Durham Cathedral Archive: Medieval Accounting Material: office holders (obedientiaries)

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Introduction

	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material elsewhere

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Catalogue

• Obedientiaries (office holders)
• Almoner
• Almoner's rent-rolls
• Almoner's Accounts etc.
• Bursar
• Cellarer
• Bursar-Cellarer Indentures
• Chamberlain
• with Receiver in Yorkshire
• Communar
• Feretrar
• Granator
• Bursar-Granator Indentures
• Hostiller
• Manor of Elvethall
• Proctor of St Margaret's Durham
• Proctor of St Oswald's Durham
• Infirmarer
• Sacrist
• with Sacristonheugh
• Receiver in York and Holtby
• Terrar

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Contents

With one significant exception the three lists of medieval accounts aim to cover all the medieval accounting material found in the Durham Cathedral Archive, together with items from the series of accounts that has been found elsewhere. The exception is material relating to the collection of taxation, briefly listed near the top of the list of Manorial etc accounts: for this to be dealt with properly will require examination of the corresponding material in The National Archives.
In the lists that follow all items simply defined by date are accounts. For all other accounting material a brief indication of its nature is given, in terms that match those used in the reference to the document, e.g. Bursar, Sale of Tithes. Here, however, the dates covered by each item are given as fully as possible, and where these are not taken directly from the heading, either because it is lost or damaged, or because it does not give full details, this is shown by square brackets, [ ].

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Accession details

Transferred into the custody of the university by the Dean and Chapter of Durham in 1947.

Copyright and copying

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from Durham Cathedral Library (library@durhamcathedral.co.uk). The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Arrangement

The accounts are listed by accountant, in chronological order. They are identified by their date: a date alone shows that it is the standard document for the section (usually this means it is an account, but in a section such as Bursar-Granator Indentures it will be an indenture. Where accounts contain other information this is given in the description. If the document is not of the standard form, the date is qualified in some form, such as Status, 1328, which serves to differentiate it from the main sequence. Where more than one version of a document occurs it is marked within the description by a series of letters (A), (B) etc. On a few occasions there are two different documents of the same type in the same year, which have separate entries, such as Status, 1328 (A) and Status, 1328 (B) - where these have separate entries they are different documents, where included under the same heading they are duplicates.
The rounded heads of the rolls may have been carried out as late as the nineteenth century, as on Hostiller 1353-4 where modern writing on the dorse has been partly cut away.

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The large group of medieval accounts was listed in a single catalogue, but as more detail is added it has expanded and has been divided into three sections (December 2017) as follows:
Obedientiaries (office holders) (this catalogue)
Manorial accounts, and accounts of mines and proctors of churches
Cells of Durham Priory

