Cambridge. Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 3021
- Source
- Cambridge Digital Library
- Library
- Cambridge. Cambridge University Library
- Shelfmark
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- MS Add. 3021
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- Early fourteenth century. Original entries were compiled during the abbacy of William de Clapton (1305-1323) Clapton, William de, 1305-1323
- Language
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- Latin
- English
- French
- Middle English
- Title
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- Part Four: Northamptonshire, Rutland and Warwickshire
- Part Five: Lincolnshire
- Part Six: Bedfordshire and Norfolk
- Part Seven: Middlesex
- Part Eight: Agreements and fines
- Ecclesiastical records
- Part Nine: Ecclesiastical records and De Gestis Abbatum
- see more
- Agent
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- Preferred form
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- William of Clopton (12..-1323)
- Original form
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- William de Clapton (1305-1323)
- Clapton, William de, 1305-1323
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Francis Fane (1825-1891)
- Original form
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- Francis Fane, the twelfth Earl of Westmorland
- Westmorland, Francis William Henry, Earl of, 1825-1891
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Londres. Bernard Quaritch
- Original form
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- Bernard Quaritch
- Other form
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- Bernard Quaritch (firme)
- Librairie Quaritch
- Seller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (London)
- Bernard Quaritch Ltd
- Bernard Quaritch Ltd., booksellers
- see more
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Samuel Sandars (1837-1894)
- Original form
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- Samuel Sandars (1837-1894)
- Sandars, Samuel, 1837-1894
- Biblissima authority file
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- Description
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Thorney Abbey was the smallest of three fenland monasteries re-founded by Bishop Aethelwold in the tenth century. Virtually nothing is known about the management of its estates and the Red Book of Thorney (MSS Add. 3020 and 3021) is its sole surviving cartulary. Compiled in the early fourteenth century with later additions, many of which concern deeds omitted from the main sections, it is both elegant and, for the most part, highly organised. The main entries have contemporary folio and charter numbers in red ink, There are also headers and footers in red ink. Rubrics, again in red ink, indicate the subject matter of individual entries and also provide much incidental detail. The royal and topographical sections are divided into eight parts, followed by a ninth with miscellaneous fines, agreements and ecclesiastical documents, together with a particularly valuable De Gestis Abbatum. Annotations, contemporary and later, and cross references are frequent and indicate that the cartulary was designed to be used.
The cartulary as a whole contains transcriptions of material from before the Conquest to 1531, with a special wealth of thirteenth-century charters. Witness lists are given but not usually in full. The black ink entries in De Gestis Abbatum record a rich mixture of documents relating inter alia to estates, advowsons, fen disputes and grants to the convent. The red ink entries, which describe each abbacy, contain much information about elections, vacancies, building works and land dealings. There are vivid descriptions of gifts of vestments at fols 460v-61r.
There is no printed edition of the cartulary. Its contents are examined in S. Raban, "The Estates of Thorney and Crowland", University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy, Occasional Paper, 7 (1977) and S. G. Raban, The Property of Thorney and Crowland Abbeys (unpublished Cambridge PhD thesis, 1972).
Sandra Raban
- Place
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- Preferred form
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- Thorney Abbey (United Kingdom)
- Original form
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- Thorney, Cambridgeshire
- Biblissima authority file
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- Rights
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- Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © Cambridge University Library, All rights reserved. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
- Digitisation
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