JOHN OF

See also:

• HEXHAM

HEXHAM (c. 1160–1209)  , English chronicler, is known to us merely as the author of a work called the Historia X X V. annorum, which continues the Historia regum of Simeon of Durham and contains an account of English events 1130-1153 . From the title, as given in the only manuscript, we learn John's name and the fact that he was prior of Hexham . It must have been between 116o and 1209 that he held this position; but the date at which he lived and wrote cannot be more accurately determined . Up to the year 1139 he follows closely the history written by his predecessor, Prior Richard; thenceiof ward he is an independent though not a very valuable authority . He is best informed as to the events of the north country; his want of care, when he ventures farther afield, may be illustrated by the fact that he places in 1145 King Stephen's siege of Oxford, which really occurred in 1142 . Even for northern affairs his chronology is faulty; from 1140 onwards his dates are uniformly one year too late . Prior Richard is not the only author to whom John is indebted; he incorporates in the annal of 1138 two other narratives of the battle of the Standard, one in verse by the monk Serlo, another in prose by Abbot Ailred of Rievaux; and also a poem, by a Glasgow clerk, on the death of Sumerled of the Isles . The one manuscript of John's chronicle is a 13th century copy; MS . C . C . C . Cambridge, cxxxix .

8 . The best edition is that of T .

Arnold in Symeonis monachi opera, vol. ii . (Rolls Series, 1885) . There is an English translation in J . Stevenson's Church Historians of England, vol. iv . (London, 1856) . (H . W . C .