.Beatrix had just time
to pay a heavy fine to the lord for the privilege of being her eldest
son's guardian when the plague took her. Before she died she left the
guardianship of her first-born son John to her husband's brother
Adam; a few days afterwards the boy John died, and his brother Robert
alone remained; the guardianship of the boy John is of course at an
end, and uncle Adam applies for the guardianship of the surviving
nephew; but by this time he is unable to find the money; whereupon
the child's estate is taken into the hands of the lord till such time
as the uncle can pay the fees demanded.
Walter Wyninge had a wise woman for his wife, and her name was
Matilda. The Black Death left her & widow, but she speedily married
without any license from the lord to William Oberward. The second
husband had a very brief enjoyment of his married life; in a few days
he too died, and Matilda married a third husband, one Peter the
carpenter. At this point Matilda's turn came and she died. All this
had happened in the interval of two months since the last manor court
was held. The steward of the manor claimed a heriot from Wyninge's
land and another from Oberward's. But the astute Peter was equal to
the occasion: he pleaded that, according to the custom of the manor,
no heriot could be levied from a widow till she had survived her
husband a year and a day, and he demanded that the court rolls should
be searched to confirm or correct his assertion.
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