1 230 FULWOOD V GREENE Thomas Fulwood of Little Alne, co. Warwick, gent v Thomas Greene of Aston Cantlow, co. Warwick, clerk November 1639 – June 1640 Name index: Archer, Henry, yeoman Barnes, William, esq Biddle, Richard Buckley, Bridget, spinster Clarke, Leonard, clerk Dighton, John, gent Exton, Thomas, lawyer Fulwood, Elizabeth (also Fullwood) Fulwood, Joanna (also Fullwood) Fulwood, John (also Fullwood) Fulwood, Robert (also Fullwood) Fulwood, Thomas, gent (also Fullwood) Greene, Thomas, clerk Greene, William Harrington, Mary, innkeeper Hill, Elizabeth Hill, John King, Robert, lawyer Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers Howard, Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey Knight, Nicholas, gent Knottesford, Fulke, esq (also Knottisford) Latham, Edward, notary public Lee, Robert, esq Lewin, William, lawyer Parker, Samuel, Mr Parsons, John, gent Reade, Thomas, milner Richardson, Stephen, notary public Smith, Valentine, Mr Walmestrey, Thomas, clerk (also Warmestrey) Wells, Edmund, yeoman Wilkinson, George Wilkinson, Joanna Wright, Richard, minister Yate, Thomas, gent Place index: Middlesex, Westminster Northamptonshire, 2 Elford Staffordshire, Farthingstone Warwickshire, Aston Cantlow Atherstone-on-Stour Gray Mill, Wootton Wawen Little Alne Stratford-upon-Avon Tanworth-in-Arden Wootton Wawen Subject index: allegation of bankruptcy challenge to a duel denial of gentility drinking healths high constable office-holding reconciliation Abstract Fulwood, a local high constable, complained that on 14 January 1639 at Richard Biddle’s house in Wootton Wawen, and at Gray Mill, Warwickshire, Greene, the minister of Aston Cantlow, said to him, ‘Thou art a stinking fellow, a base condiconed fellow’, and ‘come out of thy dores if thou darest’. The following day Greene called him ‘a rascall, a base fellow, and a base bankerupt fellow’ in the presence of several witnesses. Greene insisted that he had been provoked by Fulwood who called him ‘base beggarly slave, and told him that he was fitter to be a dogg keeper then a minister’. He also claimed that on the day following the initial quarrel the two men ‘did eate and drincke very lovingly together…and remitted all differences that had happened before that time… and did shake hands together.’ Each man accused the other of being quarrelsome and litigious, although Greene claimed that as a minister he had a reputation as ‘a very civill man and noe wayes given to quarrel or fall out with this neighbours.’ Greene also tried to deny Fulwood’s gentility by pointing out that in recent years he ‘doth hedge and ditch, and goe to plow and cart’, ‘offices and laborious workes not befitting a gentleman.’ Process was granted on 12 November 1639. Fulwood’s witnesses, yeomen and a gentleman from Wootton Wawen, were examined by a commission headed by John Parsons and Nicholas Knight, gents, on 12 March 1640 at the White Lion Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Greene’s witnesses were to be examined by a commission headed by Fulke Knottesford and William Barnes, esqs, and Richard Wright, the minister of Atherstone-on-Stour, Warwickshire, 9-11 June 1640, also at the White Lion. No further proceedings survive. 3 Documents Initial proceedings Petition to Arundel: 2/58 (12 Nov 1639) Plaintiff’s bond: 2/59 (12 Nov 1639) Libel: Acta (4), fo. 297 ([4 Feb] 1640) Summary of libel: R.19, fo. 25r (1640) Plaintiff’s case Letters commissory for the plaintiff: Acta (4), fo. 298 (14 Feb 1640) Plaintiff depositions: Acta (4), fos. 289r-292v (12 Mar 1640) Notary public’s certificate: Acta (4), fo. 293 (16 Mar 1640) Defendant’s case Defence: Acta (5), fo. 402 (no date) Summary of defence: R.19, fo. 12r (1640) Letters commissory for the defendant: Acta (5), fo. 403 (20 May 1640) Plaintiff’s interrogatories: Acta (5), fo. 401 (no date) Proceedings Proceedings before Maltravers: 8/31 (4 Feb 1640) Initial proceedings 2/58, Petition to Arundel Fulwood was ‘a gent descended of an ancient familie of gent bearing armes. That notwithstanding, one Thomas Greene of Aston Cantlowe in the county of Warwick, clarke, in the month of January last past, at Wootton Wawen and at Gray Milne in the county aforesaid, in a very violent manner and with an intent to provoke your petitioner to fight with him, used these words to your petitioner, Thou art a stinking fellow, a base condiconed fellow and come out of thy dores if thou darest; and the very next day after the speaking the foresaid words Thomas Greene, againe without any provocation at all, used these wordes to your petitioner, Thou art a Rascall, a base fellow and a base bankerupt fellow, with many other opprobrious tearmes in the presence of divers credible witnesses.’ Petitioned that Greene be brought to answer. Maltravers granted process on 12 November 1639. 2/59, Plaintiff’s bond 12 November 1639 Bound to appear ‘in the court in the Paynted Chamber within the Pallace of Westminster’. Signed by Thomas Fullwood. Sealed, subscribed and delivered in the presence of Edward Latham and Robert Fullwood. 