Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jocelin de Brakelond
JOCELIN de Brakelond (fl. 1200), chronicler of St. Edmunds Abbey, was a native of Bury St. Edmunds, where two ancient streets were called Brakelond. He became a member of the convent in 1173, having passed his novitiate under the tuition of Samson of Tottington, then master of the novices, to whose care he had specially been commended. Samson having been elected abbot in 1182, Jocelin was appointed his chaplain, and was his constant companion by day and night for six years. In 1198 and 1200 he was guest-master, and afterwards almoner, an office which he held in 1212. He is described by a contemporary monk of St. Edmunds as remarkably religious and mighty in word and deed. He wrote a chronicle of the abbey from 1173 to 1202, giving first a general sketch of the disordered state of affairs during the last years of Abbot Hugh, who died in 1180, and then a minute account of the proceedings relating to the election of Abbot Samson, and of the means by which Samson raised the abbey to a condition of prosperity. Incorporated in his chronicle is the story of Henry of Essex [q. v.], written at his request by one of his brother monks. Jocelin was a careful observer, shrewd, and quick-witted; and the life-like picture which he draws of Abbot Samson inspired Carlyle to write his striking essay on the abbot in his ‘Past and Present’ in 1843. Jocelin's style is clear, energetic, and familiar. He quotes from Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, and once inserts with acknowledgment a short passage from the ‘Imagines Historiarum’ of Ralph de Diceto (comp. Cronica Jocelini, p. 97, and Radulphi de Diceto Opera, i. 401). The only complete manuscript of the Chronicle now extant is Harl. MS. 1005. It was for the first time edited for the Camden Society by J. G. Rokewood in 1840, and has been reprinted by Mr. T. Arnold in his ‘Memorials of St. Edmunds Abbey,’ i. (Rolls Ser.) 1890. It has been translated, with notes by T. E. Tomlins, under the title ‘Monastic and Social Life in the Twelfth Century,’ &c., 1843. Bale, who says that Jocelin was educated at Cambridge, erroneously ascribes to him an extant tract, ‘De Electione Hugonis Abbatis,’ Harl. MS. 1005, fol. 165 (Rokewood). Jocelin records (p. 12) that he wrote an account of the miracles which followed the burial of St. Robert [see under Hugh, Saint, of Lincoln, d. 1255], a boy alleged to have been slain by the Jews at Bury St. Edmunds in 1181. This work is not known to be extant.
[The two editions of Jocelin's Chronicle noted above; Bale's Scriptt. p. 259, ed. 1559; Carlyle's Past and Present, pp. 51–156, ed. 1857.]