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X. An Examination of an Inscription on a Barn in Kent; the Mantle Tree in the Parsonàge House at Helmdon in Northamptonshire, as described by the Professors Wallis and Ward, revised; and Queries and Remarks on the general Use of Arabic Numerals in England. In a Letter from the Rev. Samuel Denne, F.A.S. to Richard Gough, Esq.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

By the kindness of the Rev. Peter Rashleigh I have it in my power to convey to you drawings, of inscriptions and shields of arms placed in the walls of buildings that are appendages to Preston Hall in Aylesford; and they will afford me an opportunity of satisfying you that the date on one of them was without sufficient grounds advanced in the hypothetical controversy respecting the time of the introduction of Arabic Numerals into this country.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1800

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References

page 107 note [a] Vol. II. p. 175.

page 108 note [b] Vol. II. p. 174. Mr. Hasted notices sir John Hardreshull as being of Hardreshull in the county of Warwick. He was also possessed of the manor of Ashene in Ashton, in Northamptonshire, which came to sir Thomas Colepeper, son of John Colepeper, who married Elizabeth Hardreshull. Sir John was buried in Ashton church. In Bridges's History of Northamptonshire there is a plate of his monument, and in the inscription on it he is called Harteshull. (Hist. V. I. p. 283, &c.) Sir John Colepeper, probably a descendant of sir Thomas, was high sheriff of Northamptonshire in the reign of Henry VI.

page 109 note [c] Hasted's Kent, V. II. p. 174.

page 110 note [d] Harris's History of Kent, p. 32.

page 111 note [e] Recognitores magnæ Assizæ. Both Philipott and Hasted mistook the province of Recognitores. “It was,” remarks the former, (Villare Cantianum, p. 271) “a place eminent trust and concernment, if we consider the meridian of those times for which it was calculated, that is before the establishment of conservaiors of the peace.” “And,” observes the latter, “the Judges of the Great Assize an office of no small account in those times.” The Recognitores, however, were only jurors, and their inquest was not of a criminal, but civil kind; for the statute of king Henry the IInd, called Assiza by Glanville, ordained, that under the direction of the justices itinerant, twelve good and lawful men, sworn to speak the truth, should make recognition whether a man died seized of land, concerning which any doubt had arisen, and likewise de novis disscifinis. (Reeves's History of the English Law, V. I. p. p. 54, 56. 8vo edit)

page 114 note [f] Arohaeologia, V. I. p. 140. For the opinion of Dr. Ward there is a reference to Philosophical Transactions abridged, V. X. p. 1265.

page 114 note [g] Archaeologia, V. X. p. 370.

page 114 note [h] De characteribus numerorum vulgaribus et eorum ætatibus, &c A Joanne Friderico Weidlero. et M. Georgio Weidlero—Witembergise, 1727. p. I 4. An account of this Dissertation was published in the Philofophical Tranfactions, V. XLIII. Art. I. N° 474. It was communicated to the Royal Society by Profeffor Ward.

page 114 note [i] Ibid. Vol. XIII. N° 154. The same Plate is also published in his Treatise of Algebra.

page 115 note [k] Philosophical Transactions V. XXXII. Tab. II. fig. 2. See also V. XXXIX. N°439, p. 127.

page 116 note [l] In the Dissertation of the Weidlers already mentioned are these words. Quaæ (inscriptio) in laterculo nostro Figura I. exhibetur. But M is not a fac simile of the figure or figures in the Plate communicated by Dr. Wallis.

page 116 note [m] Bridges's Hist. of Northamptonshire, V.I. p. 582.

page 118 note [n] Archaeologia, V. IV. p. 51.

page 118 note [o] Ibid. V. X. p. 168.

page 118 note [p] Sepulchral Monuments, I. p. 24. Archaeologia, V. III. p. 225.

page 119 note [r] Sepulchral Monuments, I. Pref.

page 120 note [s] Bridges's History, V. I. p 174.

page 121 note [t] For the Year 1795, May. PI. III.

page 121 note [u] Archaeologia, V. X. p. 371.

page 122 note [w] History of Kent, p. 32.

page 122 note [x] Upon this conjecture of Dr. Harris, Dr. Pegge “thinks it to be a point very doubtful, since the numerals that appear in the book where they are often applied are always Roman, a strong preemption that these charaders on the top of the leaves have been added since.” An Historical Account of the Textus Rossensis Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, N° XXV. p.28.

page 123 note [y] Vol. LIII. p. 406.

page 124 note [z] vol. LIII. p. 639.

page 125 note [a] Vol. II. p. 10, et seq.

page 127 note [b] Vol. I. p. 91.

page 128 note [c] Vol. I. N° 5.

page 128 note [d] A Table of English Silver Coins.

page 128 note [e] Ibid. p. 28.

page 129 note [f] A Table of English Silver Coins, p. 19.

page 129 note [g] Ibid. p. 24.

page 130 note [h] Letter XVII.— p. 76. from Bot? H. R. ner to Maister Paston.

Letter XVII.—. p. 78 Wryt hastly VIII day of June.

Letter XXXIV. p. 143.—W. Botener to Maister John Pafton, &c

Letter XVII.—. P. 142. Wryt at L. (London) the V day. of Juliet.

Letter XXXVIL p. 150. W. Botoner dit. Worcesly to Sr John Fasiols.

Letter XVII.—. p. 152. Wrete at London the fyrst day of Feu'rer, A°36.R.H. VI.

Letter XVII.—. p. 150. CXL. hors.—iiije hors–iijjxx Knyghts and Sawyers. ijc hors.

