Profession and Death at Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, 1207-1534

PROFESSION AND DEATH AT CHRIST CHURCH PRIORY, CANTERBURY, 1207-1534

joe connor

The Cathedral Archive at Canterbury contains a manuscript, referred to as Literary Manuscript D12 (Lit. MS D12), comprising forty folios in a well-bound leather case. The first twelve folios record the names of more than one thousand men who were professed and entered the monastic community at Christ Church Priory in the period 1207-1534. The principal compiler of the work was Thomas Cawston, who entered the community in 1454. The manuscript was begun in 1486. Lit. MS D12 also contains a further fifteen folios (15-29) that record the obits of five hundred members of the priory community who died in the period 1286-1504.¹ The deaths of King Edward I and three archbishops of Canterbury (Winchelsea, Courtenay and Dene) are also reported. Thomas Cawston died in 1504 (folio 35r). The fact that the list of professions continues until 1534, and the list of deaths continues until 1507 may suggest that the lists were kept separately until some time after 1534, when they were brought together before the final dissolution of the monastery in 1540. The script of folios 26-29, covering the period September 1486 to June 1504, is difficult to read in places and appears to be the work of several hands. Perhaps as a consequence of the poor legibility, the forty-eight obits in folios 26-29 are repeated in a more legible script by a single hand in folios 31-34. Folio 35 commences with the death of Thomas Cawston and continues with the obits of nine monks who died in the years 1504-1507. Altogether the deaths of five hundred and thirteen men are recorded.

The other folios in the manuscript include a list of the names of the mayors of Canterbury from 1449 to 1610 (folios 36-38). Folio 39 is a critical comment on the text of an address by Prior William Selling; three folios (13, 14, 40) are blank. The Parker Library, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, contains a manuscript (MS 298) of 258 folios, of which sixteen (129r-145v) contain almost the same material as is found in folios 1-12 of Lit. MS D12 just mentioned. MS 298 stops at the profession of Thomas Farley in 1528. The script of MS 298 is generally much clearer than that of MS D12. There are minor discrepancies between the two manuscripts. The obits of MS D12 do not appear in MS 298.

The existence of so much documentation for the history of Christ Church priory at Canterbury that has been brought together by Dr Greatrex with other related information,² might suggest that there was nothing remaining for inquiry. However, no attempt has been made hitherto either to identify the geographic origins of the men who entered the Christ Church community, or to comment on the causes of their deaths. Dr Greatrex has investigated the origins of the monks of Rochester³ and of Worcester.⁴ Professor Hatcher has written about the age and cause of death of monks in the fifteenth century.⁵ Other documents contemporary with Cawston, but more limited in their scope, are the Chronicles of John Stone⁶ and of William Glastonbury.⁷

During the period of three hundred and twenty-seven years encompassed by Cawston’s list of monks who were professed at Christ Church Priory in Canterbury, their names almost always comprise a given name and a surname which is either a toponym (the place from which they came) or, more rarely, a patronym (their family name). Sixteen people out of one thousand and ten listed have one name only. Twenty-five people have surnames that are not obvious toponyms; of these, six have Clement for their surname and two each are called Anselm, Bryan, Dunstan and Everard. Six men have surnames that refer to places abroad: four in France (St Bertin, Calais, St Ouen and St Valery), one in Ireland (Hibernia) and one in Italy (Lombardus). Following Greatrex,⁸ it is reasonable to assume that the individual monk’s toponym is more likely to reflect his immediate origins. In the early years most names are written as A de (of or from) B, in which A is the given name and B is the toponym. The use of the preposition slowly disappears until, after 1364, it is no longer used. In identifying the toponym it is necessary to take account of the fact that Cawston is not always consistent in spelling place names either in Kent (e.g. Maidstone) or outside (e.g. Winchelsea). Certain place names may occur more than once in the same county, so in Kent there are two places with the names Ash, Buckland, Chart, Goodnestone, Milton, Minster, Newington, Preston and Stone.⁹ Properties in towns or villages can sometimes be identified. For example, Gabriel was the name of a manor in Edenbridge, and Bush was a farm in Cuxton; there are several similar examples in Kent.

