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IV. Petition of Richard Troughton, Bailiff of South Witham, Lincolnshire, to the Privy Council in the reign of Queen Mary, relating to the share taken by him in the Duke of Northumberland's Plot. Communicated by Frederic Madden, Esq. F.S.A. in a Letter to Thomas Amyot, Esq. F.R.S., Treasurer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

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Extract

The publication of the curious Chronicle relative to the latter part of Edward the Third's reign, so ably illustrated by you in the last portion of the Archæologia, has led me more particularly to examine the volume in which that Narrative, together with many other historical and legal Tracts, is bound up, forming Nos. 6215—6232, of the Harleian Collection. The greater part of these Tracts, as you are, no doubt, aware, were certainly once in the possession of Stow (several of them being written with his own hand), and after his death [1605] passed, with his other papers, into the hands of Sir Simonds d'Ewes, whence they were transferred to the noble library of the Earl of Oxford. So far all is void of difficulty. But there is yet another possessor to be accounted for, between the period of Stow's decease and the acquisition of these MSS. by Sir Simonds d'Ewes—I mean, the person who has numbered, and prefixed a title to, the greater part of the contents of the volume in question, and who simply signs his initials R. ST. with the date 1615. I am unable, I confess, satisfactorily to ascertain the individual alluded to, but in No. 6219, I find a paper on the affairs of Scotland, headed by Stow thus: “Out of a great boke of Records borowyd of Master Stevenson.” I conjecture, therefore, that it is to this Master Stevenson we are chiefly indebted for the collection and preservation of the tracts, all of which are more or less valuable to the historian.

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Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1831

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References

page 20 note a Vide Visitations of Bucks, 1566, 1575, 1634. MSS. Had. 5181, 1533, 1391, where the Pedigree is thus stated:

page 23 note a In Bettisloe Wapentake, Division of Kesteven.

page 23 note b Staked. “Stower, Dyke-stower, a hedge stake. Su. G. stoer, palus. In old Latin charters estuarium, estouarium.” Brockett.

page 23 note c Asked.

page 23 note d Edward VI. died on Thursday, July 6th, 1553.

page 23 note e Sic.

page 23 note f On the death of Edward VI. Mary was at Hunsdon, in the county of Hertford, but being warned of her danger by a note from the Earl of Arundel, retreated to the manor of Kenninghall, in Norfolk, and thence to the castle of Frenyngham, Holinsh. Lingard.

The Mr. Hurleston mentioned by Troughton, can be no other than Sir John Huddleston of Sawston, co. Cambridge, whose name appears as one of Mary's Privy Council, and who is appointed, together with Serjeant Morgan, on the 18th July 1553, to examine all the prisoners concerned in Northumberland's plot. Mary seems to have been in the habit of stopping at his house when on her road to Norfolk; for in a letter from the Council to some Lords in the North, in 1551, they complain, that without any sufficient cause, she had moved from Newhall, in Essex, to her house of Hunsdon, in Hertfordshire, and thence “taken hir journeye toward Norfolke, making hir furst dayes journaye to one Mr. Hudleston's howse, in Cambridgshire, being the same to far of for any of her accustomed jornays.” Haynes, p. 118. It appears from a subsequent part of Troughton's narrative, that Hudleston's house was burnt by order of the Duke of Northumberland, and probably from the circumstance of his well-known adherence to his Sovereign. The time of Sir John's death may be ascertained from a memorandum in the very curious Diary preserved in MS. Cott. Vit. F. v. where it is recorded: [1557.] “The xj. day of november was bered be syd Cambryge s John Hodyllstone knyght, wt standard, pennon, cote armur, elmett, targat, sword and pensell, & a vj. dosen of skochyons & of torchys.”

page 24 note g More properly here and below, “Woe worth” a phrase immediately derived from the Saxon, and used by nearly all our old writers down to the seventeenth century. See Chalmers' Gloss, to Lyndsay, Nares, &c. It is equivalent to “May misery befall!” So, when the Queen of Edw. IV. is told of Gloucester's intentions, she exclaims, “A wo worth him, for it is he that goeth about to destroy me and my blodde.” Hall.

page 24 note h Troughton alludes to Edward Dudley, the coadjutor of Empson, who was arraigned of high treason, and lost his head on Tower-hill, 28th Aug. 2 Hen. VIII. 1510.

page 24 note i Perchance, from a similar cause.

page 25 note k Sic.

page 25 note l The name does not appear in the Visitations of Northumberland.

page 25 note m The Proclamation was made on the 10th July 1553. See a copy of it in Burnet's Hist. vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 331. ed. 1816.

