[1287] All Souls—An inventory has ‘j chem. j cap et mitra pro Episcopo Nicholao’ (Rock, iii. 2. 217).
[1288] In 1299 Edward I heard vespers said ‘de Sancto Nicholao ... in Capella sua apud Heton iuxta Novum Castrum super Tynam’ (Wardrobe Account, ed. Soc. of Antiq., 25). In 1306 a Boy Bishop officiated before Edward II on St. Nicholas’ Day in the king’s chapel at Scroby (Wardrobe Account in Archaeologia, xxvi. 342). In 1339 Edward III gave a gift ‘Episcopo puerorum ecclesiae de Andeworp cantanti coram domino rege in camera sua in festo sanctorum Innocentium’ (Warton, ii. 229). There was a yearly payment of £1 to the Boy Bishop at St. Stephen’s, Westminster, in 1382 (Devon, Issues of Exchequer, 222), and about 1528-32 (Brewer, iv. 1939).
[1289] The fifth earl of Northumberland (†1512) was wont to ‘gyfe yerly upon Saynt Nicolas-Even if he kepe Chapell for Saynt Nicolas to the Master of his Childeren of his Chapell for one of the Childeren of his Chapell yerely vjs. viijd. And if Saynt Nicolas com owt of the Towne wher my Lord lyeth and my Lord kepe no Chapell than to have yerely iijs. iiijd.’ (Percy, North. H. B. 343). An elaborate Contenta de Ornamentis Ep., puer., of uncertain provenance, is printed by Percy, op. cit. 439.
[1290] St. Mary at Hill (Brand, i. 233); St. Mary de Prees (Monasticon, iii. 360); St. Peter Cheap (Journal of Brit. Arch. Ass. xxiv. 156); Hospital of St. Katharine by the Tower (Reliquary, iv. 153); Lambeth (Lysons, Environs of London, i. 310); cf. p. 367.
[1291] Louth (E. Hewlett, Boy Bishops, in W. Andrews, Curious Church Gleanings, 241)—the payments for the Chyld Bishop include some for ‘making his See’ (sedes); Nottingham (Archaeologia, xxvi. 342); Sandwich (Boys, Hist. of S. 376); New Romney (Hist. MSS. v. 517-28), Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Somersetshire (J. C. Cox, Sports in Churches, in W. Andrews, Curious Church Customs); Bristol—L. T. Smith, Ricart’s Kalendar, 80 (1479-1506, Camden Soc.). On Nov. 24, the Mayor, Sheriff, and ‘worshipfull men’ are to ‘receyue at theire dores Seynt Kateryn’s pleyers, making them to drynk at their dores and rewardyng theym for theire playes.’ On Dec. 5 they are ‘to walke to Seynt Nicholas churche, there to hire theire even-song: and on the morowe to hire theire masse, and offre, and hire the bishop’s sermon, and have his blissyng.’ After dinner they are to play dice at the mayor’s counter, ‘and when the Bishope is come thedir, his chapell there to synge, and the bishope to geve them his blissyng, and then he and all his chapell to be serued there with brede and wyne.’ And so to even-song in St. Nicholas’ church.
[1292] L. T. Accounts, i. ccxlvi record annual payments by James IV (†1473-98) to Boy Bishops from Holyrood Abbey and St. Giles’s, Edinburgh.
[1293] Wilkins, ii. 38 ‘Puerilia autem solemnia, quae in festo solent fieri Innocentum post vesperas S. Iohannis, tantum inchoari permittimus, et in crastino in ipsa die Innocentum totaliter terminentur.’
[1294] Archaeologia, lii. 221 sqq.
[1295] Transactions of London and Middlesex Arch. Soc. vols. iv, v.
[1296] Athenæum (1900), ii. 655, 692 ‘data Pueris de Elemosinaria ludentibus coram Domino apud Westmonasterium, iijs. iiijd.’ Dr. E. J. L. Scott and Dr. Rutherford found in this entry a proof of the existence of the Westminster Latin play at ‘a period anterior to the foundation of Eton’!