Catalogue description Letter testimonial of Tho. Grene, notary, dated at his house in the Bull-ring concerning...

Letter testimonial of Tho. Grene, notary, dated at his house in the Bull-ring concerning the evidence of Alicia ffrankelen, widow, aged 91 years, who declared on oath in the presence of the notarv. of Tho. Grene, chaplain, Joh. Porter, and Ric. Cokkes, "litterati," that Agn. Chambers, sister of Joh. Castyll, sen., was mother of Joyce Crowe and Margaret Brownn, who were respectively mothers of Tho. Crowe and Will Brown.

Notary's sign and initials T.G.

The deeds numbering 65-8 are concerned with the Derby Lane tenement, lying next to one belonging to Merynton's chantry, and called after Tho. Mollys, the chantry priest, and with "Compton's tenement" in Much Park Street (see DR429/61), which was charged with a rent towards the lamp which burned before the Holy Rood.

There is a rather mysterious fraternity of the Holy Cross (see Sharp, DR429/88) founded under Edward III., which, unlike the Trinity and Corpus Christi Guilds, had no permanent life; we have Rood Lane even now, and once there was a tenement called "Rodehall" in Bishop Street (Leet Book, 448), but what connection these have with Joh. Clerke's gift I cannot tell.

The names in this set are perhaps less interesting than usual. Rob. Hewet (DR429/66) I take to be one of the family of the Lord Lifford, lately dead, unless what Colville (Warw. Worthies) says is true that they came out of Cumberland in Charles II's time. Anyway there were Hewitts in Coventry long before then. Anne, daughter of Vincent and Deliverance Hewitt, was baptized in 1627 in Trinity Church. Will. Saunders (DR429/68) recalls another famous Coventry family, but there is no evidence that Thomas White, merchant, who held a house in Derby Lane (DR429/66) had any connection with the Sir Thomas, Lord Mayor of London town.