1537 - Prise, John - Examination of Thomas Percy

Allusion
Date	1537
Author	Prise, John
Title	Examination of Thomas Percy
Mentions	Robin Hood's Cross [Hampole, near Barnsdale]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2015-08-03

Allusion

[...] they concluded to send this examinate [Sir Thomas Percy (c. 1504-37, second son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland)] and his company, Sir Ralph Ellerker, Sir William Constable [...] with their companies, being in the whole about the number of four thousand men, to Fery bridge aforesaid. And there they kept watch for that night. And on the morrow came all the rest of the host to them save only my Lord Darcy and my Lord Archbishop of York, with their own retinue which were left in Pomfret Castle. And the same day they went from Fery bridge to a little nunnery beyond Doncaster, besides Robin Hood's Cross, and there kept the field all that night.

IRHB comments

The source is a report, dated 10 February 1537, of the interrogations of Sir Thomas Percy about his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace and Bigod's Rebellion. The MS report is written in the hand of Sir John Prise (c. 1502-55), a Welsh notary public who, among his many other services to Henry VIII, acted as a special commissioner involved in interrogating and trying the rebels after the Pilgrimage of Grace was suppressed. Thomas Percy was subsequently convicted of treason and hanged. According to Gairdner, the "little nunnery beyond Doncaster" is "Hampall", i.e. Hampole Priory, which is confirmed by another contemporary examination report that explicitly states the rebels "for that night lodged under Hampall the nunnery". This latter report does not mention Robin Hood's Cross, but it does note that the activities detailed took place "beside Barnesdale". The activities of the rebel army and its skirmishes with a loyalist detachment in or near Barnsdale are treated in detail by Dodds, who also mentions their encampment near Robin Hood's Cross. Also see the page on the place-name Robin Hood's Cross.

Sources

• Dodds, Madeleine Hope; Dodds, Ruth. The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536-1537 and the Exeter Conspiracy 1538 (Cambridge, 1915), vol. I, p. 252.
• Fonblanque, Edward Barrington de. Annals of the House of Percy, from the Conquest to the Opening of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1887), vol. II, p. 451. Fonblanque prints the report in toto.
• Gairdner, James, compil. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Preserved in the Public Record Office, The British Museum, and elsewhere in England Vol. XII – Part I (London, 1890), item No. 393 (pp. 194-95), a close paraphrase of the MS report; the reference to Robin Hood's Cross is found on p. 194; item No. 391 (pp. 190-91) and some preceding items provide context.
• Gairdner, James, compil. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Preserved in the Public Record Office, The British Museum, and elsewhere in England Vol. XII – Part II (London, 1891), p. 668. General Index, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Cross, beside Hampall.'

Lists

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-11.
• Outside scope of 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.

Background

• British History Online: Hampole Priory.
• Wikipedia: Bigod's Rebellion.
• Wikipedia: Pilgrimage of Grace.
• Wikipedia: Thomas Percy (Pilgrimage of Grace).
• Wikipedia: John Prise.

Also see

• Robin Hood's Cross (Hampole).

Notes

 Allusionslinks1501-1600texts