| DocRefNo | DR0429/122 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Charter of Hen. Sewall, alderman; Joh. Herringe, mercer; Chr. Warren, dyer; and Raphe Downes, of Wynnall, gent., citing feoffment bearing above date, whereby they, the said Henry, etc., grant to Chr. Davenporte, pewterer; Mic. Joyner, draper; Hen. Smith, mercer; Ric. Warren, dyer; Ric. Barker, draper; Tho. Potter, dyer; Joh. Thomas, brewer; Gil. Walden, mercer; Sam Roe, vintner; Joh. Herringe, jun., mercer; and Joh. Downes, Ralph's son, a messuage, etc., in the town and fields of Brinklow, in tenure of Will. Howe, and all that messuage, etc., in Allesley and `Cowndulne,' in several tenures some time of -. Tym, Will. Hawes, Is. Bowne, and Tho. Saunders, and several closes in Horwell and Asthull, in several tenures, of Joh. Hammond, doctor of physic; Ric. Bayes, Tho. Hobson, Ric. Wildie, and Jane Piggin, and 3 tenements in Gosford Streete, and one in Earl Street, and one in Smithford Street, in several tenures of Nic. Illedge, Geo. Copestake, Ant. Stiffe, Tho. Duddeley, and Rob. Longe, and of a croft called Shuckmore, then or late in tenure of Edw. Walker, and tenement in Darby Lane, then or late in tenure of Edw. Harrington, and a tenement in Well Street, then or late in tenure of Rog. Clarke, and a yearly rent coming from land of -. Warners in tenure of Ric. Trene, value 3s. 4d., and appointing Sampson Brownehill, gent., attorney, to deliver seizin of same to the said Christopher and other named above. |
| Date | 3 Apr [1610] |
| Description | Signatures and seals of grantees. Sewall - a griffin; Warren - a bird; Herrings - a bird; Dawnes - a boar. Endorsed `The Assignment of the Patent by the Pattentees.'
There is very little that is remarkable in this batch of deeds, 123-131. The names Herring, Potter, Downes, Davenport, and Sewall, occur over and over again. Three of these five families furnished emigrants to America (and so may Downes and Herring for all I know), and, indeed, everything points to a very considerable Puritan emigration from Coventry to the New World in the seventeenth century. There were other inducements besides religious difficulties urging people to leave their homes; trade was bad, and the city government fell more and more into the hands of the clique of aldermen, who sank into the lowest depths before the Municipal Corporations' Act of 1835.
Ellinor Burbury (DR0429/123) makes her `mark', but Jane Pycken's (DR0429/124) is the first woman's signature I remember to have seen in these deeds. All the newly-founded grammar schools were for boys only, and it is a rare thing for a middle-class woman to be able to write her name under James I. The interesting word `sollars' (DR0429/126) denotes the projecting upper chambers, which are such a feature of Coventry architecture, and is derived from the Latin `solaria', literally, places for basking in the sun, because `in Rome ... the roofs of the colonnades in front of the houses ... were known as `solaria'" ... and when rooms began to be built over these colonnades the name was transferred to them. The projecting `solar' of the mediaeval house served as a shelter from the sun and rain to stalls and goods exposed for sale in the street below. (Addy, Evolution of the English House). The two `shops' mentioned (131) in the fishmonger's tenement were probably booths or open sheds outside the house itself.
Dated: 3 Apr, 8 Jas.I. (1610) |