jan 1, 1576 - affinity

Description:

Visitation Articles of 1576 make it clear that marriage <i>within the degrees of consanguinity or affinitie</i> could be <i>forbidden by the lawes of God</i> (PTD2-6). A man’s affinity was his spiritual family, not his kinsmen but those individuals to whom he was related by marriage or through the godparent relationship: 1483 <i>his blode adherentts and affinitie</i>, York (YRS98/73); 1574 <i>whether he be related by blood or affinity</i>, Danby Wiske (YRS114/122). These people formed a tight-knit group within the larger community and often acted together: in a Star Chamber case in 1535, Burton in Lonsdale witnessed an armed raid by men called Tatham and Lund with numerous tenants <i>of there alye and affinyte </i>(YRS70/9). After the failed Pilgrimage of Grace in 1537 three northern men were hanged because they had <i>with their affinitie ... pretended to have made a new conspiracie … in the north country</i> (YAJ34/394).

Added to timeline:

Date: