(London: G. Sanctuary Seekers in England, 1380-1557 (ordered by surname) Shannon McSheffrey Professor of History, Concordia University The Sanctuaries and Sanctuary Seekers of Mediaeval England © Shannon McSheffrey, 2017 archive.org Illustration by Ralph Hedley from J. Charles Cox, Allen and Sons, 1911), p. 108. 30/05/17 Sanctuary Seekers in England, c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names Below are presented, in tabular form, all the instances of sanctuary-seeking in of evidence except for the name (e.g. ID #1262). In order to place those seekers England that I have uncovered for the period 1380-1557, more than 1800 seekers chronologically over the century and a half I was considering, in the absence of altogether. It is a companion to my book, Seeking Sanctuary: Crime, Mercy, and exact dates I sometimes assigned a reasonable year to a seeker (always noted in Politics in English Courts, 1400-1550 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). As I the summary section). As definitions of specific felonies were somewhat elastic in have continued to add to the data since that book went to press, the charts here this era, I have not sought to distinguish between different kinds of asportation may be slightly different from those in the book. offences (theft, robbery, burglary), and have noted in the summary different forms of homicide only as they were indicated in the indictment. Details on the offences Seeking Sanctuary explores a curious aspect of premodern English law: the right of are noted in the summaries of the cases; there is repetition in the cases where felons to shelter in a church or ecclesiastical precinct, remaining safe from arrest several perpetrators were named in a single document so that complete records and trial in the king's courts. This is the first book in more than a century to are maintained even if the records are sorted in a way that separates the entries examine sanctuary in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Looking (e.g. by surname). anew at this subject challenges the prevailing assumptions in the scholarship that this 'medieval' practice had become outmoded and little-used by the fifteenth and To compile this data, I looked comprehensively through a number of archival sixteenth centuries. Although for decades after 1400 sanctuary-seeking was indeed collections, especially National Archives [TNA], KB 9 [King’s Bench indictment files] fairly rare, the evidence in the legal records shows the numbers of felons seeing and other document classes at TNA with online calendars (which allowed cases refuge in churches began to climb again in the late fifteenth century and reached involving sanctuary to be identified easily), such as Chancery bills (C 1), Star its peak in the period between 1525 and 1535. Sanctuary was not so much a Chamber (STAC 2), Common Pleas (CP 40 – calendar at British History Online) and medieval practice accidentally surviving into the early modern era, as it was an State Papers (SP); I also looked at much (but not all) of the Rex side of KB 27 (the organism that had continued to evolve and adapt to new environments and indeed Coram Rege rolls), at KB 29 (King’s Bench controlment rolls), and at numerous flourished in its adapted state. Sanctuary suited the early Tudor regime: it other records at TNA and other archives that came to my attention through intersected with rapidly developing ideas about jurisdiction and provided a means references in other scholars’ work or other research. Many of the records at the of mitigating the harsh capital penalties of the English law of felony that was useful National Archives at Kew are available through the Anglo-American Legal Tradition not only to felons but also to the crown and the political elite. Sanctuary's project website (http://aalt.law.uh.edu), including most of the King’s Bench records resurgence after 1480 means we need to rethink how sanctuary worked, and to on which I have relied heavily. I also searched through any printed sources for the reconsider more broadly the intersections of culture, law, politics, and religion in period that I thought might have instances of sanctuary seeking. There doubtless the years between 1400 and 1550. remain other instances in other records that I have not uncovered; I am, of course, always pleased to receive further references or corrections. The data is presented below ordered by the surnames of the sanctuary seekers; another .pdf presents the same material in date order. For more refined Graham Dawson, Krista Kesselring, Katherine French, and Justin Colson were searches/ordering, you can download the Excel spreadsheet which allows the generous with providing me with references to seekers. I was also able to find entries to be sorted in any way the user prefers – by dates, names, places of origin, references in many previous publications, but I would like especially to sanctuary sought, etc. I have included all seekers with names – as opposed to acknowledge those of John Baker and Jessica Freeman. Alice Reiter's assistance for allusions to nameless people, except in circumstances where there is a good deal proofreading was invaluable. 30/05/17 ii 100 150 200 250 50 0 1391-95 1396-1400 1401-1405 SANCTUARY SEEKERS, FIVE Sanctuary Seekers in England, 1390-1557 1406-1410 1411-1415 1416-1420 1421-1425 1426-1430 1431-1435 1436-1440 Summary Charts 1441-1445 1446-1450 1451-1455 ALL SOURCES) Sanctuary Seekers in England, c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names- YEAR TOTALS (ALL KINDS OF SEEKERS, 1456-1460 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 1526-1530 1531-1535 1536-1540 1541- 30/05/17 iii 100 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 1391-95 1396-1400 1401-1405 CHURCH 1406-1410 1411-1415 1416-1420 1421-1425 YEAR TOTALS (ALL SOURCES) - 1426-1430 TAKERS AND/OR ABJURERS, FIVE 1431-1435 1436-1440 1441-1445 1446-1450 1451-1455 1456-1460 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 - 1526-1530 Sanctuary Seekers1531-1535 in England, c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names 1536-1540 1541- 100 150 200 250 50 0 1391-95 1396-1400 1401-1405 SEEKERS AT CHARTERED SANCTUARIES, FIVE 1406-1410 1411-1415 1416-1420 1421-1425 1426-1430 YEAR TOTALS (ALL SOURCES) 1431-1435 1436-1440 1441-1445 1446-1450 1451-1455 1456-1460 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 - 1526-1530 1531-1535 1536-1540 1541- 30/05/17 iv 50 60 70 80 90 10 20 30 40 0 1391-95 1396-1400 1401-1405 CHURCH 1406-1410 1411-1415 1416-1420 1421-1425 1426-1430 - TAKERS AND/OR ABJURERS, FIVE 1431-1435 1436-1440 YEAR TOTALS (KB 9) 1441-1445 1446-1450 1451-1455 1456-1460 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 1526-1530 - SanctuaryFemale Seekers Seekers in England,1531-1535 c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names Male Seekers 1536-1540 Sanctuary SeekersbySex 1541- All Seekers 1798 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 30 1396-1400 98.36% 1.64% 1401-1405 1406-1410 SEEKERS AT CHARTERED SANCTUARIES, FIVE 1411-1415 1416-1420 1454 Felons 1421-1425 15 1426-1430 98.98% 1431-1435 1.02% 1436-1440 1441-1445 YEAR TOTALS (KB 9) 1446-1450 1451-1455 1456-1460 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 - 1526-1530 1531-1535 1536-1540 1541- 30/05/17 v 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 1391-1395 1396-1400 1401-1405 1406-1410 DURHAM AND BEVERLEY SANCTUARY REGISTERS 1411-1415 1416-1420 1421-1425 1426-1430 1431-1435 Sanctuary Seekers1436-1440 in England, c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names 1441-1445 1446-1450 1451-1455 1456-1460 Durham 1461-1465 1466-1470 1471-1475 Beverley 1476-1480 1481-1485 1486-1490 1491-1495 1496-1500 1501-1505 1506-1510 1511-1515 1516-1520 1521-1525 1526-1530 1531-1535 1536-1540 1540- 30/05/17 vi Sanctuary Seekers in England, c. 1380-1550, ordered by seekers' names Seeker Surname First Seeker Place Seeker Sex Sanctuary Sanctuary Type Port Year Date Seeker Seeker Summary of case Reference Case ID Name of Origin Occupation Assigned Reason Reason ID or Status Elaboration 570 **** **** Yorkshire, painter M Beverley Chartered 1515 1515-07-31 Debt Beverley sanctuary register records that [blank], painter of Settrington, sought SDSB, 168 503 Settrington Sanctuary sanctuary on 31 Jul. 1515 for debt. 684 **** **** Yorkshire M Beverley Chartered 1526 1526-03-27 Debt Beverley sanctuary register records that [Blank Blank] of [Blank] in Yorkshire sought SDSB, 190 615 Sanctuary sanctuary at Beverley on 27 Mar. 1526 for debt; he was admitted before Robert Crayk, esquire, and John Wright, clerk of the court there. 1262 **** **** M Greyfriars, Taking church 1529 Felony London chroniclers, the City's repertory book, and Spelman all recorded the case of a LMA, Rep. 8, fols. 34v, 62v; 1105 London nameless convicted felon who escaped after trial at Newgate and fled to Greyfriars; John Gough Nichols, ed., the Grey Friars chronicler and Holinshed say that he refused to abjure and thus was Chronicle of the Grey Friars seized violently by the sheriffs' men; "but the law served not to hang him" and he was of London, Camden Society ultimately set free.