Original Documents.
ANCIENT CONSUETUDINARY OF THE CITY OF WINCHESTER.
An old certificate or exemplification of the customs of the city of Winchester has been found by Mr. Gunner among the muniments of the College there, and been brought by him under the notice of the Institute. It is very clearly and neatly written, in a formal hand and in a character by no means common. The handwriting appears to me to be consistent with the date which, on other grounds, I should assign to the document, namely, the 13th century. A double seal of the city is attached to it; and an indorsement on it implies that it was obtained by a custos or warden of some house, probably one of the old hospitals or eleemosynary establishments at Winchester, which were afterwards absorbed by William of Wykeham in his great foundations in that city and at Oxford.
I have called it a Consuetudinary, because it may be properly so described, and also because it is probably a certified copy of one which, under the name of "Consuetudinarium commune civitatis," is referred to in the books of the Corporation at a later period, and was consulted when a question arose as to the ancient ordinances or customs respecting the local contributions of persons trading within the liberties. The Inquest, which I had the pleasure of communicating in a recent volume of the Journal (No. 28), and this Consuetudinary, will be found to throw mutual light on each other.
The document is one of considerable interest. A conspectus of the constitution and customs of a provincial city at this date is rare. I have no difficulty in saying that it contains more real information respecting the municipal organisation of the city and its trade-guilds in the 13th century than is to be found in any work yet published under the name of a history of Winchester. The work of Dr. Milner consists of little but selections from the general history of England so far as the public transactions of the kingdom are found to have some connexion with the city or neighbourhood of Winchester. These selections, together with copious memorials of the bishops who have occupied the see, and a careful survey of the ecclesiastical edifices, compose nearly the whole of his history. Of the secular history of the city, its government, its mysteries and guilds, the growth, fluctuations, and decay of its commerce, its municipal constitution and local polity, there is to be found in it only the scantiest measure of information.
I am, therefore, glad to be able to furnish a transcript of this instructive document, and to append to it a summary of its contents and some observations that may assist the reader in understanding its import and appreciating its value as a contribution to local history.[1]
- ↑ The original is written with only one break, and with few points or stops.
