Liber Defunctorum domus B. Mariae de Wymondesfeld — the last written leaf of the necrology
A single leaf of vellum, the last written leaf of the booke. The booke is forty-two leaves in all, ruled in red lake throughout in one hand of the early fifteenth century, the rule visible to the unmoved end-papers. The first thirty-seven leaves are filled in a succession of hands, beginning A.D. 1402 (Dame Margery de Saxlingham, foundress, obiit in pace ix kal. Jul.) and breaking off on this leaf in A.D. 1535. The five leaves following are ruled but unwritten. The booke was read aloud at chapter on each obit-day, that the susters might pray for the soul there written. The booke passed at surrender, with the keeper's booke, to Dame Alice Swathe & thence by descent; catalogued at the Norwich Record Office as NRO/MS 1903.144/3, two leaves' remove from wp-01 in the same fascicle.
— fol. 37r, in three hands, the last written leaf —
The first hand, late fifteenth century, in iron-gall:
Anno Dni mvc xxj, iij idus Februarii. Obiit Soror Margareta Loy, sacrista huius domus per annos xxx, anno aetatis suae lxx; cuius animae propitietur Deus. Vix. pie.
Anno Dni mvc xxiiij, vij kal. Aug. Obiit Soror Iohanna Frend, infirmaria, in officio; annis lxij. R. i. p.
The second hand, smaller, browne, with a careful flourish at the descender of p:
Anno Dni mvc xxxj, in vigilia S. Andreae. Obiit Domina Beatrix Hawys, priorissa huius domus per annos xj, anno aetatis suae lxxiij, omnium susterum mater. Cuius animae propitietur Deus; et per intercessionem ipsius vivant illae quae post hanc remanserint.
The same hand, smaller still, the last entry on the leaf:
Anno Dni mvc xxxv, iij non. Maii. Obiit Soror Constancia Beverlay, cantrix, anno aetatis suae lxv; vix. pie. Et hic finis libri. — A. S., sub-prior.
— at the foot of fol. 37r, beneath the colophon, in pencil, in another hand later by three yeres, the lead a cellarer's stub —
The booke was ruled for fortie-two leaves at the foundation, in expectation of fortie-two generations. Thirty-seven are writ; five remain ruled, & blank, & shall stand so. They were prepared, by the binder of A.D. 1402, for the next five susters to die at this house. There will be no next five susters to die at this house. The susters yet living will die in other parishes, in their sisters' houses, in beds in Walsingham & Cromer & Cawston; their obits will be entered in other bookes, by other hands, & not in this one. The booke of the dead is full; the booke of the living was never kept. The vellum of the five blank leaves is good vellum, & shall be cut out by the binder at Lyn, in time, & used for paste-downes; that is the discharge.
Vivit, vivunt; the leaves stand blank. — A. S.