Land Use — a Time for Reconsideration

Medieval Mortuary Rolls: Prayers for the Dead and Travel in Medieval England

“…17 Some letters are, however, more individual, as that written for the roll of Walter Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham (d. 1406), which describes his work for peace in England and France, the creation of his chantries at Skirlaw and Oxford, his hall at Howden, his reconstruction of the monastic dormitory at Durham, and his bequests to Durham's cells and to the monks. 18 Durham was clearly not alone in maintaining such an archive for use in the production of mortuary rolls. John Brito, a fifteenth-century precentor of Thorney Abbey, compiled a manuscript including extracts from several mortuary rolls sent out for past abbots of the abbey, which M.R.…”