The geographical distribution of professed monks associated with place names shows that, as might be expected, professions at Christ Church, Canterbury, come more from the east of the county than from the west (Table 1), where a Benedictine priory at Rochester may have offered a competitive attraction,¹⁰ together with St Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury. In recent times a distinction is made between villages on a geographic basis: thus, East and West Farleigh, Langdon, Malling, Peckham and Wickham. The two communities are usually quite close. Cawston makes no such distinction. He makes no distinction between the villages such as Great, Little, High, Lower, Upper, New, Old in the cases of Chart, Mongeham, Halstow, Hardres, and Romney; nor between Hythe and West Hythe, Cliffe and West Cliffe. There is no way of distinguishing the four villages named Boughton (Aluph, under Blean, Malherbe and Monchelsea) nor the three Suttons (simple, East, at Hone). One hundred and seventy-two parishes in Kent can be identified (out of over four hundred) and six hundred and thirty-two men can be related to these parishes (see Appendix 1). This information can be related to the distance between the place and Canterbury; as might be expected, fewer people come from further away.

The correct assignment of toponyms to places outside Kent is more difficult and uncertain. Thomas Cawston’s own name can represent the problem. There are two places named Cawston, one in Norfolk in the vicinity of Norwich and the other in Warwickshire in the vicinity of Coventry. Both Norwich and Coventry had cathedral priories in the province of Canterbury. More than two hundred men came from recognisable places outside Kent (see Appendix 2) in particular from Essex (26), London (12) and Sussex (31). Inevitably there are uncertainties to be accepted in the assignments and these are well known from the various studies of Dr Greatrex. However there remain more than eighty surnames for ninety-four men that have not been assigned as toponyms; these are collected in Appendix 3. They include Newton, Walton, Weston and Well of which there are several examples of each distributed through the English counties and there are several others that may be patronyms such as Ansell, Courteney, and Griffin (examples chosen at random).

Little attention seems usually to be paid to the personal/Christian/given names of the monks. In the period 1207-1534 recorded by Cawston altogether seventy-four Christian names are given to the monks. Of these, three names, John (262), William (155) and Thomas (115) account for more than half of the total (1007).

How complete is the record of professions at Christ Church priory given by Cawston? Comparison with the lists given by Greatrex shows that perhaps as many as fifty-two names are missing from Cawston.¹¹ In almost all of these cases it is clear that not much is known about the men concerned. In some cases the information refers to their ordination as acolyte, deacon or priest. In others, the information refers to their office as cellarer, granator, sacrist or treasurer in the community. Perhaps the most surprising omission from Cawston is the name of John Chatham, who was briefly prior (1236-1238) before being involved in the scandal of the torn charter of St Thomas.¹² He left the priory to join the Carthusians.¹³

Obituaries and other departures

This list of names commences in 1286 and includes five hundred and thirteen members of Christ Church Priory; the last record is of the death of Simon Islep in October 1507. Perhaps the year 1286 was chosen as the start because it was two hundred years before Cawston started his work. The record is incomplete because on folio 17, in the summer of 1361, there is a note to say that the text is missing until January 1395. Twenty-two members of the Christ Church Priory died in July (10) and August (12) 1361. This unusually high incidence is not the subject of any comment by Cawston, but it would seem likely that plague might be the cause. The dates are usually recorded in the order in which the men died. Although the year is not always mentioned, it is usually possible to infer by deduction. The deaths of twenty-one men are recorded who have no record of profession at Christ Church Priory. Six of these were archbishops of Canterbury. The reason for including these particular archbishops is not clear because the deaths of ten other archbishops (outside the period 1361-1395) are not recorded. The death of King Edward I in 1307 is recorded, but no other member of the royal family is mentioned. Cawston’s list includes eleven men who did not die, but rather left Christ Church Priory to go elsewhere – to another priory (Thomas Fynden to Folkestone, Robert Lynton to Dover), to join another religious order (John Battle to the Cistercians, William Hythe to the Carmelites, John Langley to the Augustinians), or simply left the religious life (Stephen Eythorn, John Hythe, Richard Molash, William Oxford, Simon Tent).¹⁴