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Related material elsewhere

Durham Cathedral MS B.II.35
Inventory of relics, 1383
Durham Cathedral MS C.III.4
ff. 2 and 233 Bursar's Arrears and debts, [Summer 1308, from c. 1290 onwards]:
... [Arrears from c.1290 - summer 1308, outstanding summer 1308]
An indenture listing arrears and debts due to the Bursar was apparently cut up to form the front and back pastedowns and fly-leaves of this book, with f.2r following below f.233r after a small gap, and, as the dorse, f.2v below f.233v. Text was cut away along each edge and the main heading is lost, together with the headings to the first sections of the list. Each of the surviving columns seems to cover about four half-year terms, with little lost at the top, suggesting that the Pentecost term 1290 headed the column that survives in part on the left edge, and it is likely that this was the first column since the end of the list is found at this point on the other side of the parchment; the last term covered is the half-year running from Martinmas 1307, followed by the list of debts. The date of the indenture, the date on which the arrears listed were outstanding, cannot be earlier than the end of the last term covered, in early summer 1308, but it does not appear to be much later, as the total differs from the totals of the "magnum cyrograffum" at Martinmas 1308, 1309 and 1310 [Bursars Accounts 1308-9 (B), 1309-10]; a possible date would be between 10.viii.1308 and 26.x.1308 when the Bursar's office changed hands [Misc.Ch.5051 1 ; Misc.Ch.4612].
Cambridge Jesus College MS Q.G.13
ff.1-8 comprise parts of a Bursar Account 1420-1
Cambridge Trinity Coll. MS 365
Front flyleaf is fragment of second copy of Almoner's Account, 14 May 1464 - 27 May 1465
British Library MS Cotton Faustina A.vi ff. 110-111.
(Prior of Durham's Register, sometimes described as Reg. Parv. I) ff. 110 and 111 Two pieces of Chamberlain's expenses section, c.1380.
Bibliography Surtees Society publications (in order of issue)
Raine, J. ed., The priory of Finchale. The charters of endowment, inventories, and account rolls, of the priory of Finchale, in the county of Durham SS 6 (1837)
Raine, J. ed., Historiae Dunelmensis scriptores tres: Gaufridus de Coldingham, Robertus de Greystanes, et Willielmus de Chambre SS 9 (1839)
Raine, J. ed., The priory of Coldingham. The correspondence, inventories, account rolls, and law proceedings, of the priory of Coldingham SS 12 (1841)
Raine, J. ed., The Durham household book; or, the accounts of the bursar of the monastery of Durham from Pentecost 1530 to Pentecost 1534 SS 18 (1844)
Raine, J. ed., The inventories and account rolls of the Benedictine houses or cells of Jarrow and Monk-Wearmouth, in the county of Durham SS 29 (1854)
Fowler, J.T. ed., Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham vols. i-iii, SS 99; 100; 103 (1898; 1899; 1901)
Storey, R.L., ed., The register of Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham, 1406-1437 SS 164; 166; 169; 170; 177; 182. (1956; 1957; 1959; 1961; 1966; 1970)
Other references
Ash, M. “The Administration of the Diocese of St Andrews”, PhD Newcastle 1972
Blakiston, H.E.D. ed., “Some Durham College rolls”, in M. Burrows ed., Collectanea. Third Series, Oxford Historical Society 32 (1896)
Burton, T. & Raine, J. The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hemingbrough (York, 1888)
Dobson, R.B., Durham priory, 1400-1450 (Cambridge 1973)
Fishwick, H. ed., The History of the Parish of Lytham in the county of Lancaster, Chetham Society 60 (1907).
Fowler, J.T., ed. “Inventory of the vestments, books, etc., of the priory of Finchale, A.D. 1481”, Trans. Archaeological & Architectural Society of Durham & Northumberland iv (1890-95), 134-47
Pantin, W.A. Documents illustrating the activities of the General and Provincial Chapters of the English Black Monks
Piper, A.J., “Evidence of accounting and local estate services at Durham: c. 1240”, Archives xx (1992), 36-9.
Raine, J. The history and antiquities of North Durham (1852)
Woolgar, C.M., ed. Household Accounts from Medieval England ii, (Oxford, 1993)
A history of the county of York (Victoria County History) vol. iii, (1913)
Abbreviations An indication is given where documents have been printed, extracted or mentioned. Where this is followed by a number, this refers to a volume of the Surtees Society:
6: J. Raine ed., The Priory of Finchale. ... (1837).
9: J. Raine ed., Historiae Dunelmensis scriptores tres: ... (1839).
12: J. Raine ed., The Priory of Coldingham. ... (1841).
18: J. Raine ed., The Durham Household Book; ... (1844).
29: J. Raine ed., The Inventories and Account Rolls of the Benedictine Houses or Cells of Jarrow and Monk-Wearmouth, ... (1854).
99: J.T. Fowler ed., Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham i (1898).
100: J.T. Fowler ed., Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham ii (1899).
103: J.T. Fowler ed., Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham iii (1901).
In a number of cases the indication refers to more than one place in Volumes 99, 100 and 103; this arises when separated pieces of the same account have been rejoined.
For Lytham the references "CS" are to:
H. Fishwick ed., The History of the Parish of Lytham ..., Chetham Society 60 (1907).
For Oxford "OHS" refers to:
H.E.D. Blakiston, “Some Durham College rolls”, in M. Burrows ed., Collectanea. Third Series, Oxford Historical Society 32 (1896).

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Catalogue

Obedientiaries (office holders)