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Nicholaus de ffarnedale About 1335 to about 1400 The Doncaster Kirkleatham
Skelton Line
FAR00038A
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Dates
are in red.
Hyperlinks
to other pages are in dark
blue.
Headlines
of Nicholaus’ life are in brown.
References
and citations are in turquoise.
Context
and local history are in purple.
1335
It seems likely that William Farndale (FAR00038),
who was the Vicar of Doncaster, and was probably born in about 1330, was
Nicholaus’ older brother. It is possible William was his father, but the date
of his payment of the Poll Tax make a sibling
relationship more likely.
If Nicholas was indeed William’s younger
brother then Nicholaus could have been the son of Walter de Farndale (FAR00015) vicar of
Haltwhistle, Lazonby and Chelmsford.
1365
Nicholas ffarnedale
married Alicia (Alice) according to the Poll Tax records. This might have been
in or about 1365.
1379
Nicholaus de
ffarnedale & Alicia uxor ejus paid poll tax iiij.d for the Villata de Donecastre in the Wapentake of Strafforth
in the Yorkshire Subsidy Rolls for the year 1379.
Iiij is an alternative form of iiii or iv. So he paid 4d.
uxor ejus means “his wife”.
Villata refers to the “villages” of Doncaster.
(Yorkshire
Subsidy Rolls 1379, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/SubsidyRolls/WRY/Doncaster.html).
The
Poll Tax of 1379 was granted to the new King Richard II (who was the son of
Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent who held the Kirkbymoorside estate) by the lords, commoners and clergy of England in order to finance the
Hundred Years' War. It was graduated according to each taxpayers rank or social
position, thereby avoiding dissatisfaction based on inequality and unfairness.
The schedule of charge for this tax therefore contained a classification of the
taxpayers. This poll tax was expected to net over £50,000, but the revenue
never reached half that sum.
The
fiscal exigencies of the Hundred Years' War compelled the Bad Parliament of
1377 to grant to the King a tax of four pence or a groat to be taken from the
goods of each man and woman in the kingdom over fourteen, with
the exception of genuine beggars. In addition
the clergy granted a tax of 12 pence from every beneficed person, and a groat
from every other religious person, with the exception of mendicant friars.
Special commissions were appointed to collect the tax, and the county sheriffs
were ordered to aid with the collection. The tax on laymen netted £22,607, 2
s., 6d. paid by 1,376, 442 persons, although the records of County Durham and
Cheshire are missing.
The
war continued with French attack on the southern coast of England, the towns of
Dartmouth, Plymouth, Winchelsea and others suffered.
The first parliament of Richard II therefore in 1377 granted for two years a
tax of two fifteenths on movables without cities and boroughs and two tenths
within. In addition parliament added a grant of
customs subsidy on wool, woolfells and leather for three years. It also granted
for one year six pence on the pound in goods imported and exported. The second
parliament of Richard II granted in 1378 a tax of one fifteenth and a half on
movables without cities and boroughs and one tenth and a half within. It also
continued the previous customs on wool and merchandise a year longer. This
grant did not produce the sum of money required for the war, and the third
parliament of Richard II repealed in and replaced it with a poll tax that would
be easier and faster to collect.
The
schedule of charge for this tax therefore contained a classification of
taxpayers. It is divided into four groups: the first is based on rank, the
second on occupation (men of law), the third on civic hierarchy, and the fourth
other men. Two commissions were appointed, one to assess, and the other to
collect. Later in 1379 reassessment commissions were appointed. In 1379 the
Convocations of Canterbury and York met and granted an almost identical poll
tax for the clergy.
In the
Doncaster listing, there was no order, almost all paying the standard 4d tax,
with a few interspersed in the list who paid more. Therefore although Nicolaus is listed third from the
bottom of a long list, this does not necessarily mean his low status.
Following
the Black Death, Edward
III took steps to keep society running as it had before the plague. Edicts were
issued requiring folk to maintain their obligations. The Statute of Labourers in 1349 and
Statute of Artificers fixed princes at pre plague levels, required people to
work at those levels and forbad employers to pay more. Serfs were not to leave
their manors. Even the wearing of clothes was regulated so that ordinary folk
would know their station.
In
1376, the Good Parliament protested as a Commons about the costs of the French
Wars and elected a new office, the Speaker.
The
French Wars were becoming unpopular and seen as an enterprise by the
aristocracy for glory, at the cost of ordinary people. The church was becoming
unpopular, and another source of heavy taxation.
The
shortage of population following the Black Death gave rise to a burgeoning
middle class, of people who sought to better themselves.
