![LACOCK ABBEY, Letters Patent, by which Simon of Ghent (d.1315), Bishop of Salisbury, appropriates Lacock parish church to the nuns of Lacock Abbey, sealed and dated by the bishop at at Ramsbury, 9 March, and by the abbess and convent at Lacock, 10 March 1312 [n.s.]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_18152_0446_001(lacock_abbey_letters_patent_by_which_simon_of_ghent_bishop_of_salisbur055231).jpg?w=1)
![LACOCK ABBEY, Letters Patent, by which Simon of Ghent (d.1315), Bishop of Salisbury, appropriates Lacock parish church to the nuns of Lacock Abbey, sealed and dated by the bishop at at Ramsbury, 9 March, and by the abbess and convent at Lacock, 10 March 1312 [n.s.]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2019/CKS/2019_CKS_18152_0446_000(lacock_abbey_letters_patent_by_which_simon_of_ghent_bishop_of_salisbur055224).jpg?w=1)
Details
LACOCK ABBEY, Letters Patent, by which Simon of Ghent (d.1315), Bishop of Salisbury, appropriates Lacock parish church to the nuns of Lacock Abbey, sealed and dated by the bishop at at Ramsbury, 9 March, and by the abbess and convent at Lacock, 10 March 1312 [n.s.]
An exceptional document: finely written and textually interesting, with three large pendant seals, of a bishop, an abbess, and a nunnery.
A single sheet, c.220×380mm, the lower 30mm folded-up, 24 lines written in a fine documentary script, the first initial enlarged and ornamented, with a contemporary endorsment by ‘R. de Toppechyve’(?), notary public, stating that he witnessed the bishop place his seal, and a 19th-century summary, below which is the Phillipps number, and in pencil ‘Wilts / 87’ (with two horizontal and two vertical folds, not affecting legibility), each of the three seals is identified between the holes through which their cords are threaded, set within a green suede-lined box with leather spine and gilt title-piece.
Provenance:
(1) It has not previously been noticed that the document was sealed by the bishop on 9 March but not sealed by the Abbess and convent of Lacock until following day, about 25 miles to the west: it ends ‘Datum apud Remmesby per nos episcopum antedictum vij Id. Marcii. Et per nos Abbatissam et conventum in capitulo nostro de Lacok vj Id. Marcii Anno domini millesimo trecentesimo undecimo’. It is doubtless for this reason that the dorse has an unusual inscription by a notary public to the effect that he witnessed the bishop applying his seal.
(2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (d.1872), his MS 32677; Phillipps sale at Sotheby’s, 13 April 1981, lot 105(g).
(3) Bernard Quaritch.
(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 1783.
Text:
The text is calendared by K.H. Rogers, Lacock Abbey Charters, Wiltshire Record Society, 34, 1979, p.20 no 33, which may be summarised as follows: Letters patent of Simon bishop of Salisbury, appropriating to the nuns of Lacock the parish church of Lacock, to which they and Sir John Bluet had the alternate right to present the advowson. The nuns are to fund a priest to celebrate mass daily for ever for the souls of Sir John, his late wife Margery, and their ancestors, in the Lady-chapel adjoining the abbey church, which is to be built at the cost of the nuns and Sir John. The nuns are also to cause one of the priests of the monastery to celebrate a mass of the Blessed Virgin with notes daily in the same chapel, during which masses four wax candles, each of two pounds weight, shall burn at the four corners of Sir John’s tomb, and when they are consumed to a length of two cubits they shall be renewed at the cost of the nuns. On the anniversary of Sir John’s death the nuns are to give ½d. each to 1,000 poor people. The nuns are also to admit a woman into the monastery as a nun on Sir John’s nomination during his life, or on that of his heirs after his death, and when she dies another one to succeed her, and so in succession.
The text begins ‘Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis ad quorum pervenerit hec scriptura Simon permissione divina Sar(isburiensis) Episcopus salutem in domino sempiternam. […] Iohannes Bluet miles necessitates et adversitates pauperum monialium monasterii de Lacock nostre diocesis […] parochialem etiam ecclesiam de Lacock […] eisdem religiosis canonice appropriavimus […]’.
