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Ringing the bells at Durham cathedral

Robert Lonysdale and Christopher Lyndesey of Dent (then Yorkshire, now Cumbria), arrived at Durham Cathedral in mid-July 1486, rang the bells, and sought sanctuary for a decade-old homicide. They told the cathedral’s registrar that in November 1476 or 1477 they had quarrelled with Laurence Falshed at the manor of Howgill in Dent. One or bothContinue reading “Ringing the bells at Durham cathedral”

Highway robberies, escapes, and legal deals

Highway robbery episode: according to jurors in Berkshire, on two occasions in 1484 Thomas Pytfeld, an innholder of Reading, robbed men on the roads around Maidenhead. On the first occasion, in July, he allegedly attacked Walter Sambourne and stole his grey gelding. The second time in October he assaulted Geoffrey Gwyn, the vicar of HurleyContinue reading “Highway robberies, escapes, and legal deals”

A 1487 murder mystery

In late January 1487, John Cole the younger of Great Greenford, Middlesex, was found dead at nearby Norwood. A coroner’s inquest was convened. The inquest jurors declared that Cole had been killed by Richard Smyth, a “mealman” (seller of meal/flour). They also reported that immediately after Smyth ran to the parish church at Southall, takingContinue reading “A 1487 murder mystery”

A Suffolk mercer goes wild

On 20 August 1487, John Boole, mercer of Westhorpe, Suffolk, took sanctuary in his own parish church. He confessed robberies, thefts, and a murder. About eight months before, Boole and his partner in crime, John Herward, a tailor of Beltham, Essex, had robbed a man at Holkham Market in Norfolk, stealing cloth and various otherContinue reading “A Suffolk mercer goes wild”

A murder in Allendale

Another Durham case where something must have come up to prompt two brothers to run to sanctuary for a homicide they’d committed more than eighteen years before. In August 1488, Richard Hawden, a husbandman of Whickham, county Durham, sought sanctuary. He told the cathedral registrar that around 1470, he and his three brothers quarrelled withContinue reading “A murder in Allendale”

Ambiguities of sanctuary

Another Durham case with interesting evidence about the ambiguities of sanctuary – how permissible was it to help a felon escape to asylum? Was it an act of Christian charity, or accessory to felony? In August 1484, John Hudson, a shoemaker of Ripon, came to Durham because a week before he and others had assaultedContinue reading “Ambiguities of sanctuary”

Abjuring? Stick to your route

A déjà-vu-all-over-again case today. John Marten, a yeoman of London, ran into the church of St. Olave [Olaf] in Southwark at the end of January 1489. When the coroner came, he confessed murder. A few weeks before he’d been at Kilburn in Middlesex and hit William Alwen on the head with a longbill, penetrating toContinue reading “Abjuring? Stick to your route”

A quarrel amongst tanners

On a wintry day in February 1489 at Barking, Essex – let’s imagine it was raining, just above freezing, miserable – brothers William and Stephen Burre, two tanners, quarreled with another tanner, John Cursum. The Burre brothers were accused of slashing Cursum with a small knife, giving him a wound from which he died fourContinue reading “A quarrel amongst tanners”

Brutal breach of sanctuary?

An escaped robber and disputed accounts of his arrest: was he violently seized in a church in great disrespect of the sacral space and sanctuary—or simply taken into custody on the city street? In February 1490, Richard Reynold, yeoman of Hendon Middlesex, ran into the London church of St Olave in Old Jewry, escaping arrestContinue reading “Brutal breach of sanctuary?”

Sanctuary breaches and hard resets in Coventry, 1490

There was a real mess of a sanctuary situation in Coventry in 1490 enmeshed in a triangular dispute, featuring the bishop, the city’s government, and the crown. The bishop and the city both played fast and loose with the rules. Seizure #1: In February 1490 William Johnson, tailor of Lincoln, was about to be hangedContinue reading “Sanctuary breaches and hard resets in Coventry, 1490”