Four Parishes Research Turbulent Times

Turbulent Times

As it was once memorably put, life in past times was potentially nasty, short and brutal. Of course, it did not necessarily follow that everyone born in, say, the middle ages, would meet an unpleasant end, but there is little doubt that most past societies were considerably more violent than our own. It is often difficult to discover details about the less savoury side of life in previous centuries, but sometimes sources exist that do allow us an insight. As part of our LHI-funded project the Four Parishes Heritage Group have recently transcribed a series of documents called the Patent Rolls from the 14th Century. These were essentially letters from the King (or, more accurately, one of his servants) with instructions to his officials on matters of policy. Many were to do with matters of law and order, responses to individuals who believed that they had been wronged. In the first half of the century, there are 15 letters concerning various crimes in Highley, Stottesdon, Kinlet and the surrounding area.

The most common complaint was poaching in the various parks that were found throughout the area. A park was, first and foremost, a deer farm, where the animals were bred to provide both sport when they were hunted and meat when they were eventually caught. Parks also provided a very useful supply of timber and firewood for their owners. The deer and the trees were jealously guarded, although doubtless many locals did help themselves from time to time. However, it is not the misdemeanours of one or two individuals that required action from the king. Rather the patent rolls deal with the equivalent of organised crime; mass raids requiring considerable organisation. Typically around 20 or so individuals would appear to be involved, usually lead by a prominent landowner from a nearby parish. In many cases it is clear that the raids were really quarrels about land ownership and hunting rights that probably had not been settled properly by actions in local courts.

Those involved in the raids seem to have included a good spectrum of local society; some appear to have been obscure peasants but others seem to have been of some wealth or status. Their numbers frequently involved clergymen. Nicholas, parson of Glaseley and Ralph de Glaseley, parson of Sidbury, were involved in more than one raid on the parks that surrounded the Wyre Forest. We do not know whether these clergy were simply individuals on the make or whether they saw themselves as striking blows against oppressors of the poor.

Just occasionally the landowners can be seen to have struck back. In 1364 the Rev. Richard Nowell, the park keeper at Earnwood in Kinlet was in trouble for assualting Robert of Cleeton and carrying away a sword, shield, a bow and arrow, a girdle and 5/-. The removal of the bow and arrow may suggest that Nowell felt that Robert had been using his Earnwood deer for target practice. Nowell himself was dismissed as park keeper some years later over allegations that he had helped himself to the deer he was meant to be protecting.

Not all the cases were about poaching. One of the most interesting happened in Chorley in 1317. Most of Stottesdon at that date belonged to Nicholas de Seagrove, an important baron with estates throughout the east midlands. However, Harcourt in Stottesdon belonged to the Fitzaer family. In autumn of that year around 20 of Seagrove’s men from his estates in the midlands descended on the house of Aline Fitzaer in Chorley, seized her goods, took her away and imprisoned her at one of Seagrove’s castles at Couldon, on the outskirts of Coventry. Aline was eventually released and, not unsurprisingly, complained to the king about the events. Warrants were duly issued for the arrests of those involved. Seagrove himself was not directly implicated but it seems inconceivable that Aline could have been imprisoned in his castle without his approval. Quite what he had against Aline is not clear; it may simply have been a quarrel about land taken to extremes. However, the country was at on the verge of civil war and there are grounds for thinking that Seagrove and the Fitzaer family were on opposite sides. Whatever the cause of the quarrel, it is doubtful whether Aline got much justice as most of her attackers were pardoned shortly afterwards, as part of a deal to try and stop a national conflict. She at least retained her lands; the Fitzaers remained lords of Harcourt for many years after this incident.