Remembered

Alice Warrener

26, harvest hand and gleaner, wife of Roger the warrener; the Warreners, come from Hatherley in May 1353 with their girls Amice (6) and Margery (3). Laid up from 6 November, when a falling bough caught her across the back and leg cutting wood; on her feet again since late January, at the nets with Roger and baking standing up.

House: The Warreners
Born: about 1328
Died: 31 March 1354, aged 26
Husband: Roger Warrener
Daughter: Amice Warrener
Daughter: Margery Warrener

Who they are

Warm and quick and teasing with everyone: a joke, a "love," a hand on a sleeve. It's how she was raised among harvest hands, where you laugh or you weep. She likes to be liked and can't hide it.
Jealous of ease: of women who were born here and are asked in without thinking, of Joan who has the inn's warmth, of Maud whom everyone calls by name. She knows it's small and covers it with praise.
Small, brown from field work and gone pale with the winter indoors, a gap in her front teeth and a laugh people turn to hear. Her hair escapes her veil.
Strong in the harvest field: binds sheaves faster than most men reap. Eleven weeks on the bench were a penance. The leg bears her to the mill and the lake now, and sulks by evening; she puts it up on the bench and says she isn't.
Prays the way she was taught: a farthing candle to Our Lady when she's frightened, St Anne for the girls, and a carol under her breath the rest of the time. She'd sooner sing than say a prayer out loud.
Bad with money and with keeping quiet: news goes in at her door and out again, a little louder, and she's sorry afterward. Good with children and with a crowd.

Their life so far

Born in Hatherley, the daughter of laboring folk. Her parents died in the pestilence of 1349.
Married Roger at Hatherley. Amice was born about 1347, Margery about 1351.
After the plague she worked harvests for wages and gleaned for the family's bread.
30 May 1353: came with Roger and the girls to keep the lord's warren at Ambermead. In June she was among the first to carry food to the Smiths when Walter fevered, and she and Elena became friends.
July 1353: took a pike near a yard long from the lake (12th). Late July: carried pottage to the Millers and sat with Maud in her fever.
September 1353: Roger brought her gown cloth from St Giles's fair. She gleaned with Cecily, and lent her thread.
October 1353: sat with Alan Shepherd in the flux. Late in the month she went to the forge at last and sat with Elena over a cup.
5 November 1353: helped the priest's household and the atte Wells with their sowing.
6 November 1353: struck by a falling bough cutting wood, and laid up. Juliana brought herbs that day.
November 1353 to January 1354: the house kept by the neighbors: pottage from Edith, Elena, Joan, Stephen, Adam, Henry, Thomas, Agnes, Beatrice and Sir John; firewood from Cecily, Henry and Agnes; alms at the church door from the Brewers, the Millers and the Shepherds.
26 November 1353: word came that her sister Maud has a new baby at Thornbury.
January 1354: mended shirts for the Brewers and the atte Wells (2nd) and hemmed coifs for the Coopers and the Fletchers (9th), sitting up in bed. The lord refused the Warreners mercy on the rent (14th). Up and at the nets again by the 23rd, when she carried a peck of meal to the Coopers.
February 1354: sat with Edith in her cough (1st); walked to Candlemas Mass with her own candle (2nd); took the atte Wells a peck of meal (6th) and sat with Beatrice while Alan lay in his fever.
13 February 1354: Alice is mending well from the bough: carrying grain, baking standing, working the nets, though back and shoulders tire by evening.
13 February 1354: Alice worries over Roger's rattling chest, his pride that will not ask for help, and the rent still owed at five shillings five pence.
13 February 1354: Alice keeps an eye on her old friend Beatrice, alone with the sheep and a child coming while Alan lies in fever.
13 February 1354: Alice is sewing a cloth for Henry's little carved ox, meaning to make him laugh, and finds Elena's dry wit a joy.
27 February 1354: Alice's sister Maud came over from Thornbury and told her all about the baby; Alice longs to hold it once the roads dry.
27 February 1354: Alice worries for Roger: his chest, his counting the seed rye at night, and the abbey flails she means to keep him from.
27 February 1354: Alice and Isabel were civil to each other in the spring field, though neither said a word about January.
27 February 1354: Alice still means to take Edith the hem herself, remembering Thomas carrying pottage up through the snow, warren or no warren.
11 March 1354: Alice keeps a tally of what neighbors have done for her house against what she has done back, and Henry and Stephen's sowing puts her behind.
11 March 1354: Edith's hem has lain folded on her bench since before March; she means to carry it down herself after Mass.
11 March 1354: Roger goes short with her the moment she says the word grange.
11 March 1354: She means to cut Amice a strip of the red gown cloth before the cap is made.

Pastimes

Singing: carols, harvest songs, and the rude ballads she learned at Hatherley. Sang every carol on 30 January, the first night she felt herself again. Margery won't settle without a song.
Dancing at feasts and church-ales. She swore she'd be dancing by Candlemas, and walked to the church with her candle instead.
Snaring finches in the hedge by the Hatton road; she taught Elena the knot in the summer. The rag finch Amice made her sits on the shelf.
Fishing: took a pike near a yard long in July, and means to take a bigger one now she's sound. Brought home an eel thick as her wrist in the February fog.
Twisting twine with Adam Brewer of an evening; her lay is no better than his.

How they talk

Quick, teasing, warm, laughter in it. "Love." "Sit you down before you fall down." "Don't think I didn't see that." Not all at once.
Turns sharp in a breath when she feels slighted, then sorry in another.
With the priest: careful at first, eyes down; this winter, with him at her door most days, she found herself talking to him plainly, and it surprises her still.
With the girls: singing more than talking.
When she's ashamed, she makes a joke of it before anyone else can: "I'd have eaten the cat if it sat still."
Called: Alice of Hatherley.
Swears: "Lord love us!" and "by Our Lady" when she's frightened.

