University of Virginia Library

More Light on the Life and Milieu of Robert Thornton
by
George R. Keiser [*]

Since the publication of an earlier study, I have had opportunity to devote further attention to the life and milieu of Robert Thornton, the scribe who, probably late in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, copied two of the most interesting manuscript anthologies of Middle English literature, Lincoln Cathedral Library MS. 91 and B. L. MS. Additional 31,042.[1] While I am, regrettably, unable to report the discovery of any new documents concerning the scribe, I am able to show that consideration of those already known does permit additional, if tentative, answers to some of the more intriguing questions concerning Robert Thornton—specifically, how he might have received his education and how he might have acquired the many texts he copied into his two manuscripts.

The first of these documents is an entry in the Yorkshire Archbishop's Register, dated 5 February 1397-8, in which Robert Thornton "de Neuton," presumably the father of the scribe, is granted permission to have masses and other services celebrated in a chapel at East Newton, the manor held by the Thornton family in the North Riding of Yorkshire.[2] This information would seem to support the idea that the scribe was educated at home by a visiting cleric, rather than at one of the nearby grammar schools in Helmsley, Hovingham, or Malton (pp. 164-165). If the scribe had reached his majority by 1418 when, according to the Thornton pedigree prepared in the seventeenth century (pp. 159-160), his father died and he succeeded to the lordship of East Newton, he must have been at least one year old, and probably older, by 5 February 1397-8. Perhaps Robert Thornton the elder, seeing his son and heir passing from infancy to boyhood, thought this a fit time to arrange for regular visits by a cleric, possibly a chantry priest from Helmsley, who would celebrate mass and other services for the entire family and conduct the education of the scribe. This idea has a very strong sentimental attraction.

Installed at a period when devotionalism and piety were assuming immense significance in the lives of the English laity, the chapel continued to be the center of spiritual life at East Newton for many future generations[3] and was surely the place where the devotional writings copied by Robert Thornton the scribe were meant to be read. It is appropriate then that there should have been a close relation between that chapel and the education of the scribe.

On the subject of Robert Thornton's education and his motivation in undertaking the laborious task of copying the two manuscripts, it is of value to look again at several documents concerning the manors of Great Edston and Northolm in northern Ryedale. Previously, I noted that the name of Robert Thornton appears in the witness lists in three sets of documents, dated 1442, 1448-9, and 1468,[4] concerning land transactions at these manors, and I suggested that Thornton may have had some particular interest in these transactions (pp. 161-162). That he did indeed have such an interest seems likely. The account of Great Edston in the Victoria County History for the North Riding of Yorkshire informs us that in 1303 Walter Romayne settled the manor on Walter de Holme who later settled it "on his heirs male by his second wife Iseult with contingent remainders to the heirs male of his brothers Roger and Thomas and final remainder to the heirs male of his daughter Joan." When John de Holme, the male heir, and Roger and Thomas died without issue male, Joan entered into possession of the manor. "In 1376 her claim was disputed under the first settlement by Walter de Bergh, Robert Thornton [presumably the grandfather of the scribe] and John son of Nicholas de Topcliffe, descendants of Agnes and Alice, sisters of Walter Romayne. The plaintiffs in this suit were presumably unsuccessful."[5]

A closer look at some of the documents in which his name appears bears out the point that Robert Thornton had particular interest in these transactions. Among the first set of documents are quitclaim deeds for Great Edston and Northolm, in which Maud (or Matilda) del Clay, a great-granddaughter of John de Holme, released the manors to William Holthorp, a grandson of Joan (i.e., Walter de Holme's daughter). The sealing of these quitclaims by John Thirsk, mayor of York, and their entry in both the York

Memorandum Book[6] and the Close Rolls seems to prove that the memory of the 1376 suit was still fresh and the conflicting claims to the manor still a matter of some concern to the parties involved in the transactions. The appearance of Robert Thornton's name in the witness lists for these and the other documents concerning Great Edston and Northolm surely indicates that his cooperation was at least desirable. That the full consent of Thornton and his family may have been almost necessary is suggested by the presence of Thomas Gray of Barton, probably a Thornton relative if the pedigree is accurate in reporting that the scribe's mother was Isabel de Gray, in the first set of documents and William Thornton, presumably the scribe's son, in the third set of documents.

