ROLAND WRIGHT
Notary public
ROLAND WRIGHT
Qualifications: Notary Public, no other known qualifications
Career: acting as proctor in the Chester Consistory Court by ?
CAUSES:
| Reference | Type of cause | Role | Outcome | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EDC 5/1575/5 | Defamation - unknown | Proctor for defendant | Plaintiff won |
Parish
Cheshire
Bowdon
Frodsham
EDC 5/1575/4 – Urian Bowdon contra William Charlton and Ellen Lether
Leighe
Katherine
Female
Bowdon
Married
John Leighe the younger
John Leighe was said to be ‘of Altrincham’, a township in the parish of Bowdon, which is now much larger and more populous than Bowdon.
EDC 5/1575/4 – named in the libel
Lether
Ellen
Female
Bowdon
Married
Richard Lether
EDC 5/1575/4 – joint defendant
Chorlton
William
Bowdon
Urian
Early cause papers seem less likely to give the occupation of litigants, but later causes indicate that a range of people from all walks of life came before the consistory court.
EDC 5/1580/3 – Hugh Rogerson, a witness for the plaintiff, was an alderman of Chester and kept a shop there
This was the general term for a member of the clergy at the time.
EDC 5/1575/3 – John Vawdrey and Richard Vawdrey contra Ralph Calveley
EDC 5/1580/3 – John Nutter
EDC 5/1580/11 – Richard Hall, the defendant in this cause, was a Fellow of Manchester College
EDC 5/1587/8 – John Ledsam, the younger, was a joiner from Holt
Clergy who described themselves as ‘preacher’ were often associated with radical reformist views, and even by the end of the century some clergy did not preach regularly, or at all, but read prescribed homilies.
EDC 5/1580/3 – John Nutter
EDC 5/1591/2 – Andrew Brednam M.A., vicar of St John’s in Chester
Shearing was an important part of the finishing process of woollen cloth. The nap of the woven cloth was raised with teasels and then clipped with shears so that the surface was even (Norman Lowe, The Lancashire Textile Industry in the Sixteenth Century, (Chetham Society, Manchester, 1972), pp. 38-39). There was a separate guild of Shearmen in Chester by 1467 (J S Barrow, J D Herson, A H Lawes, P J Riden and M V J Seaborne, ‘Economic infrastructure and institutions: Craft guilds’, in A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions, ed. A T Thacker and C P Lewis (London, 2005), pp. 114-124. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt2/pp114-124 [accessed 26 November 2022]).
EDC 5/1580/5 – Thomas Wilson of the city of Chester was described as a ‘sheareman’.
EDC 5/1580/3 – Hugh Rogerson, a witness for the plaintiff, kept a shop in Chester and was an alderman of the city
EDC 5/1580/5 – James Banester was described as ‘swordbearer’, one of the principal officers of the mayor of Chester
There was an important trade in cattle and skins from Ireland through Chester and before the Reformation the Tanners’ company maintained a light in St John’s church. (J S Barrow, J D Herson, A H Lawes, P J Riden and M V J Seaborne, ‘Economic infrastructure and institutions: Craft guilds’, in A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions, ed. A T Thacker and C P Lewis (London, 2005), pp. 114-124. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt2/pp114-124 [accessed 26 November 2022]).
EDC 5/1591/2 – Henry Aneon, senior
In EDC 5/1580/10 it was suggested that a water mill was so noisy while it was working that comments by one of the witnesses could not be heard. This mill was used for grinding corn.
EDC 5/1580/10 – Anne Jackson contra Anne Jones, wife of Thomas Jones
DAVID YALE
Chancellor of the diocese of Chester and official principal of the Chester consistory court 1587-1608; commissioner of ecclesiastical causes for York province from 1599
DAVID YALE, d. 1626
Qualifications: of Queens College Cambridge, 1555; Bachelor of Arts 1564; Master of Arts 1567, proctor of the University 1575 to 1576; Doctor of Law 1579.
CCEd person ID: 17535
Career: presented to the rectory of Llandegla 1564; vicar of High Offley briefly in 1573; prebendary of St Asaph 1578; admitted as an advocate to the Court of Arches in the following year; full member of Doctors’ Commons in 1582; a prebendary of Chester in the same year; rector of Llandyrnog 1583; joint administrator of the diocese of Bangor in 1585 sede vacante; JP for Denbigh 1604.
Further notes: David Yale was probably the illegitimate son of John Wyn of Plas-yn-Iâl near Wrexham in north Wales. He bought extensive lands at Erddig in Wrexham and owned land in Derbyshire. He was the great-grandfather of Elihu Yale, benefactor of the American university which bears his surname.
Sources:
Dictionary of Welsh Biography online edition <https://biography.wales/article/s-YALE-PLA-1500>
Ormerod, George, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, 3 vols, London: George Routledge & Sons, 1882), vol i, p. 113
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition (in Yale, Thomas) <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/30184>
Venn, J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, volume IV, 1927
Aneon
Henry
Male
Chester, St John
Unknown
Tanner
He is described as ‘senior’ so presumably had a son of the same name.
EDC 5/1591/2 – defendant
Brednam
Andrew
Lacy
Male
Chester, St John
Unknown
Preacher of the holy word
Yes - Master of Arts
Vicar of St John’s in Chester; following the dissolution of the college the vicar and curate were jointly paid £21 6s 8d a year. Brednam came from Norfolk, attended St John’s College Cambridge, BA 1565-6; MA 1570; fellow 1566. Venn says that he was ordained in Chester on March 16th 1602/3 but this seems unlikely as he was vicar of St John’s by 1591. CCEd person ID 23119, states that he was ordained at Chester on March 16th 1573. Then schoolmaster at Farndon in 1578; rector of Handley in Cheshire 1591-1592; vicar of Aysgarth in Yorkshire 1573 to 1617. Venn says that he was also rector of Outwell in Norfolk from 1597 to 1618, when he died. His surname is also given as Lacy. Source: J A Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, volumes I and II, 1922.
EDC 5/1591/2 – plaintiff
