Those of us who work in the legal and social history of medieval England owe a great deal to scholars who have employed their time and expertise by the translation and editing of medieval English legal records, making them widely available. The latest publication of the Surtees Society, a calendar of the Northumberland eyre roll of 1293, adds to that debt. Constance M. Fraser, previously having edited not only four Surtees Society volumes but also a number of other collections, has produced another carefully executed work in which she exhibits her mastery of the records of Northumberland. [1] This calendar displays the learning gained over her long and intimate acquaintance with the administrative and legal documents and history of the northern counties.
As advertised in Boydell's catalog description, she provides a rare glimpse into medieval Northumberland, its neighbors, and the life and relationships of its people on the eve of the Scottish wars that exacted a heavy toll on them and their property. There is much fodder here for the social and economic historian. Family strategies to provide for the future of children, the struggles of widows seeking their dower, paupers forgiven their fines, executors prosecuting debtors, law-worthy Newcastle citizens diligently serving again and again as jurors--all appear in the rolls of the eyre. The burgesses, mayor, and tradesmen of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and their affairs tangled over debts and guild regulations; landlords pursued tenants for felling trees and former wards against their guardians for destroying barns and bake-houses; neighbors sued one another over gutters, waterways, and road obstructions. Through Edward I's justices' vigorous employment of quo warranto proceedings into long held liberties, the eyre records also reveal the crown's jurisdictional and administrative interactions with various franchises in that county, shedding light on the great liberty of Antony Bek Bishop of Durham and its brief confiscation by the eyre's zealous chief justice, Hugh Cressingham, in addition to those of various abbeys and priories, the king of Scotland, and the king's brother Edmund "Crouchback."
The individual record entries of the eyre rolls are calendared and numbered continuously in sequence, membrane by membrane. The text includes all erasures and emendations in addition to headings and marginalia. Fraser provides a generally useful index and cross reference of names and cases. For men holding clerical office, the index directs the reader to the names of the successive men who held that office for the cases in which they appear. (The Bishop of Durham, however, appears to be missing a few references to the records which mention him or pertain to his interests.) As a calendar rather than a translation verbatim of the Latin, it is particularly important for the reader to be able to gather the legal import of the original text. Fraser makes this possible, selecting appropriate and consistent terms to indicate its meaning while simultaneously writing in clear, unstilted English. The court clerks were rarely creative or innovative in their recording of cases, and Fraser does an excellent job of conveying with clarity the rhythmic regularity of their routine legal turn of phrase. Insertions of tell-tale phrases of Latin are included where the English alone may not convey their implications. The editor relied chiefly upon the eyre's more complete and official Rex Roll, but dutifully noted through editorial symbols where she consulted the parallel, but not identical, roll of its chief justice. Happily, the entire roll is calendared, not only the 1150 plea records, including the membranes of essoins, the appointments of attorney, pledges, and the fines and amercements. Unhappily, there is only one explanatory footnote to the text (regarding a dating issue, 147), and none supplying internal cross-references, comments relating to the Latin text, references to other rolls, or definitions of the more obscure legal terms.
Fraser explains her editorial choices in her brief introduction. Some of the information in the introduction may have been more usefully presented in a table, such as the frequency of various actions or her statistical analysis of the knights of the shire. She begins her introduction quite enticingly with the opening of the eyre on 14 January 1293 by reference to two cases that hint at its impact on the everyday life of the community of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; however, the duration of the eyre and its date of adjournment are not provided. The introduction's brevity, apparently the consequence of the decision to publish a calendar of the entire roll of 88 membranes in one lengthy volume, deprives us of any more of Fraser's own analysis and interpretation of the rolls' contents. As one of the last regular eyres of the thirteenth century, it lasted long and was felt as exceptionally burdensome on the community, particularly with its careful and zealous inquiry into liberties by Quo warranto proceedings. Fraser mentions this and other important and tantalizing issues, such as the degree of professionalization of the attorneys who represented the litigants, but does not further discuss them or their implications. Having written considerably on the administrative and judicial context of the eyre and as an important authority on the local history and governance of this northern county and its liberties, a brief overview of her learned insights would be most welcome. For that, readers will have to consult her previous publications or hope that it may still yet appear in a future article or monograph. [2]
________ Notes: 1. Previous volumes are: 162, Records of Antony Bek, Bishop and Patriarch; 171, Ancient Petitions Relating to Northumberland; 176, Northern Petitions Illustrative of Life in Berwick, Cumbria and Durham in the Fourteenth Century; and 199, Durham quarter sessions rolls 14711625.
2. See: A History of Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham 1283-1311 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957); "Edward I of England and the Regalian Franchise of Durham," Speculum 31, no. 2 (Apr., 1956): 329-342; "Prerogative and the Bishops of Durham, 1267-1376," The English Historical Review 74, no. 292 (July, 1959): 467-476; with Kenneth Emsley: Northumbria (London: Batsford, 1978); "Law and Society in Northumberland and Durham, 1290 to 1350," Archaeologia Aeliana (4th ser.) 47 (1969): 47-70; and "Justice in North East England, 1256-1356," The American Journal of Legal History 15, no. 3 (July, 1971): 163-185.