WILLIAM DERNEFORD circa 1458-1512 Of Framlingham, Suffolk County, England
SUFFOLK COUNTY CLASS DISTINCTION
From probate records and other parish church records of Suffolk County, genealogists have confirmed that William Dernford, also spelled Derneforde. of the town of Framlingham, in Suffolk County, England was the direct ancestor of Nicholas Danforth, the American Emigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.
During William Dernford’s life, there were three classes of people in England, the Clergy, the Nobility and the Commonalty [Commoners]. The royals and nobles were supported by the commoners in their military ambitions as well as keeping up their luxurious lifestyle. The wealth of English royals and nobles was generated by large estates which were kept intact and passed down to eldest sons. The Clergy was made up of unmarried men and women who depended on a complex of churches, abbeys and convents for subsistence.
In the 13th Century English landholders of the Commonalty began sending representatives to Parliament to present grievances and petitions to the king. They accepted commitments to the payment of taxes if they had representation in Parliament over the levying of taxes and the right to vote. A separate chamber of Parliament from the House of Lords was formed called the House of Commons in the 14th Century. Knights and burgesses were chosen as representatives for the interest of the commoners. Any landowners had the right to vote for representation. Non-land owners did not. Thus, Parliament was controlled by those whose wealth came from the land rather than trade during most of the Middle Ages.
By the 15th Century the landed class, those who were not Nobles, was known as “Commoners”. The commonalty consisted of knights, Esquires, tradesmen, bankers, merchants, and the gentry at one end of the spectrum and laborers at the other end. Serfdom, where the peasant class was tied legally to the land, had ended fifty to sixty years before William Dernford was born in 1400. The elimination of Serfdom in the feudal system of the Middle Ages was attributed to the Black Plague of 1348 which had wiped out thirty to fifty percent of the population of England causing the lower classes to demand higher wages and better conditions.
The ranks of Knights and Squires reached back into ancient Roman Briton before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Knights were originally landed men of a military rank who were obliged to serve at least 40 days a year for a higher liege or lord. Knighthood gave them the right to be addressed as "Sir" but the title was not hereditary. William Dernford certainly descended from a series of knights. The title of Squire was often given to the principle landowner in a district who had no other title. Originally Squires or Esquires were men who aspired to knighthood but later it was an honor that could be conferred by the Crown. Being a Squire included certain offices such as Justice of the Peace. The landed Gentry status of “Gentleman” was not recognized legally until 1413 by the adoption of “Statute of Additions”.
The landed gentry were distinct from the English middle class because they were landowners who might live entirely off rental income. Oftentimes the estate lands surrounding a country house amounted to a large agrarian business consisting of a home farm and numerous rented (tenanted) farms and cottages. Revenues from agricultural enterprises and rents were the primary source of a gentleman’s income. They could afford to send sons to college, where they became clergymen, lawyers, judges and minor officials in their communities. While they were “commoners” and not ‘lords’, they often worked as administrators of their own lands or became public figures and were called to arms in a national crisis.
William Dernford’s people were of this privileged British social class of land owners known as the Gentry or Gentlemen who could live entirely from rental income. William Dernford at the time of his death owned several small rental tenements called “Lincolnes, Senglers, and Gerveys” which were all within Suffolk County.
LOES and PLOMESGATE HUNDREDS
William Dernford’s ancestral roots are found in the administration divisions of Loes Hundred and Plomesgate Hundred of medieval Suffolk County of East Anglia under the control of the Dukes of Norfolk. Loes Hundred was listed as Losa in the 1088 Domesday Book, probably indicating it was originally owned by a Anglo Saxon lord named Hlossa.
Within Loes Hundred is the market town of Framlingham located on the Ore River. The nearby villages in Loes and Plomesgate, Saxted, Cransford, and Badingham surround the market town of Framlingham which lies among hills and valleys of Suffolk about 15 miles from the North Sea. The farm land in the area has loamy soil well suited for growing barley, wheat and beans. However the real wealth of Suffolk was wool to be exported to weavers on the continent.
