communicated concerning Arabic numerals, offered the following interesting remarks on the earliest instances of their practical use in England.
He observed, that greatly superior as in every respect, and particularly for facilitating calculation, is the Arabic method of the notation of numbers above the Roman, it was not till a recent period that it superseded the mode which had been long in use. In the public accounts this notation was rarely used in England before the seventeenth century, and in private accounts the use of it is not at all common before that century.
Even stray and casual instances of the use of it, either entire or intermixed with characters in the Roman notation, are very rarely found in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. One has been observed by Sir Francis Palgrave, of the 10th year of King Edward the First, 1282. It is only the character for three; trium being written thus,—3um. See Parliamentary Writs, vol. i., p. 232.
Mr. Hunter laid before the Institute a fac-simile of a public document of the 19th year of King Edward the Second, 1325, in which the date of the year is expressed in one part in Roman numerals, and in another in Arabic. The document is a warrant from Hugh le Despenser to Bonefez de Peruche and his partners, merchants of a company, to pay forty pounds. Dated February 4, 19th Edw. II. (1325).
It is expressed as follows—"Hugh' le Despens' a nr'e bien amez Bonefez de Peruche & ses compaîgnons Marchauntz de la dite comp' . . . (torn) saluz, No'vo' maundoms q'de den's (deners) q' vo' auez du nr'e en garde facez liu'er a nr'e ch' compaignon Mons' . . . (torn) liures desterlinges questes no' lui auoms p'stez. Et voloms q' ceste Ir'e vo' soit garaunt de la h . . . (torn) le .iiij. iour de ffeu'er, Lan du regne le Roi Edward, fitz au Roi Edward, xixo." Indorsed—"Per istam literam solverunt Roberto de Morle militi. xl. li. i. per recogn' in cancellar' factam." And, in a different hand, on the dorse, is a memorandum of the payment, with a date February, 1325, as here represented. It is to be observed, however, that this indorsement is not written by an Englishman, but by one of the Italian merchants, to whom the warrant was addressed. Yet it shows that this notation was sometimes applied in England at the beginning of that century to purposes of business.
Sir Robert de Morle was much engaged in public affairs in the reign of Edward II., and was in various expeditions, t. Edward III., in France, where he died, in 1359. He acquired large estates in Norfolk by marriage with the heiress of le Marshall, in whose right he had also the Marshalship and lands in Ireland. The warrant here given seems to have been issued about the time when Queen Isabel with Prince Edward were in France, caballing against Edward II. and the Despenser faction. By distribution of great gifts amongst the French, a feeling unfavourable to Isabel was excited, and she left Paris for Hainault, whence she set forth in September following with a large force, and landed at Orwell.
The companies of Florentine and other Italian merchants were long encouraged in England, and supplied frequent loans to the Crown. (See Archæologia, vol. xxviii., p. 308.) The "mercatores de Societate de Perruch' de Florentia," occur 17 Edw. II., and subsequently; but the name of Bonefez does not appear in the numerous documents there cited.
Mr. Spencer Hall communicated a notice of sepulchral memorials of
