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VII. The Troubles of Thomas Mowntayne, Rector of St. Michael Tower-Ryall, in the Reign of Queen Mary: written by himself

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2010

Abstract

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Type
Narratives of the Days of the Reformation
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1859

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References

page 178 note a October 1, 1553.

page 178 note b Misprinted by Strype bitterness.

page 178 note c October 11.

page 179 note a Sir Anthony St.Leger, knight of the Garter. Some verses (in ballad measure) on the Eucharist, which are printed in Foxe's Actes and Monuments, are by him attributed to king Edward as author, and said to have been addressed to sir Anthony St. Leger; or, according to other accounts, sir Anthony was himself responsible for them. But he got into trouble about them in Ireland, and was anxious to deny them in the reign of queen Mary: see the Preface to the Literary Remains of King Edward VI.

page 180 note a Thomas Martyn, D.C.L. one of the masters in chancery, who was actively engaged in the prosecution of archbishop Cranmer and many others, as appears in Foxe's pages, throughout the Marian period. He was author of a book published in 1554, on the Unlawfulness of Priests' Marriage, See memoirs of him in Wood's Athenas Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) i. 500; and references to many particulars in the General Index to the Works of Strypc.

page 181 note a The words wherein he looked are omitted by Strype.

page 181 note b ij omitted by Strype.

page 182 note a Apparently a furtive jest, “irreligious” instead of “religious.”

page 182 note b Christ's Hospital.

page 182 note c St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's.

page 183 note a “Priesta” in, Slrype.

page 183 note b only omitted by Sltype.

page 184 note a Coal-house page 184 note b i. e. by your leave.

page 185 note a James Brooks, D.D. Oxon. 1546, master of Balliol college 1547, bishop of Gloucester 1554. He was one of the pope's delegates for the trial of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. See other particulars of him in Wood's Athense Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) i. 314.

page 186 note a William Chadsey, D.D., prebendary of St. Paul's 1548, archdeacon of Middlesex 1550, canon of Windsor 1554, canon of Christchurch Oxford 1557, president of Corpus Christi college Oxford 1558, deprived of all his preferments 1559. In April 1554 dr. Chadsey took the lead in the disputation at Oxford with archbishop Cranmer. He preached the thanksgiving sermon Nov. 28, 1554, for queen Mary's supposed quickening, as fully described in Stowe's Chronicle; and others of his sermons are noticed by Maehyn: see the index to that diary. Other particulars of him will be found in Wood's Athense Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) i. 322.

page 186 note b Henry Pendleton, S.T.P., prebendary of St. Paul's 1554; rector of St. Martin's Outwich in the same year, and of St. Stephen's Walbrook 1556. Of his other preferments, and his religious principles, see Neweourt's Repertorium Eccles. Londinense, p. 204, and Wood's Athense Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) i. 325. He was the preacher at St. Paul's cross at whom a gun was fired on the 10th of June, 1554; and other occasions of his preaching will be found in the index to Machyn's Diary. His funeral, Sept. 21, 1557, at St. Stephen's Walbrook, “where he was parson,” is described by Maehyn, p. 152.

page 186 note c Who this was does not appear: as it could scarcely be Nicholas Udall, once master of Eton school, who was ranged on the Protestant side.

page 186 note d Probably the incumbent of a church in the borough of Southwark, as his name does not occur in Neweourt's Repertory of the diocese of London.

page 187 note a Compare with the passage in Underbill's narrative, p. 159.

page 187 note b He landed at Southampton, July 19, 1554.

page 187 note c Strype, Eccles. Memorials, iii. 101, in giving these names, has printed “Sir Tho. Baker,” instead of sir John, and has omitted Southwell and Brydges.

page 187 note d A privy councillor, and chancellor of the exchequer.

page 187 note e Sir Thomas Moyle was general receiver of the court of augmentations. Through his daughter and coheir Katharine, he was grandfather of sir Moyle Finch, the first baronet (1611), whose wife was created countess of Winchilsea, and from whom the subsequent earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham have descended.

page 187 note f See before, pp. 8,139.

page 187 note g Thomas Brydges: see before, p. 144.

page 188 note a Sir Thomas Holcroft, some time sewer to Henry VIII., made a knight of the Bath at the coronation of Edward VI. in 1547: imprisoned in the Tower in 1551 as an adherent of the duke of Somerset, and deprived of the office of receiver of the duchy of Lanoaster in June, 1552. In his office of knight marshal, which he probably held for life by patent, he appears to have taken opportunities to act as a secret friend of the Protestants.

page 188 note b There was one James Proctor who was procurator for the clergy of Sussex in the convocation of 1562: see Strype, Annals, i. 327, 338, 343.

page 188 note c Both the rack and the brake of iron are shewn in operation in Foxe's cut, which represents the torturing of Cuthbert Symson in the Tower, in 1557. Of the iron brake we find it stated, early in Elizabeth's reign, “This engine is called Skevyngton's Gives, wherin the body standeth double, the head being drawen towards the feete. The forme and maner of these gyves, and of his (Cuthbert Symson's) rackyng, you may see in the booke of Martyrs, folio 1631.” (Letters of the Martyrs, 1564,4to. p. 686.) A few years later, the adherents of Rome had in their turn a personal acquaintance with these instruments of torture. Mathias Tanner, the martyrologist of the Jesuits, describes the Scavinger's Daughter (to which the name had been corrupted from that of Skeffington's Daughter) as inflicting torments the very reverse of that of the rack, but at the same time much more painful, producing in some victims a discharge of blood from the hands and feet, and in others from the nose and mouth. His words are: “Prsecipua torturse post equuleum (the rack) Anglis species est, Filia Scavingeri dicta, priori omnino postposita. Cum enim ille membra, alligatis extractisque in diversa manuum pedumque articulis, ab invicem distrahat: haec e contra ilia violente in unum veluti globum colligat et constipat. Trifariam hie corpus complicatur, cruribus ad femora, femoribus ad ventrem appressis, atque ita arcubus ferreis duobus includitur, quorum extrema dum ad se invicem labore carnificum in circulum coguntur, corpus interim miseri inclusum informi compressione pene eliditur. Immane prorsus et dirius equuleo cruciamentum, cujus immanitate corpus totum ita arctatur, ut aliis ex eo sanguis extremis manibus et pedibus exsudet, aliis rupta pectoris crate copiosus ” (Societas Jesu usque ad Sanguinis et Vita prof uswnem Militans, dkc. auctore Mathia Tanner, SS.T.D. Pragce, 1675, folio, p. 18.) Thomas Cottam, the Jesuit here mentioned, suffered in the year 1582.

A committee of the House of Commons in 1604 reported that they found in the dungeon called Idttle Ease in the Tower, “an engine of torture devised by mr. Skevington sometime lieutenant of the Tower, called Shevington's Daughters, and that the place itself was very loathsome and unclean, and not used for a long time either for a prison or other cleanly purpose.” Mr. David Jardine on this authority asserts, in his Reading on the Use of Torture in England, 1837, 8vo. p. 14, “In the same reign (Henry VIII.) we find sir William Skevington, a lieutenant of the Tower, immortalising himself by the invention of a new engine of torture, called Skevington's Irons,” &c; but sir William Skeffington was never lieutenant of the Tower. He was master of the ordnance, and in that capacity was probably required to supply these gyves. The length of this note will be excused the more readily from the circumstance that Skeffington's Daughter is still shewn among the historical curiosities of the Tower armoury.

page 190 note a Mowntayne was removed to Cambridge because he was charged with high treason there committed when he accompanied the army of the duke of Northumberland.

page 190 note b i. e, paid the fees, as Underhill did at Newgate (p. 153).

page 190 note c Oralatians, i. 8.

page 190 note d 1 Corinthians, i. 30.

page 192 note a Ware contained several large and ancient inns. It was not the Crown, but the Saracen's Head, which boasted of “the Great Bed of Ware,” mentioned by sir Toby Belch in Shakspere's Twelfth Night, and represented in a plate of Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire.

page 192 note b Romans, i. 16.

page 192 note c 2 Corinthians, iv. 3.

page 192 note d 2 Corinthians, ii. 18.

page 192 note e Matthew, xxiv. 51.

