Difference between revisions of "HCA 13/70 f.533r Annotate"

Revision as of 14:53, February 6, 2015

Image

HCA 13/70 f.533r: Right click on image for full size image in separate window

Transcription

may prevaile in this cause and saith it will be neither benefitt
nor preiudice to him which side soever prevaile in this cause And further
hee cannot answere,/

To the 2 hee saith hee is noe fisherman but hath very well knowne the
grounds Interrogate for the reasons before expressed for these fifty yeares
last past and better and saith it is within the ebbing and flowing of
the sea and is at high water about a myle broad from shoare to shore
or at lowe water about a quarter of a myle broad this hee knoweth having
very many tymes passed over it both at high and lowe ater and saith shipps
of such a burthen as is Interrogate cannot as hee beleeveth ride therein
mor any other shipp of any great burthen the mouth of the river being
but shallowe not above 7 or 8 feete deepe at lowe water And further
saving his foregoeing deposition wherein hee hath
satisfied the rest of this Interrogatorie hee cannot answere/

To the 3 hee saith hee was never at any Court held in Kent but the
Court for the Mannor and hundred of ffeversham, and the Maiors Court
at ffeversham and therefore saving his foregoeing deposition cannot
further answere to this Interrogatorie./

To the 4th hee saith saving his foregoing deposition to the allegation
made in this cause in the acts of Court to which hee referreth hee
cannot further answere to this Interrogatorie having never heard ought of
any such complaintes as is Interrogate./

To the 5th hee saith hee can write and read, And to the rest of the
sayd Interrogatorie hee answereth negatively for his part and further
cannot answere./

To the 6th hee saith hee desyreth right may prevaile in this cause and
to the rest of the Interrogatorie hee answereth negatively./

To the 7th Interrogatorie saving his foregoeing deposition hee cannot depose
thereto./

To the 8th hee saith there are other fish beside oysters as dabbs
and soles and smelts and such smale fish taken upon the grounds in
question and saith hee beleeveth none but the tennants of the hundred and
mannor of ffeversham doe catch fish in the places Interrate, unlessethey doe it secretly as by stealth without the knowledge of the tennants
of the sayd Mannor and hundred And further saving his foregoeing
deposition hee cannot answere./

To the last hee saith hee cannot answere otherwise than negatively
having never heard of nor beleeveing any such thing as is Interrogate/

Repeated before doctor Godolphin

John whitfield [SIGNATURE, RH SIDE]

Topics

Places

Faversham

See Faversham in C17th

• Michael Laithwaite, A Ship-Master’s House at Faversham in Post-Medieval Archaeology Vol 2 (1968)
• Francis F Giraud & Charles E Donne, A Visitor’s Guide to Faversham, 1876 (Faversham Society reprint, 1988)

Faversham Guildhall

Materials

Faversham Oyster fishery

• Company and Fraternity of Free Fishermen and Dredgermen of Faversham in existence by 1189. "This was a ‘labour corporation’, or trade collective, whose profits were shared in proportion to the amount of work put in by each individual member. To become a ‘freeman’ of the Company applicants had to serve a 7-year apprenticeship and be married. Under the jurisdiction of the Lord of the Manor the Company was run by an ‘admiralty’, or ‘water’, court consisting of a ‘Foreman’ (chairman), two other officers and a ‘Jury’ (committee) of four."^[1]

  Sources

  Primary sources

Kent Archives

Fa/CPl26 Precepts for the Admiralty court at Faversham, with a jury list of 36 names Date: 1628
- Nb. Fa - FAVERSHAM BOROUGH RECORDS CP - The Cinque Ports l - Chancery court, Dover:

Fa/JC Title:The Coroner Level: Series

Fa - FAVERSHAM BOROUGH RECORDS J - Judicial Records B - Borough Court of Record
- f - Fines and related documents
- p - Court papers
- r - Court record
-s - Court rolls and books
- w - Writ of summons and writs of arrest

Miscellaneous Topics

Faversham Legal Records from C17th

From H.C.F. Lansberry, Government and Politics in Kent, 1640-1914 (London, 2001), p.70

• Boroughs held General of Quaarter Sessions, similar to those at County level
• Faversham sessions included trial of felonies
• Each corporation included a court for debts, real, personal, and mixed. These were ususally named "Courts of Portmote" (e.g. Rocherster, Faversham), or Courts of Pleas (e.g. Canterbury, Maidstone), or in obne case the "Hundred Court" (Fordwich)
• Rochester had is own Court of Admiralty
• Court Leets were originally a manorial court and was a court of minor misdemeanour
• Queenborough provides an example of manorial courts becoming marginalised in the C17th and ossified in the C19th (Ibid, p.71)

Account of Faversham borough administration:

• "Of the Civil Jurisdiction of the Town, after the Charter of king Henry VIII.

THE corporation, which is by prescription, and aided by various charters, as before hath been mentioned, consists, when complete, of a mayor and eleven jurats, and twenty-four commoners. Always before, and even for a long time after that king Henry VIII. granted his charter to the town, the number of jurats were twelve, besides the mayor; but, as that mentions only the names of twelve persons, to be jurats, one of which he appointed to be mayor; for many years past that number hath never been exceeded. The mayor is annually elected on the thirtieth day of September, by the mayor and jurats nominating two of their brethren to the freemen, who elect one of them to be mayor for the year ensuing. Of late years so agreeably to all parties hath the nomination and election been, by the mayor and jurats writing for the two jurats next below the chair, and the freemen as constantly electing the person next to it; that to preserve this harmony, so beneficial to all concerned, it is earnestly to be wished that this peaceable and friendly course may long continue. The jurats are chosen by the mayor and greater part of the jurats. The commoners, who represent the whole body of the freemen, are elected, one moiety by the mayor and jurats, and the other by the commoners. These commoners, formerly called by way of pre-eminence, the twenty- four, or twenty-four principal freemen, have constituted a part of the court of wardmote upwards of three hundred years, but how long before that time, for want of evidence, cannot now be ascertained. The mayor, by his office, is coroner within the liberties of the town. By him the court of wardmote is convened, as occasions require, upon four days notice inclusive; wherein all matters relative to the general concerns of the town are transacted, and approved, or disapproved of, by the majority of the whole assembly, by a ballot if required. The mayor holds a court of clerk of the market; and also a court of pie-powder, when requisite, upon due summons. He also holds a court of portmote upon every Tuesday fortnight: this court, peculiar to port towns, is before shewn to have been from time immemorial; in it fines and recoveries have been always acknowledged, and all pleas and suits touching the same, and all manner of pleas, suits, and disputes, as well real and personal, as mixed, may therein be determined according to law. By process from this court persons are holden to bail for debts of forty shillings: a great deal of business was formerly transacted in this court, but of late years it hath not been so much attended to, although it seems to be a very useful and convenient one to this town in general. The court of general sessions of the peace and goal delivery, together with the court-leet or law-day, is holden before the mayor and jurats twice a year; the first within a month after Michaelmas, when all the leet officers are appointed, the other within a month after the feast of Easter."^[2]

pp.6--71

• Survey of the hundred of Faversham, conducted in 6th year of James I by Sir Michaeal Sand, Sir Richard Sands, Sir Francis Gilbourne, and John Herty, by commission of the Exchequer:

"upon the oaths of the tenants and others. – To wit, the bounds and limits of the said sea commons and fishing grounds do begin from the place called Tenham Robbs, upon the south and by west, to a place called the Black Shore, along Tenham Gutt, eastward; and from Tenham Gutt along by Ride Ferryway, down to a place called Stinke’s Nasse, with all water courses and indraughts; and from Stinke’s Nasse, by the South side to a channel called Howflete, betwixt the sand and the land, where in times past there hath been a fathom deep at low
water; which said channel hath, in times past, come out above the beacon at Faversham, Crick’s-mouth; and from the beacon to a place called the Laynes; and from the Laynes eastward to the West-hole; and from the West-hole to the East-hole; and from the East-hole
to a place called the Spit Cricks; and from Spit Cricks to a place called the Hope; and from the Hope, eastward, to a place called the Nasse Grounds,/* lying upon the east side of the channel; and from thence to Kimber Crick, to a place called the Great Bales Poole, and from Great Bales Poole to Little Bales Poole; and so from thence down along the west side of the Pollard, to a place called the Weares, upon the east side; and from thence to a place called Hampton Pitts, and so into the sea"^[3]

• "By a decree of the high court of admiralty, March 7, 1655, the tenants of the manor of Faversham have a right to dredge on Harty Shore, the Nebbe, East Swale, Beacon Ground, Nesse Ground, and Pollard Ground, for oysters, exclusive of the fishermen of Strood and Milton, and all others"^[4]