Murder in the Church

Roger knelt at the altar of the chapel, his gaze fixed on the patronal statue of St. Mary Magdalene. The short, brisk walk from the Hall, just 200 yards to the south, had done little to warm him on this cold, frosty, yet clear morning. As he stepped inside, the chapel’s whitewashed walls shimmered with condensation in the dim, coloured light filtering through the narrow, lead-lined stained glass windows. The first light of day was too faint to illuminate much, but that suited Roger; there were few distractions as he sought guidance. The manorial chapel saw fewer visitors since the larger Church of St. John the Baptist had been built at the Hermitage, but that suited him as he grappled with the troubling rumours of Laurence’s plotting.

As he prayed, the sound of the door creaking open interrupted his thoughts. Turning, he saw four or five men entering—Laurence and his cronies, their swords drawn. There would be no sanctuary for him in this holy place.

Roger faced them, weaponless and alone. The chapel, though small, offered enough space for them to quickly surround him, taunting him with cruel sneers. Laurence stood flanked by the Birchover brothers, John and Thomas, with William Byker and Richard de Bromley close behind. As he turned to defend himself, it seemed all too fitting that his brother-in-law would be the first to strike, stabbing him squarely in the back.

The others followed suit—Byker slashed his face, the blade penetrating his brain; Bromley plunged his sword into Roger’s belly; Thomas de Birchover crushed the back of his head, while John de Birchover drove a dagger deep into his side. Any of these wounds would have been fatal, but Frodeley had delivered the killing blow.

Sir Simon de Handsacre died in the 47^th (regnal) year of the reign of King Edward III. Regnal years are calculated from the official date (year, month and day) of a monarch’s accession, so Sir Simon’s death was somewhere between 25^th January 1373 and 24^th January 1374. At the time of his death his landholding consisted of his Manor of Handsacre, Charlton Manor in Worcestershire, land and houses in Higham on the Hill, Leicestershire, the fourth part of the Manor of Repton, Derbyshire, and the third part of the Manors of East Torrington and Hardwick, Lincolnshire. The original Manor of Handsacre was slightly larger than the current Parish of Armitage-with-Handsacre although one third of it had been given as a dowry to the Grendon family of Warwickshire.

Simon had no sons so the Handsacre name died with him. He did though leave a widow, Isabella, and three daughters – Isabella, Elizabeth and Aliana (Eleanor) – all of whom were minors i.e. less than 12 years old. Inheritance law at that time in Staffordshire and most of England left everything to the eldest son and if there was no living son then any daughters inherited an equal share. As you can imagine, with so much land, money and power up for grabs, the vultures gathered.

The immediate problem they faced was that more than one party claimed to own Sir Simon’s fealty and therefore could dispose of the children’s hand in marriage as they saw fit.

The Domesday Book shows that Robert (de Handsacre) owned the Manor of Handsacre under the Bishop of Chester and it had subsequently been transferred to the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. Sir Simon had acknowledged that he was a vassal of the Bishop by attending the Bishop’s Court at Whittington, twice a year, where he swore his fealty to the Bishop. He had also paid scutage to the Bishop – this was a tax levied in lieu of military service.

In 1376 the Bishop claimed the wardship and marriage rights of the girls and sent his Bailiff, William de Gonderbache, who forcibly removed Simon’s daughter, Isabella, from Handsacre and took her to Heyham. Isabella responded by sending her own men, Thomas Say, Hugh Harper of Alcestre, Henry de Yerdsley, and William le Hunte, to rescue Isabella from Heyham and bring her back to Handsacre. The Bishop sued Isabella, and her accomplices, for abducting her own daughter and claiming £300 damages in addition. Isabella stated that her daughter was in her custody for the sake of maintenance. The Bishop appealed on this issue to a jury but before a jury could be summoned another player appeared on the scene – Joan of Kent.

She was the widow of the Black Prince, the very first Princess of Wales. She claimed that William de Handsacre, (Simon’s father), had enfeoffed, (i.e. given land in return for a pledge of service), a Richard Bradelay and Chaplain John Maynard of part of the Manor together with some houses and rents in Handsacre. Whether this was true or even a valid claim on the children didn’t stop her however and she didn’t bother with collecting the girls up but promptly sold the marriages of the two older girls.

The oldest, Isabella, would have been around ten or eleven years old and she had already been kidnapped and rescued once. She was now promised by Joan to Laurence Forster of Frodeley (Laurence de Frodeley) and sent to his residence in Pipe Ridware.

