Robert Thornton ( fl. 1418 – 1456) was a

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

landowner, a member of the

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...

. His efforts as an amateur

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

and manuscript compiler resulted in the preservation of many valuable works of

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

literature, and have given him an important place in its history.

Biography

Thornton's name is associated with two 15th-century manuscripts now held in different collections; Lincoln, Cathedral Library MS 91, the "Lincoln Thornton" manuscript, and

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

MS Additional 31042, the "London Thornton" manuscript. A number of candidates had been suggested for the scribe's identity, but he is now firmly identified as Robert Thornton, a relatively prosperous provincial landowner of the manor of

East Newton East Newton is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Aldbrough, East Riding of Yorkshire, Aldbrough, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately nor ...

Stonegrave Stonegrave is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. At the 2011 Census the population was less than 100 and so the details are included in the civil parish of Nunnington. By 2015, North Yorkshire County ...

, in the

North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres). From the Restoration it was used as ...

.See Thompson, J. J. ''Robert Thornton and the London Thornton Manuscript: British Library MS Additional 31042'', D. S. Brewer, 1987 The

armigerous In heraldry, an armiger is a person entitled to use a heraldic achievement (e.g., bear arms, an "armour-bearer") either by hereditary right, grant, matriculation, or assumption of arms. Such a person is said to be armigerous. A family or a clan ...

(Argent a bend gules with three escarbuncles or thereon) Thornton family had possessed East Newton Hall since the time of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

; Robert's parents are commemorated in the church at Stonegrave.Stonegrave Parish
British History Online Thornton's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all also named Robert. The family retained possession of East Newton until 1692.https://web.archive.org/web/20110525222807/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64805 Stonegrave Parish East Newton Hall - geograph

Thornton appears to have started to compile a collection of works for his own and his family's pleasure and instruction; he was essentially a gentleman-amateur in a field usually dominated by professional

scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admini ...

s and ecclesiastical scribes. Rather than copying works at random, he made some attempt to edit romances, religious works and works on medicine or

herblore Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies ...

into different "booklets" within the manuscript.Hanna, R. ''Pursuing History: Middle English Manuscripts and Their Texts'', Stanford University Press, 1996, p.32 He wrote in a practised but rather untidy hand, adding a few simple decorative flourishes such as grotesque

drolleries A drollerie, often also called a grotesque, from French language, is a small decorative image in the margin of an illuminated manuscript, most popular from about 1250 through the 15th century, though found earlier and later. The most common type ...

or ornamental scrollwork.Turville-Petre, T. ''Reading Middle English Literature'', Blackwell, 2007, p.46 Thornton's tastes were fairly wide-ranging; the Lincoln manuscript reveals a liking for

Arthurian romance The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Western ...

s, and he seems to have particularly appreciated

alliterative verse In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...

, resulting in the preservation of some of the finest examples of the genre (notably The '' Alliterative Morte Arthure'' and ''

Wynnere and Wastoure Wynnere and Wastoure ("Winner and Waster") is a fragmentary Middle English poem written in alliterative verse around the middle of the 14th century. Manuscript The poem occurs in a single manuscript, British Library Additional MS. 31042, also cal ...

''). The texts enable us to gain some insight into the way such manuscripts were used, perhaps with members of a family using it on one night to refer to a recipe, and on another to read a romance or even to take part in a dramatic performance.Turville-Petre, T. ''Reading Middle English Literature'', Blackwell, 2007, p.46 After Thornton's death, the manuscripts remained in the hands of his descendants for many years; the name of Thornton's son William appears on folio 49.v of the Lincoln manuscript, in addition to the names of other family members elsewhere. However, by 1700 (when it was seen there by the antiquary Bishop Thomas Tanner) it had reached the library of

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...

, probably having been obtained by the cathedral's Dean

Michael Honywood Michael Honywood D.D. (1597 – 7 December 1681) was an English churchman, Dean of Lincoln from 1660. Honywood was a bibliophile and he founded and funded the Lincoln Cathedral Library. Life He was sixth son and ninth child of Robert Honywood of ...

between 1660 and 1681.Thomson, R. M. ''Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Lincoln Cathedral Chapter Library'', Boydell and Brewer, 1989, p.69 As many libraries of manuscripts were lost during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Thornton's private anthology became an extremely rare survival.

Works preserved by Thornton

*Lincoln, Cathedral Library MS 91 *British Library MS Additional 31042

Biography

Works preserved by Thornton

References

Further reading