The Stonor letters and papers, 1290-1483; ed. for the Royal historical society, from the origial documents in the Public record office, by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford.

for ȝore entent, and I shall help faithfully as mycull as in me is. And I beseche ȝow seend me som wurd be þe brynger of ȝore will and avys. Also I have be sore diseised in my bakke, and elles I shuld have spoke with ȝow er þis: for certeyn þer was never matier þat I þoght so mycull apon &c. T. Halling told me he wold speke with ȝow. And I pray Gode kepe ȝowe in hele of body and sowle with encresce of wur|ship. Writen at Sarum apon þe seynt Michell even,

This is a draft, on paper, of the deed which Thomas Stonor enclosed in the following letter. The original (Ancient Deeds, C. 3015) has some altera|tions which it was not worth showing. The last three lines are added in another hand. The deed has a certain interest as having been drafted by the famous Sir John Fortescue, then quite a young lawyer: it is perhaps too much to assume that any part of the draft is in his handwriting. Richard Fortescue was the third son of Sir John Fortescue, the father of the Chief Justice; he was killed at St. Albans in 1455 (Stow, Annales, p. 399); the deed shows that it was he who married Agnes, daughter of Richard Holcombe, and not his son as commonly stated (Works of Sir J. Fortescue, ii, 151-2, ed. Lord Clermont).

This Indenture was possibly the sequel of an earlier dispute, as to which there was a Petition in Chancery by Thomas Chaucer, John Golafre, John Hurlegh, "chapeleyn," John Warefeld, and Thomas Berdelegh, showing that they were seised of the manor and hundred of Ermington, till one Richard Fortescu of great malice and forethought made a forcible entry and broke down hedges and ditches. The Petition mentions "John Fortescu, pier a dit Richard, et John Bosan, son frier en ley" (Early Chancery Proceedings, 69/24 P.R.O.).

Hec Indentura facta apud Ermyngton in Comitatu Devon. in festo sancti Michaelis Archangeli, anno regni Henrici sexti post conquestum Anglie tercio, inter Thomam Chaucer, Johannem Golafre, Hamonem Belknap, dominos Manerii de Ermyngton predicto, ex parte una, et