Charter the Course: More on Preston Charters
April 13, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized
Charter the Course
More on Preston Charters:
Charters 10 and 11
from Regnal Years 12 and 18 of Edward II
[Published on 13 April 2020, with Updates.]
Following our 3 previous blogposts on the group of charters from Preston in Suffolk, England, now in a private collection, we advance with further reports about them. Those blogposts focused upon 4 of the group of 8 charters. Employing the owner’s numbering system, they considered
-
Preston Charter 9 Face.
Charters 5 and 7: Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2
- Charters 6 and 9: Preston Charters Continued
(Remember, Charter 8 is missing.)
Now we turn to others. Here we focus upon Charters 10 and 11.
Both of these are dated, like Charter 9; all 3 of these have dates within the reign of King Edward II, spaced at 4-year intervals. Charter 9, already examined (also see its image to the right here), is dated to Year 8 of the reign.
The Group of Preston Charters
Church at Preston St Mary. Photograph by Andrew Hill via Wikimedia Creative Commons
The owner purchased the group of 9 documents in the 1980s in London, probably — according to his recollection — in the Portobello Road, a renowned location of markets and shops of many kinds, including used goods, curiousities, and antiquities. The group has a consecutive series of modern Arabic numbers, running from 5 to 13. The individual number is entered in black ink at the top left corner of the dorse (or back) of each document.
Of that original group, only 8 survive in the “Preston” collection, because Charter 8 went missing after a class some years ago, considerably before the group came into our view. Consequently, we know now only of Charters 5–7 and 9–13.
Charters 5 and 7 have figured already in 2 previous blogposts, with an introduction, photographs and descriptions, transcriptions and translations of their texts, and some observations about their characteristics and contexts (Full Court Preston and Preston Take 2). Next, Charters 6 and 9 took the stage (Preston Charters Continued).
We continue here to Charter the Course.
Now is the time for Charters 10 and 11. Both carry the dates of their transactions during the reign of King Edward II, who lived from 25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327, and reigned from 7 July 1307 until his deposition in January 1327.
