In 1487, John Halyday sued Margaret Partrich to enforce a marriage contract they allegedly made in June 1486; all that survives is the defendant’s examination. Partrich acknowledged in her testimony that Halyday approached her with the intention of contracting marriage, but she says she declined his proposal.
1487-02-07, LMA, MS DL/C/A/001/MS09065, fol. 13v
Testimony of Margaret Partrich, Defendant, 1487-02-07
7 February, in the home of the lord official and at two o’clock p.m.
Margaret Partrich, sworn and re-examined concerning the positions etc. in order to inform the judge’s conscience. To the first and second positions, she says that on a certain day around the last feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist [24 June], that is on that day on which John Lynyar and Hope and John Halyday spoke with her standing next to the […] of this witness’s dwelling-house in the parish of Hest[…], John Halyday talked with this witness about contracting marriage between them, and among the things said between them, he said to her thus, “I will have you to my wife,” and this witness responded to John that she did not want to have him as her husband. She swears these things are true by virtue of her oath, as she says.
Consistory 