Kent and the Earlier Pipe Rolls (1130 to 1300) Some Introductory Notes

HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 327 kent and the earlier pipe rolls (1130 to c.1300): some introductory notes During a search for references to particular individuals in the Pipe Rolls published from the nineteenth century onwards, the present writer discovered the wealth of information contained in these documents. Some of this information is relevant to historic buildings in Kent, and much is of wider value for local history research. Owing to the limited local availability of the full volumes, the writer considered that a collection of the references to Kent in the published Pipe Rolls might be particularly useful for local researchers, and decided that a number of translations would be included. The original series of documents and the related set of printed volumes of transcriptions are housed in the Public Record Office (PRO) at The National Archives (TNA) at Kew. The document reference for the Pipe Rolls series is TNA: PRO E 372. The core of the early Pipe Rolls is formed by the annual accounts of the sheriffs and other royal bailiffs relating to royal income and expenditure in the counties, with miscellaneous additions, as submitted to the Exchequer for audit. A nearly continuous series survives, running from 1155 until 1832, with only four rolls missing. One earlier Pipe Roll also survives relating to the 1129-1130 financial year, Michaelmas (29 September) to Michaelmas. The Pipe Rolls form HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 328 the earliest series of English royal records. The complementary series of Chancellor’s Rolls, E 352, running from 1162-1832 (consisting of supposed duplicate versions of the Pipe Rolls) is occasionally useful in filling gaps; thus the Chancellor’s Roll for 8 Richard I is the version published by the Pipe Roll Society (PRS) (PRS Vol. 45, New Series 7): no Pipe Roll survives for that year (1195-6). Some Chancellor’s Rolls contain additional material as well as variant forms of content, usually specifically noted ‘C.R.’, at the foot of the page in the printed volumes. The published volumes – mainly of the Pipe Roll Society founded in 1883 – currently relate to the financial years up to Michaelmas 1224, plus that of a later roll, relating to the year 1229-30. Others are in preparation, but the 2012 new Pipe Roll Society edition of the earliest roll (1130), first published in 1833 by the Record Commission, includes a translation of the entire document for the first time (PRS Vol. 95, New Series 57). Each page of extended Latin transcript of the document has the English version opposite, and a full set of images of the roll are included with the volume on a CD-ROM, courtesy of The National Archives. Referring to this first Pipe Roll as ‘the oldest surviving original record from the medieval English Exchequer’, the historian, Judith Green, writes in her Introduction: ‘it is desirable to make the source more accessible to a wider readership, by providing an edition with modern letter-forms, a translation into modern English, indices and images’ (Green 2012, p. v). She analyses and interprets physical and historical aspects of the document and its content, and outlines the principal elements in the sheriffs’ accounts as well as steps taken to counteract the problem of deteriorating quality of the coinage (ibid., pp. v-xxxi). She amplifies certain entries, such as the single line in the Kent account ‘And in repairing the bridge of Rochester against the king’s coming 3s. 4d.’ – a reference to the visit in 1130 of Henry I to Rochester where he attended the consecration of the new church (ibid., pp. 50; xxxi). She also considers the evolution of procedures and records of the Exchequer, and refers to early methods of taxation, including danegeld, which was still featuring in Pipe Rolls of the twelfth century down to the 1160s, commenting: ‘The 1130 Pipe Roll provides a uniquely valuable source for the administrative changes of the 1120s’ (ibid., p. xxx). This latest publication by Green conveniently complements one of the earliest volumes of the Pipe Roll Society, the useful Introduction to the Study of the Pipe Rolls (PRS Vol. 3, 1884). This publication contains a valuable key to contracted Latin words, in ‘record’ type, in the form that they appear in the Pipe Rolls and many other early medieval documents. This record type-face used in the early volumes was developed to most closely resemble the handwritten version of the original document (ibid., pp. 10-34). The ‘Table of Abbreviations’ is followed by a glossary of technical terms employed in the rolls (ibid., pp. 70-100). There is also HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 