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The Golden Falcon

Chapter VI/4 - Fair

Coventry Grange "sable, a fesse ermine between 3 crescents or, an eagle displayed of the 1st".  Crest: "a chapeau gules turned up argent, a cock pheasant proper beaked and membered of the 1st".

 

East Hamney, Philibert's manor in the Wantage Hundred of Berkshire was held by John Golafre by conveyance.  West Locking in the same Hundred was conveyed to John Golafre in 1428 by Thomas Chaucer (son of Geoffrey Chaucer).  It had belonged previously to Henry de Ferrars of Tutbury, after which it passed to the Curzons.

 

Baldwin's Weeks and Wykes were held by John Golafre prior to 1443.  The de la Wyck family were tenants of the Ferrars fee in the 13th century.  Thomas de Missenden's widow married Sir John Golafre.  Thomas de Missenden (d. 1369) was the king's yeoman and lord of the manor of Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire.

 

Eaton in Appleton in the Ock Hundred of Berkshire passed to John Golafre of Fyfield who rebuilt the church of St. Nicholas, Fyfield in the 14th century and died in 1363 - there is a monument to him in the chapel.  Garford in Marcham in the same Hundred was held in 1428 by John Golafre who held the le Poer lands and to whom Eaton Appleton passed in 21 Henry VI (1433).  Frilford in Ock was sold in 1383 to Isabel, John Golafre's widow.

 

The manor of St. Helen's in the Hormer Hundred of Berkshire was granted partly to the Guild of the Holy Cross and conveyed to Amaury St. Amand in 1402.  St. Amand died in 1402 when the manor was held by his wife Eleanor until 1426 when it was conveyed to John Golafre, official of the Guild of the Holy Cross.

 

The manor of Wytham in the same Hundred was held by Robert de Wytham who married Juliana, daughter of John Golafre.

 

Fyfield was connected with the House of York and the Yorkist cause.  Philippa de Mohun married (1) Lord Walter fitzWalter (d. 1386), a descendant of the de Clares and fitzWalters of Dunmow, Essex and Baynards Castle, who were banner bearers of London.  Philippa's second husband was Sir John Golafre or Golafer (d. 1396) and her third, Edward Plantagenet, Duke of York.  She was buried at Westminster Abbey with Sir John Golafre.  Fyfield came to Richard III with Stanford-in-the-Vale through his marriage to Anne Neville.  John de la Pole of Fyfield was his heir and was killed in an attempt to seize the throne after Richard died.  The Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck lived at Fyfield and his widow Catherine Gordon, known as the "White Rose of York and Scotland", was buried there - Warbeck was her fourth husband.

The following inquisitions show the lands John Golafre held:

 

22 Henry VI (1444) No. 74 - Johannes Golafre: Fifhede (Fyfield) "maner et avoc' ecclesiae" (advowson of the church), Gareford manor, Frileford maner, Eton maner, Pyle maner et Appelton "messuagia terr' &c" (messuage and land), Berkshire.

 

23 Henry VI (1445) No. 49: Johannes Golafre, armiger, Oxon - "null'  tenuit terr" (has no land in Oxfordshire).

 

King Richard II's party was opposed by Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Buckingham and Gloucester, lord of Brecon and Richard fitzAlan, earl of Arundel.  A third party was led by John of Gaunt who was accused by a Carmelite friar of attempting to kill the king so to get him out of the way he was allowed to go to Spain in 1385 to fight for his cause.

 

Soon Woodstock's party, called the Lords Appellant, was at loggerheads with the king's supporters.  Richard was forced to dismiss his Chancellor and Treasurer; Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk was impeached and fined 20,000 marks but de Vere escaped.  A commission was formed in 1386 which included Edmund, earl of Cambridge, duke of York, the king's uncle.  Robert de Vere then repudiated his wife (Woodstock's niece and daughter of Enguerrand de Coucy by the Queen's daughter Isabella) to marry Agnes Lancecrona, one of the Queen's Bohemian ladies-in-waiting.  He also caused the king to offend John Mowbray, the earl of Nottingham who joined the opposition as did Gaunt's son, Henry, earl of Derby.

 

A civil war soon in progress with the opposition led by Woodstock, Arundel and Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick.  They charged the archbishop of York, Alexander Neville, de Vere, de la Pole and Brembre of treason.  Michael de la Pole fled to Calais, was brought back but escaped and fled to France so did Neville.  Tresillian hid in London and de Vere tried to raise an army in Chester, met the enemy at Radcot bridge but realising he was outnumbered, fled and died in Louvain in 1395.

