Pages 311-318
Calendar of the Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London: Volume 3, 1381-1412. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1932.
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ROLL A 42
Roll of Memoranda of the time of Robert Chichele, mayor of the city of London, in the 13th year of King Henry IV
Membr. 1
14 Jan. (1412)
Lease from Sir Robert Dukesworthe, master or warden of the new college of minor canons of St Paul's church, to Nicholas Ryngwode, bladesmith, and Enima his wife, for 20 years of a tenement in Diserlane (fn. 1), bounded on the east by a tenement of the minor canons in the occupation of Roger Westwode, on the west by Diserlane, on the south by a tenement of St Paul's church in the occupation of Sir William de Coloigne, canon, and on the north by the king's highway, at an annual rent of 4 marks, the tenants agreeing to keep the premises in repair, including the pavements, to cleanse a watercourse running through the lane from the Scoldynghous (fn. 2), to keep both ends of the lane closed with gates, keys and locks, not to remove any new buildings they might erect on the site, and not to sublet or assign the premises.
Membr. 1 b
4 Feb. 1412
Lease from Nicholas Whaddon, esquire, of co. Berks and Agnes his wife to William Gynore, steynour, for 20 years of a corner-shop with houses and solars built above it, and two other shops and solars on the south side, of which one was in the occupation of the lessee and the other late in the occupation of Thomas Meryng, clerk, the whole being situate outside Ludgate in the parish of St Martin, at an annual rent of 5 marks 4d. Dated 1 Feb. 1412.
13 Jan. 1412
John Wolmer, cousin of William Serle, carpenter, who had been apprenticed to Richard Morcok, carpenter, by the said William, was exonerated from his indentures, because his master had left the city and failed to provide for him.
Membr. 2
4 Jan. 1412 (fn. 3)
Lease from Nicholas Whaddon, esquire, of co. Berks and Agnes his wife to Richard Wellom, cutler, for 20 years of two shops outside Ludgate, which William Milward, late horner, held of the demise of Sir William Stratton, knight, and Ellen his wife, at an annual rent of 70s. Dated at London on Easterday the same year.
20 March 1412
John Multon, skinner, appeared before the mayor and John Penne, alderman, and acknowledged having received the sum of £100 due on a statute merchant from the late Sir Andrew Cavendissh, knight, of co. Suffolk, the said Sir Andrew having bound himself in £200 on 18 Oct. 1391 before John Hadeley, mayor of the Staple of Westminster, to pay the sum of £100 to the said John Multon on 18 April following.
26 March 1412
William Briggenorth, late apprentice of John Cosseham, mercer, acknowledged as his deed a public instrument, dated 24 March 1411, according to the fifth indiction and in the second year of Pope John XXIII, witnessing that, after a discussion with his late master in the church of St Lawrence Jewry, he had confessed that he had not acted as his attorney, factor or servant for seven years before last Christmas or at any time since, and immediately afterwards he had made a quitclaim to his master of all actions, real, personal and mixed, and had renounced all exceptions (fn. 4) and especially those of dolt mali and in hoc facto, and all remedies and aids of civil and canon law and especially of the law (fn. 5) saying that general renunciations were of no validity except in so far as they preceded special renunciations. Witnesses, John Lane, alderman, Thomas Aleyn, Simon Bartelot, John Coventre, Richard Coventre, Richard Bures, John Middelton, Richard Herry, John Wareyn and Richard Awedre, mercers.
Certificates of Robert Northelod, clerk, of the diocese of Wells, public notary, procurator-general of the court of Canterbury, and of William Bray, clerk, of the diocese of Lincoln, public notary, who were present.
Membr. 2 b
6 April 1412
Writ demanding that William Button, clerk, and John Leek, tawere (fn. 6) who had been arrested and detained in prison, be brought before the king in person (in propria persona nostra) with the cause of their taking and detaining. Dated at Canterbury 6 April 1412.
