Monson ms. XX Lincolnshire Collection, Bishop Sanderson.

Contents

This manuscript, a kind of Villare in index form, consists of notes on townships by Bishop Sanderson, arranged under wapentakes, and usually under some of the following headings; although not always in the same order:

1. Nomen, situs, etc.

2. Feoda.

3. Varii Incole.

4. Data ecclesie.

5. Ecclesia.

The wapentakes of Aslacoe, Aswardhurn, Aveland and Beltisloe, are missing, and various other townships because of losses of pages throughout the book.

Some places are not in their modern wapentakes either in error or perhaps in some cases by change.

(A card index of places has been compiled)

A copy of a letter of Bishop Barlow relating to Stevenage School has been bound in at the back.

At the beginning the statement of a Soho bookseller has been pasted in, p. 6, as follows:

This manuscript was rescued from the hands of a Soho butcher who was using it as waste paper and was purchased by me of the person who discovered it.

John Russell Smith,

Bookseller,

4 Old Compton Street,

Soho, London.

January 14th. 1839.

Pagination, binding, additions, use, sources.

Bishop Sanderson numbered his pages, beginning a new with each wapentake, page one in each case having a list of places and forming an index for the wapentake. These pages had not been bound up when some of them were worked over by Thomas Sympson in c. 1741-3, who made some additional notes to some parishes, mostly regarding monumental inscriptions, and arranged the material at his disposal in alphabetical order of wapentakes numbering the pages throughout and making an index for monumental inscriptions. He also had them bound. (Lincs. Notes and Queries, IX, pp. 75, 77, 81-2). Later followed the period when the book was in the hands of the butcher and suffered losses. Later what remained of it, together with some other pages not apparently worked over or numbered by Sympson nor apparently damaged by the butcher, were bound up to form this present volume presumably by the sixth Lord Monson and at about the period of his other binding i.e. c. 1850. The pages have now been numbered throughout for ease of reference.

There is no evidence that this book has been much used by historians since Sympson. John Ross of Lincoln writing in 1863-8 to the headmaster of Alford School made a reference to some collections of Sanderson's but not necessary this book. (A.A.S.R. XXXI pp. 26-27). The unnamed editor of Lincoln Cathedral: An exact copy of all the ancient monumental inscription there as they stood in 1641 collected by Robert Sanderson afterward lord bishop compared with and corrected by Sir D. Dugdale's ms. survey [from Desiderata Curiosa BY F. Peck, M.A.[ (London and Lincoln, 1851 p. iv) thought most of Sanderson's work including this book to be lost and that some items had formerly been part of Sir Joseph Banks' topographical collections. The Reverend G.G. Walker lamented the lost manuscripts of Sanderson, including this book in 1911 (A.A.S.R. loc. cit.)

Sanderson seems to have compiled this book largely from his own manuscript collections, known by various symbols such as -, x (mentioned in Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis, iii, cols. 623-631, (1817 edition) by Sympson in Lincolnshire Notes and Queries IX p. 75) a, B, ? and others. He seems also to have used certain printed works i.e. Some edition of Camden, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon and others, also original manuscripts such as Barlings cartulary, the Red Paper Book of Belvoir and certain Lincoln Episcopal registers, e.g. Sutton, Dalderby, and Burghersh whom he called Lexington as the book was wrongly so described in his day.

Additional notes on ownership and use, also re other Sanderson manuscripts.

From both printed and manuscript sources.

The Diary of Abraham De la Pryme, Surtees Society vol. 54, 1869.

(a) p. 82, (editorial note) [see below]

Of John Nevil of Winterton .... Peacock's possession.

(b) p. 176 Mr. Gerce .. Bishop of Lincoln [see below]

(Editorial note) see posted ... Oxon.

(c) p. 184 Mr. Rover Geree ... minister there. [see below]

The entries 176 and 184 are for 1698.

Collections for the Town and Soke of Grantham

Edmund Turnor, London, 1806.

(d) Advertisement (p.v.) [see below].

Sir Joseph Banks .. referred to.

Various footnotes refer to Sanderson's Index eg. pp. ix, 36, 63, 83, ?98, 123, 130, 131, some giving Sympson's page number.

3 Anc. 8/1/14g (ms. in Lincolnshire Archives Office). Show that Some of bishop Sanderson's notes in Grimesthorpe ms. were in 1722 in the hands of Subdean Gardiner of Lincoln.

Monson 27/3/5 p. 65 (ms. note book of the 6th Lord Monson). Gives an extract from Cole B.M. Add. mss. 5833, no folio given, quoting "Mr. Baker's ms. note in his Ath. Oxon: Mr. Barley was informed that the bishop's mss. are in possession of Mr. Lee, rector of Ingham in Suffolk but that in 1762 the Chancellor said they were in the hands of Sympson's son.

Monson 7/11/78d. Note of a book lent to Lord H(arrow) by by Sir Joseph Banks marked Carte X. c. 1799.

Monson 7/11/81, p. 3 Notes endorsed June 12th 1798 "Extracts from old Records respecting Harrowby by Mr. Caley" refer to "Sir Joseph Banks has in his possession a book called Saundersons Index which contains a prodigious number of references to Records concerning the county of Lincoln".

(a) John Nevil, of Winterton, was a member of a family that had been settled at Faldingworth, in the county of Lincoln, from an early period.

The late Mr. Williamson Cole Wells Clark, of Brumby, had a pedigree of this race, labelled "Nevil's pedigree of Faldingworth. Collected out of evidences and ancient records in the custody of Mr. John Nevile, nunc de Faldingworth, 1641, by Dr. Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln". It was not in the doctor's autograph, and contained some entries of a later period than his death, but there is no reasonable doubt of its genuineness. Many of the charters from which it was compiled are in Mr. Peacock's possession.

(b) Mr. Geree, of London, has a large M.S. in many vols. folio of the antiquitys and history of Lincolnshire, written by Doctor Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln.

(c) Mr. Robert Geree, that has the MSS. of Bishop Sanderson, containing the history of Lincolnshire, lives at Islington, and is minister there.

(d) Sir Joseph Banks, with the liberality which distinguishes his character, gave free access to his Lincolnshire MSS. The invaluable part of them by Bishop Sanderson are frequently referred to.