The documents which are here styled the Drayton Charters were found by Miss Joan Wake, the Secretary of the Northamptonshire Record Society, among the Muniments of the late Col. Stopford-Sackville at Drayton House, co. Northants. She has most courteously allowed me to have photographs, and to publish those now printed, with the consent of Col. Stopford-Sackville to that step. Most of them relate to Turvey, or Turvey folk, or villages adjacent to Turvey; and it seemed best to publish them as a compact collection, taking the opportunity of supplementing them by a consideration of other Turvey records, those printed by Robert Halstead, and those preserved in the Cartulary of St. Neot. It is hoped to add further to our knowledge of this side of the County by dealing with the Cartularies of the Priories of Harrold and of Canon's Ashby in a later paper. The Drayton Charters are admirably well preserved, and in many cases still carry their seals. They are here arranged approximately in chronological order.

No. 1A [1138/47].

Notum sit omnibus sanete matris ecclesie filiis quod ego Robertus de Blosseuilla dedi et concessi et hac carta mea confirmaui per uoluntatem et concessionem domini mei Sansonis Fortis et pro salute ànime mee et omnium antecessorum meorum unam uirgatam terre de dominio meo in Braufeld Deo et ecclesie beati Petri de Harewolda ad sustentationem fratrum et sororum in eodem loco deo seruientium tenendam in puram et perpetuam elemosinam Silicet culturam iuxta Wardintone et Cokeliwange et quatuor acras terre iuxta uiam de Lauendene cum pratis predicte uirgate adiacentibus et duas acras prati iuxta pontem Turueie et dimidiam acram ad hospitandum iuxta ecclesiam de Braufeld

[Robert de Blosseville, with the consent of Samson le Fort his lord, grants to Harrold Priory a virgate in Brayfield, namely the Furlong next Wardintone and Cokeliwange; 4 ac. next the road to Lavendon, with adjacent meadow; 2 ac. meadow next Turvey Bridge; and ½ ac. (? on which to build a house) next to Brayfield Church].