Memorials of the Counties of England
General Editor: Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A.
Memorials
OF
Old Derbyshire
[Illustration: Haddon Hall: “Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge.”
_From a water-colour sketch by Mr. Frank E. Beresford._]
MEMORIALS
OF
OLD DERBYSHIRE
EDITED BY
Rev. J. CHARLES COX, LL.D., F.S.A.
Author of
“_Churches of Derbyshire_” (4 vols.),
“_Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_” (2 vols.),
“_How to write the History of a Parish_,”
“_Royal Forests of England_,”
“_English Church Furniture_,” _etc., etc._
Editor of “_The Reliquary_”
With many Illustrations
[Illustration]
LONDON
Bemrose and Sons Limited, 4 Snow Hill, E.C.
AND DERBY
1907
[_All Rights Reserved_]
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
SPENCER COMPTON CAVENDISH,
K.G., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.,
EIGHTH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE,
CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
AND LORD-LIEUTENANT OF DERBYSHIRE,
THESE MEMORIALS ARE,
BY KIND PERMISSION,
INSCRIBED
PREFACE
It has been a great pleasure to accept the request of the General
Editor of this Memorial Series to edit a volume on my native county of
Derby. In proportion to its size and population, more has been written
and printed on Derbyshire than on any other English county. But in
these days, when, year by year, the national stores of information in
Chancery Lane are becoming better arranged and more fully calendared,
when there is more generous access to muniments in private possession,
and when the spirit of critical archæology is becoming more and more
systematised, there is no sign whatever that the history of the county
is in any way near exhaustion. Nor will that be the case even when the
four great volumes of the _Victoria County History_ are completed.
So abundant are the historical records of Derbyshire, and so rich
are the archæological remains, that there would be no difficulty,
I think, in the speedy production of a companion volume to this of
equal interest and of as much originality, should the General Editor
and the publishers desire such a sequel. I say this as an apology for
omissions of which I am fully conscious; and, as it is, the publishers
have kindly allowed the present pages to exceed in number those of any
other volume of the series.
There is one sad subject in connection with the production of this
work—I allude to the death of that distinguished antiquary, the late
Earl of Liverpool. Many years ago, in the “seventies” of last century,
it was owing to his suggestion and friendly encouragement that I
first undertook and persevered in the attempt to write on all the old
churches of Derbyshire; and when he was known as Mr. Cecil Foljambe,
we often visited together such churches as Tideswell, Bakewell, and
Chesterfield. Immediately the idea of this volume had been formed, I
wrote to Lord Liverpool, and at once received his cordial assent to
prepare an article on the Foljambe monuments of the county. In the
course of his letter he wrote:—“I accept your proposal all the more
willingly as I have recently unearthed certain strong confirmatory
evidence as to the two Tideswell effigies, claimed of late years to
belong to the De Bower family, and rashly lettered, being in reality
Foljambes” (see p. 103). We exchanged several letters on the subject,
then his health began to fail, and he begged me to undertake the work,
promising to revise it carefully and to give additional matter; but,
alas! death intervened before even this could be accomplished.
All the articles between these covers have been specially written,
and for the most part specially illustrated for the book, with one
exception, namely, the delightfully vivid chapter by Sir George R.
Sitwell, on the country life of a Derbyshire squire of the seventeenth
century. To almost all the readers of the book, this essay will also be
entirely novel. It is reproduced, in a somewhat abbreviated form, by
the writer’s kind and ready permission, from the introductory chapter
to Sir George Sitwell’s privately issued _Letters of the Sitwells and
Sacheverells_, of which only twenty-five copies were printed.
My most grateful thanks are due to each of the contributors for their
valuable papers, as well as to those who have supplied photographs,
or who have loaned prints or drawings. It would be invidious for
me to particularize where there has been so much ready kindness in
contributing the elements of this _Olla Podrida_.
In arranging this book, it may be well to state that no effort whatever
has been made to produce a kind of history of the shire _inpetto_,
which would, in my opinion, be a great mistake in a work of this
character and intention. Each essay stands by itself; all that I have
done, in addition to my own contributions, is to arrange them in a kind
of rough chronological order.
