From "The Complete Poetry and Prose of Geoffrey CHAUCER," edited by John H. Fisher & John C. Hodges of the University of Tennessee, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977, we learn the following from the list of expenses and gifts from 1356 to 1359 of the household of Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster and wife of Lionel, second son of Edward III. "The two attendants of Elizabeth most frequently mentioned are Philippa "PAN" and Galfrido CHAUCER. CHAUCER'S function is not indicated; presumably he was a page. Philippa's identity has been much debated. The most attractive theory is that "PAN" is a contraction of "PANNETO," one form of the name of Sir PAON (or PAYNE) de ROET, father of Philippa CHAUCER and Katherine SWYNFORD, who was mistress and eventually (1396) wife of John of GAUNT, Duke of LANCASTER, third son of Edward III. If this surmise is correct, CHAUCER married the damoiselle with whom he had served as a young boy." "The date of CHAUCER'S birth is not known. In the Scrope-Grosvenor trial of 1386, he gave his age as "xl ans et plus armeez par xxvii ans"- forty years and more, having borne arms for twenty-seven years. Efforts have failed to make these terms precise, but the first part sets CHAUCER'S birth before 1346. The customary age for going to war was 16 or 17, which would move the date to 1342 or earlier. The twenty-seven years is quite accurate, because in 1359-1360 he (CHAUCER) served in the French War. In 1360 he was captured and ransomed for £16- 13s 4d less than for Sir Robert De CLINTON'S horse, as had been often remarked. Such military experience for CHAUCER, as for his father before him, was clearly expected of one who hoped to be accepted by an aristocracy whose business was still war, even though his own ambitions might run in a totally different direction. CHAUCER had no doubt been given a good elementary education before he joined the household of the Countess. Serving in a noble household and joining Prince Lionel on a military expedition must have been regarded as a continuation of his education. But the period between the 1360 record of his military service and 1366, when he reappears traveling in Spain, is the longest gap in CHAUCER'S like-records after their commencement in 1357. Indeed, there are records every year from 1366 until the last one in 1400. The best supposition is that during these six years he was continuing his education in the Inns of Chancery and Inns of Court, which prepared him for an administrative career. In the Inns of Chancery, aspiring clerks were taught, first, the Chancery hand in which all official documents had to be written and, second, the forms and language (in CHAUCER'S time still Latin and French) in which they were enrolled. Without such training, CHAUCER could not have been appointed controller of customs in 1374 with the provision that "rotulos suos dicta officia tangentes manu sua propria scribat"- that he write the rolls touching said office in his own hand. After two or three years in an Inn of Chancery, he could proceed to an Inn of Court, where he would hear lectures on law and government. The only evidence for such education comes much to late. Speght, in the 1598 life already referred to, said that "manye yeres since, master BUCKLEY did see a recorde [if the Inner Temple], where Geffrye CHAUCER was fined two shillinges for beatinge a Franciscane fryer in fletestreate [Fleet Street]." No records from the Inns of Court in Chaucer's day have survived, but Edith Rickert discovered that Master BUCKLEY was keeper of the records of the Inner Temple in Speght's time, and so in a position to see such a record, and the offense and penalty are similar to others listed in the earliest records that do survive. By 1366 this period was over and CHAUCER reappears traveling in Spain, probably in connection with the Black Prince's campaign in support of Don PEDRO of Castile, to whose fate CHAUCER later alluded in the Monk's Tale (CT vii.2375ff), but possibly simply on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella (CT I.466). In the same year the King granted Philippa (PAYNE De ROET) CHAUCER a life annuity of 10 marks as a damoiselle in attendance upon Queen Philippa, and in 1367 the King granted Geoffrey his first annuity of 20 marks. Scholars have debated the timing and the wording of these grants. The facts that Philippa was referred to in her own person rather than as the wife of Geoffrey CHAUCER and that she received her grant first make it appear that CHAUCER had married above himself