A
life of Adam Pode in fourteenth century Gloucester
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
The medieval world ended sometime between
1485 and a time in the seventeenth century depending on your preference. That
world left behind many buildings and landscape features to remind us of those
far off days. The documents, manuscripts and books produced in those times
capture pin pictures to shine across the ages. In these days of IPods I have
found the services of Adam Pode of Gloucester to help open up the medieval
world.
Adam Pode lived in the first half of the
fourteenth century in the town of Gloucester, England. For much of the time
that he appears in the record books he does so as a witness to some property
deed or civil enquiry. The town of Gloucester was well situated on the banks of
the River Severn to command the river trade and act as a hub for trade in the
area. The corn trade was its principle business. In the international trade the
town was overshadowed by Bristol and thus remained of only local importance. [N.M.
Herbert (ed.), A history of the County of
Gloucester, volume four, The City of Gloucester (Victoria County History,
1988), pp. 41-2]
Yet the town was by no means separated
from the wider world. The Priory of Llanthony-by-Gloucester, located just south
of the town, held extensive estates in Ireland for which published records
exist. [Eric
St. John Brooks (ed.) The Irish
cartularies of Llanthony Prima & Secunda (Stationery Office, Dublin,
1953)]
A person called Nicholas of Gloucester worked as carpenter for the royal castle
in Ireland at Athlone around 1270. In the time of Adam Pode a person called
John of Gloucester held two shops, two messuages and a curtilage in Drogheda,
Ireland. Also living in Drogheda in the first half of the fourteenth century
was Thomas Nanny, burgess of the town and his daughter Agnes married Robert of
Gloucester. [James Mills & M.J. McEnery (eds.), Calendar of the Gormanston Register
(University Press, Dublin, 1916), pp. 71, 80] Also in Ireland about
the same time were William of Gloucester was keeper (1337-1339) of the writs at
the Dublin judiciary bench and Brother Walter de Gloucester was guardian
(1346-1348) of the Franciscan community in Dublin. [Philomena
Connolly (ed.), Irish Exchequer Payments
1270-1446 (Irish Manuscript Commission, Dublin, 1998), pp. 2, 390, 394, 444]
Many local industries and trades grew up
in the town. The fourteenth century, the time of Adam Pode, was its better
days. In the fifteenth century the corn trade declined and few high profile
merchants are ascribed to the town. [N.M. Herbert (ed.), A history of the County of Gloucester,
volume four, The City of Gloucester (Victoria County History, 1988), pp.
41-2]
It is not yet known if Adam Pode was a
native of Gloucester or if he came from some other part of the country. The
family name of Pode appears in various records across England in medieval
times. Richard and Roger Pode lived in Devon around the year 1238. [Henry
Summerson (ed.), Crown pleas of the Devon
Eyre of 1238 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. 28,
1985), no. 373] John Pode lived in Essex around the years 1411 and
1424. [Kate
Parkin (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions
Post Mortem in the Public Record Office, Vol. XXII, 1422-1427 (Boydell
Press & National Archives, 2003), nos. 380, 829]
Another John Pode lived around the area of St. Mary Cray in the county of Kent
about the year 1429. [Claire Noble (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem in the Public Record Office, Vol.
XXIII, 1427-1432 (Boydell Press & National Archives, 2004), no. 235]
Further north Alexander Pode lived at Thornton, Yorkshire around the year 1438.
[Claire
Noble (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions
Post Mortem in the Public Record Office, Vol. XXV, 1437-1442 (Boydell Press
& National Archives, 2009), no. 181]
We first meet Adam Pode on 23 June 1324
when he was a witness to a grant of a tenement in Gloucester from Lawrence son
of Walter to his daughter Felicia and her husband John Coof. Another person
called Richard Pode was among the seven witnesses but his relationship, if any,
to Adam is unknown. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation
of Gloucester (Gloucester, 1893), no. 846]
Within a few years the nice family
atmosphere of Gloucester was invaded by national politics. The rule, or
misrule, of King Edward II aggravated many powerful people and his romantic
attachment to court favourites like Piers Gaveston and High le Despenser the
younger brought the wart of his Queen Isabella. In September 1326 Queen
Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer, invaded England from their base in
France. At first Edward II didn’t think much of their small army and levied
troops to crush the invaders. But the barons refused to join the king’s army.
