Nicholaus de ffarnedale

c1332 to c1400

The First Family Tree

 FAR00038A

Home Page Return to the Home Page of the Farndale Family Website

The Farndale Story The story of one family’s journey through two thousand years of British History

The Farndale Lineages The 83 family lines into which the family is divided. Meet the whole family and how the wider family is related

The Farndale Directory Members of the historical family ordered by date of birth

Themes Links to other pages with historical research and related material

Related Family Stories The story of the Bakers of Highfields, the Chapmans, and other related families

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

Headlines of Nicholaus’ life are in brown.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Context and local history are in purple.

Nicholaus de ffarnedale

1332 To 1400

Nicholas paid the 4d Poll Tax of 1379 which led to the Peasant’s Revolt

A narrative of Nicholas’ life.

1332

It seems likely that William Farndale (FAR00038), who was the Vicar of Doncaster, and was probably born in about 1332, was Nicholaus’ older brother. It is possible William was his father, but the date of his payment of the Poll Tax make a sibling relationship more likely.

If Nicholas was indeed William’s younger brother then Nicholaus could have been the son of Walter de Farndale (FAR00015) vicar of Haltwhistle, Lazonby and Chelmsford.

1365

Nicholas ffarnedale married Alicia (Alice) according to the Poll Tax records. This might have been in or about 1365.

(Note – Rest is History, Canterbury Tales – Thomas roughly overlaps dates of Chaucer - wives in fourteenth century had more autonomy than anywhere in the world – growing power of middle classes – the Wife of Bath)

1379

Nicholaus de ffarnedale & Alicia uxor ejus paid poll tax iiij.d for the Villata de Donecastre in the Wapentake of Strafforth in the Yorkshire Subsidy Rolls for the year 1379.

Iiij is an alternative form of iiii or iv. So he paid 4d.

uxor ejus means “his wife”.

Villata refers to the “villages” of Doncaster.

(Yorkshire Subsidy Rolls 1379, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/SubsidyRolls/WRY/Doncaster.html).

The Poll Tax of 1379 was granted to the new King Richard II (who was the son of Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent who held the Kirkbymoorside estate) by the lords, commoners and clergy of England in order to finance the Hundred Years' War. It was graduated according to each taxpayers rank or social position, thereby avoiding dissatisfaction based on inequality and unfairness. The schedule of charge for this tax therefore contained a classification of the taxpayers. This poll tax was expected to net over £50,000, but the revenue never reached half that sum.

The fiscal exigencies of the Hundred Years' War compelled the Bad Parliament of 1377 to grant to the King a tax of four pence or a groat to be taken from the goods of each man and woman in the kingdom over fourteen, with the exception of genuine beggars. In addition the clergy granted a tax of 12 pence from every beneficed person, and a groat from every other religious person, with the exception of mendicant friars. Special commissions were appointed to collect the tax, and the county sheriffs were ordered to aid with the collection. The tax on laymen netted £22,607, 2 s., 6d. paid by 1,376, 442 persons, although the records of County Durham and Cheshire are missing.

The war continued with French attack on the southern coast of England, the towns of Dartmouth, Plymouth, Winchelsea and others suffered. The first parliament of Richard II therefore in 1377 granted for two years a tax of two fifteenths on movables without cities and boroughs and two tenths within. In addition parliament added a grant of customs subsidy on wool, woolfells and leather for three years. It also granted for one year six pence on the pound in goods imported and exported. The second parliament of Richard II granted in 1378 a tax of one fifteenth and a half on movables without cities and boroughs and one tenth and a half within. It also continued the previous customs on wool and merchandise a year longer. This grant did not produce the sum of money required for the war, and the third parliament of Richard II repealed in and replaced it with a poll tax that would be easier and faster to collect.

The schedule of charge for this tax therefore contained a classification of taxpayers. It is divided into four groups: the first is based on rank, the second on occupation (men of law), the third on civic hierarchy, and the fourth other men. Two commissions were appointed, one to assess, and the other to collect. Later in 1379 reassessment commissions were appointed. In 1379 the Convocations of Canterbury and York met and granted an almost identical poll tax for the clergy.

In the Doncaster listing, there was no order, almost all paying the standard 4d tax, with a few interspersed in the list who paid more. Therefore although Nicolaus is listed third from the bottom of a long list, this does not necessarily mean his low status.

Following the Black Death, Edward III took steps to keep society running as it had before the plague. Edicts were issued requiring folk to maintain their obligations. The Statute of Labourers in 1349 and Statute of Artificers fixed princes at pre plague levels, required people to work at those levels and forbad employers to pay more. Serfs were not to leave their manors. Even the wearing of clothes was regulated so that ordinary folk would know their station.

In 1376, the Good Parliament protested as a Commons about the costs of the French Wars and elected a new office, the Speaker.

The French Wars were becoming unpopular and seen as an enterprise by the aristocracy for glory, at the cost of ordinary people. The church was becoming unpopular, and another source of heavy taxation.

The shortage of population following the Black Death gave rise to a burgeoning middle class, of people who sought to better themselves.

Richard II, the Boy King, was crowned in 1377. Richard II was the son of the Black Prince and Joan the Fair Maid of Kent, daughter of Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. and of descent of the House Stuteville, the landowning family of Kirkbymoorside, and therefore of Farndale.

The war was growing costly, and he sought more taxes through his parliament, but the landowning class who made up the parliament felt it was time for the new middle classes, whose wealth was growing, to field some of the cost.

The financial demands of the Hundred Years' War led to the government levying three poll taxes in four years. A Poll Tax was levied in 1377, 1379 and 1381. In 1377 and 1379 a flat rate of 4d was imposed on all taxpayers, with a higher amount payable by the wealthier. This was unpopular and there was growing resentment. The third, demanded a flat rate of 12d per adult and was levied in April 1381.

