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1399 indenture

This is another item from Peter Furst's collection.

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It is an indenture dating, as it says, from the first year of the reign of Henry IV, so 1399. It is

furst doc2.jpg

written in Latin and, for once, the writing is clear, even if the transcription isn't.  Translating it into modern English it reads:

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This indenture attests that, although Thomas Kempton and John Leek, soldiers of Nottinghamshire

County, John Bonington from Derby County and William Bispham from Leicester County, each of them by himself in total and for all of them, are  obliged by a certain act of statute staple to pay 160 marc-sterlings and the merchandises bought in the Westminster stable either to John Cokayn, his wife Ida and John Finder, or to one of them , or to their attorney, heirs or executors in the next holiday of St Michael Archangel, the aforesaid John Cokayn, his wife Ida and John Finder want and grant for themselves, their own heirs and executors that, if the aforementioned Thomas,  John Leek, John Bonington and William Bispham or some of them or anybody else in their name paid or had paid 24 marc-sterlings  in the holiday of St Michael Archangel that will be held in 1403, and 24 more marc-sterlings in the subsequent holiday of St, Michael Archangel to the aforesaid John Cokayn, his wife ide and John Finder, to one of them or to their attorney, from then on the mentioned staple act should be considered void, but in any other case it should stay in vigour and effect. To testify this, the mentioned parts reciprocally fixed their seals upon this indenture. 16 April in the 1st year of Henry IV’s reign after the conquest.

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So that is all pretty clear, then . . . 

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