For lists of printed editions and manuscripts (not including the present manuscript), see Jennifer Nicholson, Register of manuscripts of Year Books extant (Historical Manuscripts Commission, for the Selden Society, 1956). The genealogical trees are s xvi/xvii.
[Items 1-7 occupy quires 1-5]
1. (fols. 1r-9v; with early foliation 1-9) I Henry V: 'De termino Hillarij A(nn)o r(egni) r(egis) Reparati Primo En breve de terris quare vi & armis certos lapides pro metis & bundis inter terram le plaintif & terram le defend' &c. ... disabeisance de la ley & defence a Roy fait &c quod nota.' (printed in Les reports del cases en ley …Roy Henry le Cinque … (London, 1679), pp. 1-14).
2. (fols. 10r-25v) Genealogical trees with names in roundels.
3. (fols. 26r-32v) I Henry VI: 'Annus primus H viti William Actone de Lincoln einsi une appelle de Rape de Johanne sa femme &c. ... quere finem &c.' (ed. C. H. Williams, Year books of Henry VI: I Henry VI, A.D. 1422, Selden Society, 50 (London, 1933).
4. (fols. 33r-34v) Genealogical tree with names in roundels.
5. (fols. 35r-45r) II Henry VI: 'De termino hillarii anno rrs henrici sexti secundo Robertus Basset porta breve de recordare envers le prior de seint John de Jerusalem en Engleterre … Strange dites ceo que vous voilles ou demoures en iugement & disputes en apres &c. [added in paler ink: .s. vjti. iijo. 52.] Explicit Annus secundis henricus sextius'.
6. (fols. 45v-46v) Genealogical tree with names in roundels.
[Items 7-13 ocupy quires 6-34]
7. (fols. 47r-88r; with early foliation i-xli) III Henry VI, starting and ending differently from printed editions and other MSS: 'De termino Sci Michaelis Anno rr h vjti iijo Un a suist vn repleg' … Explicit Annus tercius h. vjti.'
8. (fol. 88v) Genealogical tree with names in roundels.
9. (fols. 89r-101r; with early foliation 1-12, omitting fol. 94) IV Henry VI: 'Terminus Michaelis Anno Henrici Sexti iiijto. John Ingramm de london Tayllour … [ending in mid-sentence at the bottom of a page, in the Easter Term, in the section beginning 'Residuum de breve …', at:] le terre envers vous et per le rec'le le roy duist' (1609 edn., fol. 18v; 1679 edn., p. 18).
10. (fols. 101v-138v) Genealogical trees with names in roundels; 'This pedigree I receiued from Mr John Trevilian of Neteltom' (i.e. Nettlecombe, Dorset) (fol. 101v); 'Out of the liger booke of the Abbey of fforde.' (fol. 103v) (i.e. the Cistercian abbey of the BVM, Forde, Devon).
11. (fols. 139r-156r; with contemporary foliation 1-18) VII Henry VI: 'Terminus Michaelis Anno Henrici Sexti septimo Scire facias fuit porta vers le Duke de Gloucestr' … [ends in the Easter term with the section beginning 'Scire facias port vers W & T …':] & n'est partie a telle issue &c. Explicit Annus Septimus Henrici Sexti.'
12. (fols. 156v-168v) Genealogical tree with names in roundels.
13. (fols. 169r-217v; with contemporary foliation 1-53, omitting '7') IX Henry VI: '[De termino Michaelis] Anno nono H viti Quare impedit fuit port per J. Bowne [pr. eds. have 'John Down'] versus le prior de Caledewell … ceo nest p' plee sil ne plee de m' lacre en demande &c.'
14. (fols. 217v-300r) One hundred and sixty-three pedigrees of the ancient gentry, with occasional arms in trick, etc.; with an index of names (fols. 299v-300r) fols. 298r-299v, 300v originally blank.
None.
