Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/448

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NOTES AND Q UERIES. [11 s. iv. DEC. 2, 1011.

in ' Letters and Papers.' In J. Foster's ' Collectanea Genealogica,' x. 1883, p. 19, the name of Robert Aske appears as ad- mitted at Gray's Inn in 1527 ; and Foster identifies this person with Aske of Aughton ; so, too, the ' D.N.B.' article speaks of Aske as a " fellow of Gray's Inn." Now, as already said, the papers in the MS. which mention Aske are, with one exception, legal notes, evidently by some law student ; and since they have no connexion with the remaining contents of the volume, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that the legal papers which accompany them, but do not contain Aske's name, come from the same source. Two of these last-mentioned papers (ff. lib, 13), both in the same hand, contain notes of law readings by a lector named Yorke in Lent term, 22 Hen. VIII. (1531) ; and one (f. lib) mentions Gray's Inn as the place. The lector in question may well have been Roger Yorke, who is named as a Fellow of Gray's Inn in a Subsidy Roll of 1523, printed by F. A. Inderwick, ' Calendar of the Inner Temple Records,' 1896, vol. i. p. 460. Here we get these papers definitely connected with Gray's Inn ; and the dates, here and in the others, well suit the time when Aske, admitted in 1527, must have been pursuing his legal studies.

The strongest evidence is, however, given by the papers in ff. 29-34 (same hand as ff. 7-9 b). These are forms of writs with notes on them, and the name of Robert Aske is used, doubtless exempli gratia. The first contains the words " rectum teneatis Roberto Aske armigero de uno messuagio cum pertinentiis in Actonia ' ' ; and another (f. 30) gives further names : " de maneriis de Actonia et Ellertonia .cum pertinentiis et de uno messuagio et decim [sic] et octo bovatis terre cum pertinentiis in Cotyngwith et Storwhath." These places are : Aughton, Ellerton, Cottingwith, Storthwaite, all ad- jacent places in co*. York ; and it is clear that the Robert Aske mentioned in con- nexion with them must be Robert Aske of Aughton.

A further question now arises. None of these Aske papers seems to be in the hand- writing of Aske himself. The hand of ff. 7-9 b, 29-34 is obviously different from Aske's, though, since it is a formal scribe's hand, it is not wholly impossible that he may have written these entries in a different style of hand from that of his ordinary use, but there is no evidence for this. The rougher hand seen on ff. lib, 13 is also probably not Aske's, though it is not

possible to be quite certain of this, since all the autograph papers of Aske in * Letters and Papers ' are at the Record Office, not in the Museum ; but such comparison of the two as I could make did not suggest any great resemblance ; nor do I see reason to believe that Aske's hand appears any- where in the volume. In view of this it might be supposed that the legal papers have no connexion with Aske ; that they are miscellaneous notes by more than one person, and that Aske's name was introduced merely as being that of a person prominent at the time. This, however, seems to be disproved by the following considerations : (1) Such dates as occur are earlier than the Pilgrimage of Grace, when Aske was still unknown to fame. (2) The local know- ledge indicated by the place-names on f. 30 seems to presuppose a person from that neighbourhood. (3) If these papers did not form a single collection, it seems diffi- cult to account for their presence in a volume dealing, except for them, with genealogical, historical, and antiquarian matters. (4) The document on f. 9 (of which presently) seems conclusive against the supposition ; it at least can hardly be fictitious. The con- clusion seems to be either that, despite appearances, these papers were really written by Aske, using various styles of hand, or else that they are copies of his notes while a law student, perhaps passed about among fellow-students.

The document on f. 9 just referred to, which alone of the Aske papers is not legal in character, is the only one which gives us any substantial addition to our knowledge of Aske's career, and it is of sufficient interest to justify its publication in full. I give it as it is in the MS., merely extending abbre- viations and following modern usage in regard to capital letters : -

Memorandum that I Robert Aske seruaunt vnto the right honorable the Erie of North- umberland hath resauede of my said lord and master in the battelment aboue Sainte Stevens Chapell at Westmonster the xvij 6 day of May in the xix* yer off King Henry the viij [1527] as doth aper in the end cZ,

Wheroff deliueryd in parcelles by my said lord commaundment as folowythe

Inprimis deliueryd to [blank] Wilbert my lordes seruaunt ffor his cosies ridinge by post to Wresill [Wressell, co. York] xxs.

Item to my said lord him selff in his chambre at York Place in gold iijZ. vijs. v]d.

Item deliueryd to John Jenkes vpon a bill singned with my lordes own hand for bord- wages* iiijL xviijs. v]d.

word than the first given in the ' N.EJD.' (1539).
 * This is a somewhat earlier instance of the