Among old family papers it is rare to meet with many dating further back than the Reformation; first of all, this may be accounted for by the enormous amount of land possessed by the monks, who, instead of having to search through deeds, entered these grants and gifts of property into their charter-book. The monastic estates, after the Dissolution, were managed through the Augmentation Office; many of the original deeds were destroyed or lost in the general confusion, and a new distribution of the lands took place by the King irrespective of the former owners, whose claims were totally ignored, although in such grants or deeds of gift the name of the monastery formerly owning the property is usually named.
The King must have realized large sums of money by these transactions, which were carriedout through, and in the names of, his commissioners or agents, and not usually granted direct from the Crown; very little of the land confiscated from the abbeys was retained as royal property, but appears to have been almost immediately sold or granted away.
But to begin from the oldest reliable period at which deeds may refer to, is to go back to the Norman Conquest, or, rather, to the time when the lands had been distributed among the Norman noblemen, as described in the famous Domesday Book, compiled, it is said, between 1080 and 1085. Reference is therein made to previous Saxon possessors; but only in very few instances can any certain information be obtained of private property prior to the eleventh century.
Private deeds do exist between the time of William I. and Richard I.; from this latter King’s reign, aboutA.D.1179, legal memory dates[2]; but usually the earliest family deeds are of Edward I., because then it was that the legal era was fixed to commence. This King has been, so far as regards manorial rights and customs, rightly called the ‘English Solon.’ He passed innumerable Acts of Parliament on the subject of legal matters; he revised the whole of the national laws, retaining but improving existing arrangements. A most interesting account of early English law and manorial customs is published by the SeldenSociety. It is very rare indeed to discover private deeds earlier than this; but, of course, every rule has its exception.
To prove a title to property it is now only requisite to show a twenty years’ possession of it. Papers forming the title deeds to farms or small holdings are seldom of any great age. The custom of depositing estate records in the care of the family lawyer has tended to preserve a few deeds; but, on the other hand, has resulted in much wholesale destruction of useless but curious documentary evidence.
Vast numbers of deeds have been and are being sold when a lawyer’s office has been broken up. These papers, having lain for years unclaimed until the ownership was lost or forgotten, finally were sold to some antiquarian bookseller or antiquary, or else the skin was cleansed and used again, parchment being a valuable substance. It is employed in many trades. From it size is prepared. Gold-beaters employ it largely, and also to the book-binder’s trade it is essential, besides having many other and varied uses.
Even now lawyers find great difficulty in preserving and storing the deeds entrusted to their charge. The dangers of fire and damp are conflicting, and to avoid the one may bring about greater risk from the other cause.
Parchment being an animal substance (usuallymade from the skin of sheep), if kept in a damp place, soon begins to decay and become offensive, mites readily attack it, dirt and dust accumulate rapidly on its external woolly surface—all these make a search among hoards of old deeds anything but a pleasant or a cleanly occupation.
The usual storehouse for such collections was some unused garret or stable-loft, where rats and mice ran riot and birds flew in and out as they liked. Forgotten, perhaps, for several generations, the old papers lay untouched till death or removal brought changes, and the deeds were either placed in safer keeping, or else—alas! the most usual course—were consigned to the flames as useless rubbish.
The quality of parchment varies much. That upon which early deeds—those about the thirteenth century—are written, is in small pieces, woolly in texture and of a dark brown shade. In the sixteenth century the sheets are larger, smoother, and yellow, becoming whiter in colour and more even as its preparation was better understood and practised.
Vellum was a finer sort of parchment prepared from the skins of very young or still-born animals. Of it the old manuscript books were made, adorned with illuminations and miniature paintings, which required a fine, smooth surface, and vellum was free from the flaws which frequently occur in the skins of mature animals.
With the history of paper-making we have nothing to do. Paper was known as early as the thirteenth century, but for law work in England it was seldom, if ever, employed before the fourteenth century. The earliest known examples are described as being made of silk manufactured abroad. On the Continent it was used for illuminated work in the place of vellum—at least, so Prou states, but does not tell us of any notable examples.
The history of English-made paper is somewhat obscure. Ordinary lesson-books, published for the enlightenment of the young, state that the first English paper-mill was erected at Dartford, in Kent, by Speilman, a German, in 1588. This, however, must be wrong, for in that popular educator of the past generation, theSaturday Magazine, a short account is given of early paper and its water-marks, and John Tate is named as having a mill at Hertford, his device being a star of five points enclosed within a double circle. John Tate the younger is here stated to have made the paper for the first book printed on English-made paper about the year 1496. It was written in Latin, and entitled ‘Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum.’ His mark upon it was a wheel. This mill existed for thirty-five years—1460 to 1496. This same account goes on to say that the paper used by the early printers boregreat variety of marks: a bull, fifteenth century: the oxhead, with the star between the horns, late fifteenth century; the black letterp; the shears; an open hand, surmounted by a star; a collared dog’s head, with a trefoil above it; a crown, an orb, a shield charged with a bend, and many other devices. Hone, in his ‘Everyday Book,’ also gives a few other marks. He mentions the orb as a foreign paper-mark existing as early as 1301, and says it is the ‘oldest known mark.’
Hand-paper is the kind usually found used for early documents. It was a convenient size for court-rolls or legal writings. The name arose from its water-mark, that of an open hand with a star above the middle finger. This is found both in England and Germany. Its date of manufacture was certainly older than 1450. The actual device varied. Sometimes the fingers were raised in blessing, sometimes it was a hand encased in a glove or gauntlet. The star had sometimes five and at others six points. On the wrist are the maker’s initials.
