Cecil Papers: December 1608 | British History Online

Pages 157-163

Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House: Volume 24, Addenda, 1605-1668. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1976.

Citation:

December 1608



	Francis Cottrell, Robert Cottrell and Martin Cottrell to the Earl of Salisbury.
[Before December, 1608].	There is at present a bill in Parliament (fn. 1) preferred by William Le Grise against Robert Cottrell, their father. Le Grise is pressing for the passing of an act authorizing the sale of all Cottrell's lands, goods and chattels, to implement a decree of the Court of Chancery. The decree, upon the evidence of a certificate signed by Christopher Grimston and Edward Slegg, states that Cottrell is short by as much as £807:7:4 in a certain account in connection with Le Grise. For their part petitioners declare that Grimston and Slegg are "men decayed in ther estatts and of bad note, who for ther owne gayne did not alowe the deff. [Cottrell] in his accompt dyvers somes of money of great valew". Upon a complaint to the Lord Chancellor, the account was subjected to a further scrutiny, but Grimston and Slegg repeated that it was deficient to the amount stated, and added certain other demands made by Le Grise against Cottrell, none of which had been included before. They also offered to indemnify Cottrell out of their own estate if they were proved guilty of wronging him in any manner. Impressed by this, the Lord Chancellor had ordered Cottrell to repay the money and satisfy the other demands put forward by Le Grise.
	Petitioners protest that the making of an act is not justifiable, and adduce reasons, legal and otherwise, against such a step. They also state that Le Grise had attempted to prejudice the House of Commons against Cottrell by distorting the truth in his bill of complaint. They give particulars of the proceedings in the House, and allude to the fact that the case had been referred to Sir Maurice Bartlett and Mr Fuller, whose verdict and award the defendant Robert Cottrell is prepared to accept and give sureties for performance thereof.—Undated.
	Endorsed: "The humble petition of Ffrances Cottrell, Robert Cotrell and Marten Cottrell, cetisonnes of London, humblie besech your good lord. to give this lammentable petition the reading and your honorable favor". ¾ p. (P. 1107.) See P. 1188.
	[Letters of administration were given to the widow of Martin Cottrell in December, 1608. [Acts of Administration of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Vol. IV, 1596–1608, p. 34.]
	Francis Cottrell, Robert Cottrell and Martin Cottrell to the King.
[Before December, 1608].	The Court of Chancery decreed that petitioners' father (Robert Cottrell) should pay William Legrise the sum of £807:7:4, a decision based on the certificate of Christopher Grimston and Edward Slegg, who were not masters of the chancery but men of dubious repute. Their father obtained from the King a commission for the re-examination of the account upon which the plaintiff Legrise had based his charge, and the commissioners reported that Legrise owed him £100:15. Since Cottrell has not been able to implement the decree nor give sureties for doing so, an act has been made authorizing the sale of his lands, which, however, he has already sold to petitioners. They ask that the act should be suspended until their interests have been examined, otherwise they are faced with ruin.—Undated.
	Endorsed: "The humble pettition of Ffranncis Cottrell, Robert Cottrell and Marten Cottrell, cettisonnes of London, beseching your Maigistyes regard to there estattes, who are utterlie overe throwne for ever except your Maigistys carfullnes help them in stayinge the acte untill the pettitioners entrest be fully examined." 1 p. (P. 1188.)
	Receipt.
[December 5, 1608].	"I have receyved of Mr Nicholas Lanier a base violl with the case for my Lord of Cranborns use in his travayll, and upon agreement he is to have for yt fyve pounds."—Undated.
	Signed: John Finet. Endorsed: Nycholas Lanier for a vyoll bought for my Lo. Cranborne unto Ffrance. Suma v^l. Rd this 5th of December, 1608, by mee. Signed: Nicholas Lanier. 1 p. (Bills 31.)
	The Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Martin'sin-the-Fields to the Earl of Salisbury.
[c. December 24, 1608].	"That whereas it is a place of the Kings Ma^ts most frequent residence and of late greatly inhabited by diverse lords, their followers and servants, many knights and gentlemen, and great number of people, whereby the churche being small was not sufficient to receive halfe the inhabitants and most commonly was so pestered as many were in daunger of styfeling and infection.
	And the said parishioners having lately made contribution accordingly to their abillities to inlardge the said church to give it more roome and aire, as also for the inclosing of a new churchyarde with a brick wall, are not able to compasse it unlesse it shall please the lords and principall man of the parish to contribute towards the performance thereof." They ask Salisbury to contribute as much as "Almighty God shall inclyne your harte unto."—Undated. ½ p. (200. 180.)
	Attached: Receipt by the churchwardens of St. Martin's-in-theFields, dated December 24, 1608, for £20, "beinge his Lordships guifte towards the chargs of enlargine the parish church of St Martins in the ffeilds". (200. 181.)
	Sir Pexall Brocas to the Earl of Salisbury.
