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The History of Kettlewell Village - Arthur Raistrick
Violence and scandal.
There are a few surviving documents which hint that the local news was occasionally spiced by violence and scandal.
Litton Forest which included Langstroth was more than once the scene of violent poaching affrays, while the monastic communities were often embroiled in disputes and quarrels both among themselves and with the surrounding landowners.
Minor misdemeanours also suggest that life was not entirely peaceful.
One of the earliest records in the Rolls of the Justices in Eyre says that
"the parson of Kettlewell (Richard ....) was found dead in the fields of Kettlewell and he fell from his horse. Some say that his neck was twisted and his cape lay on one side and he on the other and in his hood was found a handful of hair. The four neighbouring villages suspect Ralph the Marshall of that death because he had seduced Richard's mistress 15 days before that death and still holds her at Skipton".
This was in 1218, and again in 1408 a Pardon was issued to William Tenant son of Richard Tenant of Deepdale, living at Beckermonds, because he killed William de Skosthrop of Litton, at Kettlewell, in self defence.
Some of the dales folk resented the monasteries, and a report in Chancery reminds us that John Preston of Malham and William Preston of Otterburn, in the late fourteenth century or early fifteenth took their servants and tenants, and made a violent affray in the cloisters at Fountains and tried to kill some of the monks. Another petition on says that "if any action be taken against them at the common law they remove and go into dales and fells...". The number of actions shows them to have been very turbulent neighbours.
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