Death and taxes

'The manor court rolls provide a useful history of events relating to the [Wimbledon] Common from the 15th century onwards. But in 1499 there is a joke. Many of the entries in the rolls refer to various people being prosecuted for illegally taking wood or furze from the Common, and this entry mentions a Robert Hunt entering the Common and "unjustly cutting two cartloads of underwood in sapling to the prejudice of the lord". A note in the margin however reads: "excused because he is dead"'.

- Clive Whichelow, Secrets of Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath, London, 2000