“It appears that the testator, Gerard Wandsforth, his friend Ralph Pulleyn, and another friend Mr Manard (Mr Mayner Weywick), had made a considerable purchase of books as co-partners in equal third shares. The books, which, it is stated, were bought in France, consisted of 252 missals, 399 portifers (breviaries), and 570 Picas all printed upon paper. The whole were consigned to the care of Wandsforth, who deposited them in a room or chamber of his house, near the church of St John del Pyke at York, of which chamber Ralph Pulleyn had a key. As soon as the death of Wandsforth became known at York, Pulleyn hastened to the house of the deceased and took possession of all the books deposited there, not only those which had been bought in partnership, but others which were the sole property of Wandsforth, and caused them to be carried to his own house in Petergate. He alleged he was justified in taking this course by having advanced money to Wandsforth to enable him to defray the cost of printing some books and purchasing others. It was natural that Frederick, the testator’s brother, should feel much aggrieved by Pulleyn’s grasping conduct, and upon their encountering each other in the street of Petergate, near Pulleyn’s residence, high words passed between them which ended in an affray. When Frederick charged the goldsmith with detaining from him the property he was entitled to as his brother’s executor, and thus preventing him from paying his brother’s debts and legacies, and fulfilling the trusts of his will in other respects, Pulleyn said to him, ‘You shall have your brother’s goods delivered to you that ever I had of his.’ But when they went together to Pulleyn’s house only part of the books were offered to be given up, and these Frederick refused to accept, insisting upon having the whole. It was then that, to enforce his rights, he resorted to legal proceedings against Pulleyn. Whilst the suit was pending, the contending parties were induced, by the good offices of friends, to agree to refer all matters in dispute to the arbitration of Sir John Symson, priest, one of the vicars choral of the cathedral, and Mr John Scauseby, a gentlemen residing in Goodramgate, and a formal deed of reference was executed. The books which had been purchased by the testator, jointly with Pulleyn and Manard, they divided into three equal parts and had them valued by John More, a moneylender, who lived in Walmgate, whose estimate amounted to the sum of £86, 19s. 8d. Those belonging solely to the testator, of which Pulleyn had taken possession, consisted of about 300 volumes, some bound and some not bound, which were estimated to be worth about £20. These were chiefly books used in the services of the church, as Primaria, Doctrinalia, Hymni et Sequentiæ; with some Alphabeta, and others, both in Latin and English, the titles of which unfortunately are not stated. The award of the arbitrators was in favour of Frederick Wandsworth, the complainant in the suit.