and that Philippa's connections in Court would do his career no harm. Her father, Sir PAON (PAYNE) de ROET, had come from Hainault in northern France in Queen Philippa's personal entourage, and he was Guienne King of Arms- that is, he was charged with recording the genealogies of the noble families in England's valuable territories in souther France." "CHAUCER'S extended absence in 1372-1373 involves a domestic situation that has troubled some scholars, notably Russell Krauss in "Three CHAUCER Studies," 1932. One of the problems of CHAUCER biography is his relation to Thomas CHAUCER, one of the wealthiest men in England in the fifteenth century, whose daughter became Duchess of SUFFOLK, whose grandson married the sister of Edward IV, and whose great-grandson was declared heir apparent to Richard III, only to be killed in battle. Thomas CHAUCER is referred to as the son of Geoffrey CHAUCER in contemporary records, but his birth and early years are shrouded in mystery. After using the CHAUCER coat of Arms for a few years, he shifted to the de ROET arms of his mother [Philippa PAYNE de ROET]. It has been suggested that the reason for his rapid advancement was that he was the illegitimate son of John of GAUNT by Philippa. From GAUNT'S illegitimate children by Philippa's sister Katherine (legitimized by GAUNT'S marriage to Katherine in 1396) were descended all of the English Kings after Henry VI. If there is any truth in the conjecture that Philippa was also GAUNT'S mistress- which is not unimportant in view of CHAUCER'S treatment of women in his writings and in view of the progress of his own career- it depends on the timing of events in 1373-1374. When CHAUCER departed for Italy in December, 1372, Philippa was one of the damoiselles in waiting upon GAUNT'S second wife, Constance of Castile, and Katherine (who that year bore GAUNT John BEAUFORT) was governess to his children by Blanche of Lancaster. CHAUCER returned on May 23, 1373. On July 13 GAUNT went to lead a campaign in France. He returned to England in April, 1374, and within two months CHAUCER was made financially independent: on April 23 the King granted him a pitcher of wine daily (perhaps $6000 a year at present values); on May 10 he was given the house over Aldgate rent-free; on June 8 he was appointed controller of customs (another £10-5000 a year); and on June 13 he and Philippa together were granted another life annuity of £10 by John of GAUNT. All of this, together with previous grants and subsequent gifts and wardships, made CHAUCER a prosperous man. Philippa continued to receive gifts and payments from GAUNT, always in her name, and the year before her death in 1387 she was admitted, again without her husband, to the fraternity of Lincoln Cathedral in a ceremony honoring the admission of GAUNT'S oldest son, the future Henry IV. Although her annuity was usually drawn at the hand of her husband, warrants transferring payments in 1378-1379 to receivers in Lincolnshire indicate that Philippa did not live with CHAUCER over Aldgate the entire period after 1374, a circumstance that may throw light on the wry self-portrait in the "House of Fame" (ll.641.660). And while we are setting down these personal details, there is the curious business of the legal release granted in May, 1380, by Cecily CHAMPAIN to Geoffrey CHAUCER for her "raptus." Despite arguments to the contrary, legal opinion holds that the word means what it says- that CHAUCER had been sued for rape and had to seek legal quittance. Since the quittance came after the fact, this episode must have occurred around the time that Philippa was living in Lincolnshire. Skeat conjectured that "Litell Lowys," to whom the "Treatise on the Astrolabe" is addressed, might have been in consequence of this episode (Astrolabe, 1.27 note). CHAUCER'S earliest poetry is related to the household of John of GAUNT. Whether or not the "Prier a Nostre Dame" (short poem 1) was written for Blanche of Lancaster, the "Book of the Duchess" was certainly composed as an elegy on her death in 1368. John SHIRLEY asserted that the "Complaint of Mars" (short poem 3) was likewise composed at the command of John of GAUNT. So both in documented fact and in undocumented tradition and surmise, CHAUCER'S literary and personal lives were entangled with the house of LANCASTER." In "Geoffrey Chaucer" by Robert O. Payne, we additionally learn that "although several documents from the land 1360s and early 1370s show CHAUCER in increasingly important occupations in the service of King Edward III, he was forming perhaps