Return of Robert Chichele, mayor, and Walter Cotton and John Reynewell, sheriffs, that William Sutton, clerk, and John Leek had been taken in the city and committed to prison on information that the former had written a paper in English, which the latter had affixed to the door of a garden in the parish of All Hallows Berkyng in Tower Ward, where on 24 Jan. certain unknown persons had broken down the earthen wall surrounding the garden, the writing on the paper being as follows:
"Here hath ben this nyght a cumpanye of trewe men by comen assent of alle this worshipfull Citee to warne yow with a litel stroke or more harme come to gader up your erbys (fn. 7) & trees or ellys it shal al be destried right as ye see for we wole have our grounde whos evyr be grucche it for we have yoven o stroke & more is for to come but yf ye with your ovne goode wylle amende it your selfe for this is not don of on or two but of many one & mo wil come of al the craftes of alle this worshipful Citee. & ther for thanke god that yo have no more harm at this tyme for thorughe þe counseille of viii men, iii score lefte to do more harme & yet þei seyne þei wole come ayen we wote never howe sone. & ther for it is the best be goddis ore (fn. 8) your ovne worship for to save: loke þt noman pleyne (fn. 9) hym more but holde þt he have."
By reason of the above, the said William and John had been detained until the mayor and sheriffs might take counsel as to their delivery.
5 May 1412
Bond of Richard Newman, brewer, to Robert Bastewyk, vintner, in £20 to abide by the award of John Russell. Robert Blake, Thomas Heighelme and William Edward, sailer, who had been chosen (fn. 10) by the jury between the parties, with the consent of the said Richard and Robert, to arbitrate on their differences.
22 Aug. 1412
Geo Bovy, merchant of Lucca, came into court and delivered to Thomas Aleyn, mercer, in part payment o: money owed to him, an obligation dated 13 April 1412, in which a certain John Ikelyngdon, clerk, was bound to the said Geo in 244 marks.
Membr. 3
8 June 1412
Bond of John Mynne and John Tredewe, skinners, to William Grome and Thomas Sawyn, cheesemongers, in £13 7s 6d that the said John Mynne, or someone on his behalf, would produce before Aug. 1 letters under the authentic seal of the town of Bruges, proving that he or others in his name had already paid the above-mentioned sum to them.
21 Aug. 1412
Bond of John Sundyford of Camerwelle (fn. 11) co. Surrey to William Bourgchier, knight, in 50 marks, that two acqu ttances, which he had delivered in the presence of the mayor to a certain Walter Verney to be handed over to the said Sir William, were genuine acquittances made by Sir John Assheton, that he was the attorney of Sir John Assheton, and that neither the latter nor his executors would afterwards repudiate them.
The first acquittance, dated 24 June 1412, acknowledged receipt by Sir John de Assheton, knight, from Sir William Borugchier, knight, of the sum of 50 marks in part payment of 200 marks due to him on a recognisance, the money having been awarded to him in an arbitration concerning the manor of Rothewell, and paid by the hands of John Lopham.
Membr. 3 b
The second acquittance, dated the same day, acknowledged receipt of the whole sum of 200 marks.
8 Sept. 1412
Bond of Stephen Turnebonis of Florence, attorney of Francis de Turnebonis and of the whole society of the same, and Philip de Albertis, merchant of Florence, in 100 marks, to John Reynewell, ironmonger, that they would exonerate him from any claims for £50 made against him by Henry Kaym, constable of the town of Sydingbourne (fn. 12). This sum had been paid by Henry Kaym in the presence of Nicholas Bubbewyth, then keeper of the rolls of Chancery, to a certain Stephen Boche, attorney of the society of Turnebonis, John Reynewell being surety.
The same day a similar bond was made to save harmless the above-mentioned Philip de Albertis.
13 Sept. 1412
Bond of John Ballard, brewer, to Alexander de Albertis, to pay 10 marks, if authentic proof were brought before Easter either that Maurice Senain of Ireland was alive at the present date, or, if he were dead, that he or some one in his name before his death had received from the society of the Albertines the sum of 40 gold florins.
3 Nov. 1412
William Furnesse of co. Lancaster, who had bound himself apprentice to John Carleton, goldsmith, by indentures enrolled at the Guildhall on 9 Nov. 1410 in a register (papiro) marked C, reported that his master had died and prayed the Mayor and Aldermen to assign him to some other good man of the same mistery to learn his trade and serve the remainder of his term. And as this was a reasonable petition and consonant with the custom of the city, the Mayor and Aldermen, with the consent of the said William Fournesse, assigned the said William Furneux (fn. 13) to William Randolph, goldsmith, on condition that, if his master or his master's executors testified to the chamberlain that he had served well and faithfully, he should become a freeman of the city.
