Book of Fines

Southampton City Archives: SC5/3/1

f 43 (29 September–29 September) (Payments)

...

Item payd to the captinys of the gallyes mynstreles xij d.
Item payd to the kyngysse Ioggeler iij s. iiij d.
Item payd to the fottemen of the kyng iij s. iiij d.
Item payde to the quenyes fottemen ij s.
Item payd to kynges Iohn harte for rydynge to my lord of wynchester to wete yif ye gally halpennsse shold goo xx d.
Item payd to the kyngyes berherd for the towne iij s. iiij d.

...

f 43v

Item payd to my lord marcursse berryes & my lord of essex & my lord of kent yes berryes all at onsee iij s. iiij d.

...

Item payd to my lord of Arondeles mynstrelles iij s. iiij d.

...

Item payd to the erlle of oxfordyes mynstrellyes xij d.

...

Item payd to the kynge yes mynstrellyes vj s. viij d.

...

Item payd to the duke of Northefolkeyes taberat xij d.

...

  • Footnotes
    • kyngysse Ioggeler: Thomas Brandon; see Performance Traditions
    • lord marcursse: Thomas Grey (1477–1530), 5th marquess of Dorset, was the only person holding the title of marquess at this time
  • Glossed Terms
    • barward n bearward; barod(?), bererd, berewood, berherd, berode, berrerd
    • berryes n pl bears, here understood to be accompanied by bearwards
    • halpens n halfpenny, halfpence (?); a coin worth half the value of a penny, or a collection of these coins [OEDO halfpenny n]; halpennsse
    • ioggeler n juggler
    • onsee adv once
    • tabyrat n a performer on a tabret [OEDO tabret n 2]; taberat
    • wete v inf wit, to know; in phr to wete to wit, that is to say
    • yes adj poss his
  • Endnote

    This year's accounts record a great deal of activity regarding warships; the many entertainers may have come to town with their patrons, who were there for the warships. The king visited the Venetian galleys at Southampton, so the captain of the galleys may have been the Venetian captain rather than an English one. Burch reverses his numbers in giving the folio for the above entries as 34r (Minstrels and Players, p 41).

  • Document Description

    Record title: Book of Fines
    Repository: Southampton City Archives
    Shelfmark: SC5/3/1
    Repository location: Southampton

    This account book was started to record only the receipts from 'casualties': here, fines for offences such as fighting, burgesses verbally attacking each other, married men being caught in the stews, and citizens and foreigners buying and selling in violation of the town's ordinances, as well as admission fees paid by those desiring to practise a craft in the city. These receipts provided the mayor with a small fund from which to pay for rewards to players, messengers, noblemen and their servants, and the like, and occasionally for minor repairs to town buildings. After a few years of accounts the payments also begin to be recorded here, so that in fact the accounts are not just a record of fines, but are the complete mayors' accounts. In the second half of the sixteenth century the accounts, especially the payments, become more detailed and broader in content, including much more extensive expenses for construction and repair, and detailed accounts for poor relief. The accounting year runs from Michaelmas to Michaelmas. The Book of Fines has been transcribed by Butler, Book of Fines, 3 vols.

    The dating of these accounts by regnal years gets a year out of step with the heading of the 1573–4 accounts as 16–17 Elizabeth (f 147r), following the accounts for 14–15 Elizabeth: there is no set of accounts headed 15–16 Elizabeth. The error was only rectified in 1586–7, which is correctly headed 28–9 Elizabeth. (1585–6 is also, incorrectly, labeled 28–9 Elizabeth.) Dates given within the accounts are correct, further revealing the error, as in the accounts for 1576–7, which are headed 19–20 Elizabeth (which would be 1577–8) but twice dated internally to June and July 1577.

    29 September 1488–29 September 1594; English with some Latin; paper; 252 leaves; 417mm x 285mm; modern pencil foliation (numbering in upper right corner of the rectos has been used throughout rather than numbering of some folios at bottom left, which is often 1 higher than the correct numbering but has been used by Cheryl Butler in her edition); good condition (only last 2 leaves have lost any written space, several leaves lost between ff 41 and 42, so there are no accounts for 1514–15, 1515–16, or 1516–17, many different hands; contemporary parchment cover in poor condition, title on front of cover much faded.

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