941) tooled with the royal arms on front and back covers,
antiquarian embossed title on spine.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/A/1, Register Aaa; 1434-69; Latin and English; paper; v +
273 * vi- 307mm x 215mm (274mm x 155mm); contemporary ink foliation, plus partial modern
pencil foliation; good condition; contemporary caJf covers, antiquarian replacement spine, holes tor
clasps at top and bottom of covers, simple decoration at the edges, embossed t.tle on spine.
Oxford Oxford University Arches, Hyp/A/2, Register D (or D reversed); 1498-1506; Latin; paper;
> 238 + iii 303mm x 201mm (250mm x 181mm); contemporary and antiquanan ink foliation; got
condition; contemporary leather binding with punched scrolling design on front and back covers, spir
repaired, modern ink title on spine.
Chancellor s Court Register
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/A/4, Register EEE (or B reversed); 1527-43; Latin paper;
i+405 + i; 230mm x 370mm (227mm x 312mm); 17th* ink foliation; original leather and boarc
binding, repaired in 1971.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 681
Registers of Congregation and Convocation
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/G; June 1505-27 November 1517; Latin; paper; iii +
321 + iv, 210mm x 300mm (170mm x 230mm); 17th-c. ink foliation; bound in 17th-c. leather, on
spine: Vniv: Oxon: Arch: G 6 1505. 1516., title on f 1 in Brian Twyne s hand: Reg/ rfrum .G. Ab Anno.
Regis Henrici Septimi [vij .] xxj. ad annum Reg/i Henrici Octaui .8 um . viz. ab Awo Domini 1505-
ad annum Domini 1516. Acts of Congregation for ye most pan, w;th a fewe Acts of Conuocation here
& there intermixed./
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/L; 1582-94; Latin and English; paper; iii + 298 + iii;
230mm x 335mm (text area varies); 17th-c. ink foliation, with a second f 1 added by Brian Twyne; many
leaves repaired in 19th c.; original leather and board covers, modern stamped leather spine, original
spine pasted onto inner front cover, stamped on current spine: Vniv. Oxon. Arch. L 10 1582 1594.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/N; 1615-28; Latin and English; paper; vi + 270 + iii
+ 1 loose unnumbered sheet; 184mm x 296mm (text area vanes); 17th-c. ink foliation; original leather
and board covers, modern stamped leather spine: Acta Convocat/oww \Jn\\ersitatis Oxon: Arch: N 23
1615 1628.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NEP/Supra/R; 1628-40; Latin and English; paper; ii + 282 + v;
205mm x 355mm (text area varies); 17th-c. ink foliation; original leather and board covers, modern
leather spine, title stamped on spine: Acta Convocat: Univ: Oxon: ARCH: R24 1628-1640.
Shortly after QUA: NEP/Supra/R was bound this volume came into the hands of the Puritan William
Prynne, who mutilated parts of it. A note in Langbaine s hand on f 1 says: Note yat w^fre ye see any
Letters of Chano7/or Laud scored with a pen underneath, or marked in ye Margin thus X. ye must
take notice rwas maliciously done by William Prinne-. These marks are ignored in the transcriptions
in the present volume.
Another copy of ff 132-2v, the Orders for the Royal Entertainment of 1636, without significant
variants, survives in ccc: MS 301, f 127. Other relevant texts include a version of the order of the commit
tee that met in the Tower of the Schooles (ff 133v-4v of QUA: NEP/Supra/R) and of the Advertisements
(ff 134v-5) in Bodl.: MS. Twyne 17, pp 187-90 (see under Entertainment of King Charles i, p 703).
Substantive differences in the latter manuscript have been collated.
UNIVERSITY FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS
Proctors Accounts
This is an audited annual account, unlike the more informative proctors draft books that
survive at Cambridge. The fifteen rolls that survive between 1464-5 and 1496-7 at Ox
ford have been edited by Salter, Mediaeval Archives of the University of Oxford, vol 2, pp 272-
358. These record receipts for degrees, rents, fines for breaches of the peace, and expenses
for entertainments, recreations, salaries, and rents. Miscellaneous annual accounts from
1561-2 to 1743-4 survive (some in later copies only) in QUA: NW/6/1-5 but yield no
REED entries.
682 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, NW/5/3; 1471-2; Latin; parchment; single mb; 460mm x
700mm (350mm x 682mm); unnumbered; writing on both sides.
Vice-Chancellors Accounts
This volume contains annual, or sometimes biannual, statements of receipts and payments,
prepared by the vice-chancellor for a delegacy of convocation, who scrutinized and allowed
or disallowed them. Each account was written in three copies, one kept by the vice-chancellor,
one placed in the archives as a parchment roll, and one entered into a large folio paper book,
which, with the single exception listed below, is the only surviving copy.
The dates of the accounting year (or half-year) vary and are given here in the subheading
for each entry.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, WP/(3/21(4); 1547-1666; Latin and English; paper; 189 leaves;
22^mm x 330mm; modern pencil foliation 1-7, contemporary ink pagination 1-358 beginning on
f 8; bound in 17th-c. leather, written on f 1: Liber Computi Viceczncellarii Oxon.
Vice-Chancellors Draft Accounts
The expenses recorded on these sheets were copied into the vice-chancellors annual accounts
(QUA: WP/P/21(4), ff 99-102), see above, with which they are collated here.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, WP/fVS/1; 1583; English; paper; 2 bifolia within an otherwise
blank parchment mb headed Computi Vlcecuncellarti 1583 ; unnumbered; writing on the first 3 pages
of each sheet, with endorsements on the fourth page.
sheet 1: 287mm x 190mm (255mm x 177mm); written in black ink; endorsed Expensae - Recepti
PaJatini Siradiensis.
sheet 2: 336mm x 230mm (289mm x 219mm); written in brown ink with ornamental lettering; endorsed
Expensae ab Academia Oxoniensi factae in Susceptione AJberti Lacei Comitis PaJatini Siradiensis poloni.
1583 ; at the bottom of f [2v] is written Examinas et allocat 19. Decembw.
STATUTES, ORDERS, AND PROCLAMATIONS
Vice-Chancellor s Proclamation
This document is one of a miscellaneous collection of vice-chancellors proclamations from
1556 to 1630, having to do with University-city relations. Some are drafts and some fair copies.
All bear notes in the hand of Brian Twyne and were evidently collected by him.
Oxford Oxford University Archives, SEP/T/7/g; 1593; English; paper; bifolium; 300mm x 400mm
(296mm x 199mm); writing begins on f [2], continues onto f [1 v], and then f [1]; f [2v] blank except
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
for endorsement in the hand of Brian Twyne: August: 1593. 35 to Eliz: A proclamation by Dr Lilly
ViceChancellor & Henry Dodwell Mayor, of several! Orders for the Government of the University &C
towne, espea ally in relac/on to the Sicknesse.
Cardinal Pole s Statutes
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Top.Oxon b.5; early 17th c.; Latin; paper; iv + 153; 415mm x 283mm
(347mm x 187mm); contemporary ink foliation; good condition; contemporary leather binding, tooled,
with some gilding front and back, 2 clasps (now broken).
Orders of the Delegates of Convocation for the Royal Plays
This document appears to be a draft of the minutes of several meetings of congregation held
during June and July 1605 to prepare for the king s visit in August. A partial copy of this
document, or of a common source, appears in Bodl.: MS. Twyne 17, pp 181-3. Of this copy
Twyne says: All this yrft followeth [is taken] touchinge ye entertainement was taken out of a
loose note which/ Merricke had, then Registrary of ye Vniuifrsitie. & I had this of Mr Estcott
Warden of Wadham Co\\ege. Although the copy made by Twyne omits some passages, the
loose note that came into his possession may have been the present document, which would
explain its presence in the archives. A collation of BodJ.: MS. Twyne 17 (see under Entertainment
of King Charles i, p 703) is given here.
A copy of the section contained on f 3v, entitled, Advertisements for the heads of houses,
survives in ccc: MS 301, f 93v, but has not been collated here. A version of the Advertisements
also appears in Cambridge University Library: MS Additional 34 (see under Narratives by
Cambridge Men, p 699) which has been collated here.
MS 301 was compiled by William Fulman (see under Letter of Henry Jackson to D.G.P.,
p 648). As now catalogued it forms volume 7 of his collected papers. Most of the documents
are copies in Fulman s hand but some are of earlier date. The copy of the Advertisements for
Heads of Houses for the royal entertainment of 1605, on f 93v, is in Fulman s hand. The copy
of the Orders for the royal entertainment of 1636, on f 127, is in a contemporary hand and is
signed by Ric: Baylie Vicecan: Oxon and witnessed by John Frenche, registrar of the University.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, WP/y/19/1; 1605; English; paper; 3 bifolia; 300mm x 200mm;
unnumbered; writing in ink on both sides of each of the first 4 leaves, ending on f [5]; endorsed
on f [6v], in a different hand from that of the main scribe: Anno Domini 1605. Orders about ye
enterteynmfwt of King James in Oxford. The first page is dated Sexto die lunij 1603 and gives a list
of 45 delegates to oversee the king s visit.
Chancellor Laud, Corpus Statutorum
This is an annotated copy kept in the Bodleian Library (Bodl.: N 1.12 Jur.Seld.).
CORPVS I STATUTORUM I VNIVERSITATIS I OXON. I SIVE I PANDECTES
684 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
CONSTITVTIONVM I ACADEMICARVM, E LIBRIS PVBLICIS I ET REGESTIS
VNIVERSITATIS I CONSARCINATVS. I [device] I OXONLE I Excudebant JOHANNES LICHFIELD
& GUILIELMUS I TURNER, Academic celeberrimx Typographi. I M.DC.XXXIV. STC: 19005.
The Great Charter
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Long Box xix; 1636; Latin; parchment; 14 mbs sewn at top;
approximately 670mm x 855mm; contemporary ink foliation; first mb richly illuminated, decorated
title capitals used throughout; excellent condition; permanently stored flat in a case.
INVENTORIES
Chancellors Court Inventories
Excerpts have been printed from inventories on the following folios within the boxes listed
below. For ease of reference the main foliation (ie, the sequential modern pencil foliation of
each item within the Hyp/B series) is offered here along with the name of the individual whose
inventory is excerpted.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/ 10:
ff21-2v (Ralph Allen ( Mr Alyne ) of Balliol College): 17 October 1561; English; paper; bifolium;
312mm x 205mm (282mm x 172mm); good condition.
ff 111-llv (William Battbrantes of Christ Church): 23 March 1571/2; English; paper; single sheet
(originally long bifolium); 307mm x 210mm (304mm x 101mm); good condition.
ff 164-5v (Nicholas Bond of Magdalen College): 21 February 1607/8; English and Latin; parchment;
2 mbs originally sewn at top, now separated; mb 1: 585mm x 123mm (554mm x 117mm), mb 2:
267mm x 122mm (248mm x 120mm); enlarged title script; good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/11:
ff 1 19-25v (Nicholas Clifton): 19 January 1578/9; English; paper; 7 mbs originally sewn to form
continuous strip, now separated; mbs 1-6: 348mm x 133mm (339mm x 130mm), mb 7: 171mm x
133mm (83mm x 127mm); modern pencil numbering of inventory itself alongside main foliation;
enlarged script for headers; good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/12:
ff 44_5v (Giles Dewhurst): 15 October 1577; English; paper; long bifolium; 415mm x 154mm
(395mm x 140mm); good condition.
ff 62-7v (Robert Dowe): 1 May 1588; English and Latin; paper; 6 mbs (no evidence of attachment);
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 685
381mm x 143mm (362mm x 133mm); contemporary ink and modern pencil foliation of inventory
itself alongside main foliation; enlarged title script for headers; good condition, minor physical damage,
but no loss of information.
ff 78-9v (John Dunnet): 18 April 1570; English; paper; long bifolium; 410mm x 150mm (384mm x
146mm); good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/13:
f 5 (John Gerrard, University musician): 12 October 1635; English; paper; single sheet; 400mm x
154mm (376mm x 146mm); good condition.
ff 112-1 5v (Robert Harte): 18 March 1570/1; English; paper; 2 long bifolia; 414mm x 159mm (388mm
x 147mm); modern pencil foliation of inventory itself alongside main foliation; good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/14:
ff 66- 8v (Henry Hutchinson): 2 August 1573; English; paper; single sheet (f 66) and 1 bifolium (ff 67-
8v); f 66: 413mm x 155mm (384mm x 133mm), ff 67, 68: 314mm x 210mm (302mm x 149mm);
modern pencil foliation of inventory itself alongside main foliation; good condition, some minor
insect damage.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/15:
ff 134-4v (Richard Ludbye): 6 February 1566/7; English; paper; single sheet; 420mm x 157mm
(388mm x 138mm); good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/17:
ff 67-8 (Thomas Pope): 5 April 1578; English; paper; 2 single mbs originally sewn to form continuous
strip, now separated; 325mm x 157mm (304mm x 123mm); modern pencil foliation of inventory
itself alongside main foliation; good condition.
ff 78-9v (Ambrose Powell): 25 January 1624/5; English and Latin; paper; bifolium; 291mm x 194mm
(273mm x 187mm); good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/18:
ff 12-15v Qames Reynolds): 21 October 1577; English; paper; 2 bifolia (no evidence of attachment);
379mm x 130mm (348mm x 122mm); modern pencil foliation of inventory itself alongside main
foliation; good condition.
f 140 (William Smalwood): 10 June 1572; English; paper; single sheet; 415mm x 155mm (388mm x
148mm); good condition.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
ft 215-16v (John Simpson): 31 August 1577; English; paper; long bifolium; 415mm x 156mm (384mm
x 143mm); good condition.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, Hyp/B/19:
-9v (ChristoperTillyard): 31 July 1598; English and Latin; paper; long bifolium; 390mm x 151mm
(363mm x 149mm); fair condition, some physical damage and loss of information.
MISCELLANEOUS
University Response to Town Complaints of a Riot
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, SEP/Y/12a; 24 February 1297/8; English and French; parchment;
7 mbs sewn at top (original order of mbs unknown, mbs now arranged to form an apparently chrono
logical sequence of complaints and replies); 218mm x 187mm (150mm x 177mm); modern pencil
numbering; generally good condition, some wear.
Laurence Humphrey s Ash Wednesday Sermon
IESVITISMI I PARS PRIMA: I SIVE I DE PRAXI ROMANS CVRLt I contra Resp, & Principes:
Et De noua le- I gatione lesuitaruw in Angliam, JTQoOEgCUlEia I & przmunitio ad ANGLOS. I GUI
ADIUNCTA EST CONCIO I eiusdem Argument!, Laurcf/0 Humfredo I Sacrae Theologia: in Academia
Oxoni- I ensi professore Regio; Autore. I Rogo vos, Fracres, vt speculemini eos, qui sediciones & offen- I
siones przter doctrinaw, quam vos didicistis, excitant. &Cc. Ro. 16. I Tertullianus in Apologetici capitulo
13. Circuit cauponas Religio mendicans. I Athanasius contra Arrianw Oratione 1. Syncera & simplicia
Apostolicorum I virorum ingenia sunt. I [device] I LONDINI, I Excudebat Henricus Middletonus I
impensis G. B. I 1582. STC: 13961.
The secondary title-page on p 161 reads: PHARISAISMVS I VETUS ET MOWS: SIVE DE I
FERMENTO PHARJS/EORVM I ET IESVITARVM, I LAVRENTII HVMFREDI I CONCIO IN FESTO CINE- I
RVM ANNO DOM/M 1582. I Februarij vltimo Apud Acade- 1 micos Oxonienses: I Eidem nobilissimo
Comiti, I Leicestrensi, Academia: summo Can- I cellario dedicata. I Matth. 16. I Videte & cauete a
Fermento Phariszorum &C I Sadduceorum. I LONDINI, I Excudebat H. Middletonus, I impensis G. B. I
ANNO DOM/M 1582.
Letter of the Mayor and Aldermen of Oxford to the High Steward of Oxford
Hatfield, Hatfield House Library, Cecil Papers MS 62/14; 3 June 1598; English; paper; bifolium;
300mm x 200mm (272mm x 195mm); good condition except for portion of document torn away
when the seal was removed affecting 6 lines of text; addressed: To the Right honourable our verie good
Lord the Erie of Essex Earle Marshall of England ; endorsed: The Maior & Aldermen of Oxford 3
lune 98 Complayning of an outrage offerd vnto some of ye Town by cmen schollers./. Foliated 14
in red ink and bound into guardbook c 1830; volume repaired and rebound in half goatslun in 1994
with title on spine: CECIL PAPERS VOL 62.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 687
Report of the University to the High Steward of Oxford
Hatfield, Hatfield House Library, Cecil Papers MS 62/16; 9 June 1598; English; paper; single sheet;
324mm x 205mm (312mm x 175mm); good condition. Numbered 16 in red ink and bound into
guardbook c 1830; volume repaired and rebound in half goatskJn in 1994 with title on spine: CECIL
PAPERS VOL. 62.
Costumes and Props for the Plays for King James
This document has been published by F.S. Boas and W.W. Greg (eds), James I at Oxford in
1605. Property lists from the University Archives, Collections [1], Part 3, Malone Society
(Oxford, 1909; rpt 1965), 247-59, who have identified the persons named. The present
edition adopts a different ordering of the loose sheets from that given by Boas and Greg in
an attempt to make their possible relationship clearer.
The intended order, if any, of these five loose sheets is unclear. All five are in the hand of
Bernard Banger, chief esquire bedel of the University in 1605, but the entries were made at
different times, using a variety of pens and hands ranging from cursive secretary to set italic.
The following leaves are blank except for endorsements in another hand: sheet [1], f [lv];
sheet [2], ff [2, 2v]; sheet [3], ffflv, 2v]; sheet [4], ff [2, 2v]; sheet [5], f [lv]. Sheet [1] appears
to be a list of requirements for the plays and at the end contains receipts for payments to
Matthew Foxe and Thomas Kendall. Sheet [2] is a partial inventory of goods provided, copied
from sheet [1]. It is written in brown ink, with accounting symbols and marginalia added in
a darker ink. The endorsement on f [2v] reads ffor the Playes att the King co/wminge. 1605.
Sheet [3] is a list of requirements sent to Edward Kirkham, with further requirements from
Kendall. Sheet [4] is an inventory of goods received from Kendall, partially copied from
sheet [3] and partially from lettres of mr Daniels. Sheet [5] continues the inventory without
specifying the source. The endorsement on f [2v] reads: A note of players apparell. at King
James be; g here.
Oxford, Oxford University Archives, WP/fVP/5/3; 1605; English; paper; 5 bifolia; 200mm x 300mm
(200mm x 296mm); unnumbered.
Archbishop Laud s Expenses for the Royal Visit
This expense account was prepared for Laud by one of his servants, Adam Torless, who has
signed his initials at the end. Torless was awarded an honorary MA at a special convocation
held at Oxford on 31 August 1636 after the king had left.
London, Public Record Office, SP/16/348; February 1636/7?; English; paper; 4 sheets, originally bifolia(?);
300mm x 200mm; unnumbered; writing on both sides, except for f [lv], which is blank; endorsed on f [4v]:
The whole Chardge of the King & Queens Entertaynment at Oxford. In August 29. 1636. All payed (on
the same page, in a 19th-c. hand: Feb. 1636/7 ). Now bound in a guardbook and numbered 85.
688 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
COURT AND DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS
Financial Accounts
Wardrobe of the Robes Day Book
This manuscript is now part of the PRO collection called Duchess of Norfolk Deeds.
It has been published by Janet Arnold, Lost from Her Majesties Back : Items of Clothing
and Jewels Lost or Given Away By Queen Elizabeth i Between 1561 and 1585, Entered in
One of the Day Books Kept for the Records of the Wardrobe of Robes, The Costume Society
(np, 1980).
London, Public Record Office, C/1 15/L2/6697; 1561-85; English; paper; 390 leaves (296 blank);
298mm x 209mm; partial modern pencil pagination 1-86; original vellum binding, badly damaged,
tide in ink on cover faded and illegible.
Treasurer of the Chamber s Account
London, Public Record Office, E/351/542; 29 September 1579-3 July 1597; English and Latin;
parchment; 222 mbs, attached at head probably with original (vellum?) lace; 620-820mm x 470mm
(580-780mm x 390-460mm); modern pencil numeration at foot of each mb; written front to back;
monotone ink capital embellishment at beginning of main heading; moderately serious loss at lower
right corners, some damage at edges and feet, a little rubbing on mb 1, tears on mb 222.
Master of the Revels Annual Engrossed Account
London, Public Record Office, AO/1/2046/H; 1604-5; English and Latin; paper and parchment;
roll of 5 sheets + 2 mbs; 250mm x 340mm; unnumbered; writing on 1 side only.
Diplomatic Letters
Letter of Guzman de Silva to the King of Spain
An English translation of the entire letter may be found in A.S. Hume (ed), Calendar of
Letters and State Papers Relating to English Affairs, Preserved Principally in the Archives of
Simancas (1558-1567) (London, 1892), 577-8.
Simancas, Archivo General de Simancas, Estado, legajo 819; 6 September 1566; Spanish; paper; 2
bifolia- 170mm x 270mm (text area varies); written in a scribal hand on both sides of f [1] and the top
quarter of f [2], with Guzman s signature at the bottom; endorsed on f [2v]: A su Majestad, D.cgo
Guzman de Silva vj. de Septiembre 1566 Sacada en relacion Recebida a xxiiij. del m.smo RespW/da
a iij de octubrc.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Letter of the Venetian Ambassador Nicol6 Molen to the Doge
English translations of the letters may be found in Horatio F. Brown (ed), Calendar of State
Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of
Venice, and in other Libraries of Northern Italy (1603-1607) (London, 1900), 265, 270.
Venice, Archivio di Stato, Senate, dispacci ambasciatori, Inghilterra, filza rv; 10 August and 14 September
1605; Italian; paper; 2 bifolia; 235mm x 340mm; writing in a scribal hand on first 3 pages of each sheet,
with Molen s signature at the bottom and endorsements of receipt by the Venetian chancellery on
the back. Part of letter 27 is written in cipher. Now bound in a guardbook stamped and numbered 23
(10 August) and 27 (14 September).
Jurisdictional Documents
Privy Councillors Letter to the Master of the Revels
This letter, from Robert Rochester, Francis Englefield, and John Bourne, privy councillors, to
Sir Thomas Cawarden, master of the revels, was originally part of the Loseley manuscripts. It
is one of fourteen miscellaneous papers of various dates sewn together for no apparent reason,
some belonging to the office of the revels and some to the office of the tents. For discussion of
its date and other problems of interpretation, see Feuillerat, Performance of a Tragedy, pp 967;
and Elliott, A "Learned Tragedy" at Trinity? pp 247-50.
This document was published by FeuilJerat, Documents Relating to the Revels, p 250. See p 1096,
endnote to Surrey History Centre: LM/41/8 f [1], for a summary of the dating of this record.
Woking, Surrey History Centre, LM/41/8; 19 December 1556; English; paper; bifolium; 280mm x
185mm; unnumbered; writing on inner 2 pages only; endorsed: Revylls from Master ComrowW and
Mr Engllfeld and addressed: To Mr Cawerden knyght/ Master of the Revell & to eanye of the offycers
thereof & to eu^rye of them at the blake rTryers.
Robert Gill s Petition
London, Public Record Office, SP/16/304; 18 December 1635; English; paper; single sheet; 290mm x
180mm (195mm x 155mm); some loss of text on lower edge, some paper repairs to verso; 2 later pencil
endorsements reading 1635 December 18. Now bound in a guardbook and stamped 115.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE
Letter Recommending a Father Remove His Son from Oxford
MS Royal 17-B.xlvii is a miscellany of documents including sample letters for use in London,
poems on health, regulations governing apprenticeship, purgation, the computation of scutage,
and land purchase, and ownership notes and deeds.
690 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
London, British Library, MS Royal 17.B.xlvii; 14th c.; Latin; paper; iv * 173 + iii; 210mm x 140mm
5mm); modern pencil fol.ation, some contemporary ink foliation; good condition; modern
cloth binding, leather corners and spine, with gilt coat of arms on front cover; raised bands and gilding
on spine, with title: Collections on Dictamen with legal and Other Commonplaces.
Letter of John Foxe to Laurence Humphrey
The text of the letter to Humphrey occupies ff [1-lv]. The text of f [1] was apparently cancelled
due to the arrival of a letter from Humphrey (now lost), to which f [Iv] was drafted, and
presumably sent, as a response. The cancelled text has been translated by J.F. Mozley, /<?/?
Foxe and His Book (London, 1940), 66.
John Foxe (1516-87) was a famous martyrologist: for his Christus Triumphant see Ap
pendix 9. Laurence Humphrey (1$27?-90), an exile with Foxe in Switzerland during the
reign of Queen Mary, was president of Magdalen College from 1561 to 1590.
London, British Library, MS Harleian 416; January(?) 1561/2; Latin; paper; bifolium; 310mm x 205mm;
modern pencil foliation. Bound in a guardbook labelled Tapers of John Fox and foliated 140-40v.
Letter of Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain
London, Public Record Office, SP/12/270; 3 April 1599; English; paper; bifolium; 200mm x 300mm;
modern foliation; writing on inner 2 pages only; addressed: To my very assured frend Mr. lohn
Chamberlain at Docwr Gilberts house on St Peters hill neer Paules London ; before Carleton s signature
on f [3] is the valediction from RJcott .April! 3^. 99. Now bound in a guardbook and numbered 71.
Letter of Robert Burton to his brother, William Burton
The original letter was cut in half by William Burton to be used as note paper, only the lower
half of the sheet surviving. The fragment was subsequently joined to the bottom edge of a
fragment of another letter, not by Burton, to make up a single foolscap sheet. For further
discussion of this document, see Nichols, Progresses of King James, vol 4, p 1067; and
Nochimson, Robert Burton s Authorship of Alba, pp 325-31. The text is published here
by permission of the current owner, the earl of Shrewsbury.
Stafford, Staffordshire Record Office, D649/1/1; 1 1 August 1605; English; paper; single sheet; 202mm x
150mm (168mm x 133mm); unnumbered; writing in Robert Burton s hand on 1 side of the sheet,
writing in William Burton s hand on the other; fragmentary. Now bound in a volume with approxim
ately 200 other sheets containing antiquarian notes by William Burton.
Letter of Sir Thomas Bodley to Sir John Scudamore
This autograph letter, along with four others to Scudamore now preserved in the same PRO
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
bundle, has been published by Trevor-Roper, Five Letters of Sir Thomas Bodley, pp 134-
Scudamore (1566-1616) was gentleman usher to Queen Elizabeth, a member of the council
for the marches of Wales, and a member of five parliaments for the county of Hereford. He
was a close friend of Bodley and a contributor to his library. On the interest of the Scudamore
family in plays, see J.P. Feil, Dramatic References from the Scudamore Papers, Shakespeare
Survey 11 (1958), 107-15.
London, Public Record Office, C/115/M20, no 7594; 20 September 1605; English; paper; bifolium;
195mm x 300mm; unnumbered.
Letter of John Chamberlain to Ralph Winwood
Examined in photocopy only, supplied by the Northamptonshire Record Office, the letter is
in the fourth (vol 37) of eleven volumes now constituting volumes 34-44 of the Montagu
(Boughton) Miscellaneous MSS. The letter is a holograph, signed by Chamberlain.
Kettering, Northamptonshire, Boughton House, Winwood Papers, vol 4; 12 October 1605; English;
paper; bifolium; 305mm x 408mm; unnumbered. Now bound in an 18th-c. volume of leather-covered
boards with gold tooling and lettering, on spine: Winwood s Orig State Papers Volume 4 1605 1606.
