A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



woman of the parish in food and clothing, who 

 probably served as charwoman.'' 



Edward III, when staying at his favourite 

 Nottinghamshire residence of Clipston, in De- 

 cember 1345, informed the sheriSs, bailiSs, 

 ministers, and all purveyors and takers of victuals 

 and other things for the king's household, that 

 the king had taken under his special protection 

 the chapel of St. Mary, Sibthorpe, with the war- 

 den and chaplains thereof and their lands and 

 possessions, and that nothing was to be taken of 

 their crops, hay, horses, carts, carriages, victuals, 

 or other goods against their will.'* 



A licence for a further assignment of lands 

 and rents to the college by the founder in 1399 

 shows that at that time there were eight chap- 

 lains and three clerks, in addition to John Cosyn 

 the warden. '^ 



John Cosyn the warden died, in all probability 

 of the plague, in 13+9, and was succeeded by 

 Robert de Kniveton, one of the chaplains.'"' 



When the Fa lor Ecc/esiasticus was drawn up 

 in 1534, Thomas Magnus was warden of Sib- 

 thorpe. The clear value of the college or chantry 

 was declared at £2$ i8f. 8ei. The gross value 

 was ^^31 IS. id., of which sum ^13 bs. 8d. 

 came from the rectory of Sibthorpe.*' There is 

 no record of the number of chaplains at that 

 date. 



The surrender of the property that this college 

 held in Sibthorpe, Hawksworth, Flintham, 

 Beckingham, Kneeton, Syerston, Elston, Staun- 

 ton, and Shelton, was signed by Thomas Magnus 

 on 17 April 1545. The warden is described as 

 Custos sive Gardlanus Gardianati Collegii sive 

 Cantariae Beatae Marias de Sybthrope.^ 



In July of the same year, however, Thomas 

 Magnus, described as clerk and king's councillor, 

 obtained a grant for life, for ^^197 6;. 7^^., of 

 all that had pertained to the college warden ry 

 or chantry of Sibthorpe, both in Nottinghamshire 

 and Lincolnshire, as he held them when warden 

 of the college. On his death remainder was 

 granted to Richard Whalley and his heirs.** 



Wardens of Sibthorpe 



John Notebroun, 1324" 

 John Cosyn, 1335 *' 

 Robert de Kniveton, 1349*' 

 Thomas Magnus, occurs 1534 ^^ 



" Pat. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 31. 



" Ibid. pt. iii, m. 6. 



"^ Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 22. 



"Ibid. m. 3-1. 



*' ralor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 186. 



" Rymer, Voedera, xv, 71. 



" Pat. 37 Hen. \'III, pt. xviii, m. 3. 



" Pat. 19 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 20. 



** Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 13. 



" Pat. 23 Edw. Ill, pt ii, m. 3. 



" Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, 1 86. 



22. THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF 

 SOUTHWELL 



The mediaeval diocese of York contained, in 

 the churches of York, Ripon, Beverley, and 

 Southwell, four ancient foundations of secular 

 canons. The early history of each is involved 

 in much obscurity ; and the difficulty is in- 

 creased in the case of Southwell by the uncer- 

 tainty which prevails as to the date at which 

 Nottinghamshire became transferred to the see 

 of York. For reasons given in a former article 

 it seems probable that the latter event took place 

 not earlier than the middle of the 1 0th century, 

 and that it was immediately followed by the 

 grant to the reigning archbishop of lands which 

 possessed in great part the boundaries of the 

 later manor of Southwell. 



This is not the place in which to discuss in 

 detail the very difficult problems presented by 

 the charter by which the lands in question were 

 conveyed.** The charter is only preserved in a 

 late copy, made by a scribe ignorant of Anglo- 

 Saxon, and in all probability founded upon an 

 original already in part illegible. The strongest 

 witness to its authenticity is the occurrence, in 

 a clause appended to the delimitation of boun- 

 daries, of a number of terms, relating to the local 

 distribution of the land, which became obsolete 

 in this part of England soon after the Norman 

 Conquest, and which no later forger would 

 have been in the least likely to invent. The 

 date of the charter is given in the text of 

 the document as 958, which must be corrected 

 to 956;*' the donor is King Eadwig, and the 

 donee Oskytel, who was probably translated to 

 the see of York in the latter year. 



Taking, then, the document as it stands, we 

 may believe that by it the archbishop was put 

 in possession of a large estate centring in the 

 vill of Southwell, but including land in a number 

 of neighbouring hamlets. The charter gives a 

 list of the ' towns ' which belonged to Southwell 

 'with sake and soke ' ; " and the latter are 

 certainly included in the eleven unnamed bere- 

 wicks which are assigned to Southwell in Domes- 

 day Book. Their names, as given in the charter, 

 represent the modern Normanton, Kirklington, 

 Upton, Fiskerton, Morton, Gibsmere, Goverton, 

 Bleasby, Halloughton, Farnsfield, and Halam ; 

 Blidworth, which afterwards formed the western 

 portion of the manor of Southwell, was only 

 acquired by the archbishop subsequently to 

 1066. Within the boundaries of this land there 

 were several enclaves of territory not subjected 

 to the archbishop, but even with this reserva- 

 tion we may safely say that no such extensive 



** Birch, Cart. Sax. 1029. 



"As by Stnbbs, Mem. of St. Dunstan, Introd. p. 

 Ixrxix, n. 3. 



" No instance of this formula has yet been quoted 

 from any earlier land-book. 



152 



