Bill of Complaint Alice Polsted v. Francis Whitepaine

Record title: Bill of Complaint Alice Polsted v. Francis Whitepaine
Repository: TNA
Shelfmark: C 3/139/4
Repository location: Kew

Alice Polsted was the widow and an executrix of Henry Polsted, who died on 10 December 1555 (the will was proved on 16 May 1556; see TNA: PROB 11/38/39, and C 142/106/56). Her 1559 bill of complaint in Chancery survives with the answer (and denial) of the defendant, Francis Whitepaine, attached. It relates to her suit for recovery of debts from Francis, heir to her receiver John Whitepaine. Included in the Polsted estates on Bankside were the bear yard of which John Allen had held the farm at £8 per annum in 1552/3; see Polsted complaint in the Court of Augmentations. By this date in 1559, it seems the property was farmed by Robert Wistowe.

Oscar Brownstein implied that Robert was an alias for Edward Wistowe, who managed the bear yard on the Barge, Bell and Cock property from about 1572-3; see Court of Requests: Edward Bowes v. John Digges and John Gape. This cannot be substantiated and thus the link Brownstein is assuming between the two Bear Gardens before Henslowe and Alleyn acquired them in the 1590s is tenuous; see Brownstein, 'Burbage,' p 83; 'Popularity,' p 249, n 64.

The evidence survives in the C 3 series, Court of Chancery: Six Clerks Office: Pleadings, Series II, Elizabeth I to Interregnum.

1559; English; parchment; 2 membranes; mb 1 (bill): 605 mm x 230mm, mb 2 (answer): 435mm x 140mm; fading and creasing to the right of mb 1: attached on centre right with a parchment tag, no endorsement. Item numbered 4 in pencil and stored with other documents from the same year in a large brown box.

The National Archives (UK), ref. C 3/139/4