By this time, the Bishop had also sold the wardship and marriage rights -to Robert Eyryck, also known as Robert de Stretton, who had in fact been chaplain to the Black Prince and was now the Archdeacon of Coventry. Eyryck sent his own men to Pipe to recover his property i.e. Isabella. In doing so they – Richard de Ruggeleye of Alrewas, Richard’s sons, (John and Robert), John Clerk of Elford, Richard Taillour of Alrewas, John Clerk of Ruggeleye, Robert de Kirkeby, Chaplain, and John de Ludynton – also stole goods and chattels from Laurence de Frodeley. Or so he said anyway in his suit against them in September 1377 in which he claimed that they stole ‘woollen and linen clothes, rings and buckles of gold and silver and a loculus full of precious stones and pearls to the value of £100’.

Whether you could trust Frodeley or indeed anything he said is another matter. Just four years earlier he had broken into a house in Berkshire and stolen money, deeds and other writing and also broken into a house in Frodeley (Fradley) and murdered a man in the middle of the night before running away with silver and other goods. He had been prosecuted for both offences and made an outlaw. After obtaining a Pardon from the King, on two separate occasions, he had been able to escape punishment for his crimes.

Joan of Kent was also paid by Thomas de Billesden for the marriage of Elizabeth who was only eight years old at the time. By this time though Robert Eyryck had taken her to one of his properties at Great Glen, Leicestershire. So having been taken from her Handsacre home by Eyryck she was again forcibly taken by de Billesden’s men to his house at Thame in Oxfordshire and as you would expect Robert Eyryck sent his men to recover her as well. This time he sent William de Hampton, Henry de Nevylle, John de Christelton, Chaplain, John Ferrour of Ruggeleye and Hugh Poure of Blecheadon. When Thomas de Billesdon sued Eyryck and his men he also claimed that they had stolen ‘woollen and linen clothes, and rings and buckles of gold and silver’ so maybe Frodeley wasn’t spinning a line after all. Billesdon though claimed £1,000 in damages.

Eyryck now had possession of all three girls and before long they were all married off, (or promised since Alianora was even younger than Elizabeth), for which he was no doubt handsomely rewarded. Despite everything that had happened Isabella still married Laurence de Frodeley, whilst Elizabeth married Roger Colmon. Eleanor meanwhile had been promised to Richard Dynley.

So the daughters’ future was settled but not their mother’s and she was due a dower of one third of the whole estate if she was re-married. The winning suitor was John Scachelok and as soon as they were married he sued the three daughters and successfully claimed ‘his’ third of the estate.

In 1381 Frodeley and Colmon agreed to partition the estate so that Colmon would have Handsacre whilst Frodeley would have the Manor of Charlton in Worcestershire, except that Frodeley would be able to harvest the oats at Handsacre that he had already sown. Charlton was expected to be worth less than Handsacre and Colmon agreed to pay the difference to Frodeley. (Had they decided to ignore the youngest sister’s claims or thought that the other bits of the estate would be enough for her?) They each gave up a bond of £100 to John Wisse of Lichfield and each agreed to forfeit the bond if they failed to make the partition legally binding within a year. After twelve months Colmon summonsed Wisse to return his £100 together with Frodeley’s £100 because Frodeley had not lived up to his part of the bargain. Wisse asserted that he had no proof that Frodeley had reneged on the deal and appeared at the Court (by attorney) stating that he was ready to deliver the bonds to whom the Court considered they were due. A writ was therefore issued calling on Frodeley to show cause why the bonds should not be issued to Colmon. Frodeley did not appear and the case was adjourned until later in the year. By the autumn of 1384 however Frodeley had received ‘letters of protection’ for a year along with his friend, Richard Peshale, because he was just about to set off on the King’s service to Normandy. (Letters of protection protected an individual from prosecution or legal action whilst serving overseas). In February 1385 Colmon produced the King’s Letters Patent revoking the said letters of protection and Frodeley was re-summonsed. At the Easter session of the Court the Sheriff stated that Frodeley could not be found and he was ordered to arrest and produce him although he was still serving in Normandy.

Richard Dynley, who married the youngest daughter Eleanor, obviously had no intention of allowing Frodeley and Colmon to unilaterally split the estate between the two of them. In 1383 Dynley and his wife, (who had probably just turned twelve), sued Frodeley and Colmon together with their wives because the defendants refused to make a proper partition of the Manor according to law and custom. Dynley sued them in both Staffordshire and Worcestershire. None of the defendants appeared at either court and the County Sheriffs were ordered to compel them to appear either by physically taking some of their goods or by pledging goods or services.

