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XXII.—Remarks on some Charters and other Documents relating to the Abbey of Robertsbridge, in the County of Sussex, in the possession of the Rev. J. H. Blunt, M.A., F.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

The charters and other documents which Mr. Blunt has kindly exhibited this evening formed a part of the archives of the Cistercian Abbey of Robertsbridge, founded in 1176, at a spot within the parish of Salehurst, in Eastern Sussex, where the high road from Hastings to Tunbridge crosses the River Rother, which here changes its course from south-east to east, and after passing Bodiham Castle forms for a few miles the boundary between Kent and Sussex, until turning sharply to the south it enters the sea at Rye Harbour.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1880

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References

page 427 note a See Rot. Scacc. Norm. i. pp. cii. cxxxviii.

page 428 note a See Roger de Hoveden, Rolls edition, i. 217, as to this peace of 1161.

page 428 note b Sussex Arch. Coll. viii. 148.

page 428 note c Sussex Arch. Coll. viii. 141. For Walland Merse, see p. 150, ibid.

page 429 note a Alured seems from this to have been alive at the date of this instrument.

page 429 note b This estate was in Seddlescombe parish. See Sussex Arch. Coll. viii. 149.

page 430 note a Cal. Rot. Pat. 2 Edw. II. 2a pars, in. 6, “Pro Abbate de Ponte Roberti de appropriatione.”

page 432 note a See Mr. Spencer Hall's Echyngham of Echyngham, London, 1850 ; and Sussex Arch. Coll. ix. 344.

page 432 note b The text says that he obtained the Bull on viii. Kal. Martii, in the fifth year of Pope Clement the fifth, that is, on February 22, 1310, but considering that he did not set out for Avignon till about Midlent, and that Midlent Sunday in that year fell on March 29, this is impossible. Perhaps, by a slip of the pen, Martii has been written for Maii, which would do well enough.

page 435 note a See an account of the chapel in Sussex Arch. Coll. vol. xiii. p. 132.

page 435 note b Rot. Parl. TOI. ii. 109b, n. 33, 13 Edw. III.

page 435 note c Cal. Rot. Pat. (p. 122) 9 Edw. III. 1a pars, m. 34.

page 436 note a The patents in question are probably those of the sixth year of Edward III. Rot. Pat. ej. anni, 3a pars, m. 3, et m. 10, de appropriation Ecclesiarum de Salehurst, Odemere, et Mundefeld, cited by Tanner. There is a hint in fo. 2b of the “Chronicle” that the King's council had amended the patent. I do not know in what respect, but the occurrence of two patents in one regnal year on the same subject seems to point to an amendment or further grant.

page 437 note a William de Melton, Archbishop of York, had the custody of the Great Seal, apparently in the absence of John de Stratford, Bishop of Winchester, from Aug. 10, 1333 (7 Edw. III.), till January 13, 1334 (in the same regnal year), when the seal was entrusted to three other Commissioners, of whom it may be noted John de St. Paul, mentioned on a previous page, was one. In 1337 he became Master of the Rolls. See Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy's Catalogue of Lords Chancellors, &c. London, 1843. But it does not appear from that work that the Archbishop was holding the seal at Easter, 1333, as from the MS. appears to have been the case.

page 439 note a A marginal note “Dñs Johannes de Lamberhurst Abbas diem clansit extremum,” supplies this Abbat's name. Note that his brother was called “William of Stainynden.

page 441 note a Instruments are dated from Waltham between September 30 and October 8, 1333. Rymer's Fœdera.

page 442 note a Probably the date of the Privy Seal.

page 443 note a See Ducange, sub vocibus “labores” et “nutrimentum.”

page 444 note a To be found Decretal, lib. Iii. tit. xxx. (De Decimis) cap. xxiv. Nuper Abbates.

page 444 note b There is another bull of Honorius to the same effect, printed in the Metiasticon, vol. v. p. 232, No. x.

page 446 note a Archbishop, 1206 ; Cardinal, 1212 or 1213; ob. 1228.

page 449 note a Abbrev. Placitorum, 196, col. 2.

page 451 note a The foundation charter of this abbey was first printed by D'Achery in his observations on cap. v. lib. ii. of the autobiography of Guibert Abbat of Nogent (Ven. Guiberti Abbatis Opera, Paris, 1651, p. 631), from which source it has been copied in Gallia Christiana, vol. iii. p. 955 (old Edn.), and in Neustria Pia, p 587. D'Achery's transcript is certainly wrong in the date which appears there as “anno raillesimo tricesirno sexto,” because the Count says that he founded the Abbey with the advice of William) Duke of Normandy, and of Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen, whose episcopate did not begin till 1055. It is however a little difficult to assign the true date. The gift by a Comte d'Eu of land in Sussex must imply a precedent gift to himself, and this could hardly have been from any one but the Conqueror, and therefore not before 1066. Hence we might read “sexagesimo sexto,” and, as Maurilius lived till 1067, and there is no hint that he was dead at the date of the charter, 1066 may be right. But if so it is somewhat singular that William is styled in the Charter Duke of Normandy only, and not also King of England. The Editors of l'Art de Vérifier les Dates notice the mistake of the date made by D'Achery, and put the foundation of the abbey between 1057 and 1066, guided apparently by the years of the episcopate of Maurilius. The charter, I may observe, confirms to the abbey, inter alia, “de dono Goifredi filii Reinoldi de Sancto Martino Jaillardo decimam de terris hominum suorum quarn habebat in dominio suo, et apud S. Martinum, et apud Setot et apud Merlincampum.” St. Martin-le-Gaillard is a village on the little river Yeres, which runs into the sea a few miles W. by S. of the Bresle, and Criel, Dragueville, Melincamp, St. Aignan, Avesnes, and Baromesnil are places in its immediate vicinity. All these names occur (in mediaeval spelling) as local surnames of the witnesses to Geoffrey de St. Mas-tin's charter, Appendix No. II., and I think we may infer that this Goifredus de Sancto Martino Jaillardo was the ancestor of Geoffrey and Alured, and that the town whence their surname was derived was S. Martin-le-Gaillard, and not one of the other St. Martins, of which more than one will be found on the map of this corner of Normandy.

page 451 note b Domesd. i. 18, Suss. Terra Comitis de Ow.

page 451 note c Horsfield's Sussex, i. 431.

page 451 note d MS. Add. 28,550.

page 453 note a The patronymic forms are worth notice

page 455 note a From a charter Saturday next after Feast of S. Luke, 47 Hen. III., manumitting a villein. Eg. Chart. 394. Brit. Mus.

page 455 note b From Catalogue, Battle Abbey Charters, p. 49.

page 455 note c Named in a charter of Edw. I. June 10, Anno Regni 21, produced before Barons of Exchequer 17 Edw. II.—A.dd. MS. 28,550, fo. 9. Note.—Since the above paper was read, the whole of Mr. Blunt's charters have been acquired by the British Museum, and will be found among the Egerton Charters, 371–403.

page 457 note a Sacqueville, five miles soutli of Dieppe(?).

page 457 note b Oust Mareis, close to Eu.

page 457 note c Written over an erasure.

page 460 note a Scottare is in Du Cange as a verb, to pay scot. This seems the same word badly formed through the French escot, écot.

page 460 note b “Quod si murdre inventuin fuerit in aliquo loco super terrain illius ecclesie Sancti Martini scilicet de Bello, in lenga, in maneriis vel in membris eorum, nullus se intromittere debet nisi abbas et monachi ejus.” Libertates Abbatiœ de Bello. Dugd. Monast. iii. 243.

page 460 note c The sergeant or bailiff.

page 461 note a Fourth Sunday in Lent.