Act 9
The Merchants of York
A family who settled in York to join
the new merchant life of the City
The history
continues with the lives of four generations of a merchant family who settled
in medieval York between about 1340 and 1425. The York Line is a medieval line of
the Farndale family who lived in York for four generations.
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Scene 1 - The Freemen of York
Johanne de
Farndale had left Farndale in the late thirteenth century and settled in Egton. He later returned south of the moors to
Rosedale, the valley adjacent to his Farndale homelands
where he grew oats on six acres of land there. His son, Johannes de Farnedale (1303 to 1372) continued to live in the new
family lands in Rosedale. He was excommunicated for contempt of the church and
was imprisoned, but released at Pickering Castle on 23 February 1324 and
readmitted to the bosom of the church as faithful members thereof and
ordered to be liberated from prison. In 1327, he paid 2s 1d in a lay subsidy at
Crofton de Artoft, at the entrance to Rosedale, and he paid another 2s in 1333.
In 1336
Johannes left Rosedale to live at Hovingham, during which time he took on a
substantial loan of £8 from a chaplain called Thomas de Wrelton.
This seems strange, given early church rules against usury. The Council of
Nicaea in 325 CE forbade the clergy to lend money at even low rates of interest
and later ecumenical councils applied usury rules even to the laity. As
Christians were forbidden to lend money, loans tended to be obtained from
Jewish communities, of which there was a strong community in York, or from lay
moneylenders. £8 equates to about £6,000 in today’s money, perhaps equating to
the value of 11 horses or 21 cows. This was a substantial debt, and it seems
likely that it was taken to set up a new business vemture.
He probably
moved into York soon afterwards to start a saddle
making business. By 1363, nearly thirty years after he had taken the loan, aged
perhaps about sixty, he became a freeman of York, as a saddler.
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A
History of York after the Norman Conquest |
His son Johannes de Farndall also became a freeman of York, by inheriting
his father’s right to freemanship.
The third
generation, John,
Henry and William, seem
to have been soldiers in the Wars in Scotland in 1389, fighting with Thomas Mowbray of the old Kirkbymoorside
landowning family. We will explore their military exploits in Act 10.
John then
became a butcher and was also made freeman of York in 1408.
It is likely
that John worked in the
medieval Shambles, the street of butchers, from the late thirteenth
century.
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c1303 to c1372
A Saddler made
freeman of York in 1363 |
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c1334 to c1405 A freeman of York
in 1397 through patrimony from his father |
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c1352 to c1425
John Farndale, and
his brothers Henry and William, were archers and men at arms called to fight
in Scotland in 1389 John was later a
butcher made freeman of York in 1408 |
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The street of the Medieval Butchers |
Scene 2 – The Farndales of
Southcliffe
On 1 August
1547 the Will of Alice
Farndale (nee Pratt) of Southcliffe was proved. In the Name of God Amen,
the eleventh day of July 1547. I Alice Farndale of Southclif
do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament in a manner and form
following. First, I give my Soul to Almighty God, to Our Blessed Lady and All
the Ecclesiastical Company of Heaven and my body to be buried in the Churchyard
of North Cave. Item. I give to Jennet Brightin a
kerchief. Item. I give to Isabell Brightin a veil.
Item. I give to my mother Agnes Pratt a violet gown. Item. I give to my
sister Isabell Prate (sic) a red kirtle (outer petticoat). Item. I
give to Thomas Brightin and to John Pratt (her
brother, see later), to either of them a calf of the best of my part. Item.
I give to Jennet Brightin a green kirtle. Item. I
give to my brother John Prate (sic) a stage of the best of my parte.
The residue of my goods, my debts paid and my will fulfilled, I give to Symon
ffarnedale and to Isabel my children whom I make
my executors. And further I will that my brother John Prate (sic) shall
have custody and keeping of my said children’s portions bequest unto them by
this my Testament unto they come to lawful years of age when I will that the
said portions go to the use and profit of my brother John Pratt provided
always that my brother John Lonsdale and Laurence shall have the custody and
keeping of my aforesaid children, Simon ffarnedaill
and Isabell as specified in their father’s Testament (clearly he was dead).
And also if my aforesaid children depart before they become to their years of age,
I will that my brother John Pratt do give unto John Lonsdale and
Laurence aforesaid, a cowe of my parte.
These witnesses, Symon Garthorne, Thomas Dean, Thomas
Stevyns and Sir Robert Barker, priest. Will proved on
1st August in the year above given, written before Symon Garthorne
and Master Robert Barker, priest, witnesses to the Will and Commissioners
before whom administration was granted to John Prate, guardian of Simon and
Isabelle ffarnedale, minors.
Alice Farndale (nee Pratt) of Southcliff, about twenty
kilometres southeast of York, might have married a descendant of the York
family, with whom they had two children, Simon and Isabell, who were left to
the guardianship of Alice’s brother John Pratt.
There was
also a reference in the Will at York of Thomas Yoward on 4 May 1554 To Wylson
wyff of Farndayll 4d.
or
Go Straight to Act 10 – Medieval
Warfare