 

The king was imprisoned in the Tower at Christmas 1388.  Tresillian, Brembre, Sir Simon Burley, Sir James Berners, Sir John Salisbury and Sir John Beauchamp were executed and Archbishop Neville was sent to the See of St. Andrews, Scotland.  The Lords Apellant ruled for a year in the king's name and Richard became reconciled to them in 1389.

 

Gaunt returned from Spain after marrying his daughter Katherine to Henry of Trastamara's grandson and was paid 600,000 gold francs for resigning his claim.  Richard gave him the county palatinate of Lancaster, the title of duke of both Lancaster and Aquitaine and allowed him to marry his mistress Katherine Roet, widow of Sir Hugh Swynford, legitimising their children, the Beauforts.

 

In 1394 Richard went to Ireland to put down an uprising but returned the following year because of trouble with the Lollards.

 

Meanwhile the king's former opponents were stirring up fresh trouble which led to a Yorkshire uprising in 1394 shortly before Queen Anne's death.  A second marriage was arranged for the king with Isabella, the 6 year old daughter of Charles VI of France which took place on 4.11.1395 at the church of St. Nicholas, Calais.

 

Woodstock criticised Richard's policy in Guyenne and tried to recruit others into a conspiracy to imprison the king and his uncles, Gaunt and Edmund of Cambridge and York but many declined, only Arundel and Warwick supported him.  The plot was betrayed by John Mowbray and Richard invited Arundel, Gloucester and Warwick to dine.  Arundel excused himself and retired to Reigate, Gloucester pleaded illness; only Warwick turned up and was arrested.  Arundel was forced to surrender and Woodstock, arrested at Pleshey, was imprisoned at Calais.

 

On 5.9.1397 Richard, surrounded by a bodyguard of 4,000 Cheshire archers wearing his badge of the "White Hart" went to Parliament.  Arundel was tried and executed at Tower Hill, Woodstock died under arrested, murdered by John Mowbray at Calais.  Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, confessed, was deprived of his possessions and sentenced to life imprisonment.  On 28.1.1398 Parliament granted the customs on wool, wool fells and leather to the king for life.

 

Richard rewarded his followers with new honours - his cousins, Henry Plantagenet of Lancaster, earl of Derby and Edward Plantagenet, duke of York and Rutland were made Dukes of Hereford and Aumale, his half-brother, Thomas Holland, Duke of Kent was made Duke of Surrey, his nephew John Holland, earl of Huntingdon was made duke of Exeter, Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham was given the dukedom of Norfolk, John Beaufort, earl of Somerset was made Marquis of Dorset, Thomas Despencer (married to Constance Plantagenet of York) was made earl of Gloucester, Ralph Neville of Raby (married to Joan Beaufort), created earl of Westmorland, Sir William Scrope became earl of Wiltshire and Sir Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester.  They were known as the Dukelings but not so hated as Sir John Bushy, Sir Henry Green and Sir William Bagot called the "bush", the "green" and the "bag".

 

Thomas Mowbray and Henry of Lancaster fell out over a plot against the king and were banished.  Richard's extravagance and taxation caused discontent and in March 1399 he seized the Lancastrian estates when John of Gaunt died.

 

The king's lieutenant, Roger Mortimer, earl of March, was slain by the Irish in 1398 so Richard went in person to Ireland in 1399 to avenge him, leaving the Duke of York as regent, but this campaign was a failure.  While he was still in Ireland, news arrived that Henry of Lancaster had landed at Ravenspur, Yorkshire.  The nobles flocked to his banner including Richard's erstwhile followers Ralph Neville of Raby, earl of Westmorland, his brother Thomas Neville, lord Furnivall, Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester and his brother Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland.

 

Fig. 59 - Furnivall, Neville & Talbot

 

Thomas Neville >:

(a) Joan Neville = Sir Hugh Cokesay

(b) Maud Neville = John Talbot, 1st earl of Shrewsbury, 2nd son of Richard, baron

     Talbot.  Both the Talbots and the Cokesays were ancestors of the Winters of Huddington.

 

The Duke of York tried to resist but failed, Scrope, Bushy and Green were killed.  Richard returned from Ireland and John Montague, earl of Salisbury tried to raise troops in the Welsh Marches but failed, Richard was not successful either so he fled to join Salisbury, disguised as a friar.  With only 16 followers he wandered from castle to castle until he was captured by Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland and taken to Henry of Lancaster who imprisoned him in the Tower where he signed a deed of abdication on 29.9.1399.