DUKE OF NORFOLK and FRAMLINGHAM CASTLE
The market town of Framlingham was also the seat of the powerful Dukes and Earls of Norfolk. In the British nobility hierarchy, a Duke is a rank that is highest after the King or the Prince and generally conferred on the younger sons of the king. A duke’s wife is known as the duchess. An earl is lower ranking than a Marquis but higher than a Viscount. An earl position is similar to a count on the continent and in fact an earl’s wife is called a countess. The lowest rank of nobility in Britain is that of a Baron.
Framlingham probably began as an Anglo-Saxon farming community before the Norman Conquest in 1066. As king of England, William I ordered a record made of his new domain called the Domesday Book. In 1086 a Norman named Roger Bigod, the sheriff of Norfolk, was granted a manor in Framlingham and built a timber fortress there. The community grew into a market town and came to preeminence between 1136 and 1154 when Roger’s son Hugh Bigod, the 1st Earl of Norfolk (died 1177), built a stone castle in the town. Hugh Bigod supported a local upraising against King Henry II and confiscated Framlingham as a punishment. After another rebellion against the king, the stone castle was dismantled and Roger Bigod was stripped of his title.
At the death of King Henry II in 1189, Roger Bigod II earned back his father's title of Earl of Norfolk and rebuilt the castle with the massive stone walls that survive today. Framlingham is dominated by this castle, a magnificent late 12th-century edifice built and owned for over 400 years by the Earls and Dukes of Norfolk.
Roger Bigod’s castle must have been complete by 1213 when he entertained King John there at that date. Three years later, however King John successfully besieged Castle Framlingham during the civil war that followed the English barons’ attempt to enforce the Magna Carta, a document limiting the king’s power and guarantying Englishmen certain rights. The Bigods’ loss of the castle was only temporary and after John died in 1217, the new king, Henry III, restored Roger Bigod's castle to him the following year.
Over the next century the family of Bigods, from their East Anglian base at Framlingham, exploited their service of the Crown and acquired vast lands and power. Also strategic marriages allowed the Bigods to move quickly up into the first rank of medieval nobility. But by the 14th century Castle Framlingham passed to the Brotherton family after the Bigod line died out without legal heirs in 1307. The vast estates of the Norman Bigods were forfeited to King Edward I who gave them his son Prince Thomas of Brotherton, whom he made the Earl of Norfolk, a title he held until his death in 1338.
King Edward I’s granddaughter Margaret de Brotherton succeeded her father and became the Duchess of Norfolk in 1397. She was the first woman to be a duchess in her own right. When she died her grandson Thomas de Mowbray, inherited the title Duke of Norfolk which a successions of Mowbrays and Howards held.
THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR
The English and French Hundred Years' War had ended at the time of William Dernford birth or just a few years prior to William Dernford’s birth. The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of France. English kings descended from Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine who controlled more land in France than the king of France. While the parentage of William Dernford is unknown nor his actual birth date, his father would have been born circa 1425-1430 during this period. He may have even fought in the wars in France.
The Treaty of Paris between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France in 1259 acknowledged the loss of most of the Angevin Empire of the grandfather of Henry III. The king of England however kept the title and revenue of Gascony within the Duchy of Aquitaine and agreed to be a vassal of Louis IX. Over the next two hundred years the questions of who has claim to Aquitaine will have the French and English kings at odds.
In 1420 King Henry V of England and King Charles VI of France sign the Treaty of Troyes and Henry married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI. It was agreed that their heir would inherit both kingdoms. The king of France even disinherited his 19 year old son Charles VII.
In 1422 both King Henry V and King Charles VI died and Henry’s 10 months old son Henry VI was declared King of both England and France. This was the period in which the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, had a vision that she must make Charles VII the king of France, and drive the English out. Although she was burned at the stake as a witch in 1431 by the English, the English were eventually defeated and driven out of France.
Finally when King Henry VI was about 21 years old, in 1453 the English failed to retake Gascony ad were defeated at the Battle of Castillon. This battle is generally considered the end of the Hundred Years War. However the port of Calais remained an English possession until 1558, and English Kings were called King of England and France 1801 almost 350 years later.
