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The Visitation Records of Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, are a rich if frustrating source for social historians, consisting as they do of reports by churchwardens in each parish of miscreants and the general state of the church. We have already met Thomasine Beaton, subject of Chatteris gossip, and William Kindar was another of its targets.

William was named and shamed ‘upon fame of adultery, being a married man, with Marie Greene, by whom he formerly had a bastard. He denies it and offers to purge himself, but the purgation fails and he is ordered to do penance in the Church and also at the market cross, Wisbech, during the market‘.

There are several interesting elements to this case, not least that the primary sin here was the adultery on the part of William. Marie Greene, whilst named, is not otherwise punished for what would have been termed her fornication (i.e. sex outside marriage). William’s betrayal of his wife was far worse, and his failure to accept blame or persuade anyone that he was innocent (the failed purgation) led to a punishment that was public and humiliating.

He was to do penance in the Church at Chatteris (possibly visibly praying or dressed differently or even wearing a placard advertising his guilt) AND in the hustle and bustle of Wisbech market place. (The market cross, erected around 1550, stood at the western end of the present market but was taken down and replaced with an oblelisk in 1765, itself removed during the 19th century.) It is unclear what the point of the latter appearance was – Wisbech was well outside the parish and a significant journey away from Chatteris. Perhaps the churchwardens were being kind, sparing William a double penance in town, or maybe Marie was from Wisbech?

Searching the Chatteris parish records turns up several candidates for our guilty couple (where William’s surname is spelt Kinder), but it is possible that they did in fact end up marrying each other. If so, their lives ended not long afterwards. A Mary Kinder (wife of William) was buried at Chatteris in January 1649, and a William in November 1651.