95 
Some Ancient Documents relating to Totley, 
Dore, and Holmsfield, near Drontely, 
EDITED By S. O. Appy, M.A. 
Po en I am correct in assuming that the object of the 
5 Society is to collect the materials out of which 
awe See} history may be written, rather than to arrange those 
materials when collected in such a manner as may attract 
the ordinary reader, the publication of the following documents 
will require no apology. Faint is the light which grants, quit- 
claims, and other legal instruments shed upon local history. 
Still, without them, there would often, nay generally, be no 
light at all. ‘They are often the only links which connect the 
busy world of to-day with the still centuries that lie behind 
it. Too often has the historian to paint his word-picture from 
the charter books and rent-rolls of monasteries. Too often, 
from such slight materials only does the romance-writer build 
up the stately forms of historical fiction. 
With reference to the men whose names appear in the 
following documents, or who attested their execution, it may 
be observed that the names of the greater part of them are 
taken from the places where they dwelt. The “ Barns” and 
the ‘‘ Woodhouses” are near Dronfield; the one a farm-house, and 
_ the other a hamlet. Woodthorpe and Bircheved, or Birchet, are 
farm-houses, near Dronfield. Not only have these place-names 
survived, with little alteration, to our day, though the charter 
which mentions them was written six hundred years ago, but 
