A Thirteenth-Century English Charter at Brock University

Abstract

In 2009, a small, tightly folded, and clearly very old parchment was discovered in the Special Collections and Archives of the James A. Gibson Library at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. The document is an English charter of c.1241 which records a grant of land known as the Grove on the estate of Clopton in Warwickshire by Robert de Clopton (fl. 1220s-1230s) to his son William. This paper offers a description, transcription, translation, and preliminary analysis of the document, which does not seem to be referred to in secondary sources referring to the family or the estate and which seems, in fact, to be hitherto unknown. Similarly, William son of Robert also appears to be unknown to antiquarians and genealogists of the family.