Catalogue description Lease fr. Hen. Polter, Edw. Damport, pewterer, Joh. Castell, Will. Andrewes, chw. to...

Lease fr. Hen. Polter, Edw. Damport, pewterer, Joh. Castell, Will. Andrewes, chw. to Oliver Forest, 'poticary' of a tent in Derby Lane, for 21 years at 20/- a year, lessee to find tiles for repairs, but "lathe, naile & lyme," timber & other repairs to be found or undertaken by chw. who are to discharge lessee of murage. £5 fine in default of payment of rent.

Seal broken.

There are several things of considerable interest in the deeds Nos.70-3. "Sir" William Bennet (note the title, which has nothing to do with the knighthood, but was the ordinary distinguishing mark of later Tudor clergy, of. Shakespeare's "Sir Oliver Martext") was first parson of Lighthorn and afterwards Vicar of Trinity, until he was put out of his benefice under Mary for being married. I always judge him to have been continually in financial straits. The sale for £16 of lands in the fields of Offchurch and Cubbington is the only deed I have come across of land in that neighbourhood. Offchurch belonged to the Prior of Coventry, and it is possible that the ecclesiastics parted with some of their possessions in these parishes just before the Dissolution. At any rate the Trinity feoffees did not seem very sure of their title, for they guaranteed to refund the purchase money if by reason of any Act of Parliament the transaction should be void. The names in these deeds are well known. Damport (71) (later Davenport) and Herford have a Transatlantic interest. A later generation of Davenports lived in the house in Cross Cheaping, now Mountford's draper's shop, as we shall see in 17th century deeds. Tho. Wheatley (DR429/73) is renowned as the founder of Bablake School; Talontes (DR429/71) and Kyrvyn (DR429/73), the latter called "the Great Kyrvyn" (why? I wonder), hada quarrel with Joh. Hales, and caused thereby the removal of the Free School from Whitefriars to St. John's Hospital (Sharp, DR429/161). Julynes Herryng (DR429/73) was probably grandfather of a famous divine of that name. The place-names "Medelborowe" (DR429/72) Hethsale (DR429/73) have modern survivals. Did the "r" in Hearsall, of which there is not a trace in the early forms of the word, creep in from Horwell? "Hearsall, otherwise Horwell," occurs frequently in deeds. Lockearsmore (DR429/72) may come from the mediaeval name Locard. I think that the quarry of Stonydelfes (DR429/72) has been perpetuated in a house called "Quarryfield". A yard land (DR429/70) - a virgate, 32 acres. A bond of the statute of the staple (DR429/70) was a bond for repayment of debt or forfeiture.