FEODARIUM PRIORATUS DUNELMENSIS. A SURVEY OF THE ESTATES OF THE PRIOR AND CONVENT OF DURHAM COMPILED IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, ILLUSTRATED BY THE ORIGINAL GRANTS ATHENAUM Published for the Society BY ANDREWS & CO., DURHAM; WHITTAKER & CO., 13, AVE MARIA LANE; BERNARD QUARITCH, 15, PICCADILLY, LONDON; BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH. 1872. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS AT a General Meeting of the SURTEES SOCIETY, held in the Castle of Durham, on Tuesday, June 7th, 1870, Mr. GREENWELL in the Chair, it was ORDERED, That the SURVEY OF PRIOR MELSONBY OF DURHAM should be edited for the Society by the Rev. WILLIAM GREENWELL. JAMES RAINE, Secretary. PREFACE. AMONGST the manuscripts which the Council of the Surtees Society has suggested as being suitable for publication, the following has occupied a place on the list for many years. "Feodarium Thomæ de Melsonby. A survey made by Prior Melsonby (1233-44) of the estates belonging in his time to the Prior and Convent of Durham, of the same nature as the Boldon Book and Bishop Hatfield's Survey." Such a compilation, though never recently seen by any one, was presumed to be still existing, incorporated with, or accompanying, a rental of 1430, among the well-preserved records of the Convent. "Melsamby Buk" is referred to, as a well-known muniment, in a paper on Durham Records, printed in Collectanea Curiosa, vol. ii. Hutchinson also gives an extract, headed "Feodar. Melsonby, p. 60, rentali feodarii prioris, A° 1430," apparently from Grey's notes, in the third volume of his History of Durham, p. 108, under Billingham. The MS. from which that extract (the only one Hutchinson had met with, showing the nature of the record) had been derived, after remaining unnoticed for some time, in consequence of having been placed amongst a series of documents with which it had no connexion, came to light in 1871, and forms the groundwork of the present volume. It is not a separate original survey made by Thomas |