The most wafer-thin of snippets … just something in a plea roll that has rather intrigued me.
In the King’s Bench plea roll for Hilary term 1422, there is mention in passing of [spelling modernised] ‘the Blind Butcher of Stanyate/Stangate’.[i] The entry is really more about his recent apprentice, John Butcher, who had been accused of an offence by an approver. But enough of the nefarious or unfortunate John Butcher – it’s his former master who is the interesting one. This man was, presumably, well-known as well as unusual (thus the description and the lack of a name – presumably there were not multiple blind butchers). However, he appears to have been running a successful operation despite his disability, since he had, until recently, had this apprentice. I would have thought of butchery as a rather difficult thing to do without good sight, what with all of the cleaving and flesh-hewing, but perhaps a master-butcher could delegate the actual chopping to his minions. An odd thing for a vegetarian to be cheering on this medieval meat-man, but find that I am rather impressed at his pluck and competence.
GS
30/10/2024
Image: some deads. Photo by Kyle Mackie on Unsplash