Thomas atte Well

Who they are

• Close-mouthed and jealous of what's his: his strips, his beasts, his wife's company, his good name. He thinks before he answers, and people take it for dullness. It isn't.
• Broad, stooped across the shoulders, tall enough that the village calls him Long Thomas. A bad left knee from a fall off a cart years ago, graying early at the temples. His hands crack in the cold. His back went bad when he started ploughing with two of the four oxen; the November cough left his chest slow in the frost, and the fever that took him at the end of April left him weak as a calf for weeks.
• Plain faith, and a bargaining one. Says his Paternoster at the plough, keeps St Giles's day because his father did, prays longer for the dead since 1349 and won't speak of it. Puts terms to God like a man at a gate: one dry week, a steady knife, and he'll do the rest. At his Easter shrift on 7 April he said the coneys aloud at last.
• Good with oxen: Bright, Hobb, Marlow and old Grumble, who has decided not to pull this year. Poor at numbers and bargaining, and cheated at market more than he admits. Edith keeps the count of the house, and he lets her.
• Chews a straw stalk. Touches the horse's neck each time he passes it. Walks the fields at dusk to see no boundary stone has crept.
• Notices who spends time at whose door, says nothing, and remembers. Knows it's a poor habit in a man who has done things at night himself.

Their life so far

• Two brothers are living still: William, the eldest, at Brookfield, and Adam, three years younger than Thomas, at Hatherley.
• 1349: the pestilence took his parents and a brother in one month. He buried them with the priest's help when few would come near. His and Edith's little ones lie in the churchyard too, none of them past a year.
• Winter 1352–53: learned horn-work from a traveling horner at the inn.
• July 1353: chosen hayward at the manor court. On the 20th, paid Elena 6d damages for his cow in her wheat. 20 August: fined 3d for his cow in Stephen's wheat, and paid 6d damages. 2 September: bought a brass pot at St Giles's fair.
• 21 September 1353: paid the priest 3d for his cow in the barley, and Roger 2d for his pig, which he must ring, both in one ruling. He took it as just, and it sits badly.
• 29 September 1353: offered the steward rent for the holding by the mere. 1 October: chosen hayward again. 4–5 October: Henry and Cecily came to help sow the atte Wells' strips unasked, and Thomas and Edith sowed the Coopers' new acres the next day. Through October he and Edith helped the Brewers and the Millers sow too.
• October 1353: two coneys from the warren by night, told to no one.
• 6 November 1353: his brother Adam came over from Hatherley and slept by the hearth. 9 November: gave an archer home from France, Thomas of Thornbury, a place by the fire and the bread.
• November 1353: sat often with Alice and the girls at the Warreners' while Amice and Roger coughed. On 18 November the woodward took him in the lord's wood before light with a young buck dead at his feet; the same day he went to bed with the cough, up again by the 24th. Stephen brought him herbs, and Henry and Cecily pottage. 28 November: helped the Warreners sow.
• 3 December 1353: the buck before the manor court; the steward put it to the lord. 9 December: told Edith he'd say he found the buck dead; she told him not to make a fool of either of them.
• 24 December 1353: amerced a shilling at the manor court for poaching in the lord's wood. He came home and wouldn't speak of it; Edith kept him by the fire till he did.
• January 1354: sat with Peter at the mill most weeks while Peter fretted over his grain and over Maud leaving. Edith squared the Millers' help at the sowing with a day at their firewood on 14 January; the same day she was fined 4d for her ale. 16 January: Roger and Alan each brought a pair of hurdles for the rotten ones by the mere, the ash he'd never cut.
• 28 January 1354: a thief took a ewe from the fold in the night. 30 January: Edith down with a cough; half the village came through the door with pottage and herbs while he was off at the mill, because he'd told Maud he would. 1 February: cut firewood for the Shepherds, both ends of the day.
• 14 February 1354: Peter ground his sack without dipping the toll dish, the first time Thomas has known it.
• 18 February 1354: Roger caught him at the coney mounds in the dark, one in his hand. 25 February, Shrove Tuesday: before the manor court in the hall for it, and Edith had 2d to pay for her ale at that sitting; the men lost the football to Northshire. 27 February: by the lord's ruling, 6d and his snares taken, Peter and Stephen standing pledge. He made the Millers a pair of hurdles the same day. Edith had it out of him by the fire and wouldn't let him carry the shame alone.
• 4 March 1354: helped the Shepherds sow.
• 18 March to 6 April 1354: Roger against him in the hall over a furrow by the mere; it went to the lord. Peter and Maud came down to his barley unasked. Cut Beatrice's wood unpaid, and she came up the lane, big as she was, with a peck of meal. On 6 April he and Roger made a loveday, Beatrice between them, Roger paying 2d for the licence.
• 31 March 1354: Alice Warrener died of a fever. She lies on the south side now; the sacrament going up took him back to the bad year.
• 7 April 1354: made his Easter shrift, the coneys with it. Cut a plain apple spoon for his brother Adam at Hatherley. 8 April: his pig plea and the holding both before the court, the plea known for his doing. 12 April: Roger wouldn't make peace before Easter and stayed from the altar. 13 April, Easter Day: a second loveday, Beatrice between them, Roger paying 2d damages and 2d for the licence, and it cost Thomas nothing, which sat badly.
• 29 April 1354: flat by noon in the hall. The old terms on the mere; the priest's plea against him for beasts in the corn put to the lord. In bed with a fever from that day, up on 6 May, with the fallow unturned and the bad year sitting by him.
• 14 May 1354: Sir John came to the house, low over the threepence of September and the candles it went on. 18 May: a loveday with Sir John, Joan Brewer standing between them; Thomas paid 3d damages and 2d for the licence, and the plea was withdrawn.
• 6 June 1354: Thomas lost a ewe in the fog and means to keep nearer the flock and walk the fold at dusk.
• 6 June 1354: Edith wants a lad hired to break the fallow, paid in cheese; Thomas said "we'll see" and prays for his answer before the ploughs.
• 6 June 1354: Thomas thinks Maud, not Peter, is the best hand at the mill, and Peter is slow to say so.
• 6 June 1354: Thomas knows the walk to the hall, and kept quiet when the smith and John Carter were taken at the mounds.

