Crime and punishment in the medieval Black Country
K.R. GREGORY concludes his history of Halesowen, drawn from medieval court records
IMMORALITY had flourished during the reign of Edward VI, but attempts were being made to reform men’s lives. For keeping a woman in his house contrary to the order, Robert Rushton was fined 8d. Various orders were made within the borough of Halesowen. It was decreed in 156970 that “no person or persons within the township of Halesowen shall buy or sell any victuals at the time of Divine Service, neither shall anyone drink or tipple at the ale house at service time to go out of the Church at service time without lawful cause and with permission of the Wardens under the penalty of 6s 8d. The Victuallers shall not sell nor give anyone drink or meat at service time under penalty of 6s 8d. The Bailiff, Constable and Church Wardens shall see this Order and these penalties executed, and shall imprison and punish the offenders at their discretion.” William Haughton and Richard Taylor at the manor court in 1570 were appointed to see that the order relating to divine service was carried out. Other reforms were introduced: “No person or persons shall lease or gather up any corn but off their own lands so long as any sheaves be on the ground in penalty or for evert default 12d. Every person who shall set their children to drive beasts shall at the next court that he be able to service be in penalty of 10s. No person or persons shall sell any flesh in the barrow except it be in shops standing on the market place, under penalty of 12d.”
“No inhabitants or craftsmen within the borough shall keep open their shop windows from the time of the ringing in to a service until the service be done and likewise after the ringing in to the evening prayer they shall not keep open their shop windows until service be done in penalty for every default 3s 4d.”
“Every inhabitant within the borough shall warn their children that they must not play in the churchyard and break the glass windows in pain for every default 4d. No person or persons that brew any wedding ale to sell shall brew above 12 strikes of malt at the most and that the said persons so married shall not keep nor have above eight couples at his dinner. And before his bridal day he shall keep no unlawful games in his house neither sell ale nor beer in his house nor out of his house in penalty 20s. No inhabitant within the borough shall make any gathering forth of this borough in penalty 6s 8d. If any person or persons that do so, or know any person or persons that do carry any hedgewood or make any destruction of the lord’s woodland, he shall bring them to the bailiff, or else present their names to the bailiff, and he to punish them 24 hours in penalty of 3s 4d. No persons within the borough shall scold or chide the one upon the other but that they shall show their default to the bailiff and the bailiff shall redress the default in penalty of 3s 4d. All inhabitants within the borough shall yoke and ring their swine by Sunday evening next and so keep them sufficiently yoked or ringed until harvest next under the pain of 4d for every swine. The bailiff of the borough shall oversee the size of bread within the space of three weeks without he hath a lawful cause in penalty of 3s 4d. No person within the borough shall stop water or turn water out of the right course in penalty of 6s 8d.”
“All inhabitants within the borough having any gates or gaps belonging to the cornfields shall keep them sufficient at all times at the oversight of the bailiff with two or three men with him as he shall think good in penalty for every default for a gate 12d, and every gap 6d, and the bailiff to oversee it every three weeks.”
“Every person or persons that do make affray or bloodshed within the borough taken by the constable or any other officer shall pay the lord’s due before he departs or else lie in the hall until the lord’s due be paid”
No inhabitants within the borough shall lay stocks, blocks or dung hillocks within the street to the annoyance of their neighbours or allow it to lie in the street above two weeks at the most in pain of 3s 4d.”
An early closing law also came into force, ordering that all men servants and all inhabitants “shall not haunt the ale houses or streets without lawful cause after 7pm, in the winter, after 8pm, in the summer, in pain of punishment by the officers.”
“All that bake bread and sell shall
In 1304 Thomas of Halen assaulted Henry Park, and shot him with a bow and arrows, and Henry ran into the church porch
make good bread and able for man’s body one loaf for a penny. All brewers that brew ale to sell shall brew good ale and wholesome for a man’s body at 3d a gallon and seconds at a penny a gallon to be warranted by the ale taster. And that they do not sell by the cruse or cup but by the pewter pot of lawful size in pain of 3s 4d.”
The constant threat of invasion by Mary, Queen of Scots, in the north or by the Spanish from the south rendered it necessary for all men to be trained in the use of arms. Even children were armed and everyone “above the age of 12 years and is able to shoot shall follow their bows and apply themselves to artylerrye and that they do not play at the ball or any unlawful games. That all manner of persons that be able to shoot in long bows shall have bow and arrows according to the statute before the feast of St John the Baptist next under the pain of 6s 8d. Ale houses or victualling houses within the borough shall not receive, keep or sell ale in their houses to any man’s sons, servants, journeymen or apprentices of what degree so ever they be upon working days under pain of 6s 8d.”
“At Hill Robert Shenstone shall keep good rule in his house and suffer no unlawful games to be played in his house, nor suffer any person to have meat or drink at service time under pain of 6s 8d. No persons within the borough shall receive or lodge vagabonds or common beggars also in pain of 6s 8d.”
