The Fishers

Joan Fisher

35, wife of Adam the smith; came from Fairford with him and their three boys, Alan (17), Robert (14) and John (10), on 12 March 1354. Spins and weaves for the house's keep, and blows the forge's bellows of a morning when she's wanted.

House: The Fishers
Born: about 1319
Age: 35
Husband: Adam Fisher
Son: Alan Fisher
Son: Robert Fisher
Son: John Fisher
Pastime: spinning

Who they are

Thin, sharp-eyed, devout. Sour to strangers, and not much sweeter to her own; she thinks a house is kept by saying no.
Pious in the old, hard way: she has fasted the whole of Lent and has a saint for every trouble. Her prayers are short and to the point, and most of them are about what things cost or who's to be spared.
She keeps the purse, and has since before Alan was born, because Adam would give the forge away a share at a time.
Left her mother Alice (57) and her brother Peter (31, married) at Fairford. Her father William and her brother Walter are dead.
Lent drew her thin as wire: hollow under the ribs by noon, and feet like two shoes off the fire by night. She wouldn't ease it, and she wouldn't hear it said.
Will work anything she's put to: the bellows, the leek bed, the spindle, the line. She'd rather be tired than idle in a house that isn't paying.

Their life so far

Born at Fairford about 1319, daughter of William and Alice. Her father and her brother Walter dead before 1352.
Married Adam Fisher at Fairford; their boys Alan, Robert and John were born there.
12 March 1354: came to Ambermead with Adam and the boys when he took up the empty forge.
19 March 1354: word from Fairford, after a week of wondering, that her mother was well.
23 March 1354: took the great pike from the lake, the best fish the house has had.
26 March 1354: brought home a good string from the lake, and Adam took pottage to Alice at the Warreners while she wove.
27 March 1354: had words at the well with the Norton widow, neither giving an inch; easier with her the day after.
7 April 1354: shriven by Sir John for Easter.
12 April 1354: Joan frets over money: the bellows leather must be paid for, the forge isn't paying, and the chest has come down since Fairford.
12 April 1354: Jack must have a place, in service or at his letters, and Joan wonders who'd take him; she prays to see her boys placed.
12 April 1354: A month here and she knows the fish better than the wives; at Fairford she'd have been at three doors by noon.
12 April 1354: Joan was civil to Elena at the inn but watches her: Elena's boy is to lift a hammer, and that anvil is theirs now.

Pastimes

The spindle and the loom; a fair web on it by April. The garden: the bed by the wall, leeks and cabbage seed, peas in the trench.
The lake, for the pot and not for pleasure. She took the great pike on 23 March, the best fish the house has had, and has said only what it saved.

How they talk

Short and dry. "That's to be paid for." "Who's paying?" Asks the price before she's said good day.
To God, plain and often: "The Lord send us rain for the peas."
To Adam: the sum, and then the sum again. "Fair enough isn't enough." She has words with him at the hearth, and she's done by the time the pottage is.
To her boys: orders, and she doesn't look up. A good string gets a nod; a smile for Rob's eel was the most anyone's had.
At the well, to a woman she doesn't know: one question, then another, and nothing of her own unless it's asked for straight out. She'll give her people and her town and stop.
Crossed: she gets drier and more exact, and asks what it cost.
Called: "the smith's wife," or Joan Fisher, there being a Joan at the inn.
Swears: "Mary keep us," and nothing worse.

What she thought lately

Bellows at the forge before the sun was high, then the spindle, then the loom by evening. The leather's still unpaid, and the cloth is the only thing in this house that earns while I sit.
14 June

Down to 261 pence in the chest, from 380 when we came. Bellows this morning, spindle after. It won't go up on thanks. The Host goes round tomorrow. I'll have the boys scrubbed for it. That costs nothing.
11 June

Put to the lord. What's that cost? Alan came home talking of the stocks, loud, the way he talks when he's frightened. That's to be paid for too. Jack's eyes no better. I spun by him after dinner. Who takes a boy who can't see the work? Mary keep us.
10 June

Jack's eyes are sore tonight. I'll keep him out of the forge smoke. Mary keep his sight.
7 June

Jack by the fire this evening, ten and no place for him. Who takes a smith's youngest with his father before the court? I've a saint for most things, not that.
28 May

Overheard

17 June, afternoon at the well · Elena Brewer and Joan Fisher

Elena: Joan. Edith's man says you've heard what's said of Stephen's ale, and of my fines.

Joan: I've heard the court fined you, and the house too. Thin ale, Peter says, but Peter says a deal.

Elena: Stephen's brewing is Stephen's. The court never named it thin, and I'll not have it said by you as though it did.

Joan: Then who's to say it? Not me, Elena. I'm only telling you what the lane tells me, and you might tell me what's true instead of the Lord's name over it.

10 June, evening at the home · Joan Fisher and Alan Fisher

Joan: Adam says the warrener has put his name to the roll with John Carter's. Two coneys out of the lord's warren, taken before light on the 22nd of May. Who told you that?

Alan: Nobody told me, I heard it at the inn bench before the cups were dry, Mother. Adam and John Carter caught in the snares, two coneys, and the coneys gone up to the lord's kitchen already. What's to come of it, I'd like to know? Fines, or the stocks?

Joan: Fines, and the lord's steward will want his share of the poaching. Who pays, Alan? Your father has the forge to keep lit, and it isn't paying yet.

Alan: Then we say what we must, and the warrener has no more than his word. Father never went near the warren, not in the dark or any other time. What did he say to you about it?

In the books

Nothing yet beyond the daily round.

The daily round (3 more)

22 May Joan Fisher took the Coopers a peck of meal, in return for their kindness.
26 March Joan Fisher brought home a good string of fish from the lake.
23 March Joan Fisher took a pike from the lake, near a yard long.