In 1537, yeoman Thomas Foteman was among thirty-one men accused in the death of William Jackson in Gloucestershire. Foteman was a retainer of Sir John Brydges, later 1st Baron Chandos, career soldier and man of “intense personality,” as his ODNB biographer put it. Brydges was evidently feuding with another aristocrat, Sir John Huddleston, who’d hadContinue reading “Gentry feuds, highway robbery, mistaken identity”
Tag Archives: Homicide
Quarrel with a “master of fence”
One day in early spring 1538, gentleman Edward Wolff was in the precinct of St Martin le Grand visiting the shop of a goldsmith. Wolff was servant to Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford and brother of the recently deceased Queen Jane. St Martin’s was home to a number of alien (immigrant) goldsmiths, whose work wasContinue reading “Quarrel with a “master of fence””
Cheshire feuds
Cheshire was a hotbed of violent gentry rivalries. The violence wasn’t confined to Cheshire itself: in 1539, two killings occurred in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The first: on 10 February 1539, a coroner’s inquest was held over the body of gentleman Richard Cholmeley of Cheshire, who lay “feloniously murdered” near StContinue reading “Cheshire feuds”
Death of a Spanish merchant
On 15 July 1539, a Spanish merchant named John de Ordonna was found dead in the courtyard of another Spanish merchant, Fernando de Verdesey, in London. A coroner’s inquest was convened to investigate the cause of his death. The inquest jurors determined that Ordonna had been killed by the servant of Alvarowe de Astudelio, anotherContinue reading “Death of a Spanish merchant”
Lucky man
In some 1539 cases, sanctuary seekers seized from church precincts on Thomas Cromwell’s orders had unhappy endings. Anthony Spencer was also unceremoniously grabbed from the Westminster sanctuary late that year, but the conclusion of his case was quite different. In mid-October 1539, Spencer, a “yeoman of London,” robbed and murdered one John Morres in Surrey.Continue reading “Lucky man”
Just in time
Today a quite ordinary sanctuary seeker, whose case is interesting because he’s one of the last to use the old system before it changed mid-1540: he snuck under the wire. The story of John Porter, a labourer of Fewston, Yorkshire, had begun much earlier, in 1528. In that year Porter had been at Lancaster (someContinue reading “Just in time”
Off on a technicality
Something a bit funny happened with this case. A man committed murder but got off on a completely fictitious technicality. (He also took sanctuary, though that’s probably incidental to the fixing of his case.) In March 1541, Robert Whitfield, yeoman of Southwark, assaulted and killed another yeoman, Nicholas Grene of London. Afterwards, Whitfield fled toContinue reading “Off on a technicality”
Westmorland coroner screws up
When early modern governments introduced new legal procedures, a challenge was to make sure those who had to implement the new policies knew about them. Sometimes apparently that didn’t happen, as in this tale of a Westmorland coroner in 1542. I feel certain that he was really apologetic. Way up in the north in theContinue reading “Westmorland coroner screws up”
Sanctuary in the reign of Mary I
There were few seekers in the 1540s – and I’ve found none at all in the short reign of Edward VI. In theory sanctuary was still operating in the sanctuary cities and parliament tweaked the legislation twice, suggesting it was being used. But no actual records of cases. Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, there was a smallContinue reading “Sanctuary in the reign of Mary I”
Just like the old days
In Mary’s reign, something like the traditional privilege was exercised again at Westminster Abbey. The historian who’s written about this, David Loades, argues (sensibly) that this was a strategic demonstration of the abbey’s rights and immunities. So we see a few cases of debtors and a few accused of homicide in Westminster. There are aContinue reading “Just like the old days”
Sanctuary Seekers in England, 1394-1557 