Catalogue description This Indenture witnesseth that Constance Johnsone, daughter of Tho. Johnson ... of...

This Indenture witnesseth that Constance Johnsone, daughter of Tho. Johnson ... of Coventre, deceased, hath and doeth with the consent and approbacion of Julius Billers, Hen. Kerwin, John Juide (?), and Joh. Smith, now present oversears for the good of the poore of the parish of Trinitie in Coventry, as allsoe with the consent and aprobacion of Geo. Monck, jun., Will. Rowney, Sam. Hewoode, Will. Webster, the present Churchwardens, put and bynde herself aprentis and covenant sarvant with Joane ffoster, of Markit Harboarow, in the County of Leyester, bootton maker, and with her after the manner aprentis to dwell from the day of the date hereof vnto the full end and tearme of seaven yeares from thence next and yemediately following fully to be compleate and ended, during which tearme all secrits and lawfull cowncells of her said dame shee shall well and truly keepe, and all her Commandements lawful shee shall faithfully obay and doe; the goods of her said dame shee shall not waste, nor them to any person lend without her lysence: hurt to her shee shall non doe, nor consent to be done; shee shall not absent herself from the Cervice of her said dame, nor shall serve any other without her dame's agreement, but as a true and faithful servant ought shee shal behave herself vnto her said dame booth in word and deed. And the said Joan, the dame, vnto the said Constance, the aprentis, shall diligently instruckt and teach, or cause to be taught, all and every poynt of the occupacion or trade of button making in the best manner shee may or can doe by the said tearme, fynding her meate, drinck, linen, woollen hose, shoes, beding, with all other things meete and needfull to her belonging during the said tearme, and in the end of the said tearme shall give vnto her said sarvant good and sufficient duble aparell, meete for her body by these presents. In witnesse whereof the partise aboue named to these present Indentures interchangeably have put te theire handes and seales, the nyne and twenth day Aprill, A.D. 1650.

Sealed and deliured in presents of Francis Cater and Roger Ambrose. Signed Joane ffoster.

The deed marked 194 recalls the methods of common-field husbandry which obtained before the enclosures of 1750-1850. The "fields" of Brinklow represented the stretch of land in which the inhabitants of the town held strips of arable, divided from one another by "balks" or ridges of unploughed turf. "Hade" is also a boundary strip. In the description of the county of Coventry boundaries (Leet Book IV.,827) made in 1581, the bounds often go "after the hades" or "turn up a balke." Sedgeley's agreement (DR429/197) to give a couple of fat hons on New Year's Day shows that payments in kind were not wholly abolished.

The name of Mayo has a certain interest because as Mrs. Stopes has shown (Atheneum 4268) one Tho. Mayowe was engaged in 1581-2 in a suit in Chancery with the family of Shakespeare's mother. A Mary Mayo was servant to old William Jelliff, the clothier, of Fair-sermon fame, being generously, perhaps over-generously, treated by him in his last will and testament. Concerning Abel Brooksby (DR429/194), apothecary, mayor in 1672, there is an interesting correspondence in the Coventry MS. LetterBooks. He evidently wrote to King Charles II., begging to be excused from the burden of the mayoralty on account of the charges he had borne in doctoring wounded Cavaliers in the late wars, a plea which much chagrined his colleagues of the Corporation and was eventually disallowed. Concerning Sam. Snell's year (DR429/192) there is a very interesting entry in Mr. Kynon's MS. Mayor-list, which, though it may have been printed before, I cannot forbear to quote, since it not only concerned a Vicar of Trinity, but also illustrated the locality of the old Cathedral." Whereas the Ruins of the Cathedrall of St. Mary's in this City, that was demolished in the reign of Henry 8, was the west part of it made use of by the Butchers to lay their Ordure in, and to keep hogs, etc., in, Mr. John Bryan, Vicar of Trinity, had this year (1650) a grant thereof from the City, and built a dwelling House over against the Lane betwen the two Churchyards, where formerly a Steeples stood belonging to the said Cathedrall, the Cross-iles going over there. He also made dwelling Houses on the Bottom of the two Steeples that were on both sides the Entrance into the Priory from the Butcherow, and cleansed the Ground of Ruins and converted it to Gardens. And about the same time another Part of the scite of the Cathedral was levelld and made use of for a Bowling Alley, and since made a garden by Mr. Nathaniel Harriman. The East End of the Site of the said Cathedral was before made into Gardens and Orchards by Mr. Hum. Burton and Mr. John Brownell, and the east wall of the garden of the latter stands on the Foundation of the Chancel of the said Cathedral. "Cross-aisles" is, of course, the older and better word for transepts."