page 25 note n Before.

page 26 note o A bowl, cup, or tankard, with a cover to it. In an Indenture of 17 Ric. II. 1393. John, Lord Cobham, pledged to Thomas Baketone, pewterer, of London, among other articles, “Vne coppe oue couercle appelle bolle, que poise dil pois de troye iijlo. di. once.” Cart. Harl. 48. E. 54. In the Rolls of New Year's gifts of Elizabeth's reign, “oone guilte bolle with a cover,” occurs repeatedly.

page 27 note p In the Hundred of Sparkenhoe, County of Leicester.

page 27 note q This important fact of Mary's having been proclaimed at Bury so early in the month of July, is wholly unnoticed by our historians.

page 27 note r “The Firste hate or cape that was caste vpe in reyoysyng of ye Quenes p'clamacion [was] caste vpe in Lincolnshyre.” Margin.

page 27 note s Sir.

page 27 note t In n so called.

page 27 note u In the list of Aldermen printed by Butcher and Peck, Johan Fenton's name appears for the second time as holding that office in 1552. This dignity, both at Stamford and Grantham, was then equivalent to that of Mayor, and so continued till the reign of Charles II. See Peck's Antiquarian Annals of Stamford, fol. Lond. 1727, and Tumor's Collections for the History of Grantham, 4to. Lond, 1806.

page 28 note x In 1553, 1564, and 1576, Will. Campinet, draper, appears as the Alderman of Stamford, but I know not wheiher he was the same with the person here mentioned.

page 29 note y Exton is situated in the Hundred of Alstoe, co. Rutland. From the Visitations of Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire, it appears that Sir John Harrington was the son of John Harrington, of Exton, Esq. by a daughter of Henry Southwell. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Robert Motton, by whom he had Sir James Harrington, Knt. of Exton, whose son Sir John Harrington, Knt. was created Lord Harrington of Exton, by James I. 21 July 1603. The arms borne by this family are, Sable, a fret Argent, hence called a Harrington's knot. The death of Sir John Harrington mentioned in the text, is thus recorded by an anonymous Chronicler of that period (MS. Vitell. F. v.) so largely quoted by Strype: “The xviij day of August ded ser John [Harrington] knyght of Rottland shyre w*in saynt El[enes] Byssopgatt stret & ffrom yt day yt he ded tyll he was cared in to ys contray, was mas & dirige evere day songe, & Monday ye iiij day of Septe[mber] whent into ye contray in a horse lytter, wt [ys] standard & ys penon of armes, & after ys horse w iiij pennons of armes borne a bowt bym, & wt a goodly helmet gylt, wt targett, sword & crest, & a x dosen of shochyons, & x dosen of pensels for a herse, & staff torches, & a herse of wax, & a ffere mageste, & ye walans gylded & fryngyd, & so to Ware, & so on.”

page 29 note * The manuscript has, unfortunately, been much damaged by fire, and the lacunae are therefore supplied from Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. p. 35. ed. Oxon.

page 30 note z Sir James Croft was dismissed from the Constableship, and Edward Lord Clinton, then Lord Admiral, took possession of the Tower, with all the royal treasures and munitions of war. Strype. Lingard.

page 30 note a This is probably the same person who married Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Sir John Harrington, and widow of … Dymock. He is called in the Visitations, William Fitzwilliams, and said to be the son of Humphrey Fitzwilliams of Scampton.

page 31 note b Used by the writers of the Elizabethan aera for the air, or the visible compass of the Heavens. See Shaksp. Jul. Cses. A. i. sc. 3, and Nares' Gloss.

page 31 note c Drink.

page 31 note d Table.

page 31 note e Stat. 35 Hen. VIII. intituled “An Act for the King's succession to the Crowne.” voi. iii. p. 955, new edition Stat. of the Realm.

page 32 note f The same person who is mentioned above, now called Sir, according to the ancient usage of bestowing that title on a graduated Clerk.

page 32 note g market town in Aveland Wapentake, division of Kestevon. The manor and castle of Folkingham, in the time of Leland, belonged to the Duke of Norfolk, but being forfeited by attainder, was granted by Edward VI. to the family of Clinton, in exchange for lands in the county of Worcester.

page 32 note h The words being at London, which here follow, are struck out.

page 32 note i Ignorant.

page 33 note j Stay.

page 33 note k In MS. Harl. 1550, containing the Visitations of Lincolnshire in 1562 and 1592, is a coat of arms granted to Thomas Wimberley of Bitchfeld, in com. Lincoln, 16th July, SO Eliz. [1588] viz. Argent, two bars Or, in chief three stags' heads caboshed of the Second. This Thomas was apparently the son of the person mentioned by Troughton. He subsequently removed to Spalding, in the same county, where his son, Bevile Wimberley, was settled in 1621.

