Rosemary talks to Bridget Wells-Furby about The Bohun of Fressingfield Cartulary.
Tips: To carry on listening to this programme (24 mins) whilst browsing other pages hold 'shift' as you click on the next link.To jump to other places in the programme - click on the right hand bar - you may have to wait for it to finish downloading.
Listen on iphone/ipad or download MP3
This is number nineteen in the series of Suffolk Cartularies published by the Suffolk Records Society. To the general reader these publications must seem arcane, but for the local historian and students of medieval history they provide a valuable resource not just in their content, but also by virtue of the fact some-one else has done the donkey work of reading, transcribing and translating (in this case) almost 300 deeds and charters relating to land mainly in Fressingfield, North Suffolk, thus enabling immediate access to a huge corpus of original material.
However, this cartulary is particularly special, for unlike most others, this collection of deeds and charters relates not to a monastic or great lay landowner, but to one whose parentage lay in ‘peasant ‘ or yeoman stock, gradually building a portfolio of land by the purchase and consolidation of tiny plots and strips – an acre or so at a time. In this way it evidences the active peasant land market of the free landholders of medieval Suffolk – a process hinted at elsewhere but here seen clearly. Thus John Bohun of Fressingfield laid the foundation for subsequent generations of his family to move upwards into the gentry and ultimately marry into some of the foremost families of the county. His second son, Edmund, having been enabled to pursue a successful career in the King’s Exchequer, and thereby accumulate a considerable amount of capital, then continued to amass a landholding to the point where he felt it warranted the production of a cartulary. His rise and position was further confirmed by being awarded a coat of arms.
As with any cartulary, the detail is immense as each tiny piece of land is described and located relative to other similar pieces which would have formed part of the patchwork of landholdings; each transaction witnessed by local people. So for the local historian it is full of references which can contribute to building up not only the geography and history of Fressingfield in the late medieval period, but also the interpersonal relationships of people within the parish, both family and friendship groups.
Bridget Wells-Furby provides the reader with a full and detailed introduction which teases out these relationships and enables some characters to be fleshed out – particularly John and his upwardly-mobile son Edward, who probably owed some of his rise to the influence of no-less a person than John de la Pole duke of Suffolk (and brother-in-law of Edward IV) of Wingfield castle in the adjoining parish. Some attempt is made at reconstructing the geography, with a number holdings indentified, if not located. Reconstruction is most successful with the village itself, and the layout of messuages around the market place and in particular the reference to the new guildhall in which much drinking was planned to take place – now (perhaps appropriately) the Fox and Goose pub.
This is a book for both the local historian in that it opens a window on a little bit of Suffolk in the medieval period, but also for the academic in that it provides a tranche of evidence to enable the illumination of the history of ordinary folk. We have to thank the Suffolk Records Society for supporting this publication and to Bridget Wells-Furby for her diligence in both the translation and transcription, but also for putting together such a useful and informative introduction .
Rosemary Hoppitt
| Next > |
|---|