Letter of George Garrard to Viscount Conway
London, Public Record Office, SP/16/331; 4 September 1636; English; paper; 2 bifolia; 185mm x
300mm; writing on ff[l-3v] of the second. Now bound in a guardbook and numbered 14.
Letter of Thomas Read to Sir Francis Windebank
London, Public Record Office, SP/16/331; 8 September 1636; English; paper; bifolium; 195mm x
285mm; writing on f [1] only; addressed on f [2v]: To the right honorable my very worthy good Vncle
Sir ffrancis Windebank knight principal! Secretary of State and one of his Ma/ mies most honorable priuy
Counsel!, at bottom left of f [Iv], in Windebanks hand: 8: September I636/ My Nephew: Thomas
Reade. Now bound in a guardbook and numbered 24.
Letter of Edward Rossingham to Sir Thomas Puckering
This letter is bound into one of eighteen volumes of letters (MSS Harleian 6989-7006) collected
by Thomas Baker in the early eighteenth century. Several surrounding letters in the same
hand are signed E.R. The identification of the author and recipient given in the transcript
of this letter made by Thomas Birch (BL: MS Additional 4178, ff 402-5) and published in
The Court and Times of Charles The First, R.F. Williams (ed), vol 2 (London, 1848), 263-6,
has been accepted here.
London, British Library, MS Harleian 7000; 1 1 January 1636/7; English; paper; bifolium; 210mm x
692 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
315mm; modern pencil foliation; writing on both sides of each leaf, both horizontal and vertical.
Now bound in a guardbook and numbered 198.
PERSONAL RECORDS
Richard Carnsew s Diary
Richard Carnsew was a student at Broadgates Hall, now part of Pembroke College. His diary
also lists some expenses for his brother Matthew, who entred into commons at Christchurche
on 6 August 1574 (f 2l6v). The brothers were from Cornwall.
Each page of the diary is divided into several vertical columns: the leftmost gives the day of
the month, the next the number of pages read in various books, the next the titles of other
books, the central and widest column the principal events of the day, and the right column
expenses incurred. The leaves are bound into the present PRO volume in what appears to be
random order. The exact dates of some of the entries can therefore not be determined with
certainty. Each page is headed with the name of a month, the year sometimes being added by
a different but contemporary hand; some pages are signed by a George Grenville. Datable
references are few.
London, Public Record Office, SP/46/15; c April 1572-f December 1575; Latin and English; paper;
8 leaves; 145mm x 195mm; modern pencil foliation. Now bound in a guardbook and foliated 212-19
(fT213v,2l4v,218v blank).
Richard Madox s Diary
The majority of this work is devoted to describing Madox s travels in Africa and South
America in 1582. The entries for January and February record his life in Oxford, where he
was a fellow of All Souls. The work has been edited by E.S. Donno, An Elizabethan in 1582.
The Diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls, Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, vol 147
(London, 1976).
London, British Library, MS Cotton Appendix 47; 1582; English; parchment; iv + 50 + v; 190mm x
275mm; modern pencil foliation superseding contemporary ink foliation; most leaves repaired, 2 extra
leaves added, margin of f 3 badly worn, with holes and tears near the edge, obliterating portions of
words at the ends of lines; bound in stamped leather and board in 1884.
Baron Waldstein s Diary
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 666; 1597-1603; i + 369 + i; 154mm x 90mm
(120mm x 70m); 18th-c. ink foliation; good condition; bound in white parchment, gold stamped
title on front cover.
693
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Dr Howson s Interrogation
This document is a scribal copy, unsigned, of a report written by John Howson, canon of
Christ Church, of his interrogation before King James by Archbishop George Abbot in 1615
on charges of papist leanings. The interrogation reached back to Howson s behaviour during
the royal visit of 1605, at which time Abbot was vice-chancellor.
London, Public Record Office, SP/14/80; 1615; English; paper; 5 leaves; 190mm x 285mm; writing on
both sides; modern numbering; endorsed on f [5v]: 1615 Dr Howson answars to the Lord ArchBw%>
of Canterbury Abbott his accusations before King lames . Now bound in a guardbook, foliated 65 in
modern pencil, and stamped 175-9 in ink.
William Ayshcombe s Memoirs
No author s name appears in the manuscript. The work was erroneously attributed to John
Pym by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 10th Report, Appendix 6 (1887), 82-3,
but was correctly assigned to William Ayshcombe by the DNB in its article on John Pym
(1584-1643). The author refers to my uncle William Ayshcombe and to my uncle Oliver
Ayshcombe. Though called a diary by both the Historical Manuscripts Commission and
the DNB, the work is actually a memoir cast into the form of a diary probably copied or
condensed from an original diary, and covering the years 1591-1620.
Ayshcombe matriculated at St John s in 1601 but did not take a degree.
San Marino, Huntington Library, MS HM 30665; c 1620; English; paper; 20 + ii; 155mm x 105mm;
modern pencil foliation; unbound with modern stitching, title on f 1: Memorable Accidententw.
Hentzner s Travels in England
Pauli Hentzneri, JC. I ITINERARIUM I Germanise, Gallise, I Angliz, Italiz: I Cum indice Locorum,
Rerum, atq Verborum I commemorabilum. I Huic libra accessere novd. hac editione I /. I Monita
Peregrinatoria I duorum doctissimorum I Virorunv. I Icemq , I //. I Incerti Auctoris Epitome Prttcognito- I
rum Historicorum, antehac non edita. I [device] I NORIBERGz I Typis ABRAHAMI Wagenmanni, I
sumptibus sui ipsius & Johan. Giintzelii. I [rule] I ANNO M. DC. XXIX.
Robert Ashley s Autobiography
Robert Ashley (1565-1641) arrived in Oxford in 1580 and attended successively Hart Hall,
Alban Hall, and Magdalen College, of which he became a fellow in 1584. In addition to his
dramatic activities there, he tells of having acted in ludi literati at Corfe Castle (f I6v) and in a
Comedie at Christmas, perhaps in the same place (f 17). For commentary on this work, see
Wood, Athenae, vol 3, cols 19-20; Macray, Register, vol 3, pp 92-7; and Boas, University
Drama, p 196.
694 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
London, British Library, MS Sloane 2131; c 1622; Latin and French; paper; 5 leaves; 220mm x 310mm;
modern pencil foliation. Bound in a guardbook and foliated 16-20; title on f 16: Vita RA ab ipso
conscripta.
Thomas Crosfield s Diary
This invaluable manuscript is a codicologist s nightmare. The work as currently bound appears
to be an amalgamation of at least two separate notebooks of Crosfield s, made up with no
particular care. The second, more complete foliation may be in the hand of Matthew
Hutchinson who has written in the same colour ink his name and the date 24 Dec. 1674 on
what is now the first leaf. Hutchinson may also have been responsible for the binding, but if so
it was only after he had lost and jumbled many of the leaves he had foliated. It is not known
how Hutchinson acquired the manuscript or how and when it found its way back to The
Queen s College. The transcripts follow the second foliation sequence, despite its inaccuracy.
The diary entries occupy ff 16-81 v, 84v, 87-92v, and 173v-7. The remaining leaves contain
various notes on books read, almanacs, transcripts of sermons, etc. The diary entries are for the
following dates: 6 January 1625/6-9 November 1638; 15 November 1638-25 December
1638; the month of January 1639/40; 2 February 1652/3-1 February 1653/4; 1 November
1632-10 September 1638 (ie, a second set of entries for those years). Most of the diary was
written while Crosfield (1602-63) was a student and fellow of Queen s, from 1618 to c 1640.
Excerpts from this work have been edited by F.S. Boas, The Diary of Thomas Crosfield, M.A.,
B.D., Fellow of Queen s College, Oxford (London, 1935). This is a simplified and partially modern
ized edition of about three-fourths of the Diary proper, with useful explanatory notes. The manu
script is currendy kept in a box along with the transcript by J.R. Magrath, used for Boas edition.
Oxford, The Queen s College Library, MS 390; 1626-54; English, French, Latin, and Greek; paper;
192 leaves (at least 5 missing from front, at least 9 from end); 130mm x 182mm; 2 sets of ink foliation,
the first, on some leaves only, in Crosfield s hand, the other, in a slightly later hand, on most leaves,
beginning 5 and ending 228, but with many leaves missing and out of order; pages often laid out in 2
or 3 cols; original leather and board binding, badly damaged. The author s name nowhere appears in
the volume, only the initials T.C.
Robert Woodforde s Diary
Robert Woodforde (1606-54), steward of Northampton, had no connection with Oxford
other than through his visit there on business during the Act of 1639.
Oxford, New College Archives, 9502; 1637-41; English; paper; ii + 291 + i; 140mm x 90mm (text
area varies); unnumbered; entries separated by horizontal rules; original vellum binding.
Peter Heylyns Memoirs
The manuscript mentioned by Wood (see p 886) has not survived. Wood s transcript occupies
695
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
folios 20-8 in Part in of the current volume, bearing the original number 98. The volume is
composed of what were originally four different manuscripts, mostly in Wood s hand, contain
ing copies of documents relating to the history of the University. The transcript has been
published by John R. Bloxam (ed), Memorial of Bishop Waynflete Founder of St Mary Magdalen
College, Oxford, Caxton Society 14 (1851), x-xxiv.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Wood E.4; 1673; English; paper; i + 421; 185mm x 250mm; 17th-c. ink
foliation; on f 20 in Anthony Wood s hand: Out of an account of Dr Heylyns Life, written by him
self to Apr. 8. 1645 ; note in right margin of same page, in Wood s hand: Mr Henry Heylyn of Minster
Lovell his son, lent me ye ms. 8. July. 1673.
Laud, Diary of His Own Life
THE I HISTORY I OF THE I TROUBLES I AND I TRYAL I OF I The Most Reverend Father in God, I
and Blessed Martyr, I WILLIAM LAUD, I Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. \ [rule] I Wrote by HIMSELF,
dunnghis I Imprisonment in f/* Tower. I [rule] I To which is prefixed I THE DIARY OF HIS OWN LIFE I
Faithfully and entirely Published from the Original Copy: I And subjoined I A SUPPLEMENT to the Preceding
HISTORY: I The Arch-Bishop s Last Will: His Large Answer to the Lord SAYs I Speech concerning Liturgies;
His Annual Accounts of his Province deli- I vered to the King; And some other Things relating to the
History. I [rule] I IMPRIMATUR, I Martij: 7: l69 3 /4. JO: CANT. I [rule] I LONDON: I Printed for Ri.
Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul s I Church-Yard, MDCXCV. Wing: L586.
Laud, Historical Account
AN I Historical Account I OF ALL I Material Transactions I Relating to the I UNIVERSITY I OF I
OXFORD, I FROM I ARCH-BISHOP LAUD S I Being ELECTED I CHANCELLOR I To his
RESIGNATION of that I OFFICE. I [rule] I Written by Himself, [rule].
Printed with separate title-page and separate pagination in: The Second Volume I OF THE I REMAINS I
OF THE I Most Reverend Father in God, I And Blessed MARTYR, I WILLIAM LAUD, I Lord Arch-
Bishop I OF I CANTERBURY. I [rule] I Written by HIMSELF. I [rule] I Collected by the late Learned
Mr. Henry Wharton, I And Published according to his Request by the Re- I verend Mr. Edmund Wharton,
his Father. I [rule] I LONDON, I Printed for Sam. Keble at the Turks-Head in Fleet-street, Dan. I Brown
without Temple Bar, Will. Hensman in Westminster-Hall, \ Matt. Wotton near the Inner-Temple Gate, and
R. Knaplock at I the Angel m St. Paul s Church-yard. 1700. Wing: L596.
HISTORIES AND REMINISCENCES
Continuatio Eulogii
London, British Library, Cotton MS Galba E.vii; c 15th c; Latin; parchment; v + 104 + iv; 360mm x
250mm (text area varies); modern (19th-c.?) pencil foliation, earlier cancelled ink foliation, 1 folio less
(ie, 193 in ink for 194 in pencil); 2 cols; blue and red capitals and paragraph divisions; some damage
and loss (not to text) at edge of ff throughout, considerable peripheral damage to early ff including
some loss of text; modern calf binding, gilded and stamped, gilt coat of arms on front cover, raised
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
bands containing green leather with gilt lettering on spine: Cronica Breuis A Christi Nat. Ad. Ann.
Eulogmm. Histona Universitatis A Mundi Creatione Add. Ann. 1413.
Ponet, Apologie
AN APOLO I GIE FVLLY AVNSWERINGE BY SCRI- 1 ptures andaunceant Doctor,/ a bLvphemose book
gatherid by I D. Steph. Gardinerl nou Lord chauncelar and D. Smyth of Ox I ford/ and other Papists/ as
by ther books appearfl and of late I set furth vnder the name of Thomas Martin Doctor of the Ci- I uile
Liwes as of himself hf saiethl against the godly mariadge I of priests, wherin dyuers other matters whiche
the Papists I defend be so confutidl that in Martyns ouerthrow I they may see there own impudency I and
confusion. I [device] I By IOHN PONET Doctor ofdiuinitie and I busshop of Winchester. I The author desireth
that the reader will content him- I self with this first book vntill he may haue leasure to I set furth the next/
whiche shalbe by I Gods grace shortly. I It is a hard thing for the to spurn aga- I inst the prick. Act. 9.
[Strasburg, 1555]. .or: 20175.
Miles Windsors Narrative
This manuscript is part of Brian Twyne s collection of documents on the history of Oxford
University, formed while he was a fellow of Corpus Christi College and keeper of the archives
in 1634. It contains both original documents, antiquarian copies in other hands, and copies
in Twyne s hand. The volume contains two versions of Miles Windsor s The Receiving of
the Queen s Majesty into Oxford in 1566 : one is a fair copy in Windsor s own hand and
initialled by him, occupying folios 104-14; the other is a draft, also in Windsor s hand, with
corrections and additions by him made in a darker ink, occupying folios 1 15-23. A nine
teenth-century hand has added occasional marginal transcriptions of headings and proper
names, ignored in the present text.
The draft copy has been selected as the authoritative text here, with collations of Windsor s
fair version. Twyne s later copy of the fair text (Bodl.: MS. Twyne 17) is not collated, nor are
two contemporary abridgements of Windsor s work contained in Bodl.: MS. Twyne 21 and
Folger Shakespeare Library: MS V.a.176, ff 167-74 (see p 1099, endnote to ccc: MS 257). These
abridgements are the source of the published versions of the work in Nichols Progresses of
Queen Elizabeth, vol 1, pp 206-17, Wood s History and Antiquities, vol 2, pp 154-63, and
Plummer s Elizabethan Oxford, pp 195-205.
Windsor, who names himself as one of the actors in the royal plays of 1566, was an under
graduate at Corpus at the time of the queen s visit. The omission of some material in the
draft version from the fair copy would appear to be his deliberate attempt to show the acting
in a better light.
Windsor s narrative has sometimes been misattributed by modern scholars to Thomas Neal
(eg, Boas, University Drama, p 98) (see p 697, under Nicholas Robinson s Of the Actes Done
at Oxford ).
Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 257; c 1566; English and Latin; paper; U 178 + v; 150mm x
M7
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
210mm; 19th-c. pencil foliation, some leaves have 17th-c. ink pagination (incomplete); bound in
original vellum.
Nicholas Robinsons Of the Actes Done at Oxford
This manuscript was compiled by Nicholas Robinson, bishop of Bangor, originally to com
memorate the royal visit to Cambridge in 1564, at which he was present. The Cambridge
material occupies the first 154 leaves, written in several hands, all in Latin.
Washington, DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V.a.176; c 1566; Latin and English; i + 174; 215mm x
150mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in stamped leather and board in 1827. Originally Phillips
MS 4827. Robinson added in 1566 the following accounts of the royal visit to Oxford:
I/ ff 154-66v: Of the Actes Done at Oxford, in Latin, written by Robinson. This was later copied
into BL: MS Harleian 7033, ff 142-9, by Thomas Baker, which served as the text for the published
versions of Nichols Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol 1, pp 229-47 and Plummer s Elizabethan
Oxford, pp 171-91. None of these later versions has any independent authority and they are not
collated here.
21 ff 167-74: title on f 167: A.D. 1566./ A brief rehearsal! of all suche thinges as were/ doone in
th vnivmitie of Oxford, during the Queenes/ Maiesties abode there. Marginal note on same page:
This exhibited by Richard Stephens as an extract drawen oute/ of a longer treatise made by Mr Neale
reader of Hebrew at Oxford. It is likely that the mistaken attribution of the longer work to Thomas
Neal arose from the fact that another work of Neal s, the Dialogus in aduentum Reginae, was copied
by the same scribe immediately before the anonymous abridged account of the royal visit in Bodl.:
MS. Twyne 21, ff 792-800, which is Robinson s source. In fact the author of the original was Miles
Windsor (see p 696). Richard Stephens was a contemporary of Miles Windsor at Corpus Christi
College. This is the only reference to his authorship of the Brief Rehearsal. While mainly an abridged
copy of Windsor s account, the Brief Rehearsal occasionally furnishes details not in the original
and omits others.
Bereblock} Commentary
The front flyleaf of this MS has the signature of Thomas Hearne, with the date 29 August 1727
and a statement that the manuscript was a gift from Thomas Ward of Warwick, knight. On
the same flyleaf a later note in Hearne s hand reads: I have printed this MS at the End of
Vita Ricardi II. The note refers to Hearne s edition of the Historia Vitae et Regni Ricardi n
(Oxford, 1729), 253-96. Hearne s edition was reprinted by Plummer, Elizabethan Oxford,
pp 111-50, who added a collation with Bodl.: MS. Additional A.63-
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rawlinson D.1071; c 1566-71; Latin; paper, vellum flyleaves; v + 25
+ iii; 140mm x 200mm; modern pencil pagination; grey paper-covered board binding.
The transcription from MS. Rawlinson D.1071 has been collated with the following manuscripts,
which appear to have been copied separately (ie, none is the copy of the other), although
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
the Folger Shakespeare Library manuscript may have a more common ancestry with the
son manuscript. Bodl, MS. Additional A.63 appears to have more errors and omissions,
it and the Folger Shakespeare Library manuscript have emendations by correctors
or uncertain identity.
Washington, DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V.a.109; c 1566-71; Latin; paper; ix + 24 + iv; 144mm x
4mm; modern pencil foliation 1-24; modern (1959) tan cloth binding, previously in an 18th-c.
binding, bound in with several other MSS and printed works. The manuscript must have been copied
between 1566, the year of the events it describes, and 1571, the year of the death of one of its two
dedicatees, William Petre.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Additional A.63 (sc 28864); c 1566; Latin; paper; ii + 22; 170mm x
125mm; modern pencil foliation; modern red leather binding. There is no title-page and no indication
of an author or title. The only heading is the date 1565 written at the top of f 1, a mistake for 1566.
This manuscript was described by Thomas Tanner in the 18th c. as belonging to Thomas Rivers fellow
of All Souls. 8
Stow, Chronicles
A Sum- I marye of the Chroni- I cles of Englande, from the I first comminge of Brute into I this
Lande, Vnto this pre I sent yeare of Christ. I 1570. I Diligentlye collected, I and nowe newly
corrected I and enlarged, by lohn Stowe, I Citizen of London. I C Scene and allowed accordinge
to the Queenes Maiestyes I Injunctions. I Imprinted at London I in Fleetestreate by Tho- \ mas Marshe.
STC: 23322.
Visit of the Prince ofSiradia
Washington, DC, Folger Shakespeare Library, MS L.b.606; c 1583; English; paper; single sheet; 210mm x
305mm, written on both sides; written in late I6th-c. secretary hand; kept in a folder marked Loseley
Manuscripts. This sheet is a rough draft with many corrections. A 19th-c. hand has numbered the
two sides of the leaf 72 and 72v.
Holinshed, Third Volume of Chronicles
THE I Third volume of Chronicles, be- I ginning at duke William the Norman I commonlie called the
Conqueror; and I descending by degrees ofyeeres to all the I kings and queenes of England in thier I
orderlie successions: I First compiled by Raphael! Holinshed, I and by him extended to the I yeare 1577. \
Now newlie recognised, augmented, and \ continued (with occurrences and \ accidents of fresh memorie) I
to the yeare 1586. I Wherein also are conteined manie matters I of singular discourse and rare obser- I
uation, fruitful/ to such as be I studious in antiquities, or I take pleasure in the I grounds ofanci-ient histories. I
With a third table (peculiarlie seruing I this third volume) both of I names and matters I memorable. I
Historiae placeant nostrates ac peregrinae. [London, 1587]. STC: 13569.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 699
Bunny, A Briefe Answer
A I Briefe Answer, vnto those I idle and friuolous quarrels of I R.P. against the late edition of I the
RESOLVTION: I By I Edmund Bunny. I Wherunto are prefixed the booke I of Resolution, and the treatise of I
Pacification, perused and noted in I the margent, on all such places as I are misliked of R.P. shewing in I
what Section of this Answer fol- I lowing, those places are I handled. I PSALM. 120.7. I I labour for
peace: but when to I that ende 1 speake vnto them, I they prepare themselues I vnto warre. I AT LONDON. I
Printed by lohn Charle- I wood, Anno. Dom. I 1589. STC: 4088.
Harvey, Four Letters
[Harvey, Gabriel.] FOVRE LETTERS, I and certaine Sonnets: I Especially touching Robert Greene,
and other parties, I by him abused: I But incidentally of diuers excellent persons, I and some matters of
note. I To all courteous mindes, that will voutchsafe the reading. \ [device] I LONDON I Imprinted by
lohn Wolfe, I 1592. STC: 12900.
Harington, Metamorphosis of Ajax
[Sir John Harington.] A NEW DIS- I COVRSE OF A STALE I SVBIECT, CALLED THE I
Metamorphosis of AIAX: I Written by MISACMOS, to his friend I and cosin PHILOSTILPNOS. I [device] I
AT LONDON, I Printed by Richard Field, dwelling I in the Black friers, I 1596. STC: 12779.
Narratives by Cambridge Men
Folios 3-9 of the following MS are in the hand of Philip Stringer, fellow of St John s College,
Cambridge, who along with Henry Mowtlowe, fellow of King s College, was sent by his
university to observe the royal entertainment at Oxford in 1592. Stringer wrote out the
1592 narrative for Mowtlowe on 3 May 1603 in Cambridge, based on notes he had
made at the time, asking him to alter them as he saw fit for the vse of the vniu^rsity here.
No corrections or additions appear in the manuscript, however. The date of composi
tion of the description of King James visit to Oxford in 1605 (ff 28-45v) is not given.
The description is in a different hand, possibly Mowtlowe s, as the author was clearly a
King s College man.
This manuscript was copied by Thomas Baker in the eighteenth century into BL: MS Harleian
7044, ff 97-107. Baker s transcript was published by Nichols in Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,
vol 3, pp 149-60, and Progresses of King James, vol 1, pp 530-59. As these versions have no
independent authority, they are not collated here.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Additional 34; English; 1603-f 1605; paper; 145mm
x 185mm; modern foliation; bound in original leather, badly damaged. A note in a different hand
on f 87v reads: This Manuscript found in Mr Bucks Study 1722. John Buck, a University bedell
died in 1680.
700 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Nixon, Oxfords Triumph
(Anthony Nixon] OXFORDS I Triumph: I In the Royall Enter- I tainement of his moste Excellent I
Maiestie, the Queene, and I the Prince: the 27. of August \ last, 1605. I With I The Kinges Oration
deliuered to the \ Vniuersitie, and the incorpo- I rating of diuers Noble-men, I Maisters of Aite. I
[device] I LONDON I Printed by Ed. Allde, and are to bee solde in 1 Paules Church-yard by lohn I
Hodgets. 1605. STC: 18589.
Wake, Rex Platonicus
This editon of Rex Platonicus has been collated with the subsequent editions STC: 24939.5;
STC: 24940; STC: 24941; STC: 24942; and STC: 24942.5.
REX PLATONICVS-. I SIVE, I DE POTEN- I TISSIMI PRINCIPIS I IACOBI BRITANNIARVM I
Regis, ad illustrissimam Academism I Oxomensem. adventu, Aug. 27. I Anno. 1605. I NARRATIO I
AB ISAACO WAKE, PVBLICOA- I cademi* ejusdem Oratore, turn temporis I conscripta, nunc verb in
lucem I edita, non sine authoritate I Supenorum. I [device] I OXONLE, Excudebat losephus Barnesius, I
Anno Dom. 1607. STC: 24939.
Armin, A Nest of Ninnies
A 1 Nest of Ninnies. I Simply of themselues without I Compound. I Stultorum plena sunt omma. I By
Robert Armin I [device] I LONDON: I Printed by T.E. for lohn Deane. 1608. I src.
A Letter to Mr T.H. from Sir Edward Hoby
A I LETTER I TO M T. H. I LATE MINISTER: I Now Fugitiue: I FROM SIR EDWARD I HOBY
KWht I IN ANSWERE OF HIS \fintMotiut. \ [rule] I HEBR..3.12. I Take heed, Brethren lest at
anyttme there be in any I of you an eudl heart, and vnfaithfull, to depart \ away from the Kuing God.\
[rule] I [ornament] I AT LONDON, I Imprinted by F.K. for Ed. Blount and W. Barret, I and are to be
sold at the signe of the blacke I Beare in Pauls Church-yard. I 1609. STC: 13541.
Theophilus Higgons Answer to Sir Edward Hoby
I APOLOGY I OF I THEOPHILVS HIGGONS I LATELY MINISTER, I NOW
CATHOLIQVE. I Wherein I THE LETTER I OF 1 SIR EDW. HOBY KNIGHT I directed vnto
savd TH in answere of his I FIRST MOTIVE, is modestly 1 examined, and clearely refuted. 1
- Pr, sed non confundo, , 2. T.moch. L 12. I [ornament] , ROAR , BY JOHN
MACHVEL, dwelling in the streete I of the Prison, ouer the Crowne of Orleans. I
Camden, Annales
ANNALES I RERVM ANGLICARVM, I ET HIBERNICARVM, 1 REGNANTE I ELIZABETHA, I
SALVTIS I M. D. LXXXIX I GV.UELMO CAMDENO I AVTHORE. I LOND.N,, I Typ.s
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Guilielmi Stansbij, Impensis Simonis Watersoni, \ ad insigne CORONA in Coemeterio I PAVLINO. I [rule] I
M. DC. XV. 5/c: 4496.
Wallington, God s Judgement on Sabbath Breakers
London, British Library, Sloane MS 1457; 1618-58; English; paper; ii + 107 + ii; 195mm x 150mm
(190mm x 140mm); modern pencil foliation, contemporary ink pagination; good condition; modern
cloth-covered cardboard binding, leather corners and spine.
Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy
This volume contains transcription from the second edition of Anatomy of Melancholy collated
with the 1621 first edition (STC: 4159).
[Robert Burton] THE I ANATOMY OF I MELANCHOLY: I WHAT IT IS. I WITH ALL THE
KINDES, CAV- I SES, SYMPTOMES, PROGNOSTICKS, I AND SEVERALL CVRES OF IT. I
IN THREE MAINE PARTITIONS, I with their seuerall SECTIONS, MEM- I BERS, and SVBSECTIONS. I
PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICI- I NALLY, HISTORICALLY I opened and cut vp, I BY I DEMOCRITVS
Junior. I With a Satyricall PREFACE, conducing to I the following Discourse. I The second Edition,
corrected and aug- I me n ted by the Author. I MACROB. I Omne meum, Nihil meum. I [device] I AT
OXFORD, I Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and IAMES SHORT, I for HENRY CRIPPS, A Dom. 1624.
STC: 4160.
