Two copies of a contract of marriage between Richard Burdet and Isabella Shirwode, made at the Mitre Tavern in Cheapside (London), 22 November 1478, and witnessed by notary Nicholas Colles, Robert Caylboys, Hugh Tylney, Thomas Shirwode (brother of the bride), Richard Palmer, and Leticia Corbet. One copy, probably the original, is on paper; on the lower left recto is a note by Thomas Shirwode stating that the marriage would be registered before the official of Chester and that the banns were asked in the church of St. Botulph-without-Bishopsgate, just outside the walls of the City of London, signed with his name and mark; on the verso is another note stating that the contract was written and read before William, abbot of Vale Royal Abbey (Cheshire), several other named monks, and Thomas Bulkeley and Radulph Brereton, gentlemen, and Nicholas Cokesay, esquire. The other copy is a smaller fair copy on vellum, abbreviated somewhat differently, with both the note of Thomas Shirwode (without name and mark) and the note about Vale Royal Abbey copied on the verso.