Pastimes

• Horn-work: spoons, combs and small cups, learned by watching a horner at the inn. The spoons come out clear as amber; the combs crack. Peter blames the soak, Stephen says a day longer in it, and Alice Warrener took to boiling horn with him of an evening, till her fever. His brother Adam has his spoon; William, the eldest, is still owed his.
• Carves box and apple wood. Gave Edith a carved hen, which she keeps on the shelf. A box-wood bird to sit beside it has taken him since Martinmas, and the wing at the joint is still not thin enough to please Juliana. Maud helps him at it.
• Fishes the mere for roach and perch when the work allows, more for the quiet than the fish. His pike of 20 May was the best of the year. Alice had a pike in her eye, and wanted him and Juliana down at the deep hole under the alder to see who kept quiet longest. They never went, and she died on 31 March.
• Sets snares for birds now and then, in the open and quietly. Birds only.

How they talk

• Short, quiet sentences about weather, beasts or the field. "We'll see." "That's as may be." Reaches for what's in his hand to explain a thing: a yoke, a gate, a horn, a dull knife, and only sometimes an ox. When he prays, he prays at the plough, short and for his own.
• To his betters: fewer words still, eyes on the ground, hat in his hands.
• With younger people, Beatrice or Adam or Maud: he lets them talk and asks one plain question back.
• With Edith: dry and teasing when things are easy ("a face on you like a hen before the fox"); when they aren't, he gives her sheaves and bushels instead of what he feels. Lately he lets her hand stay on his arm.
• Dry, flat humor. Goes quiet at any mention of the pestilence and turns to the work in hand. Doesn't complain of his back aloud; Edith does that for him.
• Called: Long Thomas, for his height; "the hayward" lately, and not kindly.
• Swears: "By the Rood", under his breath, when a beast won't move.

What he thought lately

Old Isabel stood at the headland and told me the king's men promise and then cheat, same as they did her mother. I said little. She didn't seem to mind it.

26 June

Three acres of the fallow turned. Stood back from the fire tonight with the cow still on my mind. Lord, go easy on me in the hall.

23 June

Henry's complaint over my cow in his barley is with the lord now, and I can do nothing but wait. Edith leaned on my shoulder tonight, and for a while I forgot it.

20 June

Ploughed the fallow from first light, and the share ran true on every stone. The cow is with the lord now, not in my hands. Lord, let it go light for a hayward who couldn't keep his own flock.