an even more important connection during those years with Edward's third son, John of GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster. Like so many things about Geoffrey CHAUCER, the exact nature of his relationship with the duke eludes our modern attempts to fill in between the raw facts of a scanty and scattered but always suggestive public record. The connection seems to have been established by 1368, when LANCASTER'S first wife, the rich and beautiful Blanche, died. She was a daughter of the same Henry of LANCASTER whom CHAUCER'S father had served in a lost and nearly disastrous cause, and it was John of GAUNT'S marriage to her that brought him the land and title of LANCASTER. CHAUCER commemorated her death in what seems to be his first major poem, the "Book of the Duchess," probably written not long after she died, although we have no certain means of dating it precisely. No one knows whether CHAUCER wrote it at the duke's request, or whether he wrote it on his own to increase his favor with LANCASTER, whom he may already have served in some capacity on a 1369 military expedition into Northern France. Some modern Chaucerians continue to refer to John of GAUNT as CHAUCER'S "Patron," but the term may be misleading. Ordinarily, a patron provides an artist with a livelihood in order to support his artistic production, and nothing now known indicates that the duke ever did any such thing for CHAUCER. In 1374, he granted a £10 annuity for life, in consideration of "la bone et agreable service que nostre bien ame Geffray CHAUCER nous ad fait et auxint pur la bone service que nostre bien ame Phillipe sa femme ad fait a nostre treshonure dame et miere la royne que Dieu pardoigne et a nostre tres ame compaigne la royne de Castille... (the good and agreeable service that our good friend Geoffrey CHAUCER has done us and also for the good service that our good friend Philippa his wife has done for our honored mother the queen, whom may God pardon, and to our beloved companion the queen of Castille...). The second queen mentioned was LANCASTER'S second wife, Constance of CASTILLE, in whose household Philippa had served. The phrasing seems to refer unmistakingly to personal, political, or military services- not to the support of the career of a rising young writer. Still, there must have been more to it than that. Katherine ROET [daughter of PAYNE de ROET] SWYNFORD, LANCASTER'S mistress for many years and eventually his third wife, was a sister of Philippa CHAUCER. the duke must have had a hand in some of CHAUCER'S political appointments during his career, although again we have to note that not infrequently CHAUCER aligned himself with factions opposed to the LANCASTRIANS in London city affairs and in Parliament. Perhaps fourteenth-century politics were not quite so cutthroat as they sometimes appear to be. In any case, LANCASTER'S oldest son, Henry, Earl of DERBY, made two modest grants to CHAUCER in 1395 and 1396, and then after usurping the throne from Richard II and becoming King Henry IV, renewed and increased CHAUCER'S annuities, although by that time the aging poet and public servant was to have only about a year of life left in which to enjoy them. Another association that has intrigued modern scholars is that during the thirty or so years of CHAUCER'S acquaintance with John of GAUNT, the duke was also the friend and protector of that fierce and austere religious reformer John WYCLIFFE. We have nothing to confirm a direct relationship between CHAUCER and WYCLIFFE, and CHAUCER certainly had little in common with the stiff-necked, opinionated, often dogmatic attacker of clerical corruption and church bureaucracy. Yet perhaps through the Duke of LANCASTER, CHAUCER surely knew about WYCLIFFE and the storm he was blowing up in fourteenth-century religious and intellectual life. We have, in fact, a few other scattered indications that CHAUCER was acquainted with some of WYCLIFFE'S contemporaries at Oxford. (Indeed, there was a tradition in the sixteenth century, almost certainly wrong, that CHAUCER had studied at Oxford.) One of these men, the logician Ralph STRODE, who sometimes argued against WYCLIFFE, even appears in the dedication at the end of CHAUCER'S Troilus and Criseyde. What is important here is the indication that CHAUCER had fairly direct contact with one of the major centeres of contemporary intellectual life, in addition to his experience of its political and artistic activities." Finally, from "The Life and Times of Chaucer" by John Gardner, he states, "Two highborn