After 1395 the entries are rather more informative. In addition to the date of death, information may be provided about the length of the man’s professed life, The average age of men on joining the community of Christ Church Priory, who died in the period 1499 to 1507 and whose age is reported, is just over 17 years. Some information is usually given about the posts the man held in the Priory, about his personal qualities – as a preacher or scholar, for example. Mention is also made of physical disability; thus Steven Thanet had a speech impediment and both John Greenwich and John Colchester became blind. The length of a man’s professed life is first mentioned in the case of John Ipswich who died on 6 January 1395 in his second year as a monk. Thereafter, the length of professed life is often but not always recorded. Using all the information about professions and deaths available in Cawston it is possible to determine the average length of professed life for 457 men: this is 30 years and 9 months. The variance in this number (19 years and 5 weeks) is large.

The first mention of a specific cause of death appears in the summer of 1349 when four men die of plague (see Appendix 4). Cawston does not comment on the cause(s) of the deaths of 22 men between 7 July and 30 August 1361.The next mention of cause made by Cawston is in July 1413 when Richard Holden, the warden of Canterbury College in Oxford, died of plague at Monk’s Risborough; he had gone there ‘to avoid death’. Thereafter, mention of the cause of death is often made. In the period July 1413 to January 1449, ninety-two monks died of whom thirteen died of plague, three of asthma, two of consumption and three in an unspecified epidemic. Two died of a ‘strange illness unknown to doctors’ in December 1448 and January 1449. Three died of abscesses in various parts of the body. One died as a consequence of an accidental fall when walking above the vault of the south-west tower which was then (1425) being built. The causes of two deaths are described as ‘disagreeable’ and a ‘particular problem’ but no further description is provided.

All of these men died before Thomas Cawston joined the monastic community at Christ Church Priory in April 1454, so that the details could not have been part of his personal experience. Indeed, the chronicle of John Stone, which starts in 1415 with the death of William Stone, usually provides a more detailed account.¹⁵ The list of names recorded by Thomas Cawston is in the same order as that of John Stone until 1431, when Cawston includes John Biddenden, who is also recorded by Glastonbury.¹⁶ Between May 1433 and December 1437, Cawston records the deaths of nine monks who are not mentioned by Stone, but are also recorded by Glastonbury.¹⁷ After the death of Ralph Waller in 1449, there is a change in the character of Cawston’s account. For ninety-five monks from 1449 to 1480, Cawston gives simply the name of the monk and the office that he held at the time of his death, or else the fact that he left the Priory. There is no date and no detail, for which information it is necessary to rely on the chronicle of John Stone alone, as William Glastonbury died in December 1449. The order of deaths in the period 1449 to 1454, immediately before Cawston was professed, is rather haphazard. Cawston’s list omits the names of Thomas Goodnestone and John Teynham, whose deaths Stone records as 1 July 1453 and 18 February 1454 respectively.

The first monk to die following Cawston’s profession was William Wallbrook, whose death is not recorded by Stone. Others whose deaths are not recorded by Stone are William Wincheap who probably died in 1468/9 and William Egerton, John Oxney, William Gillingham, Simon Harietsham, Thomas Borne and John Molond who all probably died in 1471/2, by which time Stone was resident as a stationarius in a chamber in the infirmary of the Priory. The bare, un-dated list given by Cawston hides important facts that are disclosed by Stone, such as the outbreak of plague in Canterbury in the summer of 1457, although Stone records plague as the cause of death of only one of the fourteen who died that summer. The last death recorded by Stone is that of Richard Clement in February 1472.

Cawston’s undated list of deaths finishes with that of John Stone, probably in 1480, at which point the character of the record changes again; the death of John Benett in May 1481 and his occupation (feretrar, a keeper of the shrine of St Thomas) are now included together with the regnal year (21 Edward IV). Cawston records the death of nine men in sixteen days in the autumn of 1485 from sweating sickness ‘Le Swete’. There was another outbreak of plague in August 1487 that resulted in the death of four monks. This marks the first occasion on which both the age of the monk and the length of his professed life are recorded. Following the death in 1489 of Simon Sandwich at the age of ninety-eight in his seventy-fourth year of profession, Cawston reverts to the undated (name plus post) form for the short period 1489 to 1492. This is interrupted by an extensive record of the death of William Selling in 1494, before resuming the undated form for four more obits.