 

Although the Mortimers, earls of March had a better claim to the throne, Henry Bolingbroke of Lancaster was crowned as Henry IV at the Feast of the Translation of St. Edward the Confessor in 1399 and promised to root out heresy so began persecuting the Lollands, burning them at the stake at Smithfield and a Statute "de haeretico comburendo" (the burning of heretics) drawn up on 10.3.1401.

 

The king deprived Aumale, Surrey, Exeter, Dorset and Gloucester of their titles and lands acquired since 1397.  Richard was moved by night, disguised as a forester, to Leeds Castle, Kent then to Pickering, Knaresborough and finally to Pontefract where Hugh Swynford the younger (Katherine Roet's son by her first husband) was castellan.

 

Richard's followers, led by the his half-brother, Thomas Holland, duke of Kent and John Montague, earl of Salisbury plotted against Henry IV who escaped with his children.  The two earls fled westwards into Wales but were taken prisoner at Cirencester and executed.  Thomas Despencer fled to Cardiff from where he tried to sail to France but the sailors brought him back to Bristol where the mob killed him.

 

John Holland, earl of Huntingdon escaped from London but fell into the hands of the king's mother-in-law, the Countess of Hereford (Henry IV had married Mary de Bohun) who gave into the mob at Essex.  He was beheaded at Pleshey with an unidentified Thomas Winter and their heads were displayed on London Bridge.

 

Sir Thomas Blunt, Sir Ralph Lumley and Sir Bennet Giles, knights were beheaded at Oxford.  Richard died mysteriously soon after and was buried at Langley.

 

"Names of the mayors and viscounts in London in the reign of King Henry IV who was crowned at the Feast of the Translation of St. Edward, King called the Confessor in 1399.  First year - Thomas Knolles, William Walden, William Hyde.

 

In this same year ther was a rysing off certeyn erles and lordes.  And as they wolde hae passed into Walys there was takyn and byheeded at Surcestre (Cirencester) the Erle of Kent and the Erle off Sylysbury (Salisbury).  And at Oxford weren byheeded Sir Thomas Blunt and Sir Rauffe Lumley and Sir Benet Gyles, knytes.  And Sir John Holond, erle off Huntingdon and Thomas Wynter, squyre, byheeded at Plasse (Plessey) in Essex and ther heedes weren sette upon London Brigge.

 

And also this same yere the kyng roode into Scotland.  And the warre byganne in Walys by Oweyn off Glyndore" (Owen Glendwr).

 

There was trouble again in Scotland so Henry marched on Edinburgh and the English archers subsequently routed the Scots.

 

In Wales a quarrel between Reginald, Lord Gray of Ruthin and Owen Glyndwr (a descendant of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth) led to a revolt by the latter in Richard's favour.  Glendwr captured the earl of March's uncle Edmund Mortimer (who subsequently married Glendwr's daughter), became a rebel and declared Mortimer's nephew (descended from Lionel Plantagenet, duke of Clarence) to be the true heir to the throne.

 

The earl of Northumberland's son, Henry Percy "Hotspur" (Mortimer's brother-in-law) had quarrelled with the Henry IV, defected to Richard's followers and was soon joined by his uncle, Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester.  The rebels issued an indictment against Henry on the grounds that he had usurped the throne, starved Richard to death and ignored the prior claim of the earl of March.

 

Henry marched to meet Hotspur at Shrewsbury on 21.7.1403 and a bitter fight ensued as the rebels had the Cheshire archers on their side but in the end Hotspur was defeated by the king and his son.  Hotspur fell in battle and Thomas Percy and others were executed.  Glyndwr's son was captured at Usk by the English on March 1405.

 

There were troubles in the English possessions in Guyenne and Calais so the French (following their usual strategy of diverting attention) sent troops to help Owain Glyndw and also problems in Brittany which Henry tried to solve by marrying Joan of Navarre, duchess of Brittany as his second wife but she was expelled by the Bretons.

 

Constance of York, former Duchess of Gloucester, was caught trying to smuggle out the young Mortimer boys imprisoned in Windsor and was sent to Kenilworth, the young John Mowbray, earl of Nottingham and Archbishop Arundel were implicated so was Constance's brother, the duke of York who was sent to Pevensey.

 

The earl of Northumberland, Archbishop Scrope and the earl of Nottingham rebelled shortly after but were persuaded by the king's son John Planagenet and the earl of Westmorland to lay down their arms.  Sir William Gascoigne, Chief Justice of the King's Bench refused to try them so an informal court presided over by the earl of Arundel and Sir Thomas Beaufort tried Archbishop Richard Scrope, Nottingham and 2 knights at Bishopthorpe near York and they were beheaded.