1381

On 30 May 1381, John Bampton imposed the third poll tax in Brentwood, Essex and a significant uprising was triggered, insisting on reductions in taxation, the end of serfdom, and the removal of some senior officials and law courts.

The Peasants Revolt led by Wat Tyler arose from tensions from high taxes and fixed incomes following the Black Death. There is also a Rest is History Podcast.

The seeds of the revolt were in Kent and Essex. There is no reason to suppose the folk of Doncaster had any direct involvement in the Peasants Revolt. However Nicholaus de ffarnedale was likely to have been one of the new aspiring classes who would have resented the Poll Tax. And there were related revolts in the north.

There is an In Our Time podcast on the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381.

John Ball, Jack Straw and Wat Tyler led the rebels to London and they met Richard II at Mile End where charters were conceded freeing them from all bondage. However there was a further meeting between the rebels at Smithfield. Violence broke out. Tyler was stabbed and killed by the mayor of London.

The London rebellion was eventually quashed. However the germs had been sewn for greater rights for the general population. There were sporadic follow up rebellions including in York.

The rebels tended to support the King; they had more confidence in landholdings being taken direct from the King, but their rebellion was targeted primarily at the aristocratic elite.

The rebels demanded an end to serfdom, and that land should be tented for 4d per acre, so 4d was clearly a significant sum. Their demands were initially agreed to be Richard at Mile End, but the agreement broke down at Smithfield, by which time the King’s advisers had gathered together a sufficient military force to surround the rebels.

Revolts in Northern England

Revolts also occurred across the rest of England, particularly in the cities of the north, traditionally centres of political unrest. In the town of Beverley, violence broke out between the richer mercantile elite and the poorer townspeople during May 1381. By the end of the month the rebels had taken power and replaced the former town administration with their own. The rebels attempted to enlist the support of Alexander Neville, the Archbishop of York, and in June forced the former town government to agree to arbitration through Neville. Peace was restored in June 1382 but tensions continued to simmer for many years.

Word of the troubles in the south-east spread north, slowed by the poor communication links of medieval England. In Leicester, where John of Gaunt had a substantial castle, warnings arrived of a force of rebels advancing on the city from Lincolnshire, who were intent on destroying the castle and its contents. The mayor and the town mobilised their defences, including a local militia, but the rebels never arrived. John of Gaunt was in Berwick when word reached him on 17 June of the revolt. Not knowing that Wat Tyler had by now been killed, John of Gaunt placed his castles in Yorkshire and Wales on alert. Fresh rumours, many of them incorrect, continued to arrive in Berwick, suggesting widespread rebellions across the west and east of England and the looting of the ducal household in Leicester; rebel units were even said to be hunting for the Duke himself. Gaunt began to march to Bamburgh Castle, but then changed course and diverted north into Scotland, only returning south once the fighting was over.

News of the initial events in London also reached York around 17 June 1381, and attacks at once broke out on the properties of the Dominican friars, the Franciscan friaries and other religious institutions. Violence continued over the coming weeks, and on 1 July a group of armed men, under the command of John de Gisbourne, forced their way into the city and attempted to seize control. The mayor, Simon de Quixlay, gradually began to reclaim authority, but order was not properly restored until 1382. The news of the southern revolt reached Scarborough where riots broke out against the ruling elite on 23 June, with the rebels dressed in white hoods with a red tail at the back. Members of the local government were deposed from office, and one tax collector was nearly lynched. By 1382 the elite had re-established power.

Robin Hood

The emergence of the Robin Hood legends at about this time was likely to have been inspired in part at the general grievances of the new aspiring middle class which led to the peasants revolt.

1400

If Nicholas lived to the age of 65, he might have died in or about 1400.

1493

It is possible a descendant (perhaps his son or grandson) also called William Farndale (FAR00056A) married Rose Farndale:

Short title: Farndale v Reignold. Plaintiffs: Rose Farndale, late the wife of William – Reference: C 1/201/47 Farndale v Reignold; Plaintiffs: Rose Farndale, late the wife of William Farndale. Defendants: John Reignold, of Dodynghurst. Subject: A tenement and land in Dodynghurst. Essex. SFP Date: 1493-1500 Held by: The National Archives, Kew (still to visit Kew to check)

Doddinghurst is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Brentwood, in south Essex. It is 3 miles (5 km) to the north of Brentwood.

Abstract From Proceedings: “To The Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England. Rose Farndale, plaintiff, late wife of William Farndale that John Reignold of Dodynghurst, Co Essex, husbandman, sold to said William for a sum agreed and paid, a tenement set in Dodynghurst aforesaid, called Whitefeldes ‘tenement’ with a garden and two fields, one called Hornefeld and the other Barnefeld and the said john Reignold promised to make ‘sufficient estate thereof’ to said William or to whom he would advise; before any estate made thereof the same William made his will by which he willed that the plaintiff should have the said tenement and land to her and her heirs for ever. Since his death the plaintiff has required said John Reignold to make estate of the premises to her and to her heirs and he has refused and has entered into the said lands and occupies them contrary to all reason and conscience.”

Pledges for the Prosecution; William Brecas of London, Yeoman, John Nores of the same, Yeoman. Written on dorse; Before the Lord King in His Chancery in the quindene of St Hilary next. (No answer recorded).

(Translation of chancery proceedings)

This would put one of his descendants in the area of Brentwood which is where the Peasants Revolt started in 1381, and it might be tempting to imagine this family being involved not only in paying the poll tax, but in the Peasants’ Revolt and a part of the family then remaining around Brentwood. But this is just supposition.