London, a Fourteenth-Century City and its People by Kathryn Warner

Author:Kathryn Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485)
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

Women

There is no doubt that English law of the fourteenth century favoured men. Inheritance law regarding lands which were held directly from the king followed the system of primogeniture: the eldest son inherited everything while younger sons, and daughters wherever they came in the birth order, received nothing. On the other hand, numerous occasions arose when there was no male heir, and women inherited instead. In this instance, they received equal portions of an inheritance, and being the eldest daughter conferred no advantage. Thomas and Juliana Romeyn had four daughters, of whom two were nuns, and the other two, Rohese Burford and Margerie Weston, inherited equal parts of their parents’ properties in London, Middlesex and Surrey on Juliana’s death in 1326. A widow was entitled to hold a third of her late husband’s (or husbands’) estate until she died, regardless of whether she married again or whether the couple had children. A man who married an heiress was entitled, by a custom called ‘the courtesy of England’, to hold all his late wife’s estate for his life if she died first, but only if the couple had at least one child together who lived long enough to draw breath; if not, the woman’s entire estate passed to her rightful heirs on her death.

Only the most important people in the country were tenants-in-chief, i.e. they held their lands directly from the king, and were therefore subject to strict inheritance laws and primogeniture. Others were free to dispose of their houses, lands and goods however they wished. It is revealing to note the numerous male Londoners who willed property and goods to their wives, daughters, sisters and nieces, and did not favour their sons over their daughters. To give just a handful of examples from hundreds, in 1307 Laurence Lillebourne ordered his tenement outside Aldresgate to be sold and the proceeds to be divided equally among his children Johan, Peres and Isabel. In 1316/17, Johan Dittone left jewels, linen cloth, beds and chattels to his daughter Isabel, unspecified other ‘chattels’ to his daughter Johane, and sums of money to his sons Thomas and Richard and the unborn child his wife Isabel was carrying. At the same time, the vintner Estephene Feryng left his tenement in Billingesgate to his children Robert, Henry and Isabel in equal parts. Johan of Paris left his tenements without Neugate, without Lodgate and near the Flete bridge to his sons Johan, Roger and Estephene and his daughters Maud, Dionise and Anneis in his will dated 20 July 1321, and a few days later, Roger of Paris, a mercer, requested that after his death, his corner shop in St Pancras should be sold. The proceeds were to be distributed not only among his own two sons and two daughters, Simond, Johan, Maud and Johane, but to his stepdaughter Alis, his wife Margarete’s daughter from a previous marriage. In April 1349, the pepperer Simond Brunnesford left his son William £5, but gave £20 to each of his four daughters.

Roger Waltham,

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