1539 - Dodsworth, Roger - Notes
Allusion | |
---|---|
Date | No later than 1539 or c. 1605-1615? |
Author | Dodsworth, Roger |
Title | Notes |
Mentions | Robin Hood's Well [near Barnsdale] |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-07-05. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-06-05. Revised on the basis of comments from Geoff Spencer.
Allusion
At Himsworth there be 2 or 3 litle springs which meeting together make a small current, & come to South Kirkby (a towne pleasantly seated where the family of the Tregotts haue a long time liued in good reputation), by Elmsall where Wentworth hath his mansion, haueing long since descended out of Wentworth Woodhouse, & by marriage of the daughter and heire of . . . . Biset haue good Lands in this Tract from whom the Lo. Wentworth descended. Thence it goeth to Hampull a house of Nunns [...] nere vnto wch place St. Richard the Hermit liued, from hence to Robbin- [p. 112:] hood-well wch J rather take to be the Hermit's well near Adwicke in the Street, And through Bentley by Arksey, & falleth into Dun at Wheatley.[1]
Source notes
The MS source is 'M [vol. 160] 16'.[2]
IRHB comments
A. H. Smith appears to date this passage from one of Roger Dodsworth's notebooks to the 16th century.[3] Dodsworth, whose dates are 1585–1654, 'devoted himself early to antiquarian research',[4] but I find it hard to believe that he could have written the above before he reached the age of 15. Moreover, had this been the case, the date would be so shortly before 1600 that Smith would hardly simply have dated the note to the 16th century. Something like 'c. 1600' or 'late 16th cent.' would have been more natural. Dodsworth's first dated writing on antiquarian topics is from 1605, and few other dated items from his hand are as early.[5] On the website of the Bodleian Library, the c. 160 Dodsworth MSS in the Bodleian Library are described as 'Dodsworth's manuscripts, including transcripts, extracts and notes relating to Yorkshire and monastic houses, and pedigrees, mainly of Yorkshire families', and their dates of creation are cited as '12th-17th century'.[6] When assigning the note to the 16th century, Smith must have been treating Dodsworth's note as a copy of an older source and suggesting a date for the latter, and there seems to be support for this conclusion in the text. The sentence 'Thence it goeth to Hampull a house of Nunns' does not seem natural if written long after Hampole Priory was dissolved, which happened on 19 Nov. 1539.[7] Hence I arrive at the tentative date cited above. I have not made a serious attempt to narrow down the date of the passage on the basis of the references to local people and families. It is possible this could be done with further research.
Though the way the mention of the nunnery is phrased makes this seem less likely, it is possible that the passage was authored by Dodsworth himself rather than copied from an older source. If so, Smith's dating of the passage on the well may be a simple slip or he may have meant to date the passage to the 1600s rather than the 16th century. In either case, the upper date for the entry must then be 1615, for an entry made in the same MS as that which includes the mention of Robin Hood's Well concerns a visit Dodsworth made to a church on 8 Dec. 1615.[8]
Editions
Lists
- Not in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 315-19.
- Outside scope of: Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.
Background
- Bodleian Library: Collection Level Description: Dodsworth Manuscripts
- British History Online: Houses of Cistercians nuns: Priory of Hampole
- Clay, John William, ed. Yorkshire Monasteries: Suppression Papers (The Yorkshire Archæological Society, Record Series, vol. XLVIII) ([s.l.], 1912), p. 74
- Dodsworth, Roger, compil.; Holmes, Richard, ed. 'Dodsworth Yorkshire Notes: the Wapentake of Osgoldcross [part IV]', Yorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal, vol. XI, part XLI (1890), pp. 30-70; see p. 30
- Pastscape: Hampole Nunnery
- Wikipedia: Dissolution of the Monasteries
- Wikipedia: Roger Dodsworth.
Brief mention
- Smith, A.H. 'Robin Hood', Modern Language Review, vol. 28 (1933), pp. 484-85.
- Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXX-XXXVII) (Cambridge, 1961-63).
Also see
Notes
- ↑ [Dodsworth, Roger], compil.; Holmes, Richard, ed. 'Dodsworth Yorkshire Notes: The Wapentake of Osgoldcross', The Yorkshire Archæological Journal, vol. XIII, part XLIX (1894), pp. 99-153, see pp. 111-12.
- ↑ [Dodsworth, Roger], compil.; Holmes, Richard, ed. 'Dodsworth Yorkshire Notes: The Wapentake of Osgoldcross', The Yorkshire Archæological Journal, vol. XIII, part XLIX (1894), pp. 99-153, p. 111. Brackets as in prinetd source.
- ↑ Smith, A.H. 'Robin Hood', Modern Language Review, vol. 28 (1933), pp. 484-85, see p. 485, and Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXX-XXXVII) (Cambridge, 1961-63), pt. II, p. 36.
- ↑ Wikipedia: Roger Dodsworth.
- ↑ Dodsworth, Roger, compil.; Holmes, Richard, ed. 'Dodsworth Yorkshire Notes: the Wapentake of Osgoldcross [part IV]', Yorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal, vol. XI, part XLI (1890), pp. 30-70; see p. 30.
- ↑ Bodleian Library: Collection Level Description: Dodsworth Manuscripts.
- ↑ Clay, John William, ed. Yorkshire Monasteries: Suppression Papers (The Yorkshire Archæological Society, Record Series, vol. XLVIII) ([s.l.], 1912), p. 74 & n. 1.
- ↑ [Dodsworth, Roger], compil.; Holmes, Richard, ed. 'Dodsworth Yorkshire Notes: The Wapentake of Osgoldcross', The Yorkshire Archæological Journal, vol. XIII, part XLIX (1894), pp. 99-153, p. 112 and n. 83. This is from MS 'M [vol. 160] 35', and thus 19 pages below the mention of the well. It is possible that dated materials from the intervening pages could be found cited elsewhere in Holmes if all parts of his serial paper were thoroughly searched. If this were the case, the upper date could be slightly earlier than 1615.