Book of Fines

Southampton City Archives: SC5/3/1

f 64v (29 September–29 September) (Payments)

...

Item gevon to my lord meyers minstrelles of london yn reward – ij s. and for a galon of wyn to master Gore and other of walopp because they were good and favorable to the towne for the mater of hill iij s.
Item paid for iiij galons of for to present my lord of Bangour when he was here at ⸢dyuers tymes⸣ iij s. vj d.
Item yn reward to the kinges Iugler the said yere v s.
Item more to the ffrenshe quenys mynstrelles yn reward ij s.
Item to my lord Cardynalles mynstrelles yn reward iij s. iiij d.
Item to my lord marques of Excetors mynstrelles iij s.
Item to master Gylfordes mynstrelles comptroller of the kinges howse ij s.
Item to the kynges mynstrelles yn reward vj s. viij d.
Item for a galon of wyne to present my lord lisle xiiij d.
Item gevon to my lord of westmerlondes mynstrelles xx d.
Item to the kinges Bereward yn reward iij s. iiij d.

...

  • Footnotes
    • my lord meyers: Sir John Rudston (1480–1531), draper, was mayor of London 1528–9
    • of for: word missing after of
    • kinges Iugler: Thomas Brandon; see Performance Traditions
    • Cardynalles: Thomas Wolsey (c 1475–1530), cardinal 1515–30
    • master Gylfordes: Sir Henry Guildford
  • Glossed Terms
    • geve v inf give; gevonpass
  • Endnote

    In this year the rewards to performers make up the largest part of the entries and the total amount of 44s 8d. The steward's accounts for this year (SC5/1/36, f 19) include another seven rewards to groups of entertainers, all different from those rewarded by the mayor. 'master Gore' refers to Nicholas Gore or another of the Gore family of Nether Wallop (VCH: Hampshire, vol 4, pp 525–30, British History Online, http://www.british–history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp525–530 [accessed 24 August 2017]).

  • 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.

TOOLS
TOOLS
Back To Top
Footnote