[? December, 1608].	Sylvester Dodsworth, Sergeant of the King's Buckhounds, draws an annual fee of £37:7:7 out of the Treasury of the Chamber. He has succeeded, however, in obtaining £40 more per annum by the King's warrant to the Keeper of the King's Privy Purse for fulfilling the duties of his office. He is now endeavouring to extract a further 100 marks a year for keeping a second kennel of buckhounds, and so to have two kennels in one office which is unprecedented. Petitioner receives 20 marks a year for attending to the ordinary hounds of that office and adds that, to prevent any such abuse, Queen Mary granted the post of Master and Keeper to Sir Richard Pexall and his heirs. Dodsworth is now engaged in a plan to disinherit petitioner of his office, claiming that all fees should go to him. Petitioner asks that any such grant under the privy seal should be stayed until Salisbury be advertised by the legal officers whether it be not already granted.—Undated. At bottom: "In Fullers lane neere Greyes Inn." 1 p. (P. 1466.) [See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1603–10, p. 473.]
	John Walley to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608].	He has served almost twenty years in Ireland, eleven of them in Munster, under Sir Thomas Norris, Lord Carew and Sir Henry Brouncker, as Clerk to the Council of Munster, and deputy of Sir Richard Boyle in that office. He was promised that he should receive it as absolute for a reasonable composition. But since he came to London to answer slanderous charges about his proceedings in matters of conformity, preferred against him by agents of the towns of Munster, Sir Richard Boyle has obtained a new patent of the office and joined Francis Ansley with him in its reversion. The latter is in the Lord Deputy's service, and has undertaken to pay Boyle a sum of money agreed between them. Petitioner refers to his own long service, experience and knowledge, and to the fact that Lord Danvers (who has been informed of his qualifications by Lord Carew, Sir Charles Wilmot and others) wishes to retain him in that office. Petitioner asks for letters from Salisbury and the Privy Council to the Lord Deputy that, upon payment of the composition, he be established in the office and Ansley be joined with him in its reversion. The Lord Deputy is favourable to the idea.—Undated. 1 p. (P. 1856.) [See Cal. S.P. Ireland, 1606–8, p. 423.]
	Patrick Strange to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608].	He was rewarded by Salisbury's father, Baron Burghley, for bringing him news from abroad. He has since then been the first to furnish Salisbury with information in times of invasion and rebellion. He was sent from Ireland in 1599 by the Lord President and Sir Nicholas Walsh, the Lord Justice, to be employed by Salisbury in foreign countries, "your Lordship conferring with Sir Jeffrey Ffenton dismissed that service". He returned to Ireland, where he was able to warn Salisbury of the impending landing of the Spaniards at Kinsale ten months before it actually took place. He revealed that Florence and his henchman, George Roch of Kinsale, were behind the scheme a little before they were arrested. They tried to sue him for £1000 for defamation, and out of friendship Lord Carew released Roch on bail. Subsequently Roch joined Don Juan. For all these services and to combat his poverty, he asks for a pension and a farm from the Crown, and the King has referred his suit to "the right honorable lorde appointed for Irish causes."—Undated. ¾ p. (P. 1073.) [See Cal. S.P. Ireland, 1608–10, p. 79, and ditto, 1601–3, pp. 119 and 199.]
	Dame Alice Fortescue to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608].	Salisbury has been informed of the spoliation of the King's trees in the Forest of Barnwood allegedly committed by her during the past year, that is, in 1607. She denies that she ever intended that any timber should be felled. As further evidence of her concern in this matter, she directed her officers not to meddle with the cutting of any trees until Sir John Dormer with certain verderers had decided what trees were fit for felling and warrantable by her lease. Salisbury will also see from the woodwards' accounts of the profits of the trees sold by them, that such trees could not be regarded as timber because of the low prices they had fetched. Nevertheless, petitioner is prepared to submit to censure by Salisbury. But she requests that she be permitted to cut the underwood this present year, which otherwise runs the risk of being damaged by the borderers. It would assist her also to discharge her rent to the King.—Undated. 1 p. (P. 1053.)
	Joan Baker to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608].	Her husband Nicholas Baker, of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, is gravely ill and not expected to live. (fn. 2) Should she become a widow, she will be left with five small children to support. She requests that she be given the wardship of their son, John Baker, which would assist her to give a good upbringing and education to the children.—Undated. ¾ p. (P. 1023.)
	Simon Wells to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608].	His patron and master, Lord Stanhope, has presented him to the living of Terrington, Norfolk, but the Bishop of Norwich has delayed his admittance because of a caveat put in by the ViceChancellor of Cambridge University. Salisbury has written to the Bishop that the person presented to the rectory of Terrington should present himself and show by what right and title Lord Stanhope claims to bestow the living. Petitioner (fn. 3) is ready to produce Lord Stanhope's authority, and requests Salisbury's favour for his admittance to the benefice.—Undated. ¾ p. (P. 855.)
	Altyrynys.
1608.	Map of the demesne land of "Haltarines", drawn by Paul Delahay.—1608. 1 p. (General 40/6.)
