In 15th-century England, if you couldn’t pay your debts your creditors could throw you in prison until you were able to pay them off: no bankruptcy declarations, no restructuring, just a rather counter-productive carceral stint. Prisons were unpleasant, to say the least, so of course you’d do what you could to avoid that arrest, especiallyContinue reading “Inventing a felony to escape a creditor?”
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Conspiracy to murder in Gloucester
On 4 November 1426, one Thomas Brugge was attacked and killed at Gloucester. The coroner’s inquest jury reported that Richard Arleston, also of Gloucester, servant, had committed the murder, and that Arleston’s master, John Rede of Gloucester, brewer and constable of the town, along with five of Rede’s other servants, were accessories to murder. TheContinue reading “Conspiracy to murder in Gloucester”
William Wawe and Beaulieu Abbey
Circa 1426 William Wawe, a husbandman of Worcestershire, was indicted for many horse thefts (at least eight) and a litany of other crimes. It seems, in fact, that he became the poster-boy for uncontrolled crime in the kingdom. His name was notorious enough that it would be invoked in following years to smear political opponentsContinue reading “William Wawe and Beaulieu Abbey”
MP John Colles joins the Wawe gang?
John Colles, a wool merchant from Huntingdon who served four times as MP in the early 1420s, was named in a 1427 parliamentary petition that alleged he had defrauded creditors and since then had “retreated” to various sanctuaries, at Westminster Abbey, Culham (a manor of Abingdon abbey), and Beaulieu Abbey, staying out of reach ofContinue reading “MP John Colles joins the Wawe gang?”
Gentry violence in Lincolnshire, 1427
In 1427 a gentleman in his 50s assembled a small private army to ambush an enemy. The enemy was killed in the affray and the gentleman ran to sanctuary – but then later was acquitted of the charge. He went on (of course) to be an MP and sheriff. On 10 August 1427, a coroner’sContinue reading “Gentry violence in Lincolnshire, 1427”
The long road to sanctuary
Some sanctuary seekers taking asylum in a parish church travelled remarkable distances across the kingdom of England committing crimes and then escaping from the consequences. In the late 1420s, one seeker left his home in Yorkshire seeking work in Northumberland; things went awry at his workplace in Newcastle, however, causing him to flee a murderContinue reading “The long road to sanctuary”
A robber’s miscalculation
On 18 May 1428, John Ledbury, a London joiner, took sanctuary in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft. He confessed to the coroner that together with William Scardeburgh he had robbed a man on the road to Edgware, telling the victim that he was the constable of Edgware and demanding that he hand over hisContinue reading “A robber’s miscalculation”
Official incompetence and compensatory bluster
On 11 August 1429, Thomas Pykeryng, a chapman of Gloucester, was in prison in Gloucester castle awaiting trial when he managed to escape, running to sanctuary in the nearby parish church of Holy Trinity. There he confessed to the Gloucester coroners that he had burglarized one Thomas Osteller’s house in 1427. What’s interesting about thisContinue reading “Official incompetence and compensatory bluster”
Two-for-one
On 28 May 1429, two fleeing felons, who had committed unrelated crimes but had somehow joined up, took sanctuary together in the parish church of St. Dunstan in Cheam, Surrey. Although the record doesn’t say in their case, in other similar situations the felons had met in prison and escaped together. Jessica Freeman was theContinue reading “Two-for-one”
Apostasy and sanctuary, 1430
In 1430, Henry Ciprian and Roger Bukke, two Augustinian canons, fled from their priory at Waltham, Essex, and sought sanctuary at the collegiate church of St. Martin le Grand in London. Their request for asylum sparked a major conflict between the dean of St. Martin’s and the mayor and aldermen of London over the church’sContinue reading “Apostasy and sanctuary, 1430”
Sanctuary Seekers in England, 1394-1557 