 I'm Jane Lawson. I am the editor of the Elizabethan New Year's Gift Roles. The exchanges took place during the reign of Elizabeth from 1559 through to her death in 1603. Each year on New Year's Day, the court and the sovereign would exchange New Year's gifts, similar to our present day Christmas presents. But this gift exchange was only on New Year's Day. Christmas itself was a religious holiday and not a gift-giving. Members of the court would come with, usually as their representative, a servant, would bring a gift to the queen. It would be taken to the jewel house where the clerks would record what was given, make a note of where it went, then they would turn around and give the recipient, they would purchase a gift in return. At the end of the day, the scribbled notes that the clerks had done for this gift exchange were compiled together and put together in a very nicely done, beautiful secretary hand gift roll. The rolls are vellum. They are anywhere from four to five sheets of vellum glued together. The length of this roll is about 15 feet. The writing is on both sides. On the first side, the both side we have displayed here, we see the gifts that were given to Elizabeth and the common name for this would be the bi-roll because each of the entries begins with bi-vee and the name of the recipient, the giver. It could be bi-the-url of Northumberland, bi-the-url of Shrewsbury. We go on down to bi-the-countess of, countess of Shrewsbury here, countess of Huntington. And we move on down during the Gregson period and we come to the bishops. And we go down to the barons, the lords, and following them would be the ladies, which would be the baronesses. And if we go on further down the roll, as we unroll it, you'll see that the additional other ranks of the court received were gifts. Those would be the gentle women and the gentle men. And on the other side of the roll, you'll have that order repeated again with the same ranks of peerage of the gifts that they received from the queen. The gifts that were given here, in addition to the listing, who was given bi, also on the margin list, what was the weight given? What was the, a monetary value, perhaps? Was it 15 pounds? Was it seven ounces? It would also list a very small type out of the side. Where did that gift go? Who got custody of it? Did it go to the jewel house? If it was a jewel, a ring, a pendant, a brooch of some sort, that would usually go to Sir John Astley, the master of the jewel house. If it was a piece of clothing, it went to one of the ladies who kept the wardrobe. If it was a jewel, it often went at this time to Blanche Perry. In other years, it would go to Lady Catherine Howard, and then later on it went on to Mary Radcliffe. So those were women who had custody and responsibility. At any time, the queen could say, where is that item? If they died, their widow or spouse was required to provide the justification of where everything was that had come to their custody. Now, why are these important? First of all, this gives us a very clear entry of who was close to the queen. An average person could not walk into court and say, here, I want to give the queen a New Year's gift. That did not happen. You had to have access to the queen already. So the peerage, of course, were close to her. Her ladies of the Privy Chamber of the Bed Chamber, her maids of honor, these were all close to her. They had daily contact with her. Further down in the Gentlewoman and Gentleman class, you have who could be closer to the queen than her laundress, her cook, her pastry chef, her apothecaries, her physicians. These people had intimate knowledge of the queen, and they exchanged gifts to the queen, and she gave them gifts in return. What's interesting about each of the roles is that there is a continuity of the people at court. The peerage, of course, if one peer died, the son would take over. If a wife died, there could be a second countess or a baroness coming in. But the names of who was on the list stays the same from year to year. We even note that the amount of money given by the various peers was always in that same range. If they gave 10 pounds one year, it was 10 pounds each of the other years of the reign. Elizabeth was an interesting woman. She tended to get a lot more than she gave. Her gifts were not, not stingy, but simply not equal value of what she received. And what she gave were normally pieces of gilt plate. Interestingly, it was not a matter of selecting, oh, I want to give this person a cup, but I want to give this person a flag. It was all based on a weight that was decided to give that person. If they were supposed to get 12 ounces of gilt plate, they got 12 ounces, or they might get 11 and 7 eighths ounces, or it might be 12 and 8 ounces, but it was a piece that that particular weight and measurement of gilt. The early rolls will list quite easily. It was a cup with a cover, it was a flag. It may be a pair of candlesticks. Later on, you simply got in gilt plate 14 ounces. In gilt plate 30 ounces. Everything was measured out to the eighth of an ounce, but it was all given as, this is what needs to go to this person. Elizabeth did have her favorites. Robert Dudley, of course, Earl of Leicester was a strong favorite. The Earl of Warg, his brother, Ambrose, was also a favorite. Ambrose's wife was a favorite. You can tell by going through the rolls about what they gave, and also what they received, of a little bit of an idea of their particular prominence within the court. You obviously, the Alondra's gave six handkerchiefs. Different social class area, different amount of money to spend, but she also would get around 10 or 13 ounces of gilt plate, which for her was a pretty nice little gift. One of the most fascinating things about the rolls is that they are here today. Manuscript rolls sometimes survive, sometimes didn't. They often were kept because they had a very lovely signature of Elizabeth. Sometimes in four places on the roll, usually at the beginning, often at the end, and often sometimes at the top of the end of both the two and the five rolls. So you have actual signature of Elizabeth. One of the other important things in the preservation of the rolls has been the number of people who were members of the Society of Antiquaries, who recognized the value of these rolls and were instrumental in saving these rolls, preserving them. Sometimes it was just an object of interest to them. But because it was an object of interest, we have the rolls today. And it's a very interesting transition from the mid 1600s on up to the 1900s of how one of the former presidents of the group, Charles Littleton, who was a Bishop of Carl and a president, actually owned a gift roll. And in his death, it was sold to someone else. We'd be able to track that roll, and we know where that roll is today. So these are very important that people here within the Society of Antiquaries took upon themselves to preserve these rolls and keep them. If you can't go visit all the 12 archives, all over the world, you can at least come by and take a look at at least one of them right here. I know that there are others spread out in London and other cities. And if you can't read 16th-century paleography, you can take a look at my edition and read the edition because the words are at least there so you can figure out what they say with a glossary if you don't understand what something is.