BHO

Cecil Papers: July 1605

Pages 26-28

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

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Citation:

July 1605

Peter de Smith to Baron Hobocque.
[After July 1, 1605]. He is a German, and by virtue of a warrant from the Earl of Salisbury and other members of the Privy Council to Sir Clement Fisher and William Combe, Justices of the Peace in Warwickshire, to arrest William Spencer and his printing press, petitioner, Roger Phillips and John Gardiner were committed to Warwick gaol on July 1, 1605. They have remained there ever since, despite the fact that William Spencer has been imprisoned and answered in London for all the prohibited books, which he directed them to print, and has long been released. He requests Hobocque to intercede with Salisbury for his release.—Undated.
½ p. (P. 533.)
Richard Adams to the Earl of Salisbury.
[After July 5, 1605]. The late Queen Elizabeth granted a commission for the relief of prisoners in the Fleet and King's Bench, with a proviso that the commissioners should appoint a registrar for that purpose. The Lord Treasurer at that time, Lord Burghley, the Queen's Chief Secretary, and other members of her Privy Council requested the Chief Commissioner, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to appoint petitioner as registrar, whereby he might indemnify himself for some of the debts owed him by certain prisoners. The Archbishop, however, bestowed the post on another person, and since then it has been sold to various people and petitioner ignored and his debts unpaid. Now that a new commission is to be granted by the King and a new registrar needed, petitioner asks that he be given the post or some other appointed who will see that he obtains some benefit from it. In return, he is ready to surrender the almsroom at Ewell which he received in reversion from the King, but which he is not likely to enjoy because of previous grants.—Undated.
On reverse: A copy of the recommendation from Burghley and others that Adams be appointed registrar, dated April 10, 1586, and addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
½ p. (P. 1292.)
[See Cal. S.P. Dom.; 1611–18, p. 87.]
Joachim Vegeth to the Earl of Salisbury.
[? After July 8, 1605]. He is the agent for Danish causes. A fortnight ago he conveyed to Salisbury a communication from the late Danish Ambassador concerning two cases which the King of Denmark is desirous of seeing settled. Both the Danish King and Duke Ulrich have particularly recommended one of these cases to the King of England and Salisbury. Salisbury agreed that the matter should be dealt with expeditiously and appointed commissioners to determine it. Petitioner now asks that the ambassador's letter be delivered to two of the commissioners, Lord Kinloss and Sir John Herbert, who are urged to settle the case without delay. The other case has been judged, and the Privy Council have imposed a fine on the offenders. Petitioner asks that the Privy Council issue a warrant to J.P.s and other officers that they assist him to enforce the fine. If any of the guilty party be dead, then their executors are to answer for the fine, and those involved as abettors of the piracy are also to be dealt with if they can be discovered.—Undated.
¾ p. (P. 1982.)
[See Cal. S.P. Dom., 1603–10, p. 228.]
The Dyers of London to the Privy Council.
[1605, July 21]. They complain of being harassed by certain gentlemen, who are patentees of logwood, in the Star Chamber and the sessions at Newgate. Their adversaries have suborned a number of "lewde persons" to testify against them and to discredit them, for the reason that petitioners will not pay the high prices demanded by the patentees for their compounded stuffs, nor conceal the impurity of the latter, all of which are "soe unprofitable to the comon welthe as most of the dyers and clothiers of this lande complayne of it". The Privy Council ordered that trial should be made of the patentees' product, but the latter not only managed to delay the same but found means to stop it altogether. "At which tyme theie being comannded by the Lords commissioners for the said triall, to dye certeyne cloathes in the presens of some of your honors said suppliants, sought means secretly to conveye into their dying vessell a certeyn quantitie of stuffe, having before wayed out in the presence of some of your said suppliants the proportion of stuffe which they pretended to dye the said cloathes withall, and by theis means abused your honors comannde and good intente therein of purpose to make their stuffe shewe better then in truthe it is." Petitioners declare that the patentees have failed to perform what they have undertaken to do, and that their patent should therefore be revoked.—Undated.
Note by the Earl of Dorset: "This is the petition which theis petitioners intended to have delyvered on Sonday the xxith of July, 1605, at Tebolds, if the Lords had then sett in counsell, unto the Lords of the Counsell."
1 p. (P. 2090.)
[See H.M.C. Salisbury MSS, Vol. XVII, pp. 334–5.]
Christopher Frederick to the King.
[After July, 1605]. For many years he served the late Queen Elizabeth in the place of one of her surgeons without receiving any remuneration. He was also appointed Surgeon-General to her forces at Cadiz and elsewhere, as the Earl of Nottingham can testify. During the King's reign he was required to attend upon the Earl of Nottingham when he went on embassy to Spain, (fn. 1) and this again he undertook at his own expense. He asks that £1000 or whatever gift shall seem fit to the King be bestowed upon him out of forfeitures, so that he may meet the onerous charges of maintaining an exceptionally big family. He has had 24 children, of whom 12 are still living.—Undated.
½ p. (P. 902.)

Footnotes

  • 1. Nottingham returned from his embassy to Spain in July, 1605.