Medieval London Widows, 1300-1500

306 Pages·2003·18.739 MB·English

by  Caroline Barron (editor), Anne Sutton (editor)

MEDIEVAL LONDON WIDOWS, 1300 - 1500
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MEDIEVAL LONDON WIDOWS
1300 - 1500
EDITED BY
CAROLINE M. BARRON AND ANNE F. SUTTON
THE HAMBLEDON PRESS
LONDON AND RIO GRANDE
Published by The Hambledon Press 1994
102 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 8HX (U.K.)
P.O. Box 162, Rio Grande, Ohio 45674 (U.S.A.)
ISBN 1 85285 085 X
© The Contributors 1994
A description of this book is available from
the British Library and from the Library of Congress
Typeset by York House Typographic Ltd
Printed on acid-free paper and bound in
Great Britain by Cambridge University Press
Contents
Preface vii
Illustrations ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: The Widows' World in Later Medieval London
Caroline M. Barron xiii
1 Tanners' Widows, 1300-1350 1
Derek Keene
2 Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare (d. 1360) 29
Jennifer C. Ward
3 Matilda Penne, Skinner (d. 1392/3) 47
Elspeth Veale
4 Poor Widows, c. 1393-1415 55
Robert A. Wood
5 Joan Pyel (d. 1412) 71
Stephen O'Connor
6 Lucia Visconti, Countess of Kent (d. 1424) 77
Helen Bradley
1 Margaret Stodeye, Lady Philipot (d. 1431) 85
Carole Rawcliffe
8 Johanna Hill (d. 1441) and Johanna Sturdy (d. c. 1460),
Bell-Founders 99
Caroline M. Barron
9 Joan Buckland (d. 1462) 113
Jenny Stratford
10 Alice Claver, Silkwoman (d. 1489) 129
Anne F. Sutton
vi Medieval London Widows, 1300-1500
11 Margaret Croke (d. 1491) 143
Kay Lacey
12 Three Fifteenth-Century Vowesses 165
Mary C. Erler
13 Thomasyne Percyvale, The Maid of Week' (d. 1512) 185
Matthew Davies
14 Lady Joan Bradbury (d. 1530) 209
Anne F. Sutton
Bibliography 239
Index 247
Preface
This volumes owes its inspiration to Lady Joan Bradbury. It was Lady Joan's
benefactions to the Mercers' Company which brought her to the attention of
Anne Sutton, and it was Anne's investigations into the life of Lady Joan which
led us to realise how much it is possible to discover about women whose lives
had seemed to be completely obscured. Encouraged by Anne's success in
finding out so much about Lady Joan Bradbury, we decided to ask others
working on different aspects of medieval London whether they also had a
favourite widow awaiting resurrection. This collection of biographies is the
result.
In the course of working on the lives of these women, we have met twice for
'workshops' and have discussed common problems, exchanged possible
sources of information and tested out the significance of particular phrases in
wills or deeds. On both these occasions we were joined by other scholars who
contributed to our discussions but not to this volume: Dr Vanessa Harding,
Professor Joel Rosenthal and Professor J.B. Trapp. We are grateful to them
for the information and the insights which they shared with us. We are also
indebted to the Mercers' Company who generously provided us with lunch at
our first workshop: an appropriate gesture since Lady Joan appears to have
enjoyed good company and good food.
We are conscious that there are many more medieval women waiting to be
called from darkness into light. We hope that this small band of diverse and
idiosyncratic women may serve to encourage others to discover and describe
the lives of women who lived neither at the summit of their societies, nor at the
margins, but who were, like ourselves, of the 'middling sort'.
Caroline M. Barren Anne F. Sutton
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Illustrations
Fig. 1 Map of London, c. 1400 xviii
Fig. 2 Elizabeth de Burgh's Family 31
Fig. 3 The London Minoresses in the Later Middle Ages 39
Fig. 4 Margaret Stodeye's Husbands and Relatives 87
Fig. 5 The Distribution of the Bells of Richard and Johanna
Hill and of John and Johanna Sturdy 101
Fig. 6 Fifteenth-Century Bell-Founders' Marks: 103
(1) Richard Hill (2) Johanna Hill
(3) John Sturdy (4) Johanna Sturdy
Fig. 7 The Relatives of Joan Buckland 115
Fig. 8 Margaret Croke and Her Relatives 145
Fig. 9 The Tate Family 147
Fig. 10 The Brasses of John Croke (d. 1477) and of Margaret
Croke ( d. 1491) 155
Fig. 11 Alice Lynne's Vow of Perpetual Chastity (1421) 168
Fig. 12 Lady Joan Bradbury's Family 211