On 2 October Edward II abandoned London
and fled west. The London mob seized a few hated figures and executed them
while the city fell into disorder. On 9 October King Edward arrived in
Gloucester where he established his headquarters. It is not known if Adam Pode
supported the king who came to live in his town. Up until that time the only royal
figure that Adam may have seen was the tomb effigy of Robert Curthose, eldest
son of William the Conqueror and Duke of Normandy. Robert died in February 1134
while in prison in Cardiff Castle. His tomb effigy was made about a hundred
years later in the church of St. Peter’s Abbey in Gloucester (after the
Reformation this church became Gloucester Cathedral and seat of the new diocese
of Gloucester). [www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Curthose
– accessed 31 March 2013]
King Edward stayed for only a short while
in Gloucester. The rebel army was closing in and Edward went west into Wales.
There he hoped to raise an army in the Despenser lands but failed. By 31
October the king had failed and abandoned by all except a few retainers. On 16
November 1326 King Edward was captured along with Hugh le Despenser the Younger
(his father was hanged and beheaded a few days before). For a time the king was
imprisoned at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. There on 20 January 1327 he
abdicated the throne in favour of his son, the future Edward III. [www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England
– accessed 31 March 2013]
Within a few days the new government of
Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer began to show its authority. Twenty years of
defeats at the hands of the Scots and the Welsh along with ten years of civil
conflict within England had drained the royal treasury. A Subsidy Roll was
issued to collect taxation. From this taxation we learn some information about
Adam Pode. It seems that Adam Pode had his principle business, and possible
dwelling house, in the West Ward of Gloucester. Here he was assessed for tax.
Adam Pode paid 3s and Richard Pode paid 2s while most people in the ward paid
6d. [Information
gathered from the Gloucestershire Record Office copy of the Gloucestershire
Subsidy Roll, 1327] This would place Adam among the
wealthier people in Gloucester. How he came to acquire such standing is
unknown.
A rental of Gloucester house made in 1455
tells us that Adam Pode once had a tenement in Grase Lane (in the north-east
part of the town) which he held in the time of Edward II. The property was
previously held by the Dernlove family in the time of Henry III. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Rental of all the Houses
in Gloucester A.D. 1455 compiled by Robert Cole (Gloucester, 1890), p. 62]
They sold to the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, the Prior of which held the
tenement in 1455. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation
of Gloucester, no. 684] As the rental does not record
Adam Pode holding this tenement in the time of Edward III it is likely that he
sold his rights shortly after 1327. It is unknown if Adam sold his rights for
personal reasons or if the disturbed political situation had forced his hand.
Later in October 1327 that political
situation came to Gloucester. In April 1327 Edward Plantagenet was moved to
Berkeley Castle near Gloucester to continue his imprisonment. There, sometime
between 21 September and 11 October he was murdered. Local rumour said that he
was suffocated. The more dramatic and gruesome story only appeared about fifty
years later. Following Edward’s death all the great and the good, including
Queen Isabella, came to Gloucester for the state funeral. Edward was buried in
the abbey church of St. Peter’s. Later Edward III erected an elaborate tomb
over the grave. [www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England
– accessed 31 March 2013]
Tomb of King Edward II at Gloucester cathedral
Following all the prom and ceremony life
returned to normal in Gloucester and Adam Pode resumed his usual role of
witness to the town’s property deals. On 6 November 1328 Adam Pode was one of
eight witnesses to the surrender by Agnes Tewkesbury to her two sons of a
tenement between the Bridges in Gloucester. Adam Hondsum was also a witness as
he was to the earlier deed of 1324. Another of the witnesses was Lawrence
Seuere. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 860]
A
year later Lawrence Severe joined Adam Pode to witness another grant of
property in Gloucester. This was on 29 September 1329 when Alice Louering and
her son Geoffrey gave a twenty year lease to Henry ate Green and Alice his wife
of a shop with an upper room (solarium) built over it between the Bridges. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 861]
On 30 August 1330 Adam Pode became
witness, along with Adam Hondsum, Richard Pode and Lawrence Severe (then town
bailiff) and three others, to another Gloucester lease agreement. In this lease
Walter Dauyd gave a tenement between the Bridges to John of Ruderwas and his
wife Agnes. Ruderwas was a fisherman and the tenement extended from the street
down to the River Severn where it included the adjoining fishery rights. The
said tenement was next door to a tenement held by Adam Hondsum who was also
described as a fisherman. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation
of Gloucester (Gloucester, no. 865]
The fishery trade was an important
business in a town like Gloucester. In medieval times a fish base diet was part
and parcel of religious life and Gloucester had a large population in religious
life. There were so many religious houses in the county and town that the county
acquired the proverb of “As sure as God’s in Gloucestershire”. [http://www.mspong.org/picturesque/Gloucester
– accessed on 1 April 2013] About a third of the northern
half of town was occupied by the large abbey of St. Peter, one of the richest
Benedictine houses in England. Here also was the Priory of St. Oswald. In the
southern half of the town were the houses of Black Friars and Grey Friars.
