Case 1:
Steward: Walter of the
Moor... you are accused of taking away the Lord's fish... you stand
in peril of life and limb.
Walter: Sir, my wife has
been in bed for a whole month and has never eaten anything she could
enjoy... She had a craving to taste a perch. She sent me to the pond
to take one perch only.
Steward: Are you confessing
to the court that you took away a perch?
Walter: Sir for God's sake
do not think bad of me... I went along the bank of the pond and saw
the fish playing in the water so lovely and bright... I laid down
on the bank of the pond and with my hands caught it... My wife has
been in bed for a whole month, as my neighbours who are here well
know.
Case
2:
Steward: William... you
cannot deny that this mare was found with you.
William: I never saw the
mare until now... These men have their hearts big against me and hate
me much.
Steward: They are good
folk... and do only what is right... Confess the trut and thou shall
find us more merciful.
William: I will confess
the truth, my great poverty and the enticement of the devil made me
take the mare, and often have made me do other things that I ought
not to have done.
Steward: Take him away
and let him have a priest.
Case
3:
Robert the Bailiff: Thomas
Fisher, against the law of the lord and the village... hath sold fish...
Thomas Fisher kept the fish for a long time in order to obtain a higher
price... The fish was stinking, rotten and corrupt whereby many a
man and woman hath received great sickness of body.
Steward: Thomas Fisher
is judged to be guilty.
Case 4:
Henry of Combe complains
that Stephen the Carpenter called him a thief
and a lawless man and other villain words which were undeserved...
Stephen the Carpenter
said that Henry of Combe was spying the secrets of
the honest folk... Stephen then snatched Henry's staff out of his
hand, and hit him
about his head and shoulders and then went off. Stephen the Carpenter
is ordered to defend himself at the next Court.
Case
5:
Robert the Bailiff complains
that William Long came to the lord's mill to grind his corn, a quarter
of wheat and a quarter of rye. The miller skillfully ground the corn
and put it in sacks. William collected the sacks and made off
without giving his toll as he ought to have done according to the
custom. William Long is ordered to defend himself at the next Court.
Case 6:
Robert the Bailiff complains
that William of the Street sent Thomas his son over the lord's wall
and commanded him to carry off fruit. The bailiff entered the lord's
garden and found the boy high in the apple tree. The boy claimed that
William his father bade him enter the garden and urged him to climb
the trees... William is ordered to defend himself at the next Court.
Case 7:
Robert the Bailiff complains
that William Tailor has broken the assize of beer that no brewer or
breweress shall brew beer unless it is good and approved, according
to the judgement of the ale-conner. William sold beer that was flat
at one pence a gallon. William Tailor is ordered to defend himself
at the next Court.
Case 8:
John the Parker, complains
that Geoffrey and John of the Moor went in the lord's park with two
greyhounds, with bows and arrows, and were spying what they would
have. John the Parker... saw Geoffrey and John chasing and pursuing
with their greyhounds a buck. Geoffrey with a barbed arrow killed
the buck. They took and skinned it, and covered it with branches of
underwood, and then went out of the park. Geoffrey and John of the
Moor are ordered to defend themselves at the next Court.
1. Read the first
two cases. How did Walter attempt to persuade the Steward not to punish
him too severely? What punishment did William receive?
2. Read The
Custumal. Find a case you were involved in. Write an imaginary
dialogue of what might have been said in the Manor Court.
3. These court rolls do
not include the name of the manor where the court took place. What
clues does the court rolls provide that would help a historian discover
the name of the manor.
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