Each month, we post an amusing, interesting, or noteworthy entry drawn from our discoveries in the archives of the North East.
Today, 15 June, is the Feast of Corpus Christi. This feast, traditionally celebrating the ‘Body of Christ’ represented by the bread and wine of the sacrament of Communion, has been a highlight of the Christian calendar for nearly 700 years, and is still the premier feast day following the celebration of Easter. Special services will […]
Among the papers of the Strickland-Constable family of Wassand Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire, now lodged at the East Riding Archives (ERA) office in Beverley, is a modest little booklet, of paper bound in a piece of recycled parchment, which is listed in the ERA catalogue as ‘Sir John Nevile’s memoranda book. 1595’.[1] […]
The Devil of Doncaster In 1614, Brian Cooke, ‘gentleman’ of Doncaster, complained to the Court of Star Chamber that Thomas Bevett, Original Bellamy, and twelve others, ten of them musicians, had defamed him. Motivated by “a long conceived and undeserved mallice” against him, the defendants, Cook claimed, conspired together to bring him into “disgrace, shame […]
On October 30, 1563, in Headingley (West Riding), young Anne Hobson knew that she had to tell her parents about her contract of marriage to Edward Walker. She would later deny that she had ever entered into such an agreement, but she knew that the rumours of it would soon reach the ears of her […]
[This month’s ‘Flower’ is provided by the editor of the Percy Papers volume, Bob Alexander]: In November 1616, newly created Knights of the Bath may have engaged in very unceremonious activities, in spite of high-minded exhortations they had heard during their KB inauguration. So says John Chamberlain in letters to Dudley Carleton available at the […]
The East Yorkshire port of Kingston upon Hull – though now gearing up to be UK City of Culture for 2017 – is probably not thought of as an avant-garde cultural centre in the medieval and early modern periods. It was bought from Meaux Abbey by Edward I for the specific purpose of establishing a […]
The “lusty dauncinge prest” of Rufforth In July 1581, Sir Tristram Tildsley, vicar of Rufforth and Marston, faced allegations in a diocesan court of the Archbishop that his behaviour on many occasions during the preceding four years had been “most contrarie to his vocation.”* According to those who complained, he had comported himself in ways […]
The prior of Durham Priory was, for much of the medieval period, a very powerful religous figure who guided the monastery with the piety and seriousness required by the Benedictine Rule. However, this doesn’t mean that, on occasion, he wasn’t open to some levity: we have records of Durham priors employing professional fools (jesters, ‘fatui’, […]
A sad tale from the commonplace and account book of Francis Stringer of Sharlston, near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire: Francis Stringer (1565-1637) lived at Sharlston, and was twice married. His first wife having died, he married Dorothy, the widow of Cuthbert Fleming of Sharlston Hall, and the Stringers subsequently lived at the […]
A Flower of the Well for the Flower of the Month – conflicts over old customs in Aldborough Cause papers in the Diocesan Registry of York (Borthwick Institute, York, H.C.C.P. N.D./11 [1594-5]) provide two records of conflict over the performance of folk customs in Aldborough: 1. In July 1594, Robert Rodes (alias Scotson) heard that […]