 

In 1409 Glyndwr's second son died in battle and Edmund Mortimer was killed when Aberystwyth castle was captured by the English and his wife (Glyndwr's daughter), her mother Margaret Hanmer and Mortimer's children were taken prisoner.  Glyndwr remained a fugitive till he died in 1415.

 

Northumberland and Bardolf made a last stand invading England from Scotland where they had fled but they were both killed in battle.  The Scottish heir, James, on his way to France was captured by the English who kept him prisoner.

 

Henry IV died on 20.3.1413 and his son Henry V succeeded.  He had Richard's body brought from Langley to Westminster Abbey, John Mowbray, brother and heir of Nottingham was made earl marshal, Henry Percy was given the earldom of Northumberland and John Holland that of Huntingdon; the earl of March was released and given back his lands.

There was another Lollard rising under Sir John Oldcastle and subsequent executions though Oldcastle himself escaped.

 

Henry V renewed the English claim to the French throne and preparations were made for war.

 

Meanwhile another rebellion occurred, led by the Duke of York's brother Richard, earl of Cambridge (married to the sister of Edmund Mortimer, earl of March).  Henry, lord Scrope of Masham (Archbishop Scrope's kinsman) and Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton were all executed in 1415 after the failure of the plot.

 

Leaving his brother John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford as regent in England (until 1419 when his brother Gloucester took his place), Henry with 2,000 men-at-arms and 6,000 archers, landed at the mouth of the Seine near Harfleur on 11.8.1425, marched on the town on the 17th and besieged it, using cannon for the first time.  A triumphant Henry entered Harfleur on 27.9.1415.

 

Dysentry killed the Bishop of Norwich, Michael de la Pole, 2nd earl of Suffolk and Thomas duke of Clarence (Henry's brother) had to return to England because of illness.  Only 6,000 troops remained to follow the king to Calais.

 

After capturing Harfluer, Henry challenged the Dauphin to personal combat, offering if he won, to allow Charles VI to reign until his death on condition the crown then passed to the English king.  He conveniently forgot that if Edward III's claim to the French throne was legal, the real king of France was the Earl of March.

 

Henry stayed in Harfleur for a fortnight and the marched to Abbeville, passing through Eu.  He found the bridge over the Somme was broken and was told by a Gascon prisoner that the ford at Blanchetaque was heavily guarded so he marched up the left bank of the river and found another ford near Nesle.  He went through Peronne and reached Maisoncelles on 24.10.1415.

 

On 25.10.1415 (St. Crispin's and St. Crispinian's Day) the two armies met at Agincourt (Azincourt, dept., Pas-de-Calais, 12 km north west of St. Pol) where the English archers again helped to win a great victory.  The French were massacred and Henry ordered that prisoners be killed.  Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester was wounded, Edward, Duke of York and Michael de la Pole, 3rd earl of Suffolk both died.

 

Amongst those who fought at Agincourt were Ebull, Hamond & Leouard Straunge, John & William Trussell & Thomas Wynter. [Family Chronicle - The Agincourt Honour Roll (S-Z)].

 

Henry V went to England on 23.11.1415 but returned to France on 1.8.1417 to conquer Normandy.  He captured Toques, Caen, Bayeux, Bellême and La Marche then Domfront and the Cotentin and finally entered Rouen on 19.1.1419.

 

Hostilities continued and the Burgundian faction joining the English but the Duke of Burgundy was killed by a favourite of the Dauphin.

 

The mad king Charles VI was induced to sign a treaty in May 1420 and on 21.5.1420 Henry was married to Katherine of Valois, Charles VI's daughter by Isabelle of Bavaria.  It was an unfortunate marriage as it brought madness into the English royal family from which Henry VI suffered.

The war continued and James of Scotland was brought to France as a hostage as the Scots had sent troops to help the French.  Henry returned to England on 2.2.1421.

 

The Lollards had taken advantage of the king's absence to renew their activities but Oldcastle was finally captured and executed in 1419.  In 1440 Richard Wyche, the Lollard mayor of Deptford was burned at Tower Hill.

 

Many of those who fought in the Hundred Years' War enriched themselves with booty plundered in France.  One of them was John Winter who held the bastide of Castell Mayet (Mayet, a canton in the dept. of Sarthe and arrondissemente of La Flèche), near Le Mans, south of Sir John Fastolf's castle of Sille-le-Guillaume (canton, dept Sarthe, arrondissement le Mans).  The remains of Castell Mayet were incorporated into a new building which still exists.

 

A medieval insurance scheme survives from 12.7.1421, made in the church of St. Martin's, Harfleur by the two esquires, John Winter and Nicholas Molyneaux, the king's Chambre des Comptes at Rouen who both served under Sir John Fastolf, Grand Master of the Regent Bedford's Household.

