Chapter XVI: Appendix: The Last Prior of Dunmow

In the Manuscript Department of the British Museum one may turn over in Latin and in an old English transcript, the household accounts kept by Geoffrey Shether, the last Prior of Dunmow. During the last four years of the Priory's existence, 1531-5, that is up to the time of the dissolution of the minor monasteries, the Prior entered up his accounts every Sunday in a long narrow book such as one sees on bakers' counters.

The entries at the very end of the book are in regard to the payment to one "Purcas"--still a Little Dunmow name--"for iiij days' werke, xxd," and to two "labryng" men for their "werke." Earlier in the book a payment "to my stuarde for kepying of my Curte at Dunmowe" is chronicled. A large proportion of the expenses are in respect of farm work or stock. There is an entry more than once for "stoor bolox." On several occasions expenditure was incurred for the ringing of pigs and the destruction of rats. There are also various sums for work on the steeple.

The fishponds of our illustration do not appear to have yielded all the fish needed by the Priory, for there are two entries for "fyscche" bought. If there is no mention of Bacon, there are "rewardes for venison," and if no allusion occurs to the Flitch ceremony, it was not, apparently, because the Prior would have been above being interested in such a mundane thing, for twice or thrice he puts down "my costs at the feyr," and he gave a "reward to the Lord of Mysrule of Dunmow." Moreover, is there not an entry, "For sugar candy I bowte"?

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THE WICHNOR FLITCH.--The wooden flitch over the fireplace at Wichnor Hall, near Lichfield, where there was a local Bacon custom.

SILVER RING with Clasped Hands, no doubt a Betrothal Ring; also

RELIQUARY, both found near the Priory Church.

IMPRESSION of a Seal, found at Little Dunmow, which probably belonged to one of the Priors of Dunmow. The inscription is: "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominums tecum." The words are from the Missal. The ring is of silver.

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The Fair Matilda

The story of the poisoning of the Fair Matilda is in the Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iii., folio 291 (British Museum), a sixteenth or early seventeenth century copy of or extract from the _Dunmow Chronicle_. The original of the _Chronicle_ has not been traced. Tanner in his _Notitia Monastica_ does not mention it, but only the Cotton MS. and the Harley MS. referred to in the Introduction to this booklet. The story is entered under the year 1211, in which "mota est discordia inter Regem Johannem et Barones suos occasione Matildis," etc. The Chartulary of Dunmow Priory (page 20), a register of charters, deeds, etc., is quite a different thing from the _Chronicle_, and does not contain the story. The Chartulary is in handwriting of the thirteenth century. The rubric at the beginning gives the date of its compilation as 1275. A few documents have been copied into it at later times.

The photographs of the effigies and of the chair in Little Dunmow Church are by Mr. F. T. Morris, of Felsted; of the modern trial scene and procession by Mr. R. Stacey, of Dunmow; of the Counsel for the Bacon by Mr. J. Willett, of Dunmow; of the rest of the subjects (with the exception of the manuscripts) by Miss Arundel, B.A., of Great Canfield, by kind permission of Mr. Hastings Worrin, J.P., of Little Dunmow, in whose possession they are. The photograph of carving in the Church was taken for Mr. Worrin. The photograph of the fireplace in Wichnor Hall is by Mr. J. S. Simnett, Guild Street, Burton-on-Trent.

For the List of Winners of the Bacon on page 47, we are indebted to the Misses Carter, Dunmow.

Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works Frome and London