Database of Chartres from the Liber de Melros

The database is based on the Bannatyne Club edition of Melrose Abbey charters (Liber de Melros, ed. C. Innes, vol 1-2, 1837). It is a part of the AHRC funded project ‘Survival and Success on Medieval Borders: Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania’ for the AHRC/ESRC programme Religion and Society from September 2007 to October 2008. The grant holder was Dr Emilia Jamroziak (University of Leeds) and the database was created by the research assistant Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan (University of Oxford).

When citing the database, please use the following formula: ‘Electronic database of Charters from the Liber de Melrose’, ed. K. Keats-Rohan (2008) WEB ADDRESS 

The database consists of 4 related tables, Charter, Location, Names and Persons. The fields of each table are described below.  

1. Charter

Charter ID – autonumber field, this is a software-generated entry number field

Charter No. – a text field giving the item number of each charter as it appears in the Liber. It has to be a text field because three charters have duplicate values, which has to be represented by the word bis (twice). 

PageRef – page numbers in the edition of the charter.

DateRange – regnal years of the king in whose reign the charter was given

Date – the precise date as given by the charter text, or a narrower date range than the regnal years yielded by analysis of the persons occurring in the text, especially in the witness list. The core information is stored in the Persons table.

Condition – if specific conditions were attached to the grant in the charter, or reference made to spiritual benefits, the checkbox is ticked.

Royal – if the preamble mentions a member of the royal family (usually in a pro anima or pro salute phrase) the checkbox is ticked.

Territory – the broad area in which to which the content of the charter refers, as established from the Tabula that opens each volume of the edition.

ResourceGrant – the word ‘yes’ appears if a new resource is being granted. If the charter is a confirmation of an earlier grant, the relevant charter number is given.

PlaceGiven – the place where the charter was given as stated in the charter text.

Title – the ‘title’ of each charter, being a brief summary of its contents, as given in the Tabula that opens each volume of the Liber.

Notes – miscellaneous notes field. Royal charters have been collated against the existing Regesta Regum Scottorum volumes; where present the reference is given according to volume number and item number.  

2. Location

PlaceNameID – an autonumber field, a software-generated entry number 

CharterNo – number of charter in the edition, as in the Charter Table

PlaceName – name of the place where the resource being given is located

ResourceType – brief description (terra, ecclesia, etc) type of resource being given 

Notes –miscellaneous notes. Sometimes used for fuller extracts from the charter describing the resource given or conditions attached.

3. Names

NameID –  an autonumber field, a software-generated entry number. Each name occurring in the charters is entered in the Names table. Many names relate to the same individual Person, though the form of the name may vary, both within a charter and over a number of charters. The Names are broken down into three fields, a PersonName and Descriptor1 and Descriptor2. The three, or a combination of between one and three, will subsequently be analysed as one Person

CharterNo – as in Charter and Location

Person ID – number assigned to each different Person identified among the Names. The master-list is found in the Person Table. Where the information of the total name record is fragmentary (text illegible, or Descriptors missing), the number is 0, because the Name cannot be subsequently analysed as a Person.

PersonName – the first or forename occurring in each name entered into the charter.

Descriptor1 – the first of any description following the first name entered into the charter, eg: Adam (PersonName), abbas de Melros (Descriptor1). Note that the Descriptor is not a ‘surname’. Family names do occur, but the emphasis in such documents is on description of how the individuals function and relate to each other; it is important to preserve that information in the Names field. This can occcasionally contain more than one element, eg., Robert son of Robert of Stenton, whose Descriptor1 reads filio Roberti de Steintun, i.e. the description contains a term relating the person named (Robert) to someone given a name (Robert) and a descriptor (de Steintun).

Descriptor2 – the second of any description following the first name entered into the charter. Occasionally there are three descriptors, accommodated by entering two in either the Descriptor1 or Descriptor2 fields.

