In April 1488, several Middlesex men were talking together in the yard of a manor house following a wedding feast when one accused another of being a thief and threatened to drive him from their town of Edgware. The witnesses’ testimony tells us not only about the circumstances of this defamatory insult but capture brief moments of social interaction in the farmlands west of London, now the areas made up by Hyde Park, the West End, Bayswater, and further afield.
LMA, MS DL/C/A/001/MS09065, fols. 45v-47r
Testimony of Henry Parson, Witness for the Plaintiff, 25 Nov. 1488
On behalf of John Mendis c. John Adam
25 November in the house of the lord Official, by him, in my, Richard Spencer’s, presence
Henry Parson of the parish of Harrow on the Hill [Middlesex], London diocese, where he was born, literate, of free condition, sixty years old, as he says. Inducted as a witness etc., he says that he has known John Mendis for a year and more, and John Adam for twenty years. To the fourth and fifth articles of the libel, he says that on the Sunday following the last feast of Easter [13 Apr. 1488], the first Sunday on which by custom of the Church nuptials can be celebrated, this witness was present in the hall of the Westminster Abbey manor called Ebury,[1] and as he recalls situated within the parish of St. Martin,[2] where and when after the meal was finished on that day, around two p.m., the aforesaid John Mendis and John Adam were talking outside the hall and in the yard there about farming and the payment of tithes from their lands. And at length, as John Mendis went out of the house for his horse so that he could ride home, as he said, with this witness and others, John Adam in John Mendis’s absence, spoke these words about John Mendis: “He is a strong thief and that I will prove. He shall be shown out of our town one of these days, like a strong thief as he is.” And these things were said by him then and there in the presence of this witness, William Erle, William Baker, Robert Person, and others whom he does not now recall. This witness deposes these things from his own sight and hearing, as he says. To the sixth article, he says that William has undergone many efforts and spent much money around the prosecution of this witness, and otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents.[3] To the seventh article, he says that its contents are true as far as this witness knew or heard. To the eighth article, he says that the things he said above are true, and he knows nothing concerning fame. To the first interrogatory, let it be as is claimed therein. To the second interrogatory, he says that he is a farmer, in English a husbandman, and for the rest he says as he said above, and he says that he favours neither party nor does he care about victory as long as justice is served. To the third interrogatory, he says that he has come to give testimony of the truth at the request of Mendis, and he says that this witness spoke with the other witnesses so that he would depose the truth and not otherwise, as he says. And he responds negatively to the other contents. To the fourth interrogatory, he says as he said above, and he says that he does not remember well with what expression John Adam spoke those words to him, as he recalls not with a happy spirit, and he says that John Adam spoke those words sitting on his horse in the yard . And otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents. To the fifth interrogatory, he says as he said above, and otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents, as he says.
Testimony of William Erle, Witness for the Plaintiff, 25 Nov. 1488
William Erle of the parish of Harrow [-on-the-Hill, Middlesex] aforesaid, where he has lived for three years and more, and before that time at Brentford [Middlesex], where he was born, illiterate, of free condition, forty years old, as he says. Inducted as a witness etc., he says that he has known John Mendis for a year and a half and more, and John Adam he first saw and knew on the day about which he will depose below. To the fourth and fifth articles of the libel, he says that on the Sunday when the celebration of nuptials is first permitted, the next after the last feast of Easter, this witness was at the feast celebrating the nuptials between John Moreis, servant of Ebury near Westminster, and Christian, the widow of William Parson late of Edgware [Middlesex]. And after the feast John Mendis and John Adam were in the courtyard, that is the yard, of the manor, talking about farming and seeding of certain lands, and after they had spoken for a good while, John Mendis leaving that place to go for his horse as he told them, this witness, Henry Person, John Adam, Robert Person, and John Girard had mounted their horses in the courtyard waiting there for John Mendis to come, and among other things, John Adam, with an angry spirit, said of John Mendis, “He is a strong thief, I will prove him a thief.” And then this witness advised him and said to him, “Beware, father, what ye say, it is as much as he is worth that ye say.” And John said, “I will prove him a thief and one of these days he shall be left out of the town of Edgware.” This witness deposes these things from his own sight and hearing, as he says. To the sixth article, he says that he knows nothing concerning its contents. To the seventh article, he says its contents are true as far as he ever knew or heard, as he says. To the eighth article, he says that the things he said are true, and he knows nothing concerning the fame. To the first interrogatory, let it be as is claimed therein. To the second interrogatory, he says as he said above, he says that he is a baker and that he does not favour one party more than the other, and he responds negatively to its other contents. To the third interrogatory, he says that he has come to give testimony of the truth at the request of John Mendis, and not otherwise, and he responds negatively to its other contents. To the fourth interrogatory, he says as he said above, and he says that these words were spoken after noon of the day, around the hour of three, and he was present there because of the celebration of the nuptials. And otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents. To the fifth interrogatory, he says as he said above. And otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents.
Testimony of Robert Person, Witness for the Plaintiff, 25 Nov. 1488
Robert Person, husbandman of Harrow aforesaid, where he has lived from the time of his birth and where he was born, illiterate, of free condition, twenty-four years old, as he says. Inducted as a witness etc., he says that he has known John Mendis for a year, and John Adam for the same time. To the fourth and fifth articles of the libel, he says that on the day and at the time about which William Erle deposed above, this witness, sitting on his horse in the courtyard of the manor of Ebury, heard the aforesaid John Adam saying about John Mendis, then absent, these words in English, with an angry spirit, “He is a strong thef and that will I prove. I will be one of them that shall drive him out of town.” And there were present and hearing those words this witness, Henry Person, William Erle, and others whom he does not now recall, and he says that these words were spoken there about the hour of two on that day. This witness deposes these things from his own sight and hearing, as he says. To the sixth article, he says that he knows nothing concerning its contents. To the seventh article, he says that its contents are true as far as this witness ever knew or heard, as he says. To the eighth article, he says that the things he said above are true, and that public voice and fame circulated and circulate in the town of Harrow, as he says. To the first interrogatory, let it be as is claimed therein. To the second interrogatory, he says as he said above, and he says that he does not favour one party more than the other, nor does he care about victory as long as justice is done. To the third interrogatory, he says that he has come to give testimony of the truth at the request of Mendis, and he responds negatively to its other contents. To the fourth interrogatory, he says as he said above, and he says that at the time of the speaking of the words, this witness and John Adam were sitting on their horses in the courtyard. And otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents. To the fifth article, he says as he said above. And otherwise he knows nothing concerning its contents.
[1] The Westminster Abbey manor of Ebury or Eye, which occupied much of the area of the modern London west end and Hyde Park, from the Thames up to Oxford Street and Bayswater, roughly between the Vauxhall Bridge / New Bond Street and Westminster. William Loftie Rutton, “The Manor of Eia, or Eye next Westminster,” Archaeologia 62 (1910): 31-58; Barbara Harvey, Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 350.
[2] The parish of St. Martin in the Fields, situated between London and Westminster (now on Trafalgar Square).
[3] It’s not clear who William was: the question this answer implies must have involved an allegation of bias against Henry Parson because Wiliam had sued him in some unspecified court.
Consistory 