ANECDOTES OF FEUDAL TIMES IN ENGLAND. 165 



without an appeal to arms, which ended in the submission of the 

 latter with halters round their necks, and a severe amercement. 



The year 1336 brought the disturbances to their head, and pro- 

 duced an exhibition of firmness on the part of the poor villeins 

 scarcely credible, when the state of that race of men at the period is 

 considered. The insurrection originated in the oppressive customs 

 of the manor of Dernhall. At this time a crowd of the natives of 

 Dernhall and Over fled to Hugh le Ferrars, justice of Chester, who 

 was travelling by Harebache Cross, in the neighbourhood of the 

 abbey, asserted themselves to be free tenants and not vassals of the 

 soil, and laid their complaints before him respecting the oppressions 

 of the abbot. These proceedings terminated in the imprisonment 

 of the ringleaders by their lord until a proper submission had been 

 made. The spirit of the natives, however, was not lessened by the 

 confinement; and, under the pretence of a pilgrimage to the shrine 

 of St. Thomas, at Hereford, they set out on an expedition to see the 

 king in person ; but this second attempt terminated likewise in im- 

 prisonment in the jail of Nottingham for some excesses committed 

 by the way. 



A third attempt was more successful ; and Adam Hychekyn, Henry 

 Pymeson, John Christian, and Agnes his wife, succeeded in laying 

 their grievances before the king in parliament in London, and ob- 

 tained a command to Henry de Ferrars, justice of Chester, to enquire 

 into the nature of their grievances, and see justice done to them. 

 The abbot's charters were produced, and his claims substantiated, 

 and he received instructions to inflict such chastisement on his na- 

 tives as might prevent any further trouble being given to the king 

 in the business. 



The justice of Chester had now become an object of their hatred, 

 and the rustics succeeded in laying an information before their sove- 

 reign at Windsor, that the justice was 'corrupted by one hundred 

 pounds, which the abbot had raised by defrauding them, and a new 

 precept was issued to prince Edward, duke of Cornwall, and earl of 

 Chester, to render his assistance in any possible way to men labour- 

 ing under such seemingly unjust oppressions. Under this strong 

 protection thirty of the natives attended at Chester, and prevailed 

 on the lawyers to prefer their claims against the abbot, who likewise 

 attended in person. Their success was the same as usual, and, on 

 losing their cause, they fled with their families and goods, and 

 threw themselves on the protection of queen Philippa, as the tenants 

 of her son, the duke of Cornwall. This application had the desired 

 effect. The queen entered .into their cause as a personal insult to 

 her son, and addressed a letter to the abbot conceived in terms which 

 compelled him to take an immediate opportunity of making his 

 peace at the royal court, by the exhibition of the charters of his 

 foundation, arid the decisions of the justices of Chester. 



The abbot was returning home through Rutlandshire, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Exton, when he perceived his way blocked up by his 

 determined and exasperated tenantry, arranged under the command 

 of Sir William Venables of Bradwall, who had a personal quarrel 

 with the abbot on account of his brother, the baron of Kinderton. 



