Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/442

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii B.-XIL DEC. 4, 1915.

the Account-roll of 1436-7. He does not quote them with perfect accuracy, but, even if he had done so, no support would have been given to his statement that she was present. There is not a word about her in these references, which are as follows :

" Et in expensis factis circa Suffraganum domini Cardinalis [Cardinal Beaufort's Suffragan] consecrantem altare in Capella Johannis Fromond xxvi die mensis Augusti et alios prandentes in

camera Custodis, ixs. xd In una tena data

Episcopo Enagdunenci [the Bishop of Annadown, who acted as Suffragan] consecranti altare in capella Johannis Fromond cum iis. viiid. datis ii famulis eiusdem, vs. viii<Z." (' Custus forincecus cum donis.')

It appears, therefore, that what the Suffragan received in recognition of his services was not, as Kirby supposed, a supper (" cena "), but something in the way of headgear, " tena " meaning (according to Martin's ' Record Interpreter ') either a coif or the pendants of a mitre.

4. Among documents at the College which relate to Fromond there is a release which his executors obtained in 1424 from the Prior of St. Denis :

" Pateat xmiyersis per presences me Thomam Wynchestre priorem sancti Dionisii in com. Suthamptonie remisisse et relaxasse Roberto Thurbern clerico Johanni Halle armigero et Ricardo Seman executoribus testament! Johannis Fromond omnimodas actiones personales quas versus eos habeo. In cuius rei testimonium presentibus sigillum meum apposui. Dat. sexto die Aprilis anno regni Regis Henrici sexti post conquestum Anglie secundo."

The fact that Mrs. Fromond is ignored in this document strikes me as strong corro- borative evidence that she was then dead.

5. Had Kirby' s story been true, Mrs. Fromond would have outlived Robert Heete, who, as has been shown elsewhere (11 S. ix. 466), died on 27 Feb., 1432/3. But proof that she died first is supplied by the Inven- tory of College goods which Heete inserted in the Register called ' Liber Albus.' Ad- ditions to the Inventory were, indeed, made after Heete' s death ; but the task of dis- tinguishing the additions is fairly easy : it is a matter not only of handwriting, but also of rubrication, for he alone rubricated entries in this Inventory. Under " Ciphi, Salaria et alia vasa de argento," his tenth, eleventh, and twelfth items are these :

"Item i ciphus harnesiatus cum argento deaurato vocatus Note [a Nut] cum pede et coqpertorio in cuius summitate parte interior! scribiturb.ec dictio 'I h s' amelata ex legato Matildis quondam [Re, probably for Relicte, but struck out] Uxoris Johannis Fromond. Item alius ciphus harnesiatus cum argento deaurato yocatus Note [cum iii pedibus iii leonibus et iir ymaginibus de sancta maria, struck out] cum

cooperculo de argento deaurato et scribitur in eodem ' he shall have crystes blessynge to hys^ dele : whoso of me drynketh wele ' ex. dono eiusdem et ponderat [blank],

" Item i salarium de "argent 6 cum cooperculo habente Aquilam in summitate sua ex legato eiusdem Matildis et ponderat [blank]."

It must be conceded that the items which were written in regular sequence below the- three that have just been quoted were written later. It follows, therefore, that Mrs. Fromond had certainly died before- April, 1427, for one of the lower items,, Heete's seventeenth, runs thus :

" Item sex duodene cocliarium de argent o- [six dozen silver spoons], precio xii ne xxiiiis., ad usum scolarium ex dono et ordinacione magistri Nicholai Osulbury socii collegii beate marie Wynton. in Oxon. [where he became Warden in 1435] et Roberti Heete nuper socii eiusdem collegii ad orandum specialiter pro anima domini fundatoris dicti collegii et animabus omnium fidelium defunctorum et specialiter pro animabus parentum magistri Thome Burton et predictorum Nicholai et Robert! magistri Willelmi Malton Ricardi Crymok Edmundi Fitzhsymond etRicardi Southwyk dicendo semel in anno singulariter et communiter pro omnibus supradictis Placebo et Dirige cum commendacionibus. Sub condicione eciam quod si contingat aliquod predictorum cocliarium per negligentiam vel industrianx alicuius eorundem scolarium perdi frangi vel pejorari, ipse qui dampnum intulit satisfaciat pro- eodem. Acta et registrata sunt hec mense Aprilis Anno domini millesimo cccc mo xxvii [the whole Hem being bracketed against the price :J precii viili. iiiis."

'" Pejorare est orare." It is not surprising that a later hand than Heete's has added the note " cave quod unum deest," nor that,, in spite of this warning, all the spoons long^ ago disappeared.

6. My attention has been drawn to the following statement which occurs in the letterpress to Radclyffe's ' Memorials ' of the College (n.d., but published c. 1847) r opposite to Plate V., ' The Library ' (as Fromond's Chantry then was) :

" Over the Chapel is an apartment, the original destination of which has given rise to various conjectures. But there can be little doubt that it was designed by Fromond for a library ; for it appears by an entry in the Computus, A.D. 1428, compared with another, A.D. 1457, that it was used as such within eight years of his death."

The Computus (Account-roll) of 1427-8 is no longer to be found. But, all the same,, the entries referred to in the above statement were probably these :

" In solut. eidem [Johanni Cohnan] pro cathenacione diversorum librorum in libraria hoc anno, viiid." (1426-7, ' custus capelle '),

and

"In solut. eidem [Stephano Glasyer] emendanti iliversos defectus in capella Fromond et in.