Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/131

 Borough of Leicester,' vol. i. 1103-1327 (1899) ; vol. ii. 1327-1509 (1901) ; vol. iii. 1509-1603 (1905). It was not only a scholarly edition of an important series of texts, but the elaborate introductions ; showed real insight and grasp of her stubborn material. She pursued her study of local history in editing 'The Charters of the Borough of Cambridge' with Prof, Maitland (1901) and 'The Cambridge Gild Records' (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1903). For the same society she issued, in 1903 and 1905, two volumes of 'Grace Book B,' containing proctors' accounts, 148&-1511 ('Luard Memorial' series, vols. ii. and iii.). This was her chief contribution to Cambridge University history. Cambridge libraries, especially the manuscript collections at Corpus, often provided her with material. From them came the texts for an edition of the hitherto unprinted poems of George Ashby [q. v.], a fifteenth-century poet (Early English Text Society, extra series, pt. lxxvi. 1899), and 'The Scottish King's Household and other Fragments' (Scottish History Soc. Miscellany, ii. 1-43, 1904). Her interest in mediaeval bibliography, a fruit of her monastic studies, she illustrated in her edition of a sixteenth-century 'Catalogue of the Library of Syon Monastery, Isleworth, 1898' and in her collaboration with Mr. R. L. Poole in editing from a Bodleian manuscript the note-book which contains the materials collected by Bishop Bale for his second edition of his 'Catalogue of British Writers' (Index Britannia Scriptorum quos ex variis bibliothecis non parvo labore collegit loannes Baleus. Anecdota Oxoniensia, 1902 ; for her share see preface, pp. xxv-xxvi). She contributed the bibliography of British and Irish mediaeval history to the 'Jahresberichte der Geschichts-wissenschaft' for 1904 and 1905 (xxvii. iii. 186-234, in German, 1906; and in ib. xxviii. iii. 79-107, in English, 1907). Her conjoint interest in municipal and monastic history is well brought out in one of her latest articles on the topography and antiquities of the borough and abbey of Peterborough in 'Victoria County Hist., Northamptonshire,' ii. 424-60 (1906). Yet she seriously studied periods of history besides the Middle Ages. She published a 'Narrative of the changes of the Ministry, 1765-7,' told by unpublished letters of the Duke of Newcastle (Royal Historical Society, 'Camden' series, 1898), and in 1893 she edited 'A Collection of Original Letters from the Bishops to the Privy Council,' 1564 (pp. 6-84)(Camden Miscellany, 1893, vol. ix.).

Unduly modest in postponing continuous literary composition, Miss Bateson spent many years in editing, calendaring, and compiling. But gradually the full extent of her powers was revealed. Her papers on the 'Laws of Breteuil,' in the 'English Historical Review' (vols. xv. and xvi. 1900-1), showed that she was a scholar of the first rank, able to grapple with the hardest problems, and possessed of rare clearness and excellent method. Here she gave the death-blow to the ancient error that a large number of English towns base their institutions on the laws of Bristol, whereas the little town of Broteuil in Normandy is the true origin. Her last and in some ways her most masterly contribution to early municipal history was her two volumes of 'Borough Customs,' edited by her for the Selden Society, with very elaborate introductions (vol. i. 1904 ; vol. ii. 1906). Her method of arranging extracts of the custumals according to their subject-matter was only possible to one who had complete command of her extensive material. Maitland anticipated that the book would fill a permanent place 'on the same shelf with the "History of the Exchequer," and the "History of Tithes." Neither Thomas Madox nor yet John Selden will resent the presence of Mary Bateson' (Collected Papers, iii. 542-3).

The freshness and individuality of Mary Bateson's work showed to advantage in her occasional efforts at popularising knowledge. Her 'Mediaeval England, 1066-1350' ('Story of the Nations,' 1903), is an original and brightly written survey of mediaeval social life. She contributed much social history of modern times to Social England' (1895-7), and gave a striking instance of her versatility by writing on 'The French in America (1608-1744)' in the 'Cambridge Modern History,' vii. 70-113. To this Dictionary she contributed 109 articles between 1893 and 1900, chiefly on minor mediaeval personages, but showing thoroughness of research and sedulous accuracy.

In 1905 Miss Bateson was Warburton lecturer in the University of Manchester. In 1906 she accepted the appointment as one of the three editors of the projected 'Cambridge Mediaeval History,' of which vol. i. appeared in 1911. In spite of her fine physique and vigour, she died on 30 Nov. 1906, after a brief illness, and after a funeral service in St. John's College chapel was buried at the Cambridge cemetery, Histon Road.