Camden, Tomus Alter Annalium
TOMVS ALTER I ANNALIVM I RERVM I ANGLICARVM, I 7"! HIBERNICARVM, I
REGNANTE I ELIZABETHA, I Qui nunc demum prodit: I SIVE I PARS QVARTA. I AVTURE I
GVIL. CAMDENO I [rule] I LONDINI, I Excudebat Guil. Stansby, Impensis Simonis I Waterson. 1627.
STC: 4496.5.
Brian Twyne s Notes on the History of the University Music
This volume contains a collection of transcripts of documents on the history of the University,
most of them in the hand of Brian Twyne, with some annotations by Gerard Langbaine. The
contents are miscellaneous and bound in no particular order. There is no calendar or index.
A brief description of the contents may be found in Clark, The Life and Times of Anthony
Wood,vo\4, pp 217-18.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Twyne-Langbaine 4; c 1630-44; Latin and English; paper; ii + 318 + iv;
leaves of various sizes, averaging 190mm x 305mm; modern pencil foliation 1-318, some leaves have
marginal rules, some blank; 18th-c. leather and board binding, title stamped on spine: Collectanea B.
Twyne Langbaine &c.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Burton, For God and the King
FOR I GOD, and the KING. I THE \ SVMME OF TWO SERMONS I Preached on the fifth of
Jber last ,n St. MATTHEWES FR.DAY- 1 STREETE. 1636. I [rule] I By HENRV BVRTON, Minister
Gods Word I there and then. I [rule] I 1. PET. 2.17. I Feare GOD. Honour the KING. I 2. TIM
I / charge thee before God, and the Lord lesus Christ, who shall I judge the qut cke and the dead
at his appearing, and hn I K,n g dome: Preach the Word, be instant, in season, out of\ season, reproove
rebuke exhort with all long suffering and I doctrine. For the time will come, when they will not endure I
sound doctrine. &c. I Bernard, in Dedic. Eccl*. Ser. }.\Non miremini. fratres, si dunus loqui videar I
Qttta ventas neminem palpat. I [rule] I Printed, Anno Dom. 1636. src: 4141.
Burton, A Divine Tragedie
[Henry Burton] A DIVINE TRAGEDIE I LATELY ACTED, I Or I A Collection of sundry memorable
exam- I pies of Gods judgements upon Sabbath-breakers, and other I like Libertines, in their unlawful!
Sports, happening within I the Realme of England, in the compass only of two yeares I last past, since
the Booke was published, worthy to be I knowne and considered of all men, especially such, who are I
guilty of the sinne or Arch-patrons I thereof. I Psal. 50. vers. 22. I Now consider this, ye that forget
God, least he teare you in peeces, I and there be none to deliuer you. I Gregorius M. Moraliu. lib.
36. c. 18. I Deus, etsi quaedam longanimiter tolerat, quaedam tamen in hac vita I flagellat, & hie
nonnunquam ferire inchoatur quos aeterna I damnatione consumat. I Tibullus Elegiarum. lib. 3. Eleg.
7 - I -Foelix quicunque dolore I Alterius disces posse carere tuo. I Condi Paris. 2. lib.3.c.5. I Salubriter
admonemus cunctos fideles, ut diei Dominico debitum hono- I rum & reverentiam exhibeam.
Quoniam hujus dehonoratio, & I a Religione Christiana valde abhorret, & suis violatoribus anima- I
rum perniciem proculdubio general. I Alex. Alensis ex Hieron.P3.Q 32. M.4. Art. I. Resol. I Quis
dubitat Sceleratius esse commissum, quod gravius est punitum? ut I Num. 15. 35. ibid. I [device] I
Anno M.DC.XXXVI. src: 4140.7.
Heylyn, A Briefe and Moderate Answer
A BRIEFE and I Moderate I ANSWER, I TO I The seditious and scandalous Chal- I lenges of Henry
Burton, late of I Friday-Streete, \ In the two Sermons, by him preached on the I Fifth of November. 1636.
And in the I Apalogie prefixt before them. I BY I PETER HEYLYN. I 1. Pet. 2. 13, 14. I Submit your
selves to every ordinance of man for the I Lords sake, whether it be to the King as supreame: or unto
Go- I vernors, as unto them which are sent by him, for the punish- I ment of evill doers, and for the
praise of them that doe well. I [rule] I LONDON: I Printed by Ric. Hodgkinsonnc, and are to be sold by
Daniel I Frere, dwelling in little-Brittan, at the signe of the I red-Bull. Anno Domini 1637. src: 13269.
The imprimatur by the archbishop of Canterbury, on p (ii), is dated 23 June 1637.
H.L., Jesrs from the Universirie
Until 1967 only two copies (BL and Rosenbach) of this book were known, both incorrectly
dated 1628 with the correct date of 1638 written in ink. The Bodleian copy, purchased in
1967 from Christie s, bears the correct printed date.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Grati* Ludentes. I IESTS, I FROM THE I VNIVERSITIE. I [rule] I By H.L. Oxen. I [rule] I Mart. Die
mihi quid melius de sidiosus Agas. \ [device] I Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, for I Humphrey Moiley.
1638. STC: 15105.
Entertainment of King Charles i
The whole of this manuscript is in the hand of Brian Twyne, first keeper of the University
archives (1634-44). The section relevant here is that called Entertainmentes, occupying
pages 147-203. The pages now numbered 147-90 also bear an earlier ink foliation (1-42).
This manuscript is the source of the collation of the excerpts from QUA: NEP/Supra/R (see
under Registers of Congregation and Convocation, p 681) and OUA: WP/Y/19/1 (see under
Orders of the Delegates of Convocation for the Royal Plays, p 683).
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Twyne 17; c 1640; Latin and English; paper; 243 leaves; 304mm x 205mm;
modern pagination; 17th-c. leather and board binding; ink title on spine in Gerard Langbaine s hand:
De Statutis Uniwrritatis Orders occasionall. Enterteynmwts. lurisdictio spirituals. Circa incontinentes.
&. Testamentorum probar/o/ &c.
Walton, Life of Henry Wottori in Reliquiae Wottonianae
Izaak Walton s Life of Henry Wotton, in: Reliquiae Wottomanx. I [rule] I OR, I A COLLECTION I
Of LIVES, LETTERS, POEMS; I With I CHARACTERS I OF I Sundry PERSONAGES: \Andother I
Incomparable PIECES I of Language and Art. I [rule] I By The curious PENSIL of I the Ever Memorable I
S r Henry Wotton K c , I Late, I Provost of Eton Colledg. I [rule] I LONDON, I Printed by Thomas Maxey,
for R. Marriot, I G. Bedel, and T. Ganhwait. 1651. Wing: W3648.
Wilson, History of Great Britain
This copy of Arthur Wilson s book, now TC Library: N.7.5, was owned by Edward Bathurst
and bequeathed to Trinity College on his death in 1668. Bathurst was a student at Trinity
from 1629 to 1634. Wilson s own autobiography survives in Cambridge University Library;
MS Additional 33 and indicates that his plays were all written before he entered Oxford in
1630, at the age of 32. Both documents were published by Philip Bliss in The Inconstant
Lady, A Play (Oxford, 1814), Appendices 3 and 4. They disagree on the date that Wilson
entered Oxford and the length of his stay there. See also Wood, Athenae, vol 3, cols 318-23,
and Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, vol 5, pp 1267-8.
A manuscript note by Edward Bathurst on the flyleaf of the Trinity College copy describes
performances by the king s men of Wilson s plays in Oxford while Wilson was a student
at Trinity.
THE I HISTORY I OF I Great Britain, I BEING I THE LIFE AND REIGN I OF I King JAMES I
THE FIRST, I RELATING I To what passed from his first Access to I the Crown, till his Death. I [rule] I
By ARTHUR WILSON, Esq. I [rule] I [device] I [rule] I LONDON, I Printed for Richard Lownds,
704 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
and are to be I sold at the Sign of the White Lion near Saint Paul s \ little North-door. 1653.
Wing: W2888.
Heylyn, Cyprianus Anglicus
CWRIANUS ANGLICUS: I OR, THE I HISTORY I OF THE I Life and Death, I OF I The most
Reverend and Renowned PRELATE I WILLIAM I By Divine Providence, I Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,
Primate of all t ENGLAND, and Metropolitan, Chancellor of the I Universities of Oxon. and Dublin, and
one of the I Lords of the Privy Council to His late most I SACRED MAJESTY I King CHARLES the
First, I Second MONARCH of Great Britain. CONTAINING ALSO I The Ecclesiastical History of the Three
Kingdoms I of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND I from His first rising till His Death. I [rule] I
By P Heylyn D.D. and Chaplain to Charles die I first and Charles the second, Monarch of Great Britain. I
[rule] I ECCLUS. 44 VERS. 1,3.1 1 . Let us now praise Famous Men ami our Fathers that begat Vs. I 3. Such
as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms, Men Renowned for their Power, I giving Counsel by their Vndtrstanding,
and Declaring Prophesies. I [rule] LONDON: I Printed for A. Stile, MDCLXVIII. Wing: HI 699.
Burnet, Life of Sir Matthew Hale
THE I Life and Death I OF I Sir MATTHEW HALE, K . I SOMETIME I LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I OF I
His Majesties Court I OF I KINGS BENCH. I [rule] I Written by I GILBERT BURNETT, D.D. I [rule] I
LONDON, I Printed for William Shrowsbery, at the I Bible in Duke-Lane, 1682. Wing: B5828.
Langbaine, English Dramatick Poets
AN I ACCOUNT I OF THE I English Dramatick I POETS. I OR, I Some OBSERVATIONS I And I
REMARKS I On the Lives and Writings, of all those that I have Publish d either Comedies, Trage I dies,
Tragi-Comedies, Pastorals, Masques, I Interludes, Farces, or Operas in the I ENGLISH TONGUE. I [rule] I
By GERARD LANGBAINE. I [rule] I OXFORD, I Printed by L.L for GEORGE WEST, I and HENRY
CLEMENTS. 1 [rule] I An. Dom. 1691. Wing: L373.
PLAY TEXTS, SYNOPSES, AND PART BOOKS
A Twelfth Night Play at St John s
See Appendix 6: 1 under Narcissus.
Vertumnus Plot Synopsis
See Appendix 6: 1 under Vertumnus.
Robert Burton s Philosophaster
The transcription from Harvard Theatre Collection: MS Thr. 10 has been collated with Folger Shakespeare
Library, MS V.a.315- For both manuscripts see Appendix 6:1 under Philosophaster.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
An Actor s Part Book
See Appendix 6:1 under The Part of Poore.
Poem by Thomas Goffe
See Appendix 6: 1 under The Courageous Turk.
Emily s Lament from Palamon and Arcite
See Appendix 6:2 under Palamon and Arcite.
PROLOGUES, PREFACES, DEDICATIONS, AND EPILOGUES
Dedicatory Epistle to Gilbert Smith, Archdeacon of Peterborough
See Appendix 6: 1 under Christus Redivivus.
Epilogue to Caesar Interfectus
See Appendix 6:2 under Caesar Interfectus.
Gager, Meleager
See Appendix 6: 1 under Meleager.
Gwinne, Vertumnus
See Appendix 6: 1 under Vertumnus.
Holyday, Technogamia
See Appendix 6: 1 under Technogamia.
Daniel, Whole Workes
THE I WHOLE I WORKES OF I SAMVEL DANIEL Esquire I in Poetne. I [rule] I [device] I [rule] I
LONDON, I Printed by NICHOLAS OKES, for I SIMON WATERSON, and are to be I sold at his shoppe
in Paules Church- I yard, at the Signe of the Crowne. 1623. STC: 6238.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
POEMS AND SONGS
Poem on Mercurius Rusticans
See Appendix 6: 1 under Mercurius Rusticans.
Poem on the Royal Visit
The anonymous poem on the royal visit of 1605 was numbered 272 among the items in the
volume by W.H. Black, who catalogued the Ashmole collection in 1845. The volume is a
poetic miscellany of about 330 poems, songs, and verses, partly in the handwriting of Elias
Ashmole.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 3637 (sc 6917); c 1640; paper; English; vi + 327 + vi; modern
pencil foliation; 17th-c. leather and board binding.
Verses Spoken in St John s Library
These verses are included in a poetic miscellany signed by Edmund Malone on folio 1, who
has also written on the spine: Manuscript Poems 1644.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Malone 21 (sc 20569); c 1640-50; English; paper; i + 121 + i; 175mm x
1 10mm; contemporary ink foliation; original vellum binding.
Mr Moore s Revels
See Appendix 6:1 under Mr Moore s Revels.
Verses on the Comedians of Oxford and Cambridge
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Malone 19; early 17th c.; English and Latin; paper; ii + 163 + ii; 181mm x
138mm (162mm x 1 19mm); modern pencil foliation, partial contemporary ink foliation; good condition;
modern board binding with leather spine, embossed title on spine.
Civic Records
The records of the city of Oxford, with one exception, remain in the possession of the city
and are housed in the city hall. 9 They are brought on the request of the county archivist to
the Oxfordshire Record Office for consultation. They consist of the legislative and financial
records of the city. The earliest documents (from 1275) are found pasted in the city memor
andum book. However, the vast majority of the records survive only from the sixteenth
century - the hannisters registers from 1514, the council minutes from 1528, and the finan
cial records from 1553-
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
CITY MEMORANDUM BOOK
The city memorandum book consists of three volumes containing property leases, bonds,
indentures, lists of civic officials, etc, for the period of 1275-1649.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, D.5.2; 1583-4; English and Latin; parchment (now mounted on a
paper stub); single sheet; 121mm x 223mm (105mm x 200mm). Bound in a guardbook, numbered
181, and foliated 190-90v; in a brown cloth binding with leather corners and spine, stamped title
on spine: OXFORD CITY RECORDS vol II 1505-1584.
HANNISTERS REGISTERS
The term hannister is unique to Oxford. According to W.H. Turner it was derived from the
Latin hanisterius, which he says, seems to be the Latinized form of the old German and
Latin Hansa, societas mercatorum "a corporation of merchants" I0 The registers are what, in
other jurisdictions, would be called freemen s registers, recording the entry of men into the
freedom of the city. Admission to the freedom was open to freemen s sons, to those who had
been apprenticed to freemen, or to those who paid a fee for the privilege. The number of
freemen in the sixteenth century must have totalled several hundreds, perhaps a third or
even a half of the adult male population. " Among other things, freemen were required to
obey the city s officers, to keep its liberties, to share in its taxation and other burdens, to join
no guild without the council s consent, to report to city officers any foreign merchant "that
useth any craft buying or selling." 12 The further obligation of a freeman was to serve in office.
Some freemen, especially as the political climate grew difficult in the seventeenth century,
refused to serve and were fined accordingly. On the other side, the privileges of a freeman were
the ancient right to trade outside the city, to elect the city s chief officers from constable to
mayor, to take part in the festive and ceremonial occasions, to share the valuable pasture of
Port Meadow, and to use the city s municipal charities including the freemen s school. 13
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, A.5.3; 1514-1608; English and Latin; paper; v + 419 + iii; 394mm x
276mm (text area varies); contemporary ink foliation (bound so folios run 1-23, 401-9, 24-394,
413-19, 395-400, 411-12, 423); brown suede binding, 4 red leather patches on spine tooled with
gold and lettered: (1) ENROLMENT OF APPRENTICES. 1514-1591. LISTS OF COUNCIL
1520-1528, (2) SECTATORES 1520-1591 HANNISTERS 1520-91, (3) MAYORS COURT.
(PROCEEDINGS) 1528-1535 HUSTINGS COURT PROCEEDINGS HEN. VIII TO ELIZ TH
(4) PURCHASE OF CATTLE (INROLLED) 1569-1608.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, L.5.1; 1590-1614; Latin; paper; iv + 302 + v; 383mm x 255mm (text
area varies); 19th-c. ink foliation; some ff damaged and repaired; brown suede binding, red leather patch
on spine tooled in gold: HANNISTERS 1590-1614.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, L.5.2; 1613-40; Latin; paper; ii + 421 + iii; 434mm x 285mm (377mm x
261mm); modern ink foliation (ff 335-8 numbered but blank, ff 339-421 written from the end
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
of the book forward and inverted); some damage and repair; 19th-c. brown suede binding upsid.
down and backward, both boards detached from spine, red leather patch on spine tooled in gold:
HANNISTERS. 1613.-1640.
le
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
The city council minutes survive in two overlapping series: C/FC/1/A1 and C/FC/1/A2.
The relationship between the two series is difficult to determine precisely. C/FC/1/Al is not
merely a duplicate fair copy of C/FC/1/A2 although the C/FC/1/A1 books do seem to be
fair copies of important material contained in the C/FC/1/A2 series. In general they are of
a better quality, more neatly, formally, and often more ornamentally written and in better
condition. Where they do duplicate the C/FC/1/A2 series, the entries are often corrected
versions. For example a clause crossed out in C/FC/1/A2/1, f 5, has simply been omitted in
C/FC/l/Al/001, f 37. The C/FC/1/A2 versions are clearly the first ones, possibly written
during the meetings themselves. Many C/FC/1/A2 items do not appear at all in C/FC/1/A1,
indicating that the more careful series was meant to be a digest of only those items that the
council wanted to keep for future reference or permanent record. One feature of the C/FC/1/A1
series that is missing from the C/FC/1/A2 series is the annual lists of the newly elected council
officers. Indeed for a few years around 1560 C/FC/l/Al/001 contains little other than these lists.
C/FC/1/A1/002 bears a similar relationship to the C/FC/1/A2 series as C/FC/l/Al/001,
with formal lists of elected officers and, on the whole, fewer running minutes of council
business. However, in one instance, C/FC/1/A1/002 usefully fills the gap in C/FC/1/A2/1
where the latter covers the business between 1583 and 1586 in a few scrappy dog-eared notes
(ff 165-6), not in chronological order, and then jumps to 1600. C/FC/1/A1/002 covers the
missing years. By 1600, on the other hand, C/FC/1/A1/002 seems to have become a fair copy
of C/FC/1/A2/1, recording the same material with the emendations incorporated. Some
material is reorganized and the lists of councillors names are featured with display letters
(eg, ff 58v-9). It is possible that the C/FC/1/A2 series began as single sheets used to take
notes at the meetings, which were later copied as the C/FC/1/A1 series, and that some of the
gaps in the C/FC/1/A2 series can be explained by the possibility that the sheets were bound
later after some of them had been lost.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, C/FC/l/Al/001; 1528-92; English; paper; ii + 371 + i; 289mm x
410mm (245mm x 350mm); 19th-c. ink foliation; brown leather blind-stamped binding.
Oxford, Oxford Cicy Archives, C/FC/l/Al/002; 1591-1628; English; paper; ii + 322 + i; 265mm x
398mm (215mm x 370mm); contemporary ink foliation; brown reversed calf binding.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, C/FC/1/A2/2; 1615-34; Latin and English; paper; ii + 310 + ii; 210mm x
320mm (190mm x 300mm); contemporary and later ink foliation; original brown calf binding
with decorative stamp. This volume is double foliated throughout by contemporary hands. Careful
examination revealed that the first system of foliation is the more accurate and it has been followed
in these extracts.
709
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, C/FC/1/A1/003; 1628-63; English with some headings in Latin; paper;
iv + 345 + xix (+ 7 reversed, containing other material); 300mm x 430mm (270mm x 380mm); con
temporary foliation; blind-tooled reversed calf binding with contemporary label.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, C/FC/1/A2/3; 1635-67; English; paper; ii + 329 + v; 225mm x 310mm
(135mm x 275mm); 19th-c. ink foliation; brown suede binding decorated with blind stamp.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, .4.5; 1635-1715; English with some Latin headings; paper; v + 336
+ ii; 90mm x 80mm, (text area varies); 19th-c. ink foliation; order of writing generally chronological
with occasional exceptions when later material is inserted in blank spaces; some damage and crumbling
on edges, some folios near the end have been bound in upside down; apparently later brown suede binding
with decorative leaves stamped on front cover corners, red leather label with gold tooling: 1635-1715.
CIVIL WAR. CHARITIES. GENERAL MINUTES. Contains a table of contents by George P. Hester
dated 1841.
AUDITED CORPORATION ACCOUNTS
The finances of the city were the responsibility of two separate sets of officials - the chamber
lains and the keykeepers. The chamberlains served for only one year and were in charge of the
city s current account - that is, the normal receipts and expenditures for their year in office.
Payments for entertainment and later for public sermons came from the chamberlains accounts.
The chamberlains were also responsible, among other duties, for repairs to public buildings, the
gallows, and the fire-fighting equipment. The five keykeepers or keepers of the chest with five
keys were the city s more permanent financial officers during the sixteenth century, consisting
of the mayor pro tern and senior councillors. "They were in charge of the overall finances of
the city, including monitoring outstanding debts and arrearages both in cash and plate (such
as William Gibbons obligation for his wait s scutcheon (p 621)). The keykeepers were also
ultimately responsible for the accounts of Castle Mill (accounted for twice a year), the accounts
of the Frideswide and Austen fairs until 1571, and charitable bequests.
The accounts were audited annually although the audit was often not done at the end of
the accounting year but sometime later. Sometimes the lateness of the audit date is quite
conspicuous, eg, the 1554-5 account was not audited until 16 December 1556, the 1556-7
account was audited 12 January 1558/9, and the 1559-60 account was audited 29 January
1560/1. Thereafter the annual accounts were routinely audited in November or December of
the same year in which they ended.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, P.5.1; 1553-91; English; paper; i + 274 + i; 400mm x 270mm; modern
ink foliation; modern brown suede binding, red leather patch on spine with AUDIT ACCOUNTS
1553-1591 stamped in gold. The accounts end on f 240. The rest of the volume was begun as a
record of indentures and other legal notes followed by a record of payments for the lottery of 1568.
The numbering of this part of the volume was begun as if this was the beginning of the book. The 34
folios are written upside down - that is, the book was reversed when the audit accounts were begun.
The pages at this end are tabbed (ie, cut away in order) as if for easy reference.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, P 5 .2; 1592-1682; English; paper; i * 406; 385mm x 200mm; modern
.liation; some d.splay headings; some intrusive show through after f 55; modem brown suede
ither patch on spine stamped in gold: AUDIT ACCOUNTS 1592-1682,
KEYKEEPERS ACCOUNTS
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, P.4.1; 1555-1664; English and Latin; paper; ii + 263 * i; 350mm x
)mm; modern ink foliation; some display headings; some show through; modern dark brown
leather binding stamped and tooled, red leather patch on upper spine stamped in eold- KEYKEEPERS
ACCOUNTS 1555-1664.
INDENTURES AND LEASES BOOKS
These two books contain the seventeenth-century leases for the famous dancing school in the
Bocardo. Both were placed in evidence in a case in Chancery in November 1873 involving a
dispute between the city and a man named Muir. Notes to this effect are pasted on the covers.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, D.5-5; 1578-1636; English; paper; i + 508 + v; 420mm x 255mm
(text area varies); contemporary ink foliation; some display capitals; 19th-c. brown kid binding, red
leather patch on spine tooled in gold: LEDGER 1578-1636.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, D.5.6; 1636-75; English; parchment; 436mm x 264mm (400mm x
202mm); iii -f 563 + vi; original ink foliation; good condition; 19th-c. brown suede binding with a
red leather patch on the spine tooled in gold: LEDGER. 1636.-1675.
CITY WAITS OBLIGATIONS
These obligations are among miscellaneous documents mounted on stubs in a guardbook.
It begins with documents from the sixteenth century but items are not in date order. A note
signed GH or George Hester inside the front cover indicates that the documents were
collected over the period 1839-53 and bound by order of the council at the time.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, F.5.2, 16th c.-19th c.; English and Latin; paper; vii + 283 (including
20 leaves of 19th-c. index) + i; 205mm x 310mm; trace of the seal remains on f 51; 19th-c. brown
binding with calf corners and spine, title stamped in gold on front cover: CITY OF OXFORD, title
stamped in gold on the spine: SUNDRY DOCUMENTS AUTOGRAPHS, etc I.
CHAMBERLAINS ACCOUNTS (AC)
Brian Twyne was a seventeenth-century antiquarian and the first keeper of the archives in
the Bodleian Library. Just as he extracted material from the University and college archives,
so he made notes from the city records that, in some cases, are no longer extant. Twyne s
transcriptions are now the only evidence that has survived of particular events. Two extracts
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS 71 1
are included here. One from 1414 gives us early information about a civic bullring. The
second from 1490-1 gives us the traditional order of the civic procession at the time of the
newly sworn mayor s return from London.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Twyne 23; c 18 May 1657; Latin and English; paper; ii + 334 + i;
202mm x 154mm (194mm x 120mm); contemporary ink pagination (some confusion in pagination);
uniform margin ruled top to bottom; fair condition, some pages brittle or worn; contemporary green
leather and board binding, now detached from spine, contemporary and antiquarian numbers in ink
on spine.
Guild Records
The financial records of only two guilds, the Cordwainers or Shoemakers and the Tailors,
survive from the period. They are deposited in the Bodleian.
The Cordwainers accounts were rendered in mid-November, suggesting that the accounting
year was based on the company election date, the Monday next after the feast of St Luke the
Evangelist (18 October).
The dating of the Tailors accounts is less straightforward. When expressed, the accounting
year in MS. Morrell 9 runs from the Monday after the feast of St John the Baptist to the same in
the next year. The MS. Rolls Oxon 66 follows a Michaelmas to Michaelmas accounting year.
CORDWAINERS MINUTES
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Morrell 20; 1534-1645; English; paper; i + 109; 200mm x 290mm
(text area varies); 19th-c. pagination; contemporary brown leather binding with decorative stamping,
title on spine: THE CORDWAYNOR OF OXFORD ANNUAL MEETINGS ACCOMPTS ETC
1534-1645.
TAILORS WARDENS ACCOUNTS
The accounts of the Tailors Company are preserved in what appears to be two radically dif
ferent formats. Some accounts in the sequence are now pasted into a nineteenth-century
guardbook (Bodl.: MS. Morrell 9). Others are bundled together and stitched at the top
(Bodl.: MS. Rolls Oxon 66). There are no duplicate accounts and one set does not appear
to be a rough draft of the other. There are needle marks in the membranes of MS. Morrell 9
similar to the marks that would appear in the membranes of MS. Rolls Oxon 66 if the
bundle was disassembled. It appears likely that the membranes represent what once was a
single series bundled together but that in the nineteenth century the bundle came apart
with some of the loose membranes pasted into a guardbook and others simply sewed back
together again.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Morrell 9; 1511-1620; English and Latin; parchment and paper- i + 34
i; 285mm x 420mm; modern pencil foliation with some folios missing and some sequences paginated
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
|H ^ gUardb k b Und in ^< ^ ^ both covers
gold stamp on sp.ne: TAYLORS COMPANY OXFORD ACCOMPTS.
Extracts from:
f 8, piece 4: 1512-13; single mb; 418mm x 278mm (315mm x 260mm).
f 9, piece 5: 1513-14; single mb; 385mm x 250mm (355mm x 247mm).
f 33, piece 19: 1567-8; 2 mbs; 720mm x 180mm (592mm x 150mm).
I 37, piece 22: 1573-4; detached third mb of roll for 1573-4 pasted on ff35-7; 235mm x 260mm
(96mm x 230mm).
f 46, piece 30: 1619-20; detached last 2 mbs of roll pasted on ff 42-6; 756mm x 235mm (735mm
x 228mm).
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rolls Oxon 66; 1575-1712; English; parchment; 12 rolls stitched
together at top and rolled as 1, fastened with modern pink string.
