PREFACE

In 1880 and 1881, I contributed to the Archæological Journal a series of papers on 'Dunster and its Lords,' which were afterwards reprinted for private circulation, together with a descriptive sketch of Dunster Castle by the late Mr. G. T. Clark, and a chapter on the Siege and Surrender of Dunster Castle by Mr. B. Green. In the years that have since elapsed, I have collected a great deal of fresh material, and I have now thrown the result of my researches into a different form, re-writing the book from beginning to end and enlarging it threefold.

The successive owners of the Castle have always been so predominant in Dunster that I have again made the general history of the place centre in the Mohuns and Luttrells. It has, however, seemed expedient to devote a separate chapter to the Castle in which they dwelt, and another to the remarkable church in which the parishioners worshipped.

In view of the growing interest in the history of economics and social life, I have written an entirely new chapter on the Borough and the Manor, mainly based upon the court-rolls. A chapter on the topography of Dunster may be of some local interest. As the parish comprises the manors of Avill, Staunton and Alcombe, and the reputed manor of Foremarsh, or at any rate the greater part of them, I have traced their respective histories briefly, but without any attempt to give biographies of their successive owners. The accounts of different branches of the families of Mohun and Luttrell not directly connected with Dunster printed in the Appendixes were intended to be mere genealogical outlines, but they have extended to such a length that I have, at the last moment, found it desirable to divide the book into two parts, paged consecutively.

A few words must be said with regard to the original authorities upon which this volume is based, although no explanation is necessary in the case of printed books, or of MSS. in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, the College of Arms, the Lambeth Library, and other great collections. Much of my material has been derived from the muniments at Dunster Castle, which are very rich in conveyances of land, court-rolls, and other documents relating to the estate. They were arranged in thirty-eight boxes by William Prynne, the celebrated controversialist, during his imprisonment at Dunster Castle in the middle of the seventeenth century, and his general catalogue of them was afterwards much improved by Narcissus Luttrell, a man of some literary repute. In the footnotes to the present work, the muniments at Dunster Castle are indicated by the letters - D. C. M., followed by the number of the box and by that of the particular document quoted.

When using manuscripts in the same collection. subsequent to 1650, I have not been able to give specific references, the classification of them being as yet incomplete. Most of these later manuscripts relate to land or to matters of business, almost all the old family correspondence having been long since destroyed as useless. The preservation of numerous letters and papers concerning elections for the parliamentary borough of Minehead may have been due to an idea that they might furnish precedents.

There was, in the eighteenth. century, a collection of nearly a hundred medieval documents in Dunster Church, relating to the rights of the burgesses and the endowments of the local chantries. Many of the more important of them have disappeared, a former incumbent of the parish having apparently considered, himself free to do what he would with such things. A century ago, a well-known antiquary unblushingly referred to some of the originals as being in his own possession; one of them has found its way to the Castle. The former contents of one of the three ancient chest's in the Church are now represented by a volume of indifferent transcripts made in 1716, which is in the possession of Mr. Luttrell I have referred to this as D. C. B.

In June 1908, when the earlier part of the present book. had been already printed, there was offered for sale by auction in London, a folio volume of 170 leaves of parchment catalogued as " Cartularium et feodarium Dominorum de Mohun". On inspection, this proved to be a fragment of the important compilation made, in 1350, by John Osberne, Constable of Dunster Castle, as mentioned on page 49 and elsewhere. The originals of many of the documents transcribed into it had disappeared before Prynne's time, but it is interesting to note that such of them as still remain in Mr. Luttrell's muniment-room are endorsed "irrotulatur," in evidence that they had been duly entered in the cartulary. I was not so fortunate as to secure this manuscript at the sale, and I have not been able to obtain direct access to it since.

The present owner, however, who wishes to remain anonymous, has very kindly supplied me with full transcripts of some of its contents, notably the treatise on agriculture mentioned on page 321, and the agreement between the monks and the parishioners of Dunster mentioned on page 393. I take this opportunity of thanking him.

The volume mentioned above, contains one passage which I have quoted in Latin (page 351) from a series of extracts made by Richard St. George, Norroy King of Arms, in 1610, when the cartulary belonged to Sir Reynold Mohun of Boconnoc. The remainder of St. George's extracts, to which I have occasionally referred, came from leaves which are now unfortunately missing.

Some particulars about the foundation of Newenham Abbey given in Chapter I, are taken from a transcript kindly lent to me by the late Mr. John Brooking Rowe, of Plympton, of a register of that monastery in the Phillipps Library at Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.

Another manuscript source of information has been a "Historical account of the family of the Lutterells, from the Conquest, collected from records, history, pedigrees and registers, by Narcissus Luttrell, Esq." This is a collection of notes arranged in successive reigns down to 1729, which have in some cases guided me to original authorities, and in other cases supplied genealogical particulars about the younger branches of the Luttrell family. The manuscript was at one time the property of Dr. Luttrell Wynne, grandson of the compiler's sister, and it seems to have passed to Mr. Edward W. Stackhouse, whose heir, Mr. W. C. Pendarves very appropriately gave it to the present owner of Dunster Castle.

Mr. E. Green has, again kindly permitted me to reprint, with some trifling verbal alterations, his paper on the Siege and Surrender of Dunster Castle. It is now incorporated with my own text, and divided into two sections, extending respectively from page 180 to page 182, and from page 187 to page 194. I am much indebted to him in the matter.

In quoting from documents written in Latin or French, I have translated as literally as circumstances would permit, giving any interesting or doubtful words in the original language. In English quotations, I have, through the force of habit, retained the old spelling, while extending abbreviations and, punctuating according to sense. Dates between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, the old beginning of the year, have been given throughout according to modern practice.

I have not thought it necessary to cumber my pages, already too full of the names of obscure persons, with lists of the owners of property at Dunster at different periods. My friend Mr. Hancock, the present Vicar of the parish, has printed lists of the churchwardens and overseers, copies of epitaphs, and extracts from the local registers. His monograph on the Church and Priory has been constantly by my, side, but I have been constrained to differ from him on some historical points and in the interpretation of various documents.

Most of the full-page illustrations that appeared in my former book were printed from stones long since destroyed. In place of them, there is now a much larger series of illustrations, executed by photographic processes of the Swan Engraving Company and others. The view of the Gateway of the Lower Ward (p.351) is from a negative by Miss Luttrell All the others are from my own negatives of landscapes, buildings, portraits and other objects. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe very kindly sent the great Luttrell carpet from Cotehele to Dunster, so that it might be examined and photographed. The woodcuts of the Mohun and Luttrell Seals were drawn, in 1880, by my wife and the late Professor Delamotte, for the Archæological Journal.

Mr. Luttrell has not only given me every facility for consulting his manuscripts and for taking photographs in the Castle, but has also shown a continual and appreciative interest in my work. Mr. J. H. Davis, his sub-agent, has also been very helpful, especially with regard to the topography of the town. While dealing with difficult architectural problems connected with the Church, I have received many valuable suggestions from Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, Mr. F. Bligh Bond, and Mr. F. C. Eeles. To Mr. W. A. Lindsay, Windsor Herald, and Mr. Everard Green, Rougedragon Pursuivant, I am indebted for access to manuscripts in the College of Arms. Other friends have helped me in various ways, and I cannot conclude without expressing my thanks to several of my colleagues at the Public Record Office, especially Mr. Harley Rodney, who has examined the proof sheets.

   3 PORTMAN SQUARE.
   March 1909.                                                H. C. M. L.

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