Membr. 4
4 Oct. 1412
Writ of certiorari demanding that information be sent to Chancery concerning the examination of Richard Fylongley, esquire, and John Broun in the presence of Thomas Knolles, late Mayor, the Recorder and the Aldermen of the City, with regard to an alleged release from the said Richard to the said John and other matters touching an action of account between them pending before the justices of the Bench; and further, concerning the evidence of Thomas Wodyngfeld, esquire, the king's serjeant-at-arms, taken before the Mayor, Aldermen and Recorder. Dated at Westminster 4 Oct. 1412.
Return of the mayor, Robert Chichele, as follows: The plaintiff Richard Fylongley and the defendant John Broun had appeared before the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen on 16 Oct. 1411, in connection with the action pending before the justices of the Bench, when John Broun, being examined on oath, said that Richard Fylongley sealed a quitclaim and gave it to him in his house in the parish of St Dunstan, but he could not remember whether the person who wrote the quitclaim was cleric or lay, young or old, or where it was written or in whose presence, and that afterwards in his house he accounted with the said Richard every night and sometimes paid him a noble or two, more or less, and sent down fish, spices and other things by Richard's orders to his manor of Hertfeld (fn. 14) in payment of arrears, but he did not know the amount or value of them. Further, he said in examination that no one was present when these payments were made beyond Richard and himself, and that no other account was made. On the same day Thomas Wodyngfeld appeared before the Mayor, Aldermen and Recorder, and said that he had taken into his service a certain John, who had been servant of John Broun, and afterwards when they were in Gascony, this servant told him that John Broun had secretly applied Richard Fylongley's seal without his knowledge to the pendant of a large blank sheet of parchment, at a time when Richard was ill in Broun's house. When he, the witness, remarked that John Broun was much indebted to Richard Fylongley for the office of weighing and tronage in the city, the servant replied that John Broun had told him that the parchment was for a deed, in order that the king might be excluded from his debt. On the other hand John Broun swore expressly that at the time when Richard Fylongley was sick in his house he had no menservants at all but only women.
Membr. 5
20 April 1412
Memorandum that the Mayor and Aldermen called before themselves a plaint levied in the Sheriffs' Court by Thomas Coventry, hurer, against William Dylcok and John Dylcok as executors of the will of Robert Drayton, late of Coventry, barber, for a debt of £10. The said Thomas and John appeared on 8 July, when the plaintiff, being examined in the Inner Chamber as to the, matter of the bill, said that the defendant had goods of the testator in administration and was well able to pay the debt. The defendant offered to pay the whole or as much as the plaintiff demanded, if it could be legally proved that he ever had or administered any goods, chattels or rents of the testator, and he offered to produce authentic letters under the seal of the city of Coventry. The plaintiff agreed to be precluded from his action, if he produced such letters.
On July 19 the defendant brought letters proving that he never had any such goods in administration or received any profits or considerations (avantagid) from the lands and tenements of the testator. Therefore it was considered that the plaintiff be excluded etc.
Membr. 5 b
12 Oct. 1412
Memorandum that Robert Broun, goldsmith, complained that great damage and injury was being done to his tenement and wharf near Fletebrigge in Fletestret by the raising of the pavement on the north side opposite the wharf, as the result of which the watercourse coming from the west, which ran down the middle of the street to the bridge, so flooded the wharf that he lost his profit from it. Accordingly on 16 Oct. the mayor and aldermen went to the tenement and wharf, and acting on the view and report of the sworn masters of the Masons and Carpenters of the city, gave orders that the pavements on either side of the street should be of the same height, and that neither of them should in future be so raised higher than the other as to prevent the water having a free course down the middle of the street to the drain (fn. 15) at Fletebrigge.
13 Oct. 1412
Writ demanding that the mayor send before the King at Westminster a general release, dated 12 Nov. 1410, from William Wardon, late abbot of the monastery of St Mary of Graces by the Tower, to William Sampson, fishmonger. The writ recites that the present abbot, Roger, had brought an action against William Sampson for breaking into the close and buildings of the monastery during the time of the late abbot, and the defendant William had put in the release to exclude the abbot from his action, and the abbot had disputed the release. The document had been returned to William Sampson with orders to bring it again before the court on 6 Oct. last. But meanwhile William Sampson had produced the release in other proceedings in the Sheriffs' Court and deposited it there, and the document had been handed over by the sheriffs to the mayor, with the result that William Sampson had been unable to bring it before the King on 6 Oct., as he complained, wherefore the mayor is ordered to produce it on 15 Oct., in order that the action might be continued. Witness W. Gascoigne at Westminster, 13 Oct. 1412.