Extracts from:
roll 2: 1578-9; 2 mbs; 1,143mm x 270mm.
roll 3: 1591-2; 2 mbs; 1,000mm x 223mm.
roll 4: 1595-6; 2 mbs; 955mm x 222mm.
roll 5: 1597-8; 2 mbs; 945mm x 220mm.
roll 6: 1598-9; 2 mbs; 1,057mm x 205mm.
roll 8: 1610-11; 3 mbs; 1,428mm x 255mm.
Monastic Documents
ARCHBISHOP PECHAM S REGISTER
London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS Archbishop Pecham s Register; 1279-92; Latin; parchment;
i + 249 (with some irregularities including inserted sheets); irregular size leaves, the maximum being
340mm x 215mm (maximum 250mm x 155mm); foliated; many individual leaves cockled; bound in
dark brown decorated leather over boards, prominent wormholes, much repaired, written on spine:
PECKHAM 1279.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Parish Records
ALL SAINTS CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
All Saints was one of the original medieval parishes, the church standing on the corner of the
High Street and Turl Street. On the foundation of Lincoln College in 1427, the parish was
amalgamated with those of St Michael at the North Gate and St Mildred; the church became
the collegiate church. It was made redundant in 1971 and is now the college library.
Manuscripts survive from the 1230s. The records were deposited with the Bodleian Library
from 1967 and subsequently with the ORO. The collection was recatalogued in 1996.
The accounting year for the one account excerpted here ran from the Wednesday after Easter
to the same in the next year.
Cowley, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 189/4/F1/1, item 1; 23 April 1606-8 April 1607; English;
parchment; single mb; 642mm x 265mm (600mm x 248mm). Roll now numbered T in pencil and
mounted with other individual rolls in paper guardbook, covered in brown leather, brown calf spine,
stamped on spine: CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS I FROM 1605 I to 1716.
ALL SAINTS CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS (AC)
This is an antiquarian collection of notes and transcriptions from various church accounts
(All Saints, St Aldate, St Martin, St Mary Magdalen, St Michael, and St Peter in the East)
and miscellaneous college material (registers, statutes, muniments, etc).
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Wood D.2; c 1665; English and Latin; paper; viii + 318; 202mm x 16lmm
(text area varies); mixed ink and pencil pagination (pages numbered 1-666 but some numbers used 2 or
3 times, pencil numbering adjusted to bridge gaps in ink numbering); some page edges damaged; parch
ment over cardboard binding with holes in front and back covers equidistant from edges suggesting
there once was a clasp, spine covering cracked and faded, labelled in ink: V D.2 53 8513, burgundy
patch with gold lettering: WOOD 2 D.
ST ALDATE CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
Records survive from 1394. The collection includes churchwardens accounts of 1501-2 from
St Michael at the South Gate, one of the parishes amalgamated with St Aldate in 1524 when
St Michael s Church was demolished for the building of Cardinal College (see p 592).
From 1536-7 forward the accounting year began on St Aldate s Day (4 February) with the
exception of 1587-8 (which began 2 February). From 1604-5 the accounting year began and
ended within the week of Easter from one year to the next.
The rolls in each series have been dated and shelf-marked by Bodleian librarians and packed
in flat boxes.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, DD Par. Oxford St Aldate c.15; 1410-1590; English; parchment.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Extracts from:
c.l 5/2; 1S35/6-6/7; 3 mbs; 1,650mm x 200mm (1,600mm x 170mm), written on dorse; slight tearing
at left margin.
c.15/11; 1581/2-2/3; 2 mbs; 1,050mm x 175mm (900mm x 150mm).
c.lS/15; 1586/7-7/8; single mb; 570mm x 420mm (350mm x 330mm); 2 cols; some decoration; 2 small
paper notes pinned to corner.
. . 1 V17; 1588/9-89/90; 2 mbs; 750mm x 200mm (650mm x 160mm); 3 small paper notes pinned
to bottom.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, DD Par. Oxford St Aldate c.16; 1592-1609; English.
Extracts from:
c.16/1; 1591/2-2/3; parchment; 2 mbs; 1,090mm x 200mm (940mm x 170mm).
c. 16/4; 1594/5-5/6; parchment; 2 mbs; 700mm x 145mm (670mm x 120mm); some writing on dorse.
c. 16/5; 1595/6-6/7; 4 fragments (2 were once a roll of 2 mbs, 2 paper accounts); fragment containing
the record: 280mm x 174mm (260mm x 150mm); tear immediately below relevant entries.
c. 16/10; 1602/3-3/4; parchment; 2 mbs; 510mm x 125mm (500mm x 125mm); some writing on dorse.
c. 16/11; 1604-5; parchment; single mb; 600mm x 150mm (580mm x 130mm).
c. 16/12; 1605-6; parchment; single mb; 700mm x 140mm (670mm x 125mm).
c.16/13; 1606-7; parchment; 2 mbs; 1,520mm x 310mm (1,320mm x 250mm).
c. 16/14; 1607-8; parchment; single mb; 400mm x 120mm (380mm x 105mm).
c.16/1 5; 1609-10; parchment; single mb; 790mm x 320mm (640mm x 280mm).
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, DD Par. Oxford St Aldate b.17; 1610-42; English; parchment.
Extracts from:
b.17/1; 1610-11; 2 mbs; 1,050mm x 315mm (1,000mm x 280mm).
b.17/3; 1612-13; 2 mbs; 1,040mm x 310mm (1,015mm x 270mm).
b.17/4; 1616-17; single mb; 1,380mm x 275mm (1,290mm x 260mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
b.17/5; 1618-19; 2 mbs; 820mm x 290mm (700mm x 250mm; dorse 450mm x 200mm); written on
both sides.
b.17/6; 1619-20; 2 mbs; 1,058mm x 442mm (1,025mm x 399mm).
b.17/7; 1620-1; 2 mbs; 935mm x 498mm (850mm x 443mm).
b.17/8; 1621-2; 2 mbs; 1, 218mm x 531mm (1,139mm x 454mm).
b.17/9; 1622-3; 2 mbs; 970mm x 200mm (940mm x 165mm).
b.17/10; 1623-4; 2 mbs; 1,300mm x 468mm (1,274mm x 424mm).
b. 17/11; 1625-6; single mb; 620mm x 430mm (575mm x 402mm); 2 cols.
LEASE OF ST ALDATE S PARISH HOUSE
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, MS. DD. Par. Oxford St Aldate c.24/1; 30 January 1569/70;
English; parchment; single indented mb; 77- 90mm x 478mm; some display capitals, lower 28mm of
mb turned up to allow for red wax seal (arms not decipherable) 18mm in diameter; tab parchment
strip 15mm wide, endorsed: Sealed and (...) in the presence of lohn Burkesdall William Furnes and
Phillip cooles the wryter/.
ST MARTIN CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
The records of St Martin s, Carfax, were handed over to All Saints when St Martin s Church
was demolished in 1896; in 1967 they were transferred to the Bodleian Library and sub
sequently to the ORO. A long series of churchwardens accounts survives (from 1540) as well
as a large collection of churchwardens bills and receipts from the sixteenth century to the
nineteenth.
PAR 207/4/Fl/l comprises account rolls and some inventories. The accounting years were
organized as follows: from 1543-4 onward they began and ended on St Catherine s Day
(25 November); from 1574-5 onward they began and ended on the Sunday after the feast
of St Catherine; from 1603-4 onward it was Eastertide to Eastertide. St Martin accounts
for 1623-4, 1624-5, and 1631-2 through to 1635-6 explicitly state the fiscal year was
Easter week to Easter week. For the rest only the days and months on which the accounts
were made (ie, ended or rendered) are known, but these dates do suggest an Easter to Easter
framework. Up to 1625 the rendering dates were as early as the day after Easter and as late
as Trinity Sunday.
The accounts were mounted in a guardbook in 1860. The item here refers to the guard-
book number as well as the number on the original artifact, as they match (ie, the modern
piece numbers are the same as the folio/stub numbers and empty stubs are also given folio
numbers).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 207/4/Fl/l; 1540-1680: English; parchment, some paper;
238 leaves; 540mm x 360mm; generally good condition; bound in brown cloth with leather spine and
corners (front cover now loose), spine tooled, title on spine: ST MARTINS CHURCHWARDENS
ACCOUNTS. 1540-1680.
1 \iracts from:
item tn !S-t3-4; single mb; 670mm x 362mm (630mm x 347mm)-, 2 cols.
item 8; 1544-5; single mb; 530mm x 248mm (recto: 522mm x 235mm, dorse: 420mm x 182mm).
item 9; 1546-7; 2 mbs; 1,162mm x 270mm (recto: 1,010mm x 255mm, dorse: 590mm x 203mm).
item 22; 1553-4; single mb; 668mm x 238mm (recto: 638mm x 237mm, dorse: 525mm x 235mm).
item 25; 1554-5; single mb; 764mm x 208mm (recto: 734mm x 202mm, dorse: 278mm x 183mm).
item 28; 1557-8; single mb; 761mm x 235mm (recto: 745mm x 233mm, dorse: 55mm x 185mm).
item 30; 1558-9; single mb; 775mm x 255mm (735mm x 253mm).
item 37; 1564-5; 3 mbs; 800mm x 130mm (760mm x 128mm).
item 39; 1565-6; 2 mbs; 972mm x 167mm (710mm x 147mm).
item 41; 1566-7; single mb; 529mm x 78mm (recto: 525mm x 65mm, dorse: 65mm x 43mm).
item 17; 1568-9; 2 mbs; 677mm x 185mm (650mm x 152mm).
item 48; 1574-5; 2 mbs; 686mm x 240mm (627mm x 205mm).
item 55; 1578-9; 2 mbs; 1,052mm x 190mm (recto: 1,042mm x 170mm, dorse: 25mm x 160mm).
Dorse not part of an account, indicating reused parchment.
items 56-9; 1579-80; 2 mbs of single roll now detached and bound separately: item 56 (mb 1):
404mm x 170mm (392mm x 138mm), item 59 (mb 2): 392mm x 172mm (324mm x 160mm).
The relevant entries are on item 56.
item 63; 1581-2; 2 mbs; 852mm x 190mm (820mm x 180mm).
item 65; 1582-3; single mb; 508mm x 192mm (505mm x 170mm).
items
., 67-9; 1583-4; 2 mbs of single roll now detached and bound separately: item 67 (mb 1):
470mm x 192mm (375mm x 179mm), item 69 (mb 2): 490mm x 190mm (315mm x 179mm).
The relevant entry is on item 67.
717
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 73; 1584-5; single mb; 750mm x 228mm (630mm x 212mm).
item 74; 1585-6; 2 mbs; 834mm x 195mm (725mm x 177mm).
item 77; 1588-9; single mb; 512mm x 193mm (505mm x 152mm).
item 81; 1589-90; 2 mbs; 752mm x 168mm (707mm x 150mm).
item 82; 1590-1; 2 mbs; 802mm x 218mm (790mm x 195mm).
item 85; 1592-3; single mb; 532mm x 184mm (528mm x 165mm).
item 89; 1594-5; 2 mbs; 1,252mm x 185mm (1,235mm x 178mm).
item 94; 1597-8; 2 mbs; 880mm x 195mm (recto: 700mm x 178mm, dorse: 280mm x 180mm).
item 96; 1598-9; single mb; 620mm x 250mm (570mm x 225mm).
item 98; 1600-1; single mb; 525mm x 260mm (450mm x 240mm).
item 99; 1601-2; single mb; 528mm x 259mm (525mm x 228mm).
item 100; 1602-3; single mb; 564mm x 248mm (555mm x 214mm).
item 102; 27 November 1603-1 April 1605; single mb; 685mm x 345mm (648mm x 328mm).
item 103; 1605-6; single mb; 525mm x 195mm (522mm x 170mm).
item 105; 1606-7; single mb; 530mm x 195mm (525mm x 168mm).
item 107; 1608-9; single mb; 772mm x 194mm (705mm x 185mm).
item 110; 1609-10; single mb; 542mm x 198mm (490mm x 192mm).
item 112; 1610-11; single mb; 696mm x 252mm (625mm x 248mm).
items 113-15; 1611-12; 2 mbs of single roll now detached and bound separately: item 113 (mb 1):
408mm x 175mm (recto: 402mm x 173mm, dorse: 224mm x 152mm), item 1 15 (mb 2): 327mm x
200mm (296mm x 170mm). The relevant entry is on item 113.
item 116; 1612-13:3 mbs; 1,1 15mm x 220mm (1,065mm x 200mm).
item 118; 1613-14; 2 mbs; 1,110mm x 195mm (1,065mm x 170mm).
item 119; 1614-15; 3 mbs; 1,630mm x 225mm (1,542mm x 205mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 121; 1615-1 6; 2 mbs; 1,180mm x 222mm (995mm x 200mm).
item 123; 1616-17; 2 mbs; 1,140mm x 183mm (1,1 15mm x 170mm).
item 124; 1617-18; 2 mbs; 945mm x 125mm (935mm x 123mm).
item 12S; 1618-19; 2 mbs; 865mm x 163mm (850mm x 146mm).
item 127; 1619-20; single mb; 800mm x 160mm (787mm x 14lmm).
items 134-6; 1620-1; 3 mbs of single roll, 2 now detached from the third and bound separately,
item 134 (mbs 1 and 2): 518mm x 175mm (508mm x 155mm), item 136 (mb 3): 292mm x 170mm
(198mm x 165mm). The relevant entry is on item 134.
items 138-40; 1621-2; 3 mbs of single roll, 2 now detached from the third and bound separately;
item 138 (mb 1): 648mm x 158mm (630mm x 144mm), item 140 (mbs 2 and 3): 445mm x 170mm
(428mm x 153mm). The relevant entry is on item 138.
items 141-7; 1622-3; 5 mbs of single roll, now in 4 pieces and bound separately, item 141 (mbs 1 and
2): 665mm x 198mm (632mm x 174mm), item 142 (mb 3): 683mm x 200mm (660mm x 180mm),
item 145 (mb 4): 796mm x 200mm (700mm x 168mm), item 147 (mb 5): 340mm x 200mm
(272mm x 195mm). The relevant entry is on item 141.
item 148; 1623-4; single mb; 532mm x 470mm (530mm x 455mm); 2 cols,
item 151; 1624-5; single mb; 498mm x 420mm (480mm x 400mm); 2 cols.
item 153; 1625-6; single mb; 743mm x 362mm (722mm x 342mm); 2 cols,
item 155; 1626-7; single mb; 705mm x 360mm (638mm x 332mm); 2 cols,
item 157; 1627-8; single mb; 662mm x 436mm (632mm x 405mm); 2 cols,
icem 159; 1628-9; single mb; 525mm x 495mm (520mm x 465mm); 2 cols,
item 161; 1629-30; single mb; 528mm x 415mm (520mm x 406mm); 2 cols,
item 163; 1630-1; single mb; 524mm x 415mm (520mm x 406mm); 2 cols,
item 165; 1631-2; single mb; 740mm x 527mm (735mm x 500mm); 2 cols,
item 167; 1632-3; single mb; 485mm x 432mm (438mm x 425mm); 2 cols,
item 169; 1633-4; single mb; 635mm x 340mm (625mm x 320mm); 2 cols.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 171; 1634-5; single mb; 530mm x 440mm (520mm x 425mm); 2 cols,
item 173; 1635-6; single mb; 707mm x 470mm (672mm x 440mm); 2 cols,
item 175; 1636-7; single mb; 672mm x 498mm (648mm x 480mm); 2 cols.
item 179; 1638-9; single mb; 660mm x 475mm (655mm x 465mm); 2 cols; substantial tear upper
right segment.
item 181; 1640-1; single mb; 448mm x 415mm (445mm x 413mm); 2 cols.
ST MARY MAGDALEN CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
The medieval parish of St Mary Magdalen lay outside the medieval walls of Oxford, to the
north, but was generally treated as part of Oxford (see p 592). Records survive from 1430;
most were deposited in the Bodleian Library in 1954 before being transferred to the ORO.
The accounting year for 1560-1 onward is not specified but the accounts were usually
rendered on Rogation Sunday. As of 1605-6 the accounts were rendered on the Tuesday
after Easter.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 208/4/Fl; 1560-1650; English; parchment; generally good
condition (some have areas of damaged parchment or faded ink).
Extracts from:
PAR 208/4/F1/2; 1560-1; single mb; 750mm x 425mm (675mm x 385mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/3; 1561-2; 2 mbs; 730mm x 270mm (700mm x 225mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/6; 1564-5; single mb; 580mm x 315mm (485mm x 305mm); chewed at edges by
a rodent.
PAR 208/4/F1/7; 1565-6; single mb; 690mm x 310mm (590mm x 290mm); considerable repair on
left side.
PAR 208/4/F1/8; 1567-8; single mb; 560mm x 323mm (500mm x 275mm); special account to
buy new bell and repair old one rolled in with larger account.
PAR 208/4/F1/9; 1568-9; single mb; 630mm x 345mm (540mm x 343mm); written right to the
left edge.
PAR 208/4/F1/10; 1569-70; single mb; 715mm x 350mm (680mm x 343).
PAR 208/4/F1/1 1; 1570-1; single mb; 640mm x 368mm (570mm x 360mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 208/4/F1/15; 1575-6; single mb; 690mm x 460mm (682mm x 447mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/16; 1576-7; single mb; 640mm x 485mm (543mm x 462mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/17; 1577-8; single mb; 640mm x 500mm (555mm x 475mm); rent roll pinned to
the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/18; 1578-9; single mb; 618mm x 485mm (595mm x 480mm); rent roll rolled inside.
PAR 208/4/F1/19; 1579-80; single mb; 610mm x 490mm (520mm x 450mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/20; 1580-1; single mb; 695mm x 490mm (620mm x 460mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/21; 1581-2; single mb; 645mm x 520mm (510mm x 490mm); rent roll pinned to
the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/22; 1583-4; single mb; 580mm x 403mm (490mm x 387mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/23; 1584-5; single mb; 690mm x 430mm (665mm x 390mm); 2 rent rolls pinned
to the bottom and notices of debts recorded on the dorse.
PAR 208/4/F1/24; 1585-6; single mb; 880mm x 435mm (720mm x 410mm); rent roll and account
pinned to the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/25; 1587-8; single mb; 775mm x 433mm (665mm x 420mm); loose rent roll
rolled inside and another sewn to the side at the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/26; 1588-9; single mb; 920mm x 435mm (740mm x 370mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/27; 1590-1; single mb; 790mm x 525mm (720mm x 490mm); rodent holes.
PAR 208/4/F1/28; 1591-2; single mb; 700mm x 580mm (622mm x 570mm); rent roll rolled inside.
PAR 208/4/F1/29; 1593-4; single mb; 805mm x 605mm (720mm x 565mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/30; 1594-5; single mb; 780mm x 455mm (700mm x 310mm); rent roll pinned to
larger account.
PAR 208/4/F1/31; 1595-6; single mb; 605mm x 435mm (565mm x 355mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/32; 1596-7; single mb; 745mm x 490mm (705mm x 375mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/33; 1597-8; single mb; 670mm x 390mm (658mm x 322mm); heading torn; inventory
on dorse.
721
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 208/4/F1/34; 1598-9; single mb; 594mm x 377mm (460mm x 320mm); rent roll pinned to
the bottom; a receipt for 1599 and an inventory on the dorse.
PAR 208/4/F1/35; 1599-1600; single mb; 730mm x 480mm (530mm x 395mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/36; 1602-3; single mb; 710mm x 555mm (695mm x 530mm); tear in the heading.
PAR 208/4/F1/37; 1604-5; single mb; 650mm x 530mm (520mm x 460mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/38; 1605-6; single mb; 590mm x 450mm (535mm x 440mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/39; 1606-7; single mb; 730mm x 615mm (675mm x 515mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/40; 1608-9; single mb; 620mm x 445mm (560mm x 430mm); rent roll pinned to
the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/41; 1609-10; single mb; 580mm x 450mm (520mm x 410mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/42; 1610-1 1; single mb; 650mm x 485mm (570mm x 370mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/43; 1612-13; single mb; 720mm x 480mm (640mm x 390mm); inventory on dorse.
PAR 208/4/F 1/44; 1613-14; single mb; 630mm x 532mm (590mm x 515mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/45; 1615-16; single mb; 615mm x 415mm (570mm x 405mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/46; 1616-17; single mb; 640mm x 470mm (550mm x 390mm); rent roll attached.
PAR 208/4/F1/47; 1617-18; single mb; 700mm x 410mm (610mm x 390mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/48; 1619-20; single mb; 540mm x 380mm (515mm x 335mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/49; 1620-1; single mb; 790mm x 410mm (610mm x 385mm); half of bottom
200mm are cut away from the right side; inventory on dorse.
PAR 208/4/F1/50; 1621-2; single mb; 750mm x 400mm (710mm x 400mm).
PAR 208/4/F 1/51; 1622-3; single mb; 680mm x 430mm (640mm x 420mm); rent roll sewn to
bottom right edge, roll shaved after writing.
PAR 208/4/F1/52; 1623-4; single mb; 740mm x 423mm (545mm x 410mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/53; 1624-5; single mb; 650mm x 515mm (590mm x 435mm); rent roll pinned to
larger account.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 208/4/F1/54; 1625-6; single m b; 670 mm x 490 mm (660 mm x 425mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/55; 1626-7; single mb; 670 mm x 533 mm (635mm x 410mm); small parchment roll
stitched to the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F 1/56; 1627-8; single mb; 645mm x 525mm (535mm x 490mm); small parchment roll
stitched to the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/57; 1628-9; single mb; 710mm x 563mm (645mm x 525mm); small parchment roll
stitched to the bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/58; 1629-30; single mb; 630mm x 440mm (610mm x 375mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/59; 1630-1; single mb; 780mm x 540mm (695mm x 510mm); damaged and
repaired.
PAR 208/4/F1/60; 1631-2; single mb; 520mm x 500mm (495mm x 470mm); 2 cols.
PAR 208/4/F1/62; 1635-6; 2 mbs; 990mm x 300mm (930mm x 295mm).
PAR 208/4/F1/64; 1639-40; single mb; 705mm x 430mm (695mm x 405mm); left edge shaved off
after writing, increasing slightly from top to bottom.
PAR 208/4/F1/65; 1640-1; 2 mbs; 875mm x 450mm (850mm x 420mm).
ST MARY MAGDALEN CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS (AC)
See under All Saints Churchwardens Accounts (p 713) for Bodl.: MS. Wood D.2.
ST MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
Records survive from 1530. Some were deposited at the ORO directly from the parish in 1935;
others went to the Bodleian Library or Hertford College and most were transferred from there
to the ORO in the 1980s. The collection was recatalogued by the ORO in November 1998.
The fiscal year began on Michaelmas in 1538-9 and 1559-60 onward, St Andrew s Day
(30 November) as of 1584-5, and Easter as of 1605-6.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Rolls Oxon Box 1, #15; 1538-9; English; paper; 3 sheets pasted to
gether serially; 976mm x 213mm (972mm x 178mm average); written only on recto; stitched at the
top to a 19th-c. paper wrapper labelled: Oxfordshire. Oxford - St Mary the Virgin churchwardens
accounts 30-31 Hen. VIII, tied with cloth ribbon and tagged: B.13 Oxfordshire Oxford. St Mary s
Par. No. 15.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 209/4/F1; English; parchment.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Extracts from:
PAR 209/4/F1/1; 1553-4; 2 mbs attached serially; 1,065mm (+ 299mm modern extension at foot) x
320mm (1,000mm x 250mm); good condition; later list (17th c.?) of other accounts now lost in this
series on dorse (for 1509, 1522, 1528, 1531, 1534, 1537, and 1554).
PAR 209/4/F1/2; 1559-60; single mb; 695mm x 215mm (555mm x 175mm); written 1 side only;
2 small holes in parchment (not affecting relevant material), otherwise good condition.
PAR 209/4/F1/12; 1584-5; single mb; 680mm x 275mm (630mm x 220mm); written 1 side only;
ink faded throughout, worst at top.
PAR 209/4/F1/18; 1601-2; single mb; 640mm x 310mm (515mm x 275mm); written 1 side only;
some marginal tearing down left side.
PAR 209/4/F1/19; 1602-3; single mb; 610mm x 310mm (515mm x 275mm); written 1 side only;
1 small hole but generally good condition.
PAR 209/4/F1/21; 30 November 1604-20 April 1606; single mb; 720mm x 305mm (630mm x
260mm); written 1 side only; hole at the bottom right, otherwise good condition.
PAR 209/4/F1/24; 1609-10; single mb; 750mm x 350mm (575mm x 275mm); written 1 side only;
a little marginal tearing.
PAR 209/4/F1/25; 161 1-12; single mb; 730mm x 340mm (600mm x 260mm); written 1 side only;
good condition.
PAR 209/4/F1/27; 1623-4?; single mb; 770mm x 350mm (750mm x 300mm); list of other accounts on
dorse, some now lost, once held with this series (for 1602-8, 1610, 1612, 1617, 1623, 1624, 1626-8);
good condition.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ch. Oxon. a. 11, item 192; 1612-13; English; paper; single sheet;
413mm x 292mm (390mm x 273mm); unnumbered; considerably stained and scored, some loss of
text at left and bottom from cropping; now mounted in a large guardbook with a blue cover, leather
corners, and spine, gold tooling and decoration on spine: MS Charters Oxon. a. 11., title on cover:
OXFORDSHIRE (Charters) MISCELLANEOUS 139-204.
ST MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS (AC)
MS. Wood D.3 is a miscellany of antiquarian transcriptions from registers of congregation and
convocation, vice-chancellors registers, Act books and visitation articles, and miscellaneous
parish accounts from as early as 1461 to as late as 1629.
The relevant transcriptions begin on page 250 with the heading, Out of diuers accompts
or rentalls belonging to ye church of s maries in oxon, in ye Custody of ye churchwardens of
ye same parish. That these are copies from now lost rolls of the parish of St Mary the Virgin
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
can be surmised from a payment on page 274: It,m to Georg hall for pauing in a Lane in
th side of ye church going to Catstreete 16 s. 1 d. ob. Catte Street runs north from
High Street to Broad Street between St Mary the Virgin and All Souls College. The
present day Radcliffe Camera is immediately north of the church with the Bodleian Library
the next complex of buildings north of the Camera on the west side of Catte Street.
The entries in the manuscript are out of chronological order.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Wood D.3; 17th c.; English and Latin; paper; i + 143 + iii; 198mm x
< i2mm; contemporary ink pagination; top 44mm of spine covering torn away revealing booklet
gatherings, second tear at bottom of spine; bound in white parchment, stamped in gold on red leather
patch: WOOD 3 D.
ST MICHAEL AT THE NORTH GATE CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
The collection of churchwardens papers from St Michael at the North Gate includes a series
of accounts beginning in 1403 - the earliest in the county. The collection was recatalogued in
May 1998.
Until 1468-9 accounts run from Epiphany to Epiphany (6 January); from 1468-9 to
1471-2 they run from March to March (undefined start and end dates). They run in two
streams as of 1471-2: Christmas to Christmas and Purification to Purification (2 February).
As of 1490-1 they again follow a March to March year (accounts beginning and ending
sometimes on the Thursday before the feast of St Gregory and sometimes on the Thursday
after). As of 1529-30 they begin and end exactly on the feast of St Gregory (12 March)
and beginning in 1604-5, they follow an Easter to Easter year.
Each separate roll has a piece or item number and is pasted into a large guardbook on the
right page only. The corresponding pages from the printed edition (Salter (ed), Churchwardens
Accounts) are pasted on the left page up to the year 1562.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 211/4/Fl/l; 1404-99; Latin and English; parchment;
ii + 39 + ii; 765mm x 680mm; modern pencil foliation (guardbook paper pages); generally good
condition; title stamped on spine in gold: ST. MICHAEL AT THE NORTH GATE, OXFORD
CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS 1403-1499. The accounts are in chronological sequence,
with chantry chapel accounts and churchwardens accounts interspersed.