Thereafter, the character of the record resumes the biographical form, giving the date and usually the regnal year (which may be given in a coded form), and often the cause of death as well as some information about the man’s activities. In several cases a sentence is added at the end asking God’s mercy on his soul. The hand becomes increasingly unclear. It might appear that several people were involved in writing obituary notes up to that of Thomas Bury who died in 1504.

The repeat of the obituary notes from John Garwynton starts on folio 31r. The copy is not exact but the differences cannot be regarded as significant. Whereas numbers are given in Roman script in the original, in the copy they are usually given in Arabic form. The copy may omit the prayer for mercy on the man’s soul in some cases; it may omit the regnal year in others. In one case the length of the professed life is omitted from the copy. The original obituary note for William Hadlegh states that he died on the feast day of St Wulfstan (19 December) but subsequently identifies this as 14 January; the copy has corrected the error (Latin die to kalends), the copy also omits the regnal year. Both the original and the copy include the comment that Cardinal Morton died in that year (1500), and that Thomas Goldstone was prior at the time. Although the order of obituary notices follows the date of death almost without exception, there is a slight discrepancy in the position of Thomas Chart between the original (fo. 29r) that indicates that he died in 1502, and the copy (fo. 33r) that places his death one year earlier. The cause of Cawston’s death is not given; an unusually large number of monks died in that year (1504): consumption, dysentery and respiratory problems are given as causes. An outbreak of plague caused two deaths in 1506.

Although most monks at Christ Church Priory died in Canterbury, mainly in the infirmary, this is not true for thirteen who died while away: six at Oxford and one at each of Antwerp, Bologna, Chester, Dover, Ireland, Monk’s Risborough and Rome.

acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Mark Bateson, Dr Joan Greatrex, Dr Margaret Sparks and Prof. Vivian Nutton for the help and advice they have given him.

(Note: the author’s edited translation of the whole of Cawston’s ‘Book of the Living and Dead Monks in Christ Church Priory, Canterbury’ has been placed in Canterbury Cathedral Archive where it is referred to as CCA-AddMs-387.)

endnotes

¹ Obits were annual masses, or anniversaries, celebrated for individuals (or groups) whose names were inscribed in obit lists at the time of death. The primary purpose of an obit was to achieve the salvation of souls through the prayers of the living for the dead, to ease the pains of purgatory. Obits were commemorative acts which preserved the collective memory of the religious community, see D. Lepine, 2010, ‘Their Name Liveth for Evermore? Obits at Exeter Cathedral in the Later Middle Ages’, in Memory and Commemoration in Medieval England, C.M. Barron and C. Burgess (eds), Donnington, 20, 58-74.

² J. Greatrex, 1997, Biographical Register of the English Cathedral Priories of the Province of Canterbury c.1066-1540, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

³ J. Greatrex, 2006, ‘Who were the monks of Rochester?’, in Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology, Rochester, T. Ayers and T. Tatton-Brown (eds), 205-217. From their toponyms many more of the monks at the cathedral priory at Rochester came from the west of Kent than the east.

⁴ J. Greatrex, 1998, ‘The Local Origins of the Monks of Worcester Cathedral Priory’, Trans. Worcs. Arch. Soc., Third series, 16, 143-153.

⁵ J. Hatcher, 1986, ‘Mortality in the fifteenth century: some new evidence’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd series, 39, 19-38.

⁶ M.E. Connor, 2010, John Stone’s Chronicle. Christ Church Priory, Canterbury 1417-1472, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

⁷ C.E. Woodruff (ed.), 1925, ‘Chronicle of William Glastynbury, Monk of the Priory of Christ Church, Canterbury’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 37, 121-151.

⁸ Greatrex 1997.

⁹ J.K. Wallenberg, 1934, The Place-Names of Kent, Uppsala.

¹⁰ Greatrex 2006.

