| Description | thirty documents, repaired, guarded and bound into a volume, mostly letters including:
1. 1533 sale of Odstock Manor by William Jereberd (Gerberd) to William Webbe of Salisbury
2-10. 1536-c1540 to Walter, lord Hungerford (1503-1540) Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1533, all from Thomas Cromwell, with the exceptions of 4 and 10.
2. Thanks WH for depositions and confessions and a book containing 'certayne propheces' for which he conveys the thanks of the king. Thanks also for committing Richard Sele to prison. Windsor 4 Nov ?1536. Applied seal, ? a tudor rose.
3. Thanks for the advertisement [information about] the misdemeanour of Sir [Dom] Thomas Beese, vicar of South Stoke; he has sufficient sureties and is to be examined by a Justice of the Peace; keep TC informed and release B from prison. Stebenhithe [Stepney] 6 Jul. Applied seal, ? a tudor rose.
4. Anonymous letter on behalf of Queen Jane [Seymour], 'we be delivered and brought in child bed of a Prince conceived in moost lawfull Matrimony between my lord the Kinges Majesty and us', Hampton Court, 12 Oct [1537]
5. Conveys the thanks of the king and ask for further examination of William Yrishe and others present 'at the speking of the word[es]' which WH described in WH last letter. Request speedy report of this examination for which he will earn the king's further pleasure. St James beside Westminster, 7 Apr ?1538.
6. 'I perceive the cancred malior of Richard Henly owteryd by his prowde myschevouse and trayterous word[es] agenst the king[es] supreme authorite for the usurped power of the grete ydole of Rome'. Grateful to WH for bringing before the Justices of Assize. Touching the proctor of [Hinton] Charterhouse, WH is steward; is happy for [the proctor] to remain, as long as he amends his ways. Will intervene to ensure that the matter between WH and my lord of Huntingdon be resolved and that they remain friends. Penshurst, 21 Sep ?1538. Applied seal a dove with olive branch AMORIS.
7. Conveys the king's pleasure at WH's action in committing to prison Dom Richard Henry (?Hervy), priest for certain 'traiterouse and sediciouse words'. He is to be brought before the Justices in Eyre at the next Assize. Re WH's dispute with my lord of Huntingdon, one of the arbitrators has died, but doubts not that the remaining ones will 'at layso[u]r and time convenient', take such order and direction as shall be to your good satisfaction. London, 11 Nov ?1538.
8. Acknowledges information of the misdemeanours of dom Nicholas Balam, priest, late monk of Henton (Hinton Charterhouse). He is to be brought before the Justices in Eyre at the next Assize. Oteland [Oatlands palace], Jul ?1539. Badly damaged.
9. Writings belonging to Hinton Charterhouse granted by Thomas Horton, clothier and others have been 'ymbeeysled and conveyd away by certain p[er]sones'. WH to examine dame Mary Horton widow, Thomas Horton, William Byrde, clerk, Richard Davis and Dom William Furber clerk. WH to advertise TC of the results. From my house in London, 9 Feb ? 1540. Byrde (Bird) was the priest was employed in WH' s household in spite of his words against the royal supremacy (see DNB article)
10. A threatening letter from the Earl of Hertford to Hungerford, warning off the latter from trying to gain an interest in a former chantry in Chippenham.
11. 1615 passport for Edward Hungerford (1596-1648) and two manservants to travel overseas for three years (though not to visit Rome without leave)
12. 1631 letter to the same from Edmund Bolton, the poet and antiquarian
13-24. 1638-1640 letters to the High Sheriff of Wiltshire from the Privy Council , mainly dealing with payment of Ship Money (or lack of it), but two (22 & 23) summon him to attend the Lord Lieutenant at Marlborough in June 1640 to explain and contain the disorders arising from recruitment for the 'Northern Expedition' (i.e. the 2nd Bishops' War) - there is no known Hungerford connection, the High Sheriff being John Grubbe in 1638, John Duke in 1639 (one letter is addressed to him personally as High Sheriff) and Giles Eyre in 1640
25. November 1644 from Charles I to the Mayor & Aldermen of Salisbury reporting success in the war in the South West and demanding money
26 & 27. both from J. Mountagu to Giles Hungerford MP in 1673-1674 querying the design of Sir Samuel Morland's water pump to discover whether it conflicted with his own (Morland took out a patent on his pump in 1674) - the inside of the 1673/4 letter was used to take a note of Charles II's speech proroguing Parliament and dated 18 June 1662, perhaps the gap of 12 years giving rise to the misdating, as that session was actually prorogued on 19 May
28. a printed or photographed copy of signatures of members of James I's privy council, with date of June 30th 1604 written later
29. a printed or photographed copy of a 1643 letter from Oliver Cromwell to Oliver St John with the famous description of his troops "I have a lovely company, you would respect them if you knew them"
30. 1911 summons of Jacob, 6th Earl of Radnor (1868-1930) to the Coronation of George V
It is not known if these documents have been bound because of the family connection with some of them (the Hungerfords supposedly through the Pleydell mother of the 2nd Earl) or whether they just represent historical interest; it is probable that the binding took place between 1911, the date of the last document (which does not seem from the binding to be a later interpolation) and 1920, when Leighton's - the binders - ceased trading. |