Notes to the diary: 1556

1556

P. 100. Funeral of alderman Christopher Allen. This person also was not either sheriff or lord mayor, nor does his name even appear in Smith's lists.

Ibid. Penance of Thomas Samson. This could scarcely be Thomas Sampson, late rector of Allhallows, Bread-street, and afterwards successively dean of Chichester and Christchurch Oxford: for his enemies would scarcely have been satisfied with a mere penance. He was probably already fled abroad (see Wood's Athenæ Oxon.): his address to his late parishioners written at Strasburg is printed in Strype, Memorials, iii. Appx. No. XVIII.

P. 100. Funeral of master Leygett. Thomas Legatt esquire of Havering, where probably he was buried. See Morant's Essex, vol. i. p. 62.

P. 101. Execution of Fetherston. Stowe gives the date of this as the 12th of March.

Ibid. The blasyng star. This is recorded by Stowe to have appeared on the 4th March, and continued for twelve days (Summarie 1566); but in his chronicle 1580 he limits its continuance to five nights from the 6th to the 10th of March.

Ibid. Funeral of bishop Chambers. "Anno 1555, the vij. daye of February, being fryday, died the reverend father in God Joh'n Chambre, late bishopp of Peterborough, betwene x and xj in the nyght, comitat. Northampt. in good and perfauct memory, levyng for his executors,

"The saide bishopp was buryed in the mynster in a chapell in the high quyer on the ryghte hande on thursdaye the vj^th of Marche, according to the estate of a bisshoppe." (MS. I. 3, in Coll. Arm. fol. 100^b.)

P. 102. Gentlemen carried to the Tower. The crime of these parties is thus given by Grafton: "A conspiracye was made by certayne meane persons in England, whose purpose was to have robbed the queenes exchequer, to thys intent as the talke was, that they myght be hable to mayntayne warre against the queene. This matter was uttered by one of the conspiracie, wherefore Udall, Frogmorton, Pecham, and one Staunton, were apprehended and put to death for the same. And certayne of the sayd conspiracy fled into Fraunce and other places." Abridgement, 1563.

Ibid. Consecration of Cardinal Pole. An account of this ceremony, at which the queen was present, will be found in Strype, Memorials, iii. 287.

P. 102. Benett Smith hanged for the murder of master Rufford. "An act of parliament passed in 1555 to take away the benefit of clergy from Benedict Smith of Edlesborough, yeoman, who had instigated Francis Coniers, of London, gent, and John Spencer, yeoman, by the promise of 40l. (in part of which 40s. and a gold ring was afterwards paid,) to murder Giles Rufford, esq. of Boteler's in Edlesborough, giving them two javelings and a dagge for that purpose. The murder was committed at Alconbury Weston, in the county of Huntingdon. This act, which is printed in Rastall's Statutes, was procured (the murderers being then not apprehended) by Margery, widow of Giles Rufford." (Lysons's Buckinghamshire, p. 691.) See also further particulars in Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire, vol. iii. p. 351; and the Journals of the House of Commons, vol. i. p. 45.

P. 105. Funeral of sir John Gage, K.G. The imperfect paragraph in this page probably relates to the funeral of sir John Gage, K.G. who died 18 April, 1556. He was buried at Firle in Sussex, where a monument with recumbent effigies of himself and his wife Philippa, daughter of sir Richard Guilford, K.G. still remains. See an engraving of it in Gage's History of Hengrave, 4to. 1822, and also a portrait and memoir of Sir John.

Ibid. Conspiracy of Throgmorton, Udall, &c. The intention was to rob the exchequer, as stated in the preceding page. The person called "Wodall" and "Waddall" by Machyn, is named Richard Udall by Holinshed (but once, p. 1766, 1. 6, misprinted Veale). He was probably Richard, a younger son of sir William Uvedale of Wickham, Hants, by Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Troyne (see the pedigree in Hutchins's Dorsetshire, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. ^*503). A curious paper showing the interchanging of the names of Uvedale and Woddall will be found in the Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica, 1838, v. 241.