¹¹ Greatrex 1997.

¹² C.R. Cheney, 1973, Magna Carta Beati Thome: another Canterbury Forgery reprinted in Medieval Texts and Studies, OUP, 78-110.

¹³ Greatrex 1997.

¹⁴ F.D. Logan, 1996, Runaway Religious in Medieval England c.1240-1540, Cambridge.

¹⁵ Connor 2010.

¹⁶ Woodruff 1925.

¹⁷ Ibid.

TABLE 1. KENTISH PLACES OF ORIGIN OF CHRIST CHURCH PROFESSED MONKS – DISTANCE FROM CANTERBURY

Within no. of miles of Canterbury	No. of professed monks
5	89
6-10	156
11-15	148
16-20	35
21-25	77
26-30	56
31-35	24
36-40	23
41-45	7
45+	19
Total from Kent	634

Appendix 1. PLACES IN KENT FROM WHICH PROFESSED MONKS OF CHRIST CHURCH ORIGINATED

Acrise	1
Addington	2
Adisham	3
Aldington	6
Alkham	1
Allington	2
Appledore	2
Ash*	12
Ashford	6
Aylesford	1
Bapchild	1
Barham	8
Barming	2
Bethersden	1
Bidborough	1
Biddenden	3
Birchington	3
Bonnington	5
Boughton*	6
Boxley	1
Bredgar	3
Brenchley	1
Bridge	2
Broadstairs	1
Brook	2
Buckland*	2
Canterbury	39
Charing	2
Chart*	13
Chartham	16
Chatham	1
Chilham	7
Chillenden	6
Chislet	1
Cliffe*	7
Cobham	1
Coldred	1
Cranbrook	6
Crayford	1
Crundale	1
Cuxton	1
Dartford	1
Doddington	2
Dover	11
Dunkirk	4
Eastry	18
Ebony/Oxney	6
Edenbridge	5
Egerton	1
Elham	7
Elmstone	1
Eynsford	5
Eythorne	2
Farleigh*	8
Farningham	3
Faversham	6
Folkestone	2
Fordwich	1
Gillingham	6
Godmersham	5
Goodnestone*	7
Goudhurst	1
Graveney	2
Greenwich	1
Guston	2
Halstead	1
Halstow*	1
Ham	2
Hardres*	6
Harrietsham	1
Hartlip	2
Harty	1
Hastingleigh	1
Hawkhurst	3
Headcorn	5
Herne	5
Hollingbourne	6
Hoo	4
Horsmonden	3
Hurst	2
Hythe*	4
Ickham	9
Kennington	3
Kingsnorth	1
Kingston	5
Knowlton	1
Lamberhurst	2
Langdon*	5
Langley	4
Leaveland	1
Lee	5
Leeds	2
Leigh	1
Lenham	1
Lewisham	1
Linton	2
Littlebourne	4
Longfield	3
Loose	1
Lydd	2
Lynsted	2
Maidstone	8
Malling*	6
Marden	2
Meopham	2
Mersham	2
Milstead	1
Milton*	5
Minster*	22
Molash	4
Mongeham*	3
Monkton	1
Nackington	3
Newenden	2
Newington*	1
Newnham	5
Northbourne	3
Northfleet	1
Oare	2
Orpington	3
Ospringe	3
Otford	4
Peckham*	2
Penshurst	1
Petham	4
Pluckley	2
Preston*	6
Ramsgate	1
Reculver	5
Rochester	2
Rolvenden	4
Romney*	4
Saltwood	1
Sandwich	13
Sellindge	3
Selling	5
Sevenoaks	3
Sheppey	4
Sholden	1
Shorne	1
Sittingbourne	2
Smarden	5
St Marg. at Cliffe	4
St Nich. at Wade	2
Stanford	1
Staple	3
Stockbury	2
Stone*	7
Stowting	1
Strood	2
Sturry	3
Sutton*	6
Swanscombe	1
Temple Ewell	2
Tenterden	2
Teynham	2
Throwley	4
Tonbridge	5
Tonge	4
Upchurch	3
Valence	2
Waltham	3
Westerham	2
Westwell	4
Wickham*	5
Wingham	3
Womenswold	1
Woodchurch	4
Woodnesborough	8
Wootton	2
Worth	1
Wrotham	2
Wye	6

* Indicates more than one place with this name in Kent.

