Table Of ContentAccounting at Durham Cathedral Priory
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Accounting at Durham
Cathedral Priory
Management and Control of a Major
Ecclesiastical Corporation, 1083–1539
Alisdair Dobie
Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of Stirling, UK
© Alisdair Dobie 2015
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First published 2015 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-55282-5 ISBN 978-1-137-47978-5 (eBook)
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Contents
List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements v iii
Notes on Referencing and Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Durham Cathedral Priory 1083–1539 9
2 Economic, Bureaucratic and Religious Developments 47
3 The Corpus of Accounting Material 76
4 Rentals, Compoti, Status , and Other Documentary Forms 117
5 Debtors, Creditors and Financial Management 1 57
6 Accounting as a Management Tool 183
7 External Monitoring and Conclusions 2 11
Appendices
Appendix 1 Account-end Dates for the Main Estate Officers and Manors 226
Appendix 2 Account-end Dates for Proctors, Obedientiaries and Cells 236
Appendix 3 Dates of Pentecost 1278–1539 2 47
Appendix 4 Extracts from the Bursar’s Account of 1349/50(A):
Main Headings and Subtotals 2 49
Appendix 5 Payments (£) by Tally from the Bursar 2 54
Appendix 6 Years from which Visitation and Related Documentation
Survive 258
Appendix 7 Financial and Management Matters Raised at
Visitations 1306–1442 260
Notes 262
Bibliography 309
Index 329
v
List of Tables
1.1 Number of monks residing at Durham and in the cells 1 9
1.2 M onastic officers, obedientiaries and officials 27
1.3 B ursars’ experience – Oxford and other offices 35
1.4 N umber of bursars who held other positions during
their monastic career 4 0
3.1 A pproximate number of extant accounting records
surviving from Durham Cathedral Priory 79
3.2 Surviving accounting material by office or activity
1270–1539 83
3.3a Incidence of accounting record by type: main estate officers
and manors 87
3.3b Incidence of accounting record by type: proctors,
obedientiaries and cells 9 6
4.1 The components of income in the bursars’ accounts
1278–1417 1 32
4.2 The components of income in the bursars’ accounts
1420–1537 133
4.3 T he components of expenditure in the bursars’ accounts
1278–1417 136
4.4 T he components of expenditure in the bursars’ accounts
1420–1537 1 37
4.5 Summary of differences between detailed and
summarized bursars’ accounts 141
4.6 F orm of abacus c. 1391 148
4.7 ‘Dot’ numerals in the 1418/19 bursar’s schedule of waste
and decay 149
4.8 W aste entries from the bursar’s schedule of waste and
decay 1418/19 149
4.9 M onetary values of the ‘dot’ numerals in the bursar’s
schedule of waste and decay 1418/19 150
5.1 Arrears from the great chirograph by term and year 162
5.2 W aste and decay 1350–1537 165
5.3 T he bursars’ overall receipts and expenditures adjusted
for arrears 1278–1417 168
5.4 The bursars’ overall receipts and expenditures adjusted
for arrears 1420–1537 1 69
vi
List of Tables vii
5.5 The funding of the s erviens of Pittington’s
superplusagium 1309/10 171
5.6 The bursars’ receipts and expenditures before
financing 1278–1417 173
5.7 M utuaciones and soluciones debitorum in the bursars’
accounts 1278–1413 1 77
5.8 L ists of creditors from the bursars’ accounts 1 81
6.1 Budgeted income and expenditure in 1446 185
6.2 Tithe income of Durham Cathedral Priory 1293–1436 1 87
6.3 Total income of Durham Cathedral Priory 1420 1 88
6.4 H oly Island receipts 1328 and formerly 1 89
6.5 Auditors’ yield calculations on the manor of Bewley 1377/8 193
6.6 V alues (£-s-d) attributed to the manors of Durham
Cathedral Priory 197
6.7 Reconciliation of expected and actual bread
production 1305/6 207
Acknowledgements
This volume is the culmination of several years of research undertaken in
the archives of Durham Cathedral. I am grateful indeed to the Chapter of
Durham Cathedral for allowing me access to the wealth of medieval mate-
rial contained within their collection. Causation is a complex issue and
the reasons behind the genesis of this book are many. My first thanks
must go to my parents and grandparents for fostering and encouraging
an intense interest in the medieval period. Second, I shall for ever be
indebted to Margaret Wade, my ‘A’ level history teacher at Newman College,
Preston, who took such great pains to develop in her students the tech-
niques of writing logical and well-presented essays and whose classes in
medieval British and European history were a delight and an inspiration.
From the more recent past I should like to thank Professor David Oldroyd,
my former ‘boss’ in the Accounting and Finance division of the Business
School at the University of Newcastle, for suggesting and supporting
the proposal that I should undertake research into the surviving medi-
eval accounting records of Durham Cathedral Priory. I must also thank
Professors Angus Duff and Sam McKinstry at the University of the West
of Scotland and Ian Fraser at the University of Stirling for their generous
support and patience while I worked on this project. My thanks go too to
the Stirling Management School and the University of Stirling for granting
me the research leave without which this book would not have come
to fruition.
Those staffing the archive collection of Durham Cathedral at 5, The
College – the late Alan Piper, Andrew Gray and Dr. Michael Stansfield – have
been unfailingly helpful in guiding me through the archives, in providing
a second opinion on a doubtful word or section of an account, in discussing
ideas and reviewing draft papers, and in staggering lunch-breaks so that my
time out of the archive was minimized. From my time as a postgraduate
student at Durham University, I thank Professor Michael Prestwich and
Dr Ben Dodds. The former for the benefit of a lifetime’s experience; and
the latter for his extensive patience, kindness and helpful suggestions, and
his unfailing ability to send me forth from review and progress meetings
brimming with enthusiasm and a desire to hurl myself into the research,
sometimes to the neglect of all else. It has been a privilege to work in the
archives of Durham Cathedral and to have been a postgraduate member of
the History Department of Durham University.
viii
Acknowledgements ix
My final thanks go to the reviewers of the book for the time they have
taken to provide such helpful comments and suggestions. I need not add
that any omissions and shortcomings are mine alone.