Extracts from:
item 5; 1422/3-3/4; single mb; 410mm x 335mm (336mm x 303mm).
item 25; 1456/7-7/8; single mb; 418mm x 222mm (385mm x 130mm); continued on dorse from
bottom to top; very faded.
item 33; 1463/4-4/5; single mb; 708mm x 222mm (660mm x 178mm); continued on dorse from
top to bottom.
79S
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 38; 1467/8-8/9; single mb; 490mm x 222mm (380mm x 185mm).
item 39; 1468/9-70; single mb; 515mm x 183mm (450mm x 145mm).
item 42; 1469/70-70/1; single mb; 395mm x 210mm (345mm x 178mm); tear from bottom right
corner (100mm x 200mm at largest).
item 43; 1471-2; single mb; 440mm x 255mm (385mm x 215mm); continued on dorse from bottom
to top; slightly faded.
item 46; 1472/3-3/4; single mb; 497mm x 280mm (463mm x 242mm); continued on dorse from
top to bottom.
item 49; 1474/5-5/6; single mb; 395mm x 210mm (370mm x 190mm); tear in bottom left corner
(100mm x 50mm).
item 50; 1475-6; single mb; 352mm x 242mm (297mm x 230mm).
item 53; 1477/8-8/9; single mb; 508mm x 247mm (438mm x 210mm).
item 54; 1478-9; single mb; 420mm x 282mm (388mm x 242mm).
item 55; 1479-80; single mb; 590mm x 242mm (533mm x 203mm).
item 59; 1481-2; single mb; 367mm x 235mm (292mm x 203mm); tear in bottom left corner.
item 62; 1483/4-4/5; single mb; 387mm x 262mm (362mm x 242mm).
item 67; 1489/90-90/1; single mb; 482mm x 238mm (457mm x 215mm).
item 69; 1491-2; single mb; 312mm x 242mm (260mm x 215mm); continued on dorse from bottom
to top.
item 70; 1492-3; single mb; 342mm x 228mm (285mm x 197mm); small irregular tear on right margin.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 211/4/F1/2; 1500-1601; ii + 49 + i; English, with a little
Latin; 750mm x 700mm; modern pencil foliation (guardbook pages); generally good condition;
title stamped on spine in gold: ST. MICHAEL AT THE NORTH GATE, OXFORD CHURCH
WARDENS ACCOUNTS 1500-1600. The accounts are in chronological sequence, the numbering
continuous with PAR 21 1/4/Fl/l, with chantry chapel accounts and churchwardens accounts inter
spersed until the chantry chapel accounts end in 1534.
Extracts from:
item 77; 1499/1500-1500/1; parchment; single mb; 400mm x 226mm (360mm x 190mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
cem 90; 151 1/12-12/13; parchment; single mb; 585mm x 290mm (565mm x 255mm).
item 94; 1514/15-15/16; parchment; single mb; 510mm x 275mm (445mm x 220mm).
item 96; 1515/16-16/17; paper; 4 sheets labelled 96-1, 96-2, 96-3, and 96-4; 310mm x 210mm
^ x 185mm).
item 97; 1517-18; paper; 9 sheets in 3 booklets labelled 97-1 (6 sheets), 97-2 (1 sheet), and 97-3
(2 sheets); part 1, f [4]: 550mm x 225mm (275mm x 202mm); part 3, f [1]: 310mm x 215mm
(280mm x 85mm).
item 100; 1518/19-19/20; parchment; single mb; 620mm x 255mm (500mm x 190mm).
item 101; 1522/3-3/4; parchment; single mb; 600mm x 370mm (500mm x 300mm).
item 104; 1524/5-5/6; parchment; single mb; 625mm x 415mm (490mm x 360mm); memos on dorse.
item 105; 1525/6-6/7; parchment; single mb; 620mm x 440mm (receipts: 580mm x 375mm, expenses:
580mm x 220mm); memos on dorse.
item 106; 1526/7-7/8; parchment; single mb; 770mm x 445mm (680mm x 380mm); memos on dorse.
item 108; 1528/9-9/30; parchment; single mb; 700mm x 250mm (660mm x 210mm); memos on dorse.
item 1 10; 1529/30-30/1; parchment; single mb; 685mm x 260mm (600mm x 210mm).
item 111; 1530/1-1/2; parchment; single mb; 685mm x 240mm (600mm x 210mm); memos on dorse.
item 113; 1531/2-2/3; parchment; single mb; 745mm x 240mm (730mm x 195mm); repair
accounts and memos written on dorse bottom to top.
item 114; 1532/3-3/4; parchment; single mb; 560mm x 245mm (515mm x 205mm); end of
accounts and memos written on dorse bottom to top.
item 116; 1534/5-5/6; parchment; single mb; 685mm x 365mm (645mm x 280mm); memos on dorse.
item 1 17; 1535/6-6/7; parchment; single mb; 650mm x 240mm (630mm x 200mm); end of accounts
and memos written on dorse bottom to top.
item 119; 1543/4-4/5; parchment; single mb; 730mm x 260mm (690mm x 220mm); end of accounts
and memos written on dorse bottom to top.
item 120; 1544/5-5/6; parchment; single mb; 670mm x 245mm (630mm x 210mm); end of accounts
and memos written on dorse bottom to top; repaired heavily in upper left margin.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 121; 1546/7-7/8; parchment; single mb; 490mm x 290mm (420mm x 230mm); memos on dorse,
item 126; 1555/6-6/7; parchment; single mb; 465mm x 380mm (405mm x 340mm); memos on dorse,
item 127; 1556/7-7/8; parchment; 2 mbs; 1,040mm x 270mm (980mm x 235mm).
item 129; 1557/8-8/9; parchment; single mb; 565mm x 280mm (540mm x 240mm).
item 130; 1560/1-1/2; parchment; single mb; 530mm x 260mm (510mm x 230mm).
item 135; 1566/7-7/8; parchment; single mb; 705mm x 240mm (660mm x 225mm).
item 136; 1568/9-9/70; parchment; single mb; 510mm x 245mm (495mm x 225mm).
item 137; 1569/70-70/1; parchment; single mb; 495mm x 270mm (465mm x 250mm).
item 138; 1570/1-1/2; parchment; single mb; 520mm x 220mm (510mm x 200mm).
item 141; 1574/5-5/6; parchment; single mb; 715mm x 225mm (700mm x 200mm).
item 146; 1579/80-80/1; parchment; single mb; 620mm x 220mm (600mm x 205mm).
item 147; 1580/1-1/2; parchment; single mb; 400mm x 215mm (375mm x 195mm).
item 148; 1582/3-3/4; parchment; single mb; 770mm x 230mm (765mm x 210mm).
item 149; 1585/6-6/7; parchment; single mb; 500mm x 190mm (490mm x 175mm).
item 150; 1586/7-7/8; parchment; single mb; 670mm x 270mm (600mm x 230mm).
item 151; 1587/8-8/9; parchment; 2 mbs; 890mm x 265mm (880mm x 225mm).
item 152; 1588/9-9/90; parchment; single mb; 720mm x 205mm (700mm x 180mm).
item 153; 1589/90-90/1; parchment; 2 mbs; 880mm x 220mm (825mm x 210mm).
item 154; 1592/3-3/4; parchment; single mb; 525mm x 200mm (485mm x 165mm); written on dorse
top to bottom.
item 155; 1593/4-4/5; parchment; 2 mbs; 900mm x 205mm (800mm x 185mm).
item 158; 1595/6-6/7; parchment; 3 mbs; 1,230mm x 160mm (1,205mm x 145mm).
item 159; 1596/7-7/8; parchment; single mb; 680mm x 275mm (640mm x 245mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 162; 1598/9-9/1600; parchment; single mb; 690mm x 425mm (680mm x 380mm).
item 163; 1599/1600-1600/1; parchment; single mb; 650mm x 415mm (580mm x 360mm).
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 211/4/F1/3; 1601-59; English, with a little Latin; parch
ment; ii + 62 + ii; 745mm x 715mm; modern pencil foliation (guardbook pages); generally good
condition; title stamped on spine in gold: ST. MICHAEL AT THE NORTH GATE, OXFORD
CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS 1600-1659. The accounts are in chronological sequence, the
numbering continuous with PAR 211/4/Fl/l and 211/4/F1/2.
Extracts from:
item 165; 1601/2-2/3; single mb; 610mm x 260mm (600mm x 190mm); memos on dorse.
item 166; 1602/3-3/4; single mb; 625mm x 245mm (615mm x 210mm); memos on dorse.
item 167; 1604-5; single mb; 750mm x 300mm (740mm x 250mm); memos on dorse.
item 168; 1605-6; 2 mbs; 970mm x 265mm (960mm x 220mm).
item 169; 1606-7; 2 mbs; 1,210mm x 210mm (1,190mm x 185mm).
item 170; 1607-8; 2 mbs; 995mm x 195mm (950mm x 165mm); written on dorse.
item 171; 1608-9; single mb; 600mm x 275mm (575mm x 210mm); written on dorse.
item 172; 1609-10; single mb; 540mm x 340mm (530mm x 290mm).
item 174; 1611-12; single mb; 700mm x 280mm (660mm x 215mm); written on dorse.
item 175; 1612-13; single mb; 805mm x 295mm (550mm x 225mm); written on dorse.
item 179, 1615-16; single mb; 580mm x 530mm (550mm x 510mm).
item 180; 1616-17; single mb; 660mm x 320mm (520mm x 200mm).
item 181; 1617-18; 2 mbs; 1,100mm x 235mm (880mm x 200mm).
182; 1618-19; single mb; 730mm x 250mm (700mm x 215mm).
184; 1619-20; 2 mbs; 900mm x 205mm (880mm x 175mm).
185; 1620-1; 2 mbs; 1,040mm x 260mm (1,000mm x 240mm).
186; 1621-2; single mb; 730mm x 265mm (710mm x 235mm).
item
item
item
item
729
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
item 187; 1622-3; single mb; 700mm x 315mm (675mm x 275mm).
item 188; 1623-4; single mb; 660mm x 385mm (600mm x 335mm).
item 189; 1624-5; single mb; 630mm x 385mm (555mm x 345mm).
item 190; 1626-7; single mb; 565mm x 465mm (525mm x 390mm).
item 191; 1627-8; single mb; 560mm x 390mm (500mm x 300mm); 2 cols,
item 192; 1629-30; single mb; 540mm x 455mm (480mm x 420mm); 2 cols,
item 193; 1630-1; single mb; 650mm x 445mm (540mm x 320mm); 2 cols,
item 195; 1634-5; single mb; 520mm x 445mm (450mm x 370mm); 2 cols,
item 197; 1635-6; single mb; 580mm x 440mm (470mm x 360mm); 2 cols,
item 199; 1636-7; single mb; 545mm x 425mm (480mm x 390mm); 2 cols,
item 204; 1642-3; single mb; 580mm x 335mm (560mm x 290mm); 2 cols.
ST MICHAEL AT THE SOUTH GATE CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
When the church of St Michael at the South Gate was demolished to make way for Cardinal
College, its parish was merged with St Aldates. This parish account is among St Aldate papers
catalogued as Miscellaneous and stray papers 1394-1963.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, DD Par. Oxford St Aldate, c.33, item 1; 8 December 1501-8
December 1502; English; parchment; 2 mbs; 790mm x 215mm (770mm x 190mm); mb 2 text in 2
cols; dog-eared down left side but no loss of text, parchment discoloured.
ST PETER IN THE EAST CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
This was one of the oldest of the medieval parishes. The church is now the library of St Edmund
Hall. The parish records were transferred to the Bodleian Library in batches from the 1930s
to the 1960s, and subsequently to the ORO.
The fiscal year was Michaelmas to Michaelmas from 1443-4 onward, based on the feast
of the Conception (8 December) as of 1474-5, and Easter to Easter as of 1605-6.
There is a single manuscript mounted on every other sheet. Sheet numbers are in reference
to the guardbook numbering and are retained here as a finding aid. The transcriptions in the
Records show the membrane numbering of the original document.
There are no extant accounts for the period from 1444 to 1461.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 213/4/Fl/l; 1443-1600 (with major gaps); Latin and English
); parchment; 11 + 101 (individual single mb rolls mounted on separate paper leaves); 572mm
x 458mm; modern pencil foliation; bound in boards covered in brown cloth, kid corners, spine tooled,
title stripped away; stamped on front in black leather patch with tooling: ST PETERS IN THE EAST
CHURCH WARDENS ACCOUNTS. 1444-1599.
Extracts from:
sheet 1: 1443-4; 490mm x 285mm (475mm x 225mm); 180mm x 25mm lost at bottom left corner.
sheet 3: 1461-2; 560mm x 360mm (510mm x 280mm); several holes in parchment, top right and
bottom left corners gone.
sheet 7: 1474-5; 490mm x 218mm (380mm x 185mm); several holes in parchment.
sheet 9: 1480-1; 670mm x 255mm (635mm x 170mm); top right and 340mm x 120mm of bottom
right lost.
sheet 11: 1481-2; 600mm x 185mm (570mm x 150mm); some holes especially at lower right side.
sheet 13: 1482-3; 600mm x 225mm (520mm x 180mm); good condition except for a few tears at
the top.
sheet 15: 1488-9; 620mm x 230mm (560mm x 195mm); some holes but little text lost.
sheet 17: 1495-6; 600mm x 285mm (520mm x 205mm); edges chewed by rodents.
sheet 21: c 1496-1502; 440mm x 370mm (360mm x 265mm); parchment torn at top and left side.
sheet 25: 1503-4; 450mm x 310mm (410mm x 260mm); somewhat dog-eared but otherwise good
condition.
sheet 27: 1504-5; 460mm x 300mm (400mm x 240mm); fair condition.
sheet 29: 1505-6; 740mm x 340mm (recto: 610mm x 265mm, dorse: 150mm x 265mm); fair
condition.
sheet 31: 1507-8; 535mm x 290mm (420mm x 240mm); blotched and faded,
sheet 33: 1508-9; 540mm x 295mm (480mm x 240mm); blotched and faded.
sheet 35: 1509-10; 430mm x 340mm (360mm x 270mm); discoloured and faded, nibbled by rodents
on right side.
sheet 39: 1510-1 1 ; 460mm x 275mm (400mm x 240mm); blotched, ink faded toward the bottom.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
sheet 37: 1511-12; 430mm x 225mm at widest (400mm x 185mm); fragmentary, several holes, tapers
toward bottom.
sheet 41: 1512-13; 520mm x 260mm (460mm x 200mm); both margins missing from the bottom.
sheet 43: 1517-18; 720mm x 245mm (660mm x 195mm); blotched but generally legible.
sheet 45: 1519-20; 670mm x 305mm (560mm x 240mm); extensive staining.
sheet 47: 1520-1; 530mm x 250mm (420mm x 210mm); some holes, parchment very dark but legible.
sheet 49: 1522-3; 560mm x 305mm (515mm x 215mm); blotched but generally legible.
sheet 51: 1523-4; 555mm x 310mm (530mm x 235mm); blotched and dark, very little text lost but
hard to read.
sheet 53: 1526-7; 290mm x 335mm (270mm x 280mm); fragment (top half only; bottom half bound
into book on guardbook sheet 23), dirty but legible.
sheet 55: 1530-1; 555mm x 240mm (520mm x 200mm); dark but legible, holes at edges.
sheet 57: 1540-1; 640mm x 225mm (605mm x 200mm); some discolouration but in generally fair
condition.
sheet 59: 1544-5; 555mm x 245mm (520mm x 200mm); holes at edges, dark.
sheet 61: 1545-6; 590mm x 320mm (550mm x 235mm); generally good condition.
sheet 69: 1581-2; 400mm x 525mm (340mm x 500mm); 2 cols; generally good condition.
sheet 71: 1582-3; 4lOmm x 510mm (390mm x 480mm); 2 cols; generally good condition.
sheet 79: 1587-8; 450mm x 460mm (435mm x 420mm); 2 cols; good condition.
sheet 81: 1588-9; 490mm x 465mm (430mm x 400mm); 2 cols; good condition.
sheet 83: 1589-90; 515mm x 525mm (400mm x 445mm); 2 cols; good condition.
sheet 87: 1591-2; 610mm x 270mm (540mm x 220mm); good condition.
sheet 89: 1594-5; 510mm x 400mm (350mm x 340mm); 2 cols; good condition.
sheet 91: 1595-6; 490mm x 380mm (350mm x 330mm); 2 cols; good condition.
sheet 93: 1596-7; 490mm x 380mm (380mm x 340mm); 2 cols; ink faded, fair condition.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
shee, 95: 1597-8; 520 mm x 465mm (460 mm x 3 90 mm ); 2 cols; left edge much torn and repaired,
sheet 97: 1598-9; 470mm x 420mm (350mm x 360mm); 2 cols; fair condition,
sheet 101: 1599-1600; 480mm x 420mm (350mm x 360mm); 2 cols; good condition.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 213/4/F1/2; 1600-40; parchment (occasional paper)- single
nbs or sheets; , * 27; 510mm x 377mm; written mostly in 2 cols; modern pencil foliation; mounted
n paper and bound ,n a single volume in boards covered in black leather, purple spine, guard and
(back now broken and front cover detached), preserved between separate archival boards title
on front cover stamped in gold: ST. PETER S IN THE EAST CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
1600-1640 CHURCHWARDENS 1868 J. JENKINS & F.W. ANSELL
Extracts from:
f 1: 1600-1; highly irregular shape averaging 387-690mm x 225-490mm (text area varies).
f 2: 1602-3; 585mm x 425mm (505mm x 380mm); damaged at edges.
f 4: 1605-6; irregular shape, 448-500mm x 375mm (approximately 480mm x 315mm); damaged at
right edge.
f 5: 1606-7; 480mm x 435mm (444mm x 390mm); damaged at edges.
f 6: 1607-8; 485mm x 392mm (430mm x 385mm).
f 7: 1608-9; paper; 450mm x 280mm (338mm x 250mm).
f 8: 1609-10; 315mm x 335mm (235mm x 320mm).
f 9: 1612-13; 500mm x 345mm (395mm x 310mm).
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 213/4/F1/3; 1614-85; English; paper; 158 leaves; 296mm x
210mm (275mm x 145mm); modern pencil foliation; contemporary parchment binding, title in
contemporary script on front cover: The Booke of accomtes for the churchwardens of Saint Peter in
the Easte Anno domi/ 1613. This is a paper copy of ORO: PAR 213/4/F1/2.
ST PETER IN THE EAST CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS (AC)
This is a collection, compiled by H.E. Salter, of St Peter in the East churchwardens accounts,
with an expository essay. The booklet is written in brown ink and made up of miscellaneous
sheets of recycled, lined paper (similar to school scribblers) with unrelated material on reverse.
Some sheets are inverted.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Top.Oxon c.403; 1948?; Latin; paper; i + 103 + i; ff 1-36: 254mm x
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
203mm, ff 37-103: 325mm x 203mm (text area varies); pencil foliation 1-102 (10 repeated), circled
pencil foliation 1-50 for ff 38-89 (29 repeated); good condition; bound in modern blue cover with
small pasted tab in lower left corner showing shelf-mark; title on spine: H.E.SALTER - ST. PETER
IN THE EAST.
ST PETER LE BAILEY CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS
The churchwardens accounts date from 1453. At a date probably in the nineteenth century
the accounts from 1453 to 1702 were mounted in five guardbooks but removed, recatalogued,
and stored separately in September 1998.
The accounting year was Michaelmas to Michaelmas from 1465-6 forward; St Catherine s
Day to St Catherines Day (25 November) as of 1499-1500; the Sunday after the Conception
of the Virgin in December as of 1545-6; and Easter to Easter as of 1603-5.
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, PAR 214/4/Fl; 1453-1642. Formerly mounted within a guard-
book the Latin and English accounts have been reconstituted and recatalogued as individual artifacts.
Extracts from:
PAR 214/4/F1/3; 1464-5; parchment; 630mm x 160mm (610mm x 135mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/4; 1465-6; parchment; 560mm x 180mm (480mm x 175mm); some writing on dorse.
PAR 214/4/F1/5; 1466-7; parchment; 820mm x 160mm (535mm x 130mm); some writing on dorse.
PAR 214/4/F1/6; 1467-8; parchment; 680mm x 160mm (630mm x 130mm); some writing on dorse.
PAR214/4/F1/7; 1468-9; parchment; 795mm x 155mm (750mm x 150mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/8; 1471-2; parchment; 710mm x 150mm (580mm x 130mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/9; 1473-4; parchment; 650mm x 140mm (610mm x 130mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/10; 1475-6; parchment; 750mm x 160mm (630mm x 135mm).
PAR214/4/F1/11; 1476-7; parchment; 850mm x 145mm (400mm x 125mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/12; 1477-8; parchment; 520mm x 180mm (500mm x 155mm); some writing on dorse.
PAR 214/4/F1/13; 1479-80; parchment; 700mm x 160mm (658mm x 135mm); some writing on dorse.
PAR 214/4/F1/14; 1499-1500; parchment; 670mm x 160mm (recto: 625mm x 150mm, dorse: 330mm
x 115mm).
734 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 214/4/F1/15; 1506-7; paper; 430mm x 300mm (405mm x 265mm); damaged and repaired top
left corner.
PAR 214/4/F1/16; 1529-30; paper; 518mm x 340mm (495mm x 275mm); repaired.
PAR 214/4/F1/17; 1530-1; paper; 2 sheets; 690mm x 314mm (645mm x 270mm); receipt sheet torn
bottom right corner and repaired.
PAR 214/4/F1/18; 1531-2; parchment; 835mm x 265mm (700mm x 223mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/19; 1534-5; parchment; 765mm x 235mm (640mm x 195mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/20; 1535-6; parchment; 600mm x 240mm (560mm x 180mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/21; 1537-8; parchment; 650mm x 250mm (640mm x 200mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/22; 1538-9; parchment; 740mm x 235mm (690mm x 215mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/23; 1539-40; parchment; 1,065mm x 190mm (975mm x 170mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/24; 1540-1; parchment; 900mm x 278mm (845mm x 230mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/26; 1542-3; parchment; 2 mbs; 760mm x 220mm (745mm x 175mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/27; 1545-6; parchment; 3 mbs; 993mm x 165mm (983mm x 140mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/29; 1556-7; paper; 3 sheets; 873mm x 213mm (758mm x 180mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/31; 1560-1; paper; 410mm x 300mm (350mm x 245mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/32; 1563-4; paper; 422mm x 312mm (385mm x 255mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/34; 1572-3; paper; 415mm x 310mm (385mm x 263mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/35; 1576-7; paper; 413mm x 310mm (327mm x 265mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/37; 1586-7; paper; 558mm x 440mm (438mm x 330mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/38; 1587-8; paper; 325mm x 443mm (318mm x 440mm); 2 cols.
PAR 214/4/F1/39; 1588-9; paper; 458mm x 360mm (428mm x 320mm); 2 cols.
PAR 214/4/F1/40; 1589-90; paper; 420mm x 310mm (375mm x 270mm); 2 cols.
PAR 214/4/F1/41; 1590-1; paper; 585mm x 430mm (505mm x 300mm).
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 214/4/F1/42; 1592-3; parchment; 510mm x 386mm (430mm x 343mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/43; 1593-4; parchment; 415mm x 283mm (338mm x 250mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/44; 1594-5; parchment; 375mm x 235mm (360mm x 225mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/45; 1597-8; parchment; 495mm x 243mm (480mm x 210mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/46; 1598-9; parchment; 590mm x 365mm (570mm x 320mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/47; 1599-1600; parchment; 530mm x 215mm (420mm x 185mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/48; 1600-1; parchment; 660mm x 452mm (630mm x 330mm).
PAR214/4/F1/49; 1601-2; parchment; 730mm x 207mm (497mm x 190mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/50; 1602-3; paper; 400mm x 332mm (380mm x 270mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/51; 1603-5; paper; 412mm x 308mm (380mm x 295mm); damaged and repaired.
PAR 214/4/F1/52; 1605-6; parchment; 561mm x 285mm (516mm x 280mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/53; 1606-7; parchment; 540mm x 416mm (515mm x 400mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/54; 1607-8; parchment; 3 mbs; 2,030mm x 315mm (1,810mm x 305mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/55; 1608-9; parchment; 2 mbs; 1,015mm x 232mm (1,000mm x 227mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/56; 1609-10; parchment; 600mm x 230mm (378mm x 220mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/57; 1610-11; parchment; 495mm x 235mm (430mm x 230mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/58; 1611-12; parchment; 445mm x 245mm (375mm x 245mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/59; 1612-13; parchment; 650mm x 225mm (615mm x 225mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/60; 1613-14: parchment; 375mm x 150mm (360mm x 150mm); 1614-15: parchment;
380mm x 150mm (365mm x 145mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/61; 1615-16; paper; bifolium; 313mm x 210mm (295mm x 175mm); written on both
sides of f 1 .
PAR 214/4/F1/62; 1617-18; paper; bifolium; 305mm x 200mm (285mm x 175mm); written on both
sides of f 1.
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
PAR 214/4/F1/63; 1618-19; paper; bifolium; 310mm x 195mm (290mm x 175mm); written on both
sides or t 1 .
PAR 214/4/F1/64; 1619-20; paper; bifolium; 300mm x 190mm (285mm x 180mm); written on both
sides or t 1.
PAR 214/4/F1/65; 1620-1; paper; bifolium; 284mm x 181mm (270mm x 174mm); modern pencil
foliation.
PAR 214/4/F1/66; 1621-2; paper; bifolium; 295mm x 195mm (285mm x 175mm); written on both
sides of both folios.
PAR 214/4/F1/67; 1624-5; parchment; 972mm x 202mm (892mm x 180mm).
PAR 214/4/F1/68; 1625-6; parchment; 670mm x 290mm (630mm x 253mm).
PAR 2 14/4/F 1/76-7; 1633-4?; parchment; 2 mbs, now detached; 1,265mm x 170mm (1,263mm x
142mm); expenses only.
PAR 214/4/F1/78; 1634-5; parchment; 370mm x 180mm (365mm x 167mm); written on both sides.
ST PETER LE BAILEY CHURCHWARDENS ACCOUNTS (AC)
This antiquarian collection contains excerpts from Oriel College statutes and parish material
from All Saints, St Mary, and St Peter le Bailey. The parish accounts range from 1338 to 1539
in date.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Wood C.I; 17th c.; paper; English and Latin; iii + 46; ink pagination;
some leaves torn at the end; bound in heavy white parchment with small red leather patch on spine
stamped in gold: WOOD. C. 1.
Ecclesiastical Court Documents
ECCLESIASTICAL COURT PROCEEDINGS
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, MS.Oxf. Dioc. papers Oxon.c.2; 24 April 1630-28 November
1631; English and Latin; paper; i + 375 + i; 315mm x 190mm (text area varies); contemporary ink
and modern pencil foliation (modern system followed); pages badly scuffed at edges; bound in white
vellum over boards (now virtually separated from book except for a few threads), written on front
cover: W.H. 1630-31. Contemporary table of contents up to f 145, index attempted ff 361 -74v.
ARCHDEACON S COURT BOOK
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, MS.Oxf.Arch. papers Oxon.c.13; 13 May 1637-23 February 1637/8;
INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
Latin and English; paper; 396 leaves; 312mm x 210mm; modern foliation; contemporary leather and
board binding.
