Ellen Mortemer of Bermondsey sued William Chowe in 1492; all we have of the case is Chowe’s response to her submission, which we can infer involved a claim that the two of them had contracted marriage three or four years before. Chowe admitted that she and he had made conditional vows of marriage: as longContinue reading “Ellen Mortemer c. William Chowe”
Category Archives: Marriage
Agnes Crowcher c. John Trewington or Trewerton
Agnes Crowcher sued John Trewington in 1492 to enforce a contract of marriage she claimed they had made. In responding to her suit, Trewington denied they had made any such contract. We can infer from his answers that she had made a claim that either he gave her, or she gave him, a coin asContinue reading “Agnes Crowcher c. John Trewington or Trewerton”
Marion Filders c. John Arnold
This may be an example of a stalled marriage process: according to the three witnesses, more than two years before, Marion Filders and John Arnold had contracted marriage in the house of John and Elizabeth Hayward in Stratford Langthorne, Essex. The only hint as to what had gone wrong afterwards is in the third witness’sContinue reading “Marion Filders c. John Arnold“
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”
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 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 Newlond and Joan Gardyner
This was a disciplinary case: Henry Newlond and Joan Gardyner had gone ahead and formalized their marriage despite Henry having been strictly forbidden from entering into any marital contracts while another case against him was pending. There are some interesting aspects of his brief examination. First, it is odd that Newlond claimed not to knowContinue reading “Office c. Henry Newlond and Joan Gardyner”
Consistory 