York Historic Environment Record

In both 1276 and 1290 the tenement was described as the land of Nicholas de Langton senior (1), and it may well have been the major residence of his family since was burdened with a special responsibility to the sustenance of his chantry (2). On 25 May 1315 Nicholas de Langton senior granted to Dominus Robert de Thurnerton and his successors at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the church of Holy Trinity, Colliergate, for the souls of himself and Margaret his wife, six marks annual rent in York, including two marks from this tenement. If this proved insufficient, the holder of Tenement 31 was to pay six marks instead of two, and was also to be responsible for the whole sum if it could not be levied from the other tenements or had by other
means. The chaplain was to have the right of distraint if the rent was in arrears by 40 days, and the mayor and commonalty of the city were to administer the chantry if his
heirs failed to (2). Nicholas had already acquired the licence for this alienation between 1308 and 1314. The tenement was held of the king by service of paying 2d. husgable according to the custom of the city of York, and there was no other mediate lord. Langton was said to have another six messuages in the city of York for 6d. husgable, worth ,10 a year (3, 4).

Thirteen years later the family chantry was augmented, although the property supporting the endowment was not described. On 7 February 1328 a licence was issued to Nicholas de Langton junior to assign 6 marks rent from unspecified property in York for the souls of himself, his wife Mary, and William de Touthorp at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Holy Trinity, King's Court. The rent was held of the king in chief for 1d. a year husgable (5, 6).

Between 1334 and 1348 Tenement 31 was regularly described as belonging to the Langton family. In January 1334 it was described as the tenement of Nicholas de Langton, by April 1342 Dominus Peter de Langton and in January 1348 the land of John de Langton (7).

A new chantry was endowed in 1378 when a licence was granted to William Graa, citizen and merchant, and Robert de Wycliff, parson of St Crux York, to assign an annual rent of 10 marks to a chaplain for the souls of John de Langton, Beatrix and Margery his wives, William de Garton, and for John's parents (Nicholas and Mary), at the altar of St Katherine, virgin, in Holy Trinity, King's Court. The rent of 10 marks included 20s. from land in Petergate lying between the land of John de Beverley and land once of Robert de Lyndesay, 6s. from shops (seldis) of John de Beverley in Petergate, 2s. 2d. from the tenement of Nicholas Belsire, and 4s. from land once of Robert de Lyndesay in Petergate (8, 9). While some of these rents may have been owed from this property they may equally have been owed from properties owned by the Langton family in Tenements 33 35 and 37.

In 1546 the chantry of St John the Baptist in Holy Trinity, King's Court was said to have been founded by John son of Nicholas de Langton on 20 May, 1 Richard II, 1364 (sic), and had property in Petergate described as follows:

j shope in tholdyng of Humfrey, vjs. viijd.
j litle garth in tholding of the said Humfrey, xijd.
and j ten. in tholdyng of Laurence Bewer, vijs.
lying in Petergate in Yorke, xiiijs, viijd. (10).

References
1 Abutments from Tenement 30; YML, L2/1 pt iv, fos 43v 44;
L2/2a fo 21r v; VC 3/Vi 325
2 YCA, G.1a
3 Writ 25 Oct. 1308, Reply 15 Jan. 1309, PRO, C.143/75/8
4 10 July 1314, Cal. Pat. 1313 17, 156
5 PRO, C.143/194/4
6 Cal. Pat 1327 30, 231
7 Abutments from Tenement 32 and from property in
Girdlergate; YML, VC 3/Vi 318, 427; BL, Cotton MS Nero D
iii, fo 134
8 PRO, C.143/393/5
9 Cal. Pat 1377 81, 216
10 Yorkshire Chantry Certificates, 1, 77

Sarah Rees Jones, 1987, Property, tenure and rents: some aspects of the topography and economy of medieval York (Unpublished document). SYO1072.