At the same time as this “Richarde Nicoll, Widow Kitchin, Robert Skayles, John Flaworthe, and widow Shorpshier are presented for deteyning the clerkes wages/ Elizabeth Dodds ffor having a childe in adultery withe one Anthonye Boyes, which Boyes is now fledd/ William Steavenson ffor a slanderer.  And also Frances Fetherston the wif of Robert Fetherston for a scowlde/ Richard Hutchinson for harboring a woman which had a childe begotten in fornicacion They saie that [blank] Lavrock and [blank] Wilson did by the apoyntment of Richard Parkinson there master carrye turffes in to the house vpon the Sabboth daie The rest is all well.”

The rigid observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest is vividly shown by this last complaint, and at Allerston we find that “Isabell Rea wiffe of William Raie” was reprimanded—­“ffor workyng on the Sabbothe daie viz’t for washing and dressing of hempe at the hemppe pitt vpon Sondaie was seavenyght/”

In 1592 appears the following/ “The chancell of Pickering in decaie bothe the windowes and the leades and to be repaired as we suppose by Mr Deane/ [The Dean of York] Mr Deane for want of the quarter sermons and for not geving the xl^tie part of his lyving of the parsonage of Pickering to the poore people of the said parishe Agnes Poskett wif of William Poskett of Pickering for a scold.”

In the following year we find presented at Pickering “Elizabeth Johnson wif of Frances Johnson of Kinthorpe for an obstynate recusant in not comyng to the churche to here dyvyne service by the space of ij^o yeares last past and more/ Anne Browne wiffe of William Browne of Pickering for an obstinate recusant in not commyng to the churche to here dyvyne service and so haithe done by the space of ij^o yeares and more/ Rauffe Hodgeson of Pickring for an obstinate recusant and haithe absented him self ffrome the churche by the space of ij’o yeares and more.  Anne Clerke being in John Wright his house of Blansbye and haithe meate and drinke there, ffor not commyng to the church to here dyvyne service by the space of half a yeare/ Rychard Hutchinson sonne of William Hutchinson of Kinthorpp ffor absenting him self from the churche by the space of halff a yeare and more/.  And he is excommunicate.”

Elizabeth Dobson was presented in 1600 as “a slaunderer who saide to Thomas Gibson that he was a Mainesworne ladd ”

To call anyone “mansworn” was evidently a very serious offence, for in 1527 the Newcastle-on-Tyne corporation of weavers decreed that any member of the corporation who should call his brother “mansworn” should incur a forfeit of 6s. 8d. “without forgiveness.”  To manswear comes from the Anglo-Saxon manswerian meaning to swear falsely or to perjure oneself.  Among the men of note of this period mention must be made of Ralph Dodmer son of Henry Dodmer of Pickering who was a mercer and Lord Mayor of London in 1521.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Thomas Fuller’s “Worthies.”]