Richard II, the Boy King, was crowned in 1377. Richard II was
the son of the Black Prince and Joan the Fair Maid of Kent, daughter of
Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. and of descent of the House Stuteville, the
landowning family of Kirkbymoorside, and therefore of Farndale.
The
war was growing costly, and he sought more taxes through his parliament, but
the landowning class who made up the parliament felt it was time for the new
middle classes, whose wealth was growing, to field some of the cost.
The
financial demands of the Hundred Years' War led to the government levying three
poll taxes in four years. A Poll Tax was levied in 1377,
1379 and 1381. In 1377 and 1379 a flat rate of 4d was imposed on all
taxpayers, with a higher amount payable by the wealthier. This was unpopular
and there was growing resentment. The third, demanded a flat rate of 12d per
adult and was levied in April 1381.
1381
On 30 May 1381, John Bampton imposed the third poll tax in Brentwood, Essex and a significant uprising was triggered, insisting on reductions in taxation, the end of serfdom, and the removal of some senior officials and law courts.
The Peasants Revolt led by Wat Tyler arose
from tensions from high taxes and fixed incomes following the Black Death.
There is also a Rest is History Podcast.
The seeds of the revolt were in Kent and Essex. There is no
reason to suppose the folk of Doncaster had any direct involvement in the
Peasants Revolt. However Nicholaus de ffarnedale
was likely to have been one of the new aspiring classes who would have resented
the Poll Tax. And there were related revolts in the north.
There is an In Our Time
podcast on the Peasants’ Revolt, 1381.
John Ball, Jack Straw and Wat Tyler led the rebels to
London and they met Richard II at Mile End where charters were conceded freeing
them from all bondage. However there was a
further meeting between the rebels at Smithfield. Violence broke out. Tyler was
stabbed and killed by the mayor of London.
The London rebellion was eventually quashed. However the germs had been sewn for greater rights for
the general population. There were sporadic follow up rebellions including in
York.
The rebels demanded an
end to serfdom, and that land should be tented for 4d per acre, so 4d was
clearly a significant sum. Their demands were initially agreed to be Richard at
Mile End, but the agreement broke down at Smithfield, by which time the King’s
advisers had gathered together a sufficient military
force to surround the rebels.
Revolts in Northern
England
Revolts also occurred
across the rest of England, particularly in the cities of the north,
traditionally centres of political unrest. In the town of Beverley, violence
broke out between the richer mercantile elite and the poorer townspeople during
May 1381. By the end of the month the rebels had taken power and replaced the
former town administration with their own. The rebels attempted to enlist the
support of Alexander Neville, the Archbishop of York, and in June forced the
former town government to agree to arbitration through Neville. Peace was
restored in June 1382 but tensions continued to simmer
for many years.
Word of the troubles
in the south-east spread north, slowed by the poor communication links of
medieval England. In Leicester, where John of Gaunt had a substantial castle,
warnings arrived of a force of rebels advancing on the city from Lincolnshire,
who were intent on destroying the castle and its contents. The mayor and the
town mobilised their defences, including a local militia, but the rebels never
arrived. John of Gaunt was in Berwick when word reached him on 17 June of the
revolt. Not knowing that Wat Tyler had by now been killed, John of Gaunt placed
his castles in Yorkshire and Wales on alert. Fresh rumours, many of them
incorrect, continued to arrive in Berwick, suggesting widespread rebellions
across the west and east of England and the looting of the ducal household in
Leicester; rebel units were even said to be hunting for the Duke
himself. Gaunt began to march to Bamburgh Castle, but then changed course and
diverted north into Scotland, only returning south once the fighting was over.
News of the initial
events in London also reached York around 17 June 1381, and attacks at once
broke out on the properties of the Dominican friars, the Franciscan friaries and other religious institutions. Violence
continued over the coming weeks, and on 1 July a group of armed men, under the
command of John de Gisbourne, forced their way into
the city and attempted to seize control. The mayor, Simon de Quixlay, gradually began to reclaim authority, but order
was not properly restored until 1382. The news of the southern revolt reached
Scarborough where riots broke out against the ruling elite on 23 June, with the
rebels dressed in white hoods with a red tail at the back. Members of the local
government were deposed from office, and one tax collector was nearly lynched.
By 1382 the elite had re-established power.
Robin Hood
The emergence of the Robin Hood legends at about this time was likely to have been inspired in part at
the general grievances of the new aspiring middle class which led to the
peasants revolt.
1400
If Nicholas
lived to the age of 65, he might have died in or about 1400.