Formulary of English Chancery Writs

Manuscript location

Manuscript location
Place
Repository	University of Western Australia Library
Collection	Special Collections
Shelf mark	Rare 347.8
Former shelf mark
Manuscript name
Name	Formulary of English Chancery Writs
Contents
Summary	The text, often known as the Register of Original Writs, consists of the formularies used by the Chancery. Each type of writing is explained with real and fictitious examples and is followed by Regulae for the writing of them.
Physical description
Support	Vellum
Dimensions	170 x 118 mm.
Extent	210 leaves plus 6 contemporary flyleaves (ff. 85 and 210 blank)
Collation	i-iii¹² iv-viii¹⁰ ix¹² x-xii⁸ xiii⁶ xiv-xv⁸ xvi¹⁰ xvii-xxiii⁸
Catchwords	Some catchwords present
Signatures
Foliation	Contemporary foliation omits leaves after 84, 171 and 200
Condition	Some leaves stained and worn, some small holes, many signs of use but generally in sound condition
Layout	33-38 lines
Scribes	Written in brown ink by several scribes
Scripts	English charter hands
Decoration	Paragraph marks and some initials in red (others left blank)
Musical notation
Binding	Contemporary binding of thick wooden boards, covered with vellum, attached with leather thongs; strip torn from spine but binding sound; lacks clasps
Seals
Accompanying material
History
Origin	England (London?), mid-fourteenth century
Provenance	(1) Sample writs are dated up to 21 Edward [III], 1348, (f. 209) and Henry III is correctly described as proavus meus (f. 117b), though the description of the queen as Isabella (f. 2) shows that some items were adopted unchanged from earlier reigns. (2) Fifteenth-century inscriptions of Richard Hawkys of Stretton, Hertfordshire (ff. 1b, 162b), with note of purchase from Thomas Conham, Thavies Inn, London. Thavies Inn, of great antiquity, was one of the Inns of Chancery before being acquired by Lincoln’s Inn in 1549. (3) Passed from Richard Hawkys to John Hawkys, also of Stretton (inscription at end). (4) Other late medieval names include Hyncley, John Wylke, John Adame Parker, Cokayne (on Flyleaves) and the ownership inscription “Pilbaraough me possidet”. (5) John Fardoe (f. 206b); a note in a different but perhaps contemporary hand is dated 1609 (f. 92). (6) Locke, 30 August 1772 (end flyleaf and f. 112b). (7) Late eighteenth-century presentation by Sidney Lowe, widower, to Elizabeth Sedley, spinster (described in another inscription as Madame Lowe).
Acquisition	Purchased from Alan G. Thomas, Catalogue 36 (1977), lot 3 ( £800) - presented by the Friends of the UWA Library
Bibliography
Bibliography list
Analysis
Commentary
Description by	UWA Library, based on: Alan G. Thomas, Catalogue 36 (1977)
Acknowledgements
Other descriptions
Digital copies