Script:
Written in an elegant example of English documentary script, in which the most characteristic feature is the lengthening and thickening of ascenders and descenders, the ascenders often ending with a hook-like downward curve, except ‘d’ which rises towards the left with a thin stroke and descends towards the right with a thick one, ‘l’ is typically forked at the top.
Bibliography:
W.G. Clark-Maxwell, ‘On the Appropriation of the Rectory at Lacock’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 33 no.102 (1904) pp.358–75, the text printed from the cartulary at pp.368–9.
An exceptional document: finely written and textually interesting, with three large pendant seals, of a bishop, an abbess, and a nunnery.
A single sheet, c.220×380mm, the lower 30mm folded-up, 24 lines written in a fine documentary script, the first initial enlarged and ornamented, with a contemporary endorsment by ‘R. de Toppechyve’(?), notary public, stating that he witnessed the bishop place his seal, and a 19th-century summary, below which is the Phillipps number, and in pencil ‘Wilts / 87’ (with two horizontal and two vertical folds, not affecting legibility), each of the three seals is identified between the holes through which their cords are threaded, set within a green suede-lined box with leather spine and gilt title-piece.
Provenance:
(1) It has not previously been noticed that the document was sealed by the bishop on 9 March but not sealed by the Abbess and convent of Lacock until following day, about 25 miles to the west: it ends ‘Datum apud Remmesby per nos episcopum antedictum vij Id. Marcii. Et per nos Abbatissam et conventum in capitulo nostro de Lacok vj Id. Marcii Anno domini millesimo trecentesimo undecimo’. It is doubtless for this reason that the dorse has an unusual inscription by a notary public to the effect that he witnessed the bishop applying his seal.
(2) Sir Thomas Phillipps (d.1872), his MS 32677; Phillipps sale at Sotheby’s, 13 April 1981, lot 105(g).
(3) Bernard Quaritch.
(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 1783.
Text:
The text is calendared by K.H. Rogers, Lacock Abbey Charters, Wiltshire Record Society, 34, 1979, p.20 no 33, which may be summarised as follows: Letters patent of Simon bishop of Salisbury, appropriating to the nuns of Lacock the parish church of Lacock, to which they and Sir John Bluet had the alternate right to present the advowson. The nuns are to fund a priest to celebrate mass daily for ever for the souls of Sir John, his late wife Margery, and their ancestors, in the Lady-chapel adjoining the abbey church, which is to be built at the cost of the nuns and Sir John. The nuns are also to cause one of the priests of the monastery to celebrate a mass of the Blessed Virgin with notes daily in the same chapel, during which masses four wax candles, each of two pounds weight, shall burn at the four corners of Sir John’s tomb, and when they are consumed to a length of two cubits they shall be renewed at the cost of the nuns. On the anniversary of Sir John’s death the nuns are to give ½d. each to 1,000 poor people. The nuns are also to admit a woman into the monastery as a nun on Sir John’s nomination during his life, or on that of his heirs after his death, and when she dies another one to succeed her, and so in succession.
The text begins ‘Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis ad quorum pervenerit hec scriptura Simon permissione divina Sar(isburiensis) Episcopus salutem in domino sempiternam. […] Iohannes Bluet miles necessitates et adversitates pauperum monialium monasterii de Lacock nostre diocesis […] parochialem etiam ecclesiam de Lacock […] eisdem religiosis canonice appropriavimus […]’.
Script:
Written in an elegant example of English documentary script, in which the most characteristic feature is the lengthening and thickening of ascenders and descenders, the ascenders often ending with a hook-like downward curve, except ‘d’ which rises towards the left with a thin stroke and descends towards the right with a thick one, ‘l’ is typically forked at the top.
Bibliography:
W.G. Clark-Maxwell, ‘On the Appropriation of the Rectory at Lacock’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 33 no.102 (1904) pp.358–75, the text printed from the cartulary at pp.368–9.
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