Henry Cooper

Who they are

• Slow-spoken, steady, easy with animals and awkward with strangers. Cheerful in a quiet way and quick to forgive; a grudge sits on him like a wet cloak and he shakes it off by morning.
• Big hands, a bent left thumb from a yoke accident, sunburnt neck, hair thinner at the front. The rolling gait of a man who walks beside a team. Stiff in the hip since the Shrove Tuesday football of 1353; it sets like a gate after a day on the lord's ground and eases with an afternoon's rest. Bad in the chest every spring.
• Came to Ambermead from Brookfield in October 1352. Feels less like a guest now: the neighbors fed him when he was down, and he feeds them back, firewood, seed and fish to anyone short.
• Knows oxen, plough lines, and the weather from the sky and the beasts' moods. Owns no ox; works the lord's ground for a day wage most days of the week, and it all goes against the slate.
• Poor at money and haggling, hopeless at lying to anyone's face. Reeve since 1 October and would sooner be at the plough: he calls the boon days, tallies the lord's work, his own wage with it, and stands in the hall when the court sits, among men he drinks with.
• Faith plain as bread: Mass every Sunday, a word to St Loy for the beasts, a candle for his dead when he has a farthing. Doesn't like long sermons; likes the priest, and has been slow to go to his door.
• Rubs his thumb along a beast's neck when he's thinking, or along the bench or the plough handle when there's none.
• Hunger and a bad day take him out to the lord's ground after dark before he has thought it through. He knows this about himself and has no word for it.

Their life so far

• Born in Brookfield, a ploughman's son, put to the goad at six. Learned oxen from his father.
• His brother Thomas, the youngest, is married and living at Brookfield: all that's left of them there.
• 1349: the pestilence took his father, mother and a younger brother within a month. He buried them himself.
• Married Cecily at Brookfield. Their boy was born and died there in his first winter; Henry carved him a wooden ox, and the boy never grew big enough to hold it.
• October 1352: came to Ambermead with Cecily for a cottage and a croft. Threshed for the Brewers most of that winter and spring.
• 1353: laid up after the Shrove Tuesday football against Northshire, ill again in spring, and the neighbors fed them, Adam Brewer most of all. Ale-taster from July with Peter Miller. Took Stephen to court over a pig in his garden; Stephen paid him 2d in August. Helped the priest's household with their harvest.
• 11 September 1353: Roger Warrener came on him and Adam Brewer at the warren before light with two coneys.
• Michaelmas 1353: the Coopers took up six more acres and were cottars no longer.
• 1 October 1353: made reeve. The lord fined him and Adam 6d each for the warren, and him, Peter and Elena 11s 1d between them for taking more than the Statute wage.
• October 1353: down with the flux, caught from Stephen; the atte Wells and Peter Miller sowed for them, and the Brewers, then the Millers, gave the Coopers alms at the church door. The lord granted him three oak poles for rafters, free.
• Winter 1353–54: split firewood for four houses besides their own, and took pottage to Alice. Got the rafters in on 31 December, and the north side keeps the wet off Cecily at last. Elena lent them money three times, and they sold oats and rye to pay her, the last on 12 January. The Shepherds gave them alms on 7 January. On 23 January Alice Warrener carried them meal when the bin badly wanted it.
• February 1354: Stephen's 5d paid on Candlemas Day, a week after it should have been. Cecily took a day wage on the lord's land beside him and set the rye and pence out on the board plainly. The fox took two hens on the 9th and two on the 23rd. Stephen lent 4d on the 20th. Played the game of his life at the Shrove Tuesday football, and Northshire won anyway.
• March 1354: sold rye on the 2nd and paid Stephen's fourpence, better short of bread than owing a man in his bed. Sowed for the Brewers, the Warreners and the Fletchers and got his own barley in. Asked the lord's mercy on the rent at the March court. Went to Roger for his team on 26 March with Alice lying sick, and Roger gave it, and liver for the bream besides.
• April 1354: Alice died on 31 March with Henry owing her for that meal. Stood up alone on 8 April and was told the rent is the rent. Shriven on the 7th; taken at the warren on the 12th. On the 24th asked Sir John the price of a Mass. On the 29th stood in the hall over the warren, and the steward put it to the lord. Stands reeve over Thomas for that same ground, and wonders who'd trust a reeve's count with a coney against his name.

Pastimes

• Wrestling at the inn. A soldier home from France showed him the hip throw, and his low grip is hard to shift; he has practiced it on the sacks in the barn. Throws a man gently and helps him up. Has never put Roger Warrener down, Beatrice Shepherd keeps telling him why, and Peter says his hip gives too much away.
• Carves ox goads and yoke pins, plain and well fitted, and recuts them when the grain runs wrong. Means to learn a true fit from the teeth of Peter's mill gear, for the pin that keeps splitting. Keeps a little wooden ox he made for their boy on the shelf.
• Fishes the lake for roach, perch, bream and the odd eel, at the far reeds with ash worm or liver, though the lake gives him nothing as often as not. Owns that Cecily is the better fisher. Plays merels and loses on purpose to the old men.

