Reading that &^%&^$ medieval handwriting!

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Reading that &^%&^$ medieval handwriting!

Legg inn av Gjest » 24 jan 2005 03:09:06

Hello, all,

Again, I have a document giving me hell; can anyone give a glance at
this thing for me?

It's an inquisition post mortem for one Humphrey de Beaufo, taken in
1486 (I think; second year of H7)

I'd love to have the entire thing translated, but at a minimum, I'm
trying to make out the date of death and what became of his property.

My records say that he was killed at Bosworth, and I'm hoping that
this document will prove it, but I can't make out a death date, nor do
I see anything about being killed "in bello", or any such.

As always, I'm obliged for any assistance I can get.

I've posted it to http://www.whiteboar.com/beaufo/Beaufo3.jpg

I wish the copy was better!

Thanks!
Jon Stallard

Stewart Baldwin

Re: Reading that &^%&^$ medieval handwriting!

Legg inn av Stewart Baldwin » 24 jan 2005 06:54:57

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:09:06 -0500, stallard@cavtel.net wrote:

Hello, all,

Again, I have a document giving me hell; can anyone give a glance at
this thing for me?

It's an inquisition post mortem for one Humphrey de Beaufo, taken in
1486 (I think; second year of H7)

I'd love to have the entire thing translated, but at a minimum, I'm
trying to make out the date of death and what became of his property.

My records say that he was killed at Bosworth, and I'm hoping that
this document will prove it, but I can't make out a death date, nor do
I see anything about being killed "in bello", or any such.

As always, I'm obliged for any assistance I can get.

I've posted it to http://www.whiteboar.com/beaufo/Beaufo3.jpg

I wish the copy was better!

I could not make out all of the letters (and magnifying did not help
much), but the date of death appears on the third line from the
bottom:

"... obijt vices[i]mo s[....] die [august'?] Anno p'mo [i.e., primo]
d[..] [Regis?] ..."

The word beginning in "s" would be one of the words secundo, sexto, or
septimo (or an abbreviation of one of these), so assuming that I am
right that the month reads August, it is evidently saying that he died
on the 22nd, 26th, or 27th of August in the first year of the king's
reign.

The heir is named starting with the last word of the same line:

"... Joh'is Beaufo est fili[us] & heres [......] [......]*
[p[ro]pinquior?] Et est [etatis?] duor[um] Annor[um] & Amplius ..."

So the heir was named John Beaufo, and he was apparently two years
old, the exact relationship being unclear because of the illegible
letters. The word marked "*" might be an abbreviated form of the name
Humphrey. For the word filius, I am reading the last character as the
symbol (looking somewhat like a "9") abbreviating a "us" rather that
as an "a" (which would give filia=daughter, but the name does not look
like "Joan").

I hope this helps as a start at least.

Stewart Baldwin

Chris Phillips

Re: Reading that &^%&^$ medieval handwriting!

Legg inn av Chris Phillips » 24 jan 2005 10:52:22

Stewart Baldwin wrote:
I could not make out all of the letters (and magnifying did not help
much), but the date of death appears on the third line from the
bottom:

"... obijt vices[i]mo s[....] die [august'?] Anno p'mo [i.e., primo]
d[..] [Regis?] ..."

The word beginning in "s" would be one of the words secundo, sexto, or
septimo (or an abbreviation of one of these), so assuming that I am
right that the month reads August, it is evidently saying that he died
on the 22nd, 26th, or 27th of August in the first year of the king's
reign.

The heir is named starting with the last word of the same line:

"... Joh'is Beaufo est fili[us] & heres [......] [......]*
[p[ro]pinquior?] Et est [etatis?] duor[um] Annor[um] & Amplius ..."


Yes, I agree with Stewart's reading, and I think (as he suggests) the
missing words are probably "eiusdem Hu'fr'i" (of the same Humphrey). (In the
date of death, it will be "d'ni Regis" - of the lord king.)

The parts that are stained obviously aren't easy to read, but this should be
covered in the published calendars of inquisitions post mortem for the reign
of Henry VII ("Calendar of inquisitions post mortem and other analogous
documents preserved in the Public Record Office" [1485-1509] (3 vols;
London, 1898-1955)). This should give you an abstract of the whole thing,
and the date of death may have been more legible to people using the
original document in the 19th century.

Chris Phillips

Gjest

Re: Reading that &^%&^$ medieval handwriting!

Legg inn av Gjest » 25 jan 2005 02:03:51

Hmmm...... That's pretty much the information I was looking for;
Bosworth was fought on Aug. 22, 1485, so that jives nicely with the
story that he died there.

Very nice! Thank you!

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 05:54:57 GMT, Stewart Baldwin
<sbaldw@mindspring.com> wrote:

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:09:06 -0500, stallard@cavtel.net wrote:

Hello, all,

Again, I have a document giving me hell; can anyone give a glance at
this thing for me?

It's an inquisition post mortem for one Humphrey de Beaufo, taken in
1486 (I think; second year of H7)

I'd love to have the entire thing translated, but at a minimum, I'm
trying to make out the date of death and what became of his property.

My records say that he was killed at Bosworth, and I'm hoping that
this document will prove it, but I can't make out a death date, nor do
I see anything about being killed "in bello", or any such.

As always, I'm obliged for any assistance I can get.

I've posted it to http://www.whiteboar.com/beaufo/Beaufo3.jpg

I wish the copy was better!

I could not make out all of the letters (and magnifying did not help
much), but the date of death appears on the third line from the
bottom:

"... obijt vices[i]mo s[....] die [august'?] Anno p'mo [i.e., primo]
d[..] [Regis?] ..."

The word beginning in "s" would be one of the words secundo, sexto, or
septimo (or an abbreviation of one of these), so assuming that I am
right that the month reads August, it is evidently saying that he died
on the 22nd, 26th, or 27th of August in the first year of the king's
reign.

The heir is named starting with the last word of the same line:

"... Joh'is Beaufo est fili[us] & heres [......] [......]*
[p[ro]pinquior?] Et est [etatis?] duor[um] Annor[um] & Amplius ..."

So the heir was named John Beaufo, and he was apparently two years
old, the exact relationship being unclear because of the illegible
letters. The word marked "*" might be an abbreviated form of the name
Humphrey. For the word filius, I am reading the last character as the
symbol (looking somewhat like a "9") abbreviating a "us" rather that
as an "a" (which would give filia=daughter, but the name does not look
like "Joan").

I hope this helps as a start at least.

Stewart Baldwin

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