IV. Letter from Thomas Stapleton, Esq. F.S.A. to John Gage, Esq. F.R.S. Director, accompanying two transcripts of ancient Charters relating to property in Normandy

Extract

Amongst the transcripts of charters which I possess relating to Normandy, I have thought two of sufficient interest, as illustrative of judicial proceedings and feudal obligations at the time of the invasion of England, when the national usages of the conquerors were partially blended with the institutions of our Saxon population, to venture to offer them through you to the notice of the Society. The first is from the muniments of the celebrated abbey of Jumièges, now deposited in the archives of the Département de la Seine Inférieure, and my transcript is taken from a copy upon paper in the possession of Mons. Deville of Rouen, to whose kindness I was indebted for the loan of it. It contains the narrative of a monk of Jumièges (Rainald the chaplain) detailing the circumstances under which he became possessed of certain property in Bayeux, in replication to a claim set up by Samson the clerk, apparently the same person with Samson de Douvres, afterwards treasurer of Bayeux, consecrated to the see of Worcester in 1097.