| Description | The bonds in this collection were drawn up for a variety of purposes. Most commonly they appear as security for the prior, and then for the dean and chapter, for the performance of covenants in leases of property taken out after the 1390s. They were usually drawn up at the same time as the leases, to which they were often attached.
Amongst the medieval bonds, another category is made up of bonds for the payment of goods for the use of the priory, often with London tradesmen, though there are others which do not have the prior as a party.
Amongst the post-medieval bonds in the series are included some documents which could be classified further as marriage bonds and testamentary bonds. These would seem to be strays from the diocesan collection, although some involve the dean and chapter exercising their sede vacante jurisdiction. The main marriage bond series is DCb/MB and DCb/PRC 24 and the main testamentary bonds series DCb/PRC 23.
There are also some presentation bonds drawn up with clerics presented by the dean and chapter to livings within their patronage. These groups are identified in the index. Two subseries survived in their original order within the main series, without being broken up. These have been retained and catalogued separately as the Bond A and Bond B subseries.
In the early modern period, bonds assume a standard form. They are made up of two parts: an obligation which gives the parties and the amount of security, and a condition which lays down the terms of the bond. The obligation is in Latin, while the condition is in English. In the post-Reformation bonds it becomes usual for there to be marks or signatures for the first parties, and these are not then noted in the catalogue.
The names of witnesses are included in the index but not in the catalogue. The dean and chapter's registrar or auditor regularly appears as a witness, and only the first instances of a particular holder of the post are noted.
A number of these bonds still have the seals of the bonders attached; these have been noted in this catalogue, but full details of them appear in a separate seal catalogue.
This series of bonds has been largely drawn together from various unsorted boxes of miscellaneous financial records. There are other bonds to be found in the Miscellaneous Scrapbooks, the Chartae Antiquae series and the Boxes in the Basement series, which also includes many of the leases corresponding with the bonds. Further bonds and leases, some related to these bonds, are to be found in the collection at Lambeth Palace, in the Carte Miscellanee series, the catalogue to which is available in the searchroom. |