329 a detailed description of the system of the Exchequer (ibid., pp. 35-69). Usefully, this is one of those volumes freely available and reproduced in full on the internet (see internet sources below). As demonstrated by the 2012 publication by the PRS of the 1130 roll, introductions to the printed volumes can provide information specific to Kent within an overview of the condition and content of each individual Pipe Roll. This can help to place Kent accounts for particular years, and items appearing in them, within the historical context of national events. For example, in June 1224 the royal government had found it necessary to besiege Bedford Castle, resulting in taxation in the form of scutage (a feudal due raised on knights’ fees in lieu of military service). It is explained: ‘The account for Kent includes no account for the Bedford scutage because, we are told, all the knights of the county were present at the siege and received a general quittance in a single royal writ’ (PRS 92, New Series 54, pp. ix, 150). There was also, apparently, generally little revenue recorded from the Montgomery scutage (associated with the final stages of a Welsh war) levied in October 1223 at the same rate of two marks per knight’s fee. However, the Kent account does reveal a return relating to several individuals (ibid., pp. 149-50). In 2010, extracts relating to Kent in the published Great Rolls of the Pipe (shortened to the Pipe Rolls) were made available on the website of the Kent Archaeological Society (KAS). In addition, digitised images of relevant portions of original rolls are being added to accompany selected translated Kent accounts, document references being added as necessary. It is intended that this will enable both medieval scholars and those new to medieval documentary material to make use of the Pipe Rolls in their original format. The introductory page on the KAS website, headed ‘Kent Extracts from Pipe Rolls’, lists (together with the relevant TNA: PRO document reference) each of the published volumes. It is also intended to serve as a bibliography for Kent accounts, indicating relevant pages in each volume. Images of these printed pages are reproduced individually, and may be printed for study, along with sections of selected original document images and accompanying specially commissioned translations. Research applications of material in the Pipe Rolls are numerous. They sometimes provide the earliest recorded version of Kentish place names, for example: Bicknor (Bikenora, 1186, Bikenore, 1195); Blackheath (Blachehedfeld, 1166); Borden (Bordena, 1177); Davington (Dauinton, 1186) (Ekwall 1960). Even where Anglo-Saxon charters and Domesday Book furnish earlier forms, the variations in spellings found in the Pipe Rolls can still be of relevance to the evolution of particular place names and personal names. HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 330 Patterns of land-holding in Kent by individuals and families, as well as religious and secular bodies and foundations, can be established. These may well be of relevance to the study of medieval churches, and their patronage (Berg 2002; Berg and Jones 2009). Successive holders of particular lands in Shorne, and lands of the de Cobhams, have been traced with the aid of the Pipe Rolls (Cockett, pers. comm.). In relation to Temple Manor, Strood, Stuart Rigold cites the Pipe Roll of 5 Henry II (1158-1159) as evidence that the original grant to the Knights Templar of the manor of ‘Strode’ ‘was not later than 1158-9, the date of the first of several mentions in terris datis’ [royal land grants] ‘in the Pipe Rolls’ (Rigold 1966, p. 87, note 14; PRS Vol. 1, p. 58). Not only is the land-holding and affairs of private individuals, as well as religious houses, detailed in certain Pipe Rolls, but also those relating to bishops, and the archbishop of Canterbury (as a temporal magnate) in particular, for years when there were vacancies. These rolls supplement other documents and give indications of the value of the archbishopric including the period of Becket’s exile in the twelfth century (Du Boulay 1966, p. 243). Some also record payment of scutage by the see of Canterbury (ibid., p. 76-77). Others contribute evidence of the archbishop’s knights actually taking part in military campaigns: the roll of 11 Henry II (1164-1165), for example, notes nineteen going into the army; and an unstated number were sent to Scotland, according to that of 13 John (1210-1211) (ibid., pp. 77-80, citing PRS 8, p. 109 re 1165; and PRS 66, New Series 28, pp. 93, 243, re 1211). Particular sections relating to the archbishopric, headed Archiepiscopatus Cantuariensis (or abbreviation thereof), occasionally prefixed Compotus [Account], can