Nicholaus de ffarnedale

1332 To 1400

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

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The webpage of Nicholaus de ffarnedale includes a chronology of his life and source material.

The Rise of the Middle Classes

Nicholaus de ffarnedale and Alicia uxor ejus (‘his wife’) paid poll tax iiij d (4d) for the Villata de Donecastre in the Wapentake of Strafforth and it was recorded in the Yorkshire Subsidy Rolls for the year 1379.

It seems likely that Nicholaus was the brother of William Farndale, who became the Vicar of Doncaster, and was perhaps born in about 1332, a son of Johannes de Farendale, whose family had left Farndale for Egton and then Rosedale. His father had taken a substantial loan at Hovingham in 1336 after which he settled in York and set up a business as a saddle maker. By 1363 Johannes de Farndale had become a freeman of York, and his son, Johannes de Farndall remained in York, where he too became a freeman.

William and Nicholas seem to have travelled to Doncaster at about the time of the Black Death in 1347, perhaps driven in the trauma of those years.

The Black Death hit Doncaster badly between 1347 to 1351. By the years preceding the Black Death Doncaster was the wealthiest town in southern Yorkshire and the sixth in Yorkshire as a whole, even boasting its own banker. By the 1350s, it was recovering from the Black Death, which had reduced its population to 1,500.

By 1355, Nicholaus’ brother William was a chaplain at the parish church of Doncaster. This was an ambitious family, who had become part of the business class of York, and it seems likely that Nicholaus took those commercial ambitions to Doncaster.

We know from the Poll Tax records that Nicholaus de ffarnedale married Alicia (Alice) and this might have been in or about 1365.

The decline in population following the Black Death gave rise to a burgeoning middle class, of people who sought to better themselves. In the years following the Black Death, the depletion in population saw a growth in the power of the middle classes, particularly in towns. This was also the time of Geoffrey Chaucer and the same societal changes saw increasing autonomy of women than anywhere else across the globe at that time. Alicia might have had greater power in the household, reflected in the story of the Wife of Bath, than during other periods of our family history.

In 1368, Nicholaus’ brother, William, took five acres of land at Loversall, south of Doncaster.

John of Gaunt, brother of the dead Black Prince, and an important influence in the court of the new nine year old King Richard II, from 1377, despised the growing middle class, who he saw as inappropriately taking liberties reserved for those of nobility, as much as he disliked the excesses of the church. His counsel to the monarch was to give no quarter to these ambitious new classes.

Poll Tax

In 1379 Nicholaus de ffarnedale and Alicia thus paid the standard poll tax of that year. Iiij is an alternative form of iiii or iv. So he paid 4d. He might have been about 44 years old by then.

The financial demands of the Hundred Years' War led to the government levying three unpopular poll taxes in four years. A Poll Tax was levied in 1377, 1379 and 1381.

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 Commons of the Good Parliament protested about the costs of the French Wars and elected a new office, to be called 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 fiscal costs of the Hundred Years' War compelled Edward III’s last parliament, known as 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, 2s 6d, paid by 1,376,442 persons, although the records of County Durham and Cheshire are missing.

In 1376, the heir to the throne, the Black Prince, had died. In 1377 the aged and weak Edward III, who had by then lost his Plantagenet majesty, died too. 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 continued with French incursions along the southern coast of England. The towns of Dartmouth, Plymouth, Winchelsea and others suffered. In 1377, the first parliament of the new King Richard II therefore granted permission for two years to impose a tax of two fifteenths on movables outwith 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 a right to tax six pence in the pound on imported and exported goods for a year. In 1378 confirmed its permission to tax. These grants did not produce the sum of money required for the war, and the third parliament of Richard II repealed the previous awards and replaced it with a poll tax that would be easier and faster to collect.

The Poll Tax of 1379 was granted to the newly crowned young King Richard II, under the influence of his mother Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, by the lords, commoners and clergy of England in order to finance the continuing costs of 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 schedule of charge for the poll tax therefore contained a classification of taxpayers. It was divided into four groups. The first was based on rank, the second on occupation (men of law), the third on civic hierarchy, and the fourth listed 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.

As the war was growing costly, and Richard II sought more taxes through his parliament, 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.

In the Doncaster listing almost all paid 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.

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 poll tax demanded a flat rate of 12d per adult and was levied in April 1381.

The Peasant’s Revolt – ‘rustics you were, are rustics you are still’

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 and another In Our Time Podcast, which explore the Peasant’s Revolt.

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.

On 30 May 1381, John Bampton rode out to enforce the third poll tax in Brentwood in 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.

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 tenanted 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.

By 22 June 1381, Richard II was showing no sympathy for the rebels. You wretches detestable on land and sea, you who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues: rustics you were, and rustics you are still; you will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity. However, we will spare your lives if you remain faithful and loyal. Choose now which course you want to follow.

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.

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. John of 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. 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. 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 also reached Scarborough where riots broke out against the ruling elite on 23 June 1381, 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, but tensions continued to simmer for many years.

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 peasant’s revolt. The Farndales were after all descendants of the poachers of Pickering Forest.

The descendants of Nicholaus and Alica

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

The direct ancestors of the modern Farndales were living just north of Doncaster by about 1512, and continued to do so until about 1564, when the family moved to Kirkleatham in Cleveland. So it seems reasonable to suppose that there was a family of modern Farndales’ ancestors living around Doncaster who descended from the Doncaster family of William and Nicholaus. Since William Farndale the vicar was likely to have been celibate, it seems more likely that his brother, Nicholaus was a direct ancestor of Nicholas Farndale of Campsall, later born into that family

It therefore seems most likely that the modern Farndales descend from Nicholas Farndale of Doncaster, who was contemporary with William, and probably his brother.

It has not been possible so far to uncover many records of Farndales living around Doncaster or elsewhere between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is possible a descendant, perhaps his grandson or great grandson, was William Farndale, who was married to Rose Farndale. There is a document dated between 1493 and 1500 which relates to a court action, Farndale v Reignold, in which the Plaintiffs was Rose Farndale, late the wife of William Farndale. The defendant was John Reignold of Dodynghurst. The dispute related to a tenement and land in Dodynghurst, Essex.

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).

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. There is a road called Whitefields Way in the modern village of Kelvedon Hatch, and this may be where the disputed land was. There is also a Wishfields Farm, two kilometres south of Doddinghurst.

Interestingly, Doddinghurst is 5 kilometres to the north of Brentwood, where the Peasant’s Revolt began in 1381.

It is tempting to imagine a son of Nicholaus and Alicia Farndale, leaving home in Doncaster for the outskirts of London at about the time that we know his parents paid the unpopular poll tax of 1379, and who might have joined the rebellion of 1381. Perhaps they marched south in order to join that rebellion, and stayed there.

Perhaps the rest of Nicholaus and Alicia Farndale’s family remained in Doncaster, but over the coming two centuries, came to live ten kilometres north of Doncaster in or around Campsall, where perhaps in about 1512, Nicholas Farndale might have been born.

How do Nicholaus de ffarnedale & Alicia relate to the modern family?

It is not possible to be accurate about the early family tree, before the recording of births, marriages and deaths in parish records, but we do have a lot of medieval material including important clues on relationships between individuals. The matrix of the family before about 1550 is the most probable structure based on the available evidence.

If it is accurate, Nicholaus Farndale was related to the thirteenth century ancestors of the modern Farndale family, and he might have been related to the York Line. Nicholaus’ own family settled in Doncaster, with his brother William Farndale the Vicar of Doncaster, and he and his wife Alicia might be on the direct ancestral line of the modern Farndales.

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