Earth and Space News: 1303 Westminster Abbey raid female suspects

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Friday, November 16, 2018

Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Two Freed Female Suspects

Summary: What happened to the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid female suspects incarcerated summer 1303 in Newgate and the Tower of London Prisons?

Newgate Prison was the fearsome abode of sisters Alice and Castanea Barber, Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid (1303) suspects, until Edward I's second wife, Queen Margaret of France, mercifully arranged for their release; depiction of front of Newgate Prison in Thomas Bayly's Herba Parietis (1650), frontispiece: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Descriptions by goldsmiths and indictments by aldermen and jurors acknowledge women as assistants to the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid April 30-May 3, 1303, and raid aftermaths June 6, 1303-Nov. 28, 1304.

The Westminster Abbey refectory burglary November 1302 became the business of monks even though the Abbey Chapter House Crypt raid six months later became the king's. King Edward I's (June 17, 1239-July 7, 1307) writs June 6, Aug. 14, Oct. 10, and Nov. 10/14, 1303, and March 25, 1304, never contemplated gender. Edward demanded that "all who are guilty of this deed, or have helped and advised in it, or received the said treasure, be arrested without delay."

Edward expected that all advisers, assistants, recipients and thieves "be kept safe and secure in our prison until we have reached a decision on the matter."

And yet Edward's second wife, Queen Margaret (1279-Feb. 14, 1318), from Paris, France, freed two Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid female suspects from Newgate Prison cells.

The first commission per Edward's writ June 6, 1303, garnered arrests June 16-23, 1303, and gathered sisters Alice and Castanea Barber into Newgate by month end. Newgate likewise held Joanna (or Joanne), daughter of Richard Picard the tailor and mistress of merchant Richard de Puddlicott (hanged Nov. 28, 1304, as raid "malefactor"). Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid inmates in the Tower included Cecily, wife of Benedictine clerk Richard of Kent, and Edelina, daughter of Nicholas (Henry) the Cook.

Margaret juggled the sisters' release despite Edward's fourth writ, Nov. 10/14, 1303, judging priority "Ad negocium illud audiendum et terminandum secundum legem et consuetudinem nostri regni."

London, Middlesex, Suffolk, Surrey and Westminster residents knew of Edward keeping as priority appointed justices "hearing and terminating that business per our kingdom's law and custom."

Margaret nevertheless loosed two Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid suspects on bail ("Ad Mandatum Dominae Reginae predict Castanea et Alicia, soror ejus dismissive sunt per Mancaptores"). She made no move, or maneuvered unsuccessfully, for Joanna/Joanne, whom justices for final inquiries Jan. 9 and 13-14, 1304, in the Tower of London never mentioned. Paul Doherty never notifies readers of The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303 for Carroll & Graf Publishers, Sept. 26, 2005, of reasons netting Cecily's imprisonment.

Doherty observes occurrences in the Tower of London Prison as for "principal organizers and malefactors" ("Principales ordinatores et malefactores") of the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid.

Justices John Bakewell, Ralph de Sandwich, Roger de Southcote and Walter of Gloucester put Edelina in the Tower Prison by Edward's second writ, Aug. 14, 1303.

Edelina queued up suspicious associations as mistress of married William Palmer (hanged March 25, 1304, as raid "malefactor"), Fleet Prison Keeper and Westminster Palace deputy Keeper. She received three indictments Jan. 9 and 13-14, 1304: she "advised and helped the burglars. She sheltered William of the Palace and knew of his wickedness." Her relative, John the Cook of Lechesman, staged in 1296 an unsuccessful Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid that sent him to Newgate Prison for high treason.

History turns silent on what transpired for Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid imprisoned female suspects, even for the two sisters that Margaret took out of prison.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Edward I's second wife, Margaret of France, mercifully arranged for releases of sisters Alice and Castanea Barber from London's Newgate Prison; (left to right) obverse (front) and reverse (back) of Margaret's seal as Queen of England, drawn by British illustrator R.B. (Robert Brooke) Utting (Feb. 13, 1817-July 14, 1886), in Charles Boutell's English Heraldry (1867), pages 124 (No. 251: reverse) and 163 (No. 316: obverse): Not in copyright, via Internet Archive:
obverse (front) of Queen Margaret's seal via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/englishheraldry00boutrich#page/n188/mode/1up;
reverse (back) of Queen Margaret's seal via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/englishheraldry00boutrich#page/n149/mode/1up

For further information:

Bayly, Thomas. 1650. Herba Parietis, or the Wall Flower as It Grew out of the Stone-Chamber Belonging to the Metropolitan Prison of London, Called Newgate. London, England: J.G.
Available via University of Michigan EEBO-TCP (Early English Books Online-Text Creation Partnership) @ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A27117.0001.001?view=toc

Boutell, Charles. 1867. English Heraldry. London, England; New York NY: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/englishheraldry00boutrich

Doherty, Paul. 2005. The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303. New York NY: Carroll & Graf Publisher.

