A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



In 1389 returns were ordered to be made to the king in council as to the 

 ordinances, usages, properties &c., of the various gilds then established in 

 England. A considerable number of these returns are lost, but for most 

 counties a few yet remain in the Public Record Office." Those of Notting- 

 hamshire are only four in number. Three of them relate to the respective 

 gilds of Corpus Christi (founded 23 Edward I), of Our Lady (36 Edward I) 

 and of the Holy Trinity (1339) in connexion with the parish church of 

 Newark.'* The fourth pertains to a gild in the small parish of Owthorpc. The 

 certificate of this gild or fraternity states that it was founded in the church of 

 Owthorpe in honour of the Crucifix, and was entered in the chancery of the 

 king on the vigil of the Purification, 1389, by Robert Deltoft, master of the 

 gild. This brief certificate states that the brethren and sisters of the gild 

 assembled at a certain house in the town at Whitsuntide, when they chose a 

 master who ordered a brewing of two quarters of malt for an ' ale ' [ad quandam 

 potacionem), and the profits were used for the sustaining of the wax tapers 

 before the Crucifix or Rood. Each brother or sister gave half a pound of 

 wax on admission to the fraternity. The gild had but few goods or chattels 

 pertaining to it." 



There is little to be gleaned that is of moment with regard to the 

 ecclesiastical history of Nottinghamshire during the i 5th century. Certain in- 

 teresting incidents arose from time to time in connexion with the development 

 and administration of the monasteries and of Southwell Minster, but all 

 these receive some attention in the subsequent accounts of the religious 

 houses. 



John Kemp, who was translated from London to York in 1426 and 

 promoted to Canterbury in 1452, was probably the most generally unpopular 

 prelate throughout Yorkshire of all the prelates of the northern province. 

 He was for the most part a non-resident diocesan, though occasionally taking 

 shelter in his manor-house at Southwell. During the height of his well-earned 

 unpopularity in 1 441, he complained to the king and council that when he 

 had issued processes against certain of the laity of his province for offences 

 within the jurisdiction of the spiritual courts, the mob had been instigated to 

 destroy mills, break down park palings and do other grievous damage to his 

 manors ; and that so far from being satisfied with these aggressions, they were 

 then threatening to attack his residence at Southwell. Upon investigation it 

 was found that the rioters had been instigated by the Earl of Northumberland." 

 Kemp's action in coming to the aid of Southwell in procuring the annexation 

 to the collegiate church of the property of the alien priory of Ravendale, co. 

 Lincoln, in 1452, was probably caused by gratitude for the peaceful retire- 

 ment that he occasionally found at Southwell.'^ 



To the two Archbishops Booth and their attachment to Southwell, brief 

 reference is made in the account of that minster. The archbishop who ruled 

 between these two brothers, from 1465 to 1476, was George Nevill, the 

 brother of the great Earl of Warwick, whose high connexions involved him 

 in the grievous civil strife of that period. Nevill paid but the smallest atten- 

 tion to the spiritual affairs of his diocese, almost all his episcopal duties being 



" As to these Gild Returns, see Toulmin Smith, Engl. GiJs (1870). 



"Cert, of Gilds, Chan. no. 385, 386, 387. 'Mbid. no. 384. 



"Hook, JrMps. of Cant, v, 240. »'Harl. MS. 3875, fol. 163. 



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