Status – each name entered into the charter reflects the part played by individuals in the action described in the charter. Categories assigned are:

donor – the person initiating a grant, or augmenting an existing grant which s/he is confirming
donor’s kin – named as a family member by the donor; important because kin assent to donations was central to their validity
witness – attestation of the grant. Witness lists are full of important information about the composition of family, feudal and administrative (lay and ecclesiastic) groups; they can yield useful information about the date of undated documents.
secular authority – someone whose consent confirms or legitimates the grant, either a lord (dominus), family member, or senior official, normally the king or his representative 
ecclesiastical authority, such as pope or bishop
boundary – someone mentioned in the clauses detailing the location of the land or resource being granted
perambulator – someone who walked the bounds of the resource being granted, usually in the company of the donor
other – none of the above

Status2 – sometimes the same person performed more than one function in a charter, eg. a witness who was also kin to the donor, or a secular/ecclesiastical authority who also witnessed the charter

Notes – miscellaneous notes field

4. Person

PersonID – primary key field. Each PersonID is unique to one Person. The Persons are established by analysis of the Names in the Name Table. One Person may occur several times under different combinations of Name + Descriptor in the Names Table. 

PersonName – normalized form of the PersonName, eg. Latin Robert-us becomes Robert, since the uninflected form is a recognizable modern name, unlike Henricus or Willelmus. Variable spellings of the same name as normalized, eg. Gillebertus/Gilbertus, which comes out as Gilbert. 

Descriptor – normalized form combining the descriptors under which a Person occurs, based on the most commonly occurring form. A Person’s descriptors may change throughout his life, hence the importance of the PersonID in the Names Table, eg. Magister Adam de Makuston, Master Adam of Maxton, who was abbot of Melrose between 1261 and 1267. Most of his occurrences in the database are as Adam of Maxton, so he does not appear among those whose descriptors are abbas de Melros. 

DateRange – based upon the regnal years of each king. The first date will be that of the first year of the king in whose reign this Person first occurred. The second date will be that of the Person’s death, where that is known. Many of the Descriptors refer to offices held, such as abbas de Melros, episcopus Glasguensis. Clearly, the DateRange will not give the dates that the office was held, only the terminal date. The actual dates are given in the Commentary field.

Sex – male or female

Status – lay or clerical: this refers to the predominent estate of each Person; hence a layman who took holy orders as he approached death is still described as Lay

There follows a series of checkboxes given an overview of how a Person appears in the database:
Donor – gave a grant
RoyalFamily – member of a royal family (Scots or English)
Witness
Boundary – mentioned in a boundary clause, or as a perambulator
Authority – occurs as a secular or ecclesiastical authority
Abbey – has some association with Melrose, as a monk, lay monk or a layperson buried there
Commentary – brief biogram of the Person, giving, where known, details of parentage, marriage/issue, offices held and relevant dates, date of death. Because the commentary uses a single modern version for the variable Latin names forms, where the Person is connected to someone else, an attempt has been made to make cross-referencing easier by giving the PersonID in square brackets, eg. Walter I Stewart [16].

The following basic reference works have been used in the Commentaries:

The Complete Peerage by G.E.C., revised edn. V. Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Lord Howard de Walden, G. H. White and R.S. Lea, London, 1910-59.

Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday Descendants: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066- 1166 Volume II Pipe Rolls to Cartae Baronum (Woodbridge, 2002)

Knowles D. and C. N. L. Brooke, The Heads of Religious Houses England and Wales, I, 940-1216 (Cambridge, 1976)

Fawcett, Richard, & Oram, Richard, Melrose Abbey, (Stroud, 2004) 
 
Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series 24 (Edinburgh, 2001)

Barrow G.W.S., The Kingdom Of The Scots. Government, Church and Society from the eleventh to the fourteenth century (Edinburgh 2003)

Regesta Regum Scottorum, ed. G.W.S., Barrow A.A.M. Duncan, B. Webster, vol. 1, 2, 5, 6 (Edinburgh, 1960-1988)

K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, 24 July 2008