Project Leadership: Bad news, good news, and more good news...
The bad news is that both Liz Shifflett and Traci Thiessen retired as co-leaders. The good news is that both Liz and Traci are staying on the leadership team as Project Coordinators. More good news, Jen Hutton has joined Michael Cayley as co-leader.
Project Profile of the Month: Margaret Tiptoft
Born in the mid-1360s, Margaret Tiptoft had an interesting marital history, part of which might form the theme of a melodramatic historical novel.
Her first marriage, to Roger le Scrope, was respectable enough, and produced at least four children. He was the grandson of one of the de la Poles, a family very much on the rise. He died in 1403.
Two years later, in 1405, Margaret married her second husband, John. He went under various last names - FitzJohn, Currant and Nixandser/Neanser/Niandser/Nyandser. The marriage was contested. A John de Harwood used the ecclesiastical courts to claim her in marriage himself - seemingly unsuccessfully.
Margaret appears to have tried to escape the marriage to John Fitzjohn: he sued her in what looks like an attempt to get the marriage confirmed. John was himself accused by a priest called John Tybbey, one of Roger le Scrope's executors, of raping her - which may well mean that he was charged with carrying her off by force to compel her into marriage - and was acquitted: this would have been an attempt, quite likely with Margaret's encouragement, to get the marriage nullified on the grounds that she did not freely consent to it. Evidently a violent character, her second husband retaliated by murdering poor John Tybbey in 1414, and fled to Calais to escape justice. Margaret's dower lands from her first marriage appear to have been confiscated as a result of this.
Margaret must have become free of her second marriage by 1421, when she sought restoration of the dower lands "notwithstanding anything done by John Nyandser", described as her late husband. She died in 1431. Her Will omits all reference to her second marriage: in it she calls herself widow of "Roger le Scrop". It would not be surprising if she wished to consign the second marriage to oblivion.
Team News
The trail development team badged the following trail in January 2023:
