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| The second manumission is in the smallest, neatest and most regular handwriting, which it is why it has been used for the script sample. The format is the same as the previous, except that it is a boc rather than a becc which has been kissed. I told you not to worry too much about the spelling. The occupations of the witnesses are listed in the main text next to their names, but what most of the are, I cannot tell. The family medievalist has pointed out that English documents sometimes had words in Latin or French, or some creole version of these, interpolated into them, so that might make it more interesting. There is a cordewaner, or shoemaker, in there. My attempts to ransack an Anglo-Saxon dictionary only suggested that a cipspones might be a merchant of sawdust, but that seems exceedingly unlikely. A merchant of spoons? A flemig was supposed to be a fugitive or outlaw, but that seems to be a most unlikely person to have witnessing a document. I don't know. Take no notice of my ignorant suggestions. |
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| Manumissions of Serfs, 12th century (Exeter. Chapter Library, No.3501). (From The New Palaeographical Society 1903) |
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