| 1 |
This document adds enormously to
our knowledge of the names of the
inhabitants of Whitby Strand at the
commencement of the fourteenth
century. Whitby is not even mentioned
in Kirkby's Inquest; and in the Nomina
Villarum, which is printed with Kirkby
(p. 327), the information given is very
scanty. The names of the inhabitants
also not only add to our knowledge of
their callings (as in other places), but
give us the information that, even at
this early date, the woollen manufactures
were beginning to be a home business.
The fuller, the weaver, and the dyer
are mentioned—all three in immediate
sequence to one another in one place—Johannes le Fulur, Henricus le Teler,
and Thomas Tinctor—and besides that,
the name Johannes Fleming reveals the
fact that the immigration of Flemish
wool-workers had already commenced.
Perhaps, however, the most noteworthy
circumstance connected with the list of
names of fifteenth-paying inhabitants of
Whitby is that scarcely one of the names
of the persons designated betokens any
dependence upon, or connection with,
the, by that time, important and influential abbey of Whitby. And another
observation of the same nature may be
made. No fisherman, or boatman, or
merchant-man, is specified. A century
later the case was different.—J. C. A. |
| 2 |
No doubt the William Herman
mentioned in the following inquisition,
at that time a verderer in Whitby
Forest. "Inquisition taken before Gerard
Salvayn, the sheriff, in the full county
court, held on Tuesday after the feast
of the Assumption of the B. V. M.,
5 Edw. II. (Aug. 17th, 1311), with the
assent of the same county court, by Robert
de Beverley, Peter de Lincoln, William
de la Sale, Robert de Hilderwell, John
Lespicer, Peter de Hildrewell, Simon
Percy of Duncele, Ralph de Molendino,
John son of Geoffrey de Lythe, Thomas
le Mareschall, Robert de Dales, and
John de Bradelay, jurors, who say upon
their oath that the Abbot and Convent
of Whyteby, and their predecessors, as
lords of their forest of Whyteby, had
their own verderers (viridarios) of their
said liberty in their forest of Whyteby,
by virtue of a charter of Henry III.,
granted to the abbot and convent and
their successors; and that continuously
from the time of the making of the
same charter, without any interruption
to the day on which William Herman
and William de Percy, late verderers of
the said forest, died. These verderers
of the abbot and convent were made at
the circuit of the justices of the forest
held at Whyteby, as also their presentments and answers, and all else appertaining to the office of verderers. Robert
de Everle and William Attehalle of
Whitby elected verderers in the place of
Herman and Percy deceased (Inq. ad q.
d. 4 Edw. II. No. 9). |
| 3 |
Fylingdales, Stoup Brow and
Thirnhowe, |
| 4 |
Suffield, Harwood Dale, Broxa and
Silpho, Hackness par. |
| 5 |
Dunsley, Newham (or, as it is
incorrectly spelled, Newholm), and
Ruswarp, lie N.W. of Whitby. |
| 6 |
Hawsker and Stainsacre. |
| 7 |
Sleights. |
| 8 |
There has perhaps been another name. |
| 9 |
Ugglebarnby. |
| 10 |
Everley, Hackness par. |
| 11 |
Middlesbrough and Newham,
formerly in the parish of Acklam-inCleveland. |