On the Tuesday after the feast of St John the Apostle [11 May 1316], the Coroner and Sheriffs heard that Thomas the Baker lay dead in the common sewer below the City wall in Cripplegate. Acting on this information, they made their way there and opened an inquest.
The jurors found that at curfew on the previous Sunday, Thomas had gone to Robert the Head Baker’s house, in St Alban’s parish in Cripplegate, and demanded wages for his period of employment, but that Robert had refused to pay him. When Thomas repeated his demand, voices were raised between them, but Robert still refused to pay. Thomas continued to repeat his demand as he followed Robert up the staircase to the sitting room. Robert then turned on Thomas and thrust him violently downstairs. When Thomas fell to the ground, he broke his neck and died. During the night, John of Shrewsbury, John of Oxford and Thomas of Reigate, who were Robert’s servants at the time, took Thomas Baker’s body to the sewer, where it lay until the Tuesday. When it was viewed by the Coroner, the broken neck was obvious.
The jury found that, by not intervening, John of Shrewsbury, John of Oxford and Thomas of Reigate had effectively consented to the crime. They reported that Robert the Head Baker and his servants remained in the house until the following Tuesday, when Robert ran away just as the Coroner arrived. They did not know what became of him or who might have given him shelter. On the Coroner’s instructions, the three servants had been arrested and taken to Newgate prison. The jurors found that no-one except Robert and Thomas had been present at the scene of crime, together with the three servants and Robert’s wife Margery. As for Robert’s goods and chattels, any that he owned were in his house. There were no other suspects apart from Robert and the servants. On the following day, the jury valued Robert’s goods and chattels at 33 shillings and four pence, and these were placed in the safekeeping of one of the Sheriffs.
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