page 33 note l In Bettisloe Wapentake, county of Lincoln.

page 34 note m If Troughton were related to the family of that name in Co. Bucks, this event might have taken place in one of the Summer Progresses of Henry, after the birth of Mary in 1516, and there is some reason to suppose it occurred in 1532, which would make Troughton, at the time of writing his Petition, about thirty-five or thirty-six years of age. In 1533, Henry visited Stamford and other towns of Lincolnshire in his way to York, but the Queen could not at that time have been with him.

page 34 note n Forthwith.

page 34 note o Denton is a village situate in the Soke of Grantham, and in the church are monuments of the Williams's, Welby's, and Cholmley's, the three families of distinction in the parish. Beauties of Engl. and ll'ales. From the Heraldic Visitations, the above George Williams appears to have been the grandson of Thomas Williams, of Aberconway, in Wales, and son of William Williams, of Stamford, co. Lincoln. He married Alice daughter of Richard Coney of Basingthorpe, in the same county, and in 1554 was one of the Representatives of Grantham in Parliament. Tumor's Collect, p. 115; MSS. Harl. 1436, 1550. In the Ecclesiastical Return made to Cardinal Pole in 1556 of the state of this County, is this item: “Magister [Geo.] Williams de Dentonne detectus, quod abstulisset plumbum cancelli de Ewarbie,” for which he pleaded a Commission granted by Edw. VI. See Strype's Eccles. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 410. He left his son, Richard Williams of Denton, his successor, and the ancient mansion house of the family still exists.

page 35 note p Easton, in the Soke of Grantham.

page 35 note q Probably the Mr. Francis Armstrong of Coxby, co. Line, in the Visitation of 1562. Leland, in his Itinerary, speaking of thisplace, writes, “wher dwellith a Gentilman of mene lands caullid Armestrong.” Vol. i.

page 35 note r Bytham Little, in the Wapentake of Bettisloe.

page 36 note s An Inn of this denomination (and probably on the same site) still exists. “The town is neat and well built, is famous for its commodious Inns, especially the George and Angel.” Howlett's Select Views of Lincolnshire, 4to. Lond. 1805.

page 36 note t Soldiers.

page 36 note u Colsterworth, in the western corner of the Soke of Grantham, and about eight miles from the town of Grantham. This parish is become celebrated from Sir Isaac Newton having been born within it. See Tumor's Collections, p. 153.

page 37 note x Hot.

page 37 note y The Duke of Northumberland was beheaded August 22nd the same year (1553).

page 38 note z Burleigh, in Northamptonshire, near Stamford.

page 38 note a I do not find this name in the Visitations of Lincoln, but the family must certainly have been settled here, for in 1597 Lionel Fetherstone was Alderman of the town, and in the list of benefactors occurs Margaret Fetherstone, of St. Martin's parish. Drakard's Stamford, p. 580. One Federston was Tutor to Mary when Princess, as appears from a letter of Queen Katherine, printed in Ellis's Orig. Letters, vol. ii. p. 19. First Ser.

page 39 note b I have not been successful in my attempts to discover the source of this appellation, but still think it may be met with in some of our old Playwrights. The allusion, however, is doubtless to the badge of the House, the bear and ragged staff; whence also Shakspeare causes Clifford to exclaim, on the entry of Warwick and Salisbury,

“Are these thy bears? we'll bait thy bears to death.”—K. Hen. VI. Act v. sc. 1.

page 40 note c Against.

page 40 note d Probably the commencement of a Christmas carol, but the rest of it does not seem to have been preserved.

page 40 note e Lord Clinton has already been mentioned as one of Northumberland's adherents. His name was struck out by Queen Mary from the list of those committed for trial, and he afterwards became one of her Privy Councillors, and defenders against the attempt of Wvat.

page 40 note f This can only refer to Francis Talbot, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, who, like the Earl of Arundel, seems only to have joined in Northumberland's plot for the purpose of betraying him. His services to Mary on this occasion were rewarded, on her accession, by his being made a Privy Councillor, and President of the Council of the North, and in Lodge's Illustr. vol. i. p. 184, is a letter from his Countess, strongly testifying the regard he was held in by his Sovereign.

page 41 note g “Lilbore is a lowete.” Margin.

page 41 note h Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, and husband of the ill-fated Lady Jane Gray. Beheaded, February 12th 1553-4.

