Roll Listing Properties Confiscated by the Crown in Northamptonshire, in English [England (perhaps Northampton), dated 23 November 1548]

a roll, c.1460x275mm, vellum, composed of 3 membranes stitched head to tail, each entry from 1 to 30 lines long, written in a cursive but very legible secretary hand, the top of the roll darkened and worn, inscribed on the outside '135' and 'Vestments for free chappels'

AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT FOR THE STUDY OF THE REFORMATION IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 

The roll is headed 'The valewe of all the stockes and goodes belonginge to annye & everye of the Chaunteries, Collegyes & Brotherhoodes as the[y] be praysed within Northampton shere whereof I have yet annye perfet knowlege' and is signed by the Royal Commissioners Sir Walter Mildmay (d.1589), Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Robert Keilway (d.1581); and signed and dated by the appraisers Silvester Taverner and John Marsshe. It is the list of the movable possessions of 10 chantries, 5 guilds, 3 chapels, 3 confraternities, and 2 colleges, which became the property of the Crown on Easter Day 1548, under the Dissolution Act of 1547; the total value is appraised as £34 8d.

The list includes a large numbers of vestments, copes, surplices, towels, and napkins, usually specifying the colour and material, including 'sylke wrought wythe golde', damask, satin, worsted, fustian, and velvet. Several are painted: the Guild of our Lady in Oundle, for example, had 'a olde paynted clothe for hanginge on the aulter', others are described as 'of divers collores' or 'dyaper'.

Among furnishing are 'a coffer of sprusse to put in the evidence' (i.e. a spruce-wood muniment-chest), and a 'hogges hed to put salte in, in the kichin'. More easily portable items include 'drinkinge hornes with a lighte garnishe of silver', and a few BOOKS: the chantry of Farthinghoe, for example, had 'ij masse bookes'; the chantry of Rothwell had 'one masse booke'; and the chantry of Great Addington had 'a masse booke of parchment' valued at 10d., and 'a Bible in Latten and paper', valued at 20d.

There is an early reference to 'a cloke with a bell and ij weights of leade belonginge to the same' at the Confraternity of St Katherine, Northampton.

It seems that nothing escaped notice: 'ij lyttell brasse pottes' and 'an olde broken panne' are duly recorded, as is 'one hyve withe bees'.