page 192 note f Mark, ix. 44.

page 192 note g Matthew, xvi. 26.

page 193 note a Massing, i. e. pertaining to the Mass.

page 193 note b The word iijc is omitted by Strype

page 193 note c Psalm cxlii. 4.

page 193 note d 1 Samuel, ii. 25.

page 193 note e 1 Peter, i. 18.

page 193 note f Revelation, xiv. 13.

page 193 note g Royston.

page 194 note a Misprinted by Strype at the doors.

page 194 note b Sir Oliver Leader was apparently of civic origin, as one of his name (and probably himself) occurs in the list of the Fishmongers' Company in 1537. (Herbert's City Companies, vol. ii. p. 6.) He was knighted by king Philip, Feb. 2, 1554. (MS. Harl. 6064.) He was twice sheriff of the county of Huntingdon, in 1541 and 1554, and one of its knights in parliament 1563. His funeral on the 6th March 1556–7 is noticed in Machyn's Diary, p. 128, and more fully recorded in the College of Arms, I. 15, f. 272 b. Some notes from his will in the registry of the prerogative court of Canterbury will be found In Notes and Queries, Second Series, iv. 479, and some from his funeral, v. 96.

page 195 note a At Beachampton in the parish of Great Stoughton.

page 195 note b mass.

page 195 note c Frances daughter of Francis Baldwin esquire of Beachampton.

page 196 note a This word good is omitted by Strype.

page 198 note a Printed in Strype the subtil Devil, flattering “World, &c.

page 199 note a In Strype drawn and hanged.

page 199 note b Dr. Thomas Fuller, in his “Worthies of England,” after explaining the proverbial expression of “a Scarborough warning,” that it implies no warning at all, but a sudden surprise, when a mischief is felt before it is suspected, adds, “This proverb is but of 104 years standing, taking its originall from Thomas Stafford, who in the reign of queen Mary, anno 1557, with a amall company seized on Scarborough castle (utterly destitute of provisions for resistance) before the townsmen had the least nptipe of his approach.” gut before leaving the subject, Fuller adds, “But if any conceive this praverbe of more ancient original, fetching it from the custome of Scarborough castle in former times,— with which it was not a word and a How, but a blow before and without a word, as using to shoot ships which passed by and strook not sail, and so warning and harming them both together,—I can retain my own, without opposing their opinion.” Fuller's, “own ” notion of the origin of this saying has been adopted by Ray in his Proverbs, by Grose in his Provincial Glossary, and by others; but Nares in his Glossary has shown that the phrase was certainly older: for in a poem by John Heywood which was written and published at the time of the surprize of Scarborough castle by Thomas Stafford, (and which is reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. x. p. 258,) the phrase is not only employed, but the following attempt at its explanation occurs:

This term Scarborow warning grew (some say)

By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare,

Who that was met but suspect in that way,

Straight he was trust up, whatever he were.

According to this supposition, the summary justice of Scarborough resembled the famous gibbet-law of Halifax: but whether this conjecture is more to be trusted than the preceding there is not sufficient evidence to determine. Foxe employs the phrase in one of his side-notes, and it was evidently of very current use throughout the sixteenth century. See a letter of Arthur lord Grey in 1580 appended to “A Commentary of the Services of William lord Grey of Wilton,” (printed for the Camden Society, 1847,) p. 67; and a letter of archbishop Toby Matthew so late as 1603 quoted in Cardwell's Conferences, p. 166.

page 200 note a i.e. than needs.

page 200 note b private in Strype.

page 202 note a Misread belly by Slrype

page 202 note b Misprinted he hy Strype.

page 203 note a Misread ty Strype Hengston.

page 203 note b Misread rooms by Strype.

page 203 note c This mr. Seager is mentioned by Poxe in his (second) account of the martyrdom of John Hullier (hereafter mentioned p. 206) as having supplied the sufferer with gunpowder for the usual purpose of shortening his torments when in the flames. Mr. C. H. Cooper, the historian of Cambridge, supposes him to have been the same person with Sygar Nicholson, who was one of the treasurers of the town of Cambridge for the year commencing at Michaelmas 1555, and one of the bailiffs for the year commencing Michaelmas 1557. He was probably a son of Sygar Nicholson, of Gonville hall, and one of the stationers of the university, noticed in Athenee Cantabrigienses, p. 51, as having suffered a long and barbarous imprisonment in consequence of the works of Luther and other prohibited books having been found in his house.

