1. Unless otherwise stated, all references and quotations in this chapter are derived from this case, which is BI, CP.F.36. The case is briefly, but somewhat inaccurately, discussed in S.M. Butler, “‘I will Never Consent to be Wedded with you’: Coerced Marriage in the Courts of Medieval England,” Canadian Journal of History 39 (2004): 247–70.
2. Probate Inventories of the York Diocese, ed. P.M. Stell and Louise Hampson (York: privately printed, 1998), pp. 61–8; YML, Dean and Chapter probate register 1, L2(4), fol. 154v. Both, the date of making and of probate fall in March. It is very likely that the William Smyth who testified on Agnes’s behalf can be identified with the man of the same name who was paid 5s. 4d. out of Hugh’s estate.
3. He was admitted to the franchise in 1368 and was chamberlain in 1381–82. This would suggest that he was in his early sixties by 1411: Register of the Freemen, ed. Collins, pp. 63, 78. It is tempting to speculate that his office-holding career, begun in the very year of major civic disturbances in York, was consequently short-lived, though in fact more ambitious men tended to hold office as chamberlain somewhat sooner. For a discussion of the events in York in 1380–81 see R.B. Dobson, “The Risings in York, Beverley and Scarborough, 1380–1381,” in The English Rising of 1381, ed. R.H. Hilton and T.H. Aston (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 112–42, esp. pp. 118–24 [112–42].
4. D.M. Smith, The Court of York, 1400–1499: A Handlist of the Cause Papers and an Index to the Archiepiscopal Court Books, Borthwick Texts and Calendars 29 (2003), pp. 13–14.
5. These settlements were all within the Liberty of St Peter. It is tempting to conclude that, as discussed in the first part of this book, the Liberty played a role in shaping patterns of migration. In the particular case of Hugh Grantham, it may be that the lure of employment on York Minster, whose eastern parts were being rebuilt from the 1360s, drew the young man to the city and the parish of St Michael le Belfrey: J.H. Harvey, “Architectural History from 1291 to 1558,” in A History of York Minster, ed. G.E. Aylmer and Reginald Cant (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 163 [149–92].