APPENDIX 2. PLACES IN OTHER ENGLISH COUNTIES FROM WHICH CHRIST CHURCH MONKS ORIGINATED

County	No.
berks.
Bradley	1
Bray	1
Newbury	3
Reading	3
bucks.
Buckingham	3
Chicheley	2
Ivynghoe	1
Wendover	1
cambs.
Cheveley	1
Ely	1
St Ives	1
Waller	2
cheshire
Walton	1
cornwall	2
Antony	2
Lane	1
cumbria
Kingmoor	1
derbys.
Duffield	1
Sudbury	1
devon
Exeter	1
Holcombe	1
Lynton	2
Molland	2
Paignton	1
Sandford	1
essex
Barking	4
County	No.
Beaumont	2
Bocking	6
Chesterford	1
Colchester	2
Hadleigh	2
Havering	1
Hornchurch	1
Maldon	1
Mayland	1
Stondon	1
Stratford	1
Tey	1
Walden	1
Wakering	1
gloucs.
Boxwell	1
Elmore	1
Fairford	1
Gloucester	2
herts.
Barnet	1
Hatfield	2
herefords.
Eyton	1
Hereford	1
Ledbury	3
lancs.
Bury	1
Croston	1
Gathurst	1
Haigh	2
Heaton	1
leics.
Leicester	4
County	No.
Wycomb	1
Wykin	1
lincs.
Ponton	1
london	12
middlesex
Harmondsworth	1
norfolk
Cawston	4
Deopham	1
Foxley	1
Norwich	1
Salle	1
Warham	1
Waterden	1
northumb.
Ingram	2
notts.
Cropwell	1
Dunham	1
Nottingham	1
Sherwood	1
Southwell	1
oxon.
Banbury	1
Begbrook	1
Islip	2
Oddington	1
Oxford	3
salop.
Albrighton	1
Coalbrook	1
Ryton	1
County	No.
somerset
Frome	1
Glastonbury	3
Wells	4
staffs.
Lichfield	1
suffolk
Brightwell	1
Bungay	1
Cretyngham	1
Frekenham	1
Ipswich	1
Kennyhill	1
Wade	1
surrey
Cheam	1
Croydon	1
Egham	3
County	No.
Frensham	2
Lingfield	1
Oxted	1
Wyke	1
sussex
Arundel	3
Battle	2
Etchinham	1
Finden	1
Hastings	1
Henfield	2
Hoyle	1
Lewes	1
Mayfield	1
Mountfield	1
Ringmer	2
Rye	1
Selmeston	3
County	No.
Selsey	1
Winchelsea	10
warwks.
Coventry	3
wilts.
Rockley	1
Salisbury	2
Tokenham	1
worcs.
Beckford	1
Evesham	1
yorks.
Bridlington	1
Fountains	2
Hull	1
Raw	1
Woodhall	1

Appendix 3. SURNAMES NOT IDENTIFIED

Achard	1
Ansell	1
Audinges	2
Aurifaber	1
Beloyzell	1
Benett	3
Bertolot	1
Beynam	1
Blasing	1
Boughier	1
Bracy	1
Cheyham	1
Compys	1
Courtney	1
Covele	1
Dygon	1
Elding	1
Ellis	1
Faghe	2
Faleway	1
Ferebras	1
Ferr’	1
Garard	2
Geround	1
Godlaw	1
Griffin	1
Hamon	1
Hardenay	1
Hathbrand	1
Honne	1
Kamin	1
Kebull	1
Klynsted	1
Kylley	1
Kynton	1
Lekede	1
Lese	1
Lovell	1
Moth	1
Newton	2
Neyrford	1
Norreys	1
Osewell	1
Oysell	1
Pechyng	1
Peny	1
Pirie	1
Poterel	1
Prinkeham	1
Pykenot	1
Pykenhurst	1
Pynkeny	1
Resham	1
Rydelingwold	2
Sarych	1
Solus	1
Stanys	1
Stodewold	1
Stordy	2
Trendle	1
Trokking	1
Tyerne	1
Vaughan	1
Viel	1
Vielson	1
Vowel	1
Wallbrook	1
Wernesell	1
Werton	1
West	1
Weston	1
Willarsay	1
Woghope	2
Wysynden	1
Yerde	1