WILLIAM DERNFORD'S YOUTH
While no baptismal record has been located, researchers have assigned 1458 as the year of his birth probably in or near Framlingham. Because records of William Dernford’s infant christening have not been located, it cannot be determined who his parents were. It can be surmised however that they were land owners in the area of Badingham, Cransford, Sweffling and Framlingham. While the name of his father is unknown, three of William Dernford’s sons have been identified as Paul, James, and Reynold. It was very common for sons to be named after his mother’s father, his father’s father, or after his father. It is very probable that William Dernford’s father could have had any one of these names.
He was born probably just after German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with its metal movable type which allowed William’s descendants to own copies of the Bibles and set in motion the Protestant Reformation. Where before only the extremely wealthy could afford to own a hand written book, and even then they often could not read it, the printing press made books available to all but the poorest illiterates.
Since the fall of the Roman Empire a thousand years before, the Catholic Church had a monopoly on education in Europe. Now, the Bible could be printed at a nominal cost so that middle class families could afford one. Families reading the Bible questioned the teachings of the parish priests who more often than not was not knowledgeable about the scriptures beyond Catholic Catechism. Printing the Bible was one of the main cause for the Protestant Movement in the 16th Century and would be the catalyst for William Dernford’s great-great grandson to cross the Atlantic Ocean seeking a new home to worship as his conscience dictated.
William Dernford's youth was spent living through a succession of kings during the War of Roses. William would have spent almost all of his youth growing up under warring monarchs. He may have even fought in the war as a soldier.
THE WAR of the ROSES 1455-1485
The defeat of the English in France is often considered a contributory cause of the Wars of the Roses that began in 1455 and ended 30 years later. The War of Roses was a dynastic war within the Royal House of Plantagenet, between the Houses of York and Lancaster. The conflict was called the Wars of the Roses for the red and white rose emblems of each of the houses. During this turbulent time there were five different rulers of England, in the span of only 25 years, and three of them were killed or executed by their rivals.
Immediately after the defeat in France, the English Nobles complained vociferously about their financial losses from losing their estates on the continent. They blamed the ineffectiveness of King Henry VI and thought the defeat in France was the reason for his bout with mental illness in December 1453 when he was 32 years old.
In 1454 Richard, the 3rd Duke of York, also a descendant of King Edward III ruled England as a protectorate during the King’s madness. Richard was a grandson of King Edwards 4th surviving son Edmund 1st Duke of York. King Henry VI was a descendant of John of Gaunt, King Edward’s 2nd surviving son who was named Duke of Lancaster.
This struggle for the kingship between King Henry VI’s supporters, known as the Lancastrians, and the supporters of Richard Duke of York broke out into Civil War on 22 May 1455 when Richard, Duke of York engaged the forces of King Henry VI of England at the First Battle of St. Albans.
William Dernford grew to manhood during this 30-year period of sporadic warfare and constant political intrigue between the rival Houses of York and Lancaster, both of whom laid claim to the English throne. Their intermittent struggle resulted in the capture, disappearance or death of scores of English nobles and would-be kings, and eventually gave rise to a new royal dynasty that ruled for more than a century. While the County of Suffolk was not the location of important battles during the War of Roses, the Castle of Framlingham was aligned with the House of York.
When William Dernford was a teen in 1476, the castle passed to from the Mowbrays to John Howard, a descendant of Margaret Brotherton Duchess of Norfolk. He was a loyal supporter of King Richard III. As the latest Duke of Norfolk, John Howard spent lavishly on refurbishing the castle which could only have affected the economics of the region. Under the Howards, the castle was extensively modernized with fashionable brick used to improve parts of the castle. Other improvements were that ornamental chimneys were added, the battlements were reduced in size to exaggerate the apparent height of the walls, and the Howard coat of arms was added to the gatehouse.
As an adult William Dernford may have been deeply disturbed by the news of the disappearance of the young king Edward V and his brother in 1483 while under the protection of their uncle Richard III who made himself king.
At the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 Henry Tudor led an army against King Richard III. William Shakespeare wrote famous lines attributed to Richard before he was slain, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” Whether William Dernford as a subject of John Howard Duke of Norfolk was required to perform military service is unknown but highly likely.
