St Andrew’s Day food payments to Rochester Priory, c.1235

The list below provides the breakdown of the special customary payment – or xenium – made to the court of Rochester Priory on St Andrew’s Day (30th November). Payments came from the manorial estates held by the monastery and took the form of piglets, hens, geese, eggs, sturgeon, lampreys, as well as grain. The manors owing these food payments are listed as Frindsbury, Denton, Wouldham, Southfleet, Stoke, Haddenham and Darenth. All but Haddenham were (and still are) in Kent; Haddenham was (and is) in Buckinghamshire.

Transcription

66r (select folio number to open facsimile)

De exennio sancti Andree. Frendesberj. De frendesberia : v frecingas, et unum quarterium et quater
uiginti, et iiij gallinas, et xx et unam aucam, et
duo millia et centum ouorum. Inde episcopo quingenta oua, et
celerario quingenta oua, et residua in curiam, et
iij partem de sturgun et de lampridis, et sexaginta¹
fasciculos de furra. Denintune.² De denitune : unam frecingam et tria quarteria

66v

unius frecinge et xxiiij gallinas, uno anno et altero
xxv, et unam partem de sturgun, et de lampridis, et sex³
uiginti et tria oua. Wuldeham. De Wuldeham : tres frecingas et dimidiam et xl gallinas, et
duas partes de sturgun et de lampridis, et xl fasciculos de
furra, set hoc contra cartam Gundulfi episcopi. Et notandum quod
super manerium de Wuldeham constituti fuerunt olim de firma⁴
duo menses cum centum solidis, de suthflete. Suthflete De suthflete: tres frecingas et dimidiam et centum
gallinas et duas partes de sturgun et de lampridis.⁵ De stokes: duas frecingas et xxxvi gallinas et ix⁶
aucas et quingenta oua, residua in curiam et xii
summas auene, et unam partem de sturgun et de⁷
lampridis. Hadenham. De Hedenham⁸ : piscem ualentem xx sol’.⁹ Derente. De Derente¹⁰ : dimidium millenarium de lampridis.

Translation

Concerning the customary payment of Saint Andrew.¹¹ Frindsbury.

Concerning Frindsbury: 5 piglets¹² and six quarters [of wheat grain];¹³ and 4 hens, and 21 geese;¹⁴ and two thousand and one hundred eggs.¹⁵ Of these, to the bishop fifty eggs, and to the cellarer fifty eggs, and the remainder to the court [of the priory]; and three parts of sturgeon and of lampreys;¹⁶ and sixty bundles of spelt.¹⁷ – that is, for 1 month –¹⁸

Denton

Concerning Denton: one piglet and three quarters [of wheat grain], a single piglet;¹⁹ and 24 hens one year, and on the alternate [year] 25; and one part of sturgeon and of lamprey; and 123 eggs.²⁰

Wouldham

Concerning Wouldham: three piglets, and a half,²¹ and 40 hens, and two parts of sturgeon and of lampreys, – that is, for 1 month –²² and 40 bundles of spelt – but this is contrary to Bishop Gundulf’s charter.²³ And it should be noted that the above manor of Wouldham there were formerly established two months of rent with a hundred shillings from Southfleet.²⁴ – that is, for 2 months –²⁵

Southfleet

Concerning Southfleet: three piglets and one hundred and fifty hens and two parts of sturgeon and of lampreys. – that is, for 2 months –²⁶

Stoke

Concerning Stoke: two piglets and 36 hens and 9 gees and fifty eggs, the remainder to the court, and 12 seams of oats,²⁷ and one part of sturgeon and of lampreys.

Haddenham

Concerning Haddenham: fish, equivalent value of 20 shillings.²⁸

Darenth

Concerning Darenth: half a thousand of lampreys.

Footnotes

1 A note in the margin records ‘i.e. pro j mense.’

2 ‘Denintune’, an error for ‘Denitune’.

3 A note in the margin records ‘i.e. pro j mense’.

4 A note in the left margin records ‘i.e. pro ijbus mensibus’.

5 A note in the left margin records ‘i.e. pro ijbus mensibus’.

6 A note in the left margin records ‘Stokes. ’

7 A note in the left margin records ‘i.e. pro j mense’.

8 ‘Hedenham’, variant spelling of ‘Hadenham’.

9 The case ending of solidus is unclear so I have left it abbreviated.

10 The scribe made a mistake which he corrected: in the manuscript it reads ‘Derente’ with a superscript ‘de’ above.

11 The exenium (or xenium) of the text was the customary offering or payment brought to the priory on the feast day of Saint Andrew, i.e. the 30th November. According to Colin Flight, in his discussion of the priory’s fraudulent charter that was supposedly written by Bishop Gundulf (see note 23, below), this ‘gift’ (as Flight translates it) was the food, or cash in lieu, that was delivered to the incumbent bishop on St Andrew’s Day. Here though, in Custumale Roffense, the focus is on what the monks should receive, though the bishop is mentioned in a few entries. See Flight, The Bishops and Monks of Rochester 1076-1214 (Maidstone: Kent Archaeological Society, 1997), p. 109.