4 Acta (4), fo. 297, Libel The family of Thomas Fulwood had been gentry for up to 60 years. Greene had called him ‘a stinking fellowe a base condiconed fellow and come out of thy doores if thou darest’; and ‘thou art a rascall a base fellowe and a base bankerupt fellow’, with intention to provoke a duel. No date. Signed by Robert King. R.19, fo. 25r, Summary of libel ‘Fulwood and his progenitors, for up to 60 years, is and have bin gentlemen of a family of gentry. And that Green (at such a time and place) publickly, said, (meaning) Fulwood, thou art a stinking fellow, a base conditioned fellow and come out of thy doores if thou darest; and the day after publickly said, thou art a rascall, a base fellow, a base bankrupt fellow, thereby to provoke Fulwood and c.’ 1640 No signature. Acta (4), fo. 298, Letters commissory for the plaintiff Addressed to commissioners Richard Wright, clerk, Leonard Clarke, clerk, John Parsons and Nicholas Knight, gents, and also, Robert Lee, esq, Fulke Knottesford, esq, Richard Wright, clerk, and Thomas Walmestrey, clerk, to meet in a cause of scandalous words provocative of a duel, from 11 to 13 March 1640 at the White Lion Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon, co. Warwick. Dated 14 February 1640. William Lewin assigned Edward Latham as notary public. Acta (4), fos. 289r-292v, Plaintiff’s depositions Taken before commissioners John Parsons and Nicholas Knight, gents, in Mary Harrington’s White Lion Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon on Thursday 12 March 1640. fos. 290r-290v (Witness 1), Thomas Yate of Wootton, co. Warwick, gent, lived there for 40 years, aged 60 To Fulwood’s libel: 1. He knew Thomas Fulwood, his father and his grandfather were all reputed gentlemen in co. Warwick. 2. In about February 1639 he was with Henry Archer, Edmund Wells, Bridget Buckley and others at Richard Biddle’s house in Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick. Mr Fullwood who was High Constable and Mr Thomas Greene, clerk were also present. ‘There was sodainlie a noyce in the roome and then he heard Thomas Green call Thomas Fulwood base condiconed fellow, and either stinckinge or shitten fellow, whether he doth not nowe remember in an angrie manner.’ 5 Signed by Thomas Yate and the above two commissioners. fos. 290v-291r (Witness 2), Edmund Wells of Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick, yeoman, aged 40 To Fulwood’s libel 1. He knew Mr Fulwood and his father. Both were ‘reputed to be gentlemen of an ancient family and have lived in their countrie like gentlemen and have both of them borne the office of High Constable, and for gentlemen of good quality have binn comonlie accounted, reputed and taken’. 2. Around January or February 1639 he was at Richard Biddle’s house in Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick together with Mr Fulwood and Mr Greene. He heard Greene challenge Mr Fulwood ‘in a violent and angie manner’, ‘to come out of the doores if he durst’, and did then also ‘verie angerlie call Mr Fullwood a stinckinge base fellow and a base conditioned fellow divers and sundrie times’, in the presence of Mr Thomas Yate, Bridget Buckley, Henry Archer and several others. Signed by Edmund Wells [his mark], and the above two commissioners. fos. 291r-291v (Witness 3), Thomas Reade of Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick, millner, born at Tanworth, co. Warwick, aged 20 To Fulwood’s libel: 1. Mr Fulwood had always lived like a gentleman and been ‘comonlie accounted reputed and taken to be.’ 2. About 15 February 1639 Mr Thomas Fulwood ‘coming into Graye Milne in the parish of Wootton Wawen, Mr Greene, followed him and in an angrie and violent manner Mr Greene called Mr Fulwood rascall base fellow and bankrupt fellow with divers other angrie wordes in the presence of [Reade], beinge then grindeinge in the milne.’ Signed by Thomas Reade [his mark], and the above two commissioners. fos. 291v-292r (Witness 4), Bridget Buckley of Wootton Wawen, co. Warwick, spinster, born at Aston Cantlow, co. Warwick, aged 30 To Fulwood’s libel: 1. Thomas Fulwood and his father Robert were commonly reputed gentry of an ancient family. 2. ‘About Candlemas 1638, the more certaine time [she] now remembreth not, Mr Thomas Fulwood and Mr Greene beinge at the house of Richard Biddle in Wotton Wawen in Com Warr’, she saw Thomas Greene take Mr Fulwood ‘by the shoulder or arme in an angrie and violent manner and did bid Mr Fullwood come out of the doores if he durst, and called Mr Fullwood stinckinge felloe, and base condiconed fellow, divers and sundrie times, insomuch that [Buckley] did much marvayle howe Mr Fulwood could forbeare strikeing Mr Greene, being soe much provoked thereunto in the presence of her [fellow witnesses] and divers others.’ Signed by Bridget Buckley [her mark], and the above two commissioners.