Legal Records
GAOL DELIVERY ROLL
London, Public Record Office, JUST 3/180; 1389-95; Latin; parchment; 61 mbs; 690-860mm x
240-60mm (590-790mm x 210-30mm); modern pencil numbering; attached at top with leather
thong; some damage at right edge resulting in loss of text, lower right of mb 21 torn away.
CITY QUARTER SESSIONS
Like the legislative and financial records of the city, these legal records are kept in the city hall
and were consulted in the ORO where they were brought on request.
Oxford, Oxford City Archives, QSC/A2/001; 1614-38; English; paper; iv + 283 + x; 230mm x 360mm;
contemporary ink pagination; some engrossing; modern brown suede binding, some tooling, red leather
patch on spine stamped: SESSION ROLL 1614 1631.
INVENTORY OF THE GOODS OF JOHN STACY
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, I 60/1/28; 10 August 1627; English, with some Latin; parchment;
single mb; 408mm x 171mm (350mm x 168mm); unnumbered; good condition.
INVENTORY OF THE GOODS OF GEORGE PAYNE
Oxford, Oxfordshire Record Office, I 144/3/13; 28 January 1635/6; English, with some Latin; parch
ment; single mb; 382mm x 149mm (375mm x 135mm); unnumbered; good condition.
A REPORT ON THE INQUEST INTO THE DEATH OF GILBERT FOXLEE (AC)
MS. Twyne 4, like many of the antiquarian collections of Brian Tvvyne and his contemporary
Anthony Wood, is drawn from both college and city accounts.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Twyne 4; 17th c.; Latin and English; paper; vii + 355 + ii; generally
275-31 5mm x 180-95mm (text area varies); 2 systems of later ink pagination (pp 665-709 blank);
some damage and repair; irregular booklets now bound together in heavy white parchment over boards,
title on cover, small yellow patch at the base of the spine bearing the shelf-mark.
PROCEEDINGS REGARDING GEORGE BUCKNER (A)
MS. Twyne-Langbaine 3 comprises some transcriptions as well as some original documents
738 INSTITUTIONS AND DOCUMENTS
parted in on stubs. Gerard Langbaine succeeded Brian Twyne as the keeper of the archives
in the Bodleian, serving in that capacity from 1644 to 1658. Both keepers worked on this
collection.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Twyne-Langbaine 3; 17th c.; English and Latin; paper; ii + 127; 309mm
\ 207mm (ruled side margins 35mm, text area 308mm x 190mm); pencil foliation; pages brittle and
frayed, evidence of damage by worms or rodents; light brown calf binding tooled front, back, and spine,
small paper sticker with shelf-mark at base of spine, title on spine: COLLECTANE B.TWYNNE
LANGBAINE &C.
Miscellaneous Records
ORDER FOR RECEIVING THE MAYOR
See under Chamberlains Accounts (pp 710-11) for Bodl.: MS. Twyne 23.
ANTIQUITIES OF OXFORD
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Wood F.29(a); 1661-6; English and Latin; paper; iii + 505; 108-312mm x
l-^-91rnm (97- 296mm x 138-89mm); partial contemporary ink foliation, partial modern pencil
foliation; good condition; modern leather binding on board, tooling to covers and spine, embossed
tide on spine.
Editorial Procedures
Principles of Selection
This collection embraces the whole of Oxford, including colleges, halls, University, town
government, parish churches, guilds, and civil and ecclesiastical courts. The late medieval and
early modern royal borough of Oxford covered an area of some ninety acres and in 1336 a
royal charter extended the boundary beyond the city walls to all the extramural suburbs by
about a mile in each direction, specifically to Cowley and Shotover on the east, to Botley on
the west, to Bagley Wood in Kennington (Berks) on the south, across the River Thames, and
to Godstow Bridge in Wolvercote on the north. It is for this reason that contemporary de
scriptions of royal entries as excerpted in these volumes always begin with the sovereign s arrival
in Wolvercote (when the sovereign, as usually happened, came from Woodstock Palace five
miles north of Oxford) and end with his or her departure from Shotover. The priory of Godstow
lay across the river at the extreme northwest boundary. Because the city fathers regularly had
refreshments and listened to music at Godstow when they perambulated the franchise, we have
deemed Godstow to be within the boundaries and so include the very early reference to an
abbess of misrule in the priory. Visitation records warn the nuns against too much contact with
the Oxford students, again supporting the idea that the priory was considered part of Oxford.
On the other hand, although a part of the parish of Marston was inside the boundaries on the
northeast edge of the jurisdiction, most of that parish lay outside and we do not include those
parish records here. The only extramural parish within the franchise - whose records survive -
is St Mary Magdalen.
All the dramatic, musical, and ceremonial activities recorded in the present collection fall
within the geographical boundaries described above, with the exception of two student plays
that originated in Oxford but were later taken to the royal palaces at Woodstock or Hampton
Court by royal request. Other evidence of entertainment in these two venues will be dealt with
in appropriate REED county volumes. Oxford-educated professional playwrights such as John
Lyly, whose name does not occur in the Records, and George Peele, whose name does, are
briefly listed in Appendix 14.
Consistent with REED principles of selection, our intention has been to include only musical
activity for secular occasions in this collection. The only references to musicians that do not
directly relate to performance occur in records of apprenticeship. Documents concerning the
740 EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
teaching of music within the Faculty of Arts, and private instrumental lessons to students
On the other hand evidence concerning the popular seventeenth-century
100! run by professional musicians is included. Ownership of instruments by
duals other than professionals has been recorded only when the relevant documents
s and inventories) were made known to us through printed sources. Otherwise such
personal papers have not been systematically searched.
Boy bishops are found in the records of All Souls, Magdalen, and Lincoln Colleges. We have
noted above the abbess of misrule at Godstow priory. College plays during the Christmas
season were sometimes given under the auspices of a lord of misrule, whose title varied from
college to college but who is known genetically as a Christmas lord or Christmas prince,
although the election of such a lord did not guarantee that plays would be involved, as the
lord s more general duties were to oversee the costs and conduct of feasts throughout the
Christmas vacation.
The Christmas festivities in colleges were paralleled by spring and summer festivals in the
parishes. References to parish ales have been included if there is evidence that they customarily,
or at one time, featured plays or such activities as the election of summer lords and ladies,
music, morris dancing, or the erection of summer poles. All references in the parish records
to hocking have been included.
Oxford hosted four official royal visits in 1566, 1592, 1605, and 1636. All preparations
for such visits including the orders and acts for the reception of the monarch, the con
struction of stages and making or borrowing of costumes for plays, and the repairs, alterations,
and new construction of roads and buildings in both the colleges and the city (which were
in themselves the sets for much of the ceremonial business) are included. The ceremonial
welcomings by both city and University officials have also been included, along with both
prose and verse descriptions of the entertainments. Omitted are details pertaining to con
vocations, debates and disputations, services and sermons, feasts and banquets where no
musical or mimetic activity took place, and details of the accommodation of the court.
Members of the royal family passed through Oxford frequently at various other times,
as Oxford lay on the direct route from London to Woodstock, a favourite royal retreat
during the month of August. Transcriptions from the vice-chancellors accounts (QUA:
WP/|}/21(4)) where the presence of performers ( buccinatoribus primarily) in Oxford
likely relates to the monarch s passage to Woodstock have been included with additional
context to make clear the reason for their presence. The bells of parishes and certain
colleges, such as Merton, were frequently rung to mark the royal passage through the
city and on occasion gifts were given by either the University or the city. These records
have not been transcribed. Also omitted are references to jousts and tournaments in
the fourteenth century because there is no evidence that these ceremonies involved mi
metic display. 2
Interest in classical plays is often witnessed by college and University library lists or by
individual purchase or ownership of texts. Such records, although of great potential interest,
are excluded here on the grounds that the mere existence or ownership of a text constitutes
no evidence of performance. 3 Original Oxford play texts, listed in Appendix 6, are not cited
741
EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
in the Records except on the rare occasion that they shed light on performance venues. Latin
plays deriving from Oxford have been reproduced in facsimile in Renaissance Latin Drama in
England, Martin Spevack, J.W. Binns, and Hans-Jiirgen Weckermann (eds), 1st series, nos 1-13
(Hildesheim and New York, 1981-6), with introductions and plot summaries.
Some but not all Oxford plays in English have been published, whether individually or
in a series. Title-page information, which often bears on the date or location of performances,
is presented in full in Appendix 6. One complete text, the previously unknown masque
Mr Moore s Revels, discovered in the preparation of this work, appears in the Records
(see pp 560-4). The Anti-theatrical Controversy that erupted in Oxford in the 1590s
spawned numerous documents, some of which were eventually published in John Rainolds
Th Overthrow of Stage-Playes (1599). These have been deemed too lengthy and tenden
tious to be included here, though they contain many incidental references to Oxford plays,
performances, and performers. A guide to the extant documents, with excerpts, is given
in Appendix 1 1.
With the exception of the years of the royal visits, University and college ceremonies, includ
ing disputations and commencement exercises, though often quasi-theatrical, have been omitted.
College and University statutes often prohibited unseemly games ( ludos inhonestos ). The
authorities normally had in mind not dramatic plays but card games, gambling, and physical
activities such as ball playing, which might result in damage to buildings. Restrictive statutes and
disciplinary cases mentioning game playing are therefore included only when the language
specifically refers to plays or shows. Entertainment involving the baiting or display of animals
has been included but references to fencing schools, along with mentions of sports such as
tennis and football, have been omitted.
Chronology
The collection has been organized on an overall Michaelmas to Michaelmas chronology (29
September to 29 September) based on the predominant administrative year used by the colleges
and city. Nine of the sixteen colleges from which records are drawn follow this year as do the
Oxford civic accounts. Exceptions include individual city parishes, whose fiscal years also
changed over time (see Institutions and Documents for summaries of individual parish account
ing practices). Usually, however, the excerpted parish entries have a specific internal event date,
such as Hocktide or Pentecost, which makes it possible to assign the record to the appropriate
Michaelmas to Michaelmas year.
A general description of the college and University fiscal year may be found in Institutions
and Documents (see p 627). A more detailed account of each college s practices is supplied
as appropriate in the headnote for that college. Of the seven colleges that employed fiscal years
other than Michaelmas to Michaelmas, those that began their college year on a date after 29
September are placed under the Michaelmas to Michaelmas year already in progress. Thus, for
example, an account for 1 November 1498-1 November 1499 will appear under 1498-9.
In this way the larger portion of the college s year falls within the appropriate year. If, however,
an excerpted passage is specifically dated for an event occurring in the final months of the
742 EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
college s fiscal year (ie, in the above example, between 29 September and 1 November 1499)
it will be positioned according to the event date.
Similarly, colleges that began their fiscal year on a date before 29 September are placed under
the year heading of the Michaelmas to Michaelmas period that is about to commence, with
the like exception in those instances when a record is specifically dated for an event occurring
in the opening months of the college s fiscal year.
For the parishes and the colleges without term divisions the accounting year (when other
than Michaelmas to Michaelmas) is supplied in the editorial subheading and reiterated in the
document descriptions. For any college with stable term or week divisions the precise week or
month date range is supplied in the record subheading.
Reminiscences or allusions to events in years gone by are normally assigned to the year of
the event. When possible, documents of uncertain date have been assigned to a likely year or
to the year of publication, and the problems are discussed in endnotes.
Even though 1 January was celebrated as New Year s Day the change in the calendar year
was usually recorded from 25 March. Thus a document dated 18 February 1639 refers, by
modern reckoning, to 18 February 1640. Such dates are rendered as, for example, 18 February
1639/40. Where documents are dated by regnal year C.R. Cheney s Handbook of Dates for
Students of British History has been used as a guide.
Many events are dated in the source documents by feast day rather than by day and month.
Many of the feast days remain familiar (eg, Christmas) or are easily established. Others de
pended on local custom and may be beyond recovery. Appendix 15 gives the dates of most
feasts named in the documents or, for movable feasts, directions for discovering the dates in a
given year. Dates that cannot be discovered by reference to Appendix 15 are given in headings,
footnotes, or endnotes as occasion dictates.
Many dramatic and musical events at Oxford are referred to as having taken place at the Act,
that is, at the commencement ceremonies held in July. Technically the Act (Latin Comma )
took place each year on the first Monday after 7 July but the phrase might also refer to the
ceremonies and celebrations beginning on the preceding Saturday, sometimes more specifically
referred to as Act Saturday. 4 Where no actual date is given, the inferred date of the Act that
year is supplied in a footnote. References to Act Week or Act Time refer to the period from
the Saturday before the Act to the following Friday.
Layout
Each entry in the Records is preceded by a name or descriptive title, along with a brief
identification of its source. On a separate line the folio, page, or membrane number is
given along with the precise date of the entry (where known) and an abbrev.ated Engl.s
version of the manuscript account heading (where available). Within each year documents
are arranged with the college and University records first, followed by the city records.
Documents from academic institutions precede those from civic institutions. Academu
documents are arranged in the order of college (in alphabetical order), University, and
miscellaneous. Civic documents are arranged in the order of civic government, guild, parish,
EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
743
legal, and miscellaneous. For all categories, annual accounts precede administrative docu
ments. For categories that are not immediately obvious, codes in the left margins of the
Records serve as aids to locating the documents in Institutions and Documents (see
Symbols, p 2). Miscellaneous documents follow the order of Institutions and Documents,
when they are few, or chronological order, when they are numerous and form a narrat
ive sequence.
Within practical limits the general layout of the originals has been preserved. Headings,
marginalia, and account totals are printed in the approximate position they occupy in the
source. Right-hand marginalia have had to be set in the left margin of the printed text, a
transposition indicated by the symbol . The lineation of the original has not been observed
in passages of continuous prose. Where the layout of the original is idiosyncratic (eg, a diagonal
left margin) no attempt has been made to reproduce that format. Marginalia too long or too
cumbersome to set in the margin have been set within the body of the text and marked with
a dagger symbol.
Dittography and obvious scribal errors are noted in the footnotes. Administrative cancella
tions (such as those for loans of money repaid or costumes returned) as distinguished from
cancellations used by scribes to correct errors in writing are noted in endnotes. Decay, damage,
and other problems that adversely affect the clarity of the original are briefly noted in footnotes
or discussed in endnotes. Problems of dating and provenance are discussed in endnotes. An
asterisk in the subheading line will alert the user to the existence of an endnote.
Text with Multiple Copies
Where records exist in multiple copies we have attempted to select the most authentic copy
as the base text. Two cases deserve special attention. First, where a letter was transmitted
from one party to another and copies were made by sender, recipient, or both, preference
is given to the letter that was actually sent (often distinguished by fold marks, seals, etc).
If the transmitted document does not survive, a registered copy is used as base text. Second,
where accounts exist both in rough (or draft) form and in neat (or finished) form, preference
is given to the neat version, which may be considered more official, unless the rough text
preserves details lost in the neat text. When two or more copies of the same document survive
we have recorded the location of the copies and noted any substantive variants in the endnotes.
Multiple copies which appear to have independent authority are collated and substantive
variants are listed in the collation notes. The collated MSS are described in Institutions and
Documents. Differences in spellings, capitalization, forms of abbreviation, word division, or
punctuation are not noted in collations.
Other Editorial Conventions
Manuscript punctuation has been retained, except that excessive scribal pointing is usually
ignored. Virgules are indicated as / and //. Most manuscript braces and all line fillers have
been overlooked. Capitulum marks and other marginal marks in financial accounts and
744 EDITORIAL PROCEDURES
inventories have for the most part not been transcribed. The spelling of the original has been
preserved, along with the capitalization. The letters fF have been retained for T ; the standard
and elongated forms of T are uniformly transcribed as T except where clearly distinguished
as a _) in later and printed documents. Ornamental capitals and display letters have been
transcribed as ordinary letters but are noted. Arabic V has been substituted for 7 in numbers
other than sums.
Abbreviated words have been expanded with italics to indicate letters supplied by the editor.
Where manuscripts yield insufficient evidence to judge individual scribal habits, abbreviations
are expanded to classical forms in Latin and modern British forms in English. First names
have been expanded wherever possible. Where a single P with a mark of abbreviation is used
as an abbreviation for patet per, the second p has been italicized, yielding patet per. Italics
and other special typefaces in printed sources are not observed; they are silently printed as
roman in transcriptions within the Records. Abbreviations that are easily understood today
( li., s., d., ob. (for half-pence), qwa. (for farthing), Viz., and etc or &c ), and abbreviations
cumbersome to expand, including those typical for weights and measures ( lb. for pound and
di. for half ) are retained. Mr and Dr are expanded only when used as nouns or when
occurring before another title (eg, Master Mayor); they are left unexpanded when introducing
a proper name. Xp- and xp- are expanded as Christ- and chiist-. The sign T has been
expanded es, ys, or according to scribal practice, except when it follows an e : in this case
it is expanded as V. Where single minims are too many or too few by obvious scribal error, an
editorially corrected version is supplied in the text and the textual oddity is footnoted. Otiose
flourishes such as the barred ell are ignored. Superlineated letters are lowered to the line
except when used with numerals.
Where an unfoliated manuscript has a small number of leaves or membranes, these have
been counted by hand and conjectural folio numbers placed in square brackets.
Notes
Historical Background
1 John Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire (Oxford, 1994), 102.
2 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 3-4.
3 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, pp 87-92.
4 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 101.
5 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 101.
6 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 104.
7 Quoted in Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 101.
8 Derek Keene, The South-East of England, The Cambridge Urban History of Britain,
vol 1: 600-1540, D.M. Palliser (ed) (Cambridge, 2000), 551. Although Oxfordshire is
more commonly thought of as a Midland county, Keene includes it in his discussion of
the South-East. His comparison counties are Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire,
Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, and Sussex.
9 Grenville Astill, General survey 600-1300, The Cambridge Urban History of Britain,
vol 1, Palliser (ed), p 36.
10 Keene, The South-East, p 550.
11 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 168.
12 Following Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 147, the modern names of the streets are
used to locate the site of the crossroads. Only the High Street retains its medieval name.
During the period covered by the Records, Cornmarket was known as Northgate or
North Street; Queen Street was called Great Bailey because it led to the castle; and St
Aldate s was first called Fish Street and then South Street.
13 James Campbell, Power and authority 600-1300, The Cambridge Urban History of
Britain, vol 1, Palliser (ed), p 66.
14 Ralph B. Pugh, Imprisonment in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1968), 60. The quotation
is from Keene, The South-East, p 568. The other towns were Bedford, Canterbury, and
Winchester.
15 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, pp 153-4.
16 Richard Holt, Society and population 600-1300, The Cambridge Urban History of
Britain, vol 1, Palliser (ed), p 88; and Carl I. Hammer, Jr, Anatomy of an Oligarchy:
746 NOTES
The Oxford Town Council in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, The Journal of
British Studies 18 (1978), 2.
17 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 305.
18 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 150.
19 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 50.
20 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 172.
21 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 52.
21 D.M. Palliser, T.R. Slater, and E. Patricia Dennison, The topography of towns 600-
1300, The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol 1, Palliser (ed), p 176.
23 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 45.
24 Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol 3, P.M. Powicke
and A.B. Emden (eds), 2nd ed (Oxford, 1936), 106.
25 C.H. Lawrence, The University in State and Church, The History of the University of
Oxford, vol 1, pp 134-7.
26 For a succinctly informative account of the St Scholastica s Day riots and their aftermath,
see Hibbert, Encyclopaedia of Oxford, p 424. See also Pantin, Oxford Life in Oxford Archives,
pp 99-102. Pantin comments that the February 1354/5 riots were not the first, but
the extent and violence of that episode may have shocked men into common sense :
bad feeling remained for centuries but never again exploded into violence.
27 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 56.
28 Carl I. Hammer, Jr, Oxford Town and Oxford University, The History of the University
of Oxford, vol 3, pp70-l.
29 Carl I. Hammer, Jr, Some Social and Institutional Aspects of Town-Gown Relations in
Late Medieval and Tudor Oxford, PhD thesis (University of Toronto, 1973), 98. The
complex relationship between two lists of taxpayers made at approximately the same time
is discussed in great detail on pp 93-1 15-
30 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 110.
31 For a full and detailed discussion of the privileged persons and their relationship with
the city, see Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University/ pp 74-86.
32 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 74.
33 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 87.
34 The details that follow are taken from Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University,
pp 88-94.
35 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 92.
36 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 94.
37 Hammer, Some Social and Institutional Aspects of Town-Gown Relations, pp 81-4.
38 Hammer, Some Social and Institutional Aspects of Town-Gown Relations, pp 83-5;
VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 148; Salter (ed), Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626, pp 205-8; and
Hobson and Salter (eds), Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, p xvii.
39 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 148.
40 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 69.
41 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 115.
NOTES
42 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 364-8.
43 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, pp 70- 1 .
44 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 74.
45 Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, p 69. Frequent visits to Woodstock by
Elizabeth I and James I are reflected in records contained in this collection.
46 Turner (ed), Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford, pp 228-40, 317.
47 ST. Bindoff (ed), The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol 3, The History of Parliament
(London, 1982), 623.
48 Bindoff (ed), The House of Commons 1509-1558, vol 3, pp 561 , 623.
49 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 80.
50 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 136.
51 Hammer, Anatomy of an Oligarchy, p 4.
52 For Wilmot, see Salter (ed), Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626, p 333; and Hobson and
Salter (eds), Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, p 27. See the latter for Smith (p 27),
Boswell (pp 27, 47) and Blake (p 47).
53 Hammer, Anatomy of an Oligarchy, p 11.
54 Hammer, Anatomy of an Oligarchy, p 12.
55 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 138.
56 See Gervase Rosser, The cure of souls in English towns before 1000, Pastoral Care Before
the Parish, John Blair and Richard Sharpe (eds) (Leicester, 1992), 267-84. In particular
he notes of St Frideswide s (p 272) that the location of the shrine and a parochial altar,
in the north transept of the twelfth century church, may indicate both the site of the
Anglo-Saxon minster church and its pastoral function.
57 The details of the following paragraph come from VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 364-8.
58 R.W. Southern, From Schools to University/ The History of the University of Oxford,
vol 1, pp 1-36.
59 VCH: Oxford, vol 2, p 64.
60 Numerous bequests to the Dominicans in Oxford, to take one example, are listed in VCH:
Oxford, vol 2, pp 119-20; benefactors include not only locally connected nobility,
gentry, clerics, and academics but townspeople (the odd merchant, brewer, or widow,
and others given no occupation or other title).
61 R.B. Dobson, The Religious Orders 1370-1540, The History of the University of Oxford,
vol 2, p 541.
62 VCH: Oxford, vol 2, p 32; pp 31-2 give a detailed account of the complicated process by
which Christ Church came into being.
63 Valuable accounts of the foundation of Christ Church and its historical context are given
in VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 369-70; and James McConica, The Rise of the Undergraduate
College, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 1-68. See especially McConica,
The Rise of the Undergraduate College, p 33.
64 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 369.
65 Salter, Medieval Oxford, p 71 .
66 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 23.
748 NOTES
67 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 6\. Blair cites a grant in 1004 to "a certain minster
situated in the town called Oxford where the most blessed Frideswide rests. "
68 John Blair, St. Frideswide s Monastery: Problems and Possibilities, Oxoniensia 53 (1988),
255-6.
69 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 400.
70 Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire, p 113.
r l The earliest record of St Frideswide s parish, as distinct from the priory church, is
of the 1 170s (VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 381). By 1500 several church closures left a total
of fourteen parish churches and three non-parochial chapels (VCH: Oxford, vol 4,
p70).
^1 On fluctuations in the relative prosperity of Oxford parishes in the later medieval period,
see Salter, Medieval Oxford, pp 88-9; and VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 31.
73 For a generally positive interpretation of relations between the parishes and the
University, however, see Hammer, Oxford Town and Oxford University, especially
pp 105-8.
74 VCH: Oxford, vol 3, p 95 and vol 4, p 384.
75 VCH: Oxford, vol 3, p 163 and vol 4, p 394.
76 VCH: Oxford, vol 3, p 229 and vol 4, pp 373, 397.
77 R.B. Dobson, Urban decline in late medieval England, The Medieval Town: A Reader in
English Urban History 1200-1540, Richard Holt and Gervase Rosser (eds) (London,
1990), 273.
78 Anthony Wood, Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford, vol 2, Oxford Histor
ical Society 17, Andrew Clark (ed) (Oxford, 1890), 80; and VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 384.
79 Fletcher, History of St Martin, p 10.
80 Fletcher, History of St Martin, pp 22-3.
81 The Domesday reference is to two dwellings formerly held by Earl Aubrey (later the
king s), which lie (with the lands of) St Mary s church and pay 28d. See Morris (ed),
Domesday Book, vol 14, p 154a.
82 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 391.
83 Ffoulkes, History ofS. Mary the Virgin, pp 82-3.
84 For guilds associated with specific Oxford churches, see VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 370-406.
85 Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-
c. 1580 (New Haven and London, 1992), 145.
86 Carl I. Hammer, The Town-Gown Confraternity of St. Thomas the Martyr in Oxford,
Mediaeval Studies 39 (1977), 475-6.
87 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 391-2.
88 Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, pp 377-564. Duffy (pp 524-64) underlines the inevit
ably disorientating effects on local communities, not only of radical changes to patterns of
worship and outward manifestations of belief but of the confusing about-turn of Mary s
reign, 1553-8. He also cites examples (none, however, from Oxford) of evident resistance
to change in parishes, reflected not only in their frequent slowness in complying with new
regulations but in the tendency to adapt as far as possible without jettisoning tradition
NOTES
749
altogether. For example, statues of newly banned saints were on occasion transposed into
still-permitted ones: in Ashford, Kent, St Thomas Becket was iconographically transformed
into St Blaise by taking his archiepiscopal cross from his hand and putting in its place a
wool-comb (p 419).
89 Fletcher, History of St Martin, Appendix 3. Inventories of 1547, 1552, 1553, and 1560
are fully transcribed.
90 Richard Whittington was also a churchwarden: his name appears on the account for
1552-3 (ORO: PAR207/4/F1/1, item 19).
91 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 388.
92 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 392-3.
93 Information in this paragraph comes from VCH: Oxford, vol 4, pp 395, 402.
94 The churchwardens accounts express considerable determination to renew lapsed customs
in the non-liturgical sphere of parish life: after a gap of over twenty years, receipts from
hocking reappear in the accounts for 1663-4 and the following year hocking, the Whitsun
ale, and the maypole are all recorded.
95 Information in this section is drawn chiefly from The History of the University of Oxford,
vols 1, 2, 3.
96 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 1, pp 34-6.
97 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 1, pp 32, 47.
98 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 1, pp 134-40.
99 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 1, pp 12-13.
100 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 2, pp 730-1 , and vol 3, pp 401-2.
101 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 117-18.
102 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 49-50.
103 Clark (ed), Register, vol 2, pt 1, Introductions (Oxford, 1887), p 183.
104 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 182-3, 197.
105 These figures are averaged from figures given in The History of the University of Oxford,
vol 3, pp 155-6.
106 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, p 599.
107 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 2, p 624.
108 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, p 52.
109 VCH: Oxford, vol 3, pp 235, 239, 253.
1 10 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 668-72, 722-6.
1 1 1 The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 623-7.
112 For numbers, see The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 58-64.
113 See the entries for these colleges in VCH: Oxford, vol 3.
Drama, Music, and Ceremonial Customs
1 John R. Elliott, Jr, Drama, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 4, pp 641-58.
(Portions of Elliott s essay have been incorporated here with the free permission of
Oxford University Press).
750 NOTES
2 OED, maintenance, sb. 6.
Nelson (ed), Cambridge, vol 1, pp 223-44.
4 Elliott, Queen Elizabeth at Oxford: New Light on the Royal Plays of 1566, pp 218-29
I he Historical Register of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1888), p 19: for the last three
years of his life, 1585-8, the office was given to a deputy.