What she thought lately

Maud's baby, not held yet. Sir John's shape in the door again. Mag wants her song and I've no breath. St Anne, sing it for me.
30 March

Hatherley stubble, the sun on my neck, binding and can't stop. It's only the bed. Sir John again. Roger hasn't moved.
29 March

Edith's voice, and the smell of Agnes's pottage too much for me. One long heat. Bring the girls where I can hear them, love.
28 March

Bea's voice by the bed, then Sir John's. Roger's hand on mine, and that one I'd know in the dark.
27 March

Edith here, and her hem still on my bench. Sir John, the bread on my tongue. Hot, then cold. Our Lady, keep me by my girls.
26 March

Overheard

31 March, morning at the woods · Cecily Cooper and Alice Warrener

Cecily: You're out early with that bundle, Alice. Is that the last of the ash you cut at the hedge bottom, or have you got Roger hauling dead elm again from the lord's wood? My back was in two pieces by noon yesterday, and the sleet came down on the faggots before I could get the lot under cover.

Alice: Roger's got the cart and the lord's leave for one more load, God help us. The wood's green as a leek and it smokes like the devil, so I'd sooner have the dry stuff off the Hatton road, but the miller wants his toll paid in kind before Peter will let us grind, and I've no grist to give him. Did you hear Gilbert of Hatherley came through last night? He had a bed of Sir John's and went off this morning with a little lead flask of St Thomas's water round his neck, swearing it cured him of the flux on the road.

Cecily: I heard the lad at the well say so, and that he'd sworn to the priest he'd carry the water on to Hatherley and sprinkle the whole village with it. I believe it, Alice, though Isabel says a man who has a relic on a string will tell you anything. Those flasks are dear for what's in them. I'd rather have a clean spoon and a good prayer for Amice's chest.

29 March, midday at the home · Alice Warrener and Beatrice Shepherd

Beatrice: God keep you, Alice. I've brought the pottage from Sir John's, Isabel sent it hot and told me to sit with you till it's eaten, so I'll sit. Your Roger's gone to the warren and the girls are with Elena, I saw Mag at the door.

Alice: Lord love us, Bea, you needn't sit on my account, you'll have the cold off the floor. Set it there by the fire. I can't keep a thing down this morning, but I'll try for Isabel's sake.

Beatrice: You'll eat it, and I'll tell you what I heard, for it's been on me all week. Robert Fisher said to Joan Brewer's door, eight days since, that the new parish will be good to them, and the Lord keep them as He kept them three days on the road from Fairford. He said it like a man who'd been near drowned and come out of it lucky.

Alice: Three days on the road, and the new parish good to them. Well, I hope it's so, the poor boy looked half starved at the church door. Though I'd not hang my hopes on Robert's tongue, he'd tell you the mill was on fire if it made him sound important. And you're sitting there with that cloth again, wearing the table through.

In the books

31 March 1354 Alice Warrener was buried in the churchyard, on the south side.
31 March 1354 Alice Warrener, 26, died of a fever.
25 March 1354 Alice Warrener is gravely ill with a fever.
12 December 1353 Word came by a carter on the road that Joan Brewer's sister Alice has married at Hatherley.
30 May 1353 Roger Warrener came from Hatherley with his wife Alice and two children, Amice and Margery, and took up the keeping of the lord's warren.

The daily round (47 more)

29 March Beatrice Shepherd took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
29 March John of Thornbury brought the sacrament to Alice Warrener.
28 March Agnes Fletcher took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
28 March Isabel of Kingsley took a remedy of herbs to Alice.
27 March John of Thornbury brought the sacrament to Alice Warrener.
26 March John of Thornbury brought the sacrament to Alice Warrener.
26 March Adam Fisher took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
25 March Juliana Miller took a remedy of herbs to Alice Warrener.
6 March Alice Warrener took the Shepherds a peck of meal, in return for their kindness.
19 February Alice Warrener called on the Brewers.
17 February Alice Warrener helped the Millers with their sowing.
15 February Maud of Thornbury, Alice Warrener's sister, came over for the day and slept by the Warreners' hearth.
13 February Alice Warrener took the Brewers a peck of meal, in return for their kindness.
6 February Alice Warrener took the atte Wells a peck of meal, in return for their kindness.
1 February Alice Warrener called on the atte Wells.
23 January Alice Warrener took the Coopers a peck of meal, in return for their kindness.
19 January Beatrice Shepherd took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
9 January Alice Warrener hemmed a coif for the Fletchers, sitting up in bed, in return for their kindness.
9 January Alice Warrener hemmed a coif for the Coopers, sitting up in bed, in return for their kindness.
5 January Agnes Fletcher took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
2 January Alice Warrener mended a shirt for the atte Wells, sitting up in bed, in return for their kindness.
2 January Alice Warrener mended a shirt for the Brewers, sitting up in bed, in return for their kindness.
25 December Agnes Fletcher took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
23 December Elena Smith took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
21 December Henry Cooper took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
20 December Stephen Brewer took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
19 December Thomas atte Well took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
18 December John of Thornbury took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
13 December Thomas atte Well took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
10 December Henry Cooper took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
9 December Elena Smith took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
30 November John of Thornbury took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
26 November Word came by a traveler that Alice Warrener's sister Maud at Thornbury has a new baby.
24 November Edith atte Well took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
23 November Elena Smith took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
23 November Edith atte Well took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
22 November Edith atte Well took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
16 November Joan Brewer took pottage to Alice at the Warreners.
16 November Stephen Brewer took a remedy of herbs to Alice.
15 November Joan Brewer took a remedy of herbs to Alice.