The Duke of Norfolk was over 60 years old when he commanded King Richard III’s troops against Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. He was killed commanding the king's troops leaving his peerage empty. As that the War of Roses decimated much of the ruling families, it also allowed the rise of a middle class made of merchants, tradesmen, craftsmen, and small land owners to flourish.
With the death of King Richard III, the 300 year old Plantagenet Dynasty ended. Henry Tudor claimed the English throne and was made king. That was the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty which would last until the death of his granddaughter Elizabeth I in 1603. Henry Tudor was a Welsh descendant from the House of Lancaster and was married to Elizabeth of the House of York which combined the white and red roses of the two houses into the Tudor Rose.
William Dernford witnessed a great change in England under King Henry VII’s reign. The old medieval England was quickly passing away as the Italian Renaissance, or rebirth of knowledge, spread to England from the continent. The Civil War which had decimated the economy of England was over and the country rebounded as the middle classes began to assert their political power as wealth became less and less about land and more and more about trade. Even the English began to send their own explorers across the North Atlantic to claim lands of their own, lands that were not settled by the English for over 100 years.
MARRIAGE and FAMILY
Probably at the end of the War of the Roses, about 1485 William Dernford married Isabella the daughter of a neighboring land owner. Men of his station generally married late in their twenties and took brides as young as 15 years. Isabella was probably born about 1470. Her last name has never been confirmed but in as that a John Ederych was made executor of William’s will along with Isabella, it is quite possible that this man was related to Isabella.
The Ederych family appears to have some close connection to William de Derneforth as that he also bequeathed a legacy to an Isabell Ederych what relationship to John is unknown, perhaps a daughter.
The Ederych family owned land near the village of Badingham which was three and a half miles north of Framlingham whose church had received a legacy from William Dernford. A Reginald Ederych in 20 July 1433 witnessed a document of men in Stonham Aspal about 12 miles southwest of Framlingham. The name “Reginald" is a variation of the name Reynold which is the name of one of the sons of William Dernford.
Additionally William Dernford had land in Badingham, which may have been acquired perhaps as a dowry. William Dernford was a member of St. Michael the Archangel’s Parish Church at Framlingham however evidently he had some affection for the little St. John the Baptist Church at Badingham .
St John the Baptist Church may have been Isabella’s church as that the Ederich family lived at Badingham. St. John is a country church, dating mostly to the 13th century, but with enough surviving bits and pieces to suggest that there was an earlier Norman church on the site, perhaps even on a pre- Christian pagan site. The church is unusual that it is not aligned on the traditional Christian east to west line. St John's is set on a Northeast to Southwest line so that the light from the Summer Solstice shines through the east window. The summer solstice is the pagan Mid-Summer Festival and the Catholic St John the Baptist's feast day. The nicely carved pulpit has carved figures adorning the screen that are likely pagan fertility figures. The church is also unique as being one of only thirteen in East Anglia to contain a “Seven Sacrament” baptismal font. The style of carving and the details of costumes depicted on the eight font panels of the stone font suggest that it was carved around 1485. High above the font is a “hammerbeam roof”, one of the finest in Suffolk.
William Dernford and his wife Isabella prospered during their nearly 30 years of marriage and most likely had a large family born during the reign of King Henry VII of the Tudor family. As that infant and childhood mortality was extremely high they certainly had more children than the five who are mentioned in William’s will. The mortality rate for children in 1500 was nearly 30 percent so William and Isabella probably had at least seven children. William’s last will and testament stated that his sons were born after 1488. Depending on the birth order of his five children Paul, James, Reynold, Isabel, and Elizabeth all his children were born between 1486 and 1500.
Prosperity came back to England during this frugal king Henry VII, and William and his wife Isabella Dernford had a comfortable life for the times in which they lived. They managed to acquire enough property through inheritance, marriage dowry, and perhaps even purchase to live off their estate and rentals.
WORLD EVENTS
William Dernford was around 35 years old when Christopher Columbus made his discoveries in the West Indies for the King and Queen of Spain. Over the next 20 years news of lands across the Atlantic had little effect on the agrarian people in remote Suffolk. The wool trade with France was more important to them. The Portuguese trade with the Spice Islands of the East Indies, which brought black pepper to the ports of Suffolk, had more impact on his daily life. Black pepper was used to disguise the taste of rotting meat that salt could not preserve in the days before refrigeration.