P. 106. Funeral of alderman sir Richard Dobbs. Son of Robert Dobbs, of Batby in Yorkshire; sheriff 1543, lord mayor 1551. Stowe mentions his monument in the church of St. Margaret Moyses, but gives no epitaph. Arms, Per pale argent and sable, a chevron engrailed between three unicorn's heads each charged with three gouts all counter-changed. (Wm. Smith, Rouge-dragon.) See the death and funeral of his widow in pp. 268, 269.

Ibid. Funeral of sir Richard Morgan, chief justice of the common pleas. The following anecdote is recorded with regard to the death of this person, after describing the execution of lady Jane Grey: "Judge Morgan, that gave the sentence against hir, shortly after fell mad, and in hys raving cryed continuallye to have the ladie Jane taken away from him, and so ended his life." Holinshed, first edit. 1577, p. 1733; and Foxe, vol. iii. p. 37.

P. 107. Master West esquire slain by my lord Dacre's (Darcy's) son. Our journalist here, and at p. 121, has miswritten Dacre for Darcy. The murdered man was Lewis West, of Wales near Doncaster, esquire, son and heir apparent of sir William West, of Aughton in the same county, whose death followed before the end of the year, and his funeral occurs at p. 161. The lord Darcy's son was George Darcy, whose name is not mentioned in the peerages, but has been traced in some other documents by Mr. Hunter, who, in his History of South Yorkshire, vol. ii. pp. 173–176, has printed a curious contemporary ballad relative to this event, accompanied by some other particulars connected with it. It arose from one of those family feuds which were still prevalent in the sixteenth century; and the two sons of lord Darcy, John and George, were implicated in it, as well as the two sons of sir William West, Lewis and Edmund. The ballad is headed "The murder of the two brothers, Lewis and Edmund, by the sons of lord Darcy;" but this is an error, for only Lewis was killed and one of his men, as the ballad itself states. The brothers West were returning from Rotherham fair, held on Whitmonday, to their cousin's house at Aughton, when they were assaulted by the Darcys, who were much more numerously attended, "with men three score," and after a desperate fight the result was as already stated. George Darcy, the younger brother, who appears to have been the actual murderer, took sanctuary at Westminster, and an account of the penance he performed is recorded by our chronicler, p. 121, as is his subsequent trial in p. 165.

P. 108. The Grocers' feast. In Kempe's Loseley Manuscripts, p. 160, is printed a warrant from the marquess of Winchester to the keeper of the great park of Nonesuch, transferring to the wardens of the company of Grocers, for their feast this year, the fee buck to which he was entitled by virtue of his office of high treasurer of England. There is some discrepancy, however, in the dates given.

Ibid. Execution of lord Sands' son. "The 18. of June one Sands, a younger son of the lord Sands, was hanged at Saint Thomas of Waterings, for a robbery that hee and other had committed on Witsunday last of 4000. pounds." Stowe's Chronicle.—He is not named in Dugdale's Baronage.

Ibid. Funeral of sir Giles Capel. Son and heir of the rich citizen sir William Capel, (historically known from the exactions he suffered from the ministers of Henry VII.) who died in 1515, and was buried in a chantry chapel which he had built at the church of St. Bartholomew the Little (recently removed to widen the approaches to the Royal Exchange). Sir Giles Capel was knighted in France in 1513, and his biography will be found in Collins's Peerage, 1779, vol. iii. p. 349: being the lineal ancestor of the earls of Essex.—The funeral of his son and heir sir Henry occurs in p. 164.

P. 109. Merchant-taylors' feast. This is the subject of the first imperfect paragraph; it was held on Saint Barnabas' day, the 11th of June.

