![*](images/icon-portbooks.png)
One day about St James' last past was four years, Mary Darwin and her husband, and Henry Byard and one William [illegible] were drinking together in this deponent's house [which is] an alehouse and Mary's husband have [illegible] drunk too much fell a sleep [illegible] whereupon after a little space Byard and Mary Darwin went into the lane and there talked [a] while together and by some shift or other got into a chamber or loft of this deponent's house [illegible] with an end door where was neither stairs [illegible] nor ladder to go up by and this deponent believes Mary could not have got up there had not Henry pulled or helped her up. And this deponent's maid one Ellen Hough told her that she heard great noise in the chamber whereupon this deponent and her maid went and looked over the door and see there Mary Darwin and lying cross a bed that was in the room and Byard lay upon her in a very unseemly and unhandsome manner... She and her maid went up a pair of stairs in the [house] into the next room to that where Henry [Byard] and Mary Darwin were, and there [was a] little door that went out of the one room into the other, for the end door which Henry and Mary went in at was never made use of for a [illegible] but only upon extraordinary occasions to take some corn or malt or the like without troubling the house, and at such times (which was very seldom) they always made use of a ladder and without [a] ladder could not do it... She hath known Mary Darwin about half a score years and saith that she is a woman of good reputation amongst her neighbours... There was a child in her house about two years old which they keep, and is by some said to be William Pincocke's child, but she never heard him to confess to it, neither was it fathered upon him at its mother's [labour?] that ever this deponent heard, and the intent Janet Brown is the mother of it but William was never enjoined the keeping of it by any authority only Jennet's daughter brought it to the house and laid it upon the hearth stone and not knowing how to get shut of it, have been forced to keep it ever since.
One time about St James' tide last was four years Mary Darwin and her husband and Henry Byard and some other in company were drinking together in William Pincocke's house being an alehouse in [illegible] was a servant at that time, and Mary's husband being asleep by [the] fire side Henry Byard and Mary went together into the lane and [by] some means or [illegible] shift got up into a loft or chamber of [the house] which had an end door towards the street or [illegible]. And this deponent is confident that Mary could not get up without the help of Henry for that the door stead was about two or three yards from the ground and there was neither stairs nor ladder to go up by only there was a stone wall adjoining there. And this deponent being in her room and under them heard a great noise and bustling above and not knowing what it might be, nor that they were there, went and told her dame whereupon they two went into the next chamber and looked over a door and espied Mary Darwin lying upon a bed and her legs hanging down a good way and Henry Byard lying upon her and this deponent heard them puffing and blowing but see [no] action between them but how long they were together private there or what they did this deponent knoweth not but they were in a very uncivil and unseemly manner together as this deponent conceived but neither of them came again into the room where they had left George Darwin a sleep... Her dame went through the house up the aforementioned pair of stairs into the next room where Henry Byard and Mary Darwin were and looked [over the door] that went out of the one room into that and so see them as deposed, for this deponent could not possibly get in the end door that Henry and Mary went in at without the help of a ladder... She hath known Mary Darwin about 5 or 6 years, and never heard other but that she was of good repute among her neighbours... Upon Sunday last this deponent see a young child about 2 years old at William Pincocke's house which she hath heard was Jennet Browne's and brought and left by her sister or daughter at William's house, and ever since kept there but this deponent never heard that ever it was forced upon him, or that ever he confessed to it... William Pincocke is this deponent's mother's brother.