Source Description

Given to St John's College by Bishop Thomas Watson of St Davids (bishop 1687-1699), a benefactor of the College (Yardley, _Menevia Sacra_ pp. 118-19, 384). Before 1717, when Watson died, and probably before 1699, when he was deprived of his bishopric, as it my have been difficult for him to acquire it from the cathedral thereafter. Remains in Old Library at St Johns College. Consulted by Yardley in compiling _Menevia Sacra_ (1739-1769), but not the principal copy he used (which is witness I).

Source Description

Note in pen on f. ii r: "It appearing by an Attestation wrote over against the first Page of the Statute-Book of this Cathedral Church [now N.L.W., SDCh/B/22] that in the year 1719 the said Statute-Book was collated by the late Bishop Ottley & the late Mr. Chantor Davies with a much more ancient manuscript of the said Statutes [now British Library, Harley MS 6280], which was attested A[nn]o 1588 by Bishop Middleton, Chantor Huett & c., & which said ancient Copy has ever since been unfortunately missing (which is greatly lamented) or at least was never seen by any of the present members of the Chapter; -Richard Davies Archdeacon of St. Davids & one of the Canons Residentiary of this Church made many Enquiries with various Persons and in various places, in order to the recovering, if possible, the said ancient manuscript: and particularly haveing procured diligent search to be made for that purpose among the Books and Papers of the said late Mr. Chantor Davies, altho' the Book in question could not, upon such serch, be found, yet the present manuscript (containing not only the St. Davids Statutes, but also the Patent of King Henry the Eighth for founding Christ's College in Brecon) being met with among the said Books, was, at the Request of the said Archdeacon, generously made a Present of to the Chantor and Chapter of St. Davids by the Reverend Mr. Richard Davies Master of Arts, Golden Prebendary of this Church [NB he held the preb. of Mathrey, alias the Golden Prebend, form 1723 to his d. in May 1745], on order to be laid up in the Chapter-Chest of this Cathedral, where it is accordingly deposited this 25th day of July in the Year one thousand seven hundred and forty eight by me Richard Davies Archdeacon of St. Davids." [pencil note below:] "Qu. whether this is in the British Museum." Before 14 Dec. 1732, when Precentor (Chantor) John Davies died. Remains in the legal ownership of the Dean and Chapter of St Davids; placed on deposit at National Library of Wales.

Source Description

Origin unknown. This is the principal copy consulted by Edward Yardley in compiling _Menevia Sacra_. This can be determined by the fact that the page numbers he supplies in his marginal notations (rendered as footnotes in the publication by editor Francis Green) align with the page numbers in this manuscript. Yardley's partial transcript of the Brecon charter on p. 415 of _Menevia Sacra_ references 'Ex libro Episcopi Menev., Stat. Menev., p. 269. Compare this with ye same Charter printed in B. Willis, Abb. Vol. ii, p. 304.' (The printing to which Yardley refers is our Witness W.) The document in question begins on p. 269 in only one manuscript, indicating that Yardley was referring to this copy. More fully, Yardley's digest of the statutes (National Library of Wales, MS SDCh/B/31, not published by Green) has page references throughout, which again align with the page numbers in this manuscript. A note on p. iii of Yardley's digest is our only indication of this manuscript's date: he wrote that it was 'Abridg'd from a Copy of ye Statutes in the Possession of ye Rt Revd Nicholas [Clagett] Ld Bp of St Davids, lent me by his Lordship, May 1740'.Before May 1740.. Remains in the legal ownership of the Dean and Chapter of St Davids; placed on deposit at National Library of Wales.

Source Description

Origin unknown. Two letters are pasted in among foreleaves. One from Bishop Adam Ottley (bishop of St Davids 1713-23) mentions borrowing a copy of the Statutes from Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford. This may in fact refer to the MS that is now Harley 6280, though that seems unlikely. Ottley used Harley 6280 to check National Library of Wales, MS SDCh/B/22 in 1719, but it is not clear that Harley had come into possession of that manuscript yet. The other letter is from his successor, Richard Smallbrook (bishop of St Davids 1724-1731) in 1729, promising to return to Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, a copy of the statutes (either Harley 6280 or this present volume) which he had borrowed to use in a suit in the Court of Arches to oblige canons of St Davids to residence. Harley 6280 was in the hands of Thomas Baker at Cambridge at an unknown date between 1719 and his death in 1740 (Bodleian Library, Willis MS. 38 f. 531r-v), and again, it may not have entered Harley's collection yet. It may be that Harley 1249 was thus the only copy Harley had to lend to Smallbrook at this time. Moreover, both Ottley and Smallbrook should have recognized that Harley 6280 properly belonged to the cathedral chapter, while Harley 1249 bears no marks that it belonged to anyone other than Harley. A letter of thanks for a loan with a promise to return a book would make sense if the book was 1249 but not 6280. Probably before 1729.

Source Description:

Produced by Chancery, the office that issued and enrolled Letters Patent. The 'original' from which it was copied was not the Letter Patent that had been issued, but rather the Warrant in Chancery, the authorised draft from which the Letter itself was prepared. This may survive in The National Archives in the file C 82/776, which contains the surviving Warrants in Chancery for January of 32 Henry VIII (1541), but we have not been able to examine it at this time. Though the Letters Patent establishing Brecon were issued in January of 32 Henry VIII (1540 Old Style, 1541 New Style), the document was not enrolled in the Patent Rolls until 33 Henry VIII, confirming that it must have been copied from the Warrant in Chancery, which they would still have had, and not the Letters Patent, which had already been sent out (for details of the process, see https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008927983&view=1up&seq=1). The Patent Rolls were initially stored in the Rolls Chapel in the Tower of London. The were then moved to the new Public Record Office building in Chancery Lane in the 1850s and thence to the second Public Record Office building in Kew in the 1990s. The Public Record Office became The National Archives in 2003. 33 Henry VIII (1541-1542).

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Available online at: https://archive.org/details/b30454529_0003/page/372