Catalogue description Quit claim of Will of Passenham, clerk, to Joh. le Redeclerk, merchant, of 6s. 8d....

Quit claim of Will of Passenham, clerk, to Joh. le Redeclerk, merchant, of 6s. 8d. yearly rent, which he had of the gift of Agnes (see DR429/18) issuing from a house in Much Park Street, betw. Redeclerk's and that of Rob. the Cook.

Witnesses, Rob. le Brat, bailiff, Will Deryng. H. atte hath, Will Grauntpe, G. ffrebern, and others.

At Coventry, Seal, a bird ? eagle displayed. legend: Will .. S Pas ... ham.

We are still concerned here with the Redeclerk property in Much Park Street. I was much puseled for some time by the transaction recorded in Nos. 21 and 22, which is a conveyance of this property by Redeclerk to another, i.e., Will de Happesford (Hopsford), who then conveys the same back again to its original owner. In the second conveyance (DR429/22) Blena, wife of John le Redeclerk, is associated with her husband, and Mr. Geo. Bucharran of Whitby suggests that the transaction was undertaken for the purpose of giving Elena a joint estate with her husband, so that on the death of either, the survivor would have the whole estate. Failing such a settlement Elena, at the death of John, who is described as "Senior," and may have been an old man, would only have got her dower -one third- of the rents for her life. Evidently Elena was left a widow, as she is spoken of (DR429/25) as formerly the wife of John le Redeclerk; and I expect she afterwards married John de Badyngton (DR429/26)

Here and there names are familiar. The Derbys of Derby Lane appear, and so do early mayor like John le Warde and Ric. de Stoke. One of the parties in No. 26 was of "la Greve," i.e., Grove Park, near Warwick; and the forebears of one witness must have come from Baldeswell, a town Chaucer mentions in the "Canterbury Tales."