Ibid. Condemnation of lord La Warre—"for high treason," says our diarist; which statement has been adopted by Strype, Memorials, ii. p. 302, and thence by Bayley, History of the Tower of London, p. 452. But his crime was of a more private character, and one would rather suppose this was the date of his pardon than of his sentence. He had attempted to poison his uncle and predecessor, and was consequently by Act of Parliament, in 2 Edw. VI. disabled from succeeding him in title and estate. His uncle was now lately dead (see p. 339), and shortly after we find that the young lord joined the army in France, and distinguished himself at St. Quintin's. His claim to the dignity of a peer was not acknowledged until 1579; on that subject see Retrospective Review, 2d Ser. ii. 300. He died in 1595.

P. 109. Execution of Peckham and Daniel. "The 8. of July, Henry Peckham, son to sir Edmond Peckham, and John Daniel, were hanged and headed on Tower-hill, for being of counsell with them that should have robbed the queenes treasure of her exchequer, and their bodies buried in Barking church." Stowe's Chronicle.—Daniel's name remains cut on the wall of his prison, "John Daniel, 1556." See Bayley's History of the Tower of London, p. 207.

Ibid. Funeral of lady Seymer. Sir Thomas Seymer, mercer, was lord mayor in 1526, and died 11 Dec. 1532, leaving Mary his widow: see his epitaph in Ellis's Shoreditch, p. 54.

P. 110. Funeral of lady Norwich. Sir Robert Norwich was made chief justice of the common pleas in 1531, and died 1536. But, as the name does not appear in Morant's History of Essex, it is not ascertained where this funeral took place.

P. 111. Death of alderman sir William Laxton. Sir William Laxton, grocer, was son of John Laxton of Oundle in Northamptonshire; sheriff in 1540, lord mayor 1544. He founded a school at Oundle; see Bridges's Northamptonshire, ii. 410. He had a fair monument in Aldermary church, with a poetical inscription, which will be found in Stowe. He married Joan daughter of William Kyrby and widow of Harry Lodington, but had no issue by her. (MS. Harl. 897, f. 24.)

Ibid. Pirates hung at Wapping at the low-water mark. Other instances of this will be found at pp. 131, 231, 256, 281. Stowe mentions Wapping as "the usuall place of execution for hanging of pirats and sea-rovers, at the low-water marke, there to remaine till three tides had overflowed them:" adding, that in his time the gallows had been removed to a greater distance from the city, in consequence of the street which had grown up within the last fifty years, "almost to Radcliffe, a good mile from the Tower."

Ibid. Death of bishop Day. George Day, D.D. bishop of Chichester, consecrated in 1543. He was buried in his own cathedral. See a memoir of him in Dallaway's City of Chichester, 4to. 1815, p. 72. He refused to assent to the destruction of altars in 1550 (Archæologia, xviii. 149), and in 1553 was summoned to preach the sermon at queen Mary's coronation (ibid. 174).

P. 112. Funeral of doctor John Bell, formerly bishop of Worcester. His sepulchral brass, formerly in Clerkenwell church, is now in Parliament Street; a small copy is engraved by Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum, iii. 212. See the epitaph in Stowe and the other Histories of London.

P. 113. Funeral of Philip Dennis esquire,—of London, died 3 Sept. 1556. (Epitaph.)

P. 114. Funeral of [John] Lucas esquire. "A faire plated stone on the ground in the chancell of St. Peter the poor. Here under this stone are buried the bodies of John Lucas of S. John's beside Colchester esquire, master of the requests to the most vertuous, noble, and worthy prince, king Edward the sixth. He departed this life the 28. day of October, An. Dom. 1556. And his daughter Margaret, late wife to Thomas Pennie doctor of physicke, here buried the 13. day of November 1587." (Stowe.) He was greatgrandfather of the gallant cavalier who was created a peer by king Charles the First. (See Morant's Essex, iii. 227.)

P. 115. William Harrys esquire of Cricksea near Southminster, Essex, died 21 September 1555, says Morant, i. 366; which our Diary corrects to 1556. His pedigree will be found in MS. Harl. 874, f. 131^b.

