Book of Fines

Southampton City Archives: SC5/3/1

f 247v (29 September–29 September) (Payments)

...

Item the 18 of October to the Earle of Worcesters players for yt they should not play j li.

...

paid Mr Iackson for vse of his money the 29 of October 1593 viij li.
paid him more that he gaue to players at my being at Lymington x s.

...

f 248

...

The 26 of november geven to the queenes players j li. vj s. viij d.

...

f 248v

...

the 28th day to my Lord Chaundays players vj s. viij d.

...

f 249

...

geven to my Lord Montegles players x s.

...

f 249v

...

geven to my Lord Morleys players and the Earle of Darbyes j li.

...

f 250v

...

then geven to the Queenes Players ij li.

...

paid the 7 of September to the erle of Worcesters players j li.

...

f 251

...

to the weightes j yard dimidium & dimidium quarter at 9 s. xiiij s. vij d.

...

  • Footnotes
    • Mr Iackson: probably John Jackson, mayor in 1590–1 (Butler, Book of Fines, vol 3, p 225)
    • 28th day: ie, of December
    • then: ie, 10 August
  • Glossed Terms
    • weightes n pl waits
  • Endnote

    The Montegle entry on f 249 occurs between entries dated 4 March (two above) and 13 March (five below). The Morley and Derby entry on f 249v occurs between entries for 15 and 19 May.

  • 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