The Wilmington Charter of A.D. 700

THE WILMINGTON CHARTER OF A.D. 700. 13 THE Two EXISTING COPIES OF THIS CHARTER. It is not unusual to-day, nor was it in the Anglo-Saxon period, to issue two or more copies of a charter or, to be more exact, to make two or three contemporary records of the same transaction. These records were not always precisely similar. Thus, in the case of the record of Thurstan's bequest to Christ Church about 1042 or 1043 (Anglo-Saxon Wills, 189) we know from the last clause that " There are three of these documents : one is at Christchurch ; the second at St. Augustine's; the third with the testators." Two of these copies have come down to us. One is relatively short and contains only what concerns Christ Church and St. Augustine's. The other (still in the possession of Christ Church) is very long and probably contains all that was in the original. Since this belonged to Christ Church and since the testator could have little use for an abbreviated form, it seems certain that the short copy was that which was held by St. Augustine's, a view which accords well with the fact that it is among the Cotton manuscripts (Aug. II, 34). But the St. Augustine's copy was not only a shortened form. It included details, for example the name of a witness, Aelfric, Archbishop of York, not mentioned in the Christ Church copy, a fact which reminds us of the frequent conflicts between the two Sees of Canterbury and York. In the case of another gift, that of Ickham by King Offa in 785, we are not told that two copies were made, the actual entering of this fact being a much later practice, but we have two copies still remaining (B.C.S., 247, 248). They vary in the way in which the grant is described and they vary even in date, but the witnesses are the same, both are granted at a witan assembled at Celchyth, grantor and grantee are the same and there is no doubt at all that the same lands are in question. There can be no doubt that they record the same transaction. The grant of Wilmington with which this essay deals is also known from two different records, each in the form of an original charter. They also differ in form and even in date although clearly having reference to one and the same gift.