west wall, where probably stood the spacious refectory. Even the gatehouse is altered; no longer does the wide-spanned arch open its door to receive the visitor. It has been long since built up. The old arched or square-headed windows of stone, and closely quarried glass, have been replaced by wooden frames and staring sashes; and the former abode of the devout sisters of the Benedictine Order is now utilized into tenements for the families of farm-labourers. It is only in the north-eastern corner that we can detect anything of the really old. Here are jambs of Early English windows, now blocked up; here is still the newel stair which once led up to the apartments of the two priests: but it has long since ceased to be used. It is scarcely possible now to say which were the rooms of the Confessor of the Nuns and the Chaplain of the Church.

Our only clue to the distribution of the apartments (and this probably confined to the gatehouse itself) is to be found in the" Inventory "* already noticed (p 151). There were the apartment of the Lady Prioress, Alicia Crane; that of Dame Ursula Gosborne (? Gisborne), who was called the sup-prior; those of Dames Agnes Browne, Margaret.... locks, Dorothy Toplyve, Anne Loveden, Elizabeth Stradlynge, Anne Clifford, and Margaret Ryvers. In this Inventory are also included the most minute details of the "goods" which each contained, specifying not only the "clothys for the hangyngs,' but also the "fetherbeds, bolsters," number of "pyllowes, blankattes, payres of shetes," etc., which each owned.

In Minster, as in the Benedictine Monasteries generally, the discipline of the house was under Episcopal jurisdiction: while the election of the Prioress lay with the sub-prioress and the nuns, it required the preliminary sanction and subsequent confirmation of the Archbishop. This is evident from an entry in the Lambeth Register, where Archbishop Stafford issues a Licencet to the sub-prioress and the convent to proceed to the election of a prioress on the death of the

*Archæologia Cantiana, Vol. VII., where the names are given of the occupants (temp. Henry VIII.) at the time of its suppression.

+ Archbishop Stafford's Register, f. 107 b (A.D. 1450): "Emanavit licentia suppriorisse et Conventui domus Monialium Scapeie ad procedendam electionem future Priorisse . . . . secundum consuetudinem."

last Prioress.

The internal discipline, too, of the house

came under the control of the Primate.

In the same Registers we have glimpses of the life these nuns were accustomed to lead; and they are not always favourable pictures. More than once it became necessary for the Archbishops to interfere, and sometimes to administer warnings and even rebukes and threats. Archbishop Peckham* in 1286 had to condemn the latitude which (as he had heard) allowed mulieres seculares (women who were not under the vow) to come inside the walls, and threatens them severely unless they mend their ways.

Ten years later Archbishop Winchelsea held a personal visitation, and found other grounds of complaint; he heard that in refectory and dormitory, in cloister, and even in choir, the rule of SILENCE was not observed; that the nuns are "said to be garrulous and quarrelsome;" and for such delinquencies he enjoins periods of solitary confinement in the cells (in camera, carceris loco), and warns them that if this disorder continues still more severe forms of punishment must be resorted to to maintain the good order of the house.†

Of the successive Prioresses it is now impossible to give a full and correct list, as the names only occur incidentally in various records. For instance, we read that one Agnes (whose surname is not given) was Prioress in 1139; that Johanna de Cobham filled that post in the middle of the fourteenth century, and that on her death in 1368 she was succeeded by Isabella de Honyngton, who had "professed" only a few months before. These two ladies no doubt belonged to the old Kentish families of Cobham and Honington. Then in 1511 Alice Rivers was Prioress; and she very probably belonged to the family of which Elizabeth, the Queen of Edward IV., was a member. The last of the Prioresses was Alicia Crane, who held the office at the time. of the suppression, when she was pensioned.

*Archbishop Peckham's Register, f. 119.

"Injunctiones a Monialibus in Scapeia observandi. Robertus, etc., etc. In primis ut in locis silencio deputatis, et precipue in Choro, Claustra, Refectorio, & Dormitario, silencium observetur: . . . . Ita quod supe hoc non garulent nec contendant, etc., etc. Datum in Monasterio vestro Kal. Maii 4. D. MCCXCVI." (Archbishop Winchelsea's Register, f. 63.)

Archbishop Langham's Register, f. 64-5.

