CHAP. II.
Of The Charters prefixed to this Collection of The Statutes.
A Series of the Charters of the Liberties of England is prefixed to this Collection of The Statutes: namely, Charters of Liberties; 1 Henry I. A. D. 1101: 1 Stephen A. D. 1136: Of Stephen and Henry II. without Date: Charter for free Elections in Churches; 16 John A. D. 1214: Articles or Heads of Magna Carta; 17 John A. D. 1215: Magna Carta; 17 John A. D. 1215: 1 Henry III. A. D. 1216; A. D. 1217[1]: 9 Henry III. A. D. 1224-5: 36 Henry III. A. D. 1251-2: Carta de Foresta; 2 Henry III. A. D. 1217: 9 Henry III. A. D. 1224-5: And Charters confirming Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta; 21 Hen. III. A. D. 1236-7: 49 Hen. III. A. D. 1264-5: 25 Edw. I. A. D. 1297: 28 Edw. I. A. D. 1300: 29 Edw. I. A. D. 1300-1.[2]
Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta, granted in the 9th Year of King Henry III. have, in every Collection of Statutes which contained the Statutes previous to 1 Edw. III. been printed as the first in Order. In all Editions previous to Hawkins’s, they were printed as from Charters of Inspeximus of 28 Edw. I: By Hawkins and subsequent Editors they were printed from the Charter of Inspeximus entered on the Statute Roll of 25 Edw. I: But in no Edition hitherto have they been printed immediately from any Charter of 9 Hen. III; and it is not known that any Statute Roll of that Date ever existed. In the present Collection, these Charters are inserted according to their place in the above Series, and are printed from Charters under the Great Seal: They are also printed again amongst the Statutes 25 Edw. I. from the Entry on the Statute Roll of that Year, being the earliest Parliamentary Record upon which they have been found.
For the Purpose of examining all the Charters, and Authentic Copies and Entries thereof, and also of searching for antient Copies and Entries of Statutes, and Instruments not now to be found on the Statute Roll, Two Sub-Commissioners were employed during the Summer of 1806, in making a Progress through England and Ireland to every Place where it appeared from the Returns to the Record Committee of 1800, or from other Intelligence, that any such Charters, Copies, or Entries were preserved: And Searches have been made successively at every Cathedral in England which was known to possess any such Charters, Copies, or Entries; and also at the Univerſities of Oxford and Cambridge; at Trinity College Dublin; at the Courts of Exchequer, and other Public Offices in Dublin; and wherever else Information could be obtained on the Subject. The Result, so far as relates to the Charters, may be thus briefly stated.
In Rochester Cathedral is preserved the Textus Roffensis: This is a Chartulary, or Collection of Charters and Instruments, compiled by Ernulf, who was Bishop of Rochester from A. D. 1115 to A. D. 1125. In this Chartulary is an Entry of the Charter of Liberties, granted in the First Year of King Henry I. A. D. 1101[3].
In Exeter Cathedral is preserved an Original Charter granted in the First Year of King Stephen A. D. 1136. ‘De libertatibus Ecclesie Anglie & Regni.’
In Canterbury Cathedral are several Chartularies or Registers of very antient Date. In these are entered the Charter of King Stephen, of which an Original is in Exeter Cathedral, and the Charter of King John, granted in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign, for free Elections of Prelates, &c. in Churches and Monasteries.
In Lincoln Cathedral, an Original of the Great Charter of Liberties, granted by King John in the Seventeenth Year of his Reign, is preserved in a perfect State. This Charter appears to be of superior Authority to either of the Two Charters of the same Date, preserved in the British Museum. From the contemporary Indorsements of the Word Lincolnia on Two Folds of the Charter, this may be presumed to be the Charter transmitted by the Hands of Hugh the then Bishop of Lincoln, who is one of the Bishops named in the Introductory Clause; and it is observable that several Words and Sentences are inserted in the Body of this Charter, which in both the Charters preserved in the British Museum, are added, by way of Notes for Amendment, at the Bottom of the Instrument.
In Durham Cathedral, several Charters of the Liberties of England are preserved with great Care; namely Magna Carta 12 Nov. 1 Hen. III.—Carta de Foresta 2 Hen. III.—Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta 9 Hen. III. The Carta de Foresta 2 Hen. III. is the earliest Charter of the Forest; the Original and all Authentic Records of which were supposed by Blackstone to be lost[4]. It is remarkable that in this Original is inserted a Clause which occurs in an Entry of this Charter on a Roll, formerly belonging to the Abbey of Hales Owen in Shropshire, communicated to Blackstone by Lord Lyttelton[5]; and which is not inserted in the Carta de Foresta 9 Hen. III.
- ↑ It is not ascertained whether this Charter was granted in the First or Second Year of the Reign of Hen. III. See Blackstone’s Charters, Introd. 4to. pa. xxxviii—xl.: 8vo. pa. lix—lxii. A Manuscript, No.70. in Benet College Library Cambridge, attributes this Charter positively to the first Year.
- ↑ See more fully The Table prefixed to The Charters; specifying the Original or Entry from which each Charter is respectively printed, and the Place where such Original or Entry is preserved.
- ↑ Of this Charter two antient Copies are entered in the Red Book of the Exchequer at Westminster; a Copy in MS. Cott. Claud. D. II. is comparatively modern and very incorrect.
- ↑ See Blackstone’s Charters, Introd. 4to Edit. pa. xlii;—8vo Edit. pa. lxv.
- ↑ De boscis autem aliorum nullum detur chiminagium foristariis nostris preterquam de dominicis boscis nostris.See Blackstone’s Charters, 4to. pa. xlviii. Note w:—pa. li. Note z.—8vo. pa. lxxiv. and lxxviij.