ladies who were to be of importance in the life of Geoffrey CHAUCER were the daughters of Sir Paon (Payne) of ROET, a chevalier (knight) of Hainault. Roet was attached to the service of Queen Philippa when she came to England, and later attended her at the seige of CALAIS, when he was one of the two knights appointed to lead away the citizens she'd saved from Edward's wrath. He also served as an official of the household of Marguerite, empress of Germany and countess of Hainault, sister of Queen Philippa." With this introduction to the life of Geoffrey CHAUCER and his relations to sisters Katherine and Philippa, we can now move on to the 16th century and a curious set of events which I firmly believe leads to a family connection between several branches of the PAYNE family- including the Leicester/Suffolk PAINE'S, friar Hugh PAYNE "of Hadleigh, Suffolk," and Sir PAYNE de ROET. The page at http://www.payn.org/pfhs-intro.shtml gives an introduction to the Leicester/Suffolk PAINE family. Included is a brief biography of Henry PAINE, Esq., the bailiff of Manor Hengrave to Sir Thomas KYTSON (like his father for the Duke of BUCKINGHAM, Edward STAFFORD). In "PAINE Genealogy- Ipswich Branch" by A.W. PAINE, 1881, he includes the will of Henry PAINE, Esq., which contains some rather interesting correlations. The introduction also provides information on Hugh PAYNE, the ex-Observant preacher "of Hadleigh, Suffolk," the home of Ann, daughter of John WHITING, the wife of Henry's grand-nephew, Robert PAINE. John WHITING is believed to have been the same as the "Gentleman Usher of the King's Chamber" of the same name, at a time when a Master Richard PAYNE is recorded as the "Queen's Almoner and Palfreyman". Hugh PAYNE, like Henry, like his ancestor's "of Market Bosworth, Leicester," were men of status in society. All were close to Court, and several peers and removed to Suffolk about the time of the Battle of Bosworth in the late 15th century. Hugh PAYNE was a protege of Lord LISLE'S (Arthur PLANTAGENET who married Honor GRENVILLE) party supporting Catherine of ARAGON at CALAIS. Sir PAYNE de ROET also had connections to CALAIS and to Court there where he was appointed King of Arms. Diarmaid McCulloch states that Hugh also had been preaching in CRANMERS peculier parishes in London where it is likely he enjoyed the patronage of the surviving members of the WARHAM set, clinging on to various of the benefices which the old Archibishop had given them." During his persecution by CRANMER, Hugh had "escaped to a benefice at nearby Stoke-by-Nayland, a living in the gift of the Duke of NORFOLK (Thomas HOWARD). McCulloch gives the Duke of NORFOLK as Thomas HOWARD, 8th Duke of NORFOLK, but I believe he is incorrect in this identification. In Hugh's time, the Duke of NORFOLK would have been Thomas HOWARD, the 3rd Duke of NORFOLK, b. 1473, d. 25 Aug. 1554 ["Complete Peerage," vol. xiipl, p. 513]. The duke's wife was Lady Anne PLANTAGENET, daughter of King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth WOODVILLE (WYDEVILLE). ["Complete Peerage," vol. xllpll, pp. 909-910]. Edward IV was the son of Richard, 3rd Duke of YORK and Lady Cecily NEVILLE. Richard was the son of King Edward III and Philippa "of HAINAULT", while his wife Cecily NEVILLE was the daughter of Ralph NEVILLE, Earl WESTMORELAND by his 2nd wife, Joan, daughter of John of GAUNT and Katherine ROET (daughter of Sir PAYNE de ROET). Henry PAINE died 25 July 1568, and was buried the next day in the Parish Church of Nowton (which he had purchased of the Crown, A.D. 1546 (the 37th year of Henry VIII's reign) with the dissolution of the Catholic monasteries. Henry VIII had seized upon the lands for his own purposes. Henry purchased of the Crown and received a grant in fee of the Manor of Nowton, the "advowson" of the church and the hereditaments in Nowton belonging to the dissolved monastery of St. Edmund, "one of the most celebrated monasteries in the Kingdom." "Advowson," is a term which would have given Henry the right to appoint the local clergyman if I understand the term correctly- and it would be interesting to know whom he chose for this office to present to the Archbishop. Henry also purchased the Grange in Thorpe Riggnoll, in the County of YORK (the home of Richard NEVILLE. parcel of the lands of the Priori Workshop. For the grants he paid to the Crown, as consideration, the sum of 647 pounds, 18 shillings, 2 pence. The sale of the Manor was made subject to a lease then existing in favor of William STERNE for twenty years for the yearly rent of 