Chancery Depositions (PRO C2 Jas1 R.1/33 Edw and Rose Roos v Cuckoke and Lunt)

(no date) (1622)

document 16200005

(last sheet) the replication of Edw Ross and Rose his wife to the several answers of Rich Harlakenden esq one of the defendants to the bill of complaint of the said Rose by the name of Rose Partridge widow complainant the said repliants say that the bill of complaint of the said complainant Rose and their bill of revivor thereof are both certain and sufficient in the law for the said defendant to answer unto and that the same bills of complaint and revivor and every clause article and thing in each of them contained are certain and true in such sort manner and form as the same are therein set forth and declared which these repliants are ready to aver and justify and prove as this most honourable court shall direct or award and these repliants further say that the said defendant's answer to the said bill of complaint of the said repliant Rose is very incertain and insufficient in the law for these repliants or for either of them to reply unto and is full of many imperfections and untruths and vain repetitions to draw the same out to an expensive length to put the repliant Rose to great charge in taking out the copy thereof nevertheless all advantage and benefit of exception to the incertainty and insufficiency of the said defendant's several answers these repliants say in every part clause article and thing as in and by their said bill of revivor they have said and as the said Rose in and by her said bill of complaint hath said and these repliants further say that whereas the said defendant seemeth in his answer to tax this repliant Rose with unnaturalness toward her children by her first husband Jeff Cuckoke and to commend his late father Roger Harlakenden and himself for their carefulness in preventing as much as in either of them could be that the repliant Rose her copyhold lands after her decease should descend unto her said children that they think the said carefulness of the said defendant and his late father towards the said children was not for any love or commiseration they or either of them did bear or carry towards the said children but for their the said defendant's and his father's own ends and purposes for that the said defendant and his late father knowing the disposition of the said children to riot and waste they the said Roger Harlakenden and the defendant his son and heir did well know the said children would very quickly after they should come to such an estate in land they would and must quickly sell and make the same away again and that then the said defendant or his said late father being rich and well moneyed men and lords of the said manors the said lands were held of were sure to buy and compass the same at their own rates and these repliants say that the said children of the said repliant Rose by her first husband Jeff Cuckoe have behaved themselves both very disobediently and unnaturally and unworthily towards her this repliant Rose being their natural mother and that she owed much money and being at great costs and charges in the education and bringing up of her said children and in placing them and in binding them apprentices at trades and that they have in such places much discredited her by their ill behaviour and bad government of themselves yet she according to the will of her first husband the said Jeff Cuckoe hath truly paid them all such legacies as were devised by her said husband to them with a good surplusage of her own estate and much more had she and would she have done for them if they had carried and behaved themselves dutifully towards her and by their good living and courses of life made themselves capable thereof without that that the repliant Rose upon her marriage with her second husband Robt Partridge in the bill of complaint named made no manner of provision either of advantage or education of her former husband Jeff Cuckoe's children according to the trust reposed in her as in and by the said defendant's answer is most untruly and scandalously pretended or that by reason thereof some of the said children did go about abegging for their living and the residue in so poor and miserable estate as it was lamentable to see and consider for that beside they had been beaten in such extreme and unnatural manner and sort as they had been oftentimes informed to complain of their said mother's hard and cruel dealing as the said defendant in and by his said answer also most untruly pretendeth and these repliants deny that not long since or at any time upon conference between the said defendant and the complainant Rose touching the sale of most of those lands in question the said defendant having told her that she did know is was not for need that she should make sale of the said lands or any of them and therefore desired she would leave them to her children the said complainant Rose hath answered that never a child she had either by Partridge or her former husband Cuckoe should ever be the better off a penny for any of her lands and that if she did not sell the said lands rather then than any of her children should be the better for