Public Record Office

 Chancery Inquisition  [Latin]

C142/99 no. 78  [Also consulted for illegible sections Ward 7/6 no. 5]

Margin: It was delivered into court sixteen of April in the year underwritten by the hand of the Escheator.

  A copy in respect thereof delivered into the Court of Wards - Walter.   A copy in respect there delivered into the Court of Augmentations - Walter.

 KENT

INQUISITION indented held at Deptford in the county of Kent on Thursday that is to say the twenty fourth day of the month of March in the sixth year of the reign of our lord Edward the sixth by the grace of God of England France and Ireland King [24 March 1552] defender of the faith and on earth supreme head of the church of England and Ireland  Before Thomas Persse Esquire Escheator of the said lord King in the county aforesaid by virtue of his office of Escheator after the conviction of a certain Nicholas Balard late of Estgrenewiche in the  said county of Kent gentleman of and in a certain felony of rape, that is to say, for that he the same Nicholas was lately indicted that he himself the same Nicholas Balard the twelfth day of June in the fifth year of the reign[1] of the said lord now King in the parish of St Margaret in Nuefyshestret London[2] in Bridge Ward London[3] with force and arms, that is to say, with a knife and so forth on a certain Margaret Bury aged eleven years made an assault being against the peace of God and the said lord King then and there and the same Margaret then and there by violent attack and feloniously raped and ravished and against her wish had carnal knowledge against the peace of the said lord King his crown and dignity and against the form of the statute lately in respect thereof proclaimed and promulgated and so forth   In respect whereof afterwards, that is to say, the twelfth day of  December in the fifth year of the reign[4] of the aforesaid our lord King Edward the sixth before said at the Old Bailey in the suburbs of London before Richard Dobes mayor of the city of London and other justices of the peace of the said lord King there he the same Nicholas being arraigned and pleaded not guilty and by the oaths of twelve upright and lawful men then and there before the same mayor and justices came to the conclusion he was guilty of the felony aforesaid  And then and there before the justices in respect thereof he himself the same Nicholas surrendered to the court then and there petitioned the book and his prerogative to the benefit of clergy and according to the letter of the law and ancient common law of England in respect thereof before this always used and it was approved and to be had and then and there furthermore before the same justices he the same Nicholas read as a clerk by which by the justice of the justices aforesaid he was delivered to the place appointed as a convicted cleric with his purgation to be made just as by the record in respect thereof may fully and clearly appear by reason and authority of which conviction the aforesaid Nicholas Balard by the laws of this kingdom of England forfeited to the said lord King all his goods and chattels whatsoever  By which reason the aforesaid Escheator by virtue of his office of Escheator aforesaid held and inquisition aforesaid by the oaths of Richard Dyngley Thomas Hunt William Mychaell John Mountayne Thomas Best Thomas ?Walton Edmund Myller John Cooke Henry Warren Alexander Patenson William Clerke Thomas Warde John Mylles and William Wodley to enquire for the said lord King what goods and chattels the aforesaid Nicholas had at the time he made the felony aforesaid and at the time of his conviction aforesaid and where and in whose hands they existed and to whom they are worth and what value  Who say upon their oaths that the aforesaid Nicholas Balard for a long time before his conviction aforesaid and at the time of the felony was possessed as of his goods and chattels personally of and in the goods and chattels that follow after, that is to say, Sixe peces of coursse paynted hangynges valued at xs  Item an old table with a payre of trestles valued at ijs vjd  Item a longe old setle with a short ioyned forme valued at iiijs  Item a ioyned bedsted of wenshscot[5] with a trocle bedsted valued at xxs  Item an old ship chest valued at ijs  Item one other square old chest valued at xxd  Item a litle old chest valued at viijd  Item an old coberd valued at ijs  Item a turned chaire valued at viijd  Item an old peiceof tapstrie for a carpit valued at ijs  Item a pece of a curteyne of red and yelowe bokeram valued at viijd  Item a pece of dorinxe for a coberd valued at viijd  Item a brasse pott valued at xiijs iiijd  Item a litle brasse pan for a froyes valued at ijs  Item a broche valued at ijs  Item ij old broken trivettes valued at viijd  Item an olde paire of drosse cobyrons valued at xxd  Item sondry trayshe, that is to say old yron led and bordes together liyng and valued at xs  Item sondry other bordes and elme quarters valued at xs  Item about xiij lode of tymber valued at viijs le loode v£ iiijs  Item certeyne hey containing by estimacion about fower lodes valued at xLs  Which goods and chattels remaining and being within the manor of the aforesaid Nicholas Balard called Westcombe near Estgrenewiche in the aforesaid county of Kent in the custody of a certain John Hilton there and the value in total eleven pounds ten shillings and six pence  And moreover the jurors aforesaid say that the aforesaid Nicholas Balard no other goods or chattels had in the same place at the time of his conviction aforesaid nor at the time he made the felony aforesaid as far as they know  IN testimony of which thing to one part of this inquisition the aforesaid Escheator remaining in the possession of the aforesaid jurors has placed his seal  To the other true part remaining in the possession of the aforesaid Escheator the jurors have affixed their seals the day and year abovesaid.

By me Thomas Persse Escheator of the county aforesaid

Richard Dyne[g]ley, Thomas Hunt,Wyllyam Mihell, Thomas [?Walton], by me Henry Wareyn, by me Wyllyam Clerke