| Description | The cartulary of St Bartholomew's Hospital, sometimes known as 'Cok's Cartulary' was begun by Brother John Cok, renter, in c1418 and was continued in various hands until 1505/6. The contents of the Cartulary includes: copies of charters, letters patent and royal pardons, 1133-1464; papal bulls, c1175-1453; episcopal letters and acta, c1170-1420; deeds and other records of title, 1137-1505/6; and a rental of properties in London, 1456.
The cartulary, originally one large volume, was rebound in two parts in c1956, and again 1997-1998. Volume II comprises ff 427-649(end) of the original single volume. It is unknown why the separation of the two halves was made at f426, since the natural break would have been at f440, at the end of the section of copies of deeds of London properties. The manuscript has several foliation sequences, but the foliation used here, and in the calendar to the cartulary published by NJM Kerling in 1973, is the 20th century pencil foliation, which is written in the top right-hand corner of each folio.
Volume II gives deeds for Middlesex and other counties, mostly written in a single clear hand which is apparently of a later date than the ones used for the deeds of City parishes in the first half of the original book (now Volume I).
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ff94-440: copies of deeds of London properties (Kerling, pp20-110) [NB Volume II begins at f427, and so this section starts in Volume I]
ff441-595: copies of deeds of properties outside London (Kerling, p110-152)
ff596-636: contemporary index and table of contents
ff638-645: duplicate copies of sundry deeds (Kerling, p152)
f646: brief chronicle of the kings of England from Edward the Confessor to Henry VI (for a translation into English, see Norman Moore's 'Cok's Chronicle', in 'St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal', Volume 12 (May 1905), pp114-115, and Norman Moore's 'History of St Bartholomew's Hospital,' Volume II, pp34-36)
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ff 474 has an illuminated border and initial depicting a woman kneeling before St Helen who is holding a T-shaped cross, attributed to William Abell (Kerling p13; also article at SBHREF/257).
ff 427, 435 and 475-547 have initials decorated with pen-drawn grotesques. |
| Administrative history | The cartulary of St Bartholomew's Hospital, sometimes known as Cok's Cartulary, since it was begun by Brother John Cok, was composed according to practice of the time to compile copies of documents relating to properties and rights of an institution in a single ledger. It is thought that one reason for this was for ease of consultation in the increasing number of lawsuits in which religious houses were involved over the medieval period. Cartularies also provided a copy of key documents in case of loss of the original records through negligence or fire, and when the names of donors and tenants mentioned in the rental of properties, 1456 (ff.7-38) are compared with those in the Cartulary, it is clear that many of the original deeds and leases had already been lost by the fifteenth century.
The possession of a cartulary was also also a matter of prestige, and when John Wakeryng was elected Master of the Hospital in 1423, it is likely that he commissioned the cartulary to demonstrate the independence of the hospital from St Bartholomew's Priory following the final settlement between the two institutions made on 31 October 1420. However, work to transcribe the deeds of the hospital appears to have started earlier - the earliest date a deed was copied out is given by John Cok as 1418, so the transcription of deeds may have started under the mastership of John Bury [1415-17] or of John White [1418-23]. |