than fifty acres of land, and a mill and services, in Ayton, with the condition that if he ever lost by the bargain, he should be compensated with land in Covenham in Lincolnshire.1 Very small pieces of land of land sometimes

changed hands in these transactions, and the interest charged was very high. In 1253, William, chaplain of Ayton, mortgaged two acres to Leo the Jew of Scarborough, to be redeemed on payment of 15s. and interest, together with any sum spent by Leo upon the land.2 After paying the debts of Thomas Lardener and five other of his tenants, William de Percy extracted from them a promise never again to take a Jewish loan without his consent, on pain of forfeiting their land.3 The only Jews mentioned by name are Leo of Scarborough, Aaron, and Manasser. The two last, to whom Ingelram de Bovington owed forty marks of silver, which his mother's dower-land in Arram had to provide, are probably Aaron of York and Manasser his son. Aaron, a Jew of great wealth, was one of the ten sureties for the sum of ten thousand marks which the King demanded from the Jews in 1236, and in the next year he was presbyter of all the Jews of England. He died in 1256, leaving two sons, Kok and Manasser.

4

Following the deeds connected with Yorkshire, are those relating to the great Northumbrian possessions of the house of Percy. The earliest of these is a charter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, son of David I of Scotland, to Eustace Fitz-John, lord of Alnwick and ancestor of the line of Vesci.5 Concerning the castle itself, there is little in the volume. In 1296, William de Vesci leased a waste piece of demesne land by the castle wall to a fuller of Alnwick, to hold in tail at a rent of 2s. 8d.; this is one of the few deeds tested by the court of knights of the barony." The castle bailly is mentioned in 1373, when a tenement

1 Nos. L. and мIII. 2 No. LXXV.

3 No. CCXLVII.

4 Nos. CCXXXI. and CCCCLVI.

5 No. DCCLVIII. 6 No. DCLX.

within it is granted for life to John de Duddevyle, nuncius of Henry de Percy, afterwards the first Earl.1 The castle was strongly fortified in the twelfth century; in 1174 it was attacked with great force by William the Lion of Scotland, who was taken prisoner there on the morning on which the King of England was doing penance at Canterbury for the murder of Becket. Through the thirteenth century Alnwick was held by the family of Vesci, until in 1295 William de Vesci conveyed the barony, with the manor of Tuggal and manors in the counties of York and Lincoln, to Anthony Bek, who was said to owe his election to the See of Durham in some measure to the influence of John de Vesci, William's brother. The conveyance was made six months after the death of William's only legitimate son, in order that the bishop should keep the property for William's illegitimate little son, William de Vesci of Kildare. In 1309, however, twelve years after William's death, Bek, whose love of money was notorious, sold Alnwick to Henry, tenth Baron Percy. After the death of Vesci of Kildare at the battle of Bannockburn, there were several claimants to the Vesci possessions. Clerks were sent from the Chancery to the convents of Alnwick and Malton, which were of Vesci foundation, to search for chronicles and writings which might decide the inheritance. It was finally adjudged to Gilbert de Aton, who inherited through his great-great aunt, Margery de Vesci. In 1323, Gilbert confirmed the sale of Alnwick to Henry de Percy's son,5 and during the next few years several money transactions took place between them, Gilbert's son William marrying Isabel, daughter of Percy. The Percy lords of Alnwick began to strengthen the castle as soon as it came into their hands, and it was defended long and successfully against a siege by the Scots, in the time of the second Lord Percy, who was constable of Pickering and Scarborough Castles.

3

5 No. DCLIII.

2

The castle and lordship of Warkworth and the manors of Corbridge, Rothbury, Whalton, and Newburn were granted by King John to Robert Fitz Roger,' whose direct descendant John de Clavering, in 1311, exchanged the reversion after his own life, for lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Northamptonshire. The second Lord Percy of Alnwick was one of the Council of Regency appointed on the accession of Edward III, and rendered great services in connection with Scottish affairs. The Percy estates in the north received large additions in his time, in reward for his bravery and ability. In 1328, the reversion of Warkworth and the other Northumbrian lands of Clavering was granted to him, in place of his fee of five hundred marks for serving in the King's retinue with his menat-arms; and three years afterwards when indentures of retinue for times of peace were annulled by Parliament, the grant was confirmed unconditionally. When Berwick was taken by the English in 1333, Percy, who was Warden of the Marches, was appointed governor of the town and castle ;4 castle; in the following year he obtained the castle, forest, and town of Jedburgh, with five hundred marks from the customs of Berwick, in exchange for the castle of Lochmaben, and Annandale which he had by gift of Balliol.5 Shortly afterwards, Beanley and the other lands in Northumberland of the Earl of Dunbar were granted to Percy, upon forfeiture by the Earl for deserting the English cause.