page 42 note i A term of this period expressing a great degree of friendship or intimacy. Vide Nares' Gloss, in voc.

page 42 note j Evidently a mistake, as both the Restons in Lincolnshire are too far removed to be here intended. Perhaps we should read Weston.

page 42 note k Colsterworth.

page 43 note l On this day was the Duke of Northumberland arrested at Cambridge, the account of whose behaviour, written in a contemporary hand, is inserted at the end of Troughton's narrative, and although it has been partly copied by Stow and others, yet I shall here transcribe it verbatim: “Thursday ye 20. of Ju[ly: the anonymous Chronicler in Vitell. F. v. says the 21st.] Johne Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, being at Sant Edmundes Bury, & having most sure knowledge yt ye Lady Mary was by ye Nobilitie & others of ye counsell remayning at London proelamed quene of England ye day before, was therwth much trowbled in his mynd, not knowing what was best for hym to do, yet at ye last, fled backe agayne, wth as much spede as he convenientlie could, & came to Cambridge abowt fyve of ye clocke in ye evening, wher he, wth suche other of ye nobilitie as fled backe wth hym, incontinentlie came to ye market crosse & caused ye Ladye Mary to be proelamed Quene of England; ye proclamation being ended, & all men for ye moste parte throwing vpp ther cappes for ioy, he having his cap in his hand, lift vp his arme in outward token of ioy, but being dismayed wth ye wunderfull showtes, cries, & throwing vp of cappes on euery side, turned his backe, & went towards his lodging, not able any longer to surpresse ye inward grefe of his mynd, wch he planely shewed by the teares wch came tricling downe his chekes from his moystened eyes.

“Mr. Sleg, Sergiant at armes, arested the Duke & the rest of ye nobilitie & gentleman at Cambridge.”

page 43 note m Thomas Wilkinson was Alderman in 1553.

page 44 note n A wind instrument, supposed to be the Base Cornet. Vide Notes to the Privy Purse Expences of K. Hen. VIII.

page 44 note o Sept. 21st.

page 44 note p Sic.

page 44 note q “Wymberles house standethe by the church yarde & Southwthm is the highe waye to Yorke.” Marvin.

page 45 note r Death. The Duke of Somerset was executed 22nd January 1552.

page 45 note s Southwitharn.

page 45 note t Stay, hindrance.

page 46 note v Before.

page 46 note u In the Return made by the Ecclesiastical Commission to Cardinal Pole, in 1556, on the state of the Churches in Lincolnshire, that of Southwitham is not mentioned, although Bichefelde and many others are noticed. We may hence, perhaps, infer that the Chancel had been repaired between the period of Troughton's accusation before the Privy Council and the date of the Visitation.

page 46 note x Adversaries.

page 47 note y If we may admit the truth of this assertion, it will throw some light on the disputed point as to the legitimate birth of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, appointed Lord Chancellor by Queen Mary, 23rd August 1553. Burnet and Godwin state him to have been the natural son of Dr. Lionel Woodville, Dean of Exeter and Bishop of Salis-bury, and born at Bury St. Edmunds in 1483. Strype and Chalmers adopt this opinion also, and it is most generally received; but Lodge, on the authority of one of Rawlinson's MSS.in the Bodleian Library, is inclined to believe him the son of Sir Thomas Gardiner, Knt. the representative of an ancient family in Lancashire. It is certain, however, that the coat of arms assumed by him was nearly, or quite, the same with that of the Gardiners of Glemsford, in Suffolk, which differs from that granted to the Gardiners of Bishop's Norton, Lincoln, who are immediately descended from the Sir Thomas Gardiner above mentioned, and referred to (as I believe) in Troughton's narrative.

page 47 note z Mary was crowned on Sunday, October 1st, 1553.

page 47 note a Matters?

page 48 note b A mistake for Bitchfield, in Bettisloe Wapentake, where Wymberley resided, as appears from the Visitation in 1592.

page 48 note c This refers to the part taken by the Duke of Suffolk in Wyat's rebellion, after the pardon granted by Mary for his previous treason, in conjunction with Northumberland. He secretly left his house at Shene on the 25th January 1553-4, and with his two brothers proceeded to Leicestershire, where in many places, “he caused proclamation to be made in semblable wise as Sir Thomas Wiat had done, against the Quenes match, which she meant to make with the king of Spaine: but few there were that would willinglie hearken thereto.” Holinsh, p. 1095. Lodge's Illustr. vol. i. p. 189. The Duke was arrested, and again brought to the Tower on February 6th, and on the 23rd he lost his head on Tower-hill. Strype.

page 48 note d County Assizes?