389 Loris v Tabor

389 LORIS V TABOR

Andrew Loris of Cambridge, M.D. v John Tabor the elder and Thomas Bokeley of the same

September - October 1640

Abstract

Loris complained that Tabor and Bokeley had given him the lie in the presence of witnesses, and called him 'a base fellow and a base rascall', 'on purpose to urge your supplicant to beat and strike them and soe to draw on a quarrel and bloodshed'. Lorisclaimed that he was descended from an ancient family of gentry and that he had married a granddaughter of Sir Thomas North. Loris took out bond to prosecute the case on 3 October 1640, but no further proceedings survive and it is probable that the case was lost with the suspension of the court's proceedings in December.

Initial proceedings

5/140, Petition

'Your petitioner and all his ancestors have been and are come and descended of an ancient family of gentry and that your supplicant hath lived in the University of Cambridge by the space of this 14 years and upwards, having taken divers degrees within the universities beyond seas, where he hath been a travellor and hereof well approved. But now so it is right honorable, that one John Tabor the elder and Thomas Bokeley combining together and knowing noe otherwise to vilify and abuse your supplicant but by base and ignominious words, on purpose to urge your supplicant to beat and strike them and soe to draw on a quarrel and bloodshed. Tabor and Bokeley did, in the presence of divers sufficient witnesses, call your supplicant a base fellow and a base rascall, giving your supplicant the lye, with many other opprobrious words, to his great disparagement being a gentleman of ancient family as will appear before your lordship by his seale and coat of armes. And your supplicant further sheweth that albeit he be indeed a gentleman of the said ancient family, and having married with one of the daughters of Thomas Stouteville, esq., who married the daughter of Sir Thomas North, knt.; yet by reason of diverse suits, crosses and other troubles which he hath had since his intermarriage with his wife about the recovery of her right, he is much impoverished in his estate, insomuch as his debts being paid he is not worth 5^li sterling in all the world.'

Petitioned for process in 'reparation of his repute and prevention of duells'.

'In regard of the petitioner's povertie (whereof he hath made oathe) lett him be admitted to sue in forma pauperis , in the Court Militarie, and Doctor Duck and Dr Merick to bee of his counsell.'

No date.

Signed Mowbray and Maltravers.

5/141, Affidavit

'Andrew Loris of Cambridge in the said county, Doctor of Phisicke, aged seventie yeres or thereabouts, being sworne deposeth that the contents of Andrew Loris, gent., his petition preferred unto the right honorable the Earl Marshall of England against John Tabor and others and hereunto annexed, are true in every severall particular thereof.'

7 September 1640

Signed by John Page.

5/139, Plaintiff's bond

3 October 1640

Bond to 'appear in the court in the Painted Chamber within the Pallace of Westminster'.

Signed by Andrew Loris.

Sealed, subscribed and delivered in the presence of John Dynham.

Notes

G. D. Squibb (ed.), Reports of Heraldic Cases in the Court of Chivalry, 1623-1732 (London, 1956), p. 49.

Andrew Loris and Thomas Bokeley did not appear in the Visitation of Cambridge for 1619, but John Taber was the eldest son of James Taber, M.A., Register of the University of Cambridge in 1619.

J. W. Clay (ed.), The Visitations of Cambridge, 1575 and 1619 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 41, 1897), p. 59.

Documents

• Initial proceedings
  • Petition: 5/140 (no date)
  • Affidavit: 5/141 (7 Sep 1640)
  • Plaintiff's bond: 5/139 (3 Oct 1640)

People mentioned in the case

• Bokeley, Thomas
• Duck, Arthur, lawyer
• Dynham, John
• Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers
• Loris, Andrew, M.D.
• Merrick, William, lawyer
• North, Thomas, knight
• Page, John
• Stouteville, Thomas, esq
• Tabor, James (also Taber)
• Tabor, John the elder (also Taber)

Places mentioned in the case

• Cambridgeshire
  • Cambridge
• Middlesex
  • Westminster

Topics of the case

• coat of arms
• denial of gentility
• giving the lie
• physician
• provocative of a duel
• University of Cambridge