Winchester College Publication Winchester College Archives | Page 8

Domus III The Statutes , the Founder ’ s will , and subsequent related documents . Registers of scholars , and of the oaths on admission of fellows and scholars ( also , from 1785 , admissions of Quiristers ). Annual inventories of moveable goods ( including plate , treasures , live and dead stock etc .) Bursars ’ Account Rolls and Bursars ’ Books . Rentals , corn and quit-rent books . Rolls of arrears of rent . The Liber Albus of Robert Heete ( includes the earliest biography of Wykeham ). General registers of leases . Manorial Records ( including Court Books and records of progresses round College estates ). Legal cases and opinions . Minute books of the Warden and Fellows ( 1710-1874 ).
Domus IV General letters and papers , including papers ( chiefly 18th century ) concerning remuneration of ushers , and of College Servants ( 1808-77 ); Blackstone ’ s Book of Benefactions ( c . 1770 ); papers of Warden Huntingford ( 1789-1832 ); heraldic notes . Papers relating to school life and curriculum , including Thomas Arnold ’ s schoolboy letters ( 1804-10 ); bills and reports by Dr Moberly ( Headmaster 1836-67 ); winning entries for ‘ Medal Prizes ’ etc ( 1760-c . 1840 ); College Fire of 1815 ; papers of G . Heathcote ( fellow from 1804 ); copy of diary of Charles Minet ( Commoner 1817-19 ); some papers covering plans for buildings , ( 19th century ).
Miscellanea Letter collections ; of N . Bond ( Commoners , 1766-71 ); and Williams family ( Wykehamist family , 1725-1939 ). Charters ; including Wykeham ’ s foundation charter ; copies of papal bulls in College ’ s favour : royal licences and confirmations of privileges ( 1382-1662 ). The College Site : documents commencing from Wykeham ’ s purchases of tenements etc for the College site , and including early documents concerning College Mill , Meads Wall , Doggers Close etc . John Fromond and his Chantry . Documents relating to New College , Oxford . St Elizabeth ’ s College , Winchester ( the site of this school , adjoining the Warden ’ s Garden , acquired 1544 ). Founder ’ s Kin : proofs of kinship , pedigrees etc .
From these bare lists , the documents concerned with the College ’ s foundation must clearly rank as the most prized treasures in the Domus class , indeed among all the College ’ s muniments ; the Founder ’ s charter ; the original statutes , with their marvellous illuminated initial folio ( see back cover ); the Liber Albus of Robert Heete ( fellow 1421-33 ) containing his account of the life of the Founder , William of Wykeham ; the copy of the original statutes of New College , deposited in the Treasury on Wykeham ’ s own instructions . The illuminations of other early documents besides the Founder ’ s statutes make them objects of rare beauty ; Henry VI ’ s licence to the College to acquire new estates ( 1443 ), for instance , with its lovely illuminated initial depicting the
Fig 3 . Henry VI ’ s licence to aquire new estates ( 1443 ).
Annunciation ( fig . 3 ) or the early sixteenth century copy of the ordinance whereby Robert Sherborne , Bishop of Chichester , reserved ( c . 1530 ) four prebends in his cathedral to Wykehamists ( fig 15 , p . 31 ). Some of the seals on the early muniments are also very interesting : a special rarity is that on the letter patent of Henry V of 1422 , exempting the College from the levy of purveyance , which is his new equestrian seal as ‘ King of England and Heir of France ’ cut after his marriage to Catherine of France in 1420 and his recognition by her father King Charles VI as his heir ( see title page ).
There are , in fact , a good many royal letters among the muniments . Most , though not all , relate to royal recommendations of boys to places as scholars on the foundation ( a practice discontinued by the crown in the eighteenth century ), and to official posts with the College . Some of them are a trifle peremptory .
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