25 pounds, 13 shillings, 9 pence. By this purchase, Henry became Lord of the Manor of Nowton, a right or dignity which followed the law of inheritance. After the fall and consequent death (execution) of BUCKINGHAM, and the consequent dismissal of Henry's father, William, as bailiff of Manor Hengrave, Sir Thomas KYTSON, appointed Henry to the same office of bailiff of the Manor. Henry was also counsel for the Earl and Countess of BATH (BOURCHIER), and the Earl on his death bequeathed to him for a rememberance, a gold ring of the value of 40 shillings, and the Countess styling him "her loving friend," directed by her will, that he should be associated with her executors, and gave him a legacy of 20 pounds. Henry left a will (which I have not yet obtained a copy), made a few days before his death, giving his estate, most of it, to charitable purposes. "To three-score poor house-holders, in each of the Parishes of St. Mary and St. James, In St. Edmunds Bury", he gave "three-score bushels of rye, that they and their families might pray for him, and to the poor prisoners in the gaol two bushels of rye to be baked for them, together with as much meat as ten shillings would purchase, and 6 shillings, 8 pence, in money and an annual allowance of wood for 20 years; 64 shillings to maintain the monument (?), etc., of St. Mary's Church, 20 shillings to repair it, small sums to the poor men's boxes of Nowton and other churches", to one friend (?), "the Countess of BATH'S (Lady BOURCHIER'S) cup", to another, "My CHAUCER written in vellum and illumyned with golde," to another,"a standing cup with cover all gilt that was part of the Countess of BATH'S plate," and also "a cloth of fine work that hung over the cupboard in his room with the story of NOE (?) and the Creation of the World," also various gifts to his brothers and sisters and their children. To Walter, son of his late brother, John PAINE, he have his homestead on College Street, St. Edmunds Bury, with the College Hall adjoining and 300 marks (?) and furniture, etc. To William JAMES, the 2d husband of his brother John's widow, 40 shillings, and to his brother Edward, his household effects, tiles and bricks made at his Manor of CLEES in ESSEX. Other lands he gave to his brother Anthony for life, with remainder over to Anthony's sons, John, Thomas, and William successively in "tail male." (?) Besides other devises he gave to his brother Nicholas and William his son, the Manor of NETHERHALL in SOHAM, Cambridgeshire on payt of 100 pounds to his executors. The Manor of Nowton he settled on his brother Anthony. His will was proved 2 Feb. 1569. He was never married (or at least left no widow, or children). The records compiled by the author of the "Visitation" show "Mr. Henry PAINE, Esq., Lord and Patron of Nowton, buried 26 July 1568." [A.W. PAINE, "PAINE Genealogy- Ipswich Branch" (Ipswich, Mass.), 1881] At the bottom of this page, I have attached correspondence I have received from members of the "Canterbury Tales Project," regarding Henry PAYNE'S ownership of the manuscript, which is now called, "The Ellesmere Manuscript," and is on public display in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California- "the most famous Chaucer manuscript to survive." I have also received a generous amount of information from the Huntington Library's curator in charge of the manuscript. You can view that information by clicking here. The mention of "My CHAUCER, written in vellum and illuminated in gold," is telling. We are talking about a hand-written manuscript here, not a simple printing of a book we'd recognize today, or one that could be purchased in virtually any bookshop. This was obiously a treasured item to Henry, one worthy of specific mention in his will. No other books or manuscripts were mentioned, although Henry, as an attorney and consel to the Earl and Countess of BATH (BOURCHIER), would have most likely owned many. Henry, in fact, willed his CHAUCER to Sir Giles ALINGTON, grandson of Ursula DRURY and her Giles ALINGTON. Ursula was his second wife, having m1. Alice MIDDLETON; m3. Margaret FALKARNE. Ursula was from the prominent DRURY family and Henry PAINE had purchased lands from them. It should be pointed out that Elizabeth DRURY was the second wife of William CECIL, 2nd Earl of EXETER, who had m1. Elizabeth MANNERS, Baroness De ROOS. Elizabeth, the daughter of William CECIL and Elizabeth DRURY married THomas HOWARD, 1st Earl of BERKSHIRE, the son of Thomas HOWARD and his 2nd wife, Catherine KNYVETT, who had married 1st, Richard RICH, son