A favourite sport in these early times was the hunting of small birds, mice and rabbits with falcons and other large birds, but there were a great many laws restricting this sport. In Edward III’S reign only persons of rank were allows to keep hawks, and different ranks had to use different
birds. The order of precedence was: Eagle for an Emperor Gerfalcon for a King Falcon-gentle for a Prince Falcon of the rock for Duke Falcon peregrine for an Earl Bastard for a Baron Sacre for a Knight Sparrowhawk for a Priest Any person concealing a hawk from its owner would be liable the price of the bird and suffer two year imprisonment. John, the Chaplain of the Blessed Mary at Hales, was one of those who kept sparrowhawks contrary to the statute. Later on, in Henry VIII’S reign, a restrictive act was passed prohibiting men from bearing a hawk bred in England. Only hawks from abroad were to be used.
During the first half of the 15th century, there dwelt in the neighbourhood a very brilliant scholar. His name was Sir Thomas Littleton, judge, author of The Institutes of Laws of England, Knight of the Bath, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, tutor to the unfortunate Edward Plantagenet, Prince of Wales, so cruelly murdered at Tewkesbury. He was born at Frankley Hall, Frankley, in 1402 and was the eldest son of Thomas Westcote. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of the sole heiress of Thomas of Littleton, Lord of the Manor of Frankley, and he was baptised in her name. With few exceptions, such as Judge Littleton, the canons were the only men of learning in
the district. Doubtless some of the townsfolk would learn from them the art of reading and writing, but even those in authority could do little more than affix their signatures to documents and in many cases these signatures would be just a cross or some such mark.
Life in the town was a now more peaceful; cases of violence and robbery were few and far between and what quarrels there were, were of minor importance, such as the charge brought by the Cellarer the “William Pake has in his keeping a hive of bees coming as a swarm.” Pake swore he had bought the said bees from John Baker, late of Warley, deceased. He was therefore ordered to attend the next court with six “hands”, or witnesses, and prove that he came by the hive lawfully and that the bees were not a swarm.
The ancient curfew law imposed by William the Conqueror was not still in force, but in 1477 it was ordained that “no man should pass or walk in any street within the borough after the tenth hour in the night without reasonable cause” under penalty of a fine, half of which went to the abbot and the other half to the use of him who took the fine.
We possibly have a case of witch baiting when Roger Ordrich threw Margery the Leech into the brook. Her name seems to suggest incantations. John Littleton, one night in January 1297, was running for his life down the High Street of Halesowen towards the Cornbow to get away form John of Lapal, who was chasing him with a crowd of companions. Another disturbance in the High Street on a Sunday in 1304 was when Thomas of Halen assaulted Henry Park, and shot him with a bow and arrows, and Henry ran into the church porch. Apparently he escaped for a time but afterwards Thomas attacked him again with the same weapons and ran after him to his home at Hill and then assaulted him with his wife Agnes. The poor man said the damage he had suffered was 20 shillings worth of pain.
Some burglaries are again alleged but one in 1297 is reported fully. It was on Monday, March 4 that Juliana Halen found that her house had been entered while she was away and her goods stolen. She suspected another Juliana, who lived with Agnes the Crone, and she sent her son Roger after her to bring her with him to the scene of the crime. Juliana the suspected criminal, of course, denied everything but Mrs Halen nevertheless put another son to keep guard over her, which he did, sitting by her from afternoon to evening and through the night. But Mrs Halen was found to be wrong in her suspicions and was fined 12d for her action.
A man on another occasion came home from church to find his house had been broken into and so other tenants were warned to keep their houses guarded as thieves were about.
Morality does not appear to have been very high among the younger women of the manor – the number of those who were fined for lapsing from virtue is uncountable. They appear to have been of all grades in the community Alice Hill’s daughter Sibilia seems to have been quite well off. She possessed six sheep which were at her mother’s house, and of which the lord abbot relieved her for her offence.
There is mention of a mad girl, Isabella, John Lapall’s daughter, who in 1294 burnt down Agnes Daleby’s house “in sua dementia”. She obtained the fire at her father’s house but the night before had stayed with Matilda Hadman, so the mad girl and Matilda were both arrested. Such unfortunates possibly met with hard measures in those days. Some other fires are mentioned: there was the burning of the new mill at Hales shortly after it was built; the men of Warley were ordered to enquire into a fire at Philip Lirgan’s house but they said they knew neither how it occurred, nor the extent of the fire, nor who put a light to it. This they said upon their oaths, but looks rather as if they did not want to know.
In the rolls we are told that women had to work as hard as men. Juliana Tench, being behind with her rent, was to mow five days at harvest time at her own cost for which she was allowed 5½d by the cellarer. Work for eight days in autumn was imposed as a fine for entering on their father’s holding upon two women in 1295.
From time to time we get a glimpse of the value of animals in those ancient times; an ox was worth 4s and a cow in milk the same sum. A cow, a calf and a young beast were valued on one occasion at 10s. It is left rather obscure whether Walter Oldbury bought three or two horses at Bromsgrove Fair with 9s of his own money, but it appears that the price of a horse was about that of an ox, 4s/ A male colt was valued as 3s 4d and two hoggets, boars of the second year, priced at 2s. Dogs in those days, as now, were often mentioned as biting someone: one but a poverty stricken boy and its master had to pay a fine. Sheep worrying was also mentioned, usually described as having seized the sheep by their throats. One man got into trouble because his dog was said to have bitten a young beast of the abbot’s so badly that it died, but he we was able to prove that he had no dog and got off.