Richard and Edith Rolf, of Dulwich, were mentioned in surviving deeds of both 1354 and 1389 (now kept in the Wodehouse Library Archive at Dulwich College) as occupying land adjoining a house on Dulwich Common (London, SE21).  The Rolfs would have been extremely old by then, for fifty-five years earlier, in early September 1334, they figured in one of the most scandalous stories to be found in Dulwich’s manorial Court Rolls, so perhaps whoever drafted the 1389 document may simply have lazily copied from the 1354 deed, without checking that the descriptions remained accurate.

Like many Dulwich denizens of the time, both Richard and Edith were at different times - and, perhaps significantly, not together - ‘presented’ to the View of Frankpledge (a type of manorial court) for infraction of the regulations concerning home brewing, Richard being fined 2d (two pence) in October 1333 and Edith 3d in September 1334.  It was at that same court that the first inkling of the scandal emerged, when Richard Rolf was presented to the court and fined 4d for having struck Philippa Houswode, the wife of William Houswode.  Philippa was judged to have rightly raised hue and cry, but the ‘head pledges’ of the tithing were themselves fined 6d for ignoring her cries (if not also, presumably, her hues).  Richard Rolf was also summoned in an action for trespass brought by the Houswodes (or Hosewodes).

Two months later, in November 1334, the case received a partial hearing.  William and Philippa alleged that on the Thursday before 14th September 1334 Richard Rolf had assaulted Philippa Hosewode, causing her injury, but Richard counter-claimed that Philippa had assaulted him.  The manor jury, however, found against Richard, who was fined 12d, although William Hosewode was also fined for complaining vociferously that Rolf’s fine was too lenient!  That, however, was by no means the end of the matter, for yet another two months later the parties (apart, conspicuously, from Philippa Hosewode) were back in court, with another action for trespass.

Richard Rolf claimed that on the Thursday before the feast of St Peter ad Vincula (‘St Peter’s Chains’, 29th June) in 1334 William Hosewode had carried off Richard’s wife Edith, together with a cow worth ten shillings, and clothes, jewels, and other goods and chattels worth forty shillings, and had not returned any of them, including, apparently, Edith!  William denied the claim and submitted himself to the judgment of the court.  Four months later he paid 6d for the privilege of being granted licence to settle his action with Richard Rolf and enter judgment, which, tantalisingly, is all we are told about how the case was settled.  All we can guess is that, if the Rolfs were then living in one of the properties fronting Dulwich Common, and the Hosewodes were their neighbours, life in that part of Dulwich was as racy over six hundred and sixty years ago as in the steamiest modern television ‘soap opera’.

Patrick A. Darby