A study of York’s civic administrative literacy: writing, records and archives, 1272-1377

This thesis explores civic administrative literacy of York from 1272 to 1377. Studies of pragmatic literacy argued that the making of documents, preservation of records and use of records were three steps in the development of administrative literacy. However, firstly, the distinction between the first two steps was not explained enough, because what survives were presupposed to be intentionally preserved. Documents can accidentally survive as well. Secondly, individual documents and records played a limited role in explaining contemporaneous concepts of preservation and use.
In order to redress the problems, this thesis includes two Parts. Part One exploits royal and religious archives to study the scope of documents made for civic administration and whether civic records were preserved. The research shows that the city government wrote down a massive number of documents, and some records were preserved. However, this preservation was not for a long term. Afterwards, this thesis plans to explain this divergence between making documents and preserving records by studying lay clerks in the city. Part Two focuses on a civic custumal, the first Freemen’s Register. It combines methods of manuscript study and historical study to critically review previous ideas about the compilation of this custumal. This thesis proves the usefulness of this custumal in shedding light on the civic documents and records available when the compilation started around the 1360s and 1370s, the use of royal records by the city, and causes behind the compilation.
Overall, this thesis has two significant implications. Firstly, the years around the 1360s and 1370s was a key period when the civic administrative literacy developed in York. The earliest civic custumals started to be compiled and an office of clerk was established in the civic government. Secondly, the collection of institutional archives should be studied carefully to assess their role in history.