6 See Orrell, The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb, p 30.
Nelson (ed), Cambridge, vol 1, pp 688-93; and Alan H. Nelson, Early Cambridge Theatres-
University, College, and Town Stages, 1464- 1720 (Cambridge, 1994), 16-37.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles n, vol 2 (1661-2), 32, July 4. The play
in question may have been the same one Martin Lluelyn presented for his degree to
Dean Fell of Christ Church back in 1640.
For Jasper Mayne s comment, see The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, vol 2, p 2.
1 An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford, Royal Commission on
Historical Monuments, England (London, 1939), 73-4 (Magdalen), 77 (Merton), 86-7
(New College), 1 13-14 (Trinity); plans opposite p 72 (Magdalen), opposite p 80 (Merton),
opposite p 88 (New College), p 109 (Trinity); plates 133 (Magdalen), 153 (New College -
2 views). The dimensions given for New College hall (p 86) are by error those for Christ
Church hall; corrected information in the Introduction has been supplied by the New
College archivist.
1 1 Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford, pp 105-6, plan opposite p 104.
12 Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford, pp 33-4; plans opposite p 32 and on p 34.
1 3 Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford, pp 56-7; plan p 55; photo plate 111.
14 Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford, p 99.
15 Nelson, Early Cambridge Theatres, pp 16-76, 102-17.
16 Alan H. Nelson, Early Drama in the English Universities, Contexts for Early English
Drama, Marianne Briscoe and John Coldewey (eds) (Indiana, 1989), 143; and Elliott,
Drama, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 4, pp 644-5- Wickham, Early
English Stages, vol 1, p 359 (with a diagram), situates the stage platform at the lower
end of the hall, near the main door.
17 Reconstructed (with a diagram) by Wickham, Early English Stages, vol 1, p 357.
18 Elliott and Buttrey, The Royal Plays at Christ Church in 1636.
19 The statutes of New College c 1398 (see p 12, 11.6-11) make provision for the involve
ment of boys in the divine services on Holy Innocents Day.
20 Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, vol 1, 403-19; on Oxford, see pp 407-12. See also
Sandra Billington, Mock Kings in Medieval Society and Renaissance Drama (Oxford, 1991).
The image in Billington s Fig. 4, from the beginning of the Statutes of St John s College
(1562), is not a drawing of a king and queen pageant (p 60) but the Holy Trinity.
21 See entry in Appendix 6: 1 .
22 Nelson (ed), Cambridge, vol 2, Appendix 12, pp 996-1001.
23 Nelson (ed), Cambridge, vol 1, pp 276-7.
24 OCA: P.5.2, f252.
25 OCA: P.5-2, f 252v.
NOTES
751
26 R.W. Ingram (ed), Coventry, REED (Toronto, 1981), 431-48.
27 In Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol 1, p 270, Nichols records a payment to
Robert Grene, the Quene s Fool in an account of the Queen s Purse from 1559 to 1569.
Grene may have been the jester as early as 1 560 although John Southworth dates Grene s
tenure from 1565 in Fools and Jesters at the English Court (Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1998),
108. Southworth gives him the first name of Jack. On pages 108 and 1 14, Southworth
also suggests that Richard Tarlton, who was certainly the queen s fool by the 1580s, may
have been introduced to the court by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, as early as 1565.
28 David Cook (ed), Collections 6, Malone Society (London, 1962 for 1961), xii.
29 OCA: C/FC/1/A1/003, f85.
30 Scott McMillin and Sally-Beth MacLean, The Queen s Men and their Plays (Cambridge,
1998), 18-36.
31 Geoffrey Tillotson, Othello and The Alchemist at Oxford in 1610, p 494.
32 Salter (ed), Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626, p xxiv. The site is now the Clarendon Centre
and its third exit is on to Shoe Lane, which is indeed the former Sewy s Lane. See VCH:
Oxford, vol 4, p 438: An inn immediately to the north [sc of the Crown Inn close to the
Carfax end of Cornmarket Street, on the west side], Pyry Hall in 1498, ... became the
King s Head in the early 16th century, when it incorporated Sewys Lane; plays were
performed in its galleried stable-yard in the 17th and 18th centuries.
33 See also Sailer (ed), Oxford City Properties, p 339.
34 See Alexandra F. Johnston and Margaret Rogerson (eds), York, 2 vols, REED (Toronto,
1979); John Wasson (ed), Devon, REED (Toronto, 1986); and David Galloway (ed),
Norwich, 1540-1642, REED (Toronto, 1984), passim.
35 Salter (ed), Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626, pp xxxii-xxxiv.
36 Buckner is variously referred to as Bucknall, Bucknold, and Buckner. He was called
Bucknell when he was finally admitted to his freedom in 1596-7, but he is most
commonly called Buckner in the Records. From the various descriptions of the Oxford
scutcheons in the Records they seem to have been very like the ones preserved from the
sixteenth century in the Exeter guildhall. The Exeter ones are substantial silvered embossed
medallions with heavy and intricate silver chains.
37 City Memorandum Book, OCA: D.5.2, f 190, records the agreement between Frere and
Gibbons.
38 Salter (ed), Oxford City Properties, p 360.
39 A John Baldwin, musician, was fined for a misdemeanor the year before along with another
musician, Thomas Charles (city quarter sessions, OCA: QSC/A2/001, pp 241, 243). It
was probably John the younger. Charles was never named as a wait but was probably the
yonge Charles paid by St Peter le Bailey in 1604-5. He was subsequently associated
with John Bosseley in the dancing school.
40 The names here are taken from a card index to the chancellors court act registers from
1594-1664, excluding 1634-8, compiled by Walter Mitchell, and a similar index for
the years 1634-8 compiled by Malcolm Underwood, kept in the Oxford University
Archives. The entries themselves are not included in the Records since they consist simply
752 NOTES
of the witness name, followed by the word musician, and have otherwise nothing to
do with music.
4 1 On these and other aspects of music in Oxford, see John Caldwell, Music in the Faculty of
Arts, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 201-2; and Penelope Gouk, Music
in Seventeenth-Century Oxford, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 4, pp 621-40
42 ChCh Arch: D.P.ii.c.l, item 25.
43 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 427.
44 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 427.
These guardbooks have proved very difficult to store in modern archival conditions and
the archivists in the Oxfordshire Record Office began to remove the rolls from the books
in 2000 when the office moved to new quarters in Cowley.
46 See Alexandra F. Johnston, Summer Festivals in the Thames Valley Counties, Custom,
Culture and Community: A Symposium, Thomas Pettitt and Leif S0ndergaard (eds)
(Odense, 1994), 37-56; and Johnston and MacLean, Reformation and Resistance in
Thames/Severn Parishes, pp 178-200.
47 The contrast with the customs in the three parishes of the other substantial Thames Valley
town, Reading, is striking. St Laurence Reading stopped its hocking practice in 1558-9,
St Giles in 1561-2, and St Mary s in 1566-7. For St Laurence see Berkshire Record
Office: D/P 97 5/2, p 295; for St Giles see BRO: D/P 96 5/1, p 1 16; for St Mary s see
BRO: D/P/98 5/1, p67.
48 This is very similar to a 1571 lease of the church-house of the tiny neighbouring parish of
Appleton just over the border in Berkshire where a period of ten days is specified. The
Appleton leases are still held by the parish and have no shelf-marks.
49 Johnston, Summer Festivals in the Thames Valley Counties ; and Johnston and MacLean,
Reformation and Resistance in Thames/Severn Parishes.
50 ORO: MS DD Par Woodstock c.12.
51 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 426.
52 The one indecorous custom associated with the civic authorities was the lord of misrule or
mock mayor called the king or judge of Slovens Hall. The first witness to this was the
antiquarian Twyne who stated that the custom was discontinued in 1651 but reinstated
after the Restoration (Bodl.: MS. Twyne 9, p 154). No evidence survives for the custom
before 1642.
53 See pp 578-9 and p 895 for evidence that the figure in the tub was a picture rather than
a real person contrary to the implication of the account in the city council minutes
(see p 579). This event is mentioned in The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, vol 1, p 49,
which cites John Vicars A looking-glasse for malignants: or, God s hand against God-haters
(London, 1643), 13. Wing: V317.
Institutions and Documents
1 Catalog! Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae, 14 vols (Oxford, 1845-89).
The Rawlinson Collection is catalogued in vol 5, the Ashmole Collection in vol 10.
NOTES 753
2 An important exception to these rules is the collection of manuscripts compiled by
Brian Twyne. These are not described in the Bodleian catalogues, as they were in the
possession of the University archives when the catalogues were compiled. They are, how
ever, fully described in The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, vol 4, pp 202-26.
3 For the date of the earlier fragment see the facsimile edition prepared and introduced
by J.W. Binns, Renaissance Latin Drama in England, 1st ser, no 1 (Hildesheim and
New York, 1981), 7-8.
4 VCH: Oxford, vol 3, p 238, citing, as the fullest account of the college, H.E.D. Blakiston
(ed), Some Durham College Rolls, vol 3, Collectanea, Oxford Historical Society (Oxford,
1896). See also R.B. Dobson, Durham Priory, 1400-1450, Cambridge Studies in Medieval
Life and Thought, 3rd ser, 6 (Cambridge, 1973), 348-9.
5 See Macray, Register, vol 1, p 35.
6 See Orme, An Early-Tudor Oxford Schoolbook, pp 1 1-39.
7 See VCH: Oxford, vol 3, p 248.
8 Thomas Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (London, 1748), 82.
9 The exception is the set of bannisters registers for 1590-1889 (OCA: L.5.1-L.5.6), which
are so frequently requested that they are stored on a permanent basis at the ORO.
10 Turner (ed), Records of the City of Oxford, p 23.
1 1 Hammer, Anatomy of an Oligarchy, p 2.
12 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 126.
13 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 126.
14 VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 140.
Editorial Procedures
1 On these other aspects of music in Oxford, see John Caldwell, Music in the Faculty
of Arts, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 3, pp 201-12; and Penelope Gouk,
Music in Seventeenth-Century Oxford, The History of the University of Oxford, vol 4,
pp621-40.
2 See H.C. Maxwell Lyte, History of the University of Oxford from the Earliest Times to the
Year 1530 (London, 1886), 133; and VCH: Oxford, vol 4, p 425. Shakespeare makes
reference to jousts and tournaments at Oxford (Richard u, v.ii.52).
3 On book ownership, see Ian Lancashire, Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain (Toronto,
1984), 241-7; and N.R. Ker, The Provision of Books, The History of the University of
Oxford, vol 3, pp 441 -5 19.
4 See Clark (ed), Register, vol 2, Part 1, p 82.
Select Bibliography
This bibliography includes books and articles with first-hand transcriptions of primary docu
ments relevant to this collection, together with a few essential reference works. No attempt has
been made to list all works cited in the Introduction and Endnotes.
Alton, R.E. (ed). The Academic Drama in Oxford: Extracts from the Records of Four Colleges,
Collections 5. Malone Society (Oxford, I960 for 1959), 29-95.
Anstey, Henry (ed). Munimenta Academics., or Documents Illustrative of Academical Life and
Studies at Oxford. Part 1 , Libri Cancellarii et Pro curator um. Part 2, Libri Cancellarii et
Procuratorum, Accedunt Acta Curiae Cancellarii et Memoranda ex Registris Nonnulla. 2 vols.
Rolls Series 50, 51 (London, 1868). [Facs Kraus rpt 1966.]
Bentley, Gerald Eades. The Jacobean and Caroline Stage. 7 vols (Oxford, 1941-68).
Bereblock, John. Commenta.ru sivi Ephemerae Actiones Rerum Illustrium Oxonii Gestarum
in Adventu Serenissimae Principis Elizabethac [1566], in Historia Vitae et Regni Ricardi n.
Thomas Hearne (ed) (Oxford, 1729), 253-96.
Birch, Thomas (compiler). The Court and Times of Charles the First; Containing a Series of
Historical and Confidential Letters. Vol 2 (London, 1849).
Boas, F.S. The Early Oxford Academic Stage, The Oxford Magazine 30 (1912), 240-1,
259-60.
- Hamlet and Volpone at Oxford, The Fortnightly Review, ns, 107 (os, 113) (1920), 709-16.
- Hamlet at Oxford: New Facts and Suggestions, The Fortnightly Review, ns, 94 (os, 100)
(1913), 245-53.
- Shakespeare and the Universities, and Other Studies in Elizabethan Drama (Oxford, 1923).
[Facs Benjamin Blom (New York, 1971).]
- Theatrical Companies at Oxford in the Seventeenth Century, The Fortnightly Review,
ns, 104 (os, 110) (1918), 256-62.
- University Drama in the Tudor Age (Oxford, 1914).
- (ed). The Christmas Prince: An Account of St. John s College Revels Held in Oxford in 1607-8.
Malone Society Reprints (Oxford, 1922).
- and W.W. Greg (eds). James I at Oxford in 1605: Property Lists from the University
Archives, Collections 1.3. Malone Society (Oxford, 1909), 247-59.
Boase, Charles W. Oxford. 3rd ed (London and New York, 1890).
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
- (ed). Register of the University of Oxford, vol 1, 1449-63; 1505-71. Oxford Historical
Society 1 (Oxford, 1885).
- (ed). Registrum Collegii Exoniensis. Register of the Rectors, Fellows, and Other Members of the
Foundation of Exeter College, Oxford. Oxford Historical Society 27 (Oxford, 1894).
Carnegie, David. Actors Parts and the "Play of Poore," Harvard Library Bulletin 30 (1982),
5-24.
- The Identification of the Hand of Thomas Goffe, Academic Dramatist and Actor, The
Library, 5th ser, 26 (1971), 161-5-
Chamberlain, John. The Letters of John Chamberlain. Norman Egbert McClure (ed). 2 vols.
Memoirs 12, 2 pts. The American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1939).
Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 vols (Oxford, 1923; rpt 1974).
- The Mediaeval Stage. 2 vols (Oxford, 1903).
Clark, Andrew (ed). The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions, xxi Chapters Contributed
by Members of the Colleges (London, 1891).
- (ed). Register of the University of Oxford, vol 2, 1571-1622. 4 parts. Oxford Historical
Society 10, 11, 12, 14 (Oxford, 1887-9).
Costin, W.C. The History of St. John s College Oxford 1598-1860. Oxford Historical Society,
ns, 12 (Oxford, 1958 for 1951-2).
Cox, A.D.M., and R.H. Darwall-Smith (eds). Account Rolls of University College, Oxford, vol 2,
1471/2-1596/7. Oxford Historical Society, ns, 40 (Oxford, 2001).
Crosfield, Thomas. The Diary of Thomas Crosfield, M.A., B.D., Fellow of Queen s College, Oxford.
Fredericks. Boas (ed) (London, 1935).
The Drama at Oxford in 1636, The Bodleian Quarterly Recordl (1917-19), 151-2.
Driscoll, John P. A Miracle Play at Oxford, Notes and Queries, continuous series, 205
(I960), 6.
Elliott, John R., Jr. Degree Plays, Oxoniensia 53 (1988), 341-2.
Drama, History of the University of Oxford, vol 4, pp 641-58.
Drama at the Oxford Colleges and the Inns of Court, 1520-1534, Research Opportunities
in Renaissance Drama 31 (1992), 64-6.
Early Staging in Oxford, A New History of Early English Drama. John D. Cox and David
Scott Kastan (eds) (New York, 1997), 68-76.
Entertainments in Tudor and Stuart Corpus, The Pelican (1982-3), 45-50.
- A "Learned Tragedy" at Trinity? Oxoniensia 50 (1985), 247-50.
Mr. Moore s Revels: A "Lost" Oxford Masque, Renaissance Quarterly 37 (1984), 411-20.
Plays, Players, and Playwrights in Renaissance Oxford, From Page to Performance: Essays in
Early English Drama. John A. Alford (ed) (East Lansing, MI, 1995), 179-94.
Queen Elizabeth at Oxford: New Light on the Royal Plays of 1566, English Literary
Renaissance 18 (1988), 218-29.
- and John Buttrey. The Royal Plays at Christ Church in 1636: A New Document, Theatre
Research International 10 (1985), 93-109.
Ellis, William Patterson, and H.E. Salter (eds). Liber Albus Civitatis Oxoniensis: Abstract of the
Wills, Deeds, and Enrollments Contained in the White Book of the City of Oxford (Oxford, 1909).
756
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
- (ed). A Biographical Renter of the University of Oxford, A.D. 1501 to 1540 (Oxford, 1974)
Evelyn, John The Dtary of John Evelyn. E.S. de Beer (ed). 6 vols (Oxford, 1955).
Feuillerat, Albert. Documents Relating to the Revels at Court in the Time of King Edward v,
Queen Mary (The Loseley Manuscripts). Materialien zur Kunde des alteren Englischen
mas 44 (Leuven, Leipzig, and London, 1914; rpt Kraus, 1968).
Performance of aTragedy at New College, Oxford, in the Time of Queen Mary, The Modem
Language Review 9 (1914), 96-7.
Ffoulkes, Edmund S. A History of the Church of S. Mary the Vtrgin, Oxford, the University Church
(London, 1892).
Finnis, John, and Patrick H. Martin. An Oxford Play Festival in February 1582, Notes and
Queries, continuous series, 240 (2003), 391-4.
Firth, Charles. Annals of the Oxford Stage, The Oxford Magazine 4 (1886), 66.
Fletcher, C.J.H. A History of the Church and Parish of St Martin (Carfax) Oxford (Oxford and
London, 1896).
Fletcher, C.R.L. (ed). Collectanea. First Series. Oxford Historical Society 5 (Oxford, 1885).
Fletcher, John M. (ed). Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1521-1567. Oxford Historical
Society, ns, 23 (Oxford, 1974 for 1971-2).
- Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1567-1603. Oxford Historical Society, ns, 24
(Oxford, 1976 for 1973-4).
Foster, Joseph (ed). Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714.
4 vols (Oxford and London, 1891-2).
Fowler, Thomas. The History of Corpus Christi College with a List of its Members. Oxford
Historical Society 25 (Oxford, 1893).
Gibson, Strickland (ed). Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1931).
Green, Vivian. The Commonwealth of Lincoln College 1427-1977 (Oxford, 1979).
Harbage, Alfred. Annals of English Drama 975-1700. 3rd ed. Sylvia Stolen Wagonheim (rev)
(London and New York, 1989).
Heylyn, Peter. Memorial of Bishop Waynflete, Founder of St Mary Magdalen College, Oxford.
John Rouse Bloxam (ed). Caxton Society Publications 14 (1851; rpt New York, 1967).
Hibbert, Christopher, and Edward Hibbert (eds). Encyclopaedia of Oxford (London, 1988).
The History of the University of Oxford. Aston, T.H. (ed). Vol 1, The Early Oxford Schools.
J.I. Catto (ed) (Oxford, 1984). Vol 2, Late Medieval Oxford. J.I. Catto and Ralph Evans (eds)
(Oxford, 1992; rpt with corrections 1995). Vol 3, The Collegiate University. James McConica
(ed) (Oxford, 1986). Vol 4, Seventeenth-Century Oxford. Nicholas Tyacke (ed) (Oxford, 1997).
The Historical Manuscripts Commission. J.A. Bennett. The Diary of Robert Woodford,
Steward of Northampton, Lib in, The 9th Report of the Manuscripts Commission, Appendix,
pt 2 (London, 1884), 493-9.
- Horwood, Alfred J. The Manuscripts of the Right Honourable The Earl de la Warr (Baron
Buckhurst) at Knole Park, Co. Kent, The 4th Report of the Manuscripts Commission, Appendix,
pt 1 (London, 1874), 276-317.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
757
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. Report on the Manuscripts of Philip Pleydell Bouverie, Esq., The 10th
Report of the Manuscripts Commission, Appendix, pt 6 (London, 1887), 82-98.
- PurnelJ, E.K. Report on the Pepys Manuscripts, at Magdalene College, Cambridge (London, 1911).
- Riley, Henry Thomas. Exeter College, Oxford, The 2nd Report of the Manuscripts Commission
(London, 1871), 128-9-
- [Riley, Henry Thomas.] "Wadham College, The 5th Report of the Manuscripts Commission
(London, 1876), 479-81.
Hobson, M.G., and H.E. Salter (eds). Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665. Oxford Historical
Society 95 (Oxford, 1933).
Jeffery, R.W. The Bursars Account Books, The Brazen Nose 4 (1924-9), 19-30.
Johnston, Alexandra E, and Sally-Beth MacLean. Reformation and Resistance in Thames/
Severn Parishes: The Dramatic Witness, The Parish in English Life. Katherine L. French,
Gary G. Gibbs, and B.A. Kiirnen (eds) (Manchester, 1997), 178-200.
Jones, John. Balliol College: A History, 1263-1939 (Oxford and New York, 1988).
Kimball, Elisabeth G. (ed). Oxfordshire Sessions of the Peace in the Reign of Richard li. Oxfordshire
Record Society 53 (Banbury, Oxfordshire, 1983).
Lawrence, W.J. Hamlet at the Universities: A Belated Reply, The Fortnightly Review, ns, 106
(os, 112) (1919), 219-27.
Lee, Margaret L. (ed). Narcissus: A Twelfe Night Merriment Played by Youths of the Parish at the
College of S.John the Baptist in Oxford, A.D. 1602. The Tudor Library 4 (London, 1893),
1-27.
Macray, William Dunn. A Register of the Members of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, from
the Foundation of the College. 8 vols (London, 1894-1915).
Madox, Richard. An Elizabethan in 1582: The Diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls.
Elizabeth Story Donno (ed). The Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser, no 147 (London, 1976).
Manning, Percy. Sport and Pastime in Stuart Oxford, Surveys and Tokens. H.E. Salter (ed).
Oxford Historical Society 75 (Oxford, 1923), 87-135.
Mitchell, W.T. (ed). Regtstrum Cancellarii 1498-1506. Oxford Historical Society, ns, 27
(Oxford, 1980 for 1979-80).
Morris, John (ed). Domesday Book, vol 14: Oxfordshire (Chichester, 1978).
Nelson, Alan H. (ed). Cambridge. 2 vols. REED (Toronto, 1989).
Nelson, William (ed). A Fifteenth-Century School Book from a Manuscript in the British Museum
(MS. Arundfl249) (Oxford, 1956).
Nichols, John. The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth. 3 vols (London, 1823).
[Facs Burt Franklin: Research and Source Works Series, no 1 17 (New York, nd).]
The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First. 4 vols (London,
1828). [Facs Burt Franklin: Research and Source Works Series, no 1 18 (New York, nd).]
Nochimson, Richard L. Robert Burton s Authorship of Alba: A Lost Letter Recovered, Review
of English Studies, ns, 21 (1970), 325-31.
Orme, Nicholas. An Early Tudor Oxford Schoolbook, Renaissance Quarterly 34 (1981), 11-39
Orrell, John. The Theatre at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1605, Shakespeare Survey 35 (1982)
129-40.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Theatres of Inigo Jones and John Webb (Cambridge, 1985).
Pantin, W.A. Oxford Life in Oxford Archives (Oxford, 1972).
- (ed). Canterbury College, Oxford. 4 vols. Oxford Historical Society, ns, 6, 7, 8, 30 (Oxford
1947-85).
Plummer, Charles (ed). Elizabethan Oxford: Reprints of Rare Tracts. Oxford Historical Society 8
(Oxford, 1887).
Poole, A.L. A University Entertainment in 1583, The Oxford Magazine 29 (1911), 85-6.
Rogers, J.E. Thorold (ed). Oxford City Documents, Financial and Judicial, 1268-1665. Oxford
Historical Society 18 (Oxford, 1891).
Salgado, Gamini. Eyewitnesses of Shakespeare: First Hand Accounts of Performances 1590-1890
(London, 1975).
Salter, H.E. Medieval Oxford. Oxford Historical Society 100 (Oxford, 1936).
Survey of Oxford. Vol 1. W.A. Pantin (ed). Oxford Historical Society, ns, 14 (Oxford, I960
for 1955-6). Vol 2. W.A. Pantin and W.T. Mitchell (eds). Oxford Historical Society, ns, 20
(Oxford, 1969 for 1965-6).
- (ed). The Churchwardens Accounts of St Michael in the North Gate. Transactions of the Oxford
Archaeological Society 78 (Oxford, 1933).
- (ed). Mediaeval Archives of the University of Oxford. 2 vols. Oxford Historical Society 70, 73
(Oxford, 1920-1).
- (ed). Oxford City Properties. Oxford Historical Society 83 (Oxford, 1926).
- (ed). Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626. Oxford Historical Society 87 (Oxford, 1928).
- (ed). Registrum Annalium Collegii Mertonensis 1483-1521. Oxford Historical Society 76
(Oxford, 1923).
- W.A. Pantin and H.G. Richardson (eds). Formularies which Bear on the History of Oxford
c. 1204-1420. Vol 2. Oxford Historical Society, ns, 5 (Oxford, 1942).
Statutes of the Colleges of Oxford. 3 vols (Oxford, 1853).
Stevenson, W.H. and H.E. Salter. The Early History of St. John s College Oxford. Oxford Historical
Society, ns, 1 (Oxford, 1939).
Stratman, Carl Joseph. Dramatic Performances at Oxford and Cambridge, 1603-1642.
PhD thesis (University of Illinois, Urbana, 1947).
Taylor, A.J. The Royal Visit to Oxford in 1636: A Contemporary Narrative, Oxoniensia 1
(1936), 151-8.
Tillotson, Geoffrey. Othello and The Alchemist at Oxford in 1610, Times Literary Supplement,
20 July 1933.
Trevor-Roper, H.R. Five Letters of Sir Thomas Bodley, Bodleian Library Record2 (1941-9),
134-9.
Turner, William H. (ed). Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford (Oxford and London,
1880).
The Victoria History of the Counties of England. A History of the County of Oxford. Vol 2.
William Page (ed) (London, 1907). The University of Oxford. Vol 3. H.E. Salter and M.D.
Lobel (eds) (London, 1954). The City of Oxford. Vol 4. Alan Crossley (ed) (Oxford, 19;
Wickham, Glynne. Early English Stages 1300-1660. 2 vols (London, 1959-73; 2nd ed, 1980).
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 759
Wood, Anthony. Athenae Oxonienses. An Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops Who Have
had Their Education in the University of Oxford. To Which Are Added The Fasti, or Annals of
the Said University. Philip Bliss (ed). 3rd ed. 4 vols (London, 1813-20).
The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, in Two Books: By Anthony a Wood,
M.A. ofMerton College. Now First Published in English, From the Original MS in the Bodleian
Library. John Gutch (ed). 2 vols (Oxford, 1792-6).
- The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, Antiquary, of Oxford, 1632-1695- Andrew Clark
(compiler and ed). 5 vols. Oxford Historical Society 19, 21, 26, 30, 40 (Oxford, 1891-1900).
760
MAPS
ST MICHAEL
North AT T HE NORTH GATE
Gate
Map 1 Oxford, c 1578. See p 762 for Key to Map 1.
MAPS
761
East Magdalen
Gate Hair
762 MAPS
Key to Map 1
INNS AND TAVERNS
1 Blue Boar
2 Crown
3 Dolphin
4 Fleur de Luce
5 King s Arms
6 King s Head
7 Red Lion
8 Star
9 Bear
OTHER BUILDINGS
10 Bocardo
1 1 Carfax
12 Castle
13 Congregation House
14 Divinity School
15 Guildhall
MAPS
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Banbury
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Woodstock
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03
c
O
: *
z
O
I
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Map 2 Oxford and environs, with principal Renaissance routes.
