Catalogue description Lease from Hum. Randoll, innholder; Tho. Sewell, butcher; Will. Clerke, of Coundon,...

This record is held by Warwickshire County Record Office

Details of DR429/87
Reference: DR429/87
Description:

Lease from Hum. Randoll, innholder; Tho. Sewell, butcher; Will. Clerke, of Coundon, yeoman; Hugh Hobson, smith, chw., to Rob. Tym, of "Allisley," husbondman, with consent of Edm. Damport, Tho. Kyrvyn, Ric. Smyth, Hen. Kyrven, Joh. Harford. Joh. Saunders, Joh. Sneyde, Rauffe Bowne, Tho. Nyckelyn, Jul. Heyrynge, of a tenement, etc., with a "coppye" of wood near house of Tho. Hauses, gent., and 28 butts, "shooting upon" the Windmill-hill, with a hadland and 8 lands "shooting", upon the Red-hill betw. "Austen's lands" and the lord's demesne land, also 12 lands on the Church-hill, betwn. the demesne lands, those of Tho. fflynt, a hadland of Rob. Hills near Coundon brooke and the lord's lands in the town fields of Allesley, for 21 years, at 33s. 4d. yearly rent. Tym covenants to fence the grove and save the spring from cattle, and to allow Chr. Banester, gent., tenant of Tho. Hawes, to continue his tenancy of one little croft, paying 4s. to lesses. Seal.

 

The deeds 88-89 are full of very interesting matter. No. 89 contains the lease from the churchwardens to the vicar of a room over St. Thomas' Chapel. Canon Beaumont, who was very much interested in this deed, used to say in jest that when the Vicar's Rate trouble was going on he had thoughts of having to take up his abode in this chamber. Certainly this and the companion room over the north porch, to which the little twisted staircase leads, form one of the most interesting problems connected with the church, as the wall just here contains the oldest bit of masonry found in all the building. What the rooms were used for is not certain, perhaps of the abode of the first and second deacon, who filled such an important part in the church services (Sharp, Antiq. 122-4). Nos. 88 and 91 contain references to well-known houses still in possession of the churchwardens. One of these (No.99) is the "Crane" in Bishop Street, and another (No. 88) is (I believe) Mountford's shop at the corner of West Orchard. West Orchard and Ironmonger Row must have been in a line with one another then. In Speed's map a little block of houses does make it possible, although Ironmonger Row is not given in the map. The subsequent grants of this house show a list of "standards" or fixtures, including panelling, and the upper rooms are panelled now. Particular interest attaches to this grant because this house passed later into the hands of the Davenport family of renown.

 

A curious feature of these Coventry deeds is that the name-sakes of so many famous men occur in them. I have found a William Shakespeare," a "Samuel Richardson," and a "Jushua Reynolds" at Coventry, and now here is a "Matthew Arnold." There is also a Tho. Arnold (DR429/89), but whether that is a variant of "Arnold", or any forbear of the family of the famous headmaster of Rugby, I cannot say, No. 92 is evidently a deed of some importance and, represents the conveyance of a large amount of property to the church feoffees in Bishop Street, Dog Lane, (now Leicester Street), with a house and three shops in the Cross Cheaping. The office of cloakbearer (DR429/92) is now extinct, though it is to be found in the "Leet Book." The Mayor's "cloak" was a very important part of his "regalia"; it was scarlet, and late mayors had the right of appearing clad in one on State occasions. For a late mayor to be deprived of his "cloak" was an awful degradation.

Date: Mar. 31, 9 Eliz.(1567)
Held by: Warwickshire County Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English

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