Catalogue description Grant (charter) for Rob. Person, and Anna, his wife, kinswoman and heir of Joh....

Grant (charter) for Rob. Person, and Anna, his wife, kinswoman and heir of Joh. Wylgryse, late of London, to Will. Bedell (see DR429/58) and Agness, his wife, of a tenement and garden in Much Park Street betw. land of Trinity Guild and that of Preston's Chantry to hold of lords of fee. Attorney, Joh. Cosyn, dyer. (Preston's Chantry in S. Michael's nr. Sharp, antiquities, 37)

Witn. Ric. Harssall, draper, Edm. Harssall, draper, Rog. Couch, chaplain. At Coventry.

Seals T. and W.

The Early deeds of Henry VIII.'s reign have various points of interest. Clopton (DR429/61) recalls a name well-known in Stratford, and Foorth or Ford (DR429/61) and Pisseforthe (DR429/63) others familiar in Coventry. Joh. Seill (DR429/62) was master of the drapers' Company in 1528. The fact that "Compton's Tenement" was waste ground and unbuilt on shows the decayed state of the city in the sixteenth century, when heavy taxation, decay of agriculture, and the competition of country workers were all agencies making for the depression of the small urban worker. The expression that Ford and Pisford "recovered" a certain messuage against the Marquis of Dorset recalls the fictitious legal actions whereby buyers and sellers circumvented the laws which forbade alienation of land. A (the buyer) would enter an action against B (the seller) on the ground that B's property belonged to A. B would call on C, a man of straw - usually the crier of the court - to ratify his title, but C would pretend to be so overcome by A's arguments as to withdraw from the case, hence judgment would be pronounced in favour of A. who by this legal farce was held to "recover" property which by old title was really his. Of course, the important features of the bargain, the price and terms of sale, would be unofficially arranged out of court. The expression "for the use of" testifies to the growing custom of leaving property in trust for the benefit either of individuals or corporations. As land held in trust was not liable to forfeiture in cases of treason or felony the method had its obvious advantages in the time of the Wars of the Roses, when the victory of one party made the followers of another liable to the imputation of treason.

The notary's certificate (DR429/64) is written on vellum with a very interesting device, something like a chalice, as the writer's mark. Evidently there was some dispute as to "next of kin," and the evidence of this old woman, Alice Frankelen, was of importance to the case.