Project Purley

The Local History Society for Purley on Thames

Mediaeval Sources

Introduction

This section covers original documents written in manuscript up to the 16th Century. Many of them have been transcribed and published but the number available in printed form is still comparatively small in comparison with the huge volume of material which has survived. The major difficulty for the amateur historian is getting the documents transliterated, transcribed and translated.

The vast majority are written in mediaeval Latin in Court hand and because of the cost of parchment the mediaeval scribes would take every opportunity of abbreviating and as well as attempting to decipher the letters themselves, one also has to add the case ending and decipher all the little dots and squiggles which indicated missing letters or syllables. Luckily many of the documents are in ‘Standard Form’, that is they contain phrases which reappear in most similar documents, so once you get a transcript of onedocument of a type and become familiar with itsconstruction, the others are relatively easy to read.

They may be found in almost any of the locations for sources and many have been either transcribed or calendared (ie summarising the key points) and published by a variety of bodies

Bishops’ Registers

Bishops began keeping a register of their Acts in the early part of the 13th century. In them they recorded such items as institutions, ordinations, summons, judgements and copies of correspondence. The Registers of the Bishops of Sarum survive from 1297 (Simon of Ghent) and are almost complete up till the time when Berkshire was transferred to the Diocese of Oxford. They are held at the Wiltshire Record Office and a few volumes have been translated and published by the Canterbury and York Society. Most of the references to Purley have been photocopied and translated. Many of the registers have been published by the Canterbury and York Society and the ones relevant to Purley, ie Sarum and Canterbury Dioceses, deposited in the Douai Abbey Library. There are also a number of British records from the Papal registers in the Reading University Library.

Court Rolls

Court Rolls were started by Henry I when he reorganised the administration of the Royal Courts although some series commenced before that. They contains considerable detail of transactions of the Courts. Almost all have been printed in calendar form and are available in Reading University Library. The ones of most importance for Purley are:

Close Rolls (44)
Patent Rolls (100)
Inquisitions Post Mortem (103)
Pipe Rolls (111)
Book of Fees (105)
Feudal Aids (106)
Memorandum Rolls (107)
Curia Regis Rolls (63)
The Black Princes Register (71)
Fine Rolls (85)
Charter Rolls (99)
Hundred Rolls (112)
Red Book of the Exchecquer (112)

Reading Abbey Cartulery

The Reading Abbey Cartuleries contain copies of charters and other documents of Reading Abbey. Most are from the 12th and 13th centuries andn have been transcribed and edited by Dr Brian Kemp in the Camden series. The originals are in the British Library (eg Harley collection) and microfilm copies are held by John Chapman of those charters of interest to Purley.

Charters and Deeds

There is a very large number and variety of charters and deeds. The usual procedure was to write the information twice of parchment and then cut the two parts apart with a wavy line. This made it very difficult to forge or change documents as both the text and the wavy line had to match on the copies kept by the two parties.





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