Tag Archives: Greenwich (Sheen manor)

Here a debtor seeks sanctuary, with a couple of twists. In the mid-1470s, William Cowper of London complained to the chancellor about one William Chapman, “dwelling and abiding in sanctuary in Greenwich.” First of all, a curious twist in the complaint: usually Chancery plaintiffs were annoyed with defendant sanctuary men because they were in sanctuaryContinue reading “Debtors in sanctuary and debt litigation: an odd twist”

In the 1460s or 1470s, a London leatherseller named Thomas Bygge ran to sanctuary in Greenwich because he owed £100 (a huge amount of money for a humble leatherseller) to John Hanmer, a London mercer. Hanmer complained to the Chancellor, reporting that he and one of his servants, William Umfray, had gone the previous weekContinue reading “A sanctuary in Greenwich”