Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/322

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s. xn. OCT. 23, 1915.

regard to headings or dates, and some of their mistakes must now be mentioned.

Knowledge that Heete's work is not wholly free from error comes partly from three early Election rolls which have escaped the ravages of time and mice. The first of these rolls is dated August, 1408, and 9 H. IV., with the day of the month left blank ; the second is dated Tuesday, 19 August, 11 H. IV. (i.e. 1410) ; and the third, 9 September, 1 H. V. (i.e. 1413). Upon comparing the contents of these rolls with the lists in the Register, I discovered that Heete's heading of 8 H. IV. comprises the Scholars elected in 9 H. IV., and that he is similarly just a year out with regard to the Scholars elected 'in 11 H. IV. and 1 H. V., his headings here being of 10 and 13 H. IV. His annotator, who was unaware of these mistakes, assigned to the years 1407, 1409, and 1412 lists which really belong to the Elections of 1408, 1410, and 1413.

The fact that Heete's Register is for a while just one year out is a latent trouble ; but in conjunction with it we must consider another trouble, a patent one, which has long harassed students of his work. There is a period during which his headings do not succeed one another with the regularity that one might expect to find in a record of admissions under annual Elections. There are two separate, consecutive lists, both headed as of 5 H. IV., and the first of them beginning with Geoffrey Motte's name. But somebody afterwards struck out the heading to the first of these lists, and so sought to unite that list with the preceding list of

4 H. IV. Hence the lengthy roll of forty- five names which Kirby gives under 1403.

After the second list for 5 H. IV., the order of the headings is as follows : 6 H. IV. ; 7 H. IV. (12 names); 9 H. IV. (26 names, Edmund Blakesley's coming first), but this heading was subsequently struck out, to unite the list with the preceding one ; 8 H. IV., this list being proved by the Election roll to be really of the Scholars admitted under the Election of 1408 ; then, for the second time, 9 .H. IV. (Kirby's 1408) ; 10 H. IV. ; and so onward without any patent hitch.

It will be observed that the heading

5 H. IV. occurs twice, and so does the heading 9 H. IV. (at a point where the order looks palpably irregular), and that in each case there has been a striking-out. These strik- ings-out were not, I think, done by Heete himself ; they seem to be the rash acts of the early annotator whom I have already mentioned, for the struck-out headings are ignored in his scheme of dates.

It might be suggested that a repeated leading indicates two Elections within one fear. But I should not regard that sugges- ion as helpful ; for there are the Account- rolls of 1403-4 and 1407-8, one running rom Saturday before Michaelmas 4 H. IV. ,o Saturday before Michaelmas 5 H. IV. r and the other from Michaelmas 8 H, IV. to Michaelmas 9 H. IV., and each of these rolls definitely states (under ' custus visitatorum ' J hat there was only one Election in the year. Moreover, the aim of the Statutes (rubric 3) was to secure an annual Election to be held >etween the translation of St. Thomas the Martyr (7 July) and 1 October. The pro- ceedings occupied six days.

Having thus explained the nature of the problem which the Register presents, I at last back to the Hall-book of 1406-7 in order throw upon the problem. It will be con- venient to split up its materials into lettered! paragraphs.
 * hat we may see what light the book care

(a) In the 1st week of the 1st quarter there were 69 Scholars (one short of the full number), and the note "re. h a " (recessit hoc anno) has been put to 15 of them. If this noting is correct, we must infer that no more than 16 new Scholars were admitted during the year, exclusive of any boy whose stay was so short that he had given place to a successor before the year had ended.

(6) The book, as we now have it, stops abruptly with the week which ended on Friday, 6 August. By that date (so the weekly lists show) 11 Scholars had left and 12 had come, exclusive (as regards both figures) of one boy, Kannere, who had both come and gone. As each of the 11 is one of the 15 who are noted "re. h a " in the opening week, it is tolerably clear that that noting is correct.

(c) Here is a list of the new-comers, with names arranged in order of coming :

(I) Kannere or Kaunere, whichever be the right reading of the name ; (2) Hannyngton ; (3) Rowlond ; (4) Farnham ; (5) Frankeleyn ; (6) Cosyn; (7) Norlond ; (8) Bray (Kirby's "Brayn"); (9) Mayhu ; (10) Keplond ;

(II) Wylkotis; (12) Hakester (" Thomas- Agaster de Bodston " in the Register, where " Bodston " means Boston in Lincolnshire, and not, as Kirby suggested, Biddestone in Wilts) ; (13) Slade (who came in the 2nd week of the 4th quarter, where jhe is marked " hie primo ").

(d) The bulk of these new-comers, i.e. 10- of them (Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13 in my list), occur in the Register in the place where, guided by the Hall-book, one