The Holwaye Family

When we look through manor court rolls we usually have a good idea of what we will find: lists of jurors, appointments of officers, tenants dying and new tenants being admitted to their lands, repairs to highways and fences, and fines for minor offences like breaking the assize of ale and pub fights. This enables us to build a picture of the character of a village, to spot the leading tenants, the repeat offenders and the small social and economic changes. Sometimes we come across a story which involves wider links to the outside world and reveals a little more about the characters who populate the records.

In September 1587 at the Yarnfield manor court leet in Maiden Bradley parish the jury presented that Thomas Holwaye, husbandman, had been convicted at the Salisbury assizes, held in July the same year, of stealing two horses for which he had been hanged. Sir Edward Seymour, Earl of Hereford, had the right to the goods of convicted felons on his manor; a right which had been granted to the Maiden Bradley Priory three centuries earlier. So his bailiff compiled a list of the goods and chattels to be distrained.

Thomas was not poor. His livestock consisted of three oxen, two cows, a mare, nine sheep and a pig. Standing in the fields, he had three acres of wheat, eight acres of mixed oats and vetches, and half an acre of mixed oats and barley. His other goods included an old cart, a little brass pan, twelve oak boards, three loads of wood, a frying pan, a pickaxe and numerous other small items. A marginal note beside the inventory noted that Christina Holwaye, the widow of Thomas Holwaye had six children, the eldest not above sixteen years old.

By 1590, Christina had married Robert Rydowt, an established tenant who regularly served as a juror at the court leet. Nevertheless, she retained some control over her own property, perhaps as guardian for her children, as at the September court she was fined 3d. for taking a sub-tenant without licence.

By Mark Forrest