Ibid. Funeral of sir John Champneys. Son of Robert Champneys of Chew in Somersetshire; he was a skinner, sheriff of London and Middlesex 1522, lord mayor 1534. Stowe notes in his Chronicle that he was blind. He bore for arms, Per pale argent and sable, a lion rampant gules, within a bordure counter-changed. (List by Wm. Smith, Rouge-dragon.) He was buried at Bexley in Kent, (see his epitaph in Thorpe's Registrum Roffense, p. 924.) His family long continued in that county (see Hasted, vol. i. p. 160, vol. iii. 326.)

Ibid. Funeral of lord Vaux. Thomas second lord Vaux of Harrowden, and K.B. succeeded his father 1523. Sir Harris Nicolas (Synopsis of the Peerage) was not certain of the date of his death.

Ibid. Funeral of sir Richard Cotton. King Edward visited sir Richard Cotton at Warblington on the 2—4 Aug. 1553; and he was made comptroller of the household on the 27th of the same month. (King Edward's Diary.) The queen dowager of Scotland had lodged at Warblington on the 28 Oct. 1552 (Ibid.)

Ibid. Funeral of sir Henry Huberthorne. Son of Christopher Huberthorne of Waddingworth in Lincolnshire; sheriff 1542, lord mayor 1547. During his mayoralty he was knighted by king Edward VI. a few days after his accession, on the 6th Feb. 1546–7, immediately after the young sovereign had received the same degree from his uncle the Protector the earl of Hertford. There was a "fair marble stone under the communion table" at St. Peter's, Cornhill, recording his name and that of his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1551 (see p. 9.) "He dwelled in the very next house to Leadenhall, where sir William Bowyer [lord mayor in 1544] dwelled." Arms, Sable, a mascle within a bordure counterflory argent. (List by Wm. Smith, Rouge-dragon.)

P. 116. Funeral of sir John Olyffe: sometimes written Ayloffe; sheriff in 1548–9, appointed the first alderman of Bridge ward Without, when the borough of Southwark was made one of the wards of the City, as detailed in Stowe's Survay, edit. 1633, p. 446. He was first a Barber-surgeon, and his portrait occurs in Holbein's picture of Henry VIII. delivering their charter to that company (see Gent. Mag. lix. 290); on becoming an alderman he was translated to the Grocers. He lived in Blackwell hall, and was buried in the adjoining church of St. Michael's Bassishaw; where was a long epitaph in English verse, printed in Stowe, but with the erroneous date 1548 instead of 1554. Arms, Argent, on a chevron engrailed between three estoiles gules, three stag's heads caboshed argent, attired or. (List by W.m. Smith, Rouge-dragon.) His son John died July 17, 1579, and was buried in St. Stephen's, Coleman Street. See his wife and children in MS. Harl. 897, ff. 62^b, 131^b.

P. 116. Burial of bishop Man at St. Andrew's Undershaft. "Henry Man, doctor of divinity in the university of Oxenford, and sometime bishop of Man, which Henry departed this life the 19. day of October, An. Do. 1556, and lyeth buried under this stone."—"before the doore within the chancell." (Stowe.) The letters patent of his appointment by Henry VIII. dated 22 Jan. 1545–6 are printed in Rymer's Fœdera, xv. 85.

Ibid. Funeral of alderman sir John Gresham. Uncle to the celebrated sir Thomas. Biographical notices of him will be found in Burgon's Life of sir Thomas Gresham, vol. i. pp. 11, et seq. He was sheriff in 1537-8, and lord mayor in 1547-8. He was buried at St. Michael Bassishaw: and his epitaph is given by Stowe. Sir Rowland Hill and sir Andrew Judd were made overseers of his will. (Ibid. p. 19.) "He dwelled where sir Leonard Holiday now dwelleth." (Wm. Smith, Rouge-dragon.)

The death of so many old persons at this period is attributed by Stowe to "the hot burning fevers." Seven aldermen died within ten months,—Hardson, Dobbs, Laxton, Hobblethorne, Champneys, Ayloffe, and Gresham: they have all been noticed in these pages.

