1423 - Inventory of Keeper of King's Ships (2)

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
Record
Date 1423
Topic Inventory of equipment belonging to the royal balinger 'Petit John'
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Southampton, the homeport of the Petit John.
Southampton docks, aerial view of the Canary Islands Fruit Terminal / David Dixon, 16 July 2016, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-04-21. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-07-30.

Record

[1423-27:]
Foreign receipts lately coming from the royal ballinger called Petit John for the safe-keeping of this ballinger, that is to say:
Hawser for a forstey1 weighing ½ cwt
Hawser for making shetes and bowlynes
1 weighing ½ cwt 18 lb
A bowlyn pulley1[1]

Source notes

Italic type as in printed source. One half fraction has horizontal stroke in printed source. The inventories were compiled by or on behalf of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships.[2]

The editor provides glosses for the technical terms occurring in the passage:
Hawser] Also 'hauncer' in these inventories, large rope or, more properly, middle sized cable.[3]
Forestay] A "[s]tanding rigging leading forward"[4]
Shetes] "Ropes fixed to the lower corner of the course to leeward to assist the vessel in tacking to windward, leading aft".[5]
Bowlyn] Bowline, a line "used to keep the weather edge of the sail tight and steady when the ship is close hauled to the wind".[6]

IRHB comments

Susan Rose's translation. The editor of the inventories dates them 1422–27,[7] but since a reference to letters patent dated 5 March 1423 occurs in the preamble to the inventories,[8] I date them 1423–27. Part of this entry appears to be duplicated in one following on the verso of the folio on which it is found, see 1423 - Inventory of Keeper of King's Ships (3). At least during the period in question, the home port of the Petit John was Southampton. For discussion see Petit John (Southampton).

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Studies and criticism

Background

Also see

Notes

  1. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 173.
  2. See Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), pp. 6-27: 'The career of William soper', and The History of Parliament: Soper, William (d. 1458/9), of Southampton and London.
  3. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 257 s.n Hauncer.
  4. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 256 s.n Forestay.
  5. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 258 s.n Shetes.
  6. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 254 s.n Bowlyn.
  7. As per sub-title: Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), and see e.g. p. 3.
  8. Soper, William, compil.; Rose, Susan, ed. The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King's Ships, 1422-1427 (Publications of the Navy Records Society, vol. 123) (London, 1982), p. 133.