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Marriage Arrangements

This folder contains the nineteen cases of indebitatus assumpsit that concerned marriage arrangments in the Trinity term plea roll for 1607. Social historians will find it useful not only for the circumstances here related, but also for assessing the quantity and type of information that a king's bench roll ca. 1600 will contain on matters relating to marriage.

Making use of the cases requires an ability to distinguish common form from reality. Thus, for instance, the uniform allegations that the defendant was scheming to defraud the plaintiff by not performing the promise was only common form: the plaintiff was required to make that allegation. What was thus formally described as fraudulent and crafty could have been anything from fraudulent and crafty to negligent to a simple unforeseen inability to meet the defendant's obligations. The defendant's denial of the undertaking, similarly, just put the matter before the jury without any particular denial in fact. Moreover, as always in litigation, it is completely conceivable that the defendant was not guilty. The plaintiff may have been hoping simply to exact further money from the defendant when he had already been paid or otherwise equivalently been contented.

The cases do indicate the range of social situations, and the character of the negotiations as described in the case should be considered as reliable as any other relation of social situations from other sources, all of which bear the burden of often being biased or self-serving. The families involved seem to range from the relatively poor to the wealthy, and most involve sums that seem more likely for yeomen instead of gentry. The arrangements range from very complicated property arrangements to simple promises of money gifts, from gifts at marriage to protection of the bride's family interests against the new husband.

I have also placed in this folder the few other cases concerning marriage in the king's bench plea roll for Trinity term 1607. They indicate some rather different perspectives on the situations surrounding marriage; one concerns the efforts of three brothers to provide a husband and thus care for a sister who was unstable in mind. These other cases appear after the 19 indebitatus assumpsit actions.


King's Bench, Trinity Term 1607
1, Kendall
indebitatus assumpsit on an elaborate marital property arrangement made on the same day as the marriage, but the bride refused to proceed without the formalized documents until a friend of the groom's father made himself liable for 500 pounds

2. Tayler
indebitatus assumpsit on a fairly typical marriage negotiation that involved only 20 pounds

3. Barnsdale
indebitatus assumpsit on a fairly typical marriage agreement that involved only 20 pounds, of which only a third was due on the marriage day

4. Kymaston
indebitatus assumpsit on a marriage agreement to pay 100 pounds to the brides natural father, suit brought by the widow of that father as administratrix as his administrator after she remarried; speculation about the dynamics behind such an arrangement.

5. Chappelle
indebitatus assumpsit on a marriage agreement between the groom and the bride's father, who was to pay 200 pounds: 100 pounds shortly after the marriage, the rest in five annual installments. The bride's father paid nothing at all in fact and then defaulted in the case.

6. Treble
indebitatus assumpsit on a marriage agreement with three parties: the groom, the bride's father, and a third party. The bride's father committed to 64 pounds in marriage portion to be paid to the groom, but the groom insisted on a further 2 pounds. The third party committed to that payment if the father did not pay it. At least the part of the negotiation relating to the 2 pounds, and probably the whole negotiation, took place only four days before the marriage. The case includes an inquest of damages that illustrates well the defendant's potential range of liabilities.

7. Cooke
A pair of indebitatus assumpsit cases about the same negotiation but with different defendants: the marriage negotiation was more involved than either cases alone would indicate. The father of the bride committed 45 pounds to the marriage; the bride's brother-in-law committed another 5 pounds. The marriage took place six months after the negotiation.

8. Gosnold
A marriage facilitated by the promise of the master of the bride to deliver 4 milk cows worth 8 pounds or 8 pounds in money at the groom's election; the marriage took place four days thereafter.

9. Cornewalle
A fairly typical indebitatus assumpsit case with a marriage negotiation for 10 pounds; the marriage took place two months after the agreement.

10. Dale
An indebitatus assumpsit action based on promises in 1590 and involving a deed of release of claims from the groom; the marriage took place two months after the promises.

11. Incledon
An indebitatus assumpsit action based on a property arrangement for a marriage between a father and his son. The arrangement was a grant of the father's life estate with an immediate re-grant by the son to the father of a four-year term and the father's aqreement to surrender possession after the term of four years. The marriage took place four months after the agreement.

12. Hawkridge
An indebitatus assumpsit action based on a property arrangement for a marriage in which the bride's father promised to pay the groom 80 pounds within two years after the marriage; the marriage took place 12 days after the promise.

13. Harrison
This indebitatus assumpsit action records an exchange of promises between the groom and the father of the bride. The case reveals substantial disagreement in the terms, both in the amount the father had promised (40 or 60 pounds) and possibly a condition of payment that the groom convert his landed estate into a form that would make his daughter and the couple's children secure. The marriage occurred six weeks after the negotiation.

