Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/505

 12 s. i. JUNE 17, i9i6.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

499

WARING (12 S. i. 268, 377). There

was a family of this name residing in j Danby and 'adjacent dales in the N.E. Riding of Yorkshire in the first half of the last century. Vide pp. 61-166 of

Unhistoric Acts.

Some Records of Early Friends

In North-East Yorkshire.

By George Baker.

1906. Published by Headley Brothers, 14 Bishopsgate

Street, E.G., London.

Mr. John Gilbert Baker of 3 Cumberland Road, Kew, may be able to give MR. BEWLAY further information.

GEORGE MERRYWEATHER. Highland Park, 111., U.S.A.

PARISHES IN Two COUNTIES (11 S. ix. 29, 75, 132, 210, 273, 317, 374; xi. 421; 12 S. i. 450). Stamford is a municipal borough in three counties, viz., the soke of Peterboro', Lincolnshire, and Rutland. M. W.

PICTURE WANTED : TRIAL OF THE TICH- BORNE CLAIMANT (12 S. i. 327, 418). I learn that the name of the artist who painted this picture was O'Bryen Lomax. W. B. H.

0n

Calendar of the Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office.. Edward III. Vol. XVI. A.D. 1374-7. Prepared under the superintendence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records. (H.M. Stationery Office.)

THE text of this volume was prepared, under the supervision of Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, by Mr. M. C. B. Dawes, who, with Mr. A. E. Stamp, made the Index.

These last three years of Edward III. were a time of gloom. In 1374 the French dominions of the Crown, with the exception of Calais, Bor- deaux, and Bayonne, were lost ; and in 1376 the Black Prince died, in the midst of the struggle between the Good Parliament and the corrupt ministers of the King. The crown, the barons, the Commons, the Church, all were at variance ; and the disturbance, uncertainty, and gloom which prevailed together with the course through it all of men's private affairs, and of the vicissitudes of trade may be traced in these documents. Those relating to the French War are principally commissions to the principal men of the seaboard counties for the guarding of the coast against threatened invasion. A few days before the King's death suqh a commission was sent to the Bishop of Exeter, there being a rumour abroad that the French were about to land, and especially to attack the city of Exeter. The un- quiet state of men's minds in respect to religion, and the restiveness of the English Government under Papal attempts to control ecclesiastical business, are illustrated several times. Thus, in 1375, the Sheriff of Sussex is to look into the matter of the Pope's interference at Bosham ;

the new Abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury, the new Archbishop of Dublin, the new Bishops of Salisbury and of Winchester, receive their tem- poralities only after having renounced all words prejudicial to the King and his crown contained in the Papal Bull : and in February, 1377, there is a note of the agreement between the King and the Pope as to collations to benefices. Under date Feb. 23, however, we get a threatening mandate to all ecclesiastical persons to bring before the King's Court all bulls, instruments, or processes concerning the lands belonging to the cathedral church of Exeter matters in which some of the canons seem to have been promoting interference on the part of the Apostolic See.

Two particularly interesting series concern Oxford : one the Priory of St. Frideswide, which was in difficulties ; the other, and more important one, the University, which, as every student of its history knows, was during this period a centre of considerable turbulence, and had to be taken in hand from outside. The matters dealt with in these pages include the disputes between the Chancellor and the masters and bachelors in theology on the one hand and the faculties of law on the other, for which a commission of five bishops had been appointed. There arose also a minor disturbance over one Friar John Wolferton, a Dominican, whom the University authorities had banished. We have here the Inspeximus- of the ordinances made by the bishops ; and further commission to certain doctors and bache- lors of the University to deal with yet another outbreak, which is described as causing a " scandal " and " terror."

Those who are interested in the history of St. Katherine by the Tower will find here a good series of documents relating thereto ; and for the history of London generally this volume offers- a good deal of noteworthy material.

In the way of references to interesting persons we must mention four documents relating to Chaucer. In regard to one of them there has occurred an unfortunate mistake : the Index, under Chaucer in 'a separate entry, mentions a John Chaucer, the King's Esquire, but in the text referred to the name is given as Geoffrey. The other three Chaucer documents are the grants to Geoffrey Chaucer of the keeping of the lands of a minor and of the keeping of the rent and the marriage of another minor, and the permission to him, as Controller of the Customs, to appoint a man as his deputy, seeing he himself is often otherwise occupied on the King's service. We have the full statement of the dower of Joan, widow of the Black Prince ; and may mention with this three or four pardons to members of the King's household for the loss of pieces of the King's plate in their keeping, which give fairly good lists of precious objects belonging to the King. Under April 2, 1377, occurs the gift of " the mazer cup called ' Edward ' " and thirty- nine other mazer cups to the Friars Preachers at Childernelangele. "

The number of deeds of violence of which this volume contains record, and in particular of the wrongdoings of clerics or quasi- clerics, is con- siderable, and speaks for the tumultuousness of the times. One William Danyell confessed to a series of robberies set down in detail, of which one can only wonder that he remembered them and his profits from them so well. Other im- portant and interesting series of facts illustrated