THE MANUSCRIPT

The cartulary (British Museum Harl. MS. 3656) measures 10 x 7 in. It has two sets of numbers. The medieval numbers, which are used in this edition and begin on the eighth folio, run to 230 ff.; but ff. 7-17 (apparently containing papal charters) have been cut out; part off. 18 is deleted; there are no ff. 53-4; half off. 135 is deleted and f. 136 is missing; there is no f. 163; and there are two ff. 192. The italic numbers 1-224 run straightforwardly throughout, and some published references to the cartulary use these.

On the folios preceding the medieval numeration (italic ff. 2-7) is an incomplete list of 219 charters, the purpose of which is not clear. It does not serve as a table of contents, since the order is not that of the cartulary; nor as an index, as it is not in alphabetical order. It seems to have been a false beginning which was discontinued. On the first folio (italic f. I) is an undated medieval deed entered in a late medieval current hand, of Simon Fowkes of Wootton to William Crips (?) relating to a messuage in Bedford.

The arrangement, after the false start, is systematic. The date is early 15th century: the latest document is 1409 (67). The prior from 1395 to at least 1435 was William of Wootton. Some years previously Stodleys manor, Wootton, had been acquired; perhaps he had a new cartulary made in order that this and other late 14th century acquisitions might be entered. Over 20 documents are recorded in duplicate, apparently deliberately as a kind of cross reference, and it seems likely that this represents the canons’ archive storage, for it is said of one document (811) “one part remains in the treasury of the house of Newnham among the charters of Harrowden and Fenlake”. The system however was not foolproof, for more than once documents of earlier date than the cartulary are entered in the margin as if they had escaped notice at the first compilation; and only one or two marginal documents are of later date and entered in an obviously later hand.