P. 117. Master Offley sworn lord mayor. Sir Thomas Offley, son of William Offley, of Chester, had been sheriff in 1553. He was knighted during his mayoralty on the 7th Feb.; see p. 125. "He dwelled in Lyme strete, towards the north end of it, not farr from St. Andrew's Undershaft, where he is buried." Arms, Argent, on a cross flory-delis azure, between four choughs proper, a lion passant guardant or. (List by Wm. Smith, Rouge-dragon.) "The useful custom of the night-bellmen (preventing many fiers and more felonies) began in his mayoralty. He was the Zacheus of London, not for his low stature, but his high charity, bequeathing the half of his estate (computed, by a reverend divine, to amount to five thousand pounds) unto the poor. He died 1580, and was buried in St. Andrew Undershaft." Fuller's Worthies; and, after noticing two other citizens of the name, Hugh and Robert, he adds, "I believe it was the first of these three Offleys on whom the rhythme was made,
Offley three dishes had of daily rost,
An egge, an apple, and (the third) a toast.
This I behold neither sin nor shame in him, feeding himself on plain and wholesome repast, that he might feed others by his bounty, and thereby deserving rather praise than a jear from posterity."

P. 118. Funeral of alderman Goodyer. Henry Goodyer (whose name does not occur in Smith's list of aldermen, and who was never sheriff,) became one of the trustees of the parish of St. Olave for Horseydown, in the 36th Hen. VIII. (See the account of St. Olave's grammar school in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1836, N. S. vol. v. p. 139.) On the 19 Jan. 1586 Hugh Gooder released and confirmed the said land to the governors. (Communication of G. R. Corner, esq. F.S.A.)

Ibid. Funeral of lady Williams of Thame. "The lady Elsabeth, late wyff to the right honorable sir John Williams knight, lord Williams baron of Thame, and lord chamberlen to king Phelype, doter of Bledloo, and afore wyff to Andru Edmondes of Essex, dyed on sonday the 25. of October 1556, and was beryed at Rycot in Bokynghamshire [Oxfordshire] the 4. of November next foloing." (MS. Harl. 897, f. 83.) The ceremony is recorded in Coll. Arm. I. 3, f. 101, and I. 9, f. 150^b. Christopher Edmundes esquire, her son by her first husband, bore the banner of her arms. See her husband's funeral in p. 217.

Ibid. Man set in the pillory. Stowe (1580) has a considerably longer account of this. The man was burnt on both cheeks, with the letters F and A for False Accusing one of the court of Common Pleas of treason. The like punishment the chronicler had once wished for one who had falsely accused his maister and eldest brother—apparently meaning himself.

P. 120. Funeral of lord Morley. "Sir Henry Parker lord Morley dyed on Wensday the 25. of November 1556, at his howsse of Hannyngbery Morley, and was beryed on Thursday the 3. of December next foloing." (MS. Harl. 897, f. 79^b.) In the church of Great Hallingbury: see Muilman's History of Essex, vol. iv. p. 143.

Ibid. Funeral of Robert Downe master of the Ironmongers. Of his benefactions to that company see Malcolm, ii. 40; and his will is enrolled at Guildhall.

Ibid. Gregory a Spaniard. Stowe calls this man "Gregory Carpenter, smith, and a Frenchman borne." His original crime was making counterfeit keys, wherewith to have opened the locks of Newgate.

P. 122. Mistress Bowes, daughter of my lord Scrope. Martin Bowes esquire, of Barking in Essex, second son of sir Martin Bowes, married to his first wife Frances, daughter of Richard Scrope, and heir of Elizabeth Amidas his wife, who was the daughter of Robert Amidas goldsmith of London by Margaret heiress of James Bryce; see their issue in Vincent's Middlesex, Coll. Arm. 119 f. 484, Vincent's Essex 124, f. 105; or MS. Harl. 897, f. 21. Our diarist was mistaken in supposing that this lady was "the do[ughter] of my lord Skrope," an error the more remarkable because Mary daughter of Henry lord Scrope married sir William Bowes (see Surtees's Durham, iv. 110.)