Editorial method

The text has been divided into numbered sections; editorial notes are printed in small type following the section to which they relate. The contents of the MS have been treated in two ways. The rules, lists of members and accounts, which are mainly in English, have been transcribed in full, as too have English entries in the cartulary. The rest of the cartulary has been calendared. The following conventions have been observed in making the transcript. Abbreviated words have been extended but suspension marks on English words have been ignored unless the meaning is thereby affected. Suspension marks have been retained, however, at the end of place-names and surnames. Abbreviations for money and weights are printed as they appear in the MS (e.g. li., ob., lb.). Words or phrases inserted into the text are printed in italic and deletions are enclosed in angle-brackets. Editorial insertions are enclosed in square brackets. Three dots (. . .) indicate a word or phrase which is illegible. Capitalisation and punctuation have been modernised. The letters i, j, u, and v are transcribed as they appear in the MS but capital I and J are rendered according to modern usage (e.g. 'John' not 'Iohn'). Marginal notes which merely repeat words or phrases in the text have normally been ignored.

In the calendar, a number of suggestions made by R. B. Pugh in Calendar of Antrobus Deeds before 1625 (1947), pp. xxxii–xxxiv, have been adopted. Unusual operative words are supplied in round brackets.

Dates are rendered in their modern form. Latin forenames and placenames have been translated but the original spelling of surnames and English place-names has been retained. Suspension marks at the end of surnames and place-names were ignored. Sealing is only mentioned where it is of particular interest (94–5).

In the index only one reference is made when a name occurs more than once in a section. The titles dominus, domina and 'sir' are ignored in the index but when the holder was a peer or a knight this has been indicated. The term 'master' is used in the index only for masters of the fraternity unless otherwise indicated.