Remembered

Robert Fowler

21, hired servant at the forge (strikes and works the bellows), lodging with the Smiths

House: —
Born: about 1332
Died: NaN December NaN, aged NaN

Who they are

Shy and humble. He waits to be spoken to and says "sorry" when someone else bumps into him. He'll go to a door with a pot or a message, and then stands on the threshold not knowing how to stay; at a sickbed it's easier, because the sick don't need him to talk.
Tall and thin, with big forearms for his build. Burn flecks on his hands and one singed eyebrow from his first week. His back aches from the bellows by evening and his hands go raw in the wet.
Takes his surname from his father's trade, a fowler in Kingsley. He grew up around nets, lime and decoy birds, so he is quiet and patient, and he moves slowly around anything that might startle.
Good at steady work. He keeps the bellows even for hours and has begun to read the color of the iron, though some days he thinks his hand isn't steady enough for it. Poor at haggling, joking and meeting a woman's eye.
Prays plainly at Mass and keeps a little St Christopher token from home. Understands about one word in three of the sermons and is ashamed to ask about the rest. Says a prayer for his mother and brothers when the dead are named.
Hums without noticing, then stops when he does.

Their life so far

Born in Kingsley, a fowler's son. He was a child when the Pestilence came in 1348–49 and it took his mother and two brothers.
His father Adam is still at Kingsley, and his brother William with him; his sister Agnes is married there, and his youngest sister Emma, fifteen, is at Milford.
Grew up learning nets and patience from his father and worked as a laborer for neighbors in Kingsley once he was big enough.
12 September 1353: took service with the Smiths at 10s a year and his keep, since there was more trade than hands. Ambermead is the farthest from home he has lived.
October 1353: took pottage to Stephen Brewer in the flux on the 7th, and herbs to Alan Shepherd in his flux four times. At the end of the month he went up to Alan and asked at last how a man begins.
November 1353: built the weir with Adam; sat with Alice Warrener over pottage after the bough came down on her and said more to her than to anyone; carried Elena's herbs to Joan Brewer in her fever.
2 December 1353: Stephen Brewer paid him a penny for the pottage in the flux and the herbs for Joan.

Pastimes

Nets and snares for birds: larks, finches, fieldfares when the cold comes. Makes his own horsehair snares and mends his small clap-net of an evening. Keeps well clear of the lord's coneys.
A jackdaw he's half tamed with crusts, which comes to the croft and he watches of an evening.
Since November, a withy weir below the reeds for the big pike: six stakes and woven hurdles, still loose at the bottom. He fishes it with Adam Brewer of an evening and they've caught an old boot between them.

How they talk

Soft and short, often trailing off. "If it's no trouble." "Sorry." Eyes down at his hands.
Warms up only about birds, nets and the weir, and then talks too long and goes red. His father's sayings come out then: "the fowler who talks while he sets the net catches nothing."
To Elena: "Yes, mistress," and nothing more unless asked.
To the sick: steadier, almost easy; he tells them what's in the pot and how to take it.
To the children: easier, almost a different man; he lets Walter hold the tongs and answers Margaret's whys as well as he can.
Called: the Kingsley lad.
Swears: "By my troth", softly, and he goes red.

What he thought lately

Dragged the plough round the houses in the snow with Adam and the others. A shilling and twopence for the light, and my shoulders will know it tomorrow.
13 January

The Coopers sold their rye and paid Elena back today. That's one weight off the house, and off me with it.
12 January

Elena lent the Coopers fivepence and Agnes sent us meal, and I've set the Smiths' hurdles straight, but the debt still sits heavy in me.
10 January

The Smiths' croft hedge was thin where the frost got in, so I set new hurdles along it with the spare withies. Elena will see the gap is shut before the lambing starts, God willing.
9 January

Keep my feet dry and my hands warm, and let me pay Elena back before the ninth. Give me the coin, and the nerve to ask for the chance.
6 January

Overheard

14 January, midday at the common · Adam Brewer and Robert Fowler

Adam: God keep you, Robert. You're out in this for the sheep too, then? My father's knee would have had him sliding about the common like a drunk man, so I came instead. What I want to know is whether Roger Warrener's wife will be able to lift her arms by Candlemas, because I have a mind to take the hurdle roof off the furze the way he did, and I'd sooner ask someone who's seen it done than guess.

Robert: Alice has her arms well enough now, she mended your shirt from the bed, didn't she. Roger laid his hurdles on the north side first and weighted the ends with stones, the same as I'd do for the weir. You'll want the reed bundles dry, not green, or they'll rot before the thaw.

Adam: Dry reed. Right, I'll tell my father, though he'll say it's a waste of good hurdles and then sit out in the cold to watch me do it. Robert, did you ever meet a man who would take a straight question without a bit of a grumble? Roger did, on St Stephen's morning, which I did not expect at all.

Robert: He is harder than he looks, but he is fair. He told me he'd sooner be asked than guessed at, and I think he meant you.

13 January, evening at the home · Elena Smith and Robert Fowler

Robert: The rye's in the barn, twelve bushels threshed, and the barley and oats. Nine bushels of peas. Will it last us to harvest, mistress?

Elena: Ten months' bread, the books say. Twelve bushels won't stretch to Lammas if the wet keeps us from the bellows. Put it in the reckoning, Robert.

Robert: The ploughing comes before Candlemas, doesn't it. Adam says the oxen are hired already, and the first furrow goes in before the frost lifts.

Elena: It goes in when the ground lets it. Hugh's chest first. The wattle's cracking in the children's room and I want it tight before the hard frost, or I'll be sitting up with him all spring.

In the books

13 January 1354 Plough Monday: Adam Brewer, Roger Warrener, Alan Shepherd and Robert Fowler dragged a plough round the houses and collected 1s 2d for the plough-light in church.
2 December 1353 Stephen Brewer paid Robert Fowler 1d, for the pottage he brought in the flux and the herbs for Joan.

The daily round (11 more)

14 January Robert Fowler, servant to the Brewers, has been let go now the work there is done, paid what was owed, and gone home to Kingsley.
9 January Robert Fowler set new hurdles along the Smiths' croft where the hedge was thin.
9 January Robert Fowler called on the Warreners.
8 December Robert Fowler helped the Fletchers with their firewood.
5 December Robert Fowler called on the Millers.
1 December Robert Fowler called on the Warreners.
25 October Robert Fowler took a remedy of herbs to the Shepherds.
22 October Robert Fowler called on the Shepherds.
19 October Robert Fowler took a remedy of herbs to Alan.
7 October Robert Fowler took pottage to Stephen at the Brewers.
12 September The Smiths took on Robert Fowler, 21, of Kingsley, as their servant to strike and work the bellows at the forge, with more trade than hands, at 10s a year and keep.