Testimony given at the request of Sir Robert Plompton

64 15 January 1505

Testimony given at the request of Sir Robert Plompton, kt, by William
Gascoygne and Christopher Warde, kts, Henry Vavasor, Thomas Pigot,
Henry Ughtred, Thomas Fairfax, Richard Maulevery, Richard Kyghley,
Nicholas Gascoigne, Robert Chylton, Thomas Ratcliffe, Walter
Bayldon, Thomas Nawdon and Walter Woode, esqrs, 14 gentlemen
and 47 yeomen [names supplied] with others as to the conduct of the
trial at York which Sir Richard Empson, accompanied by Edward
Stanhopp, Gervase Clifton, Robert Dimmoke and William Perpoynt,
kts, with more than 200 gentlemen and yeomen, and with certain
liveried members of the king?s guard attended for the purpose of
maintaining the suit of the plaintiffs Robert Bubwith and Richard
Burgh against Sir Robert for the recovery of the manors of Plumpton
and Idle to the use of Sir John and Lady Rouclife.

     John Vavasor, then associated with Justice Humphrey Conyngsby,
produced a fine exemplified under the great seal as proof that the
disputed properties had been entailed to the heirs general, and on the
court’s refusal to allow Sir Robert’s counsel to examine the deed his
friends, fearing it might be genuine, urged a settlement. A meeting of
4 arbitrators, Sir Marmaduke Constable, kt, and Brian Palmes for the
plaintiffs and Sir William Gascoigne, kt, and William Eleson for Sir
Robert then took place in the chapel on York bridge. Claiming the
fine was spurious Sir Robert refused an offer by the opposing side and
produced a box containing deeds which proved that the lands in
question were entailed to the heirs male of Sir William Plompton, kt.
Negotiations were then broken off.

[English]

[Copyist’s note.] Copied the 12 of November 1627 hauing 69 seales
besides them that is broken off.

[CB, 824, transcribed Stapleton, cvii–ix]