14. Ingate
This indebitatus assumpsit action illustrates the changing dynamics of relationships when one of the partners in the new marriage dies before the promises are fulfilled. The negotiation here resulted in commitments that would have resulted in equal contributions from both sides: more than 75 pounds that already belonged to the bride and an equal amount to come from the father of the groom. The marriage took place 5 days after the promises, but the new husband died before his father performed his promise.

15. Twist
This indebitatus assumpsit action was complicated by a transfer of furniture that may or may not have been made in satisfaction of the promise from the bride's natural father of 20 pounds that was made either completely before the promise or after the marriage. Two months elapsed between the promise and the marriage.

16. Smalebroke
This indebitatus action recounts a large marriage portion of 400 pounds from the brother or half-brother of the bride, half of which was paid at the marriage and half of which was to be paid fifteen years after the time the bride's father had died. When that time arrived, the payment still was not made. The marriage took place only 3 days after the promise.

17. Vincent
The promises surrounding a marriage negotiation would extend beyond commitment of resources. Vincent indicates that the marriage negotiation was also the time to provide security for the faithful performance of a bride's prior obligations as executor, guardian, and bailiff after she fell under the control of a husband who might not have the same personal attachments as his new wife.

18. Brooke
The indebitatus assumpsit derived from a marriage negotiation between the groom and the natural brother of the bride; the promise from the natural brother was only for 5 pounds. Five weeks elapsed between the promise and the negotiation.

19. Marshall
The promise in this indebitatus action was not expressly a part of a marriage negotiation. Just before death a relative (relationships are not retailed here although all share the same last name) gave the plaintiff 20 sheep, a cow, and a mare. Those animals came into the hands of the defendant, and the plaintiff allowed her to take the benefit of them until he married, and she promised to deliver the animals to him then. She did not.

20. Coppyn
This action of covenant relates an indenture by which three brothers tried to provide a husband and thus care for a sister who was unstable in mind. It is accompanied by the images in which the husband sues also in similar terms against the brothers.

21. Calton
This qui tam debt action on the perjury statute of 5 Elizabeth concerns sworn testimony on a prior case of indebitatus assumpsit. In that case a marriage negotiation appears in which two fathers of natural children arranged for current living arrangements and the future security of their children.

22. Phippes
This action of covenant includes a nice indenture in which the father of the groom covenanted to provide housing for the couple, first with himself and then in their own house. The groom died after the marriage but before this suit, which was brought by the executrix of the bride's mother.

King's Bench, Michaelmas term, 1607

23. Peshall
This action of error on an action of indebitatus assumpsit concerns a London citizen's will trumped by the London custom about a minor child's customary share of the father's estate, a marriage negotiation for her carried on by the widow/executor, who promised to make up whatever the daughter's proper share was to the amount of 1,000 p.s. This case comes from Michaelmas term.

24. Belcher
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerns a friend who, to secure the marriage of his friend, promised to pay the bride 40 shillings annually after her husband-to-be died. The undertaking was made the day before the wedding. The facts are congruent with situations in which a woman expects to outlive her husband either because of his health or age.

25. Browse
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerns a negotiation between the groom and the brother of the bride two months before the wedding; the brother of the bride agreed to pay 60 p.s.

26. Borde
This action of defamation recites a widow's untarnished reputation and marriage negotiation that was terminated by a defamation that she was a whore and had two non-marital children. The jury confirms the defamation as alleged but denied that there had been any marriage negotiation as alleged.

Court of Common Pleas, Trinity term, 1607
27. Wilson
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a negotiation between the groom and the father of the bride, in which the father undertook to pay 40 shillings annually for 10 years. For the five years after the marriage no payments were made.

28. Masters
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a negotiation between the groom and the father of the bride, in which the father undertook, four days before the marriage, to pay 40 p.s.

29. Tooker
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a negotiation between the groom and the father of the bride, in which the father undertook to pay 50 p.s. 19 before the marriage, the money to be paid in installments. The first installment, at the day of the marriage, was made, but not the later installments.

30. Houlgate
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a negotiation between the groom and the father of the bride, in which the father undertook to pay 20 marks and to deliver a cow. The marriage took place a year and a quarter later.

31. Fox
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a promise by the mother of the bride to pay the groom 200 marks.

32. Wheeler
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a negotiation between a widow and the father of the groom, in which the father agreed to grant half his land and goods to the couple as a marriage portion. The marriage took place, and the couple had legitimate children, but the father had still not performed his agreement ten years later when the husband died nor even after his wife thereafter re-married.

33. Wentworth
This action of indebitatus assumpsit concerned a will in which the testator/father left an annual legacy of 40 p.s. to his older son from the time of his majority until that father's widow died. All on the day that the son reached his majority, there was a communication of marriage between the son and the intended bride (with the consent of parents on both sides), a promise by the executor/widow that she herself would make up the 40 p.s. annual legacy to 100 p.s. (on condition that the new couple would not board with her), and the marriage was solemnized. The widow therefore did not perform her promise.