Act 9
The Merchants of York
A family who settled in York to join
the new merchant life of the City
The story continues with the lives of
four generations of a merchant family who settled in medieval York
The York Line is a medieval line of
the Farndale family who lived in York for four generations.
Scene 1 - The Freemen of York
Johanne de
Farndale had left Farndale in the late thirteenth century and settled in
Egton. He later returned south of the moors to Rosedale, the valley adjacent to
his Farndale homelands
where he grew oats on 6 acres of land there. His son, Johannes de Farnedale continued to live in the new family lands in
Rosedale, where he paid tax in 1327, but in 1336 Johannes had left Rosedale to
live at Hovingham, during which time he took on a substantial loan of £8 from a
chaplain called Thomas de Wrelton. This seems
strange, given early church rules against usury. The Council of Nicaea in 325
CE forbade the clergy to lend money at even low rates of interest and later
ecumenical councils applied usury rules even to the laity. As Christians were
forbidden to lend money, loans tended to be obtained from Jewish communities,
of which there was a strong community in York, or from lay moneylenders.
It seems
that Johannes was funding a new business venture, and he probably moved into York soon afterwards to
start a saddle making business. By 1363, aged perhaps about sixty, he became a
freeman of York, as a saddler. His son Johannes de Farndall also became a freeman of York, by inheriting
his father’s right to freemanship.
The third
generation, John,
Henry and William, seem
to have been soldiers in the Wars in Scotland in 1389, fighting with Thomas Mowbray of the old Kirkbymoorside
landowning family.
John then
became a butcher and was also made freeman of York in 1408. It is likely that
John worked in the
medieval Shambles, the street of butchers, from the late thirteenth
century.
Scene 2 – The Farndales of
Southcliffe
On 1 August
1547 the Will of Alice
Farndale (nee Pratt) of Southcliffe was proved. In the Name of God Amen,
the eleventh day of July 1547. I Alice Farndale of Southclif
do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament in a manner and form
following. First, I give my Soul to Almighty God, to Our Blessed Lady and All
the Ecclesiastical Company of Heaven and my body to be buried in the Churchyard
of North Cave. Item. I give to Jennet Brightin a
kerchief. Item. I give to Isabell Brightin a veil.
Item. I give to my mother Agnes Pratt a violet gown. Item. I give to my
sister Isabell Prate (sic) a red kirtle (outer petticoat). Item. I
give to Thomas Brightin and to John Pratt (her
brother, see later), to either of them a calf of the best of my part. Item.
I give to Jennet Brightin a green kirtle. Item. I
give to my brother John Prate (sic) a stage of the best of my parte.
The residue of my goods, my debts paid and my will fulfilled,
I give to Symon ffarnedale and to Isabel my
children whom I make my executors. And further I will that my brother John
Prate (sic) shall have custody and keeping of my said children’s
portions bequest unto them by this my Testament unto they come to lawful years
of age when I will that the said portions go to the use and profit of my
brother John Pratt provided always that my brother John Lonsdale and
Laurence shall have the custody and keeping of my aforesaid children, Simon ffarnedaill and Isabell as specified in their father’s
Testament (clearly he was dead). And also if my
aforesaid children depart before they become to their years of age, I will that
my brother John Pratt do give unto John Lonsdale and Laurence aforesaid,
a cowe of my parte. These
witnesses, Symon Garthorne, Thomas Dean, Thomas Stevyns and Sir Robert Barker, priest. Will proved on 1st
August in the year above given, written before Symon Garthorne
and Master Robert Barker, priest, witnesses to the Will and Commissioners
before whom administration was granted to John Prate, guardian of Simon and
Isabelle ffarnedale, minors.
Alice Farndale (nee Pratt) of Southcliff, about twenty
kilometres southeast of York, might have married a descendant of the York
family, with whom they had two children, Simon and Isabell, who were left to
the guardianship of Alice’s brother John Pratt.
There was
also a reference in the Will at York of Thomas Yoward
on 4 May 1554 To Wylson
wyff of Farndayll 4d.
or
Go Straight to Act 10 – Medieval
Warfare