Honiton festivals

Festivals
Locality	Honiton
Vicinity	27 km NE of Exeter
Coordinate	50.799203, -3.188454
Adm. div.	Devon
Began	1571/72
Ended	1576/77
Events	One pound of gunpowder spent when Robert Hood (Robin Hood) of Colyton visited; Whitsun ale.

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Honiton was visited by Robin Hood of Colyton, c. 10.5 km to the SE.

Honiton on a busy market day / Tony Atkin, 30 Aug. 2005, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2015-08-27. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.

Records

[1571/72:]

payd to master cogynge for one _˄⌜j li. of⌝ powdar when
Robarte hode of collyton came in          xiiii 〈...〉

---

[1576/77:]

Item made declaro for whit sonne ayle       xix s x〈.〉
Item mad declaro for Roberte houde          xvij s

Source notes

"˂...˃" indicates "lost or illegible letters in the original"; "⌜⌝" indicates "interlineation above the line"; "˄" represents a caret mark in Wasson's source.
1571/72: St Michael's Churchwardens' Accounts, f. 4. Accounting year: 30 November-29 November. Under heading "Charges". Note to bracketed ellipsis: "page torn".
1576/77: St Michael's Churchwardens' Accounts, f. 15. Accounting year: 30 November-29 November. Under heading: "Receipts".
Wasson, p. xxv, notes the relative abundance of Robin Hood entries in Devon records, but warns against assuming the events in question were all of a dramatic nature, noting that the chief tasks of the persons elected Robin Hood and Little John were to collect money for the parish and frequently to serve as ale wardens; in most cases the records are not explicit as to the nature of the events.
Wasson (1986), p. lxii: church ales figure in Honiton accounts during the period from 1570 to 1581.

IRHB comments

In 1580/81, minstrels were paid 5s. "at whytsontyde". Colyton, whence the visiting Robin Hood came, lies c. 10.5 km to the south-east.

Lists and gazetteers

• Lancashire, Ian, compil. Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain: a Chronological Topography to 1558 (Cambridge, 1984), No. 779.
• Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88, see pp. 279, 280.
• Not included in Wiles, David. The Early Plays of Robin Hood (Cambridge, 1981), Appendix I.

MS sources

• Anonymous. St Michael's Churchwardens' Accounts, Honiton. Devon Record Office, Exeter. 1639A PW1. 1570-1651, ff. 4, 15; not seen, but cf. Wasson (1986), pp. xlvii, 207-208.

Printed sources

• Wasson, John M., ed. Devon. (Records of Early English Drama) (Toronto; Buffalo; London, ©1986), pp. 207-208, and see pp. xxv, xlvii, 527.

Background

• Wikipedia: Colyton
• Wikipedia: Honiton.

Also see

• Colyton festivals.

Notes

 Devon festivals 

 Festivals