Aside from showing us that Robert Thornton did have a special interest in these transactions, this additional information encourages us to look a little more closely at Thornton's connections with Robert Stillyngton, the unscrupulous, politically ambitious bishop of Bath and Wells and chancellor of England. Stillyngton, it is now clear, was the nephew of William Holthorp the elder, to whom Maud del Clay released Great Edston and Northolm in 1442, and may even have been a distant relative of the scribe. The fact that Thornton and Stillyngton were not very close in age is sufficient reason for supposing that the two men had little, if any, close personal association. Still, it is significant that they emerge from a common background, for their achievements attest to the idea that at least from the later years of the fourteenth century the Yorkshire gentry was beginning to recognize the importance of, perhaps even the necessity for, literacy.[7] Surely, events such as the dispute over Great Edston and Northolm—suggesting as it does the problems that arose for members of the gentry intent on realizing their ambitions through the acquisition of land—must have contributed to the awareness of the importance of literacy in the pursuit of their ambitions. Robert Thornton, coming from a family of more modest means, received a more modest education and satisfied the intellectual curiosity and spiritual desires that it awakened by reading widely in vernacular writings and compiling materials for his manuscripts, whereas Stillyngton, coming from a wealthier family and coming along a generation later, proceeded through Oxford[8] and on to a remarkable, if not an altogether admirable, political career. Ironically, though it would probably have seemed otherwise to a fifteenth-century observer, Thornton's achievement was more enduring.

The third and most interesting point to be made about the life and milieu of Robert Thornton concerns the relation of the scribe and his neighbors, the Pikeryngs of Oswaldkirk. The record of mutual land interests and the fact that Robert Thornton served as an executor of the will of Sir Richard Pikeryng, a will in which he and a brother received handsome bequests from the testator (pp. 160-161), lead to the conclusion that the two men and their families must have been on fairly intimate terms. That the relationship between the two families helped Thornton to obtain texts for reading and copying is an idea that I should now like to explore.

While my earlier study was in press, I had the good fortune to come upon Bodleian MS. Rawlinson A.393, which contains an early sixteenthcentury text of the Liber de diversis medicinis that is closely related to the text of the Liber now preserved in Lincoln Cathedral MS. 91.[9] Marginalia in the Rawlinson MS. make clear that John Rede, the scribe, had access to a text owned by the Pikeryngs of Oswaldkirk. Although very close to the text found in the Lincoln MS., the Rawlinson text is often superior to it and must, therefore, have been copied from the same exemplar or one closely related to it. Thus, it would appear that Robert Thornton probably borrowed his exemplar from the Pikeryngs and not, as had previously seemed likely, from the unnamed rector of Oswaldkirk whose probatum is cited frequently in both the Lincoln and Rawlinson MSS.

Establishing that the Pikeryngs of Oswaldkirk probably owned one book leads us to ask whether that book might have contained more than the Liber de diversis medicinis and whether there might have been other books in the household. The public records reveal that Sir Richard Pikeryng was a man of comfortable means and some prestige; his landholdings and his service as sheriff and as justice of the peace would have brought him into touch with a large portion of the Yorkshire gentry, doubtless including some who owned books.[10] The marginalia in Rawlinson A.393 indicate that his sixteenth-century descendants had close connections with the Percies. Whether that connection extends back to Sir Richard's time is uncertain. At the very least, through his connections with other members of the gentry, Sir Richard could have been the source for some of the texts that Robert Thornton copied.

A closer look at the will of Sir Richard Pikeryng suggests yet another source within the Pikeryng family for some of the texts that Thornton

copied, for among the bequests is one of very special interest: "Item lego domine Iohanne Pikeringe moniali de Monkton sorori mee xl s."[11] Although we have no conclusive proof, there is, as I shall show, sufficient evidence to suggest that Joan Pikeryng might have provided Robert Thornton with a substantial portion of the devotional writings that are preserved in the Lincoln MS.

