Browse for bounds

You can browse for bounds by County, Estate, Archive, Charter Date, Date of Manuscript and Manuscript:

  • Browse by County lists the boundaries county by county giving the following information: the name of the estate to which the boundary clause relates; the charter date followed, in brackets, by the date of the manuscript from which the Top Text derives; the archival provenance of the charter; the Sawyer number; and the language in which the bounds are written. At the end of the entry is a link to the text itself, expressed as a LangScape number.
    (County > Estate name > Charter Date > MS Date > Archive > SNo > Bounds Language > LNo)
  • Browse by Estate lists the boundaries by the name of the estate to which the boundary clause relates, giving the following information: its county; the charter date followed, in brackets, by the date of the manuscript from which the Top Text derives; the archival provenance of the charter; the Sawyer number; and the language in which the bounds are written. At the end of the entry is a link to the text itself, expressed as a LangScape number.
    (Estate name > County > Charter Date > MS Date > Archive > SNo > Bounds Language > LNo)
  • Browse by Charter Date lists the boundaries by the decade into which charter date falls (based on the latest date in the date range), and then by: the date of the charter followed in brackets by the date of the manuscript from which the Top Text derives; the archival provenance of the charter; the name of the estate to which the boundary clause relates; its county; the Sawyer number; and the language in which the bounds are written. At the end of the entry is a link to the text itself, expressed as a LangScape number.
    (Date range > Charter Date > MS Date > Archive > Estate name > County > SNo > Bounds Language > LNo)
  • Browse by Date of Manuscript lists the boundaries by the date of the manuscript from which the Top Text derives, grouped in centuries (Note that for dates spanning two centuries the later date is used, so that 7/8 will fall into the 8th century grouping, 8/9 into the 9th century etc.). Then comes: the charter date followed, in brackets, by the date of the manuscript; the archival provenance of the charter; the name of the estate to which the boundary clause relates; its county; the Sawyer number; and the language in which the bounds are written. At the end of the entry is a link to the text itself, expressed as a LangScape number.
    (MS Date Grouping > Charter Date > MS Date > Archive > Estate name > County > SNo > Bounds Language > LNo)
    Note: For Browse by County, Estate, Archive, Charter Date and Date of Manuscript the link will always be to the Edited Display of the Top Text from which you will be able to navigate to the Variant Versions.
  • Browse by Manuscript, unlike the other five browse options, gives all the texts in the database (both Top Texts and Variant Versions), listing these in alphabetical order of the manuscripts, followed by: folio numbers; archival provenance; the charter date; the name of the estate to which the boundary clause relates; its county; the Sawyer number; and the language in which the bounds are written. At the end of the entry is a link to the text itself, expressed as a LangScape number.
    (Manuscript > folio numbers > Archive > Charter Date > Estate Name > County > SNo > Bounds Language > LNo)

Search for Bounds

Most of the Search for Bounds Form is self-explanatory, but here is some supplementary information:

Search Criteria

  • If you start typing in the Estate box a drop-down list of Estates matching your letters will appear.
  • In the Manuscript Date, Charter Date and Hidage range boxes, everything which might fall within the chosen range will be selected - e.g. in Manuscript Date: From 11 to 13 will select 10th/11th, 11th, 11th/12th, 12th, 12th/13th, 13th and 13th/14th century manuscripts.
  • Language: most boundary clauses are in English, although a reasonable (and important) number of them are in Latin; additionally, there are one or two texts which are mainly in English with some Latin (English/Latin) or mainly in Latin with some English (Latin/English)
  • Hidage: the default for your search selects hides (which here includes sulungs, very roughly the Kentish/South Eastern equivalent of hides); these are overwhelmingly the most common unit for measurement. If you simply type ‘5’ in each of the boxes you will get boundaries with a hidage assessment of 5 hides or 5 sulungs, with the two terms equated. If instead you select from the drop-down menu, you can refine your search to specific units. These need to be treated with some caution, and for any very specific work in this area you would need to check the whole charter and the whole eSawyer entry.
  • Single-sheet: ticking this box will confine your search to single-sheet charters, but note that these may not necessary be either very ‘original’ nor very early in date.

Bounds Search Results

  • Select Fields to Display: The check boxes allow you to select/deselect fields to display for your results, the default giving you County and Estate Name. If you have searched for Archive: Rochester, Language: Latin, you will be given the County and Estate Names of all Latin charters for Rochester, with no unnecessary space being taken up with repeating 'Latin' and 'Rochester' in the Language and Archive columns of the display. However if you have searched for Hidage: From 1 to 10 hides, you will probably then want to display the Hidage to see the actual figures within this range.
  • Order these Results: The default order for sorting these results is County, followed by Estate, and then by Sawyer number. If you have searched for Archive: Rochester, Hidage: From 1 to 10 hides (see the example above), you may then want to order by hidage as your first ordering option, followed by County and Estate.
  • View the location of these bounds: Clicking here will give you a map showing the location of these bounds (see LangScape’s plotting on Google Maps)
  • Modify your Search will take you back to the Search Form with your search criteria intact, whereas New Search will clear the Search Form.