J. Charles Cox.
_Longton Avenue,
Sydenham,
November, 1907._
CONTENTS
Page
Historic Derbyshire By Rev. J. Charles
Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 1
Prehistoric Burials By John Ward, F.S.A. 39
Prehistoric Stone Circles By W. F. Andrew, F.S.A. 70
Swarkeston Bridge By W. Smithard 89
Derbyshire Monuments to the By Rev. J. Charles
Family of Foljambe Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 97
Repton: Its Abbey, Church, By Rev. F. C. Hipkins,
Priory and School M.A., F.S.A. 114
The Old Homes of the County By J. A. Gotch, F.S.A. 133
Wingfield Manor House in Peace
and War By G. Le Blanc-Smith 146
Bradshaw and the Bradshawes By C. E. B. Bowles, M.A. 164
Offerton Hall By S. O. Addy, M.A. 192
Roods, Screens and Lofts in
Derbyshire Churches By Aymer Vallance, F.S.A. 200
Plans of the Peak Forest By Rev. J. Charles
Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. 281
Old Country Life in the By Sir George R. Sitwell,
Seventeenth Century Bart., F.S.A. 307
Derbyshire Folk-Lore By S. O. Addy, M.A. 346
Jedediah Strutt By the Hon. F. Strutt 371
Index 385
PLATE ILLUSTRATIONS
Haddon Hall: “Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge” _Frontispiece_
(_From a water-colour Sketch by Mr. Frank E. Beresford_)
Facing Page
Melbourne Castle 14
(_Survey, temp. Elizabeth_)
Wingfield Manor 20
(_From a Drawing by Colonel Machell_, 1785)
Revolution House at Whittington 32
(_From “Gentleman’s Magazine,”_ 1810)
Plan and Section of Chambered Tumulus, Five Wells, Derbyshire 42
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
East Chamber at Five Wells. View from the North-East 44
(_From a Sketch by John Ward_)
Plans of “Chambers” at Harborough Rocks and Mininglow, Derbyshire 46
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Section of Barrow at Flaxdale, near Youlgreave 50
(_From wood-cut by Llewellynn Jewitt_)
Section of Barrow at Grinlow, near Buxton 50
Plan of Burial at Thirkelow, near Buxton 50
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Dolichocephalic Skull from “Chamber” at Harborough Rocks.
Side and Top Views 52
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Brachycephalic Skull from Grinlow. Side and Top Views 54
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, Derbyshire 56
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, Derbyshire 58
(_From Drawings by John Ward_)
Arbor Low: General View of the Southern Half 70
(_From a Photograph in possession of the Derbyshire
Archæological Society_)
Arbor Low: General View of the Southern and Western Part 80
(_From an Original lent by the Derbyshire Archæological Society_)
Swarkeston Bridge 90
(_From a Photograph by Frank W. Smithard_)
Tideswell Church: The Chancel 102
(_From a Photograph by F. Chapman, Tideswell_)
Bakewell Church: Foljambe Monument 106
(_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_)
Tomb of Henry Foljambe, 1510, and Kneeling Figure of Sir
Thomas Foljambe, 1604; Tomb of Godfrey Foljambe, 1594 108
(_From Originals_ (1839) _lent by Mr. Jaques_)
Chesterfield Church: Foljambe Chapel 110
(_From a Photograph by J. H. Gaunt, Chesterfield_)
Repton: Parish Church and Priory Gateway 114
(_From a Photograph by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_)
Repton Church: Saxon Crypt 118
(_From a Photograph by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_)
Repton: The Priory Gateway and School 124
(_From a Photograph lent by Rev. F. C. Hipkins_)
The Castle of the Peak 134
(_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._)
Bolsover Castle: “La Gallerie” 136
(_From Sir W. Cavendish’s “Treatise on Horsemanship”_)
Haddon Hall (North View, 1812) 138
Haddon Hall (North View, _circa_ 1825) 140
Snitterton Hall 142
(_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._)
North Lees Hall; Foremark Hall (Garden Front) 144
(_From Photographs by J. A. Gotch, F.S.A._)
The Tower, and Rooms occupied by Mary Stuart, Wingfield 146
(_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_)
The Porch of Banqueting Hall, Wingfield 152
(_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_)
The Window in the Banqueting Hall, Wingfield 156
(_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_)
The Undercroft, Wingfield 162
(_From a Photograph by Guy Le Blanc-Smith_)
Bradshawe Hall 164
(_From a Photograph by C. E. B. Bowles_)
John Bradshawe, Serjeant-at-Law 174
(_From an Original lent by C. E. B. Bowles_)
Duffield Church: Monument of Anthony Bradshawe 178
(_From a Photograph by R. Keene & Co._)
Bradshawe Hall: Detail of Gateway 188
(_From a Photograph by C. E. B. Bowles_)
Offerton Hall (Front and Back Views) 192
(_From Photographs by S. O. Addy, M.A._)
Fenny Bentley Church: Rood-Screen 200
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Chaddesden Church: Detail of Rood-Screen from the Chancel 206
(_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_)
Elvaston Church: Parclose Screen in the South Aisle 210
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Ilkeston Church: Stone Rood-Screen, from the Chancel 212
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Chelmorton Church: Southern Half of Stone Rood-Screen 214
Darley Dale Church: Detail of Stone Parclose 214
(_From Sketches by J. Charles Wall_)
Elvaston Church: Detail of Rood-Screen 220
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Chesterfield Church: Detail of Screen in the North Transept,
formerly the Rood-Screen 222
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Wingerworth Church: Base of the Rood-Loft 228
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Ashbourne Church: Door leading to the Rood-Stair 234
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Ashover Church: Rood-Screen 252
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Breadsall Church: Detail of Rood-Screen in process of
Restoration 256
Breadsall Church: Showing the Remains of the Rood-Screen
in 1856 256
(_From Photographs by Aymer Vallance_)
Chesterfield Church: Part of Parclose Screen in South Transept 260
(_From a Sketch by J. Charles Wall_)