Letter XVII.—. p. 152. Wythnae thys VI. Wekes.

page 131 note [i] Treatise of Algebra, Preface, page 3.

page 132 note [k] Archaeolog. V. X. p. 372.

page 132 note [l] Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. II. N° 19.

page 132 note [m] Cono-cuneus, &c. fol. 1684. Additions and Emendations, p. 153. The friend referred to was Dr. Thomas Smith, fellow of Magdalen college in Oxford (a reverend and learned person, and a curious observer of antiquities, both at home and in foreign countries, as far as Greece and Turkey).

page 133 note [n] Treatise of Algebra, p. 9. “I know that in the editions which we now have of Boetius, Bede, and other ancient authors, these figures are now frequently used: but I do not believe they were found in the ancient manuscript copies from whence these printed copies were taken; but, in those, all their numbers were exprested by the Latin numeral letters (and in divers ancient manuscripts I have so seen it), and therefore I do not bring those as an argument of their antiquity, nor do I believe they were in use (in these western parts) when these authors were first written.” I find these figures also used in an ancient treatise of ecclesiastical computation, in verse, called Masse Computi, of which I have seen divers copies in MS. and I think it is also printed, which he says was written in 1200. But though we may from hence gather the age of this work to have been about the year 1200, yet I confess it doth not from hence follow certainly that they were then in use; however, we now find them in some of those copies which we have, for it is possible that in the first original, the numbers here as well as in Bede's books, de computo, might and designed in numeral letters, and so in one copy I find it to be. But in others, the numbers are designed by the numeral figures, and (these appearing otherwise to have been in use at that time) we may as well think, they were so used in this, yet fo as that the numeral letters were in use also as even to this day they are Ibid. p. 11, 12.

page 134 note [o] Ibid. p. 9. “As to the time when these numeral figures began first to be in use amongst us, Vossius tells us that they have not been in use above 350 years, at least not 400 years at the utmost i. e. they were not in use till the year 1300, or at farthest before 1250. But I take them to be somewhat more ancient than so, not in common use, but at least in astronomical tables, which we transcribed from the Moors or Arabs and afterwards by degrees came into common use, till at length they became generally used in all arithmetical computations, as being much more convenient for that, than otherways of designing numbers.”—“Upon the whole matter, therefore, I judge that about the middle of the eleventh century, or between the year of our Lord 1000 and 1100, these figures came into use amongst us in Europe, together with other Arabic learning, first on the account of astronomical tables and other mathematical books, and then by little and little Into common pratice.” Ibid. p. 13, 14.

page 136 note [p] The-Winter's Tale, Act IV. Scene III. “Clówn. Let me see, every eleven weather tods, every tod yields pounds and odd shillings, fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to? I cannot do it without compters.”

page 136 note [q] It however often happened, that shillings, amounting to pounds, were placed, in the shilling column.

page 136 note [r] Record's Arithmetick, 1.2°, 1658, p. 179.

page 136 note [s] “John Sommer about 1390; John Walter about 1400; William Batecombe about 1410; William Buttoner about 1460; were very eminent in other kinds of learning, and particularly in mathematics; and divers of their works are extant in our libraries, which have not been printed.” Treatife of Algebra, p. 6.

page 136 note [t] Paston Letters, V. IL p. 810, Note. “We are here furnished with a curious account of the expences attending the transeribing of books, previous to the noble art of printing. At this time the common wages of a mechanic were with diet 4d, and vithout diet 5d. ½, or 6d. a day. We here see that a writer received 2d. for writing a folio leaf, three of which he could with ease finish in a day; and I should think that many quick writers at that time would fill four, five, or even six in a day; if so, the pay of these greatly exceeded that of common handicraft men.”

page 136 note [u] “I find by our parish books that the churchwardens and overseers of the poor stated their accounts in numeral letters till since the year 1600.” Bibliotheca Literaria, Number V11I. p. 8. The title of the paper is, An Historical Essay concerning Arithmetical Figures and their use. But the parish in which the writer lived is not mentioned.

page 136 note [w] Page 13. “A general Rule—Scholar. If I make this number 91359684, at all adventures, there are eight places. In the first place is 4, and betokeneth but foure; in the second place is 8, and betokeneth ten times 8, that is 80; in the third place is 6, and betokeneth six hundred; in the fourth place 9 is nine thousand; and 5 in the fifth place is XM times five, that is fifty M. So 3 in the sixth place is CM times 3, that is CCCM. Then 1 in the severith place is one M.M. and 9 in the eighth ten thousand thousand times 9 that is XCMM—i. e. (at p. 14) XC thousand thousand CCCLIX thousand, 684, that is VIC.LXXX.iiij.”

Fortunate is it for the clerks in the revenue department, and in the Bank and other money offices, that they are not bewildered with an accumulation of Ms Ds Cs Ls Vs Xs and Is; and extremely would it puzzle the head of the craftiest Argus, or bull or bear at his counter at Jonathan's, or the Stock Exchange, had he not the knowledge of figures tenne for numbering on a rencountre day his gain, or as a lame duck loss by speculating in consols and omnium. For every age has its peculiar technical language, that antiquaries in later days find it difficult to decypher.

page 138 note [x] Record's Arithmetick, p. 17.— “Master. I might shew you here who were the first inventors of this art, and the reason of all these things that I have taught you, but that I will reserve till ye have learned over all the practice of this art, lest I should trouble you with over many things at the first.”

page 140 note [y] See Philosophical Tranfactions, N° 439, Article III. Some Considerations on the Antiquity and Use of the Indian Characters and Figures. By Mr. John Cope.