Information concerning the priory of St. Mary at Nun Monkton, though very limited, does show that throughout the last two centuries of its existence it was a favorite of many prosperous and literate Yorkshire families, some of whose daughters were in residence there.[12] Testamentary evidence makes this point clear. The 1345 will of Robert de Playce (TE 1.11), a rector of Brompton who owned several books, contains a bequest to aid a niece who was to become a nun at one of three convents, including Nun Monkton. In 1346 John de Thorp (TE 1.31), a canon at York cathedral and rector of Wetheringstrete, Norwich, made numerous bequests to the convent church at Nun Monkton and requested burial there, next to Alice de Thorpe, a former prioress. In 1393 John Fayrfax (TE 1.187-90), rector of Prestcote, who owned both service books and books of civil and canon law, left various grants of money to Nun Monkton and its residents, including Margaret Pikeryng and Elizabeth Fayrfax, his sister. In addition, he bequeathed some personal items to another sister Margaret, prioress at Nun Monkton, who served as a supervisor and a coadjutor for the executors of the will.[13] In 1402 there was a bequest to Nun Monkton from Sir John Depeden of Helagh (TE 1.298), who owned several books himself and was a close associate of John Neuton, the treasurer of York cathedral and a bibliophile. The priory also received bequests of money and goods, in 1418, from Master Stephan le Scrop (TE 1.386), who was archdeacon of Richmond, chancellor of Cambridge University, younger son of Stephen, Lord Scrop, of Masham and Upsale, and owner of a substantial library. In 1433 Thomas Palmes of Naburn, armiger (TE 2.31), husband of Alice, daughter of John Pikeryng of Ellerton, bequeathed money to the priory itself and to Joan Pikeryng, nun at Nun Monkton and, apparently, Sir Richard's sister. In the 1468 inventory of Elizabeth Sywardby, whose exceptional collection of books I discussed in the earlier study of Robert Thornton (p. 172), there is an accounting of the expenses incurred on behalf of the testator's niece and namesake, Elizabeth, when she entered the priory at Nun Monkton (TE 3.168).

It is not until the mid-fifteenth century that we find books bequeathed to the nuns at Nun Monkton priory. The first of these bequests is most interesting, for it is a book of Vices and Virtues given to the priory in 1448

by Agnes Stapilton, whose will indicates that she owned a substantial library.[14] This testator was, it appears, the mother of Sir Brian, who was a Member of Parliament for Yorkshire when Robert Thornton served as a tax collector for the North Riding. Other of her children had married into the Ingilby and Plumpton families, which had close associations with, respectively, the Charterhouses at Mount Grace and Beauvale—a point to which we shall return. In 1479-80 John Burns (TE 3.199n), a York chaplain, bequeathed an English book of the Pater Noster and other works to the prioress and convent. A third bequest, also of some special interest, is a book "in Anglicis de Vita Domini nostri Jhesu Christi," given in 1485-6 by Thomas Hornby to Elizabeth Sywardby, "moniali de Monkton" (TE 3.165n). Perhaps this is the same book as the one described as "alio libro de Vita Christi, in lingua materna" (TE 3.163) in the 1468 inventory of the nun's aunt.

That there were books at the priory of Nun Monkton before 1448—even a decade or so earlier, when Robert Thornton might have begun to copy his manuscripts—seems a reasonable supposition. Agnes Stapilton must have attached great value to the books she bequeathed and would surely not have given the book of Vices and Virtues to Nun Monkton unless she had known that its residents were prepared to appreciate the value of the book. Moreover, given the long tradition of writings for recluses and nuns in England and the fact that book-ownership and literacy in the vernacular were becoming increasingly common among women from better families throughout the fifteenth century, it is hard to believe that those sisters and daughters of the literate Yorkshire gentry in residence at Nun Monkton would not have had some enthusiasm for books, as well as the ability to read them.

Several texts in the Thornton MS. at Lincoln seem to have been adapted, perhaps by female scribes, to suit an audience of women, presumably at a religious house. For example, near the end of the Thornton text of The Mirror of St. Edmund, the usual form of address to the audience, "Dere frende," gives way to "Dere Syster and frende" (L 209r-v; YW 240).[15] Midway through the text of Walter Hilton's Epistle on Mixed Life the customary use of "a man" gives way briefly to "A man or a woman"; a few lines later we find an injunction addressed to "dere syster" (L 225r; YW 278). Similarly, near the end of the Thornton text of "Of the vertu3 of the Haly Name of Ihesu," the customary "he" gives way to "he or scho" (L 193v; YW 191). This evidence, though not overwhelming, is sufficient to suggest that Thornton probably obtained his exemplars for these works from a house for female religious.

One other text in the Lincoln MS., which would be of special interest to a house of nuns, deserves consideration in this discussion of the idea that Robert Thornton had access to books owned by female religious. "A Reuelacyone

schewed to ane holy womane now one late tyme" is an account of several gruesome dream-visions of purgatory, told by an unnamed woman who experienced them in 1422 and who is identified as a recluse in the text of the visions found in Longleat MS. 29.[16] In these visions of purgatory as a kind of barbecue pit for burning away sins we hear about the sufferings of lecherous priests, who must endure the greatest pains, as well as the sufferings of wedded and single men and women, but mostly we hear about the sufferings of one Margaret, "the whilke woman was in hir lyfe a syster of ane house of relygyone" (L 251r; YW 384). Reflecting the affective devotionalism and Marian piety so popular in its time, "A Reuelacyone" is larded with details of the skewering, burning, bathing in pitch, and gnawing by snakes and adders that Margaret and the other sinners must endure before being granted the oil of mercy and led to heaven by the Virgin.