764
MAPS
\ M
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Map 3 Ralph Agas Map of Oxford, 1578. Reproduced from Gough Maps Oxon 1 (Agas Map
of Colleges and Halls), by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
APPENDIX 1
Architectural Drawing of
Christ Church Theatre (1605)
The architectural drawing now classed as BL: MS Additional 15505, f 21, was identified by John
Orrell in 1982 as the representation of a theatre installed in Christ Church hall at the royal
visit of James i in August 1605 (see Records, 1604-5)- Orrell has discussed the document at
least four times: The Theatre at Christ Church, pp 129-40; The Quest for Shakespeare s Globe
(Cambridge, 1983), 129-38, 168-70; The Theatre at Christ Church Oxford, The Theatres
of Inigo Jones and John Webb, pp 24-38; and The Christ Church Theatre, The Human
Stage: English Theatre Design, 1567-1640 (Cambridge, 1988), 119-29. See also R.A. Foakes,
Illustrations of the English Stage, 1580-1642 (London, 1985), 56-61; and John H. Astington,
English Court Theatre, 1558-1642 (Cambridge, 1999), 33-4, 84-7.
The document is a sheet of paper (381mm x 298mm) made up of two smaller sheets, slighdy
overlapped. The first sheet contains a plan, showing the theatre as from above; the second, a
section, showing the theatre as from die side. The direction Verte folium at the bottom right of
the first sheet suggests that the document began life as a bifolium. Not visible in die photographs
are dry-point drawing-compass arcs, swung from a clearly visible point near K on the plan,
which assisted the draughtsman in laying out the rows of seats.
A note on the section exactly matches the (unique) dimensions of Christ Church hall:
The hall is a 115 foote longe & 40 broade. Three arguments support Orrell s claim that the
occasion was August 1605. First, Isaac Wake describes, in a publication of 1607 concerning
the royal visit two years earlier, a stage platform that sloped toward the front and in planitiem
desinebat ( came to an end in a level surface ) (see p 306). The section shows precisely such a
stage. Second, when James objected that his throne was placed too close to the stage, it was
moved back some 14 (see p 770). Both plan and section reflect an (original) intent to situate
the throne close to the stage. Third, the stage designed for the royal visit of Charles i in 1636
filled the upper end of the hall to the hearth (see p 545 and Figure 4, p 609) while the stage
implied by the drawings is relatively shallow.
Both drawings focus on what may be called the auditorium. The length of die plan is exactly
twice its width: judging from the declared scale (!/io" = 1 ) the plan thus represents an area of
40 x 80 . While nicely fitting the width of the hall the plan comes 35 short of its length.
Annotations reveal that the auditorium up to the front of the stage is 82 deep, the backstage
and stage platform 33 , for a total of 1 15 .
The section, read from left to right, shows an auditorium that rakes from a gap between it
766 APPENDIX 1
and the stage upward toward the back of the hall. The auditorium consists of a rail (C), seven
rows of seats (D), a walkway (F), thirteen rows of seats (G), another rail (H), and finally a
sloped platform (I, L) bisected by a rail (K). Near H is drawn a stylized eye from which proceeds
a broken line showing an unobstructed line of sight to the front edge of the stage platform
(raised 4 above the hall floor).
The plan (rotated 180) likewise shows the gap to the left, and the auditorium to the right
with the seating now clearly disposed in roughly concentric arcs. Embraced by the seven forward
rows of seats stands the central Isl or platform for the king (K), raised three steps and flanked
by seats for lords against the side walls (L, LL). Behind the seven rows (meant for ladies and
the king s servants) are a walkway (G) and thirteen more rows of seats, the latter disposed in
relatively flat arcs. At ground level a passageway runs beneath the upper rows through a gallery
or Vault and continues uncovered between the forward rows. Beyond the upper seats at the
upper level is a slope scaffold for standees, with rails to keep them from ouerpressing one
another. Beneath the slope scaffold are false walls to prevent access to the space beneath the
seats, and a pair of square stair houses (B) against the side walls for access to the standing
room above. Note that C on the plan refers to the entrys on eyther side the skreene, for Christ
Church hall had two doorways into the lower end of the hall (each marked A in the plan) rather
than one as in modern times. (It is unclear whether the skreene was a feature of the hall or of
the temporary structure.) Just within the doorways stood a kind of portico with lights inset to
illuminate the foyer. A note on the section reveals that the auditorium was designed for 200
in the seven forward rows, 350 in the thirteen back rows, 130 standees in front of K, and as
many again behind, for a total of 810 without pressing.
Further details are available in external documents (see pp 278, 295-6, 299, 301, 303-7,
314, and 329). From these we discover the project was supervised by the clerk of the works,
identifiable as Simon Basil, with advice from Mr (Inigo) Jones (recently back from Italy).
External documents also reveal a change of plan. Although, as an observer noted, the de
signers wished the king to sit at the uniquely advantageous viewing point demanded by art
perspective (see p 295), the king and his advisors cared only that he be seen to best advantage.
The same observer noted that the isle was pushed back a full 28 from the stage: thus the
seven forward rows, so carefully designed to conform to principles outlined by the Italian theatre
architect Sebastian Serlio, must have been entirely rebuilt. (Orrell, Quest, p 133, speculates in
an architectural drawing of his own on the appearance of the theatre after the changes had
been carried out.) One result was that the king could neither see well nor hear well. Thus the
earliest perspective theatre known in England, designed in part by Inigo Jones, was changed
almost beyond recognition to accommodate the deeply rooted prejudices of the audience,
particularly the king.
APPENDIX 1
767
;* ;>- ..
UffHvJ b*i
:^f r - 5 r -r,,i . ; -
r lJ HN . -
->; : 7 l> i
t
}
?
<(%,.- > J ^ I I
Kf . :
5 . ;>> - ". -"- V ..^
Figure 7 Architectural drawing of Christ Church theatre, showing plan (above) and section
(below), with annotations.
768
APPENDIX 1
Figure 8 Plan of Christ Church auditorium (entrances at bottom and stage platform at top).
769
APPENDIX 1
Transcription of the notes to the diagrams (the exact arrangement of the text in respect to
the sketches has not been reproduced, but the relative positioning of the blocks of text has
been indicated):
f[l] (Notes accompanying the plan)
The scale is an ynch deuided into 10 parts.
A. the entry into the Hall.
B. easy stayrs to mounte by, in midl wherof which is voyde a lanterne may
bee hanged, which will light al the stayrcase.
C. the entrys on eyther side the skreene.
D. a kinde of lanterne or light house, in the hollow places wherof lamps may
bee placed to light the vaute E.F. 10
a. the sides closed that peopl runn not vnder the scaffolde. needles to bee
made in the vpper scaffold.
E. is the entry into the passage on the grounde noted with pricks from E to
F. through the seats. It must be vaulted in prospectiue, at the entry E
13 foote high at E 7. 5
F. the ende [wher] of the vault, ouer which the seconde ranke of seats are
heer drawne.
G. a gallery two foote &: a !/2 broade to pass betweene the seats, which must
be raysed ouer the passage a, 8 y. to pass rounde about, leauing 7 foote
at least-vnder. 20
H. from F. to H. you pass in an vncouered gallery because if the seats came
ouer it would bee to lowe.
I. the piazza from the scene, to K. the center, 12 foote. or rather 14
or 15.
K. the Isl for the kinge, a foote eleuated aboue the grounde, mounted vnto 25
by 3 degrees 1.2.3[.] 4 ynches high a peece. it is vnaequaly deuided to
aunswer the angls of the seats.
L. places for the Lords of the Counseyle wherof L.L. is somewhat higher
then the other L.
M. the first stepp two foote & a Vi high, or rather 3 f: 30
N. stepps whereby to mounte into the seats, which are signified by the
bached lines.
f [2] (Notes above the section)
The length of the whole Theater.
Verte folium
35
770 APPENDIX 1
1. The hall is a 115 foote longe & 40 broade. which I distribut into the
parts following.
the piazza is 12 foote from the scene to the Center K. it wer better to bee
14 foote, A or 15 that the kinge may sit so much further from the scene,
cutting of so much from the ende of the hall. 5
3. the Isl is 8 foote r in semi diameter.
4 the passage about it conteineth four f.:
5 the seuen first seats being two foote [broade] distant from the insid to the
outside, make 14 foote.
6. the passage F. is 2 f. & a /2. 10
the 13 seconde rank of seats, distant only 18 ynches from inside of [the]
A one seat to the ou A t side of the next conteyne 19 f. !/2.
8. from thoose seats the slope to the skreene is 10 f.
9 behinde the skreene 12 foote.
So the summe of al the length is 82 f. & ther remaineth for the 15
scene 33 f.
From C. to H. is 62 foote /2. uidelicet. the Isl [8 /z f] [f] A r 8 f. the
passage 4 f. die /7 1 seats 14 f. the gallery 2 /2. the second seats 19 !/2.
wherto joyne the piazza 12 f., & it amounts to 74 f. >/2.
20
The heigth of the Theater
1 . [The Kings Isl a foote high]
2 the first [st(.>] seat behind [it] /the Isle 1 2 f. Vr. or rather 3 f. high, to
looke ouer the Isle.
3 the [first seuen] seats euery one exceeding ech other 8 ynches in heigth. so 25
that the first 7 seats rayse 6 foot & a ] /2 in heigth. videlicet the first seat
2 f. & /2. the other six. 4 f.:
4. the second rank of seats being 13 in number, after the same rate of 8 yn.,
rise 8 f. 8 y. so that the heigth from the grounde to [H.] the seat vnder
H is 15 f. [10] 2 ynches. or if half a foote bee added to the first seate, 30
then thyare 1 5 f. 8 y. high.
(Notes below the section)
A the heigth of next part of the scene; which for the prospectiue of the 35
spectators cannot bee less then 4 foote high, as appears by the prickt
lineN.
B the piazza 12 foote broade. rather 14. or 15. 15 as I thinke.
[C] the passage about the Isle and the Isl it self are heer omitted.
C a rayle to keep peopl from the seats:
3-5/i wer. ..the hall, aAM later in same hanJ 23-47 or rather ... the Isle.: Lkd la*r in
23/ scat behind: lightly cancelled (?) hand
APPENDIX I 71
D the seats for Ladys & the Kings servants; the seats D are 8 ynches broade.
they are two foote distante ech from other, so that 8 ynches therof serue
for the seate, & the other 16 ynches for the legs & knes.
E are the footesteps 2 foote vnder the seats D. or G. four ynches broade.
F. is a gallery to walk betweene the seats, with rayles on eyther side. 5
G. 13 other seats 18 ynches a sunder, wherof the seat conteyns 6. ynches.
H a rayle at the back of the seats.
I a slope scaffold for peopl to stande on. which should haue barrs to keepe
them from ouerpressing one another.
K. a rayle ouer the skreene. 10
L. the roome behinde the skreene wher scaffolds may bee made to see
conveniently.
M. the wall at the end of the Hall behind the skreene
N. the visual line passing from A. to H. shewing that all may see at ease.
15
(Notes above and to the right of the section)
The first seuen seats will conteyne 200 persons to sitt at ease.
The seconde 13 seats, will conteyne 350.
In al 550. to sitt on seats 20
The place behinde them. [130] will hold 130.
The place behinde the skreene as many.
The summe of al 810. without pressing.
In anny case remember that a slight Portico bee made eyther at H. or
K. of hoopes & firrpooles. wherupon many lights or lamps of seueral
coulers may bee placed.
This portico giues a great grace to all the Theater, & without it, the
Architectur is false.
If scaffolds bee built upon L. then it must stande on K. if ther bee none,
then it must bee reysed on H.
25
30
8/ slope: c corrected over p
DIM. ... skreene: part of key to section, but written adjacent to M where it appears on diagra
APPENDIX 2
Technogamia, or The Marriages
of the Arts at Woodstock (1621)
Poems
Barren Holyday s play Technogamia, or The Marriages of the Arts, first performed at Christ Church
on 13 September 1618, was performed again before James I at Woodstock on 26 August 1621,
a Sunday. Although the performance occurred outside the limits of Oxford, documents are includ
ed here by reason of its direct connection to Christ Church. This second performance ignited a
furore in verse, in which contending wits capitalized on the fact that Sunday was a sacred holiday.
Fourteen poems have been selected for presentation here in full, in an order determined by
seven (A, C, D, E, G, I, J) that appear consecutively in BL: MS Sloane 542, ff 38-40.
With a single exception (Poem D), only one MS source has been selected for each poem (the
sources are fully identified). Each poem transcribed here is followed by notes, by references,
and by a list of libraries in which MS copies are known to survive. Since Cavanaugh (see below)
provides highly detailed annotations often of the fourteen poems, only light annotation is
attempted here. Notes on still other poems are presented in textual notes or in editorial notes
following the transcriptions.
REFERENCE WORKS CITED:
Sister M. Jean Carmel Cavanaugh (ed), Technogamia by Barten Holyday. A Critical Edition
(Washington, DC, 1942).
Margaret Crum (ed), First-Line Index of English Poetry, 1500-1800, in Manuscripts of the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2 vols (Oxford, 1969).
Nichols, Progresses of King James, vol 4, pp 1 109-12.
Copies in the Bodleian Library may be traced via Crum, others via internal first-line indexes:
British Library, London (BL); Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC (Folger); Harvard
University, Houghton Rare Books Library (Harvard); National Library of Wales, Aberysrwyth
(NLW); and Yale University, Beinecke Rare Books Library (Yale).
A) A Satyr made against Mr Holydayes Technogamia or rather
Technobigamia, presented before ye kings ma/mie at Woodstock 30
29/ Technogamia: Cavanaugh, f xxxi, transcribes incorrectly as Technogana
APPENDIX 2
on Friday 26 of August 1621 by the students of Christchurch.
Quid dignum tanto ferat hie promissor hiatu?
Whoop holiday, why then twil nere be better
why al ye guard, that never saw a letter
Save those vppon their coates, whose wit consists
In Archyes, bobs, & Garrets, saucy iests,
Deride our Christ Church play and swear that they
Nere kept ye doore to such a midnighte play 10
why Cambridg Dulman pitcht beyond it far
They fell two barrs short of Albumasar
Besides they feasted with a hen that nighte
wherein ye Lord vicechancelour vsd their mighte
Now both their guts are empty and their eare 15
Could neither cause nor noise of Laughter heare I
Our hobby horse came short of theirs, but yet
wee did excel them in ye flash of wit
we had an Ape forsooth, bare three yeares old
Should doe more tricks then Colli westons could 20
An excellent ape god is my rightful iudge
A most fine Ape, could skip, & leape and trudge
Ly stil or caper most prodigious bouts
An active Ape and yet compos d of clouts.
Why how now saucy groome, go medle with 25
Your bil and holbeard, scour your rusty teeth
With the remainder of ye last kild steere
And scowre your nasty throates with bloxford beere
Do you deride his worth? who dare vphold you
No more, be husht, and say a freind hath told you 30
Els heele in fury come you naked strip
And scourge you with a Sixteen knotted whip.
Doe you not know, that al this was begot
(I speake my conscience) when it was his lot
3/ Quid ... hiatu?: "What shall this promissor produce worthy of such a big mouth? ; cp Horace, Ars Poetica J38
10/ ye doore: at Woodstock the kings guards rather than students served as doorkeepers
1 1/ Dulman: a character in George Ruggle s Ignoramus, performed for the king at Cambridge on 8 March and
13 May 1615; see Nelson (ed). Cambridge, vol 2. pp 865-78, 902-3
\2I Albumasar: a character in Thomas Tomku Albumazar of 9 March 1614/15, see above
17 18/ Our hobby horse ... wit: Cambridge s Ignoramus was famous for the appearance of a hobby horse: see
Poem M
20/ Colli westons: Cavanaugh was unable to identify: possibly an ape-ward. Colly Weston is the name of a town
in Northamptonshire
7 74 APPENDIX 2
To be at truce with study, that this mirth
At first edition was but fiue weekes birth.
Yet no abortiue. Set a higher price
Vppon his work at least let not your eyes
make an accute bad comment that w/jich yee 5
Obiect was grosse was his best poetry
A Poet is a maker and tis more
To make an ape, then teach one [be] made [fo] before.
This answer d, think you hard your captaine say
Silence or els you shall not eate to day. ]0
So, now they are gonne but see more anger yet
Theres one hath begd monopolyes of wit
fastidious brisk ye Courtier, see it grinneth
A made a ballad and it did begin with
It is not full as yet a fortnight since 15
Christ Church at Woodstock entertained ye Prince
And vented have a studyed toy (pray mark this)
Long as ye seige of Troy to please ye marquess
Good Sir a word for all your silk and sattin
Yet I may safely sweare you know no latin 20
And wil you talk sir None must iudge his parts.
But such as are wel skild in all the Arts
Nor is it fit you iest on him Sir, since
He late hath conquer d a faire latin prince,
He hath a zelous sword if you he heares 25
Be sure heele cut of your rebellious eares,
fly to ye Globe or Curtaine with your trul,
Or gather musty phrases from ye Bui,
This was not for your dyet he doth bring
what he prepare! for our Platonique King. I 30
Goe court your mistres sir hees likewise gon
And I am left halfe angry hear alone
Glad that I have ye Poet so commended
Mad that such dull inventions were comwended
To such a sacred audience, was his muse
Tongue ty de, or witt bound? that she did refuse
To lend new matter, or els did her deeme
Crambe bis cocta was of such esteeme?
1 8/ Long ... marquess: reference is to a poem written on Cambridge flays of 1615: see Nelson (to 1 ). Cambridge,
vol 2. pp 866-7. 11.7-8
211 Globe, Curtaine-. London theatres
28/ yc Bui: the Red Bull, a London theatre
APPENDIX 2
what though Ben Johnson made some alteration
Yet stil he built vppon ye old foundation
Nay more tis feared ye second repetition
wil plague ye print, or els with a new edition
The title this, A pleasant Comedy
Lately presented to his maiesty.
The prince ye marques, & ye Courtiers prudent
At Woodstock manner by ye Christ Church student.
would once twere come to that, for then mighte wee
Be cleared from a general obloquy 10
for most beleiue, nor wil they change theire minde
That al ye vniversity combin d
In ye performance, and with out al doubt
To countenance toy, twas so given out
Nor at ye court alone, more was ye pitty 15
Tis so beleiu d in villadge towne and citty
Nay I haue hard ye Rascal black gard say,
Schollers run home, study and mend your play
Horrible Truth shall pnuate weaknes bee
A slander to ye vniversity. 20
Giue Cambridge such occasion us to mock
And make poor Oxford a pure laughing stock
fate of life, and can I hould my peace
Vrg d thus, & from reueng so iust surcease
Twere but the wit of iustice now to raile 25
Vppon ye Poet, but twil not availe
And therefore out of mercy He be free
To pitty and giue counsel with out fee.
The better to digest his new disgrace
1 would not haue him run to such a place 30
where it may bee preferment to endure
To teach some schools or els to starue some cure.
A milder course is better let him get
Commendatory letters and intrete
His worthy freind iudicious Mr Ley 35
To write a Persian censure on his play.
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS V.a.345, pp 140-2
1-21 what though ... foundation: the clear implication that Benjonson altered (improved ) the play has not
been verified
36/ a Persian censure: ;>, ofPersius
7 76 APPENDIX 2
References: Crum W2255; Nichols, pp 1109-10 (first six lines only); Cavanaugh, pp xxxi-
xxxvu
Note: Attributed to Peter Heylyn (see p 427). Followed in BL: MS Sloane 542, ff 38-9, by
The Epigram (Poem C)
Other copies: Bodl., BL, Folger, Harvard (followed by The King and the Court - see
p 789), Vale
An Answere to ye Satyr.
Thou that as yet hast no name of thine owne 10
But hopest by traducing his to be knowne
Enioy thy dear purchase, yet not without laughter.
Be thy name halfe Holyday euer after
for in learning and wit I would haue thee belieue
Where Holyday comes thou art but his Eue. 15
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS V.a.345, p 142
References: Nichols, p 1112; Cavanaugh, p xxxvii
Note: Apparently unique. Attributed to Peter Heylyn (see Appendix 13, p 886)
C) Mr Merideth on Christ Church Play
Att Christ Church marriage act before the King
That thos ma/mes should not want an offering
The King himselfe did offer; what 1 pray?
Hee offred twice or thrice to goe away.
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS Va.97, p 44
References: Crum C229, T392; Cavanaugh, pp xxix-xxxi
Note: Followed by Poem D. More copies survive of this poem than of any other that survives
from the controversy. Crum A 1341 identifies And you have offered too methinks,
your pleasure as an answer. See also Appendix 13, p 886.
Other copies: Bodl., BL, Folger, Harvard, NLW, Yale
D) ( 1 ) Holyday of Christ Church his answere to it
More trouble yet, twas but an organist
And fooles & fidlers may do what they list,
But could ye Chanter suffer him to play
Such foolish verses on a holy day.
2 1/ Mr Merideth: William Meredith, organist of New College, subject also of Crum H886
37/ an organist: William Meredith
APPENDIX 2
777
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS V.a.345, p 13
References: Crum M462
Note: Attributed in Poem D(2) to Holyday. Nichols, p 1 109, cites as Our Arts...
(2) The Reply
What more anger yet? twas but an Organist
ffidlers and fooles may say what they list
But would the Chanter giue him leaue to play
Such idle ligges vpon an Holliday. 10
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS Va.97, p 44
References: Crum W615-16
Other copies: Bodl., BL, Folger, Yale
E) Vpon Christ church play acted before King lames at Woodstock
Brag on old Christ Church neuer frett nor greeue,
But in thy practise let proud Wolsey Hue
Who neuer thought he well ptrformd that thing 20
Was not about or els aboue ye King.
His fault was ego first & then rex meus
Thine greater when as rex is ioynd w/th deus,
God nor ye Kinge seem d to approuue that play
That made his saboth lesse then holy day 25
ye play was made by Holyday of Christ Church
Source of this transcription: Folger: MS V.a.345, p 12
References: Crum B520; Nichols, p 1111; Cavanaugh, p xxxix
Note: Answered by Poem F
Other copies: Bodl., BL, Folger, Yale
F) If I can iudge a sick man by his fitt
The Poet hath more heresie then witt
for if the last verse of the 8 tri say true, 35
What ever his country be he is a lew.
Source of this transcription: Bodl.: MS. Rawlinson D.1048, f 61 v
References: Crum 1812; Nichols, p 1111; Cavanaugh, p xxxix (note)
5/ The Reply: it, to Mr Merideth on Christ Church Play (Poem C)
36/ a lew: ie. Jewish because he considers the sabbath Saturday rather than Sunday
778
APPENDIX 2
10
Note: Answers Poem E
Other copies: Bodl., BL
I could forgiue thy macharoing rimes
Did they condemne mee r onely and thes times.
But how comes Wolsay in, why dost thou lay
My faults on him? hee founded not my play.
Nor doe wee in our Oxford Wolsey say
When wee intend to rayle, but wee pray.
And what hath Sunday done? Why dost thou spite
God, for my sake? and rob him of his right?
The Saboth in thy throat, better bee dumbe,
Then by thy phrase deny yat Christ is come.
Source of this transcription: BL: MS Sloane 1792, f 64
References: Nichols, p 1111; Cavanaugh, p xxxix
Note: Attributed to Barten Holyday
Other copies: BL, Yale
Cambridge men on Hollyday and his play before ye King/ terme newes 20
from Cambridge
Blame me not (muses) cause I often play
for it is lawful! vppon a Hollyday
shold I play more, I doe but w/wt is fitt 25
Play is a good subject, for an idle witt
Sith yat such playinge, I doe not affect
But can, & will my idlensse correct
\\hic\\ to prove true, my more y^n three-bare verse
Strange newes from out of Cambrige shall A reherse 1 30
Cambridge schollers laugh, & laughinge say
Christ Church men in Oxford made a play
A brave play, a play fitt for the kinge
Nay such a play ye like was never scene
It /cost 1 them silver it cost A them gold 35
It made yem give great Tom a lesser mold
It y^m all soe poore, y^t it is sed I
yat they for thirst wold nothing eat but bred
12- 13/ The Saboth ... is come: ie. his critic fails to acknowledge that the Christian sabbath is Sunday
281 idlensse: for idlenesse
37/ It: for It left or It made (?)
779
APPENDIX 2
for all their charges, & for all theire cost
wh f e ] n all came to all, twas but labor lost
ye King, ye prince, ye Marquesse all his traine
were come, whome Christ Church men wold entertain
who with a play yet of ye last edition
scorning ye helpe of foole or of Physition
ye Marquest sent his Coach (as men say)
To fetch ye players royally away
Being come to Court, & by ye guard embraced
Vpp in ye highest cockloft they were placed
They had noe sooner brought ye prologue out
But streyght ye King begann to turne about
And asked ye Marquesse if they had not done
who stright replyed they had but new begun
w/th yat ye King slept 2 howers &: more 15
ye nobles they runne tumblinge out of doore
they went (say Christ Church men to laugh willing
because they durst laugh before ye king
ye King begining now his 3 howers sleepe
Their mery bells such ginling nos d did keepe 20
yat he awakid, & shaking of his head
wish d them all hang d for keping him from bed
he cold not laugh to see such foolish toyes
but cals his foole to mocke those Christ Church boyes
It did soe well content him that he swore 25
this is soe good, yat He see it noe more I
ye play being donne, he sent his noble men,
to know who "t was that worthy play did pen
they cold not ask d for Hollyday did cry
Looke you for him yat made this play, t was I 30
These be some blankes & here is pen & Inke
you [doe] come to give me a liuing as 1 thinge
Noe sayd ye nobles, which did his courage coole
ye king wol d have you, shake bands bands w/th his foole
yee scholers, fy I meane you Christ Church men 35
As you like this, soe make a play agen
ye king to grace you more, gave you a marke
&C bid you seeke your bedes in wod stocke parke
17/ (say ... men: closing parenthesis omitted
32/ a liuing: earlier acton and playwrights had been granted a lii ing by the monarch: see pp 130. 133: and
Nelson (ed). Cambridge, vol 1. p 243 (Edward Halliwtll)
32/ thinge: for thinke
780 APPENDIX 2
There was a grace, to heer ye king thus say
I loved you well before you made this play
Nay ye blacke guard which knew noe letter
Cold say ye play was good, where there noe better
for shame leave of, if youle gett some prayes 5
study a while & read Ben lohnsons playes.
Source of this transcription: BL: MS Egerton 923, ff 63v-4v
References: Crum B384
Note: Followed by Poem I
Other copies: Bodl., BL
Barten Holiday to the Puritan on his Technogamia.
Tis not my person, nor my play, 15
But my sirname, Holiday,
That does offend thee, thy complaints
Are not against me, but the Saints;
So ill dost thou endure my name,
Because the Church doth like the same, 20
A name more awfull to the puritane
Than Talbot unto france, or Drake to Spaine.
Source of this transcription: Wits Recreations (London, 1640; STC: 25870, No 485)
References: Nichols, p 1111; Cavanaugh, pp xxxix-xl
Note: Presumably by Barten Holyday
Other copies: BL, Yale
J) An aunswere to A skandall layd
on Mr Merideth. p:35: 30
Nor Organist, nor ffidler, nor yet ffbole,
Three termes equivalent in youre learned schoole,
Compos d those lines, it was A Sparke yat had
A strayne y^t made your noble ffestus mad.
It was noe antheame singer, though yat day
did crave an antheame rather then A play.
Twas one y^t wonders how A Poet can
Make his free Muse to turne A journey man.
Six Miles his Muse did travell, this I thinke 40
The cause yat made his verses feete to stinke.
41 where: for were 307 p:35: Yak. Osborn Shthts. B200, p 35
78 1
APPENDIX 2
His play at first had not soe sweete A strayne,
But yat ye 2 n
