A large sigillographic collection, manuscripts on vellum and paper [fourteenth to nineteenth century]

30 manuscripts, 5 detached seals and a number of seal-impressions, including (a) 4 charters with seals, concerning the immediate post-Reformation fate of the College of Fotheringhay, Northants., in English, 1590-1; (b) 7 English documents with seals, in Latin, fourteenth or fifteenth century; (c) 3 similar vernacular documents from France, Flanders and Germany, fourteenth to early sixteenth century; some Great Seals of English monarchs (Edward VI, detached; Charles I and George II, on letters patent), other documents and seals of noblemen, ecclesiastical houses, and a nineteenth-century will bequeathing a family's armorial seals

This is a large collection of sealed documents and detached seals, including a substantial example of the great seal of King Edward VI (1548-53), a number of medieval European vernacular charters with seals, and a small archive of charters from the archive of the Cruys family who bought the buildings, goods and lands of the College of Fotheringhay after the Reformation. The college was the continuation of, and stood on the same site as, a Cistercian nunnery founded by Simon de St. Liz (d.1115). In the late fourteenth century, Edmund of Langley, duke of York, laid out plans for a grand collegiate church at Fotheringhay, and his plans were completed by his eldest son Edward of York, before he fell in the vanguard of the fight at Agincourt in 1415. Both father and son were buried in the church. It was a large and wealthy institution with the sole purpose to pray for the well-being of the king and queen, the Prince of Wales, the duke of York and the royal family. Inventories made around the time of the dissolution show that the chained library contained ninety-three books, and a further 11 antiphoners, a mass book for the high altar and another for the Lady Mass, 23 processionals, 4 psalters, an ordinal, 3 legendaries, and 12 "grayles covered with lether" and "a boke of Venite in parchment" were to be found elsewhere in the buildings. Of the manuscripts only a fourteenth-century martyrology (now Cambridge, St John's Coll. 135) appears to have survived. The college was surrendered to the crown in 1539, and formally dissolved in 1548, and the estate was granted to Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who immediately pulled down the quire of the great church and unroofed some of the buildings for the value of the lead. On the duke's execution, it reverted to the crown and was sold to James Cruys in July 1558. The charters here are a valuable addition to the history of the house during the ownership of Gamaliell Cruys (the son of James), and include lengthy descriptions of the buildings which show that the buildings were still intact and some parts were still recognisable (in particular, a note of a room named the 'Feild bed chamber', after William Feild, master from c.1480).

 

The collection comprises:

1. Agreement between James Cruys and Robert Bevill and John Hatcher conveying the mansion house called 'the Colledge of Fotheringhay' with all buildings 'stoured with glasse', 220mm. by 580mm., on vellum, in English, with seals of Bevill (armorial, excellent condition) and Hatcher (bird, excellent condition), 4 July 1590

 

2. Charter of James Cruys acknowledging that the grant in the item above has taken place, 230mm. by 435mm., on vellum, in English, with seal of Bevill, 6 July 1590

 

3. Grant of Gamaliell Cruys to his son William Cruys of land in Fotheringhay, on vellum, in English, 195mm. by 305mm., with grantor's signature and armorial seal (excellent condition), 20 Dec 1591

 

4. Large agreement between Gamaliell Cruys and his father-in-law Thomas Tirrell of London regarding the provision for Gamaliell's wife Elizabeth from the College of Fotheringhay with an extensive description of the rooms, buildings and estates of the complex, on vellum, in English, 387mm. by 440mm., with calligraphic initial words and Tirrell's signature and armorial seal (bird; fair condition), 23 December 1591

 

5.Grant by Robert de la Launde, goldsmith of London (also London alderman 1376-81, Sheriff of London 1376-7, MP for London in 1380 and knighted in 1381) and his brother Adam to John Clappescheth, poulterer of London of land in Sampford, Essex, on vellum, in Latin, 98mm. by 260mm., with two fine and clear armorial seals of the Launde brothers, 6 October 1368

 

6. Quitclaim by John Saucheverell, lord of Hopwell (east of Derby) of lands in Boulton (now in suburbs of Derby), in Latin, on vellum, 148mm. by 310mm., with substantial and well-preserved remains of his armorial seal, 5 February 1397; some slight rubbing but with very little loss to text

 

7. Receipt from Sir Hugh de Watirton to John Bonyngton, auditor of the duke of Hereford for revenues from lands in Lincoln, in Latin, on vellum, 83mm. by 230mm., with small and indistinct seal, 8 October 1398

 

8. Grant by Arthur de Rolleston to John Bonyngton of land in Osleston, Derbyshire, in Latin, on vellum, 165mm. by 270mm., with large armorial seal (cracked but in place)

 

9. Letter of Attorney from Walter Devereaux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley (MP for Herefordshire in 1460, Constable of Aberystwyth from 1463, Sheriff of Carnavon from 1470, killed at Bosworth fighting for Richard II in 1485), in Latin, on vellum, 104mm., 202mm., substantial remains of his seal, and no other example of this seal recorded, 20 April 1475

 

10. Grant by John Creswell to Thomas Arundell (1450-1524), Lord Mautravers, and other nobles of land in Heckfield in Hampshire, in Latin on vellum, 140mm. by 303mm., with calligraphic initial with penwork tracery tracing a drawing of a fish, partial armorial seal remaining, 4 September 1476

 

11. Extract of a court record of a case in Northam in which John Bowman accused John Sulford of coming to his house after the feast of St. Margaret in 1453 and taking away three brass pans as pledges against a land dispute, in Latin, on vellum, 560mm. by 300mm., with seal (bird; good condition), 1455

 

12. Record of gift of 10 livres Tournois to Jeanne daughter of the late Pierre le Boutillier, by Tassin de Nouium, clerk of Guy I, count of Blois, in French, on vellum, 65mm. by 240mm., with precise and clear seal of a 't' (presumably for Tassin), most probably from the Fuller collection, 10 June 1337

 

13. Letter of Jan de Voocht and Adriaen van Zeverdonck of Merxem and Schotten (north east of Antwerp) about a pasture at Schooten, in Flemish, on vellum, 220mm. by 520mm., calligraphic initial letters and substantial remains of their two armorial seals (good to fair condition), 2 November 1556

 

14. Charter of Conrad Schenck von Winterstetten, in German, on vellum, 245mm. by 420mm., large calligraphic initial and complex tri-lobed seal in excellent state of preservation, 1506

 

Plus, a collection of Great Seals of English Monarchs, including Edward VI (detached); Charles I (almost complete and on letters patent of 1625-6); and George II (on letters patent of 1738); a number of other seals of noblemen (including Thomas, Baron Lovell, 1739 and George, duke of Marlborough 1763); a number of ecclesiastical seals from England, Wales, Italy and Latvia, all eighteenth or nineteenth century; some European documents  including a diploma for a doctor of medicine issued 1840, with a large and fine seal of the Royal Hungarian University; and some detached seals, seal impressions and a copy of a will from 1846 bequeathing the armorial seals of the Hutton family