The texts of "A Reuelacyone" in Longleat and Bodleian MS. th. c.58 indicate, as does the reference to the recluse of Westminster, that the work had its origins in London. While both of these manuscripts are of interest to students of Lincoln MS. 91, the Bodleian MS. is especially so because it has a bearing on the present discussion. Probably once part of a large devotional book, the Bodleian MS. contains, along with a fragmentary text of "A Reuelacyone," a fragmentary text of the Passion section of the pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes Vitae Christi translated by Nicholas Love of the Charterhouse at Mount Grace. Thus, its similarity to Lincoln MS. 91 extends beyond the fact that both contain "A Reuelacyone," for the Thornton MS. preserves a text of another translation of the Passion section of the pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes. From these facts we may conclude that these roughly contemporary manuscripts attest not only to the similarity of devotional exercises in London and Yorkshire, but also to the exchange of devotional writings between these two distant parts of the kingdom. The temptation to speculate on the means by which the movement of these texts was effected is irresistible. Certainly, Nicholas Love's translation of Meditationes reached London early in the fifteenth century through the efforts of the Carthusians, passing from Mount Grace in Yorkshire to, presumably, the Charterhouse in London, from whence it was disseminated widely. It is conceivable that "A Reuelacyone" made its northward journey through the same channels and that, directly or indirectly, Robert Thornton's version was derived from an exemplar kept at Mount Grace. On the other hand, it is not impossible that there was some movement of manuscripts, similar to that which we can document in the case of the Carthusians, between other houses, as a result of which "A Reuelacyone" came northward through, say, Benedictine channels to Nun Monkton.

Of course, the religious houses of Yorkshire (or elsewhere, for that matter) did not exist in isolation from each other, and there must have been

cooperation among them in the compilation of devotional writings. A. I. Doyle calls attention to the relations among three fifteenth-century devotional books that had their origins in Yorkshire religious houses—B. L. MS. Stowe 39, which belonged to a Benedictine house of monks or nuns; B. L. MS. Faustina B.VI, which belonged to a nunnery, probably Benedictine; and B. L. MS. Additional 37,049, which was apparently produced at the Charterhouse at Mount Grace. "The texts and pictures vary from one to another, but it seems from both that Stowe and Faustina may be from a common source, with Add. a little removed, but not far therefrom" (Doyle, II.192). Further reinforcing the associations among the religious houses was the network of familial connections among laymen, such as we saw above in the case of the Stapiltons, the Ingilbys, and the Plumptons. Thus, it could well be that the Carthusians, distinguished for "the corporate transmission of the spiritual teaching" of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,[17] might have been responsible for the expeditious transit of "A Reuelacyone" from London to Yorkshire and, perhaps, to Robert Thornton, by way of Nun Monkton.

Having established that the women of Nun Monkton may very well have had books when Robert Thornton was compiling his manuscripts and that he probably obtained some of his devotional texts from a nunnery, the appearance of Joan Pikeryng in her brother's will assumes great significance. Surely, she is the likely candidate for the role of supplier of these devotional texts to her brother's friend and associate.

These speculations concerning Nun Monkton and Joan Pikeryng and indeed all the foregoing arguments, based as they are on circumstantial evidence, must be very tentative and qualified. In the absence of more informative documentary evidence, one must make the most of what is available without resorting to distortion or exceeding the bounds of the plausible. What is certain, I believe, is that as we look further into the life and milieu of Robert Thornton of East Newton, we have no reason to doubt that B. L. MS. Additional 31,042 and Lincoln Cathedral MS. 91 could have been compiled by such a man living in such a milieu as I have attempted to describe in this and my preceding study. That a man who led, in most respects, an entirely ordinary life as a member of the minor gentry in later medieval Yorkshire might have had a sufficiently strong interest in the written word to read so widely and copy the two manuscripts, as well as the learning and opportunity to do so, seems reasonable. Thus, we have no need to suppose that Robert Thornton's endeavors in copying these books were a result of a desire to turn a penny or to curry favor with his social betters.[18] On the

contrary, from the outline of the life of Robert Thornton and, judging from the contents of his manuscripts, the interests that he shared with others of the middle classes whom we know owned books, we can see that the audience who would devour the editions of romances and devotional writings published by Wynkyn de Worde at the turn of the century was already coming into being, fully two generations before the prudent Alsatian printer took over from William Caxton and began catering to their tastes and interests.

Notes