A three-generation family span was
exceptional in the towns, despite family wealth.
Children's sweets included gingerbread and peppermint drops. After
the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn to speak
Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead of Norman as
of 1362. Bishops began to preach in English. English became the
official language of Parliament, in 1363, and the courts,
replacing Norman and Latin.
A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to
become a attorney and the other a merchant: "Will of William de
Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks [1,333s.] each to my
two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall live upon the
profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the age of
twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar
and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end of
twenty years, and the elder son wish to practice common law, and
if it is known that he would spend his time well in that faculty,
I will that over and above the profit of the said one hundred
marks he shall have yearly from my rents for the term of seven
years five marks [67s.]. And if he should waste his time
aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and unsuitably, I will
that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.
And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or to
establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the age
of twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his praiseworthy
progress in his faculty or his carefulness in trading .
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