268 Amble and Hauxley. By J. C. Hodgson. 



notwithstanding the said Patterson did not marry 



the said Arnold." 



To the same council Edward Patterson complains "of the 

 forcible entry in his premises at Amble, with horses, cattle, 

 etc., in September, 9 James I. of Elizabeth Patterson. 

 Robert Patterson^'^ had died about 1606, leaving a widow 

 Elizabeth. Edward Patterson was found, 21st April, 8 James 

 I., to be brother and heir to Eobert." 



It appears by the joint answers of Arthur Forster and 

 Elizabeth Patterson, widow, that the plaintiff, Edward Patterson, 

 claimed the estate of his brother, l\obt, Patterson, who died 

 about 1606, on the ground that Elizabeth, the widow, had 

 had a child during her widowhood, and thereby forfeited her 

 estate, but "she doth not acknowledge that any widowe, by 

 the custom of the said mannor [i.e. of Amble] if she, in 

 her widowhood, doe lyve unchaist and incontyuently, and shall 

 have a child unlawfully begotten, shall loose the said premises, 

 or shall be avoyded from the same before her widowhood 

 be determyned. But if the matter of incontinency and having 

 a childe, which is objected in the bill of complaint against 

 the defendant, were true, yet whether thereby the defendant 

 should loose her widowes estate in, and to, the premises, by 

 any custome in the said manor, or no, j'is a matter fytt to 

 be tryed at the comon lawe, and is not fytt to be brought 

 in question in this honourable court, as she is informed by 

 her counsell, being a matter so penal to this defendant as is 

 pretended, whereby if there be any such custom her estate 

 might be in ieopdye."^* 



The council, by order dated York, 26th September 1611, 

 ordered the matter to be tried at Common Law. 



The notices are too scanty to make the position thoroughly 

 clear, but probably both petitions referred to the same copyhold 

 estate of 40 acres of land in Amble. 



^3 Will Qf Robt. Patterson of Amble, husband man,dated 1606, proved 

 same year at Durham— 'my body to be buried within the parish church 

 of Warkworth — to my nephew, Nycholas Scroggs, two oxen — to my 

 niece, Elizabeth Scroggs, one boule of oates — my wife, Elizabeth 

 Patterson, and my children, executors of this my will' [no children's 

 names mentioned.] — Inventory, £49 5s. 6d. 



" Jeopardy. 



