This was the verdict of the people of Saltash in Cornwall on their vicar, John Crewkerne. In a letter to the Dean and Canons dating from around 1404 [SGC XI.K.6], they complained that he was “deaf and cannot hear confessions except to the scandal of the person confessing. He is a revealer of confessions because he is a drunkard and publicly discloses the confessions of parishioners…he has caused some of his parishioners to be outlawed and some to be deported overseas…[he] has sold the sacraments to his parishioners and would not minister the viaticum to those at the point of death when he was asked…”. They begged the Dean and Canons to “appoint another suitable and learned priest who can instruct us according to God’s law and exonerate you from this responsibility”.

The church of Saltash was one of the endowments which gave the College its income. Given by the Black Prince, Edward, Prince of Wales, on 9 May 1351, it was one of the earliest properties given to the Dean and Canons, and part of their role as rector involved the appointment of the vicar. John Crewkerne had been appointed to the vicarage of Saltash in 1398, but within a few months problems arose surrounding the non-payment to the Dean of £100. This would appear to have been a sweetener to have allowed Crewkerne to exchange his living with another, but did not appear specifically as such in the bond of appointment. On being instituted as vicar, Crewkerne simply refused to pay.

This began a long series of legal action that continued for the next 9 years. Although their exact reasons are unknown, it is clear that the Dean and Canons wanted him gone. However, the living of Saltash was a rich one that Crewkerne did not intend to give up without a fight. Attempts were made several times to remove him through the Court of Common Pleas, the Husting Court, County Courts, King’s Court and ecclesiastical courts. In addition, the Pope was petitioned on a number of occasions to act in favour of the Dean and Canons. Finally, on 18 January 1408, the case was decided. Crewkerne was to resign the vicarage, but the Dean and Canons were to pay him an annual pension of £20 for life. As this represented the annual vicar’s income from Saltash anyway, Crewkerne was amply compensated for the loss of his position, and he received this money for the next 12 years until ultimately the King was petitioned and ruled in favour of the Dean and Canons.

The complaint of his parishioners is a small part of the whole quarrel. The fact that the people of Saltash took 6 years to make a complaint, refusing to pay tithes until the matter was sorted, suggests that it was an attempt to take advantage of the dispute. When threatened with excommunication, it would seem that they chose to make their peace with the winning side, blackening Crewkerne’s character and giving the Dean and Canons a bit of extra ammunition in the protracted legal battle for the income of a rich living.

Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)

This blog was taken from a chapter by A.K.B. Evans in St George’s Chapel Windsor in the Fourteenth Century edited by N Saul (2005)

“We promise that there shall be no damage to
            the Turf or undue noise.”
Surely the daughters of our Windsor Choir
Must to angelic perfectness aspire,
What mortal e’er played croquet without tattle
Without – of tongues and balls th’united rattle?
            Who do not stamp upon the Turf and knock it
            Indignant, when they’re made a miss at Croquet
            Still to your suit the indulgent Chapter give
            Condition’d and revocable leave,
First to the Horse Shoe’s inmates we confine,
Those who in this exciting game may join,
None but the children of St. George’s troop,
Shall wield the mallet there, or fix the hoop.
            The Cloister is the pledge of care and quiet,
            The Town would bring in trespassing and riot,
            Next Croquet only we allow, not Cricket,
            The single peg and not the double wicket.
By balls that into areas descend
The windows broken he that owns must mend,
No dogs must henceforth on the lawn be seen,
No refuse vile disgrace the well-kept green.
            Lastly, our leave will on experience cease,
            If spoiled our grass become, or spoil’d our Peace,
            To your own promise be yourselves but true
            “No damage to the Turf or noise undue”

The letter entitled ‘The Dean’s answer to the Daughters of the Choir’ is a lyrical response to the daughters of the lay clerks by Dean G. Wellesley on May 8 1874 [SGC ACC/2006/044]. Previously in the possession of Rosemary Marciniak, the letter was written during the period her great grandfather Thomas Hunt was a lay clerk (1865-1908). One of Thomas Hunt’s daughters wrote the initial letter to Dean Wellesley, asking whether she and others (daughters of other lay clerks) could play on the lawns.  Lay clerks (choirmen) had been living in the Horseshoe Cloister since the 15th century, when the present houses were constructed to the west of St George’s Chapel.

In this humorous rhyme, Dean Wellesley lays out specific rules on who plays what and when on the green turf, and also states that ‘no undue noise’ should be heard in the Cloister. Croquet is to be played not cricket, and dogs are forbidden on the ‘well-kept green’. The fact that Dean Wellesley has outlined his responses in a witty and courteous poem shows that he is astute and, whilst cheery, blunt and to the point.

Stefanos Koutroumanidis (Archives volunteer)

Stall plate of Richard Neville

Richard Neville was born in 1400 into one of England’s great noble families.  The Nevilles held sway in the far north-west of the country, whilst the Percys were the dominant force in the far north-east.  There was little love lost, and much rivalry between the two noble dynasties.  Richard was able, ambitious, very well-connected (being a nephew of Henry IV), and blessed with the financial and military resources to further his aims.  He made a good marriage too, wedding Alice Montagu, the earl of Salisbury’s daughter, in 1422.  She gave him ten children, whilst her inheritance was a useful source of cash for him to spend up north.

At first he was solidly loyal to the House of Lancaster and was suitably rewarded.  In 1428 he was created earl of Salisbury, and in 1438, was nominated a knight of the Garter.  He campaigned in France too during the later stages of the Hundred Years War.  But his family’s feud with the Percys was edging England towards civil conflict.  When war came in 1455, Richard threw in his lot with Richard, duke of York, the Yorkist pretender.  Indeed, without Richard Neville’s support, it seems unlikely York could have made a realistic bid for the crown.

By 1456, he was York’s principal lieutenant, and the fortunes of the two men were now intertwined.  If York could succeed in toppling Henry VI and be crowned as Richard III, then Richard Neville could expect lavish reward and high office.  It was not to be.  The two men spent Christmas 1460 at a castle near Wakefield, and intended to dig in for the winter as the Yorkist position in the north was now weak.  But a few days later, on 30 December, they engaged a superior Lancastrian force, a clear tactical error.  York was hacked to death in the fighting, and Neville was captured soon after.  He was taken to Pontefract, where he was lynched by a mob, and his head was later displayed on one of the gates of York.  It was a gruesome nemesis for the man who rebelled against the dynasty which nurtured him, and whose support for the pretender sparked the Wars of the Roses.  It was left to York’s son, Edward, to carry on the fight, and seize the crown as Edward IV in 1461.

Simon Harrison (Archives volunteer)