| AdminHistory | This is a series of mainly letters, mostly to Henry of Eastry during his time as prior of Christ Church 1285 to 1331, though some are earlier and later in date. The correspondence ranges over an array of subjects, including reports and requests for advice on affairs of state from archbishops, progress reports and pleas for money from students, notices of manorial disputes, matters of priory business such as the delivery of wine from France, and admonishments on the internal discipline of the house from archbishops.
The series comprises eight separate portfolios. Nos. I to IV and VI are loose letters, mounted and filed in folders. Nos. V and VII are sewn head to foot in rolls and VIII is a combination of oddments. The present numbering was adopted by William Urry in 1949.
F C Holland first transcribed I and much of II and his transcripts remain with the series. J B Sheppard transcribed much of III and IV, which then seem to have been numbered together as III; these transcripts are with the series. R L Poole then transcribed and calendared the more important letters from I to V (though he numbered III and IV as III, and V as IV) in the HMC Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections I, London 1901, 250-281. C E Woodruff calendared I to V, though he numbered V as IV R, at the end of part 1 of Bunce's Schedule of the Chapter's Archive Vol. I, with some omissions, ordering his calendar roughly chronologically, so a later concordance is necessary to find a particular document. William Urry renumbered IV R as V and added a numerical calendar of VI and VII to the end of this calendar. VIII has not been listed before.
Many of the letters have no year date, but many are addressed to Prior Eastry so can be placed somewhere within his priorate. Some are more informal than that with no date and no real address but, palaeographically, they fall within the same period. |