This is an indenture, a rental agreement between Agnes Allesley, the Prioress of Catesby Abbey and the family of John Horewood of Staverton, in Northamptonshire. March 1457, Catalogue ref: E 326/8274.
Transcript
This indenture [rental agreement] witnesses that Mistress Agnes Allesley, prioress of Catesby and the convent in the same place grant, hand over and convey [give] at farm [to rent] to John Horewood of Staverton, Alice his wife, and Thomas the son of the same John and Alice, one messuage [house] in Staverton aforesaid lying between a messuage [house] that John Odam inhabits on one side and the high road on the other side, with three parts of pasture and its appurtenances [rights of the land] in the town and fields of Staverton aforesaid, [mentioned] to have the same messuage [house] equally and wholly as William Braundon once had and held the aforesaid messuage, with three parts of pasture and its appurtenances for the said John, Alice and Thomas from the day of the present agreement until the end and term of their lives… they are to pay annually the prioress and convent and their successors fifteen shillings in good and legal money, in two equal portions, that is at Lady Day [25 March] and Michaelmas [29 September]. And the aforesaid John, Alice and Thomas are to repair, sustain and maintain the messuage at their own expense… Given at Catesby in the chapter house, 10 March 1457.
Religious women
According to the document, the Prioress agreed to rent out a house and fields to John, his wife Alice and their son Thomas in Staverton for 15 shillings in rent to be paid twice a year. The prioress would have kept this copy, and the Horewoods would have kept a copy as well, each attaching their seal to the other’s copy. You can see at the top the jagged edge where the two copies were cut apart. If needed, they could be checked by fitting the cut edges together.
- How much rent did the Horewoods have to pay Catesby Abbey to rent the messuage or dwelling house and three parts of pasture?
- Who rented the house and land before the Horewood family?
- How could there have been a disagreement between Prioress Agnes and the Horewoods?
- How do you think Prioress Agnes might have dealt with any future disagreement?
- What does this source tell us about Catesby Abbey’s relationship with people living near it?