1447 - Litell John ship of Calais
| Record | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1447 |
| Topic | The Litell John of Calais and Nicholas of London seized to small ships trying to dodge the customs. |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-11-04. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-11-04.
Record
Grant to the king's serjeant, Thomas Byrmychamp, esquire for the body, of all that pertains to the king of the forfeiture of two ships called 'spynners' alias 'farkenstekers,' laden of late with wool and other goods and merchandise in the port of Pole or other places and 'crykes' pertaining thereto, which, issuing thence secretly without payment of cocket or custom, were taken by two ships called Litell John of Calais and Nicholas of London. By K. etc.[1]
Source notes
Marginal note: "Oct. 7. Westminster". Italic type as in printed source.
IRHB comments
For ships named after Little John or Robin Hood, see the page on Ship names. This passage is the first of only two ME occurrences of the noun 'spinner' , derived from another relatively rare ME word, 'spinace', a "small ship capable of carrying 25 men, a pinnace".[2] Oddly enough it seems at least one of the vessels concerned in 1447 played a Central role in the events detailed in the second source to include the noun 'spinner'. On 5 May 1450, William Lomnor wrote a sad letter – he claimed he had "soo wesshe this litel bille with sorwfulle terys that on-ethes ye shulle reede it – to the elder John Paston, broaching the news of the capture, mock trial and subsequent beheading of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, by sailors off the Kentish coast. The duke, intending to go to Calais with two ships, had sent ahead "a litel spynner" to find out if it would be safe for him. En route this vessel encountered "a shippe callyd Nicolas of the Towre, with othere shippis waytyng on hym". According to Lomnor, the crew of the 'spinner' betrayed the Duke to the captain of the Nicolas who subsequently captured the duke and after keeping him prisoner aboard the ship for a few days subjected him to a mock trial and subsequent beheading with a rusty sword that had to be wielded all of 15 times to sever the ducal head from its body.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
Lists
- Not included in 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.
Sources
- [Bland, A. E.], compil.; [Isaacson, Robert F.], compil.; [Maxwell-Lyte, Henry Churchill], introd. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Preserved in the Public Record Ofice (London; London; Edinburgh; Dublin, 1906), p. 15, and see p. 14.
Background
Also see
Notes