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“
Tag Archives: Sexual insults
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“
William Newport c. Isabel Newport
According to the testimony in this case, Isabel Newport was about as bad a wife as it was possible to be in late fifteenth-century London: she was violent, disobedient, sexually promiscuous, and dishonest. The legal basis for the lawsuit, apparently a petition for a judicial separation brought by William Newport against Isabel Newton, is somewhatContinue reading “William Newport c. Isabel Newport“
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”
Alice Brigge c. William Markis
This defamation case from the Essex parishes south of Colchester tells us a number of interesting things both about local-level dispute resolution and about sexual chastity and an unmarried woman’s reputation. At least according to the witnesses called to testify on Alice Brigge’s behalf, William Markis of Essex publicly accused her in the parish church,Continue reading “Alice Brigge c. William Markis”
Maude Bywel c. Elisabeth or Isabel Jeld
A husband and wife from Edmonton, Middlesex, testified in 1494 about a quarrel amongst women on the street outside their house. A physical altercation was followed by insulting words, and it was the words and their effect that were at issue here (as assaults were not in the Consistory court’s jurisdiction). LMA, MS DL/C/A/001/MS09065, fols.Continue reading “Maude Bywel c. Elisabeth or Isabel Jeld“
Elizabeth Pernell c. Elizabeth Pecoke
This is a somewhat curious case. It starts out straightforwardly with a witness saying that she heard the defendant, Elizabeth Pecoke, defaming the plaintiff, Elizabeth Pernell, with a rumour of sexual impropriety: Pecoke allegedly told the witness that Pecoke was being “kept” by a married man in the country. But there is only one witnessContinue reading “Elizabeth Pernell c. Elizabeth Pecoke”
Consistory 