Depositions & Examinations
EDC 5/1639/10 (unfol.) Bennett c Boswell
CRO
Defamation
20 September 1639
St Mary, Chester, Cheshire, England
Plaintiff
Richard Bennett
male
Draper
Chester, Cheshire, England
Defendant
Annie Bastwell
female
Event
A defamation sworn in wine
1639
St Mary, Chester, Cheshire, England
Components
Healths, pledging, and drinking rituals
Gossip and slander
Alcohol | Wine
Setting
Drinking house: unspecified
Location of Event
Inferred
Statement
20 September 1639
Richard Bennett
That Edward Aldersey and George Swetnam witnesses aforesaid... have deposed that Annie Bastwell did in their presence within the time and place aforesaid say and affirm that she heard Mr Thomas Trafford and Mr Thomas Brown Say that Mr Richard Bennett of Chester draper had got a woman with child which lived at John Cottingham's of Frodsham that wore a canvas smock and a linley woollen petticoat and that they had sworn it was true by wine and drunk it for that she speak the said words or the like in effect, in their presence, and also in the presence and hearing of John Bastwell her husband and Isabel Sutton a servant in that house.