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This is the first in a series of short articles about old hand-written parchment
documents that show up at times at flea markets, auctions, etc. and may be relatively
inexpensive to buy. This is how one of our members got started on collecting
some British legal and commercial documents from the 1500s to 1900s.
1777, George III
We both spotted it at the same time and pounced. My sister beat me to it, "It" being a dirty looking package among the bric-a-brac displayed on a stall at Wimborne Minster's, Dorset, England, weekly outdoor market. She started to open the package enough for us to confirm that it was indeed what we had anticipated. Seven Pounds changed hands and two excited sisters hurried home to examine "it" carefully.
Kneeling on the living room floor, it took the two of us to be able to open up the treasure, and, keep it open. Heavy parchment pages, or leaves, folded up for a century or more, act like a well-coiled spring, snapping back into its folds. "It" turned out to be a "peppercorn" lease comprising 1 leaf measuring 30 ¼" x 25 ½": "THIS INDENTURE made the Twenty Second Day of November in the ffourteenth Yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord George the Second by the Grace of God King of great Brittain, ffrance and Ireland Defender of the ffaith and so forth and in the Yeare of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and fforty….". This was a lease for a cottage, barn, stables, paddock, etc with the yearly rent being specified as "one peppercorn at the Feast of St. Michael the Arch Angell."
1580, Elizabeth I
The writing was not too easy to read but I had advantage over my sister, not because I'm an amateur calligrapher, but because of knowledge of some of the phraseology used - the legal jargon and its structure that still survives to some degree in today's legal documents. Needless to say, whether one understands much of the text and purpose of these documents, the writing skill of the scrivener is to be admired and enjoyed. There is quite a variety in the hands and calligraphers could enjoy experimenting with formation of some letters for themselves.
1680, Charles II
The upshot of all this was that my dear sister, who collects old letters, gave me the document as a gift and said she would love to find more for me. She felt she shouldn't expand her letter collection to documents of this type but she sure enjoys the hunt activity!
Aren't legal documents boring, you might ask? They aren't if you "read between the lines" and have some imagination. The second article in the next NCG Newsletter will include this aspect.
1740, George II