Agreements between the Caryque and Huckvale Families - 1584
From a short and busy month, I present a short document. The focus for me is Robert Huckvale, my earliest provable ancestor down the Huckvale, and this quitclaim in his favour is the earliest mention of him, in 1531. Robert is often described as being born in the 1480s, although I’ve seen no evidence beyond speculation to support this. At the time his will was written in 1553 he had two living children, Christopher and Dorothie.
Given how uncommon this surname was, and indeed still is (it remained confined to a localised line in Warwickshire, and my line in Over Norton, Oxfordshire until quite recently), there is a probable record of an ancestor, John Hokkevale, residing at Nether Lypiatt Manor in Thrupp, Gloucestershire in 1381, but proving a connection has so far remained elusive.
The quitclaim is in Latin, and appears to be relinquishing all rights to take action against Robert for any reason, rather than a concrete piece of land or property. It reads to me like the end of a legal case between Robert and the other party, Magdalene College, Oxford. The document gives no specifics, although the list of rights given up might suggest the College had, or thought it had, some expectation of payments, perhaps for some property.
Being so short, there is little else to draw from the document other than a period example of a turn of phrase that you may well hear in court, or read in a scroll, in some variation: from the beginning of the world until the day of the composition of these presents. It’s fairly grandiose language for such a little document, but perhaps you might expect that from a Master of an Ocxford College.
P/20/2D/1
Nov[er]int universi p[er] present~ nos Thomam Knollys president~ Collegij s[an]c[t]e marie magdalenen universitate Oxon٣ & scholarebuseiusdem collegij remisisse relaxasse & om[n]io p[ro] nobis & Successurib[us] quiet[e] clamasse Rob[er]to Huckvale de Oxon com[itatu] oxon٣om[n]es & o[mn]imod]es Act[i]ones tam reales q[ua]m personales fect[as] querel[as] debit[as] debat[as] & demand[as] qu[e] unq[ua]m h[ab]uim[us] h[ab]em[us] seuquovismo[d]o in futur[um] h[ab]ere pot[er]im[us] rat[i]one compot~ vel rat[i]one alia quacuj[us] A p[ri]ncipio mundi usq[ue] in diem confect[i]o[n]ispresent[ium]/ In cui[us] rei testimo[niu]m hinc present[i] scripto n[ost]ro Ego prefat~ Thom[a]s Knollys Sigillu[m] meu[m] apposui dat[um] insc[r]i[pt]o Collegij n[ost]re p[re]dict~ septi[m]o die Julij Anno R[egi]s Henr[ici] Octavi vicesimo tertio p[er] me thome knollys <illegible>
Know all by these presents, we Thomas Knollys president of the College of Saint Marie Magdalene of the university of Oxford & of the scholarsof the same college have remised, released & quitclaimed everything for us & [our] Successors, to Robert Huckvale of Oxford in the county of Oxford,all & every kind of Action, whether real or personal, deeds, complaints, debts, dues & demands that we ever have had, have, orin any way in the future could have by reason of account or by whatever other reason From the beginning of the world until the day of the composition ofthese presents. In witness of which, to this our present writing, I the aforesaid Thomas Knollys have applied my Seal, given inin writing at our foresaid College the seventh day of July in the Year of King Henry the Eighth twenty threeby me Thomas Knollys …
Permission to reproduce the images for inclusion within the Baelfyr granted by the Oxfordshire County Council – Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxfordshire. Copyright is retained by the OHC.
