On a Sunday morning in early February 1493, a group of people met in the parish vestry of the church in Enfield, Middlesex, to discuss some problem regarding a wedding that had been planned for that day between Joan Cordewell and Thomas King. Thomas King’s brother or half-brother, William Ulvestur of London, had travelled upContinue reading “Christian Wroth c. Denise Barley”
Author Archives: shannonmcsheffrey
Emma Rose c. Thomas Dicons and Margery Dicons
This case has a somewhat unusual form: a woman named Emma Rose sued a couple, Thomas and Margery Dicons, in order to have her own marriage to Thomas Dicons annulled. As all the witnesses including Thomas himself agreed, his marriage to Emma Rose had occurred after he was already married to Margery, making the secondContinue reading “Emma Rose c. Thomas Dicons and Margery Dicons”
John Maliber c. Agnes Dalston alias Boste
John Maliber sued Agnes Dalston alias Boste in 1493, claiming that she had unjustly withheld from him a bequest or legacy from her late husband, Thomas Dalston. Maliber had been Thomas Dalston’s apprentice, only newly beginning the usual seven-year term when Dalston died in 1484. Dalston’s surviving will indicates that he was a citizen glover.[1]Continue reading “John Maliber c. Agnes Dalston alias Boste”
Joan Munden c. John Fynke
In this case from the town of Walthamstow in Essex, Joan Munden sued John Fynke to enforce a contract of marriage she claimed he made with her but which he refused to honour. As the testimony indicates, the meaning of gifts and sex in a relationship between an unmarried man and woman were ambiguous. Legally,Continue reading “Joan Munden c. John Fynke”
Avice [Unknown] c. Richard Clerk
For this case, only the response of the defendant survives. We can infer from Richard Clerk’s answers that he had been sued by a woman named Avice who alleged that the two had contracted marriage. He admitted that on a spring day in a field he had urged her to have sex with him asContinue reading “Avice [Unknown] c. Richard Clerk”
William Plumbe c. Richard Reynold
This seems a straightforward debt case: William Plumbe sued Richard Reynold over a two-year-old loan of ten shillings that Reynold had only partially repaid. It is worthy of note, however, that the witnesses’ evidence is vague on the central legal issue: debts could be pursued in a church court because failure to pay was aContinue reading “William Plumbe c. Richard Reynold”
William Yewle and Thomas Grey c. Katherine Garington
In 1493 William Yewle and Thomas Grey both sued Katherine Garington, each claiming she had contracted marriage with him. As her father Robert Elys had a different surname, on first glance it seems likely she was a widow, suggesting one reason (property from her dead husband) why both men sought to marry her, though ofContinue reading “William Yewle and Thomas Grey c. Katherine Garington”
Richard Cordey c. Lettice Smyth
In November 1493, Richard Cordey sued Lettice Smyth to enforce a marriage contract he claimed to have made with her. He was unable, however, to produce witnesses who could claim unambiguously to have been present when the two said the requisite words of consent to one another (one heard only a one-sided exchange, Lettice remainingContinue reading “Richard Cordey c. Lettice Smyth”
Alice [Unknown] c. John Remyngton
Though only the response of the defendant survives for this case and even the full name of the plaintiff is unknown, we can infer some of her claims from John Remyngton’s denials: she evidently argued that they had exchanged tokens of marriage and had slept together as man and wife. Remyngton denied that either meantContinue reading “Alice [Unknown] c. John Remyngton”
Office c. Henry Baker and Thomas Pursot
When John Rawlyn of the Essex town of Ulting died in 1493, he left a testament in which the name of one of the executors, “a certain Carr” of Chelmsford, was crossed out. This raised suspicions that the document had been tampered with, that the other executors had deleted Carr’s name after Rawlyn’s death. ThoughContinue reading “Office c. Henry Baker and Thomas Pursot”
Consistory 