[Lawyer's letter] Autograph Letter Signed "Richard Curelys", lawyer or Chancery official, to "the worshipful John Sothwell [Southwell], esquyr".

Author: 
Richard Curlys, lawyer or Chancery official
Publication details: 
No place, 16 Jan. [ny; First half of C16th?]. See below.
£150.00
SKU: 15551

One page, sm. Folio, bifolium, staining but text clear and complete. It is a letter from a lawyer or Chancery official by the name of Richard Curelys, addressed to 'the worshipful John Sothwell, esquyr'. Richard informs John that he has sought writs of Supersedeas and Dedimus potestatem from the Lord Chancellor, but that these will not be granted unless John's attorney and the plaintiff's attorney both make declaration of the truth of the (unspecified) matter. Richard provides legal advice. He tells John to cause Mr. Daundy to hold the sheriff harmless and to be 'here' by the beginning of the legal term to swear an affidavit. He also advises John to have a commission ready to take Mr. Daundy's answer at Ipswich, if the court decides, at the beginning of the case, that there is cause to have his answer. Richard thinks that when term begins and the Lord Chancellor is surrounded by advisors experienced in the order of law, he will grant the writ of Supersedeas and create a commission, since it will be obvious that the plaintiff's cause is simply vexatious. The letter is dated 16th of January (no year). The hand and spelling of certain words suggests that this letter dates to the first half of the sixteenth century. Note that Robert Daundy (d. 1558), a prominent merchant and official in Ipswich, acted with a John Southwell as executor of the will of Henry Tooley in 1550. Perhaps this accounts for the connection between the men.