OLD DEEDS.
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 carried out 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, about A.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
Selden Society. 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 (usually made 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, the _Saturday 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 bore
great variety of marks: a bull, fifteenth century: the oxhead, with the
star between the horns, late fifteenth century; the black letter p;
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 interesting and 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 the _Antiquary_ magazine 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 the writing 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 for them 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 writing often
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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]