'Scandalous
Wordes' in an Appleby Alehouse
One of the more
interesting cases among the
seventeenth century Leicester
archdeaconry court proceedings refers
to a scandalous and defamatory
exchange alleged to have taken place
in an Appleby alehouse. The incident
is reminiscent of an earlier case
involving Appleby inhabitants which
took place four decades earlier at
another alehouse in Atherstone.
Trouble
at the Inn
We know Appleby had
at least one alehouse in Tudor times -
perhaps the sixteenth century
timber-framed ‘Black Horse’
described by Gerald Box - since as far
back as 1579 a certain Richard
Warehorne was granted a licence to
keep one here. Richard may well have
been the son or kinsman of Roger Waren
whose will and inventory from 1553
survives among the Appleby probate
records. This archdeaconry court case
confirms that there was an alehouse
here in 1640, possibly the same one,
kept by a certain John Pratt whose
surname appears frequently in Appleby
records around this time.
One Tuesday afternoon
“between 3 and 4 o'clock … a
little before Whitsontide” in the
summer of 1640 a small group of locals
gathered in this village tavern or
drinking den. They comprised Richard
Walker, a yeoman farmer who may by
then have been living at Walkers Hall
in the main street, his wife Mary,
another farmer, John Mould and his
wife Susan, Thomas Sherwood, Robert
Heaward, the village blacksmith, and
William Foster, described as a tailor.
Sometime during the afternoon, as
tongues perhaps loosened under the
influence of the local ale, the party
began to quarrel. An acrimonious
exchange of insults led eventually to
a defamation case being heard in the
Leicester archdeaconry court, the
ecclesiastical authority which handled
disputes of this sort.
According to
Sherwood, who was one of the witnesses
called to give evidence, they had
gathered "in the house of John
Pratt who keepeth
an alehouse in Appleby ", a
regular meeting place judging from
this account. On the day of the
incident, "upon what occasion
[he] remembreth not “, Mould's wife
and Walker's wife “told one another
that they were whores and suchlike
terms”. Mary Walker told Susan Mould
“that she was Paul Ayer's whore
whereupon the said Richard Walker
… said unto Susan thou are
Paul Ayer's whore." There is no
direct reference to Paul Ayer in the
parish records, however a Tudor family
with a the family name of Heyre was connected to the labouring
poor in Austrey, and a servant with
this surname left a will which was
registered among the Appleby probate
records. There is no doubt that Susan
recognised the name of her alleged
partner. In fact she treated it as a
serious slur on her reputation - an
insult which could not be left
unchallenged in puritan times.
Walker's
Hall - now 12-16 Top Street
When Susan asked
Richard to withdraw this cruel
accusation "Richard answered that
if she were not Paul Ayers' whore …
then she was John Gillam's whore and
he would prove her so", a comment
that only inflamed the situation.
Again, there is no trace of anyone
called John Gillam in local records
though doubtless he was known among
the company for the argument grew more
and more heated until, as William
Foster recounts, Susan Mould and Mary
Walker "fell to miscalling one
another in very violent and scandalous
terms and did fall to cuffs
together".
In giving his
evidence of the events that took place
John Mould told the court that Richard
and Susan's son David was "born
within six months ... after... their
marriage" - an obvious inference
that David was conceived out of
wedlock. Entries in the Appleby parish
register confirm the likely truth of
this observation.
While nowadays such a charge
would hardly arouse much concern or
approbation it was obviously meant to
impugn the Walkers’ reputation. In
their defence John Pratt, the landlord
of the alehouse, testified before the
court that
the Walkers were of good repute
amongst their neighbours in the
village. He suggested by way of
explanation that Richard was
"taking his wife's part" and
argued that Richard had been provoked,
being called "Goodman Handland
and some other scandalous words"
– the exact meaning of such a
curious title being somewhat obscure.
Whatever the exact
cause or justification for the
insults, Susan nevertheless felt
herself "defamed and scandalised”.
We are told that “she had languished
and been much discontented and seldom
or never cometh abroad whither to
Church or anywhere out of her own
house". This charge is more
serious when it is considered that
Susan was a regular churchgoer and
wife of a prominent yeoman in the
village.
Unfortunately we do
not know the final outcome of the
case. Judging from other cases and the
continuation of village life without
further litigation between the
participants, it seems likely that the
parties were reconciled and peace
restored to the parish.
This case
is interesting because it
provided a glimpse of the rowdy and
somewhat disreputable atmosphere of
the seventeenth-century village
alehouse. Even in quiet agricultural
parishes the villagers got drunk,
argued and if we are to believe the
witnesses, goodwives might even
“fall to cuffs together”. The fact
that the dispute was regarded as
serious enough to be taken to court,
highlights just how jealous the
villagers were of their reputation and
good name.
Notes
and Sources:
W.H.
Hart, “List of the Alehouses, Innes,
and Taverns in Derbyshire in the year
1577”, Derbyshire
Archaeological Journal, I (1879),
68-88.
L.R.O. Archdeaconry
court proceedings: Walker & Walker v Mould, 1D41/4/XXVI/46-9.
©
Alan Roberts, March 2000
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