Not much changes!!

[Sha]

A glance back at Yesteryear.

History is interesting,.........sometimes quite amusing!

 

CONSISTORY COURT Chester and Cheshire Archives

1626

Contents:

1. CHESTER (St John) Alderman Thos Bird c John Francis saying he had got Ellin Barnes with child at his chambers in Watergate Street - libel, interrogations, depositions.

2. CHESTER (St John) John Francis c Katherine Spence saying his wife found him in bed with the maid - libel, depositions.

3. CHESTER (St Oswald) Jane Catterall wife of Wm a fishmonger c Wm Catterall and his wife saying she had a child before her marriage and committed adultery - libel (fragile).

14. BOLTON LE SANDS Churchwardens of Bolton c chapelwardens of Burton for refusing to repair the churchyard wall at Bolton as is the custom - depositions.

16. CARTMEL Office c Ann Breres alias Tyllesley and Thos Tyllesley for marriage under age; he being 14 years old - interrogations, depositions.

17. EGREMOND Office c Anthony Patrickson for adultery with Ann Benns - responsions.

22. PRESTBURY Laurence Leicester clerk c Humphrey Newton saying he was fitter to preach in a middin than the pulpit - interrogations.

26. MANCHESTER Anne Baxter c Wm Boulton saying he was naughty with her - libel, depositions, sentence.

27. ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD Thos & Mary Knowles c Margaret Bispham and others saying that Mary committed adultery with Richard Sephton the miller - libel.

28. OVER PEOVER Office c John Chaice and Anna Wright widow for adultery - fragment only.

30. WALLASEY Robert Kighly c Robert Johnson saying he had kept 20 whores - deposition, sentence, costs.

31. MARBURY Geo Poole c Maria Cole saying that Poole's wife committed adultery with Philip Lloyd between 1605 and 1615 - libel.

32. TARPORLEY Ralph Kirkham c Anna Cookson saying she saw Maria Wood with her clothes up fornicating with Robert Kirkham - libel, interrogations.

33. STOCKPORT Wm Sidebotham & Margery Thorniley c Cecilia Thorniley for saying she saw them commit adultery in the house of Randle Birchouse in Northwich - libel.

35. SEFTON Robert Kinsey c Sara Kinsey in a divorce cause arising from Sara's adultery in Wm Wicksteed's alehouse - libel, interrogations.

36. WINWICK Henry Hirst c John Flitcroft saying he had committed adultery with Ellin Taylor on the bank - libel.

37. MACCLESFIELD Susanna Fallowes c Joan Clerke & Jane Hooley saying she was a whore - libel.

38. MACCLESFIELD Anna Hodgkinson c Robert Hatton & Anna Davie calling her thief and whore - libel.

39. MALPAS Richard Bird c Wm Edge of Lawton for calling him a rogue and thief - libel.

40. MALPAS John Shone of Hawarden c Magaret Shone of Malpas his wife for committing adultery with Wm Moyle of Doddleston - libel.

46. WIGAN Office c Jacob Smalshawe and his wife being married without banns or licence - libel.

49. DEAN Office c Jennet wife of Charles Gregory caught in adultery in a dry pit with Wm Milnes, both to perform penances in the churches of Wigan and Leigh.

51. BUNBURY Richard Brocke c John Swann curate for neglecting the cure keeping a mercer's shop, selling wares, travelling from market to market, administering communion to persons sitting or standing and to non parishioners, allowing congregation to use such gestures as they pleased, refusing communion out of envy, refusing to baptise sick infants, not visiting the sick, not meeting a corpse at lich gate in his surplice, smiling and laughing instead of reading prayers, not burying dead according to BCP - libel, responsions.

52. WIGAN Office c John Naylor and Margaret Chawner for adultery - libel.

53. TARVIN Office c Robert Mawnfield and Alice his wife married without banns or licence - libel.

54. WALTON Neville Key vicar c Jacob White - responsions, sentence.

55. PRESTBURY George Turner and others c Thos Jackson for malicious defamation. The parties had been before the Justices of peace - libel.

56. RAMSBOTHAM Egidus (Giles) Rothwell c Richard Ramsbotham for allowing the chapel door of Holcome to be opened, ringing the bell, allowing Robert Wood, a ballad monger, a wandering fellow to go into the pulpit and preach a profane sermon on the Sabbath. Ramsbotham guilty of swearing great oaths - libel.

57. DEAN Sentence in cause between Peter and Brian Leigh.

58. WILMSLOW Office c Laurence Leicester curate for being drunk in an alehouse of Randall Burgess in Moberley, throwing a black pot at the head of Humphrey Newton, swearing, unable to stand. On 31 Oct went from one alehouse to another in Wilmslow brought by the Constable before Dean of Chester, a JP and bound over. Went to Burgess house where he made the Constable drunk that he fell into a ditch on the way home and you left him at 9:00pm - libel.

59. CONGLETON Elizabeth Fox c Roger Fox saying she committed adultery with three men - libel.

60. STANDISH Henry Reynolds c Thos Nightingale for adultery with Ellena Gerrard - libel.

64. PLEMONDSTALL Jane Ravenscroft c Jacob Averis of Pickton saying she was caught in bed with a shoemaker - libel.

71. LAWTON Richard Shufflebotham c John & Anna Tremlowe calling him whoremaster - libel.

74. TILSTON Office c John Warburton & Robert Moyle bearers of the bier of one reputed dead of the plague or other disease said, "carry her into the church so she may be buried like a christian and not as a dog" - fragment only.

76. HALSALL Jennet Dodgson c Ann & Henry Barrow calling her Cuthbert Halsall's whore - libel.

77. GARSTANG Thos & Ann Winder c John & Ann Barnes saying Ann Winder enticed her husband to be naughty - libel, responsions.

80. WORTHENBURY Alice wife of Thos ap John c Jane Eaton saying that John Williams told her he would take Thos to Bangor, get him drunk, leave him and return to Alice - libel.

81. MIDDLETON Alice Radcliffe c Alice Colling calling her a bastard - depositions.

86. WINWICK Henry Hurst c John Flitcroft for being drunk in church and going out to be sick - declaratory articles.

[Eagle]

"he was fitter to preach in a middin than the pulpit"

 

Brilliant.

[Dizzy]

 

Thanks for those Sha. Rather resfreshing in an odd sort of way eh.

 

I rather like numbers 14, 51 and 58

As for number 64... would it have been ok if the bloke hadn't been a shoemaker ?

 

Guess we will never know and any idea what their actual punishment was if/when they were found guilty

[Evil Sid]

reading them is ike reading a script for jerry springer

 

the ones that made me smile and pause for the inevitable thought of "what? " are

 

26. gave me a chuckle, can just imagine the scene in the court room."he is accused m'laud of being NAUGHTY" oohs from the spectators and a faint cry of "Hang him" from the back row.it made me laugh as i can imagine this as played by monty python with John Cleese as the prosecutor.

 

31. made me wonder if that was ten years or ten minutes

 

49.wonder what the punishment would have been if it had been a wet pit?

 

58.police taking bribes, never happen.

 

59.another chuckle as i read this one. again in court judge on hearing charge. "so she was caught in bed with a shoemaker, is that cobblers" he asks making a small note on his pad. "no m'lud, it was true"

[Dizzy]

[Sha]

"he was fitter to preach in a middin than the pulpit"

 

Brilliant.

 

I think that one is really funny! certainly didn't mince their words did they?