of Robert RICH, 2nd Baron RICH whose daughter, Frances RICH married, as his 2nd wife, Thomas CAMMOCK. His grandon, Warwick CAMMOCK was named in the 1675 will of Robert PAYNE (alias DAVIES), Clerk of the Rappahannock County Vestry, 1662-1666. Following these family connections, it is possible to establish the relationships between many PAYNE branches, accounting for all of the PAYNE'S who came to America prior to 1650, and it also leads to how Henry PAINE most likely came into possession of his CHAUCER- due to his connections to the family of Sir PAYNE de ROET. Edward STAFFORD (BUCKINGHAM), whom William PAINE had served as bailiff, was the great-great-grandson, through his wife Eleanor, of Ralph NEVIL, Earl of Westmoreland, by his wife Joan De BEAUFORT, the daughter of John of GAUNT and Katherine De ROET, whose father was PAYNE De ROET. Through his father's line, STAFFORD was the great-great-grandson of Thomas "Fairborn" BEAUFORT, Duke of Exeter, K.G., son of John of GAUNT and Katherine De ROET. Katherine's sister was Philippa De ROET, another daughter of PAYNE De ROET, and Philippa married Geoffrey CHAUCER. Philippa is also thought to have been the mistress of John of GAUNT. I've read some speculation that the son of Geoffrey and Philippa CHAUCER, Thomas, was the illegitimate son of John of GAUNT. It seems compelling that Henry PAINE, Esq. came in possession of his CHAUCER manuscript through some family relationship to Sir PAYNE De ROET, rather than through his connections. Henry mentions several items that he had received for his service to the KYTSON and BOURCHIER families, yet he does not mention that he had come by his CHAUCER through these sources, as he specifically did for these others. That seems to be another clue here. While it is possible he obtained it through his connections, it seems much more plausible that he was able to obtain it through some kinship to PAYNE De ROET. Also, there is no record that any of the families Henry was associated with owned the manuscript prior to him. Additionally, Edward STAFFORD'S son, Henry, Lord STAFFORD, had married, Ursula, daughter of Richard POLE, Duke of SUFFOLK (where Henry's family had settled) , and his wife, Margaret, Lady SALISBURY, daughter of George PLANTAGENET, Duke of CLARENCE (a relation of Arthur PLANTAGENET whom Hugh PAYNE served) and Lady Isabel NEVILLE. Lady Isabel's parents were Richard NEVILLE, Earl of WARWICK and Lady Anne (Isabel) BEAUCHAMP (one of the 1st recorded BEAUCHAMP'S was PAYNE de BEAUCHAMP). Richard was the son of "The King Maker," Richard NEVILLE, Earl of SALISBURY and Alice MONTACUTE (or MONTAGU). From the introduction, the reader will recall the MONTAGU/CROMWELL connection to Sir Robert PAYNE of St. Neot's and the part that Sir Thomas CROMWELL played in the imprisonment of Hugh PAYNE in the early 1500s. Oliver "The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth" CROMWELL'S grandmother was Catherine, daughter of Thomas PAYNE "of Catle Acre, Norfolk." However, of more significance at the moment, is that Richard "The King Maker" NEVILLE'S parents were Ralph NEVILLE, Earl of WESTMORELAND, and his second wife, Joan, daughter of John of GAUNT, Duke of LANCASTER, and his third wife, none other than Katherine ROET, whose sister, Philppa, married Geoffrey CHAUCER- both daughters of Sir PAYNE de ROET. The implication can hardly be denied that it was through these connections that Henry PAINE was able to come into possession of his CHAUCER. Several questions remain though. People the world over have dedicated their lives to the study of CHAUCER- and I could dedicate my life to just studying the numerous correlations to be found among the various PAYNE branches in this research. I have given the reader only a brief overview of these correlations. There are many more to be found in the PAYNE connections through the STAFFORD, BOURCHIER, MONTAGU, BEAUCHAMP, HOWARD, RICH, CARTERET, and other peers- which now encompass at least 6 branches of the PAYNE family, previously said to "have no connection whatever." We now have a long list (and still growing) of connections that make "whatever" seem a useless word. I have attached below letters I have received regarding the CHAUCER manuscript in Henry PAINE'S possession which is on display at the Huntington Library. Patrick A. Payne 7 March 2000 Dear Mr Payne, I've just had a quick look at the catalogues, and have found two references to owners with the surname Payne. The first in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 600. On f. 268r is the name Edward Payne in