The City and the Parish: Drama in York and Beyond by Alexandra F. Johnston;edited by David N. Klausner;

Author:Alexandra F. Johnston;edited by David N. Klausner;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2017-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Here again we have the chief citizens of the parish arranging the event. In Bridport, also in Dorset, we have two year’s evidence during the Marian period for a Robin Hood ale.68 In the first decade of the sixteenth century, in Poole, the ‘Robyn hoders money’ went into the town accounts rather than to the parish.69 In the parish of St Michael in Chagford, Devon, there was a special section in the accounts headed ‘Hoodsmen’s Account’ where the proceeds from the gatherings were accounted for as well as any costuming expenses.70 A similar situation obtained in Chudleigh, Devon.71 The evidence from Exeter is mixed. In 1426–27, the town paid twenty pence to ‘lusoribus ludentibus lusum Robyn Hood’, which may have been the Robin Hooders from the parish of St John’s Bow who record Robin Hood receipts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.72 Exeter’s Robin Hood activities seem to have been quite rowdy since an order was taken by the City Council in 1510–11 that agreed ‘that from hensforth ther shall be no riot kept in any parysh by the young man of the same parish called Robyn hode’.73

The fear that the ‘gathering’ activities might get out of hand is reflected in the account of such an event in Staffordshire that has come down through a Star Chamber case for the year 1498. J. A. B. Somerset describes the events:

According to the complaint (mb. 1), fears of a breach of the peace had led JPs at Walsall to order that inhabitants of Walsall, Wednesbury, and other towns should not attend a fair to be held at Willenhall on Trinity Sunday. However, a man named William Hampton from Hampton (near Wolverhampton), who called himself the Abbot of Marham, came to the fair with about eighty armed attendants. As well, one Roger Marchall of Wednesbury, calling himself Robin Hood, attended with a hundred followers in harness. The complaint clearly implies a threatened riot or insurrection. However, in his response to the bill of complaint Roger Marchall contended that his activity as Robin Hood was an ancient custom and he describes it briefly: ‘hit hath byn of olde tymes vsed and accustomed on the seide fere day that byth the Inhabitantes of the sede Town of Hampton Weddesbury and Walsall haue comyn to the seide ffere with ther capitanus called the Abbot of Marham or Robyn Hodys to the intent to gether money with ther disportes to the profight of the chirches of the seide lordeshipes […]’ (mb 2)74

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