Outside the southern wall of the town was the Priory of
Llanthony-by-Gloucester, one of the richest Augustinian houses in England. [John
Rhodes (ed.), A calendar of the Registers
of the Priory of Llanthony by Gloucester 1457-1466, 1501-1525 (Bristol
& Gloucester Archaeological Society, vol. 15, 2002), p. xiv]
Beyond the western wall, in the land between the Bridges, a place so well-known
by Adam Pode stood the large Hospital of St. Bartholomew. [John
Langton, ‘Late medieval Gloucester: some data from the rental of 1455’, in Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, 1977, p. 260]
Many of these religious houses were
important landowners within the town. In 1455 about 55% of properties were held
by various religious houses. Some houses were happy to take their chief rents
and do little to enhance their properties while other houses particularly that
of Llanthony-by-Gloucester took an active role in developing their properties. At
times one house rented property from another and then subleased to a third
person such as in 1455 when Richard the Baker rented a tenement from St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital while the Hospital rented the tenement from Llanthony. At
the same time the lay people accounted for about 45% of property holders. [John
Langton, ‘Late medieval Gloucester: some data from the rental of 1455’, in Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, 1977, pp. 266, 269, 270]
Map of medieval Gloucester with some of the locations mentioned in the text
On 28 June 1331 Adam Pode, burgess of
Gloucester, moved out from the ranks of onlookers to become a player in the
property market and become a lay property holder. On that date he acquired from
Roger the Hooper, burgess, a piece of land lying between the two Bridges. It
was sited between the tenement formerly belonging to Thomas of Tewkesbury and
that formerly belonging to Roger of Hynehomme. [W.H. Stevenson
(ed.), Calendar of the Records of the
Corporation of Gloucester, no. 869] Roger the Hooper had
acquired the land from Richard the Blacstar on 23 July 1311. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester (Gloucester, 1893), no. 796]
Richard the Blacstar was clerk of the town of Gloucester in around 1275. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 647]
This deed of June 1331 only mentions Adam
Pode and not his wife. It was usual in transfers of property that the name of
the recipient and his wife were named. It seems likely therefore that Adam’s
wife, the name of whom we do not yet know, was dead by that time. They had at
least one child, a son called John. This John was of legal age in 1348 and thus
born sometime before 1327.
A few years later, on 8 October 1336, Adam
Pode was a member of the jury panel at an inquisition taken before the King’s
escheator of Gloucestershire. They were called to assess if it was to the
damage of the king if Thomas Crook of Gloucester and Robert Dabetot granted
property to the Abbey of St. Peter of Gloucester. Thomas Crook was granting a
messuage and four shops in Gloucester while Dabetot was giving 4½ acres at
Colethrop. The king had previously allowed the abbey to acquire £20 worth of
property and the jury considered that it would not be damaging to the king to
allow the transfer to proceed. [Edward Alex Fry (ed.), Abstracts of Inquisitions Post Mortem for
Gloucestershire, part V, 1302-1358 (British Record Society, 1910), p. 259]
On 10 January 1337 Adam Pode was back in
his usual position as a witness to Gloucester life. Along with Richard Pode and
three others he witnessed a grant by Edith Green to John Cluet, burgess, of six
shops with curtilages between the two west Bridges. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 885, part 3]
Gloucester was getting to be a popular destination for tourists by that time.
Well, to the medievalists, the visitors were on a solemn pilgrimage to the
abbey church of St. Peter’s and the tomb of Edward II. The money left by these
pilgrims enriched the abbey and allowed further building work to embellish the
site. Around the town shops and inns flourished to serve the pilgrims every
need. Some of these inns continued in business into the twentieth century. [H.V.
Morton, In search of England
(Methuen, London, 1931), p. 162]
In February 1340 Adam Pode was again a
witness to life in Gloucester between the Bridges. On this occasion he
witnessed two deeds of transfer from Walter Twere (fisherman) to Stephen the Heir
(dyer), both of Gloucester. In this first deed Walter granted Stephen a shop
held by Alice of Dene while in the second deed Walter gave Stephen a tenement
for ten years provided Stephen carried out repairs to the premises during that
time. Otherwise the lease would be declared forfeit. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, nos. 899, 900]
It seems that Stephen the Heir executed
those repairs as in his will of March 1344 he granted the tenement to Isabella Coof
and her son, Robert. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation
of Gloucester, no. 918] Clear prove is not available but
it would seem that Isabella Coof was the wife of Stephen as in September 1344
Robert, son and heir of Stephen held the tenement. Robert was also a dyer like
his father. On 8 September Robert granted the tenement to Nicholas the
Mulleward of Gloucester (cook). About two weeks later, on 20 September Nicholas
returned the grant to Robert the Heir and his wife, Margery, daughter of
Nicholas. Adam Pode was there to witness the deed of 20 September. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 923] It would
appear that Robert and Margery got married between the two dates of September
and that the tenement was made an asset for Margery if Robert should die before
her.