 

The two partners "wishing to augment the love and fraternity already growing between them", swore to become brothers-in-arms "loyal one to the other without any dissimulation or fraud".  If one partner was taken prisoner "which God forbid", the other had to pay his ransom if it did not exceed 6,000 saluts (£1,000 in gold).  If it was more, the free partner had to give himself up as hostage for 8 or 9 months, so that the prisoner could return to England to raise the balance.  The arrangements would be made at their mutual expense and if they were both taken prisoner, one was to remain a hostage whilst the other raised the cash.

 

They would "share all  profits which by God's grace they should gain" and send it to St. Thomas Acon's chapel in Cheapside, London to be held in a coffer to which they each had a key "in which coffer shall be kept such gold, silver and plate, each or both of them may wish to keep, to purchase lands in the realm of England."  When they returned, everything would be divided between them.  Whoever returned home first would invest their money.  When they married and settled in England, their joint property would be divided equally between each of them.  If only one survived, he would have to sell everything and "nourish his comrade's children", pay for their schooling and divide amongst them, an annuity for life of £20.  If both partners died leaving no heirs, everything would be sold to endow masses for their souls and those of their parents.  In 1436 (when the war was going badly for Henry VI), they were still sending money back to England to buy manors in South London and the Boar's Head Inn at Southwark, which Winter managed and which was sold on his death in 1445 to Sir John Fastolf.

 

Records survive of the lands they purchased.  One was Knolles or Knowles manor in the Brixton Hundred of Camberwell which "in the reign of Henry VI (1434) John Browe, sone of Robert Browe, County of Roteland (Rutland) released to John Wynter and Nicholas Molyneaux, right of lands formerly belonging to Robert Knolles and David Byckley in the parishes of Camerwell (Camberwell), Lamhithe (Lambeth) and Stratham (Streatham)".

There was also a manor called Berningham's or Knolle's and Waldgrave's in East Barsham, Norfolk of which John de Bermingham was lord of the fee.  He and his son Walter were living in 1303 (31 Edward I).  It came to Sir Robert Knolles who, in 1402 (3 Henry IV), held a fee there of the king "in capite" when it became known as Knolles' manor.  On 24.1.1419 (6 Henry V) John Hunt (who held it from Robert Knolles), enfeoffed John Drew and Henry Says, clerks, William Shelton and Edmund Winter esquires - the latter enfeoffed William Hunt and his heirs.

 

Edmund Winter, John Fastolf, William Paston (the lord Chief Justice), Brian Stapleton Simon Felbrigge and others were members of the Guild of St. George at Norwich.

 

This may mean there was some connection between the families of Winter of Gloucester, Wych and Barningham Winter.  John Winter was a kinsman of Roger Winter of Wych as they are mentioned together in connection with lands bought in Dulwich and Camberwell (then in Surrey).  John was not Roger's father (John mentions his eldest son John in his Will) but may have been Roger's younger brother or younger son.  He was not Roger's eldest son as neither he nor any of his sons inherited any land in Wych or Huddington.

 

After the death of John Winter in 1445 in the reign of Henry VI, Roger Winter of County Worcester, John Cotford and Richard Baker conveyed in 1449, their rights of the Manor of Leverhurst or Lefhurst in "Lambshithe" (Lambeth) in the Brixton Hundred of Lambeth to John Stanley, Nicholas Molyneaux, John Basset and Adam Levelond.  The conveyance was confirmed to Nicholas Molyneaux in 1453 and his son William Molyneaux quitclaimed it in 1471.  Roger also released the rights to Camberwell and "Dylwyche" (Dulwich) in 1449.

 

There was litigation in 1449 between Molyneaux and Thomas Coberley over the manor of Bermondsey, a tenement with appurtenances in the lordship of Kennington and a tenement called the "Boreshede" (Boar's Head) in St. Mary Magdalen, Southwark.  Nicholas Molyneaux paid Thomas Coberly 64 marks for the manor of Knolles and also had to give the arbiter William Laken 100 marks of value in plate to the use of the White Friars, Fleet Street for the monks to pray for the soul of John Winter.

 

The sign of their inn was a boar's head with an lemon in its mouth and it was one of two of the same name found in London.  It stood between Nos. 25 and 26 of the old Southwark Borough High Street, immediately opposite the church of St. Mary Overie and north of St. Thomas' Hospital.  It was situated next to another site included in the frontage of St. Thomas' and was cleared away in 1830 for the London Bridge approaches and the railway station was built over its site.