Harvey, Barbara F., ed. 1965. Documents Illustrating the Rule of Walter de Wenlok, Abbot of Westminster 1283-1307. Vol. II. Camden Fourth Series. London, England: Offices of the Royal Historical Society.

Howitt, Mary. 1856. Biographical Sketches of the Queens of Great Britain From the Norman Conquest to the Reign of Victoria : or, Royal Book of Beauty. London, England: Henry G. Bohn.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100880285
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_TwgLAAAAYAAJ

Keay, Anna. 2011. The Crown Jewels. London UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 April 2018. "Richard Puddlicott and the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/richard-puddlicott-and-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 May 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid in April and May 1303 in England." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 May 2018. "Mysteries of the April-May 1303 Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/mysteries-of-april-may-1303-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 June 2018. "King Edward I's Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/king-edward-is-letter-on-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Royal Proclamation June 16, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_8.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Palmer Confession June 17, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Arrests June 18-19, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_22.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 June 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Indenture June 22, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/06/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_29.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Palmer Confession July 6, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Goldsmiths Talk July 4, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_13.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 July 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Aldermen Interviews July 29, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_27.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 August 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Westminster Jurors Aug. 6, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 August 2018. "Edward I's Second Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/08/edward-is-second-letter-on-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 28 September 2018. "Westminster Abbey Refectory Raid and London Sheriff Hugh Pourte." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/09/westminster-abbey-refectory-raid-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 October 2018. "Edward I's Third Letter on the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/edward-is-third-letter-on-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 October 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: "False Indicted" Monks?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 October 2018. "Appellants Not Involved in the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/appellants-not-involved-in-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 26 October 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid Commission Oct. 26, 1303." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_26.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 November 2018. "Queen of Mercy to Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid Female Suspects." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/queen-of-mercy-to-westminster-abbey.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 November 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Female Suspects Left Behind." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid_9.html

Palgrave, Sir Francis, ed. 1836. "Appendix: Records Relating to the Robbery at the Treasury, 31 Edw. I." The Antient Kalendars and Inventories of His Majesty's Exchequer Together with Other Documents Illustrating the History of That Repository. Vol. I: 251-299. London England: Commissioners of the Public Records of The Kingdom.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/antientkalendars01grea_0#page/251/mode/1up

Rothwell, Harry, ed. 1957. The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. Previously Edited as the Chronicle of Walter of Hemingford or Hemingburgh. Camden Series Volume LXXXIX. London, England: Royal Historical Society.

Thornbury, Walter. 1878. "Chapter XXXIII: The Fleet Prison." Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places. Vol. II: 404-416. London, England; Paris, France; New York NY: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.
Available via British History Online (BHO) @ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp404-416
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/oldnewlondonnarr02thor#page/404/mode/1up

Friday, November 9, 2018

Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: Female Suspects Left Behind

Summary: What happened, when the king Nov. 10/14, 1303, headed justices to closure, to women who heard about or helped the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid?

Among Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid (1303) female participants not indicted was an unnamed washerwoman who sheltered goldsmith John of Newmarket's takings in her Southwork home; London as viewed across the Thames from Southwark at London Bridge crossing, with heads of executed criminals spiked atop Southwark gatehouse (inserted blue arrow) in detail of 1616 panorama of London by Dutch Golden Age draughtsman Claes Jansz Visscher (1587-June 19, 1652): No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Some of the few women perhaps acquainted or assisting with the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid of the Chapter House Crypt April 30-May 3, 1303, avoided imprisonment and indictments and others not.

The historical record bears only an occupation and a residence for the unnamed washerwoman to whose house in Southwark goldsmith John of Newmarket brought burgled treasures. It calls Abbey-raiding monk William de Chalk's mistress "the French lady Roesia de Gisors," but his wife the unnamed sister of Abbey bailiff Richard de Burgh. Bread Street jurors July 3, 1303, at the Bishop of London's Palace described the object of Abbey sacristan Adam de Warfield's desire broker Walter/William Russell's daughter.

Warfield endeavored to entice her with "a brooch and a gold ring from the jewels of the said Treasury so that she might become his friend."

Not one of the named associate or three unnamed associates found themselves among the women whom seven Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid justices forced into prison.

