Roots Tech Conference

My husband and I watched the live streaming of the Roots Tech Conference from Salt Lake City the past couple of days. The talks were often quite an eye opener and the discussion on Clouds most fascinating. I now have a dropbox account and sharing of files is so very easy. I intend to set one up for my Blake and Pincombe one name studies so that I can readily share material with other members of the research groups.

I continue thinking about the development of the Blake webpage and the Wiki for our domain. I want to plan it well so that I am not constantly changing it (although I suspect change will be the order of the day). In the meantime whilst I am thinking I am also transcribing a couple of Routledge documents. The first is a Star Chamber document (undated thus far in my transcription) but from the 1558 to 1601 period in that Elizabeth is Queen of England. It concerns the answer of Alexander Routledge (a now aged and infirm man) to the Bill of Complaint brought against him by Andrew Taylor. I am not sure that it involves land at this moment in time as my transcription is very sparse at the moment although I have managed to complete the first four lines of this 17 line document. The language is very early Middle English and the spelling/short forms are abundant for individual words.

Routledge of course interests me because two of my 3x great grandparents were surnamed Routledge and family lore says they were cousins. I have not yet been able to establish this cousin relationship although both are of the Oakshaw Routledge family and historically this family was known to marry first, second, third cousins etc. Of the four parents of my Routledge couple, three have the surname Routledge and going back to the grandparents it is likely that six of eight were Routledge (five for sure). Tom Routledge (the individual for whom I am doing the transcription) and I first met (online) back in 2007 when he asked about my routledge.xls file that I had online at the time. It was 2000 entries for Routledge and I said to do whatever he liked with it and the work he has done has been marvelous. His webpages on the Routledge family are tremendous and now he is in the process of reinstating the Routledge family as a Clan in Scotland where they originally lived (coming to Cumberland in the 1400s).

My transcription thus far and I shall continue to revise this blog posting until I am satisfied with the transcription (revised 15 Feb 2012):

Transcription Date - 26 Jan 2012 (begin)
Document Read - #STAC  7/30/8
Location of Document - The National Archives, Kew, London, England
Date of Document - 1558-1603
Title: The answere of Alexander Rowtlage def[endan]t to the Bill of Complaynte of Andrewe Taylour p[lain]ti[ff]
1    The said def[endan]t saieth that the said Bill of Complaynt ys verye werten untrue and insufficient
2    the kind to be answered unto and the matters therein conteyned against this  d[ef]
3    devised ymagined and set forthe onely of more malice to put this def[endan]t being a verye
4    aged and Brused man to extreme paynes in travelinge and costes and charges [in]
5    the same and not _____ use ____ or cause _________ wherefore the s[aid]
6    def[endan]t prayeth to be desmyssed with his reasonable coste and charges in this behalfe
7    wrongefully ____ _____ ____yf the said def[endan]t shall by the order of the
8    this hon[our]able courte be compelled to make any further answer unto the said insuffici
9    ent Bill of complaynt then the Advantage ofe excer[t]ion to the insufficyency of the
10    same Bill at all tyme to this def[endan]t  said forefull Answered and declaration of the
11    trothe sayeth as concerninge any Ryott Rents unlawfull assemblye or any other mysdeme
12    danore against the place or said sov[er]aigneLady the Quenes ma[jes]tie in these
13    said Bill of Complayente declared and setforth to this def[endan]t ys not therefore
14    gyltie nor yet did eth[er] consent or agree to comye to any suche  Ryott or other mysdeme[anor]
15    nor any plot cherges as in the said Bill ofe Complaynte against this def[endan]t  ys most
16    untimelye and sclanderistye alledged and declared and w[i]thout that that
16    any other chargs or clamys conteynes  and specified in the said Bill ofe Complaynte
17    materall or effectuale to be answered unto and not herein sufficiently wytessed
18    Avoyded denyed or therewise traversed ys true  All wh[ich] matters the said def[endan]t
19    ys made to and was as this hon[our]able courte shall awarde and prayeth to
20    Be dissmyssed w[i]th costs and charges in this behalfe wro[n]gefully susteyned
21    [Star Chamber Elizabeth]  Kytchyn[er] [seal]