Winchester College Bursars' Accounts

Winchester College Archives: 22216

f [43v] (26 December–26 March) (Hall expenses)

...

Item pro diuersis expensis circa scaffoldam erigendam et deponendam et pro domunculis de novo compositis cum cariagio et recariagio ly ioystes et aliorum mutuatorum ad eandem scaffoldam cum vij ly linckes et ja duodena candelarum pro lumine expensis 3bus noctibus in ludis comediarum et tragediarum xxv s. 8 d.

(27 March–25 June)

Item Rogero darneley pro vij ly linckes deliberatis pueris Magistri Informatoris pro ludis iij s.

(26 June–24 September)

Item Rogero Lyme pro jo fune ad appendendam navim in aula xij d.
Item Iohanni Chappingeton pro labore suo in removendis organis e templo in aulam et preparandis eisdem erga ludos v s.

...

  • Record Translation

    f [43v] (26 December–26 March) (Hall expenses)

    ...

    Likewise for sundry expenses for the putting up and taking down of the scaffold and for the little houses newly made, with carriage and carriage back of the joists and of other things borrowed for the same scaffold, with seven links and one dozen candles for light being expenses for three nights on plays of comedies and tragedies 25s 8d

    (27 March–25 June)

    Likewise to Roger Darneley for seven links delivered for the children of the schoolmaster for the plays 3s

    (26 June–24 September)

    Likewise to Roger Lyme for one rope for suspending the ship in the hall 12d
    Likewise to John Chappington for his work in removing the organ from the chapel to the hall and for preparing the same for the plays 5s

    ...

  • Glossed Terms
    • linck n link, torch(?) [OEDO link n.3 1.a]; linke
  • Endnote

    In the college the word 'children' was used to denote the scholars as opposed to the commoners and choiristers. Thomas Bilson (1546/7–1616), a native of Winchester, was schoolmaster from 1570/1 to 1579, then the first married warden from 1581/2 until 1596, when he became bishop of Winchester. John Chappington, a member of a family of organ builders from South Molton, Devon, died in Winchester in 1606.

    The unusual reference to a ship hanging in the hall, together with the associated entry in the bursars' accounts for 1574–5, is discussed in Cowling, 'Performance at Winchester College,' pp 110–11. As pointed out there, the ship was almost certainly used as a prop in a performance of Plautus' Rudens and was evidently used on more than one occasion, hence the need for repairs to it.

  • Document Description

    Record title: Winchester College Bursars' Accounts
    Repository: Winchester College Archives
    Shelfmark: 22216
    Repository location: Winchester

    The bursars' accounts were kept annually by the two bursars, one of whom was elected each year and served as the junior bursar, becoming senior bursar the following year. Their accounts included all the college finances, beginning with receipts from the rents of manors and estates owned by the college. Expenses are divided into sections: the chapel, hall, kitchen, pantry, stable, and garden; stipends to chaplains, scholars, and others; external expenses and gifts (the last two the sections where payments to entertainers were normally entered). In 1556 the system of annual rolls adopted at the founding of the college was changed to keeping the accounts in book form. The accounts run roughly from Michaelmas to Michaelmas but with each year divided into four quarters.

    1572–83; Latin; paper; i + 394 + i; 313mm x 200mm; unnumbered; contemporary parchment binding with remains of 3 leather straps, 1 with metal buckle, title on spine: 'Burs: ab 1572 ad 1583.' The 2 fly- leaves, now loose from the binding, are 2 leaves from a 14th-c. commentary on the Minor Prophets written in England in Latin containing Hosea 10.9–11.11 and Joel 3.13–Amos 1.9.

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