The most interesting deeds concerning the religious houses of Northumberland relate to Alnwick Abbey, and the priories of Hulne and Tynemouth. Eustace de Vesci granted the chapel of S. Thomas the Martyr of Alnwick to the Premonstratensian abbey of S. Mary, which he founded there in 1147; reserving to the mother church of S. Michael the rights of confession, communion and burial. In 1250, the borough of Alnmouth made

an elaborate agreement with the abbey concerning tithes of sea-fish caught.1 The second Lord Percy of Alnwick granted to the abbey, Broxfield and pasture in the West Park of Alnwick, in return for a solemn service on the first of May, for the soul of his father who was buried at Fountains.2

The priory of Hulne, one of the earliest Carmelite houses in England, was founded by William de Vesci, son of the founder of Alnwick, and the first charter is that of John his son, recited in a confirmation by William the last de Vesci of Alnwick.3 This charter grants, among other things, the right of fishing in the Aln, within and without the park, of taking the wax of the forest bees for the light of their church, and of buying herrings in Alnmouth market as freely as the burgesses. John de Vesci also granted to Hulne twenty marks from his mills of Alnwick, to be paid as the first charge upon them, the farmers to forfeit to him sixpence for every twelvepence in arrears to the friars.1 The year after his purchase of Alnwick, Henry de Percy confirmed these charters, and they were again confirmed by his son, who added pasture for two cows, and allowed two other cows to be kept in place of the two asses of the early grant which specifies six oxen, two horses, and two asses, with no mention of cows.

Tynemouth priory occurs only as granting the multure of Amble and Hauxley to the lord of Warkworth at the beginning of the thirteenth century, in return for timber for ploughs and harrows, and seven cartloads of firewood. As late as 1347, this grant was confirmed by Henry de Percy after an inquisition, held on the previous day, as to the manner of grinding corn and taking multure at Warkworth.6

The chartulary contains little reference to the town houses of the Percies. In 1309, Isold Maunselot, of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, released to her brother a messuage in Pilgrim Street, and he, two years later, conveyed it to Alan Pulhore, whose son John, rector of the church of Whickham, sold it to Henry de Percy in 1350.1 Two tenements in Walmgate in York, between the church of S. Denis and the Fosse, one of which had once belonged to John de Selby, were bought by the second Lord Percy of Alnwick in 1340; the only earlier conveyance is a lease of one of them for a year.2

There is a very concise series of deeds relating to the London mansion of the Percies in Aldersgate, which changed hands five times times in forty-five years. This messuage was sold for was sold for 120 l. of silver by Reymund de Bordeaux, in 1298, to Roger le Brabazon, justice of the King's Bench, who leased it for term of life to Thomas de Derlay, his chamberlain. Roger's executors conveyed it to Hervey de Stanton, chancellor of the exchequer, at whose death it was sold to Adam de Herewynton, also chancellor; Adam sold it to Gilbert de Bruera, and he, when dean of S. Paul's, conveyed it to Henry de Percy in 1343. In 1377, when Lord Percy, Earl Marshal, accompanied John of Gaunt in his support of Wycliffe before convocation, and the Londoners attacked the Savoy, they also broke open Lord Percy's mansion in Aldersgate, and killed his priest.

3

The most complete picture of a manor in the volume is that of Petworth, in Sussex. This manor was the head of an honour, held of the earldom of Arundel from the time of Joceline of Louvain, whose sister, Queen Adeliza, brought it as dower to the Earl of Arundel, her second husband. Thus, unlike the great northern estates of the house of Percy, Petworth was held of a mesne lord, and the only deed of receipt of homage in the chartulary is that given by John Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, in 1269.4 In the last half of the thir

1 No. DCCCXIII., etc.

2 No. DLXXI., etc.

3 No. DCCCXXXIX., etc.

4 No. CMLXIII,