Medieval and Tudor legal documents
Prior Pursglove College archive has a fascinating collection of over forty medieval and Tudor documents concerning land ownership in North Yorkshire and County Durham, and particularly the manors of Picton and Bolam.
The documents in this gallery date from before the foundation of Guisborough Hospital in 1561, and all but one of them relate to land with which the Jesus Hospital was endowed. The only one that doesn’t is the earliest: the Hauwiusia quitclaim of 1301.
All of our documents in Latin and medieval French were recorded by a researcher from the County Record Office in Northallerton in the 1960s. He produced a catalogue that provides us with the basis of our current knowledge about this collection.
More medieval and Tudor legal documents coming soon!
Z157 (ZJB 1/5/1), The Hauwisia Quitclaim, 1301
This is our oldest document that relates to land ownership. It was written for a woman called Hauwisia, the daughter of Walter of Coxhoe. In the document, she gives over all rights to the mill and township of Thrislington to Peter, Lord of Thrislington. The seal has an abbreviation of Hauwisia’s name and Trillisden, an old name for Thrislington.
Both Thrislington and Coxhoe are in County Durham. Thrislington was a deserted medieval village until the 1970s, although the site no longer exists. It was destroyed by quarrying in 1974. Archaeological evidence comes from a rescue excavation of 1973; you can find out more here.
The Hauwisia Quitclaim was written in Latin on parchment, and has a wax seal.
To view a larger version, please click here.
Z157, Hauwisia Quitclaim, 1301, the seal
The seal is inscribed around the edge in Lombarie characters: S' HAVWIS D' TRIL.SDEN