 

John Stow in "Survey of London" describes the Boar's Head and other stewhouses which were strictly controlled:

 

"Borough of Southwarke and Bridge Ward Without - next on this banke was sometime the bordello or stews, a place so called of certain stewhouses privileged there for the repair of incontinent men to the like women of which privilege I have read thus -  in a parliament at Westminster 8 Henry II, it was ordained by the Commons and confirmed by the king and lord, that divers constitutions for ever should be kept within the lordship or franchise, according to the old custom that had been there used time out of mind amongst the which these following were some viz:

 

That noe stewholder or his wife should let or stay any single woman, to go and come freely at all times when they listed.

 

No stewholder to keep any woman to board, but she to board abroad at her pleasure.

 

To take no more for the woman's chamber in the week than 14 pence.

 

Not to keep open his doors upon the holidays.

 

Not to keep any single woman in his house on the holidays, but the bailiff to see them voided out of the lordship.

 

No single woman to be kept against her will that would leave her sin.

 

No stewholders to receive any woman of religion or any man's wife.

 

No single woman to take money to lie with any man, but she lie with him all night till the morrow.

 

No man to be drawn or enticed into any stewhouse.

 

The constables, bailiffs and others, every week to search every stewhouse.

 

No stewholder to keep any woman that hath the perilous infirmity of burning, not to sell bread, ale, flesh, fish, wood, coal or any victuals etc.

 

These and many more orders were to be observed upon great pain and punishment.

 

I have also seen divers patents of confirmation, namely one dated 1345 (19 Edward III).  Also I find, that in the 4 of Richard III that these houses, belonging to William Walworth when mayor of London, were farmed by froes (fraus) of Fflaunders (for English people disdayned to be baudes, Froes of Fflaunders were women for that purpose) and spoyled by Walter Tighler (Tyler) and other rebells of Kent: notwithstanding I find the ordinances for the same place and houses were again confirmed in the reign of Henry VI (1506) to be continued as before.

 

In the year 1506, the 21st of Henry VII, the said the stewhouses in Southwark were for a season inhibited and the dores closed up but it was not long ere the houses were set to open again, so many as were permitted for whereas before were 18 houses, from thenceforth were appointed to be used but 12.  These allowed stewhouses had signes on their frontes towards the Thames, not hanged out but painted on the walles as the Boare's Head, the Cross Keys, the Gunn, the Castle, the Crane, The Cardinal's Hat, the Bell and the Swann.

 

I have heard that these single women were forbidden the rites of the church so long as they continued that sinful life and were excluded from Christian burial if they were not reconciled before their death.  And therefore there was a plot of ground called the Single Woman's churchyard appointed for them far from the parish church.

 

In the year of Christ 1546, the 37th of Henry VII, this row of stews in Southwarke was put down by the king's commandment, which was proclaimed by sound of trumpet no more to be privileged and used as a common brothel but the inhabitants of the same to keep good and honest rule as in other places of this realm."

 

The inn (owned by Winter and then Fastolf) which Stow describes was the Boar's Head of Shakespeare's time where the earls of Oxford and Worcester's players acted.  It was situated almost halfway between the City end of the old bridge and the Southwark end, overlooking St. Michael's Crooked Lane and the Flemish and parish cemetery (east of the inn) - the statue of William IV is near the site.

 

The other was at Eastcheap during the reign of Richard II and stood between Small Alley and St. Michael's Lane, overlooking St. Michael's churchyard at the rear.  This was the inn frequented by Henry V when Prince of Wales.  It was destroyed in the Great Fire (1668) and rebuilt within two years.  The Fire Court Calendar of Judgements and Decrees appointed to determine differences between landlords and tenants as to rebuilding after the Great Fire records the case of the Boars Head, Old Fish Street, Cheapside:

 

No: A399 (BM 5066-93): 20.12.1667 - Justice Tyrill, Baron Turner, Justice Morton.  Mary Thrale, widow v. Edmond Dixon.

 

The petition stated that the petitioner who had a life interest in two messuages heretofore a tavern called the Boreshead in Old Fish Street (+) and cellars belonging to the same called Peter Key, leased the same on 22.12.1664 to the defendant for 99 years if she should so long live at £20 p.a., that the defendant purchased the reversion in the same of persons unknown to the petitioner, and that he refused to pay rent or to rebuild.

 

The defendant appeared on summons and the petitioner was present with Mr Unicum her counsel.  The petitioner was disinclined to rebuild and as the defendant had purchased the reversion the Court declined that it was fit that he should rebuild and that the petitioner should abate the rent as encouragement.  The Court decreed that Dixon should build another house or tavern or other tenements to his best advantage, that he should pay to the petitioner rent for 2 months up to the time of the Fire, be discharged of rent from that time till Xmas 1667 and pay a rent of £15 p.a. from Lady Day 1668 for the residue of the term, and that the petitioner should deliver to Dixon a lease made by her to Edward Gifford.

