Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/68

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vni. JULY 26, 1913,

house, adjoining the-Priory of the Holy Trinity, was in their possession at least two centuries before even Sir Ernest Clarke knew of any definite mention of their town house. The Provost has most kindly gone through for me the MS. Registers of the Abbey, which are in the Uni- versity Library at Cambridge. These Registers were put together by some monkish editor early in the fourteenth century, and take us back to at least two centuries before that.

The apparently earliest mention of this London house (which is referred to as " beside the Church [Ecclesia] of Holy Trinity, London ") is in reference to the gift of a certain David Dacus, or the Dane.

Dr. Montague James has given me the extracts in the original monkish Latin, but for con- venience's sake I give here my husband's trans- lation of them. The early fourteenth-century compiler of the deeds says :

'' A certain London citizen, by name David the Dane, conferred the house of the Abbacy in the same place [i.e., by the Priory of the Holy Trinity] to S. Edmund, and S. Libertus, son of Yenar- dius of Cheshunt, in his portion, constituted S. Aedmund his heir, as it appears in the black* register of the Vestiarius." Fol. 152.

In MS. 4. 19 of this collection there is a deed which says :

" I will it to be known that I have appointed as heir to me the blessed King and Martyr Aedmund in that portion of land which I have held of S. Aed- mund in the estate of London which David the Dane gave to S. Aedmund when at the same time he had undertaken the habit of religion." It appears, therefore, that this David gave this London property by the side of the Priory of the Holy Trinity to the Abbots when he became a monk of Bury.

The fourteenth-century editor goes on :

" Also Robert the son of Radulf added to the aforesaid mansion his own portion, as appears in the foresaid register of the Vestiarius." MS., fol. 151.

The actual deed (Tf. 2. 33) runs thus :

" That ye may know that I have given to God and to the Church of S. Aedmund my holding which is beside the Church of Holy Trinity, London, next the Hospice of the Abbot of S. Aed- mund. [To these as witness] Theobald, Prior of the same Church, [and] William the Sacrist."

Nothing could be plainer than that ! Now, as to the date of this deed. Theobald was certainly Prior before 1148 A.D., because he is referred to before that time how much before it is difficult to determine ; but William the Sacrist was not in office apparently (so Sir Ernest Clarke) before 1156 or 1160, so we may date this addition to the Abbot's House at Bury-Marks somewhere about that time i.e., from 1156 to 1160 A.D. How long before this David the Dane gave the house it is impossible (at present) to say.

The fourteenth-century editor again narrates :

" Also Richard of Kentaville confirmed the [? his] portion with an annual rent of sixpence, as appears in the foresaid black register of the Vestiarius."

binding. Cf. ' Liber Albus ' of the City of London.
 * The books were called according to their

The actual deed says :

" I have granted to S. Aedmund and his Church the holding which Robert the son of Radulf held in London, nearest to the holding which S. Aedmund had held previously in the same City, just as the aforesaid Robert sold the same holding to the Abbot Hugo . . . .Ye may know also that that property which I sold to the same Abbot Hugo is the property which in that land he had owed to me."

Now, Abbot Hugo was Abbot Hugo the first, who reigned from 1156 to 1180, which quite agrees with our dating Robert the son of Radulf 's gift in addition to the original house at from 1156 to 1160 A.D.

The fourteenth-century editor also, in speaking of the London property of the Abbev, says (Ref. \V. P., fol. 191):

" Situated in front of the Hospice of the Abbot [of Bury] in the parish of S. Katherine is the Priory of the Holy Trinity, London " ; and he goes on to say that Abbot John of Bury, who reigned from 1279 to 1301, has been disseised of " one messuage with belongings in the parish of S. Katherine of Holy Trinity [i.e., St. Katherine Cree]." He was reinstated in this messuage 23 Ed. I. i.e.' A.D. 1292-3.

I think these extracts from the manuscripts of the Abbey are enough to show that, at the latest, the Abbots of Bury had a house in what is now known as Bevis Marks before 1156 A.D. How much earlier than that David the Dane's gift was it is impossible at present to say. The first Abbot of Bury was Uvuis, who was con- secrated in 1020. The Priory of the Holy Trinity, which was between what is now Duke Street and Mitre Street, was founded in 1109 by Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I., and, as you know, its Prior was " ex-officio " Alderman of the Ward of Portsoken, and performed all the office of alderman up to the time of the Dissolu- tion.

Stow knew much more about the Priory of the Holy Trinity than he did about the Abbot of Bury's property, because he was the possessor of, or had access to, four manuscript folios which he calls " The Liber Trinitatis " and " my book which some time belonged to the Priory of Holy Trinity." These manuscripts were once thought to be lost, but they have been since discovered in the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University. The Guildhall Library possesses a manuscript copy of them. As I said, there are four folios, and I need not add what a fine " quarry " they would be.

This is rather a rambling letter, but I think I have shown that the Town House of the Abbots of Bury S. Edmunds, as far as one can judge at present, was the gift of David the Dane, some time after 1020 the date of the first Abbot and certainly before 1156.

S. Edmund was murdered by Danes. Canute the Dane practically founded the Abbey. Hardi- canute the Dane granted it its charter, so it was quite fitting that " David the Dane " should give the Abbey its London house.

Believe me, with many regrets that I have not yet had the leisure to track quite home David the Dane, Yours sincerely,

(Sgd.) JANET HUNTER DOUGHTY.