We cannot better close this brief account of the Minster Nunnery than by referring to a highly interesting MS. in the British Museum (Cottonian MSS., Faustina, B. vi.), where a list is given of the "memorial days" of five of the Prioresses: this unfortunately gives only their Christian names, and consequently we are not able to identify them, or to give the years in which they died. The names occur in the following order :

2 Id. Martii, ob. Johanna de Badlesmere, Priorissa de Menstre.

12 Kal. Maii, ob. Eustachina, Priorissa de Menstre.
4 Non. Octobris, ob. Agnes, ditto.

13 Kal. Octobris, ob. Christina, ditto.
11 Kal. Decembris, ob. Gunnora, ditto.

NOTES ON THE MUNICIPAL RECORDS

OF QUEENBOROUGH.

BY REV. C. EVELEIGH WOODRUFF, M.A.

THE recent visit of the Kent Archæological Society to Queenborough may afford excuse for a short notice of the Municipal Records of that borough. The records are carefully preserved in a muniment room beneath the Town Hall, but it seems likely that in former days they were less well cared for, inasmuch as few date back further than the end of the fifteenth century. At some period no doubt a general clearing out resulted in a holocaust being made of what the Mayor and Jurats considered mere useless rubbish, in which the earlier records would certainly have been included. However, enough remains to give us some little insight into the history of the borough in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and since no report upon the records has been issued by the Historical MSS. Commission, I venture to offer to the members of the Society the result of a few days' work in the muniment room undertaken by the kind permission of A. W. Howe, Esq., the present Mayor of Queenborough.

The Records may be conveniently divided into the following classes:

I.-Royal Charters.
II.-Bound Volumes.
III.-Loose Papers.

I. The Charter box contains the following six Charters :1. Dated 1 Henry V.

All the above have portions of the Great Seal attached, of which Nos. 3 and 6 preserve very fine impressions. These six Charters are inspeximus Charters confirmatory of the original Charter granted by King Edward III. in his fortysecond year (1368). This Charter is no longer extant, but the following transcript from the Patent Rolls is preserved at Queenborough.

"Edwardus dei gratia, etc., etc., inter cetera quibus nostra solicitudo versatur votis nostris occurrit precipuum regnum nostrum et eius incolas in pace et tranquillitate regere et a noxiis preservare locaque ad fortificandum habilia ad subditi nobis populi securitatem et hostium nostrorum formidamen et repulsionem solida fortitudine roborare sane considerato in Insula de Shepeye quodam loco situ decoro satisque securo et brachio maris multum lato et profundo et pro applicatione navium congruo vicino, castrum et villam ibidem. construere incipimus, eaque muris et fossatis sufficienter ad ipsius regni fulcimentum et decorem et hominum partium vicinarum et bonorum suorum munimen proponimus domino concedente firmare quam quidem villam Burgum Regine duximus nominandum, et ut maior confluat concursus populorum ad eandem et ad habitandum ibidem animum assumant promptiorem et sit locus ille securitatis et fortitudinis incrementum ibidem solatium et quietem habitatorum concessimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris et hac carta nostra confirmavimus habitatoribus Burgi illius libertates et privilegia subscripta videlicet quod dicta villa perpetuus et liber burgus sit et homines eiusdem ville liberi sint Burgenses et habeant omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines ad liberum burgum pertinentes et quod de se ipsis singulis annis in festo Sancti Michaelis eligere possint unum maiorem duos ballivos qui burgum predictum et libertates ceteraque dictum Burgum tangencia custodiant et gubernent, et qui cum electi fuerint corporale prestent sacramentum coram constabulario Castri predicti nomine nostro quod nobis et dicto Burgo fideles erunt, et in hiis que regimen et custodia eiusdem concernunt bene et fideliter se gerent, et habebunt et quod habeant duo mercata ibidem singulis septimanis unum videlicet per diem lune et aliud per diem Jovis, et duas ferias singulis annis unam videlicet in festo Sancti Jacobi Apostoli in mense Julii et per quinque dies prosequentes, et aliam quarto die Martii et per septem dies prosequentes cum omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus ad hujus modi mercati et ferias pertinentibus nisi mercata illa et ferie ille sint