Yorkshire Almanac Robert de Ellerbeck, mercer, walks into York Council on the Ouse bridge with a question for a certain Ralph del See

27 February 1390: Robert de Ellerbeck, mercer, walks into York Council on the Ouse bridge with a question for a certain Ralph del See

Francis Drake. 1736. Eboracum. London: William Bowyer. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Memorandum, that on Monday the 27th day of February, anno dom. 1390, and in the fourteenth year of the reign of king Richard II, were assembled in the council-chamber on Ousebridge, Robert Savage then mayor, John de Hoveden, John de Doncaster bayliffs, with John de Rippon, Robert del Gare, Robert Warde, John de Bolton, William de Rumlay, Hugh Straunge and other creditable persons, amongst whom personally appeared Ralph del See the son of Richard del See of York. Whilst these were treating and talking, a certain man called Robert de Ellerbeck mercer, came into the aforesaid chamber before the mayor, bayliffs and other honest citizens, with naked feet and head uncovered; who kneeling down and prostrating himself before the said Ralph del See besought him humbly in these words, weeping, I beseech thee Ralph, for the love of our lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed mankind by his precious blood on the cross, that thou wilt pardon and remit to me the death of Richard del See thy father. At which words the aforesaid mayor, bayliffs and other citizens together, intreated the said Ralph, that for the love of God he would forgive the said Robert de Ellerbeck the death of Richard his father. Which same Ralph, being moved to pity, turning himself to the said Robert, weeping, said, in reverence to God, and at the entreaty of these worthy men, and for the sake of the soul of the said Richard, I remit and release to thee for ever the death of the said Richard del See my father.

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Something to say? Get in touch

Comment

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

15 March 1586: Offered a jury acquittal, Margaret Clitherow of York, concealer of priests, chooses martyrdom and is crushed under her own front door

14 February 1482: Robert Rede Gyrdewler tells the York authorities of pub canvassing in favour of Thomas Wrangwith, the future Richard III’s candidate for mayor

7 March 1615: A great thaw begins in York – heavy flooding along the Ouse and Foss, followed by four months drought

13 November 1478: Edward IV orders the London merchant adventurers to allow their Yorkshire colleagues fair access to Low Countries markets for their woollen cloth

12 August 1439: Joan Cantcliffe, widow, buys a pension and a lifetime lease on a basement flat in the hall of the Mistry of Mercers, York

6 January 1565: The bridge over the Ouse at York collapses

15 November 1444: A survey of the boundaries of York

24 May 1669: Abraham Sharp (16), later mathematician and astronomer, undertakes not to fornicate for the next eight years and is apprenticed to a York textile merchant

8 May 1154: The wooden bridge over the Ouse collapses under the crowd welcoming Archbishop William of York back from Rome

16 February 1114: The morbidly obese Archbishop Thomas II of York ignores medical advice and dies chaste, unlike an 18th century successor

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

Comment

The clarification of the original asterisks comes from Samuel Pegge:

The asterisks in Drake’s Eboracum, p. 416, are intended for Archbishop Lancelot Blackburne; intimating that his Grace would never have died a martyr to his chastity. But quære, whether Mr. Drake was a proper person to make this observation (Pegge 1818).

Malcolm Redfellow suggests that Drake resented Blackburne’s refusal to subscribe to Eboracum.

Who is Drake’s source? Hugh the Chanter aka Sottovagina in his Historia ecclesiae Eboracensis (History of the Church of York) simply says that Thomas was not known to have had sex with a woman (Hugh the Chanter 1990).

Something to say? Get in touch