 

(+) part of Knightrider Street, E.C 4, Faringdon Ward Within, Westcheap, Cheapside.

 

"This street (Exchange Street) beginneth by West Cheape in the north and runneth down south to Knightriders Street; that part there of which is called Old Fish Street.  In this part of the said Knightriders Street is a fish market kept and therefore called Old Fish Street for a difference from New Fish Street.  In this Old Fish Street is one row of small houses, placed along in the midst of Knightriders Street, which now is also Breadstreet Ward.  These houses, now possessed by fishmongers were at the time but moveable boards or stalls. set out on market-days, to show their fish there to be sold, but procuring license to set up sheds, they grew to shops, and by little and little to tall houses, of three or four stories in height, and now are called Fish Street.  Walter Turke, fishmonger, mayor 1349, had two shops in Old Fish Street, over against St. Nicholas church; the one rented 5 shillings the year, the other 4 shillings.  On the east side of this Old Fish Street Hill, is one great house now let out for rent, which house sometimes was one of its halls, pertaining to the Company of Fishmongers, at such time as they had 6 hallmotes or meeting places; namely, two in Bridge Street or New Fish Street; 2 in Old Fish Street where of this was one; and 2 in Stockfishmonger Row, or Thames Street, as appeareth by a record, the 22nd of Richard II (1399)."  ("Survey of London" - John Stow)

 

There was also a Boar's Head Inn in Carmarthen (where Walter Winter the archdeacon settled).

 

The boar's head was a Christmas dish because Yuletide (winter solstice) was the feast of Freyr, Scandinavian god of peace and plenty when a boar was sacrificed in his honour.

 

The Boar's Head was the cognisance of the Scottish family of Gordon of Huntley (Catherine Gordon of Huntley was wife of Perkin Warbeck, the Yorkist Pretender) and the Boar of Richard III of the House of York.

 

John Winter's Will dated 1445 (32 Luffenham) directed that he should be buried "at White Friars of London afore the altar of Saint Katherine".

 

"Then was the White Friars' church called "Fratres Beatae Mariae de Monte Carmeli" first founded by Sir Richard Gray, knight, ancestor to the Lord Gray of Codnor, in the year 1241.  King Edward I gave to the prior and brethren of that house a plot of land in Fleet Street, whereupon to build their house which was since re-edified or new built, by Hugh Courtney, earl of Devonshire about the year 1350, the 24th of Edward III.  John Lutken, mayor of London and the commonalty of the city, granted a lane called Crockers Lane reaching from Fleet Street to the Thames, to build the west end of that church.  Sir Robert Knoles, knight was a great builder there also in the reign of Richard II and of Henry IV, he deceased at his manor of Scone Thorpe (Scunthorpe) in Norffolke, in the year 1407 and was brought to London and honourably buried by the Lady Constance his wife, in the body of the said White Friars; church which he had newly built.  In the old choir were buried ----- John Winter".  ("Survey of London" - John Stow).

 

He made bequests to White Friars (Fleet Street) for a daily Mass at this altar, using vestments and plate, his own gifts.

 

He also left money to the Church of Lambeth and wood "in the cold winter to poor men of Lambeth parish".

 

He left to his eldest son John property once belonging to Thomas Walters of Carmarthen, his youngest son was also named John.  The manor of Stockwell was to descend to his eldest son and other land in Southwark and Surrey.  He also bequeathed to his son William "£20 to be paid of the revenue of the place that was William Gwyn's".

 

In 1449 John Audley and Clement Bishop released to John Stanley, Nicholas Molyneaux, John Basket and Adam Levelord, all their rights in the manor by feoffment of Roger Winter and John Cofford.  A place there was called "le Checker."

 

John Winter (who bought Stockwell in Lambeth) founded the chantry in Lambeth Church in 1457, being the gift of the lords of Stockwell manor.  He sold Stockwell to Nicholas Molyneaux whose son William Molyneaux inherited.  Roger Winter of Co. Worcester released the rights in 27th Henry VI - 1449.  (claus 27 Henry VI, p. unica dors).

 

The Court Rolls of manor of Dulwich, November 1433 records "Johannis Waryn juratus est in decennam ad hunc visum.  Johannes Winter, Nicholas Molyneaux, Rogerus Winter et Adam Lynelord dant domine die fine pro secta sue respectuando usque festum Sancti Michaelis proxime futurum vjd".  (They paid a fine of 5 shillings at Michaelmas).