On some coarse whitish-brown paper of 1465 a garter was used; about the same date a bull or bull’s head appears. This is found on some of Faust’s earliest printed books. These were detached sheets: there was no distinction then between book or letter paper.
A careful study of paper-marks would be interestingand valuable if the authenticity or age of old papers or drawings were doubted, though the question of forgery scarcely ever arises, for so much knowledge and ingenuity would be required to produce a manuscript which would deceive an adept and pass muster as a veritable antique, that fraud of this kind is well-nigh impossible.
Paper was not known in France, and consequently not used, before 1130. It did not reach as far north as Normandy until the fourteenth century; therefore it is improbable that it found its way into England till after this date, or, if so, only in very small quantities. The oldest paper is coarse and rough, scarcely sized at all, so that the ink sank into it like blotting-paper, making erasures impossible.
Supposing even that paper was made in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the quantities produced here were very small and inadequate to meet the demand; hence the chief supply was of foreign manufacture even until a comparatively recent period. The tax on English paper may have interfered with its production.
The Netherlands and Germany were the great paper-producing countries. It was a State privilege, and the water-marks used were either the arms of the royal patron or a crest or badge of the manufacturer, so by this means the precise locality of some of these ancient manufacturers may be ascertained.The Dutch paper bore the arms of the country—i.e., the lion rampant, holding the sabre in one paw and the arrows (?) in the other.
The history of old paper-marks sadly needs a Chaffers or a Cripps to investigate the matter. No such collection has ever been attempted, nor has the subject hitherto met with the attention it demands and deserves. Perhaps, now that antiquarianism is becoming so fashionable, this, like other kindred sciences, will find some followers.
In theAntiquarymagazine for November and December, 1895, may be seen two articles I wrote on old water-marks of paper. The marks were chiefly collected from the old family papers belonging to the Pulestons of Emral. These papers were, I fear, burnt after the death of my uncle, the late Sir Gresley Puleston, Bart.
As regards paper and paper-making, Mr. S. L. Sotheby published a costly work. There is also a small book written by Mr. Richard Herring in 1863.
Another important part of a deed is the ink with which it was written. Each scribe had his own particular receipt for making it, the principal ingredients being oak-galls and sulphate of iron. Many chemicals are recommended as restoratives for faded ink, but these should be avoided as far as possible, as they are liable to stain and disfigure the parchment, and in the end make matters worse.Familiarity with particular handwritings after some practice will enable the reader to make out otherwise unintelligible words without any other assistant than a powerful magnifying glass.
If the ink is very faint the simplest and most harmless restorative is sulphate of ammonia; but its loathsome smell once endured is not easily forgotten; the experiment in consequence is very seldom repeated, for the result is scarcely good enough to risk a repetition of so horrible a smell, and it is liable to affect the MSS.
Coloured inks or pigments were seldom, if ever, employed for legal documents. The use of these was restricted to the cloister, requiring manipulation by an illuminator instead of a mere scribe. Red, blue, and green were in use; these were mineral colours. The red was composed either of red-lead or oxide of iron, the green from copper, and the blue from lapis lazuli finely powdered, or else it, too, like the green, was prepared from an oxide of copper.
Illuminating was a separate profession apart from that of writing. The charter or missal was finished by the scribe, and then handed over to the artist to be adorned with fanciful capital letters and elaborate scroll-works. Such ornamentation was unnecessary for legal documents, yet sometimes these had fancy headings, which, like the illuminations, were put in after thewriting was finished, as is proved by the occasional omission of them, although space is left where they ought to have been filled in.
Seals and sealing-wax deserve a few words. These came into use gradually. The earliest deeds are very small, and have very small insignificant seals. There are some very fine seals in the Record Office Museum (formerly the Rolls Chapel).
It is said that neither the Saxon nor Norman noblemen could sign their own names, but instead employed the Christian sign of the cross (still in use among the illiterate) as their pledge of good faith, and to witness their consent and approval. The use of seals as appendices to deeds was a further proof that the deed itself was approved and executed. A man’s seal or signet was always regarded as his most sacred possession. It was destroyed after death to avoid its being used for fraudulent purposes.
The use of signet-rings is very ancient. Many old Roman and Saxon signet-rings have been dug up from time to time in various parts of England. Small private seals bearing devices appear to have been attached to deeds of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Many of the large wax seals are very beautiful, but few, alas! in private collections of deeds exist in any state of perfection. The wax used forthem was either its natural colour or else a sealing-wax of a very dark green, also black, or red; white, also, was used, now discoloured by age into a dingy yellow. Besides the royal seals, each abbey had its own particular seal, bearing either a view of the abbey, a portrait of its patron saint, or its badge or shield. Many of these are described by Dugdale in the ‘Monasticon,’ but he was unable to discover the devices pertaining to the lesser houses or cells. The fashion for large seals died out, till at last only royal grants or similar documents of the sixteenth century have them attached. In the Georgian period we find small private seals placed on the margins of deeds. These were not always the arms and crest of the person against whose signature they appear—perhaps belonged to the lawyer or one of the contracting parties. Here it is that a knowledge of heraldry is extremely useful.
The size and shape of a deed at first glance goes far with the experienced reader to determine its age, even before a single word of it has been read; likewise the general aspect will give a slight hint as to the possible contents without deciphering any of it.
The deeds relative to the earliest grants of land are very small in size, a marked contrast to the voluminous sheets of parchment considered necessary to a modern conveyance or deed. The writingoften was minute, but each letter was carefully formed. Many early deeds are in far better preservation than some of those written several centuries later, when less attention was paid to the materials on which they were indited, or the ink used.