Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/496

488 volumes of Cheshire collections which belonged to his ancestor Peter Shakerley. These include no doubt the nine volumes lent to Gower. We have looked at them all and examined some of them in detail, with the result that in volume iv (which consists mainly of abstracts of the final concords extracted from the original bundles at Chester between 1631–9 either by Booth or Vernon) we found copies of a number of charters and documents 'taken forth of the Roll called Cheshyre Domesday', then apparently (1638) at Chester Castle among the records of the prothonotary, Henry Birkenhead. No doubt these are the 'principal contents' referred to by Gower. It was a little difficult to be certain exactly which of the documents had been enrolled in the 'Domesday', but most of them record that fact, and they are nearly all grouped together under the special heading. Some of the charters are unknown and of interest, though there is none earlier than 1269, which seems to show that the earlier membranes had by 1638 got detached from the roll. They make it still more clear that the roll contained a great many more entries besides those copied by the herald in 1580. There may be fifty or more documents taken from the roll in this collection, besides other charters found among the fines which are referred to under 5 below. Some of the former are also in the Chartulary of Chester Abbey. 3. Entries in the Gough Manuscripts:

Among these papers, in the Bodleian Library, there is a volume (Cheshire, no. 1) which contains 'Antiquitys concerning Cheshire: collected from authentick records: with an abstract of their contents, according to the commands of the Lord Malpas by his Lordship's humble servant Randal Minshull'. The bulk of the contents was collected or entered up about 1591–5 and principally by 'your uncull-in-lawe Tho. Stanley', and Minshull added titles and a list of contents about 1730. Stanley was no doubt the same as Thomas Stanley of Weaver and Alderley, who died in 1591, having married an aunt of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (died 1601). The latter's great-grandson was created Viscount Malpas in 1706 and died in 1725. Among Stanley's collections in this volume are short notes of a few charters enrolled in the 'booke called Domesday', relating to the collegiate church of St. John at Chester. He mentions five grants enrolled on 17 February 43 Henry III (1258/9); and also four others enrolled on 18 February 29 Edward III (1354/5) in the time of Thomas de Ferrers, justiciar of Chester. The herald did not copy any of these in 1580.

4. Other documents collected from various sources, showing in themselves that they had been enrolled in the 'Domesday'. Ormerod had notes of several, and we have collected many more.