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The First Historian of Cumberland 15
It should be premised that John Denton made no claim to be a
political or ecclesiastical historian. The title prefixed
to his work
shows that his aim was to trace the descent '
of the most considerable
estates and families in the county of Cumberland.' His
manuscript is without doubt fragmentary and unfinished : a good
text is still a desideratum : there is no evidence that it was intended
for the public eye. So far as can be judged the 'Accompt' was
drawn up as a guide for himself in his investigations on behalf of
the Crown. Every reader, acquainted with original sources, must
acknowledge that Denton worked from the best evidences he could
find in the limited sphere of his undertaking : he was not a
second-hand expositor of other men's collections : he had no
opportunity, like Mr. Hinde and his imitators,
to establish his
infallibility by criticising the labours of his predecessors.
When original evidences were not available for his purpose,
he
had recourse, and that very sparingly,
to second-rate documents,
the chief of which was that much maligned tract known as the
Chronicon Cumbrie. 1
It is rather
singular
that the statements of
Denton, which have called forth the loudest lamentation, were
taken from that document. In estimating the sources of his
admitted errors, the Chronicon may be accepted as a specimen of
the authorities by which he was led astray.
It is well to remember the nature and character of this compilation.
Some of Denton's detractors describe it as a monkish
legend. It is
nothing of the kind, though we are indebted for its
preservation to the literary
instincts of the medieval churchmen of
Cumberland. Speaking in a general way, the greater part of it,
except the few preliminary flourishes of the exordium, is of the
utmost historical value. This is not the place
to test its state-
ments, but it may be briefly said that the tract must be judged in
the light of the environment from whence it emanated. This
source of some of Denton's errors is a
legal document of the early
part of the fourteenth century, compiled, like other documents of
that
period, for submission to the King's Courts in proof of the
territorial descent of the Honor of Cockermouth from the fount
2
of tenure to the date of the
great dispute. In the absence of direct
has pronounced Denton's work as '
a wonderful record of wide and painstaking
research.' It is significant that both writers are students of original sources.
1 A trustworthy text of this short document is very much needed. It has been too
often printed from corrupt sources.
2 See my arguments in Viet. Hist, of Cumb. i. 297-8, which have been accepted
by such an authority as Dr. William Greenwell in Hist, of Northumberland, vii. 29.