An historian believes he may have found the earliest recorded use of the word “f***” in the English language where its meaning carries a clear sexual connotation, hidden within court records from 1310, concerning a man named Roger Fuckebythenavele.

Dr Paul Booth, a former lecturer in medieval history and an honorary senior research fellow in history at Keele University, made the accidental discovery in a set of Chester County court documents from September 1310 while researching the period of Edward II.

Dr Booth told the MailOnline that when he first came across the case of Roger Fuckebythenavele, he thought the moniker was a nickname dreamed up by a court clerk as a joke.

However, the name was repeated clearly three times, “and I think that shows it is not a joke,” he said.