Paper, c. 345 x 245 mm., each quire with a parchment re-enforcement strip in the centre.
ff. iii (original parchment) + 303 + iii (original parchment), foliated in many medieval series, and with 19th-century numbers on the first leaves of main texts, and in sections of genealogies; gaps foliated in modern pencil, preserving the 19th-century numbers, which omit the stubs of two written leaves after fol. 206, and which skips a leaf before fol. 218: i-iii, 1-205, 206a-c, 207-215, 216a-c, 217-302.
Text quires mostly of eight leaves each, pedigree quires mostly of twelve: 14-1 (2nd leaf excised) (fols. i-iii) | 210 (fols. 1-10), 3-412 (fols. 11-34) | 512 (fols. 35-46) | 6-128 (fols. 47-102), 13-1512 (fols. 103-138) | 168 (fols. 139-146), 1710 (fols. 147-156), 1812 (fols. 157-168) | 19-218 (fols. 169-192), 226 (fols. 193-198) | 23-258 (fols. 199-219), 2612 (fols. 220-231), 2712-1 (12th leaf excised) (fols. 232-242), 28-2812 (fols. 243-254), 2912+1 (13th leaf inserted, stuck to the 12th) (fols. 255-266), 30two (structure uncertain) (fols. 267-268), 3112 (fols. 269-280), 328 (fols. 281-288), 3310+2 (11th and 12th leaves, a bifolium, added) (fols. 289-300) | 344-1 (4th leaf missing) (fols. 301-303); catchwords supplied in some sections (e.g. quires 8-10, 19-21, 23-24); leaf signatures of various forms and in various positions, sometimes continuing from one quire to the next (quires 9-11 have leaf signatures 1-4, 5-8, and 9-10, respectively). Frame-ruled in leadpoint, the ruled space varying from c. 250 x 165 mm. to 235 x 150 mm.
Written with approximately 40-50 lines per page in cursive anglicana scripts, with headings in calligraphic textualis.
Secundo folio: 'sur'.
Sewn on five double thongs; the boards missing; the spine with the remains of a plain skin covering.
1. Written in England. Inscribed in the 15th century, by various hands: 'Iste liber constat C[…] Gale de Ju[…]ti | G[?…] filius(?) […] Will' […] legem' (all but the first three words are erased, and only parts of the remainder have been readable with a UV lamp) (i verso); on the final verso: 'Nomine(?) […] p(ro) p(re)fecte […] Will'm | Underwod gentilman te[…] & oblig[?…]', 'William', 'nyeplath', and '[…] of Clifforde Inne'.
2. Inscribed 'He that in yowthe no vertu will usse in age all honer wyll him reffusse' (fol. iiir, cf. fol. iir); 'senex xij' (fol. iiir); a signature(?) 'P.(?) Lurdes(?)' (fol. iiir); and with pen-trials etc.; the upper margin of fol. 182v inscribed 'baylysse'.
3. Sir William Pool (1561-1635) (on whom see DNB), antiquary, owner of a large collection of manuscripts concerning the history of Devonshire: the catalogue of manuscripts in MS. 557 describes this volume as 'Pedigrees of the West parts p(er) Sr Wm Pool'.
4. 'There is in this booke .163. Pedegrees of the auntient | Gentry of the Westerne Countyes. | Bought of Mr Burridge the 2d Jan: 1658.' (fol. 301r, written sideways; cf. fol. 300r, fore-edge, written sideways).
5. Coxe states 'olim T. Hale, de Holworth', but the evidence for this is not now clear.
6. Queen's College, acquired presumably after the compilation of Langbaine's mid 17th-century catalogue and before the early 18th-century handlist in MS. 557; inscribed with the former shelfmark 'K. 11' (fol. ir); and, 19th century: 'Queen's College | Library' (fol. ir, cf. 1r) and 'JW' in pencil (fol. 303v) by the same hand that inscribed the front pastedown of MS. 388.
Coxe, Catalogus, p. 29.
![[…] of Clifforde Inne](151-05.jpg){kind=link}
