[565]
ABSTRACT[101.4]

Depositions touching Sir J. Fastolf’s Will

1464
APRIL-NOV.

‘Primum testes reprobatorii producti per Yelverton, contra testes Paston principaliter productos &c.

‘Facta fuit sequens examinatio testium subscriptorum secrete et singillatim, videlicet, Domini Johannis Davy capellani vicesimo octavo die mensis Aprilis, Thomæ Upton quinto, Johannis Bockyng duodecimo, Nicholai Newman xvjto diebus mensis Maii; Johannis Loer, Willelmi Eton quarto, Roberti Lynne quinto, diebus mensis Junii; Bartholomei Elys tercio, magistri Roberti Wylly sexto, Johannis Marshall, Johannis Davy terciodecimo et Willelmi Lyne ultimo, diebus mensis Julii; Anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo sexagesimo quarto, Indictione duodecima, pontificatus Sanctissimi in Christo patris et domini nostri, domini Pii Divina prudencia Papæ Secundi anno sexto, In Domo Thesaurarii ecclesiæ Cathedralis Sancti Pauli, London, infra parochiam Sancti Gregorii civitatis London situat’, per venerabilem virum magistrum Johannem Druell, utriusque juris doctorem, examinatorem et commissarium ad infra scripta specialiter deputatum. In præsentia mei Nicholai Parker notarii auctoritate Apostolica, publici scribæ in hac parte de et super exceptionibus infra scriptis, par partem domini Willelmi Yelverton et Willelmi Worceter productorum.’

1. John Davy chaplain, staying at the University of Cambridge, liberæ conditionis, 30 years old and more, examined super exceptionibus infrascriptis of which the tenors are quoted, viz., on the part of Yelverton and Worceter against John Russe, Robert Cutteler clk., Master Clement Felmyngham, Rob. Boteler, Ralph Lampet, Brother Will. Bokyngham, and Master Robert Popy, witnesses on the opposite side, whose testimony is discredited ‘eo quod parte sua non præsenti juraverunt et super non juratis deposuerunt, ac in depositionibus suis fuerint et sint varii, contrarii, singulares negativam asserentes, causas dictorum suorum minime reddentes, unumque et eundem præmeditatum sermonem proferentes, a testatore non vocati aut rogati perhibere testimonium, nec sufficienter probantes in hac parte, prout ex inspectione depositionum suarum liquere poterit intuenti.’ Further, John Russe was illiterate, and did not understand Latin when he made his deposition, and he contradicted the other witnesses on his own side: viz., to the 9th interrogatory he said, Sir J. Fastolf’s will was not written before his death, which Clement Felmyngham and Robt. Cutteler in their reply to the 3d said it was. Moreover he expected advantage to himself from his testimony, and was discharged by Howys of £300 that he owed Fastolf. He had also secretly abstracted certain muniments and charters of the testator, which were in the custody of Will. Worceter, in the house of John Tovy, at Castir, Norwich dioc., in Nov. 1459. Moreover he was supravisor et locator of the testator’s lands called Akethorpe, yearly value 9 marks, appointed by Paston or Howys, who promised to sell them to him much under value for his testimony. Further, his statement that he was present in quadam bassa camera at Caister between 8 and 9 A.M. on the Saturday before Sir J. Fastolf’s death, was a perjury, for he was really all that time in other places a long way off. His declaration that he was no servant or tenant of those who brought him forward was untrue: he had hired a house of Howys in the town of Yarmouth, value 40s. a year. He was inconsistent in his testimony about the hour Sir J. declared his will. He also pretended never to have seen Fastolf’s will before his death, although he wrote the said pretended will with his own hand with the date at the head, which at the beginning of this suit he caused to be cut off from the writing and hidden.

Also the said Rob. Cutteler chaplain, when he made his deposition, was ‘levis opinionis, malæ conscientiæ et de mensa Joh’is Paston ac tenens ipsius, prout ad primum interrogatorium examinationis suæ primæ et secundæ respondebat.’ Also he was perjured; because in April 1457 in par. of Holy Trin., Castir, he beat and maimed one Jo. Flemyng, and boasted of it (ac sic factum nomine suo ratum habuit), but being taken before Sir J. Fastolf, justice of the peace, he swore he had not done so.—Proofs that he was not disinterested.

Exceptions to Rob. Popy: He was a tenant of Paston’s, &c. &c.

Davy says John Rus was at Yarmouth on the Saturday in question, as he usually was on Saturdays, to buy victuals for Fastolf’s house, &c. (Proof declared insufficient in the margin). Sir J. Fastolf was so ill, that, as Davy had heard he was unable to speak from 22d Oct. ‘Quæ quidem infirmitas vocabatur judicio medicorum, sincope, quæ ipsum vexabat singulis horis et ipsum deduxit ad extasim de scientia istius jurati, qui continue conversabatur cum eo usque ad ipsius mortem.’

2. Thos. Upton, one of the clerks of the King’s kitchen, literatus, ‘liberæ conditionis,’ forty years old and over; 2d. witness.