On 25 March 1348 the probate of Adam’s
will was granted. In it Adam Pode, burgess of Gloucester, bequeathed 3s to the
Friars Preachers, 3s to the Friars Minor, 12d to the Carmelites and 2s to the
Hospital of St. Bartholomew. Adam also gave 12d to the maintenance fund for
Gloucester Bridge. To his son, John Pode, Adam gave his tenement between the Bridges.
[W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, no. 939] This was the
land he acquired from Roger the Hooper in June 1331.
The rental of 1455 records this tenement
held by Adam Pode between the Bridges in the time of Edward III. It says the
tenement was vacant land when held by Adam for which he paid landgavel of 2s
per year. By 1455 the land was built upon and held by the Prior of Llanthony. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Rental of all the Houses
in Gloucester A.D. 1455, p. 66]
In all the time that we have known Adam
Pode we have yet to find where he lived in Gloucester. His contemporary Richard
Pode lived during the reign of Edward II in Grase Lane. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Rental of all the Houses
in Gloucester A.D. 1455, p. 64] In the Subsidy Roll
of 1327 Adam Pode was assessed for tax in the West Ward which would suggest
that he lived in that part of town. [Information gathered
from the Gloucestershire Record Office copy of the Gloucestershire Subsidy
Roll, 1327]
The property portfolio of Adam Pode that
we know of raises questions as to his wealth and means. We are not told what
trade, if any, he was involved in. He was a burgess of the town and this gave
some standing yet he does not appear to have become a town bailiff. By the
charter of 1200 the town was governed by two bailiffs, elected annually and
Adam is not on the list. [N.M. Herbert (ed.), A history of the County of Gloucester,
volume four, The City of Gloucester (Victoria County History, 1988), pp.
371-4]
His changing property portfolio suggests
fluctuating wealth. He sold a tenement in the near centre of town and purchased
a plot of land outside the western wall that he left vacant. The donations in
his will were moderate and not those of a wealthy man. In the 1327 Subsidy Roll
Adam Pode paid 3s in tax which was above average for the West Ward. His
contemporaries like Richard Pode paid 2s, Adam Hondsum paid 3s, Lawrence Severe
paid 4s and Richard Severe paid 12s but most people only paid 6d. This
information and the fact he left land vacant when he could have got better
income from it by building upon it suggests that Adam was comfortable and was
without any financial need. [Information gathered from the
Gloucestershire Record Office copy of the Gloucestershire Subsidy Roll, 1327]
Unfortunately for John Pode, he did not live
long to enjoy his inheritance. He died sometime before January 1349, possibly a
victim of the Black Death. In his will John left 5s to the Hospital of St.
Bartholomew along with 1½d in bread for the poor of the Hospital. He also left
10s to the Friars Minor. To his wife, Margery, John left the family tenement
between the Bridges in Ebrugg Street with the instruction that it be sold. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records
of the Corporation of Gloucester, nos. 945, 1014]
Sometime later Margery Pode left widowhood
and married William Head, burgess of Gloucester. The quality of their
relationship is unknown but that tenement between the Bridges caused some
discussion between the couple. In his will John Pode instructed his wife, as
executor, to sell the land but she did not. Instead she held onto it, perhaps
in a way holding on to the memory of her long dead love, cruelly taken from her
in that terrible event of the Black Death. The retention of the property may
also be her husband’s doing and Margery may have wished to sell it earlier.
As Margery approached her own death, she
could not meet her first love in the next world without fulfilling his wishes.
On 8 October 1384 Margery and William Head sold the tenement between the
bridges to Robert Townsend. Sometime after this Margery died. On 8 May 1389
William Head met his friend Robert Townsend and purchased from him another tenement
between the Bridges, which would suggest that he didn't wish to sell the Pode
tenement in the first place. [W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation
of Gloucester, nos. 1014, 1022] At some later date the
land was built upon and was held by the Prior of Llanthony in 1455. [W.H.
Stevenson (ed.), Rental of all the Houses
in Gloucester A.D. 1455, p. 66]
After 1384 we lose trace of the extended
Pode family and one of our witnesses upon the life of medieval Gloucester. It
is hoped to explore other stories from medieval Gloucester in a later article.
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The End
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