Chartularies or Registers, preserved in several Cathedrals, contain Copies of some of the Old Statutes. Such are the Black Book of the Cathedral of Christ Church Dublin, written between the Years 1280 and 1299, and Register A. in Gloucester Cathedral, compiled in 1397.
In Lincoln’s Inn Library, are Lord Hale’s Manuscript Copies of Rolls and Petitions in Parliament: In the Inner Temple Library, Mr. Petyt’s Collection of Manuscripts; among which are several Volumes of the Statutes. In many other Public Libraries also, Manuscript Collections of Statutes are preserved.[1]
Of the several Manuscripts not of Record, an extensive and careful Examination has been made in preparing for the present Edition; and it has been ascertained that, although they differ from each other considerably in their Degrees of Antiquity and Correctness, yet the Credit of no single one is entirely to be relied on; for scarcely any Manuscript has yet been discovered, in any Repository, in which there are not some material Errors, perverting or altogether destroying the Sense of the Text. In some Instances, however, such as Cott. Claud. D II. in the British Museum, and M m. v. 19, in the Library of the University of Cambridge, several of the Instruments contained in the Manuscripts purport to be examined by the Roll. In Liber Horn, in the Town Clerk’s Office, London, several are marked as examined ‘per Ceram;’ ‘per Ceram Gildaule;’ ‘per Statutum Gildaule London in Cera;’ ‘cum brevi cum eisdem in Gildaula adjunct’; all which signify that the Entry in the Book has been examined with an Exemplification of the Statute or Instrument under the Great Seal, sent to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London with or without a Writ for Publication thereof. The Rawlinson Manuscript No. 337. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the Harleian Manuscript No. 5022 in the British Museum, refer to the Inrollment on the Statute Roll, of several Articles inserted in those Volumes, but do not profess that the Articles themselves were examined by that Roll.
III. On a mature Consideration of all the Circumstances before stated, the following Rules of Preference have been adhered to, in the Use of the several Sources for the Text, and for Various Readings of the Statutes, in the present Collection.
During the Periods in which Statute Rolls exist, such Statute Rolls have been considered and used as the highest Authority for the Statutes contained in them; namely, the Statutes 6 Edw. I. to 8 Edw. IV.; with the Omission of the Statutes 9 to 23 Hen. VI. both inclusive.
But for such Statutes as, during the Period of the Existence of the Statute Rolls, do not appear on those Rolls; and for Statutes made in any Period of which the Statute Roll is not now in existence, namely previous to 6 Edw. I.; after 8 and before 25 Hen. VI; and after 8 Edw. IV; and also for the Correction of manifest Errors or Omissions in the Text, whether taken from Statute Rolls or elsewhere, the following Sources have been recurred to in regular Gradation; preference being given to them according to the following Order, but all being used and collated, where necessary: viz. 1. Inrollments of Acts.—2. Exemplifications and Transcripts.—3. Original Acts.—4. Rolls of Parliament.—5. Close, Patent, Fine, and Charter Rolls.—6. Entries and Books of Record.—7. Books and Manuscripts not of Record.—And finally, 8. The Printed Copies; the earliest of which was not published until more than two hundred Years subsequent to the present Commencement of the Statute Rolls.
The following Reasons for Preference among Manuscripts not of Record have been adopted: 1. Their professing to be Authentic Copies from any Records, Exemplifications, or Transcripts: 2. Their Age; the oldest being on the whole the most worthy of Credit: 3. The Uniformity and Regularity of the Series of Statutes, and Instruments in each Collection: 4. Their having been already printed, and received in use, as Evidence of the Text of Statutes; or, if not so printed, their according with the printed Copies, and with each other, so that when the Manuscripts differ, the Majority should prevail: 5. Certain Manuscripts have been holden to be of superior Authority upon some particular Subjects, having special Connection with the Places in which they are preserved: Such as the Books preserved in the Exchequer, for Statutes relating to that Court, or to Accounts, or to Money; Books at the Town Clerk’s Office, London, relating to the Assises of Bread and Ale, Weights, and Measures, &c: 6. In all Manuscripts some Articles are found much more correct than others; a Judgment has therefore frequently been formed from internal Evidence in Favour of a particular Statute or Reading, although the Manuscript in which such Statute or Reading were found, might not, in other Instances, be entitled to Preference: 7. Where it has happened that several Manuscripts agreed in the Text or Reading of any Instrument, and were so equal in their Claims for Preference, that it was entirely Matter of Indifference which should be chosen for a Source of Extract or Quotation, that Manuscript has been used which has been quoted or extracted from for other Purposes, in Preference to one not before quoted; and one which has already been printed from, in Preference to one which has not.
Sect. III.
Of the Mode used in searching for, transcribing, collating, noting, and printing the Text of the Statutes.
- ↑ See Appendix C. in which the several Records and Manuscripts in the respective Repositories are particularized.