a sixteenth century hand (erased, and now only visible under ultra-violet light). The Henry Payne manuscript, however, is much more interesting. It seems that your ancestor was in possession of the most famous Chaucer manuscript to survive, the Ellesmere manuscript. This is kept in the Huntingdon Library, San Marino, California, with the shelfmark El. 26. C. 9. http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/LibraryHome.html It has been the subject of many extensive studies, and a beautiful facsimile has been made of it, with a thorough discussion of the manuscript's history. I've just checked Amazon.com, and it's out of stock at the publishers, (and was also very expensive), but most big libraries should have a copy. The details are as follows: Ellesmere Manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales : A Working Facsimile by Ralph Hanna III, Hardcover (October 1990) Boydell & Brewer; ISBN: 085991187X . The manuscript's history os reasonably well recorded, and it may also have been owned by the well-known Paston family, who lived in Norfolk in the fifteenth century. I'm passing your query on to a colleague of mine, Estelle Stubbs, who is a mine of information of the history of the Canterbury Tales manuscripts. In the meantime, you could start by looking at a Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts: The Canterbury Tales by M. C. Seymour , Hardcover Vol 2 (October 1997) Scolar Pr/Gower; ISBN: 1859280579, which should also be available in most libraries. I hope this is a useful start - if you have any further questions, please get in touch. Best wishes Claire Jones Dear Mr. Payne, Your e-mail to Claire Jones at De Montfort has been sent on to me. I have worked at the University of Sheffield on the Canterbury Tales Project for the last six years. My particular interest in the Canterbury Tales manuscripts has been from the point of view of provenance. The manuscript you describe is the Ellesmere Canterbury Tales now in the Huntington Library, California. Ellesmere is one of the earliest manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales still extant. It probably dates from a few years after Chaucer's death but it is not known for whom it was originally made. Its quality suggests a member of the nobility, royalty or perhaps even the Chaucer family. Geoffrey Chaucer's son, Thomas played a significant role in the Parliaments of the first thirty years of the fifteenth century and presumably would have had some sort of copy of his father's work. However, there is no coat of arms or early signs of ownership which establish its provenance exactly. One theory is that it was made for the Earls of Oxford, whose family seat at Castle Hedingham in Suffolk is close to the area of later ownership. There is a poem written in praise of the De Vere Earls of Oxford written on spare folios of the manuscript. The poem was written at some time during the fifteenth century and seems to indicate that it was in their possession at this time. Ellesmere was owned by the Drury family of Hawstead in Suffolk early in the sixteenth century. Henry Payne of Nowton near Hawstead, a wealthy lawyer and member of Lincoln's Inn, had purchased lands from the Druries and knew them well. It could be as a result of this connection that he first came to own the Chaucer. As you know he willed the manuscript to Sir Giles Alington, grandson of Ursula Drury and her husband. The friar connection intrigues me and I would like to know more. My reason for this is that my own research seems to indicate that there may be some connection between friar copying and Canterbury Tales manuscripts. This is my own theory and there is much still to discover, but the Earls of Oxford, and indeed the family of Lionel of Ulster, Chaucer's first employer, were closely connected with the Augustinian Priory of Friars at Clare in Suffolk. When you say Hugh Payne was an 'ex-Observant' friar, do you know to which order of friars he was attached? If you do I would be keen to know. The history of ownership of Canterbury Tales manuscripts is not now easy to research since so much information regarding ownership has been erased from the manuscripts over the years, original binding boards have been replaced and the manuscripts have changed hands many times. Your research sounds fascinating and I hope I have been able to offer a little more information. Best, Estelle Stubbs The Canterbury Tales Project. Humanities Research Institute, Room 1.19, PO Box 595, Arts Tower, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN