| Description | Signatures and seals (Sewall's missing) of 3 churchwardens: Hodgkins (seal heraldic, peacock, and cross fleurie), a mark. Sealled, etc., in presence of Rie. Smythe, Hen. Kyrvyn, Rafe Downos, Joh. Saunders mark, T. Banester.
The names of Elizabethan citizens in these deeds are so numerous that anyone having a local ancestry will surely be able to find them out. Lastmaker (DR0429/100) is a rare word; it must mean a maker of lasts for shoes. Though drapers' and weavers' names are mentioned, it is evident that several of the leading men of Trinity parish were victuallers, vintners, and butcher-graziers, not a healthy sign in civic life, perhaps, and this is a period of municipal decline which lasted until the Municipal Corporations' Act, of 1835. The house in Dog Lane (DR0429/99 B) was to be held of the Queen "in free burgage" probably it was part of the Convent estate as yet unpurchased by the Corporation; the phrase "in free burgage" recalls Ranulf's charter of 1181-6, wherein he grants that the burghers may hold of him in free burgage, that is without any of the degrading conditions of servile tenure.
Dated: 8 Feb, 25 Eliz. (1582-3) |