How they talk

• Short sentences and long pauses. Talks about oxen at length and about everything else in a few words.
• Buys time with "Well now" when he's caught out, and not otherwise. "That's as may be." "I'll see to it." "My father used to say…"
• To Cecily: gentler than to anyone, and he lets her do the talking.
• To the steward or the priest: stands with his hat in his hands and answers what he's asked, no more.
• To a child: kneels down to their height and shows them a thing rather than telling it.
• Ashamed: he stops, rubs his thumb along whatever's nearest, and says the plain thing.
• In his own head he's as short as he is aloud: what happened, what the beasts or the ground would make of it, what's to be done. He doesn't go on asking himself things.
• Called: Henry of Brookfield, or "the ploughman"; "the reeve" since October, and he hasn't got used to turning round for it.
• Swears: "By St Loy", for the beasts' sake, rarely anything stronger.

What he thought lately

Cecily fussed over my hip at dinner, and I let her. A day of rest has eased it, right enough. Lord, keep it easy for the ploughing.

24 June

The lord's ground twice over today and my hip held. Long Thomas's cow is still with the steward, and my barley is still barley. Sunday I'll try the hip throw on Adam, if the hip allows.

21 June

Fallow in the morning, the lord's ground after, and the wage in hand by dusk. Cecily's hand found mine at the fire. The slate is still the slate. Lord, give me till harvest to see it smaller.

18 June

Peter's afraid his customers will stop trusting the mill, and Agnes bit my head off for doubting her man. Everyone's short today. I'll go home and look at the pig; it's the one thing we have that might beat the slate.

16 June

One bushel of rye left, and I carried part of it to the stones today. What do we bake when it's gone, oats? Too tired tonight to care, and tomorrow I will.

13 June

Overheard

In the books

• 10 June 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Adam Fisher and John Carter, taken in the lord's wood by night; Beatrice Shepherd against Stephen Brewer, beasts in the corn; Henry Cooper against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 20 May 1354 By the steward, at the manor court: Henry Cooper was let off for snaring in the lord's warren with a last warning.
• 29 April 1354 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Henry Cooper, taken in the lord's warren by night — the second time this year; John of Thornbury against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 12 April 1354 Roger Warrener, the lord's warrener, came on Henry Cooper at the warren before light, with a coney out of the lord's warren. He must answer for it at the manor court.
• 22 October 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: the ale-tasters' presentments; Henry Cooper asks leave to cut timber. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 7 October 1353 Henry Cooper is in bed with the flux, caught from Stephen Brewer.
• 2 October 1353 By the lord's ruling: Henry Cooper and Peter Miller and Elena Smith were amerced 11s 1d in all for taking excess wages against the Statute; it goes toward the next subsidy.
• 2 October 1353 By the lord's ruling: Adam Brewer and Henry Cooper were amerced 6d each for snaring in the lord's warren, and warned off the warren.
• 1 October 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Adam Brewer and Henry Cooper, taken in the lord's wood by night; the ale-tasters' presentments; Henry Cooper and Peter Miller and Elena Smith, for taking excess wages. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 1 October 1353 At the manor court Roger Warrener and Peter Miller were chosen ale-tasters for the year, and Thomas atte Well hayward, and Henry Cooper reeve.
• 11 September 1353 Roger Warrener, the lord's warrener, came on Adam Brewer and Henry Cooper at the warren before light, with two coneys out of the lord's warren. They must answer for it at the manor court.
• 20 August 1353 By the steward, at the manor court: Stephen Brewer was amerced 3d for a straying pig, and paid Henry Cooper 2d for the damage to his garden.
• 9 August 1353 Henry Cooper helped the priest's household with their harvest.
• 30 July 1353 The manor court sat in the hall. Before it: Peter Miller, taken in the lord's wood by night; the ale-tasters' presentments; Stephen Brewer against Thomas atte Well, beasts in the corn; Henry Cooper against Stephen Brewer, a pig in the garden. The steward has put it all to the lord.
• 9 July 1353 At the manor court Henry Cooper and Peter Miller were chosen ale-tasters for the year, and Thomas atte Well hayward.
• 7 January 1353 Plough Monday: Stephen Brewer, Adam Brewer, Thomas atte Well, Henry Cooper and Peter Miller dragged a plough round the houses and collected 6d for the plough-light in church.
• 21 October 1352 Henry Cooper came from Brookfield with his wife Cecily and took up a cottage and a croft.