Sudden Death in 1271

Volume 41 produced by Bedfordshire Historical Records Society in 1961 is devoted to 13th and 14th century coroner's rolls for Bedfordshire from the National Archives, edited and translated by R. F. Hunnisett. Entry number 39 concerns a sudden death: “After sunset on 18 July 1271 Simon of Langnoe, servant of the prior of Cauldwell at ‘le Ermitage’ in the parish of Milton Ernest. Stodden Hundred, namely a cottager and clerk of the chapel, took a stoup in his hand, intending to go to milk a cow in the courtyard of the prior’s barn in the hermitage, and as he came to the middle of the courtyard he had an illness called ‘mau del flaunke’ [literally a disease of the side – perhaps a stroke?], fell down and immediately died by misadventure. Geoffrey son of John le Bonde first saw him dead and shouted, and John of Dunstable, canon of Cauldwell, and John of Chalton, who were in the courtyard, came. Geoffrey found pledges, Richard Dreu ad John de Rondes of Milton Ernest; John of Chalton found pledges, John de Rondes and Robert le Dipere of Milton Ernest; but John of Dunstable did not find pledges before the coroner, and so was ordered that he be attached”.