Attested 1603 manuscript copies by the Council of the North of Elizabeth I’s Great Charter to Newcastle from 1599 together with two further decrees relating to Newcastle Manuscript signed off by the Council’s Secretary John Ferne and Newcastle’s Mayor in 1603.
Quarto manuscript (26cmx19cm) bound in late seventeenth century calf, rebacked in the 20th century with raised spine bands and gilt spine lettering. Old endpapers with vertical chainlines. Written on front pastedown in pencil: ‘Phillipps MSS. 9388’. The c1600 paper stock which follows a single flyleaf has horizontal chainlines with a crown watermark visible in the gutter and the letters ‘D B’ below. Around 400 leaves of this paper have been laid out for use with an ink-ruled box on each to guide the writer and to provide suitable margins. The manuscript proper is preceded by a single blank which has been used in the late 17th century for indexing purposes which would have allowed easier access to this important legal text. The ‘Index des choses grants en le Newcastle Charter’ (Index of things granted in the Newcastle Charter) has been set out across three alphabetical columns, referencing significant clauses of the text relating to the Hostmen and Newcastle Grammar School. The 17th century manuscript owner and indexer has further eased use of the text by adding marginal annotations throughout the manuscript.
The manuscript is foliated to leaf 60 although there are a further c300 unused leaves beyond this. It is written in Elizabethan secretary hand over 64 pages (32 foliated leaves). The scribe has used large initial letters, so at the beginning of the Great Charter: ‘Elizabeth Dei Gracia’ is in a fine calligraphic style with further calligraphic words scattered through the manuscript. The manuscript has seen significant use and there is fingermarking throughout. Newcastle’s Great Charter runs from 1r to 26r, ending with the approval of the Great Seal ‘per breve de privato Sigillo huberd’ A single blank verso precedes the Council of the North’s Decree issued in York ‘Ebor vicesimo Primo die decembris 1603...’ (21st December 1603) f27r-f31v. This Decree has been signed off by the Council of the North’s Secretary John Ferne as a true copy: ‘vera Copia concordat cum Originali Jo: ferne 1603’ and by Francis Burrell (Newcastle’s Mayor in 1603) ‘per Burrell.’ The final decree was also made in York - ‘Eborum’, February 28th 1604 (written as 1603) and runs from 32r-33v. It is again attested by Ferne: ‘ffait collatione concordat cum Originali Jo: Ferne’ and also ‘Blenkarne’ - probably Robert Blenkarne of Ingleby, south of Newcastle.
PROVENANCE: Phillipps MS 9388, in Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum, p149 as ‘Charters of Newcastle on Tyne, temp Eliz & J.I 4to ch. s. xviii. T. 94’ in the section entitled Thorpe Manuscripts, Phillipps’ 1836 purchase of the stock of the London bookseller Thomas Thorpe.
Newcastle’s Great Charter of 1599/1600 was the second renewal of its incorporation which placed the government of the town in the hands of a mayor, sheriff, alderman and 24 burgesses. Power in the city was entirely concentrated in the hands of a small oligarchy centred on the Andersons, Selbys, and Henry Chapman who delivered MPs through a closed election at the Guildhall. This manuscript, no doubt intended for use in the city, was issued by the Council of the North in order to clarify the Newcastle’s governance. For the avoidance of doubt John Feare, a prosperous York merchant and Secretary to the Council of the North, has signed off the subsequent decrees and ensured that figures local to Newcastle - in 1603 the city’s Mayor - have also signed them. One of the repeated problems faced by the Council of the North was dealing with disputes between the Hostmen and city Burgesses, a relationship which is dealt with in the Charter and Decrees. Although based in King’s Manor in York, the Council of the North regularly visited Newcastle, Carlisle and Hull where it made adjudications in local disputes and ensured that the monarch’s writ was followed. This manuscript may have been written in either Kings Manor, Newcastle or Kings Manor in York. It is a matter of particular interest that the Great Charter is an Elizabethan document whereas the two decrees date from the months immediately following the Queen’s death when James VI of Scotland had only recently passed through Newcastle and York on his way to London to become James I of England.
