Custumals, Precedent Books and papers

RYE/57

Custumals, Precedent Books and papers

15th cent.-1828

Four precedent books survive among the corporation records, to which must be added the first composite volume of the series of Record Books (RYE. 33/7, especially fos. 9-45). Two of these books were commissioned by the town and a third was compiled privately by Robert Convers, common clerk (1600-20). These three volumes contain copies of the Rye custumal and two of them have copies of the general charter of the Cinque Ports which was current at the time of copying. The fourth volume, the 'Book of Presidents' is a composite work compiled in the late 15th and 16th centuries, containing a wide variety of general precedents, selected articles from the Rye custumal and those of Hastings and Winchelsea. This book was known to Samuel Jeake (see RYE/57/4).

The known version of the customs of Rye (Printed in Holloway, pp. 137-158.) is reckoned to date from the mid-15th century and may well be older, perhaps associated with the order of Roger Mortimer, the Lord Warden, who in 1356 required copies of the customs of each port to be returned to Dover castle. (VCH. 9, p. 35, citing Lyon, History of Dover, ii, 266, 343.) This date is confirmed by the dates recorded in copies of the custumals of Hastings (RYE/57/4, fo. 138r), New Romney (VCH, 9, p. 35.) and Pevensey. (S.A.C. IV, p. 210.)

There are a number of extant copies. There are the select articles from a libro custumale of the late 15th century in the 'Book of Presidentst' mentioned above and an incomplete copy, comprising 44 articles, is with the Romney custumal at New Romney, temp. Henry VIII. (M. Bateson, Borough Customs (1904), Vol. I, p. xlix.) A town ordinance of 8 September 1550 (RYE. 57/1, fo. 67r) required the statutes of the town to be gathered in one book, and it seems probable that the Old Custumal (RYE. 57/1) was the result. To this volume Samuel Jeake seems to refer as 'the old Custumal Book of Rye.' (Jeake, p. 72 and elsewhere.) A further volume was compiled, dated 1564 (RYE/57/2) the contents of which are almost completely confined to the custumal and town decrees, 1558-84. It is referred to in the Hundred Book under the date 1 May 1563 [sic] (see RYE/1/3, fo. 48v): 'Robert Jacson Towne clerk did exhibit the custumall of the said towne by hym made in parchement & bond fair in black past to the townes use and they allowed hym for the same----xxvjs. viijd.' This volume was rebound in the 18th century and has thus lost its black binding. The gathering up of 'all the orders of the towne into one book fair' is referred to again on 26 October 1567 (see RYE/1/3, fo. 206) 'which orders, together with the chartour of the fyve portes and the customall, is Appointed to be openly redd iiijor tymes every yere.'

Another copy of the customs is among the State Papers Domestic of 1578. (Public Record Office.) It is possible that this was the copy used by Holloway in his printed text, (Holloway, pp. 137-158.) though on p. 137 he refers to a 'manuscript preserved in the British Museum, written in Court hand, on very old coarse paper,' dated 1568. As this latter has never been identified it is assumed the Holloway's references have become confused. (Bateson, loc. cit.) Two other copies made in the late 16th century are in Robert Convers' book (RYE/57/3), and in a book of various Cinque Ports' precedents and customs belonging to Sandwich. (Kent Archives Office, Sa/CPc 4, pp. 65-84.) The numeration of customs in the latter agrees with the source of Holloway's edition.

The contents of the remaining volumes, which relate largely to the Cinque Ports, are so varied as to defy summary and are calendared in detail below. The other papers brought under this title are items concerning the fees on the common clerk (16th century), a charge to the grand jury (17th century) and oaths of office (17th and 18th centuries).

English

4 vols., 4 gatherings, 3 bundles, 4 docs.