Notes to the diary: 1563

1563

P. 299. Funeral of lady Dormer. Sir Michael Dormer, who had been lord mayor in 1541, died in 1545, directing his body to be buried in the churchyard of St. Lawrence (not St. Olave's) in the Jury, London, where Elizabeth his wife lay; leaving issue by his wife Katharine (who was the lady here recorded) several children, whose names will be found in Collins's Peerage, tit. Dormer.

P. 300. The double marriage of lord Talbot to lady Anne Herbert, and lord Herbert to lady Katharine Talbot. Francis lord Talbot died before his father, and without issue, in 1582. The marriage here recorded of Lord Herbert, afterwards second earl of Pembroke, (who had been previously contracted to the lady Katharine Grey, and whose third wife was the celebrated Mary, sister to Sir Philip Sidney,) was also fruitless. On the occasion of Lady Katharine Talbot's marriage, her father inforced the ancient feudal right of receiving a benevolence from his tenants as ayde pour fille marier. See a letter of his on the subject, dated "From Coldharbar, the xx^th of Marche, 1562[–3]," in Lodge's Illustrations of British History, i. 348; followed by an account of the sums collected in the counties of York, Nottingham, and Derby, which amounted to 321l. 7s. 6d.

P. 301. Exposure of a termagant wife. A custom somewhat similar still existed in parts of Berkshire towards the end of the last century, and about 1790 one of the members of the Camden Society witnessed a procession of villagers on their way to the house of a neighbouring farmer, in the parish of Hurst, who was said to have beaten his wife. The serenaders, consisting of persons of all ages and denominations, were well supplied with kettles, tin cans, cover-lids, hand-bells, pokers and tongs, and cows' horns, and, drawing up in front of the farm, commenced a most horrible din, showing at least that the ceremony was properly known by the name of "rough music". After some time the party quietly dispersed, apparently quite satisfied with the measure of punishment inflicted by them on the delinquent.—For similar practices see Brand, ii. 151, and MS. Sloane 886.

P. 302. Sir William Fitz William, who died in the time of king Henry VIII. in the year 1534, was a merchant-taylor of London, and alderman of Bread-street ward. He was the first of his family at Milton, co. Northampton (now the seat of his descendant earl FitzWilliam), and was buried at Marham in that county: see Bridges's History thereof, vol. ii. p. 520.

Ibid. Loss of the queen's ship the Greyhound. A short account of this event will be found in Stowe's Chronicle. Sir Thomas Finch had been appointed to succeed sir Adrian Poynings as knight marshal of the army in France; and, having previously sent over his brother sir Erasmus Finch to have charge of his band, and his kinsman Thomas Finch to be provost marshal, he at length embarqued in the Greyhound, "having there aboord with him, besides three score and sixe of his own retinue, foure and forty other gentlemen, two of them being brethren to the lord Wentworth, to wit, James Wentworth and John Wentworth, with divers others, who in the whole (accompting the marriners) amounted to the number of two hundred persons and upward." Having been driven back from Newhaven, they unwisely urged the captain "to thrust into the haven" of Rye "before the tide," and consequently the lives of all were lost, except four "of the meaner sort."

Ibid. Sir Thomas Finch was of Eastwell, co. Kent, by marriage with Katharine, elder daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Moyle, chancellor of the court of augmentations; his eldest son, sir Moyle Finch, was created a baronet in 1611, and was direct ancestor of the earls of Winchelsea and Nottingham.

P. 303. Funeral of lady Chester. Katharine, daughter of Christopher Throckmorton esquire, of Coorse Court, co. Glouc. and the first wife of sir Robert Chester, receiver of the court of augmentations: see before, p. 316, and the pedigree of Chester in Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, vol. iii. p. 363.

Ibid. Funeral of lady Lane. Sir Robert Lane was of Horton in Northamptonshire, being the son of sir Ralph Lane by Maud daughter of William lord Parr of Horton. By Katharine his first wife, daughter of sir Robert Copley of Bermondsey, (see before, p. 378) who is the lady here commemorated, he had three sons, all afterwards knighted, sir William Lane, sir Parr Lane, and sir Robert Lane. Bridges's Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 368.

P. 303. Funeral of alderman David Woodroffe. Son of John Woodroffe, of Uscombe, Devonshire; sheriff 1554. In that capacity he was present at the executions of Bradford and Rogers the protestant martyrs, and John Foxe much abuses his cruel behaviour, contrasting it with the mildness of his colleague sir William Chester. "But what happened? Hee was not come out of his office the space of a weeke, but he was stricken by the sudden hand of God, the one halfe of his bodie in such sort, that he lay benumned and bed-red, not able to move himself, but as he was lifted of other, and so continued in that infirmity the space of seven or eight years, till his dying day." He gave 20l. towards the conduit at Bishopsgate. (Stowe's Survay.) His son Stephen died Sept. 25, 1572, and was buried at St. Andrew Undershaft (Ibid.); and his grandson sir Nicholas Woodroffe, who lived at Leadenhall (in that parish), was lord mayor in 1579. A pedigree of the family, which was allied to others of eminence in the city, will be found in the History of Surrey, by Manning and Bray, vol. iii. pp. 176, 177.