The family of Molyneaux seems to have been connected with the Winters as far as back as 1391-4 for Roger Winter (d. 1397), vicar and patron of Sefton (who held Walton of the Honour of Lancaster in the West Derby Hundred), was a feoffee of Richard de Molyneaux.

 

An inquisition dated 25 Edward I (1297) shows that Ric(ard)us de Molyneaux held Sefton in Lancaster of Edmund Plantagenet of Lancaster.

 

Under Edward IV and Richard III, the Molyneauxs (possibly grandchildren of John) held land in Gloucestershire as the following inquisitions show:

 

6 Edward IV (1467)  No. 17 - Robertus Molyneaux, armiger, in Gloucestershire Chepyng Campden "demiatas manerii" (a moiety or half-share).

 

13 Edward IV (1483-4)  No. 18 - Joh(ann)es Molyneaux, armiger in Gloucestershire - Cheping Camden "medietas manerii extent 4 mess(uages) ibm vocat" (moiety of a manor with 4 messuages called) Huntfee; in Staffordshire - Pirrehalle in Pirre et Barr Parva 5 messua(ges). Sutton in Colevil (Sutton Coldfield) maner membr, Honnisworth "terrae" etc; in Shropshire Lynches "3tas pars manerii"  (3 parts of the manor), Mudle maner membr.

 

2 Richard III (1485) No. 43 Joh(annes) Molyneaux in Gloucestershire: Chipping Campden, "medietas manerii", Huntafee "in domin' de" Chepying Caumpden (of the lordship of Chipping Campden) quator mess(uages) &c.

 

Chipping Campden, capital of the Cotswolds, lying between the Vales of Evesham and Gloucester and the valleys of the rivers Stour and Avon, was a principal wool market in the 14th century.  In the church of St. Mary, Campden lie buried William Greville (d. 1401) called "the flower of merchants", Sir Baptist Hicks, 1st Viscount Campden, mercer of Cheapside, his son-in-law Sir Edward Noel, 2nd Viscount Campden (d. 1642) and his wife Juliana (d. 1644), daughter of Sir Baptist Hicks and Thomas Smith, lord of the manor of Campden (d. 1593) who married (as her second husband) Catherine Throgmorton, widow of Robert Winter of Huddington.

 

John Winter, described as a former soldier in France, was one of the young men employed by Sir John Fastolf for collecting debts in France and was harrassed even when dying for unpaid debts.

 

In his Will dated 1459 Fastolf wrote: "whereof I remembre me well that oon John Wyntir, Esquyer, late my servaunt, hadde in kepying a blanke letter in parchemyn ensealyd ondyr my seal and never delyvered it me ageyn, but seyde he hadde lost it at hyse confection, as wryting ondyr hise owyn hande maketh mencyon or he deyde."

 

On his return to England in 17 Henry VI (1459), Fastolf appointed John Winter as steward of Castlecombe (Fastolf was lord from 1409-1459 by right of his wife Millicent Tiptoft) and William Botoner of Bristol (William of Worcester) as his supervisor.  Castlecombe, an important wool centre about 4 miles from Dyrham on the Gloucester-Wiltshire borders, produced a special red wool called "castlecombe" used for military uniforms.

 

Richard Thurgrin (possible ancestor of the Winters who may have been father of Joan, wife of Thomas Huddington) was seneschal or steward of Castlecombe in 1390-1 during the reign of Richard II (1371-99).  Richard Thurgrin's inquisition dated 20 Richard II (1391) No. 52 states: Worcester "nulla tenuit terras feu tenements in comitatu" (he had no land or tenements in Worcester).

 

In 1439 John Green, parson of Castlecombe, was fined by John Winter for cutting an ash tree and thorns:

 

"Pro fine facto cum Johane Grene rectore de Castel Combe par dictum Johannem Wynter assesum contra agre cimetum dicti rectoris ex animo non bene disposito pro succisiones uniun fraxini arboris in parco ibidem cum certa quantitave spinbrum ut allegitur per ipsum occupararem as xx m(ar)cas et dictus Johanne Grene asservit dictum arborem fraxini sibi fuit per John Kyrtling nuper receptorum et supervisorem de Castel Combe appreciatur ad vj.d. vel ij.s. pront dictus est.   Finis sibi imponitur per prefaetum Johannes Wynter prosecutus fuit in lege et sic solvit domino in vita sua per manus William Brewer clerici ad tunc receptoris domini x m(ar)cas et post obitum dicti Grene xx. li.. requir; ad curiam tentam xiij die Martii xvijo Regis".

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