12 Or ‘suckling pigs’.

13 Literally ‘one quarter and a quarter of twenty’. Wheat is implied as the quarter was a unit of weight for grain. It equalled eight bushels; see ‘Quarter 3.’ in Christopher Corèdon with Ann Williams, A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004).

14 Literally, ‘twenty and one geese’.

15 Most probably meaning hen’s eggs, though goose eggs or a mixture of both are possibilities.

16 We should probably understand the use of Latin pars ‘part’ to mean a set amount of the fish referred to, though the amount is not explicitly specified; however, see my comments below in note 12. In the charter of Bishop Gundulf, alluded to later in the Wouldham section, the manors of Wouldham, Frindsbury, Denton, Southfleet, Stoke and Lambeth are to provide a thousand lampreys each, which suggests we should not be thinking of small numbers of fish. Likewise, Darenth, the last manor of the present text, is required to pay 500 lampreys. Though fish were often salted to preserve them, lampreys and sturgeon, as with some other varieties of fish, may have been first stored and then transported live; see Richard C. Hoffmann, ‘A Brief history of aquatic resource use in medieval Europe’, Helgoland Marine Research 59, pp. 22-30 (2005), at p. 24; the article is available online here. The late-fourteenth-century cookery treatise of Richard II specifies that lampreys were to be killed ‘with vinegar or white wine and salt’ implying they arrived at the royal kitchen alive; see ‘Launpreys in galentyne’ (‘Lampreys in galentine sauce’), recipe 124, Fourme of Cury, Manchester, John Rylands Library, English MS 7, folio 63 (my own translation).

17 ‘bundles of spelt’. The word I’ve translated as ‘spelt’ is furra which the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources states is a variant of farra, the plural of far, meaning ‘spelt or emmer wheat’: logeion.uchicago.edu/far [accessed 14 July 2023]. The Latin word for ‘bundle’ – fasciculus – is more often associated with sticks, that is, a faggot, used for fires: logeion.uchicago.edu/fasciculus [accessed 15 July 2023]. This, along with the fact that grain would ordinarily have been threshed and transported in quarter sacks, as is already implied in the text, makes me doubt somewhat that the meaning is spelt, but it is difficult to put forward an alternative for furra.

18 It seems the marginal notes ‘for 1 month’ and ‘for 2 months’ throughout this section relate to the quantities sufficient for either one or two months. Here, ‘for 1 month’ is next to the line referring to sturgeon and lampreys.

19 The scribe appears to have repeated himself regarding the piglet – understandable, since he had turned the page and probably lost his concentration.

20 Literally, ‘six twenty and three’.

21 Perhaps meaning a half unit (half of a quarter) of wheat grain.

22 The marginal note is next to the line concerning sturgeon and lampreys.

23 Gundulf’s charter states it was to be 60 bundles of spelt. I hope to write a piece on Gundulf’s charter in due course. Colin Flight observes that the monks forged a charter which purportedly made Bishop Gundulf grant favours to the monks, including their right to keep the whole exenium, or customary payment, should the bishop not be present on the feast day: Flight, Bishops and Monks of Rochester, p. 109.

24 The meaning of the Latin in this sentence is unclear to me; I have translated it quite literally. It is possibly saying that Wouldham had at one time made a monetary payment rather than a food rent. See the comment on commutation in note 22, below. The ‘de suthflete’, which I’ve translated as ‘from Southfleet’, may be a scribal mistake, anticipating the ‘De suthflete’, ‘Concerning Southfleet’ that follows, and therefore should be ignored.

25 The marginal note is placed alongside the line concerning the manor of Wouldham’s former rent.

26 The marginal note is next to the line about sturgeon and lampreys.

27 The seam (summa) was identical to the quarter for dry products; see the entry for seam in A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages ... - Ronald Edward Zupko - Google Books.

28 Twenty shillings is probably what is known as the commutation or commuted value, where a monetary payment is made in lieu of produce (or services), in this case fish. There are other commutations for food payments in Custumale Roffense and it is possible that at the time of its writing, in the fourth decade of the thirteenth century, there was beginning a more general shift towards this form of payment, replacing food rents, though it is difficult to be certain. See Denis Stuart’s introduction on custumals in his Manorial Records (Chichester: Phillimore, 1992), p. 63.

The wine custom of St Andrew’s Priory, c.1235

The text outlines the customary payments of wine – the best wine available – made to St Andrew’s Priory by the ‘keepers’ and tenants of its various manors.¹ This ensured a regular supply to the monastery. Wine was needed in the celebration of Mass, but it was probably also consumed as a beverage on certain occasions.

The wine custom was set up in 1228 when Richard de Derente (Darenth) was the prior; this was just a few years before the Custumale Roffense was written. The text states that it was established that the wine should be given on the anniversary of the ‘blessed memory’, or death, of Gundulf, bishop of Rochester (1077-1108), which was commemorated on the 10th March. However, the arrangement that follows seems to imply that a system of monthly payments was set up, each manor providing a quantity of wine according to custom and the size of the manor. Some tenants would supply wine for one month, some for two, and it may have been different again for others.

