The Court of Chivalry 1634-1640.
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Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper, '714 Willoughby v Clerke', in The Court of Chivalry 1634-1640, ed. Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper, British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/court-of-chivalry/714-willoughby-clerke [accessed 4 December 2024].
Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper, '714 Willoughby v Clerke', in The Court of Chivalry 1634-1640. Edited by Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper, British History Online, accessed December 4, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/court-of-chivalry/714-willoughby-clerke.
Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper. "714 Willoughby v Clerke". The Court of Chivalry 1634-1640. Ed. Richard Cust, Andrew Hopper, British History Online. Web. 4 December 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/court-of-chivalry/714-willoughby-clerke.
In this section
714 WILLOUGHBY V CLERKE
Nicholas Willoughby of North Cheriton, co. Somerset, gent v Mathew Clerke of the same
May 1639
Abstract
Willoughby complained that Clerke gave him the lie and publicly called him a 'scurvey gent, a base gent, a beggerly gent'. Process was granted on 16 May 1639, but nothing further survives.
Initial proceedings
6/156, Petition to Maltravers
'Your petitioner is a gent., discended of an ancient family, and hath right to beare armes. That he hath lately beene much abused with insolent and uncivill words uttered against [him], publiquely and to his great disgrace, by one Mathew Clerke of North-Cheriton, who in a scornefull, provoking, and dareing manner said unto and of your petitioner that your said petitioner was a scurvey gent, a base gent, a beggerly gent, and gave him the lye divers times, with other such like words and gesture, not to be endured.'
Petitioned that Clerke be brought to answer.
Maltravers granted process on 16 May 1639.
Notes
Nicholas Willoughby was not mentioned in the Somerset Visitations: F. T. Colby (ed.), The Visitation of the County of Somerset in the year 1623 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 11, 1876); G. D. Squibb (ed.), The Visitation of Somerset and the City of Bristol, 1672 (Publications of the Harleian Society, new series, 11, 1992).
Documents
- Initial proceedings
- Petition: 6/156 (16 May 1639)
People mentioned in the case
- Clerke, Matthew
- Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers
- Willoughby, Nicholas, gent
Places mentioned in the case
- Somerset
- North Cheriton
Topics of the case
- denial of gentility
- giving the lie