Records of Harrold Priory

Summary

The Cartulary of the Arrouaisian Priory of Harrold was written in the first part of the xvth cent., but after 1417 (no. 315). It contains a few charters which seem to have been transcribed word for word, but it is chiefly made up of mere brief abstracts of the original documents. From the standpoint of Latinity or diplomatic, it would be of no advantage to print these abstracts in a Latin which occasionally is markedly shaky; but the Cartulary has a real value for local and personal history and for topography, which can be better gleaned by most readers from a translation. In spite of this local value, the Society would have hesitated to print a mere translation, had it not been justified by a piece of good luck. Among the muniments of the family of Boteler or Butler of Biddenham, presented in 1932 and 1933 to the County Record Office at Bedford by Mrs. Liliane Trevor Wingfield through the kind offices of Mr. Alexander Alston, were no less than 88 original documents of this Priory, many of which deserved publication; these have here been incorporated with the Cartulary, and are styled below the TW charters. In order to make the record of this little known foundation more complete, it seemed worth while to supplement these by a few other early instruments from various sources, even if already printed. The present volume therefore contains—

• A. Abstracts of the majority of instruments in the Cartulary, translated into English exactly and completely, except that in the later documents, when the formula is fixed and perfectly well known, the lengthy clauses of warranty, of sealing, and (especially in leases) of distraint and re-entry, have been merely mentioned in [ ] crotchets, for example in nos. 187, 280; the monotonous ‘said,’ ‘aforesaid,’ ‘aforenamed’ have been omitted:

• B. The (apparently) verbal transcripts of some documents in the Cartulary, presented in Latin:

• C. Original documents from the TW collection, given in the original Latin or Anglo-French. (a) Of some of these, there was already an abstract in the Cartulary, which they now replace under the same serial number, (b) Others are supplemental to the Cartulary, and are distinguished by one or more asterisks suffixed to the serial number (for example, no. 185**).