He may have been aware of the Italian explorer John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England. It is commonly held that his expedition was the first European exploration of the mainland of North America since the Norse Vikings' visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. Be that as it may the New World laid in the future of his 2nd great grandson, Nicholas Danforth, not his.
In 1509 King Henry VII died, passing his throne to his 18 year old son the notorious Henry VIII. The new king’s desire for a male heir tore asunder all the old traditions and changed England forever. However William Dernford died before any of these changes took place. While William Dernford was raised a Catholic as well as the rest of his family, they were most likely the last to belong to their ancestral Holy Roman Church. His children and grandchildren would have to wrestle with a new reality of an Anglican Church.
THE LAST WILL and TESTAMENT
The only legal paper trail left by William Dernford was his will made out at Framingham, in 1512 on the eve of the Reformation Movement. The average life expectancy by 1500 was only about 40 years old although if one made it to maturity and was affluent, one could expect to live to be sixty. William Dernford was probably not younger than 50 at the time of his death and possibly closer to 55 years.
William Derneord made out his will 15 August 1512 which was the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. "On the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, 1512, I, William Dernford of Framlingham at the Castle make will, etc. To be buried in Churchyard of St. Michaels, Framlingham. Legacies for repairs of churches of Badyngham and Cranesford. "Isabell my wife to have my tenement called Gerveys for life and 40 shillings yearly out of my close or tenement called Lyncolnes. Powle [Paul] my son at age of 24 to have my said tenement called Lyncolnes. James my son at age of 24 to take profits of my land in Badyngham called Senglers; to him and his heirs. Reynold my son after death of my wife to have tenement called Gerveys; to him and heirs of his body; for default same to go to my daughters Isabell & Elizabeth. Legacies to Johan Smyth, Margaret Walle & Isabell Ederych. Wife & John Ederych to be executors., & Sir Thomas Greveson supervisor." Witness Sir Thomas Greveson.
William Dernford left his tenement called “Gerveys” for life and a stipend of “40 shillings yearly” from money made from his tenement called “Lyncolnes” to his wife "Isabella". He also made Isabella his executor which indicated that she still had minor children at home. However she had John Ederych to be also an executor to handle the legal details of the distribution of the estate.
He mentions three sons, two of who were under the age of 24 years according to the will, and two daughters. It does not appear that any of these children were married at the time the will was made but they certainly could have been of the age of majority which is 21. Why William set the ages for his sons to receive their inheritances at the age of 24 is unknown. Perhaps he wanted his widow to have as much use of the estate as she could or wanted the sons to be married and settled down or some other reason. What it does tell is that sons, Paul and James, were all born after 1488. There is no way to determine the ages of daughters Isabella and Elizabeth except for the fact they appear to not be married as no sons in law were mentioned in the will.
Generally sons are mentioned in birth order, same as for daughters, in wills. Thus it can be surmised that Paul Dernford was the oldest son followed by James and Reynold and that Isabella was the eldest daughter. Paul Danforth was certainly the eldest as that he died in 1538 and managed to have had eight children between the years 1512 and his death. If he was born circa 1488 he would have been about 50 years old at the time of his death. Nothing more is known of James and may have died leaving no heirs. Reynold Danforth can be assumed to be the youngest child as he buried in St. Michael’s church yard in March 2, 1572 [1573]. If he was born between 1500 and 1512 he would have been an old man indeed.
Paul Dernford “my son at age of 24” was bequeathed a tenement called Lyncolnes however he was required to give his mother 40 shillings a year for life from earnings made off the estate. James Dernford “my son at age of 24” was to take “profits of my land in Badyngham called Senglers”. The tenement was called Senglers but it was located near the village of Badingham. Reynold Dernford “my son” must have been young as that he was not to receive his legacy until after the death of his mother Isabella. He was then to receive the tenement called Gerveys. These properties were to go to his sons or their heirs. However if the boys died with out heirs then by “default” the legacy was to go to daughters Isabell and Elizabeth equally.