easily be identified within the rolls. Thus the Pipe Rolls complement medieval accounts in Lambeth Palace Library Estate Documents (some recently made available in microfilm form at the Kent History and Library Centre) and further documentary sources relating to Kentish estates (Colvin 1964; Du Boulay 1966; Goacher 2009a, pp. 395-7). In his translated abstract of the account of the see of Canterbury, covering 1292-1295, Du Boulay gives some indication of the wealth of information available as recorded in the Pipe Roll of 24 Edward I (1295- 1296) (TNA: PRO E 372/141, m 28d-29d). In a footnote he usefully lists Pipe Rolls, up to the mid fourteenth century, together with other documents in which enrolled accounts of the archbishopric appear (Du Boulay 1964, p. 41). The evidence of the Pipe Rolls in relation to royal castles and other buildings has long been recognised by scholars (Allen Brown 1962; Allen Brown 1986; Colvin 1963; Rigold 1967, etc.). Mention of works and repairs and associated costs in particular years are amplified by details of garrisoning at particular castles. Visitors to Rochester Castle can learn from the guide book: HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 331 As well as many smaller sums at other times, over £100 were spent on the tower and castle by Henry II in 1172-73, according to the PIPE ROLLS, against the rebellion of his son, and the same source records an expenditure of £115 by King John in 1206 on the castle, its ditches, bridge, tower and other buildings (Allen Brown 1986, p. 8; Pipe Rolls for 1172-73, PRS 19, pp. 88-89; and 1206, PRS 58, New Series 20, p. 47). The Pipe Roll for the nineteenth year of the reign of Henry II (1172- 73), also records expenditure on Canterbury, Dover, and Chilham castles (PRS 19, pp. 81-84, 87-89). Images of the printed transcripts appropriate to these references are now readily accessible on the ‘Research’ pages of the KAS website. In addition, the new translations (from the Latin text into English, by Simon Neal) of certain Pipe Rolls reveal further castle-related information, firstly in that of 1188-1189 for the first year of the reign of Richard I: And Alice 5s by tale for the exchange of her land, which is in the castle of Canterbury [and, in a further section] 60 marks towards the sustenance of the knights, who were in the custody of the castle of Dover, by writ of Rann’ de Gl[anvill]. And in the works of the castle of Dover £50 by writ of the king and by the view of William, son of Helte, and William de ?Enemera. And to the same keepers 40s from the gift to sustain them by the same writ (TNA: PRO E 372/35, rot 14r m 1; transcript in Rec. Comm., 1844b, pp. 231, 232). More detail then appears in the Pipe Roll for the first year of the reign of John (1198-1199): And to Stephen de Turneham £50 towards the provisioning of the castles of Dover and Hastinges and Peuenesel [?Pevensey, Sussex] by writ of G., son of Peter ... and in the repair of the gate of Chileham and the bridge and the rampart-walks of the castle, and to repair the rampart-walks of the castle of Canterbury £10 by the king’s writ. And for carrying a certain hostage from the Tower of London to the castle of Rochester 10d. And in the livery of 10 mounted serjeants throughout 15 days 50s by the same writ (TNA: PRO E 372/45, rot 5r m 1; transcript in PRS 48, New Series 10, pp. 59-60). Further entries regarding Chilham Castle and ‘vill’ appear in the same, under the heading: new offerings sent from the lord king from beyond the sea Fulbert de Dover renders an account of 400 marks for having seisin [legal possession of land or estate] of the castle of Chileham and the vill, in such a way that he will stand trial thereupon in the king’s court, if the king or anyone else wishes to claim their right in the castle or in the vill. In the treasury 100 marks. And he owes 300 marks. The same renders HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 332 an account of the same debt. In the treasury 40 marks. And he owes 260 marks. The same renders an account of the same debt. In the treasury £10. And he owes 245 marks. The same renders an account of the same debt. In the treasury £30. And he owes 200 marks. But he answers below ... Fubert de Dover renders an account of 200 marks for having seisin of the castle of Chileham, just as is contained above. In the treasury 20 marks. And he owes 180 marks. The same renders an account of the same debt. In the treasury £42. And he owes £78 (TNA: PRO E 372/45, rot 5d m 1; transcript in PRS 48, New Series 10, p. 68). Pipe Roll evidence is occasionally relevant to excavations associated with castles in Kent, as well as to the standing buildings. Rigold brings documentary and excavation evidence together and concludes, regarding Dover Castle, that it seems certain that ‘the south barbican was originally part of the Inner Bailey, and likely that the whole was earth-walled before it was ditched on the south side, and that it was provided with isolated towers, of which something remains of the south-eastern gate tower ...’