them she would give them to some sufficient man that should hold or keep them and the profits of them from her said children as the said defendant in and by his said answer doth likewise most untruly pretend and these repliants further deny that Robt Partridge the son in the said defendant's answer named and the complainant Rose did surrender the premises in question holden of the said manor or Colne Priory to the use of the said Robt Partridge and his heirs as the defendant most untruly in and by his said answer surmiseth or that Edw Girling and Jn Salter in the said bill of complaint and defendant's answer named did enjoy the lands and tenements in question until about .10.33Eliz1 or at any other time or times whatsoever or that the said Robt Partridge with the consent of the now repliant Rose exhibited a bill into her majesties court of chancery against the said Roger Harlakenden Jn Church and Robt Reade in the said defendant's answer named or that she did at any time with her late husband Partridge or otherwise become an humble or any suitor at all unto Roger Harlakenden the defendant's father with great submission or otherwise for their former behaviour or proceeding against him or entreated him that she would upon reasonable or any composition or fine regrant the said lands or tenements unto them or that they entreated one mr Tiffin being a neighbour and very good friend of the said Roger Harlakenden or any other to be a means and mediator for favour and friendship for them as the said defendant in and by his said answer surmiseth for these repliants say and hope to make manifest to this most honourable court that if the said mr Tiffin was any mediator between the said Robt Partridge and the said Roger Harlakenden it was by the procurement and sole mediation of the said Roger and without any consent or allowance of the repliant Rose so that what pretended award or order soever the said mr Tiffin could or did make of the said matters in variance betwixt the said Roger Harlakenden and the said Partridge cannot prejudice her or these repliants any way for this repliant Rose saith that she did know the said Wm Tiffin was a very inward and familiar friend of the said Roger Harlakenden and that if she had any difference with the said mr Roger Harlakenden she would not have referred the same to the award or arbitrament of the said mr Tiffin only without joining some other equal friend of hers with him and thinks her husband Partridge was of the same mind with her without that that on thursday 6.12.36Eliz1 or at any other time the said Robt Partridge with other of the tenants met at the house of the said mr Tiffin at Colne Wake in the said county of Essex and there the said Roger Harlakenden delivered by his own hands seisin and possession of the said lands and tenements to the said Robt Partridge and his heirs or that by virtue thereof the said Robt Partridge was seised of the said lands and tenements and did surrender the same except 6a called Cruds (sic) to the use of the said repliant Rose for the term of her life the remainder to the use of Jeff Cuckoe the elder Jn Cuckoe the younger Francis Cuckoe Jeff Cuckoe the younger Rose Cuckoe Susan Cuckoe children of the said repliant Rose by her former husband Cuckoe and their heirs and that then he surrendered the said 6a to the said Roger Harlakenden and his heirs and the said repliant Rose denieth that she at any time by the said Robt Partridge her husband or otherwise did come and pray to be admitted to her said estate for term of life as aforesaid and was admitted accordingly as the said defendant in and by his said answer untruly surmiseth or that ever she was examined in open court or otherwise or made any surrender of the said lands or any part of them thereupon or that the said Girling and Salter did agree to take their money and surrender the said lands back again for that the said Robt Partridge did publish or give out that he had made a former surrender of the said lands into some of the copyholders hands of the said manor the same were held which might defeat or endamage the estate of the said Girling and Salter but they the said Girling and Salter surrendered the same back for such cause as she the said Rose in and by her said bill of complaint hath set forth and she also denieth that after she had surrendered unto the said defendant the said 6a parcel of the said grove called Curds Grove she offered to sell unto him the residue of her said lands and premises and told him that he should have them 100li or thereabouts better cheap than any other and made him a price thereof as the said defendant in and by his said answer surmiseth without that that any matter or thing in the said defendant's answer contained material or effectual in the law for these repliants or for either of them to reply unto and not here or hereby sufficiently replied unto traversed or denied is true all which matters and things these repliants and each of them are ready to aver justify maintain and prove in such sort manner and form as this most honourable court shall award and therefore they humbly pray as in and by their said bill of revivor they have prayed