National Archives file C5/353/38

Answer of Robert HERBERT

The Several answer of the Honourable Robert HERBERT Esquire an infant under the age of one and twenty years by the right Honourable Thomas Earl of Pembroke his father and guardian one of the defendants to the Bill of Complaint of James CLIFTON Gentleman one of the executors of the Last Will and Testament of John BIGNOLD Gent. deceased Richard MEEDEN, Lawrence LEDGER and William JEWER, John FOWKES, John RUSSELL and John BUXALL Complainants.

This defendant saving and reserving to himself now and at all times hereafter the benefit and advantage of // exceptions to the manifold uncertainties insufficiencies and imperfections in the Complainant’s said Bill of Complaint // contained for answer thereunto or unto so much thereof as this defendant is advised materially concerns him to make answer // unto He saith he believes it may be true that John BIGNOLD the father in the said Bill of Complaint named was in // his lifetime seized in fee or of some other estate of inheritance according to the customs of the Manor of Alta Clera alias // High Clere alias Burgh Clere in the County of Southampton [Hampshire] in the Complainant’s Bill mentioned of and in several // copyhold messuage lands and tenements held of the said manor. But whether the said John BIGNOLD // made any such Will in writing and thereby devised the said Copyhold messuages lands and tenements for // Such purposes as by the said Bill is set forth this defendant doth not know but refers himself to such Will when the same // shall be produced and proved. And this defendant confesses that he this defendant is Lord and Owner of the said Manor // of Alta Clera. But this defendant doth not know nor hath he had any notice but by the Complainants said Bill of // Complaint that the said John BIGNOLD made any surrender of the said Copyhold premises or any part of them to the use of // his Last Will and Testament. And whether the want of such surrender according to the custom of the said manor or if // any surrender was made and not duly taken by the Steward or Tenants of the said manor whether such defect // ought to be supplied in a Court of Equity or not or whether this defendant ought or ought not to admit the [?] // Of the said Will to hold the said Copyhold premises according to the devise alleged to be in the said Will. Or whether this // Defendant shall be compelled so to do he this defendant humbly submits himself therein and upon the matter to the // Judgement of this Honourable Court and shall be ready and willing to act and do in that behalf whatever // shall be decreed and directed by this Honourable Court and humbly craves the care and protection thereof that the // Defendant’s said manor and his estate therein may not be prejudiced by any direction that shall be given in this cause // And have his usual fine and costs of this suite before either party be admitted to the premises in question. And // This defendant denies all and all manner of unlawful confederacy or combination charged against him in and by the // Said Bill of Complaint Without that that any other matter or thing in the complainant’s said Bill of Complaint contained // material or effectual in the Law for him this defendant to make answer unto and not herein and hereof well and sufficiently // answered unto confessed or avoided transversed or denied is true. All which matters and things this defendant is and shall be // ready to [?] justify maintain and prove as this Honourable Court shall award and humbly prays to be hence dismissed with // his reasonable Costs and Charges in this behalf most wrongfully and without just cause sustained.

Wm ETTTRICKE

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