P. 307. Funeral of Ranulph Cholmley esquire, Recorder of London. He had been elected Recorder in 1553. See his epitaph in Stowe's Survay, and his armorial insignia in the Collectanea Topogr. et Geneal. 1837, vol. iv. p. 102. His place in the pedigree of Cholmondeley will be seen in Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. ii. p. 356.

P. 308. Funeral of sir James Stump. This was the son and heir of a wealthy Wiltshire clothier, who made his fortune at Malmesbury, where he set up his looms in the abbey church and buildings immediately after the Dissolution, as related by Leland in his Itinerary. See the pedigree of this family, whose inheritance passed to the Knyvetts and so to the earls of Suffolk and Berkshire, in the Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica, vol. vii. p. 81; also the funeral certificate of his daughter lady Knyvett and her husband in the Topographer, 1846, vol. i. p. 467. The churchwardens of St. Margaret's Westminster, received, "Item, of the overseers of the last will of sir James Stumpe knight, for a fyne of certen black clothe hanged up in our Lady chappelle the tyme of his buryall ijs. vjd.; for his grave xiijs. iiijd.; for the belles iiijs. viijd."

Ibid. Funeral insignia of master Gyfford. For "Northamptonshire" the Diarist should have written Southamptonshire: for this funeral gear was doubtless made for "John Gyfford esquire, heir apparent of syr William Gyfford knyght," who died 1 May, 1563, and was buried at Crondall, Hants. See his epitaph in Collectanea Topograph. et Genealogica, vol. vii. p. 223.

P. 309. Funeral of lord Paget. The first peer of that family, whose active part as a statesman is familiar from general history. "This William lord Paget dysseased at his howsse called Drayton, on wensday the ix^th of June, in the 5. yere of quene Elizabethe, 1563, and was beryed on Thursday the xviij^th of July next enshewinge." (MS. Harl. 897, f. 81.) There is a monument with his effigies in Lichfield Cathedral, an engraving of which forms Pl. XVI. of Shaw's History of Staffordshire.

P. 310. Ringing on the queen's removes. The ringing of bells at these times was a constant observance: see particularly the extracts from the parochial accounts of Lambeth and St. Margaret's Westminster, published in Nichols's "Illustrations of the Manners and Expenses of Ancient Times," 1797, 4to. and continual entries throughout the Progresses of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. On the 20th of April, 1571, the ringers of Lambeth were paid 1s. "for rynging when the queenes majestie rode about St. George's fields." It might be supposed that Elizabeth was very fond of this noisy salutation; but the truth is, that her harbingers enforced their fines, as noticed in the present passage of the Diary, if the service was omitted. The same usage was customary at an earlier date, as shown by the following entry from the accounts of St. Margaret's for the years 1548 and 1549, "Also payd to the kyng's amner, when he would have sealyd up the church doors at the departure of the kyng's majestie the ij day of July, because the bells were not rung, ijs. iiijd."

Ibid. A cross of blue set at every door. These sad badges of the plague seem to have been made separately, probably painted on canvas. The churchwardens of St. Margaret's Westminster paid at this time, "Item, to the paynter of Totehill-street for payntinge of certeyne blewe crosses to be fyxed upon sondrie houses infected, vjd."

P. 311. Proclamation. On further consideration the sense of this paragraph seems to be that Englishmen were to be allowed privateering against the French: therefore, for the word "no," read "any" or "every." The proclamation next mentioned (p. 312) would be one relating to London only, where the French residents were to remain unmolested.

P. 312. Taking of Newhaven. The 28th of July was the day the town of Havre de Grace surrendered to the prince of Condé and his English allies. See Stowe's Chronicle under this date. On this subject see also the preface to the Chronicle of Calais, p. xvii.

Ibid. Proclamation for killing dogs. This was on account of their carrying the plague from house to house. The churchwardens of St. Margaret's Westminster paid this year, "Item, to John Welche for the killinge and carreinge awaye of dogges during the plague, and for the putting of theym into the ground and covering the same, iijs. ijd." The like measure was adopted on the recurrence of the plague in 1603, when, at seven payments from the 19th June to the 30th July, the churchwardens of St. Margaret's paid for the slaughter of no fewer than 327 dogs, at 1d. each.