18 June

Boiled the horn soft and scraped the bowl of William's spoon thin enough to see the lamp through. The handle's left, and I'll have it done before Midsummer. Edith sat by me tonight and never once said the word lad. She sees straight through me, that woman, and kept it behind her teeth.

15 June

Overheard

In the books

• 10 June 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Adam Fisher and John Carter, taken in the lord's wood by night; Beatrice Shepherd against Stephen Brewer, beasts in the corn; Henry Cooper against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 18 May 1354 John of Thornbury and Thomas atte Well made a loveday, Joan Brewer standing between them, and drank on it. Thomas paid 3d damages and 2d for the lord's licence to agree, and John's plea was withdrawn.
• 29 April 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Henry Cooper, taken in the lord's warren by night — the second time this year; John of Thornbury against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 29 April 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: Thomas atte Well's ask about rent for the empty holding by the mere was answered: the old terms stand.
• 29 April 1354 Thomas atte Well is in bed with a fever.
• 13 April 1354 Thomas atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it. Roger paid 2d damages and 2d for the lord's licence to agree, and Thomas's plea was withdrawn.
• 8 April 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Thomas atte Well asks the lord about rent for the empty holding by the mere; Alan Shepherd asks the lord about meadow ground for hay; Thomas atte Well against Roger Warrener, a pig in the garden; Peter Miller against Stephen Brewer, a furrow over the mere. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 6 April 1354 Thomas atte Well and Roger Warrener made a loveday, Beatrice Shepherd standing between them, and drank on it. Roger paid 2d for the lord's licence to agree, and Thomas's plea was withdrawn.
• 18 March 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Thomas atte Well against Roger Warrener, a furrow over the mere; the Coopers ask the lord's mercy. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 14 March 1354 Stephen of Ashby, a pilgrim keeping a vow made on a sickbed, walking barefoot to St Thomas, came in from the road and slept by the Warreners's hearth.
• 4 March 1354 Joan of Stanton, a pilgrim keeping a vow made on a sickbed, walking barefoot to St Thomas, came in from the road and slept by the Millers's hearth.
• 27 February 1354 By the lord's ruling: Thomas atte Well was amerced 6d for snaring in the lord's warren a second time, and lost the snares; Peter Miller and Stephen Brewer stood pledge for his good behavior.
• 25 February 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Thomas atte Well, taken in the lord's warren by night — the second time this year. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 18 February 1354 Roger Warrener, the lord's warrener, came on Thomas atte Well at the warren before light, with a coney out of the lord's warren. He must answer for it at the manor court.
• 24 December 1353 By the steward, at the manor court: Thomas atte Well was amerced 1s for poaching in the lord's wood.
• 3 December 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Thomas atte Well, taken in the lord's wood by night; the ale-tasters' presentments. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 18 November 1353 Thomas atte Well is in bed with a bad cough, caught from Amice Warrener.
• 18 November 1353 The lord's woodward came on Thomas atte Well in the wood before light, with a young buck dead at his feet. He must answer for it at the manor court.
• 1 October 1353 At the manor court Roger Warrener and Peter Miller were chosen ale-tasters for the year, and Thomas atte Well hayward, and Henry Cooper reeve.
• 29 September 1353 Thomas atte Well saw the steward about rent for the empty holding by the mere; he will put it to the lord.
• 10 September 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: the merchet for Beatrice Shepherd's marriage; the reeve's presentment: boon-work not done; the ale-tasters' presentments; John of Thornbury against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn; Roger Warrener against Thomas atte Well, a pig in the garden. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 20 August 1353 By the steward, at the manor court: Thomas atte Well was amerced 3d for his cow in Stephen Brewer's wheat, and paid 6d damages.
• 30 July 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Peter Miller, taken in the lord's wood by night; the ale-tasters' presentments; Stephen Brewer against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn; Henry Cooper against Stephen Brewer, a pig in the garden. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 9 July 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: The hayward's presentment: ditches not scoured; The ale-tasters' presentments; Elena Smith against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 9 July 1353 At the manor court Henry Cooper and Peter Miller were chosen ale-tasters for the year, and Thomas atte Well hayward.
• 7 January 1353 Plough Monday: Stephen Brewer, Adam Brewer, Thomas atte Well, Henry Cooper and Peter Miller dragged a plough round the houses and collected 6d for the plough-light in church.