William Dernford’s will was filed in the Ipwich Archdiocese in Suffolk County Book 5, folio 280.
St. Peter was the medieval church of Cransford for which William Dernford left money for its repair. The village of Cransford is located in the Hundred of Plomesgate, about 3 miles northeast from Framlingham. What attachment William had for this small parish church is a mystery. In the 19th Century St. Peters was rescued from dilapidation and memorials were reset but almost nothing survived from time of William Dernford except two cowled faces from the 14th Century down either side of the tower arch.
When William Dernford made his will in 1512 he requested that he be buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Michael the Archangel. St. Michaels may not have been the family church as that William had left legacies to the churches of Cranesford and Badingham but Saint Michael would have the most important of these churches which indicated his status in the community.
The Church of St. Michael’s was the parish church of the Dukes of Norfolk. The east end of a church is called a chancel and was traditionally the place where the high altar is located.
In early Christian churches there was little or no division between the nave, at the western end, and the chancel. In the medieval period however the nave and chancel were often divided by a screen, usually of wood, which could become quite elaborately carved.
The capital columns of St. Michael’s chancel arch survived as a feature from the twelfth century but the bulk of the church was built in the perpendicular style between 1350 and 1555. The baptismal font was built in fifteenth century and the carving on the pedestal of a "woodwose" or "wildman" is a style peculiar to East Anglia. Opposite the porch door, on the north wall of the nave is a painting dated around 1400 which was rediscovered under plaster in 1890. St Michael's was first built around 1200 probably for the use of the retinue of the Bigods. There are fragments of that early church incorporated into the current 15th - 16th century building.
OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS
John Derneford made out his will two years after William. Details in his will and that of his wife Alice suggests that William and John were kinfolk, cousins in the very least but possibly brothers. William Derneford in his will left a legacy to the church in Cransford which indicated that he had a connection to that church. John Derneford in his will said he was of Cransford. Both William and John Derneford mention Badingham in their wills and William and John's wife Alice both have a connection with the Ederyche family of Badingham.
28 February 1513 [1514] I John Dernford of Cranysford [Cransford] to be buried in church of [torn away] Robert my son to have tenements at Smythys, To Thomas Mylys [Miles] son of Jon Mylys of Badyingham, a cow. Residue of goods to Alyse my wife. Son Robert and Robert Derawe to be executors. Robert Lawter supervisor. Proved 22 October 1514
8 March 1516 [1517] I Alys Derforth of Framlingham widow to be buried in church yard of Framlingham. To church of Cranysford 9 shillings. My son Robert. Legacies to Margery Ederyche, Chrystyn [Christin] Lawter, and Margaret Lawtyr [Lawter]. Residue of goods to Marget my daughter late wife of Robert Lawtyr [suoervisor of John Dernefor's will] of Framlingham. Witnesses Sir John Chylderns and Robert "Drenforth". Proved 22 April 1517.
If John Dernford and William Dernford were brothers then they would have been the sons of Alexander Derneford, Robert's grandfather.
William Dernford
birth date unknown [circa 1458] Suffolk County, Englanddied between 15 August and 23 October 1512 in Framingham, Suffolk, England.
Married circa 1485 Suffolk County, Enland
Isabella [possibly Ederych]
Born unknown circa 1470 possibly Badingham, Suffolk, EnglandDied unknown after August 1512 Framlingham, Suffolk, England
William and Isabell Derneford had the following children:
Powle [Paul] Dernford
Born circa 1488 Framlingham, Suffolk, England
Died circa November 1538 Framlingham, Suffolk, England
Married Katherine last name unknown
James Dernford
Born circa 1494 in Framingham, Suffolk, England.
Died unknown after August 1512 Suffolk, England
Isabell Dernford
Born circa 1496 was born in Framingham, Suffolk, England.
Died unknown after August 1512 Suffolk, England
Elizabeth Dernford
Born circa 1498 was born in Framingham, Suffolk, England.
Died unknown after August 1512 Suffolk, England
Reynold Dernford
Born circa 1503 in Framingham, Suffolk, England.
Died circa February 1573 Framlingham, Suffolk, England
His body was interred March 2, 1572 [1573].
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