In July 1487, Richard Crocheman sued William Baldewyn for defamation: Baldewyn had repeatedly over the last six weeks called Crocheman a sheep thief. The witnesses, all from Barking in Essex (as presumably were also Crocheman and Baldewyn), paid close attention to the legal requirements for defamation: the plaintiff had to have suffered a loss ofContinue reading “Richard Crocheman c. William Baldewyn“
Category Archives: Defamation
John Call c. Elizabeth Hertford
In this defamation case, Elizabeth Hertford of Islington was accused of grievously insulting her neighbour John Call, calling him a thief, a cuckold, and various other names (accusations that tell us some interesting things about the construction of masculine gender identity). The legal basis of a defamation claim required that the witnesses testify to howContinue reading “John Call c. Elizabeth Hertford“
Joan Essex c. Agnes Badcock
In late September 1488, Agnes Badcock allegedly accused a neighbour, Joan Essex, of committing adultery with Agnes’s husband John. The testimony offered by four men who lived nearby is fascinating and appalling in various ways: Agnes Badcock’s accusation against Joan Essex was delivered in dramatic fashion, screamed on the street after Agnes had fled aContinue reading “Joan Essex c. Agnes Badcock“
John Mendis c. John Adam
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 briefContinue reading “John Mendis c. John Adam“
Joan Ponder c. Margaret Samer
In early 1490, Margaret Samer of Buttsbury, Essex, allegedly said a number of scurrilous things about her neighbour Joan Ponder or more precisely about Joan’s mother: that Joan was not her father’s daughter but instead the product of her mother’s adulterous liaison with a friar; that Joan’s mother had been a “harlot.” As the witnessesContinue reading “Joan Ponder c. Margaret Samer“
Robert Woode c. Joan Patryk
In 1491 Joan Patryk accused Robert Woode, a shearman, of having “cut her purse,” literally cutting the cord from which a woman’s pouch or purse hung from her girdle or belt. She alleged this had happened while they, their spouses, and several other people had been socializing and drinking in the house of Joan andContinue reading “Robert Woode c. Joan Patryk“
John Bradfeld c. Joan John
Witnesses for this defamation case depict a vivid scene of Joan John and John Bradfeld arguing with one another by the Hythe[1], Colchester’s harbour some distance from the city itself. Joan accused John Bradfeld of being a “strong thief” and “a false extortioner.” The witnesses called to support John Bradfeld’s defamation suit against Joan JohnContinue reading “John Bradfeld c. Joan John”
William Pepard c. Alice Mayte
This is an unusual defamation case: a mother, Alice Mayt, publicly accused a man, William Pepard, of having murdered her son, a child. The witnesses give some interesting details about precisely where each was standing when the words were spoken, at a corner by the church in the parish of St. Lawrence Jewry, the variousContinue reading “William Pepard c. Alice Mayte”
Christian Wroth c. Denise Barley
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”
Cecily Clerk c. William Huntingfeld
In 1494 a London woman named Cecily Clerk sued William Huntingfeld for defamation. Four men who came forth as witnesses detailed Huntingfeld’s campaign of harassment against Clerk conducted across a multitude of venues, stemming perhaps (as one witness suggested) from a quarrel between Huntingfeld and Cecily’s husband John over the election of ward officials. HuntingfeldContinue reading “Cecily Clerk c. William Huntingfeld”
Consistory 