Copies of portions of the Langdon cartulary at the Public Record Office relating...

Introduction

The cartulary of the abbey of Premonstratensian canons at Langdon in Kent is in the Public Record Office, E164/29

These copies relate to the legal instruments necessary for the foundation of a chantry in the church of Winchelsea St Thomas by Stephen Alard of Winchelsea in memory of himself, his parents and his wife. Alard vested property in Langdon for the maintenance of the chantry, of which the abbey was made the effective guardian. The technique employed, the compromise of a case in the court of common pleas by means of a final concord, was unusual enough to catch the eye of the law-reporter: see Selden Society 33 (1916) 128-30

A similar means of foundation was to be used by the Alard family in 1319 when Henry Alard's executors made an agreement with Battle Abbey to found a chantry in his memory

For a discussion of the foundations, and the effigies in Winchelsea St Thomas which the authors associate with them, see Blair, Goodall and Lankester, 'The Winchelsea Tombs Reconsidered' in Church Monuments 20 (2000) 5-30

Copies purchased 3 July 2000 (ACC 8154)