Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- PART I THE CELYS AND THEIR CIRCLE, 1474–82
- PART II THE WOOL TRADE
- PART III RICHARD AND GEORGE CELY, 1482–9
- 10 Richard and George, 1482–3
- 11 ‘The world goeth on wheels’, 1482–5
- 12 Marriage and housekeeping
- 13 Warfare and trade, 1486–9
- 14 The Margaret Cely of London
- 15 Charge and discharge, the Celys' finances, 1482–9
- Postscript on later family history
- Select bibliography
- Index
12 - Marriage and housekeeping
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- PART I THE CELYS AND THEIR CIRCLE, 1474–82
- PART II THE WOOL TRADE
- PART III RICHARD AND GEORGE CELY, 1482–9
- 10 Richard and George, 1482–3
- 11 ‘The world goeth on wheels’, 1482–5
- 12 Marriage and housekeeping
- 13 Warfare and trade, 1486–9
- 14 The Margaret Cely of London
- 15 Charge and discharge, the Celys' finances, 1482–9
- Postscript on later family history
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Matchmaking was an enormously serious business for the parties and their relations, and a favourite sport for those less directly involved in the outcome. In April 1484, shortly before the alarm about illegal payments by John De Lopez, George Cely was conducting marital negotiations in two quarters. In the small merchant community, these proceedings were watched with great interest, and at Calais William Cely, acting on instructions, sounded a friend or relative of one of George's prospects without revealing his own identity:
As touching the matter that your mastership wrote me of Thomas White, mercer, in certain, sir, I spake with him, and he dined at home with mine hostess (howbeit he knew not me). And there he showed how that that matter lay betwixt another man and you. Howbeit he said she had you more in favour than the t'other man. But, sir, ye have his good will.
This is one of those letters which bear evidence of intermittent construction. Writing could be a slow and tedious business, and sometimes quite a long period would elapse between the completion of one sentence and the moment when a correspondent took up his pen to continue with the next. Such an interruption occurred at this point, and when William resumed, his earlier news had become irrelevant.
- Type
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- Information
- The Celys and their WorldAn English Merchant Family of the Fifteenth Century, pp. 309 - 339Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985