A hidden poem found in dusty early 17th century legal parchments at the National Archives has shed fresh light on a colourful character who moved in the leading literary and legal circles of the day.

Written by Robert Dover, a King’s Bench attorney and friend of the poet Ben Jonson, the short piece laments the quality of his handwritten legal plea rolls due to a lack of gall apples from which to make his ink.

It was penned in the margin of Dover’s rolls – or accounts – of legal proceedings at the King’s Bench, Westminster, where it was found last month by Dr Euan Roger, a principal records specialist at the National Archives, among numerous metre-long plea rolls, each containing up to 700 hand-scribed parchments.

Dover, an attorney and legal clerk, described as “generous, jovial and noble-minded”, was the same man who in 1612 founded the Cotswolds Olimpick Games – an annual Whitsun sporting competition featuring horse racing, wrestling, jumping, tumbling, shin-kicking, rural dancing and much feasting and merriment. The games continue today, though the coronavirus pandemic has cancelled them this year.

A frontispiece to Annalia Dubrensia, a 1636 published account of the games, depicts Dover on horseback as master of ceremonies. It contains 33 poems in his honour from poets including Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton, as well as one by Dover himself.

In a blog on the National Archives website, Roger said: “Dover’s short poem in the plea roll for Trinity [term] 1627 gives us a very different insight into his daily life, outside of the festivities of the Olimpicks and his courtly and literary connections.”

In the poem, Dover apologises for his rolls in the previous term, which were apparently “painted very ill” because of a lack of gall apples used to make his ink. On a play with the word apples he goes on to state that his “painting” this term is much better, as “pells”(a form of parchment skins) shows his skill, while preserving himself against future shortages, “if my rolls be painted sometimes bad, think that apples is not always had”.

Roger said the plea rolls – the main records of the court – were “massive” and covered in coal dust, as they were dried next to coal fires. The poem was written in a margin. “For me it is a real insight into how these documents came to be. It gives a very human side to that job of anonymous legal clerks,” he added.

“When you look at the word play in this poem, and the games he founded which are still running today, it is clear he is quite a fun character.”

Dover, born between 1575 and 1582, in Norfolk, studied at Cambridge University, was admitted to Gray’s Inn in 1605, and called to the bar in 1611. He was known as a “wit”, a poet, and presided over the annual Cotswold Olimpick Games, held in the hills above Chipping Camden, for 40 years. The games were revived in 1965.

The poem:
To Mr Ralph Gibson

Last tearme my Rowles were painted very ill,

Because Apelles then I could not find,

But now behould As pelles shewes his skill,

Only indeede to satisfy your mynd,

And if my Rowles be painted sometymes bad,

Think that Apelles is not allwayes had.