Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/504

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NOTES AND QUERIES. LUS.XII. DEC .25,1915.

-the 4th week of the 1st quarter, " Mr. Scol." is marked " di.," and also " hie ultimo " ; next week there is no " Mr. Scol." ; and when we have him again in the 6th week, he is marked " hie primo," to indicate that 'Thomas Romsey had returned, and was filling the office for a second time.

Here is a select list, similar to others that I gave in previous articles, of guests who were in the Hall in the course of the year :

1st quarter, 2nd week, " Willelmus Glasiere " ; '3rd week, " Dominus Robertus Pevesey de domo sancti Johannis " ; 4th week, " Mr. in theologia fratrum Carmelitarum " ; 7th week, " Plumbarius de domo Sancti Swythuni. . . .unus de Dounton '[Wilts] deferens pannos radiatos generosorum," 'for the annual distribution of gown-cloth ; 10th week, " Lathamus emendans pavimentum claustri " ; 13th week, " famulus Hykenham cum puero ad prandium cum famulis, qui faciet tabulam pro altari in cena, homo de Huntingdon, firmarius de Durryngton [Wilts] in cena cum ociis " ; 2nd quarter, 1st week, " duo presbiteri -et duo mulieres, de Spetull," the Sustern Spital (Sisters' Hospital), which stood where the Head- master's House stands now ; 5th week, " Foster longe silve cum uxore sua " he is called " Fores- tarius de Ipngwode " in the book for 1415-6 ; 6th week, " j piscator de London," more probably a salesman concerned with Lenten fare than a forerunner of Izaak Walton and Sir Edward Grey ; ^9th week, " Dominus Walterus Sandres passe- ware," i.e., a passenger or wayfarer ; 3rd quarter, 8th week, "j homo de Tuyworrl," presumably Twyford ; 4th quarter, 2nd week, " ij presbiteri

Episcopi Wolpedale," a yariant for Uvedale ;

4th week, " iij homines de Marchelsie " ; 5th week, " presbiter Mri. Scole," who dined " cum sociis." " Finito libro sit laus et gloria Xpo," wrote the scribe on the cover at the end of the book.
 * ' Alicia Compton," at the high table ; 12th week,

It will be observed that the foregoing list includes female guests as well as male. The welcome given to the former was not, as Leach seemed to suppose (' History,' p. 142), , breach of the Founder's Statutes ; for the prohibition, in rubric 45, against the entrance of women into the College was care- fully qualified ; they were admissible " ex .causa racionabili et honesta per custodem vicecustodem aut bursarios approbanda," ,nd from the earliest times hospitality was regarded as good cause for their admission. One frequent guest at this period, who sometimes brought his wife with him, was Henry Kesewyk, a lawyer who occasioned an early and interesting use of the word " solicitor." To give the word its proper setting, it will be best here to quote from the roll of 1415-6 the whole entry as to Fees :

" Feoda In feodis Johannis Fromond senes- ralli terrarum Collegii per annum, vjZi. xiijs. iiijd. In feodis Ricardi W T yot unius de consilio Collegii per annum, xxs. In feodis Henrici Kesewyk sollicitatoiis negociorum Collegii in curia domini

Regis per annum, xiijs. iiijd. In feodis Roberti Ticchefeld clerici terrarum Collegii per annum, xls. In feodis Willelmi Byngham. "attornati Collegii in Communi Banco, xiij.s. iiijfZ. In feodis Johannis Hals Sergeaunt de consilio Collegii, xiijs. iiijd. per annum. In feodis Thome Bank attornati Collegii in scaccario domini Regis, vjs. viijd. In feodis Thome Broun alterius attornati in Communi Banco domini Regis, vjs. viijd. per annum. In feodis Mri. Thome Hursele Notarii Collegii per annum, xiijs. iiijd. In feodis Johannis Mist Auditoris super com- putum ballivorum et aliorum firma riorum diver- sorum maneriorum Collegii per annum, xiijs. iiijrf. In reWardo facto dicto Henrico Kesewyk pro bono labore suo hoc anno facto in negociis Collegii. xiijs. iiijd. preter infera data [gifts which are recorded in a later part of the roll]."

Kesewyk, who remained College solicitor until his death in 1420, first appears in that apacity in the Account-roll of 1410-1, a roll which, being written extravagantly on one side only of the parchment, measures over thirty-two feet in length. By his will, dated 29 March, 1420, he founded an annual obit to preserve his memory at the College, bequeathing for the purpose the reversion after his wife's death of his property at Southampton. The will, of which there is a copy in our ' Liber Evidentiarum,' A, fol. 85, was proved by his widow, Margery, before the Bishop's Commissary on 29 Sept., 1420. There are references to this Henry Kesewyk in the ' Victoria History of Hants ' in con- nexion with the manors of Hint on-Daub nay (Catherington), Stamshaw (Portsmouth), Rumbridge (Eling), and Somerly (Harbridge) ; see iii. 96, 193, and iv. 548n., 605 ; and as by his will he desired to be buried at the College, there can be no doubt that his was the brass, long ago lost from the Chapel, which Warton and others have quoted, but with an error of date :

" Hie jacet Henricus Kesewyk Specialis amieus hujus Collii qui obiit penult, die Marcii An. Dom. MCCCCIX [sic, in error for MCCCCXX], cujus aie." Thomas Warton's ' Winchester,' circa 1757, p. 31.

It is pleasant thus to identify the " specialis amieus " with the " sollicitator," an early member of a profession which is constantly providing a friend in need. But it seems not unlikely that the phrase " specialis amieus," as used on his brass, was borrowed from the College Statutes, rubric 16 of which limited the Commoners to ten sons " nobilium et valencium personarum dicti Collegii specia- lium amicorum." At any rate, there was a Kesewyk among the Commoners during part of 1415-6, and two Kesewyks subsequently became Scholars: Henry (1419) of Maple- durham, and William (1426) of Sparsholt, the parish for which the solicitor had evinced his regard by bequeathing 3*. 4d. to the