	The Earl of Salisbury to Viscount Cranborne.
[1608].	"I heare so well of your disposition to follow study whilst yow are to tarry in England (which shalbe no longer then Alholautyde) (fn. 4) and have heard by the gentlemen abowt the King that yow dyd use your self so dwtyfully to him and so civilly to all others, as I think good to take notice to yow that my favour shall dayly increase towards yow if it continew, as I must confess it dyd coole towards yow (thogh I made no owtward shew of it) when I saw your hart so sett uppon all other things and so alienated from lerning, a riches which yow will sell for no gold when yow have it, thogh now yow preferr dross before it; and if yow gett it not now, it will never come hereafter. Proceed therfore and use your self to study but for the short time yow tarry, and let me but once heare that yow have passed thexercises which may make yow worthy of your degrees given yow, and then I shall leave the rest of your lyfe to be spent as yow think good in all other exercises worthy of a gentleman, towards which yow shall want nothing. I like your letters well but your hand is not good, for thogh it be romane yet it doth not leane in your letters as gentlemens hands do, but rather like a woman or a scholler. God bless yow with his grace to serve him."—Undated. Holograph. 1 p. (228. 23.)
	John Cotterell to the King.
[? 1608].	Five years ago petitioner and many others with their ship and cargoes were seized at Milo in the Straits by Frenchmen. (fn. 5) He himself lost goods to the value of £60. They were set ashore in the "Arches of Peligo" and there captured by the Turks and sent to the galleys of Schio. He is still held in slavery, "to the great daunger not onelie of his life but allso of his soule by the cruell enforcements of the Turks in theire blasphemeous religion". They have fixed his ransom at £40, which he is totally unable to pay. He asks the King to issue his warrant to the Lord Mayor of London to allow the bearer of the petition to gather charitable contributions towards the ransom from the citizens of London.—Undated. 1 p. (P. 895.)
	Proclamations.
[1608].	"A Register of all the Proclamations in the studdye as they weare printed from tyme to tyme unto this yeare 1608."
	These are 19 in number, but a further list of "proclamations brought from Mr Barker" includes another 105. 11 pp. (243. 6.)
	G. Sharpe to Lord [? Salisbury].
[1608, or before].	By the sickness of Mr Lilye, brother of the Savoy, three places yet in his hand are likely to fall void, the place in the Savoy, a prebend in St Paul's, and a prebend in Salisbury. Prays his Lordship's favourable letters for any one of them, either to Dr Neile, (fn. 6) Mr Dean of Paul's, or the Bishop of Sarum.—Undated. ½ p. (P. 11.)
	Alexander Mayne to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608 or before].	He is a merchant of Plymouth. John Peacher, of the same town, owned goods in Middelburg to the value of £500, which goods were the subject of legal proceedings. A verdict was returned in Peacher's favour and he travelled from Plymouth to Middelburg to receive them. Soon after his arrival he died, (fn. 7) and there is every likelihood that this will result in further legal action concerning the disposal of the goods. He asks that Salisbury provide him with letters to the Burgomaster of Middelburg and to the council of the town requesting them to certify to petitioner under seal whether Peacher died intestate or not, what goods or money he had made out for England, and what papers, merchandise or goods he had in Middelburg at the time of his death.—Undated. ½ p. (P. 1431.)
	Thomas Kedby to the Earl of Salisbury.
[1608 or before].	He is a clothier and formerly employed many hundreds of people in his trade. Owing to losses amounting to £4000, he has incurred substantial debts, in particular to Gerrard Gore, (fn. 8) a London citizen. Unlike other creditors who have charitably allowed him respite to discharge his debts, Gore has imprisoned him and is harassing him with legal proceedings.—Undated. Partly illegible. 1 p. (P. 1262.)
	Damerham and Rockbourne.
[After 1608].	Map of woodland and fields in the neighbourhood of Damerham House, Damerham Church and Rockbourne, probably the work of Thomas Forte. Sir John Cooper's residence at Rockbourne is shown on the map.—Undated. 1 sheet. (CPM supplementary 80.) [The manor of Rockbourne was sold to Sir John Cooper in 1608. See Victoria History of Hampshire, Vol. IV, p. 583.]
	William Ockold and Herbert Shepherd to the Earl of Salisbury.
[? c. 1608].	They are both in Salisbury's service and request the grant of the wardship of Evan Jones of Montgomeryshire, which is worth about 20 nobles a year.—Undated. 1 p. (P. 1293.) [Their names appear in Accounts 8/25.]
	Hatfield and Enfield Chase.
[c. 1608].	Map of Hatfield and Enfield Chase with adjacent portions of Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Probably contemporary with map of Hatfield (CPM supplementary 23).—Undated. 1 sheet (CPM supplementary 22.)
	Southam.
[Before 1609].	Map of the manor of Southam, Gloucestershire, showing the house and the fields comprising the property. The manor was sold by the Earl of Salisbury to R. Delabere in 1609. [See Deeds 132/29).—Undated. 1 sheet. (CPM supplementary 42.)
	Elizabeth Lupo to the Earl of Salisbury.
[? Before 1609].	Her husband, Francis Lupo, (fn. 9) an instrument maker by profession, has removed himself to Amsterdam where he is following his trade. He has sent for her and their daughter, Sibil Lupo, to join him there. She requests a warrant to leave England with her child who is a year old, and proceed to Amsterdam.—Undated. ⅓ p. (P. 182.)