Yet knowing Abbey-raiding Westminster Palace Keeper William Palmer's "wickedness" in burglarizing the king's Cross of Neith and Unicorn Horn to their bed got Edelina into Newgate. Perhaps having Benedictine clerk Richard of Kent as her husband headed Cecily into the Tower of London Prison with "principal organizers and malefactors" in July-August 1303. Perhaps Abbey-raiding Oxford merchant Richard Puddlicott inundating their Dowgate-area house with £2,200 in stolen royal treasures imprisoned Joanna/Joanne, his mistress and Richard Picard the Tailor's daughter.

King Edward I's (June 17, 1239-July 7, 1307) appointed commissioners judged sisters Alice and Castanea Barber Newgate Prison-worthy for sheltering Newmarket, Palmer and Puddlicott in London.

Posterity knows nothing about the quintet other than the justices kept the Barber sisters in Newgate until Queen Margaret's (1279-Feb. 14, 1318) intercession in November 1303.

William Stubbs's (June 21, 1825-April 22, 1901) published editing of 13th-century manuscripts let readers look at Annales Londonienses's ("London Chronicles") Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid-related proceedings. The Chronicles mentioned Palmer, and likely John de Lenton, John de Rippinghale, Newmarket and John of St. Albans, hanging March 25, and Puddlicott Nov. 18, 1304. Associations with Lenton and Newmarket netted the Barber sisters, not Lenton's wife Gillelma or Newmarket's fellow goldsmith Imania la/La Porteresse, prison time until Queen Margaret's intervention.

Commissioners John Bakewell, John de Drogensford, Ralph de Sandwich, Roger de Southcote and Walter of Gloucester observed Lenton the week of his arrest, June 16-23, 1303.

Somebody purloined "six hampers of silver" along with "thirty or more dishes of silver" and "baskets containing drinking cups" during the Westminster Abbey refectory raid in November 1302.

The refectory key queued up among Lenton's possessions before his imprisonment in the Tower with "principal organizers and malefactors" of the Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid. It revealed relationships with Abbey-raiding subprior Alexander de Pershore who received papal indulgences in 1298 for all those praying for "good friend" Thomas de Lenton's soul. It never sent Gillelma de Lenton or Pershore's "two ladies, Matilda of Durham and Beatrice of Baldok" in and out of Newgate, Tower or Westminster Prisons.

The London Chronicles totaled ten monks and one clerk incarcerated after Palmer's hanging so justices or Margaret turned female suspects "Ally, ally out" and home "free."

Edelina, daughter of Nicholas (Henry) the Cook and mistress of William Palmer, numbered among Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid (1303) female indictees; her knowledge that William Palmer hid precious takings, the Cross of Neith and a unicorn horn, under his bed sent her to Newgate Prison; the golden, jeweled crown of the Welsh royal dynasty of Gwynedd, known as the Cross of Neith (Welsh Y Groes Naid), contained a piece of the true cross; Edward I added the Cross of Neith to the crown jewel collection in 1283 after defeating the last Prince of Wales, Dafydd ap Gruffydd; depiction of Cross of Neith on heraldic badge of Wales Herald of Arms Extraordinary: CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Among Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury raid (1303) female participants not indicted was an unnamed washerwoman who sheltered goldsmith John of Newmarket's takings in her Southwork home; London as viewed across the Thames from Southwark at London Bridge crossing, with heads of executed criminals spiked atop Southwark gatehouse (inserted blue arrow) in detail of 1616 panorama of London by Dutch Golden Age draughtsman Claes Jansz Visscher (1587-June 19, 1652); Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress (LOC) Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004669334/

Doherty, Paul. 2005. The Great Crown Jewels Robbery of 1303. New York NY: Carroll & Graf Publisher.

Keay, Anna. 2011. The Crown Jewels. London UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.br

Maitland, William. 1756. The History and Survey of London From Its Foundation to the Present Time. Vols. I-II. London, England: T. Osborne and J. Shipton, MDCCLVI.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/historysurveyofl02maitbr

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 May 2018. "Mysteries of the April-May 1303 Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid." Earth and Space news. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/05/mysteries-of-april-may-1303-westminster.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 October 2018. "Westminster Abbey Royal Treasury Raid: 'Falsely Indicted' Monks?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/westminster-abbey-royal-treasury-raid.html

Stubbs, Williams. (Ed.). 1882. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Vol. I. Annales Londonienses and Annales Paulini, Edited from Manuscripts in the British Museum and in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth. London England: Longman & Co.
Available via Hathi Trust @ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101013899156;view=1up;seq=11