. He cites the Pipe Rolls of the fifteenth and seventeenth years of his reign as evidence that Henry II’s building campaign had begun before the 1180s date of the keep, with stonemasons being employed as early as 1168-69 (Rigold 1967, pp. 101-103, citing PRS 13, p. 161 and PRS 16, p. 137). Payments to two individually-named twelfth-century masons are specified, both described as cementarius: Magister Robertus [Master Robert] (PRS 13, p. 161); and Radulfus [Ralph] (PRS 16, p. 137). The less impressive castle at Thurnham is not mentioned in the Pipe Rolls, but other documents show that such existed by c.1225, and probably 1174-1184 (Anon., 1862, pp. 215, 201; Ward 2008). The Pipe Rolls do, however, bear witness to the landholdings, status, and tenure of high office by the de Thurnhams, potentially commensurate with such castle-building. Robert de Thurnham appears in Pipe Rolls dating from 2 Henry II (1155-1156) onwards, and there is still reference to his son Stephen in the Pipe Roll as late as that for the eighth year of the reign of Henry III (Michaelmas 1224) (PRS 92, New Series 54, p. 145). Such documentary evidence may help support the view that a prestigious keep tower (similar in size to that at Sutton Valence) was constructed at this site (Ward 2008). Men such as the de Thurnhams might well have chosen to show off their wealth and power by the building of a great tower. It is confidently hoped that the ‘Kent Extracts from Pipe Rolls’ section on the research page of the KAS website, together with recent translations, will provide a useful medieval documentary source, in a readily accessible format. This should permit search for much medieval information, besides the examples referenced above. In addition, this will hopefully enable and encourage researchers to tackle these, and later Pipe Rolls, and further original documents in The National Archives, and other repositories. HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 333 Colin Flight has recently added valuable supplementary information and material regarding the great rolls of the Exchequer to his digital research archive (on the kentarchaeology.ac website). This includes a list of document references, with direct links to images of Kent material, 1225-85, on the Anglo-American Legal Tradition website. He has also identified further particulars relating to Kent within the published rolls. As the Kent Archaeological Society has lately become an institutional member of the Pipe Roll Society, the most recent volume – the new version of the earliest Pipe Roll of 1130 – and following publications, can also be made available to researchers for study locally in the KAS Library. acknowledgements Thanks are due to the following for their advice and encouragement: Denis Anstey, Mary Berg, Roger Cockett, Ted Connell (for inclusion of Pipe Roll material on KAS website), Dr David Crook (former Editor of the Pipe Roll Society), Colin Flight, Dr Malcolm Mercer (formerly of Canterbury Cathedral Archives, earlier of TNA), Simon Neal (for undertaking transcription and translation), Alan Ward – and the staff of The National Archives, especially Billy Mahoney, regarding supply of images. Also to the Historic Buildings and Publications Committees of the KAS for supporting the project. deborah goacher bibliography and references Allen Brown, R., 1962, English Castles. Allen Brown, R., 1986, English Heritage Guide: Rochester Castle: Kent (2nd edition, reprinted 2009). Anon., 1862, ‘Charters of Cumbwell Priory’, Archaeologia Cantiana, v, 194- 222. Barratt, N., 2008, ‘The Impact of the Loss of Normandy on the English Exchequer: The Pipe Roll Evidence’, in Brand, P. and Cunningham, S. (eds), Foundations of Medieval Scholarship: Records Edited in Honour of David Crook. Bartlett, R., 2000, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225. Berg, M., 2002, ‘Patrixbourne Church: Medieval patronage, Fabric & History’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxii, 113-142. Berg, M. and Jones, H., 2009, Norman Churches in the Canterbury Diocese. Colvin, H.M. (ed.), 1963, The History of the King’s Works, Vols. 1 and 2. Colvin, H.M., 1964, ‘A list of the archbishop of Canterbury’s tenants by knightservice in the reign of Henry II’, in Documents Illustrative of Medieval Kentish Society, Du Boulay, F.R.H. (ed.), Kent Records, Vol. XVIII, pp. 1-40. Ekwall, E., 1960, The Concise Dictionary of English Place Names (Fourth Edition). HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 334 Du Boulay, F.R.H., 1964, ‘The Pipe Roll account of the see of Canterbury during the vacancy after the death of Archbishop Pecham, 1292-5’, in Documents Illustrative of Medieval Kentish Society, Du Boulay, F.R.H., (ed.), Kent Records, Vol. XVIII, pp. 41-57. Du Boulay, F.R.H., 1966, The Lordship of Canterbury: an essay on medieval society. Goacher, D.J., 2009a, ‘A Documentary Study Relating to Buckland in the Medieval Borgh of Westree in Maidstone’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxix, 394-98. Goacher, D.J., 2009b, ‘The Great Rolls of the Pipe and the Kent Pipe Roll Project’, KAS Newsletter, no. 81, Summer. Green, J.A. (ed.), 2012, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirty first year of King Henry I, Michaelmas 1130 (Pipe Roll 1), PRS 95, New Series 57. Rigold, S.E., 1966, ‘Two Camerae of the Military Orders’, The Archaeological Journal, Vol. CXXII, 86-132. Rigold, S.E., 1967, ‘Excavations at Dover Castle 1964-66’, Journal of the Archaeological Association, Third series, vol. XXX, 87-121. Ward, A., 2008, Archaeological Recording at Thurnham Castle near Maidstone, Kent (unpubl. archaeological report). TNA: PRO E 372: The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO) Series E 372: Exchequer: Pipe Office: Pipe Rolls: http://discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C6749. The National Archives’ Research Guide: ‘Pipe Rolls, 1130-c.1300’, Domestic Records Information 31: Last updated: 28 June 2004. Online version: http:// www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/pipe-rolls.htm. References in ‘Kent Extracts from Pipe Rolls’ Rec. Comm., 1844a; reprinted by PRS, 1930, The Great Rolls of the Pipe for the second, third, and fourth years of the reign of King Henry the Second, A.D. 1155, 1156, 1157, 1158, pp. 64-68 (re TNA: PRO E 372/2, 3, 4). PRS 1, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the fifth year of the reign of King Henry II, A.D. 1158-1159, pp. 57-59, 61 (re TNA: PRO E 372/5). PRS 8, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the eleventh year of the reign of King Henry II, A.D. 1164-1165, pp. 102-109 (re TNA: PRO E 372/11). PRS 13, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the fifteenth year of the reign of King Henry II, A.D. 1168-1169, pp. 160-166 (re TNA: PRO E 372/15). PRS 16, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the seventeenth year of the reign of King Henry II, A.D. 1170-1171, pp. 136-143 (re TNA: PRO E 372/17). PRS 19, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the nineteenth year of the reign of Henry II, A.D. 1172-1173, pp. 79-90 (re TNA: PRO E 372/19). Rec. Comm., 1844b, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the first year of the reign of King Richard I, A.D. 1189-1190, pp. 230-240 (re TNA: PRO E 372/35). PRS 48, New Series 10, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the first year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1199, pp. 59-70 (re TNA: PRO E 372/45). PRS 58, New Series 20, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the eighth year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1206, pp. 46-55 (re TNA: PRO E 372/52). PRS 66, New Series 28, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirteenth year of the reign of King John, Michaelmas 1211, pp. 235-246 (re TNA: PRO E 372/57). HISTORICAL RESEARCH NOTES 335 PRS 92, New Series 54, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the eighth year of the reign of King Henry III, Michaelmas 1224, pp. 143-150 (re TNA: PRO E 372/68). PRS 95, New Series 57, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirty first year of King Henry I, Michaelmas 1130 (Pipe Roll 1), Judith A. Green (ed.), 2012. (New edition re TNA: PRO E 372/1.) Internet Resources KAS Website Research Section ‘Kent Extracts from Pipe Rolls’: http://www. kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/05/0.htm. Flight, C., ‘The great rolls of the exchequer: published rolls’; and ‘The great rolls of the exchequer: images of the unpublished rolls’: http://www.kentarchaeology. ac/digiarchive/ColinFlight/ColinFlight.html. Images of the unpublished Pipe Rolls from 1225 onwards can be found on the Anglo-American Legal Tradition website: http://aalt.law.uh.edu. PRS Volumes 1-37, with the exception of volumes 10, 12, 32, 33, 34 and 36 online: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject:%22Great%20Britain%20-- %20History%20Angevin%20period,%201154-1216%20Sources%22. PRS Vol. 3, 1884, Introduction to the Study of the Pipe Rolls, online: http://www. archive.org/details/piperollsociety03pipeuoft. The National Archives website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.