Sir Robert Cotton, antiquarianism and estate administration: a Chancery Decree of 1627

THE Chancery Decree of 5 November 1627, found on Public Record Office, Chancery Decree Roll, C. 78/300/1, is a lengthy, but very interesting document, consisting of eleven membranes of a parchment roll. It illustrates an aspect of Sir Robert Cotton's antiquarian researches, which has been but little investigated. The document consists of a bill of complaint filed in the Court of Chancery in Trinity term 1618 by Marsilian Sampson and seven other copyholders of the Manor of Glatton and Holme, Huntingdonshire, on behalf of the whole body of tenants, alleging an attempt by Sir Robert Cotton, John Cotton, his uncle, and Sir Thomas Cotton, his son and heir, defendants, to overthrow the tenants' copyhold estates of inheritance and to increase the entry fines and rents contrary to manorial custom.