page 204 note a these good assurances in Strype.

page 205 note a Sir Robert Brooke, appointed chief justice of the common pleas Oct. 28, 1554.

page 206 note a This should be sir Jamea Dyer, a justice of the common pleas 1556, of the queen's bench 1557.

page 206 note b Sir Clement Heigham, chief baron of the exchequer 1556–7. For his biography consult Gage's History of the Hundred of Thingoe, and Manning's Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons.

page 206 note c See before, p. 46.

page 206 note d Probably Christopher Burgoyne, who was escheator of the shirea of Cambridge and Huntingdon in 4 and 5 Edw. VI. He was either of Impington or Longstanton, at both which places there were families of Burgoyne.

page 206 note e Misprinted Thomas Willyard by Strype. His real name was John Hullier. He was elected from Eton a scholar of King's college in 1538, and afterwards became oonduct of Eton, vicar of Babraham near Cambridge, and preacher at King's Lynn. He was not so fortunate as Thomas Mowntayne in escaping from the persecutors, for he suffered at the stake on Jesus Green at Cambridge, on or about the 2d April 1556. Of this martyrdom Foxe inserts a full narrative in his Addenda, having previously given a shorter account, with some letters and a prayer of Hullier's composition (see edition by Townsend and Cattley, viii. 131–138, 378–380).

page 207 note a Strype has here inserted between brackets the words “quarters of a” yeare: but Mowntayne included in his reckoning the time he had remained in prison in London, and he again in the closing paragraph of his narrative states that he lay three years in prison.

page 207 note b This omission of the MS. not having been perceived by Strype, he has printed this passage very confusedly.

page 207 note c Read like of by Strype.

page 209 note a The paper is here torn: the sense is restored by the help of Strype.

page 209 note b Misprinted by Strype iiil. iiid.

page 209 note c This was on the 26th of August 1555. King Philip was about to depart for the continent, and passed in state through London, taking barge at the Tower wharf for Greenwich. The event is noticed in Machyn's Diary at p. 93, and in the Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, at p. 96.

page 210 note a Saint Osythe's, on the Essex coast, near Harwich.

page 211 note a Thomas first lord Darcy of Chiche, K.G. His seat was at Wivenhoe, between Colchester and St. Osythe's, at which latter place he was buried in 1560.

page 211 note b Elmsted, four miles from Colchester.

page 211 note c Enough, Mead by Strype Tush!

page 212 note a Torn, and restored from Strype.

page 212 note b Sir Anthony Browne, who purchased the manor of South Weald, in which parish the town of Brentwood is situate, was called to the degree of Serjeant at law 1555, and appointed king and queen's Serjeant on the 16th October in the same year. He was made chief justice of the common pleas in October 1558, but degraded by queen Elizabeth in 1559–60 (on account of his religion) to be a puisne judge of the same court. However, she knighted him in the parliament house in 1566. He died May 16, 1567, and has a monument in South Weald church. See Morant's History of Essex, vol. i. p. 118; and Foss's Lives of the Judges.

page 212 note c So the MS. Strype reads played the devil.

page 212 note d Misprinted Colson in Strype,

page 212 note e searchers, as the officers of customs were then called.

page 213 note a See before, p. 161.

page 214 note a See p. 161. Strype has omitted the words “and John a Vales too.”

page 215 note a “gave a good reporte,” This phrase here means possessing credit and consideration, like “having a good report,” which is frequently used in our authorised edition of the New Testament: Acts, xxii. 12, “Ananias having a good report of the Jews;” 1 Tim. iii. 7, “A bishop must have a good report of them,” 's, latterly resigned those functions, and became governor of the Muscovy merchants (see notes to Machyn's Diary, p. 380); and that he was the person to whom Mowntayne alludes in the text appears not improbable.

page 217 note a Psalm xxxiv. 6.