1 - Lease Book A (spine title)

1 volume paper

A register of copies of College leases, begun c. 1580 but including copies of earlier documents from 1543 onwards; the latest comes from 1618. The first section is a contents list, in a contemporary hand but with a single leaf added later (said to be in the hand of Charles Ashton, Master 1701-52). This list refers to an original foliation in which the transcriptions begin at f. 20. The first item transcribed is "an Acte for the mayntenanceof the Colledges in both the Universities ...", 18 Eliz. cap. 6; the rest are all property deeds, mostly leases. On the front flyleaf are some rough notes and a signed statement that this book was produced in a court case in 1682. At the end of the book are: "A note of the greivances done by Mr Dalton to the Colledge" (f. 330); a single-page account of the College's benefactors [post 1619] (f. 335v); a list of benefices in the College's gift (f. 336); a list of evidences compiled c. 1600, in effect the earliest known catalogue of College deeds, "in the great redd Box" and 42 other boxes (ff. 337-344); accounts of "Cignetts and broodes" and swans marked, for 1614, 1615, 1616 and 1618 (f. 345r,v); lists of "Rentes in provision", rents "not yet in provision", rents "charged beside provision upon statute", and London rents (ff. 346-348r; a memorandum of the receipt of the manorial records of Graveley (f. 348v); a list of medieval deeds of the nunnery, in several 17C hands (ff. 349-351v); and inside the back cover some notes headed "Fundatores".