Excerpt from Naval Accounts and Inventories of the Reign of Henry VII, 1485-8 and 1495-7 The earliest Of the Keepers known is William Of Wrotham, afterwards Archdeacon of Taunton, in the reign Of John. It is extremely improbable that the post was first instituted by John, although he may have enlarged the powers Of its holder and given him higher rank in the Official hierarchy. Although William Of Wrotham is the first Keeper Of whom we have knowledge, it is likely that he had pre decessors, and that their Office was a copy or a modification Of a similar one held by servants Of the Norman dukes even before the Conquest. That it was so Often a domestic Office, held by members Of the royal household, seems to point to an antiquity coeval with other posts connected with the person or possessions Of the monarch. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.