Appendix 2: The date of the Liber F valor

APPENDIX II

The date of the Liber F valor

In an appendix to the revised Fasti 1300-1541 v (1963) pp. 74-5, Mrs. Joyce Horn examines the evidence for the date of a valor of the St. Paul's prebends, which was copied by Matthew Hutton from the missing Liber F. (fn. 1) The valor gives the names of holders of each prebend, and Hutton's heading states that it was drawn up at the time of pope Gregory X's taxation, which was valued in 1276. (fn. 2) Newcourt, Hardy and Hennessy accepted that the valor belonged to the time of pope Gregory, (fn. 3) but Mrs. Horn's analysis of the internal evidence of the valor demonstrates that the actual date must have been a good deal later, probably between 1291 and 1295.

In the compilation of the present volume more material relating to the period has been examined, in the light of which it is possible to narrow still further the suggested limits of date for the list of prebendaries in the Liber F valor. Confirmation that the list belongs to the period after c. 1291 comes from the entries in the present volume relating to M. John de Selvestone, prebendary of Ealdland, after May 1290 × March 1291 (above p. 47), and M. Walter de Langeton, prebendary of Holbourn, after February 1291 (above p. 55). But three other entries suggest a slightly later date:

(1) M. Henry of Newark presumably was not collated to his prebend of Brownswood until after the death of M. Adam de Writele, which occurred between March 1292 and February 1294, probably in 1293 (above p. 31).

(2) M. Stephen de Gravesend presumably did not succeed to the prebend of Chamberlainwood until after the death of Solomon of Rochester, on 28 August 1293 (above p. 40).

(3) John de Berewik presumably was not collated to his prebend of Consumpta-perMare until after the death of M. Gilbert de Strattone, which almost certainly occurred between January and 11 March 1294 (above p. 45).

As noted by Mrs. Horn, the valor's inferior limit of date is determined by the appearance of Hugh de Kendale, prebendary of Harleston, who had died by 8 April 1295 (above p. 52).

The date of the Liber F valor, therefore, seems to lie in all probability between January 1294 and April 1295. In the entries for the prebendaries in the present volume, this date is expressed as c. 1294.