BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN. NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. Coventry Leet Book: OR Mayor's Register, CONTAINING THE RECORDS OF THE CITY Court Leet OR View of Frankpledge, A. D. 1420-1555, WITH DIVERS OTHER MATTERS. TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED BY MARY DORMER HARRIS, AUTHOR OF "LIFE IN AN OLD ENGLISH TOWN: A HISTORY OF COVENTRY PART III. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Ltd., AND BY HENRY FROWDE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1909. E13 ADDITIONS AND ERRATA. p. 628, note 1, for "the Boke of Husbandrie is sometimes attributed to him" read "the Boke of Husbandrie, sometimes attributed to him, appears to have been the work of his elder brother, John Fitzherbert, Lord of the Manor of Norbury from 1483 to 1531" (Sir Ernest Clarke). p. 781, for "Joh. Warde, mercer" read "Joh. Waide, mercer." Original Series, No. 138. RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. FOREWORD. It To the historian of social life this-the third and concluding-portion of the Leet Book proper will be of the greatest interest. is true that, unlike its immediate predecessor, Part III has few of those vivid personal touches concerning the doings and character of the citizens, or the movements of royal folk, such as gave so distinctive a feature to the episode of Laurence Saunders or the chronicles of the Wars of the Roses.1 As a set-off to this deficiency, however, local historians and philologists will be inclined to attach great value to the frequent occurrence of familiar names and of rare words, special characteristics of the formal and business-like entries of which Part III mainly consists. On the whole, therefore, the matter of this issue is so instructive that, though the manner of it is rather precise like the lawyer's than discursive like the chronicler's, this volume must be regarded as of equal, though divergent, value with that of its predecessors. It is impossible in these few words to deal with the economic 1 questions which beset England between 1496 and 1555. They must wait for the more ample space of the Introduction in the concluding volume. But one salient problem for the town-dweller appears with startling frequency in this volume and cannot be quite passed overit is the adjustment of the opposing claims of the monopolist craftsman within the town and the stranger at the gate, a matter further complicated by the intrusion of the town employer and consumer.2 The stranger appeared as workman, craftsman, buyer and seller, and found his liberty restricted in every capacity. As a workman, possibly residing in a neighbouring village, he competed with the native craftsman, carpenter, weaver and fuller 5; as a buyer he came into conflict with the native purchasers of raw material, yarn, 3 1 See, however, for survivals of this literary spirit Roger à Lee's election, pp. 619-21; Henry VII's death, pp. 625-6; and Walgrave and Whitley, pp. 626-7. し malt,1 hides and tallow 3; and as a seller with the native purveyers of victual. The orders of Leet concerned with the making and unmaking of the craft of butchers, and with the admission and exclusion of the "Warwick" members of that calling, are among the most instructive entries later scribes have preserved for us. 8 Though the information we gather from these pages concerns men rather locally than nationally famous, circumstances have so combined to keep their memories fresh that the mere mention of many is a thing that adds interest to the record. Such are the names of Bond,5 Ford, Pisford, Wheatley, who, from the permanence of their charitable foundations-associated as they are with Tudor buildings of rare beauty-have gained at least a local immortality; while the memories of Wade, Nethermy 11,10 Swyllyngton," are likewise recalled by tomb or effigy in S. Michael's. The names of William Hopkyns,12 Richard Sewall,13 Edward Damporte 14-or Davenport-strike a familiar chord by reason of our acquaintance with the doings of their better-known collaterals or descendants, a remark applying with particular propriety to William Shelley, 15-not a Coventry man though he served as recorder of the city-whose family a later scion has made famous all over the world. 17 Another recorder sprang from the historic Warwickshire line of Throckmorton 16; another, Antony Fitzherberde-or Fitzherbert 17—a relative of the Willoughbys of Middleton, was famous as a legal writer; while a third, also with local connections, Edward Saunders, 18 is mentioned in the pages of the martyrologist, Foxe, and gains, through his brother Laurence, a certain interest. The author of the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs, whose wife's father and early patron was one Randall 19 of Coventry, refers also to other citizens, Christopher Waren 20-or Warren-and Thomas Ryley,21 in connection with Glover, the martyr, and to Richard Hopkyns.22 When we come to consider special words we note the unusual meaning, rare or early occurrence, of bowet, 23 strike,24 forest iron, 25 P. 806. 17 p. 628. 18 P. 796. p. 764. p. 642. 15 p. 635. 19 The name of William Randle occurs p. 721. Possibly this is Foxe's |