Transcription

27v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Anno gracie millesimo ccxxviij, statutum est
in capitulo de uoluntate R. prioris ibidem tunc
Presidentis, et de consensu tocius conuentus hoc ipsum an-
nuentis, ut omni anno in anniuersario felicis memorie
Gundulfi episcopi, detur uinum sub hac forma. Custodes
Maneriorum et firmarij, de quolibet mense reddent di-
midium sextarium uini optimi quod fuerit in ciui-
tate, hoc ordine. Videlicet qui duos menses facit;
det integrum sextarium, qui autem unum men-
sem; det dimidium sextarium uini Conuentui; et

28r

sic de ceteris
iuxta consuetudinem et quantitatem firmarium.
Preterea sacrista dabit integrum sextarium, et Camera-
rius similiter. Celararius uero dabit sextarium
ad seruitores.

Translation

In the year of grace 1228 it was established in chapter,² according to the will of R[ichard de Derente],³ the prior presiding there at that time, and with the consensus of the whole monastery with nodding assent, that each year on the anniversary of the blessed memory of Bishop Gundulf, wine would be given following this pattern:

Keepers of the manors and tenants will render, for each month, half a sester⁴ of the best wine that there is in the city, according to this arrangement, that is to say, whoever does two months should give a whole sester but whoever [does] one month, should give half a sester of wine to the monastery; and of the rest, according to the custom and number of the tenants.⁵ In addition, the sacristan will give a whole sester, and the chamberlain likewise.⁶ The cellarer will certainly give a sester to the servants [of God].⁷

Dr Christopher Monk

Monk’s Modern Medieval Cuisine

Footnotes

1 Latin custos, ‘keeper’, probably meaning the local official responsible for the day-to-day running of a manor, which would indicate either a reeve – annually elected from amongst the tenants – or a bailiff, whose salary would have been paid by the monks; see Mark Bailey, The English Manor c.1200–c.1500 (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 241 and 245.

2 i.e. the chapter house of the priory.

3 Richard de Derente, prior of Rochester 1225-1239; see Henry Wharton, Anglia sacra, etc., part 1 (London: Richard Chiswel, 1691) p. 393, available online at Anglia sacra : Henry Wharton : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive [accessed 18 July 2023].

4 A sester of wine was generally 4 gallons; see sester in A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages, A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages ... - Ronald Edward Zupko - Google Books.

5 This appears to suggest that there was some leeway in the amount of wine each manor had to provide.

6 The sacristan was a senior monk in charge of the sacristy and so responsible for the care of sacred vessels and vestments. The chamberlain was the senior monk responsible for the provision and repair of the monks clothing, shoes and bedding. The offices of the sacristan and chamberlain both received their own rents directly from the manors and so the sacristan and chamberlain were to provide wine from those funds.

7 The cellarer was a senior monk responsible for the food supplies of the priory. He would receive the wine as it was brought to the priory court. This final sentence suggests that the cellarer would provide wine for the monks to be used in the refectory. In this context, servitors ‘servants’ signifies the monks, not the lay servants of the priory, who are dealt with separately in Custumale Roffense and are only allowed ale to drink.

Concerning salmon paid to the refectory of St Andrew’s Priory, Rochester, c.1235

Salmon dues could be commuted as sturgeon or a payment in shillings, as detailed on the previous folio.

Transcription

66v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Mutatio Salmonum De Wldeham, de Suthfete, de Frendesberia, de
denitune de Stokes IIII salmones, si hii mu-
tati sunt in sturgun, scillingas in XXXII frustis. De Frendesberia et de Stokes XXX agnos ad pascha.
Hos habet episcopus contra cartam Gundulfi episcopi.

67r

De Salmonibus, qui expenduntur in Refectorio. IN Refectario octo salmones de pulcesoribus qui inve-
niri possunt, quos invenient custodes maneriorum,
scillingas. Hedenham duos salmones. Derente duos
salmonest Stokes duos salmones. Frendesberia
tres partes de uno salmone. Est denintone quartam
partem. Suthflete dimidiurn salmonem.
[W]ldeham dimidium salmonem.

Translation

Alternatives for salmon:

Concerning Wouldham, concerning Southfleet, concerning Frindsbury, concerning Denton, concerning Stoke: four salmon, alternatives in sturgeon, shillings, in 32 pieces.

Concerning Frindsbury and Stoke, 30 lambs at Easter. These are the bishops as per the charter of Bishop Gundulf.

Concerning salmon that are paid to the Refectory:

In the refectory eight salmon of the best looking which can be found by the custodians of the manor, or shillings. Haddenham two salmon. Darneth two salmon. Stoke two salmon. Frindsbury three parts of one salmon. And Denton a quarter part. Southfleet half a salmon. Wouldham half a salmon.