Appendix 4. CAUSES OF DEATH OF PROFESSED MONKS RECORDED AT CHRIST CHURCH CANTERBURY

Plague
Thomas Gillingham	21 May 1349
William Wynbourne	6 Jun 1349
John London	7 Jun 1349
William Beaumond	26 Jun 1349
Richard Holden	16 Jul 1413
John Aldington	13 Oct 1413
John Young	24 Oct 1413
William Westwell	10 Nov 1413
Thomas Selvyston	30 Aug 1419
John Stratford	23 July 1420
John Essex	5 Aug 1420
Thomas St Nicholas	14 Aug 1420
John Bourne	22 Sep 1420
John Biddenden	18 Jul 1431
William Barham	1 Aug 1431
John Bermondsey	9 Aug 1431
John Cranbrook	20 Oct 1447
William Dene	21 Oct 1457
Thomas Lamberhurst	27 Mar 1467
William Dover	25 Sep 1470
John Frenyngham	9 Oct 1470
John Kenerton	19 Oct 1470
Walter Hertford	10 Mar 1471
William Chartham	12 Aug 1487
John Clement	9 Aug 1487
Thomas Chillenden	24 Aug 1487
John Hythe	26 Sep 1487
Thomas Allington	26 Aug 1501
William Selling	12 Sep 1501
John Sandwich	27 Jul 1506
Christopher Eastry	17 Aug 1506
Consumption
Thomas Bray	9 Mar 1427
Richard Ruton	17 Jun 1431
Henry Holden	2 Jun 1487
Geof. Glastonbury	14 Sep 1496
William Hartford	14 Feb 1497
Adam Romney	31 Oct 1498
William Hadley	19 Jan 1500
John Sutton	3 Jun 1500
Richard Newnham	25 Sep 1502
Gregory Winchelsea	29 Jul 1503
John Boxwell	9 Mar 1504
Richard Kingston	25 Sep 1504
Hamo Throwley	14 Apr 1505
William Tong	28 May 1505
Simon Islep	4 Oct 1507
Sweating Sickness
Richard Torolte	13 Oct 1485
Robert Tenterden	15 Oct 1485
Thomas Petham	15 Oct 1485
William Wincheap	15 Oct 1485
William Bonnington	15 Oct 1485
Nicholas Orpington	16 Oct 1485
John Elham	Oct/Nov 1485
Richard Newnham	Oct/Nov 1485
Nicholas Herst	5 Nov 1485
Abscess
Jn Trendle (lungs)	3 May 1433
Thom. Borne (head)	25 Feb 1435
Ric Biddenden (body)	12 Jun 1441
Asthma
John Wykham		25 Oct 1421
Thomas Brown		29 Oct 1421
Thomas Bungay		30 Oct 1421
Epidemic
John Hegham	14 Oct 1435
John Ash	27 Oct 1435
John Sitingbourne	31 Oct 1435
Dropsy
John Chyvaler	27 Dec 1437
Laurence Wade	19 Aug 1507
Dysentry
Thomas Bury	17 Jun 1504
William Elphe	17 Oct 1504
Empematis (coughing) / de la murre
John Browne	16 Dec 1503
Richard London	14 Jan 1504
Anal fistula
William Wingham	4 Oct 1499
Expliricis
Nicholas Reculver	29 Jan 1503
Madness
Nicholas Borne	18 Jul 1487
Paralysis
Robert Newington	13 Apr 1497
Pleurisy
Hugh Maidstone	28 Jan 1500
Stangwyr
John Garwynton	22 Sep 1487
Calido idrepio infecto
William Garard	20 Nov 1487
Rupt ydropic strang
William Hadley		19 Jan 1500
Ydropici et stranguilitate
William Vowle	5 Feb 1501