By 1385 then, twelve years after the death of Sir Simon, the only thing that had been settled was that the estate was now a third less because of Isabella’s remarriage. No doubt the lawyers were happy but the three daughters, (and their husbands), were definitely not and Laurence de Frodeley and Isabella his wife decided to take matters into their own hands.

Coming up to Christmas 1385, Frodeley gathered together a group of his friends and allies at his residence in Pipe Ridware and his father’s estate at Fradley. Colmon lived in Handsacre and they recruited Matilda Pontener who also lived there to provide them with information about his routine. (Matilda’s husband, Nicholas de Aston, had recently been outlawed for a murder he committed with William Mauvesyn in Cannock Wood). Frodeley connections with the Peshale family provided numerous boltholes that they could use in different counties. Although several members of the Peshale family were MPs and indeed Sheriffs of Shropshire and Staffordshire throughout this period they indulged in assault, extortion and various other crimes – they have in fact been described as ‘common malefactors’.

Matilda told her fellow conspirators that Colmon was in the habit of praying first thing in the morning in the church of St. Mary Magdelene in Handsacre. As soon as the weather in the New Year was suitable for long travel they struck and on Sunday 29^th January 1386 Laurence and his four accomplices – John de Birchover, Thomas de Birchover of Albryghton, William Byker and Richard de Bromley of Wetton – murdered Roger Colmon and fled to Shropshire. Their first port of call was Richard de Peshale’s Manor at Chetwynd, just north of Newport. Over the next few weeks they spent time at different Peshale houses in Shropshire like Chetwynd and Idesale before travelling via Albryghton to Warwickshire where they stayed at Herdewyk’s Manor in Molynton before moving on to Hugh Harper’s residence in Alcestre.

Left behind was Frodeley’s sister-in-law, the grieving widow, Elizabeth. She was just about twenty years old and had relatively little support but she sued over twenty people in total at the Stafford Court, including her sister Isabella. At the Court Elizabeth appeared in person rather than through an attorney. Also appearing in person was her sister, Isabella, Richard de Peshale, Adam de Peshale, Humfrey de Peshale, Henry Cressewale, Matilda Pontener, William Forster, Hugh Harper. Matilda claimed that she could not be sued because she was married and therefore they would need to sue her husband, Nicholas de Aston (who was already outlawed). The Peshales and Harper claimed that they could not be sued in a Staffordshire Court because their alleged offences took place in a different county. In any case they all stated that they were innocent and that the case could not be proceeded with until all the principals had been outlawed or convicted.

The main protagonists – Frodeley, Byker, Bromley and the two Birchovers  – did not appear at five consecutive Courts and were therefore outlawed. This literally meant that they had no protection from the law and could be hunted down and killed but Frodeley and his cohorts clearly had friends who would willingly support them until they could work out a way to escape punishment.

Elizabeth failed to appear at one of the Court sessions and her case was dismissed but the prosecution was continued in the name of the King. The outlaws managed to avoid capture and the Court case rumbled along against the others. At the Easter Court in 1388 the Peshales and Harper were successful in their claim that the Staffordshire Court had no jurisdiction over them and they had the case against them dismissed.

Elizabeth still had her claim on the estate though and, in about 1388, she married Peter de Melburn who therefore took control of one third of the estate as had Roger Colmon before him. Two years later Charlton Manor was put into the hands of trustees and subsequently passed to Richard Dynley and Eleanor.

In 1392, the case was finally dismissed against the conspirators, (Isabella, William Forster, Pontener and Cressewale), and the only charges now were against the five who had actually done the killing.

Laurence Forster de Frodeley had got nowhere with his pursuit of the estate and was still an outlaw although he now had at least one child, William Forster. His sister-in-law, Elizabeth, died in about 1397 and he arranged to receive yet another pardon from the King. In Spring 1398 he surrendered to the Sheriff and was brought before the Court in Stafford. When he was asked why judgement should not be brought against him, he produced the King’s Letters Patent, dated 11^th April 1398 by which the King ‘of his special grace pardoned Laurence de Frodeley for the death of Roger Colmon, who was stated to have been feloniously killed in the chapel of St. Mary Magdelene at Hondesacre on the Sunday before the Feast of the Purification, 1386, and likewise for the outlawry lately passed’. Frodeley had got away with another murder.

Frodeley was released. The Manor of Charlton, Warwickshire was now in the possession of the Dynley family but all the rest of Sir Simon’s estate was his.

Laurence Forster de Frodeley was now Lord of the Manor of Handsacre.