Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

The Second and Seventh Volumes of the Sussex Record Society contain Calendars of the Feet of Fines relating to the county from the earliest period (Richard I.), down to the end of the reign of Edward I. For the period from Henry VIII. to 1833, when Fines were abolished, all the Fines relating to advowsons and manors were abstracted by the late Mr. E. H. W. Dunkin, F.S.A., and published in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Volumes of the Society. This Volume completes the series, and contains abstracts of all the Fines for the period 1307—1509.

In making use of this, or any other similar calendar of ancient records, it must be borne in mind that, generally speaking, it is impossible to distinguish between n, u and v or between in and m; for instance, the name occurring in Fine No. 2322 may be read Dannvere, Daunvere, Dammere or Daminere: in this particular case I decided on the second of these forms as the more probable, but I see that in the "Return of Members of Parliament" printed in S.A.C., xxxii, the same man occurs on p. 142 as Dammere, and on p. 147 as Daunvere. In another case I have been unable to decide whether the name should be Ingler or Jugler. When, as occasionally happens, the scribe makes a careful distinction between u and n, it will not infrequently be found that he has copied his original notes wrongly, as in No. 1439, where Houve is carefully mis-spelt Houne. Confusion between c and t is less frequent in the period dealt with in this Volume than in the thirteenth century. In searching for any particular name it is well to remember that y and i are interchangeable, and that e often equates with a (Barnham and Warnham being almost invariably spelt Bernham and Wernham), and o with u (e.g., Compton or Cumpton, Sonningly or Sunningly).

L. F. S.