Elvaston Church: Rood-Screen (restored) 264
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
Kirk Langley Church: Detail from Parcloses of North and
South Aisles 270
(_From a Photograph by Aymer Vallance_)
The Keep: Peverel Castle 362
Little Hucklow: Folk Collector’s Summer House 362
(_From Photographs by S. O. Addy, M.A._)
Apprenticeship Indenture of Jedediah Strutt, 1740 372
(_From the Original lent by Hon. F. Strutt_)
Jedediah Strutt 382
(_From Original Painting by Joseph Wright, c._ 1785)
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
Page
Norbury Church: Stall End attached to Jamb of Rood-Screen 206
(_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_)
Kirk Langley Church: Detail of former Rood-Screen in Oak 217
(_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_)
Brackenfield: Detail of Oak Rood-Screen 255
(_From a Sketch by Aymer Vallance_)
Plans of the Peak Forest:—
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 283–291
” 10, 11, 12 293–295
” 13, 14 298
No. 15 300
” 16 302
” 17 305
(_Nos. 15 and 16 Drawings by M. E. Purser; remainder by
V. M. Machell Cox._)
Country Gentlemen on the London Road 311
(_From Loggan’s “Oxford,” 1675_)
Arrival of a Guest at a Country House 318
(_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_)
A Ball at an Assembly Room 320
(_From a Broadsheet, c. 1700_)
Stag-Hunting 329
(_From Chauncy’s “Hertfordshire,” 1700_)
Acquaintances meeting in London 336
(_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_)
Guest arriving on Horseback 341
(_From “Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne,” 1724_)
A Gentleman and his Servant on the Road 345
(_From Loggan’s “Oxford,” 1675_)
HISTORIC DERBYSHIRE
By Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
After making due allowance for a natural prejudice in favour of the
county of one’s birth and early associations, it may, I think, be
reasonably maintained that the comparatively small shire of Derby not
only contains within its limits most exceptionally wild, beautiful
and varied scenery, but that its social and political history is
exceedingly diversified and full of interest. In all, too, that
pertains to almost every branch of archæology, Derbyshire is well able
to hold its own with any other county that could be named.
The proofs of the residence of early man in the district are afforded
by the considerable variety of remains that have been discovered in the
bone caves of the High Peak near Buxton, in those of the high lands
above Wirksworth, and more especially in the Creswell caves on the
verge of Nottinghamshire. In Grant Allen’s remarkable and generally
accurate book on the beginnings of county history throughout England,
a singular blunder is made with regard to Derbyshire; it is there
stated that this county “was almost uninhabited until long after the
English settlement of Britain, with the solitary exception of a few
isolated Roman stations.” Archæology, however, puts such a statement
as this to complete rout. Difficult as it is to understand how such
large bands of savage men were able to maintain themselves in so wild
a district, it is the fact that the Peak of Derbyshire was, so to
speak, thickly populated by prehistoric tribes. A glance at the map
of prehistoric remains, given in the first volume of the _Victoria
History of the County of Derby_, to illustrate Mr. Ward’s article, will
at once show that the whole of that part of North Derbyshire which
extends from Ashbourne to Chapel-en-le-Frith on the west, from thence
to Derwent Chapel on the north, and then southward through Hathersage
and Winster back again to Ashbourne, is peppered all over with the red
symbols that betoken the barrows or lows which were the burial places
of our forefathers during the neolithic and subsequent ages. Round
Stanton-in-the-Peak and Hathersage the barrows, circles and other early
remains occur with such frequency that it is difficult to mark even
small dots on the map without them running into each other.
When the Romans held Derbyshire they had five chief stations in the
county, namely, at Little Chester, near Derby; at Brough, near Hope;
at Buxton; at Melandra Castle, on the verge of Cheshire; and near
Wirksworth. The chief Roman road, termed Ryknield Street, entered
the county at Monksbridge, between Repton and Egginton; crossing the
Derwent by Derby to Little Chester, the road proceeded to Chesterfield,
and thence into Yorkshire. Another road crossed the south of the
county, entering Derbyshire on the east near Sawley, and passing
through Little Chester to Rocester, in Staffordshire. A whole group of
other roads radiated throughout the Peak from Buxton as a centre.
Doubtless one of the chief reasons why the Romans were so determined
to occupy, after a military fashion, the north of the county was
because of the lead mining which they so actively pursued. The chief
district of this lead mining extended between Wirksworth on the south
and Castleton on the north. Between these two places groups of disused
mines appear with frequency. Most of those that have been closely
examined yield obvious traces of having been worked by our conquerors.
Six pigs of inscribed Roman lead have been found in the county. One
of them bears the name of Hadrian (A.D. 117–138). The probabilities,
however, are strong that the Roman miners were at work in this county
half a century earlier, for there is evidence of lead working in
western Yorkshire in A.D. 81, and it is most unlikely that mining began
in that part of Yorkshire before Derbyshire had been touched.
It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the interest and importance
pertaining to Dr. Haverfield’s article on Romano-British Derbyshire, as
set forth in the first volume of the _Victoria History_ of the county.
When the Romans left this county at the dawn of the fifth century,
the first English or Saxon settlement speedily followed. The north
of Derbyshire formed the southern extremity of that long range of
broken primary hills—termed the Pennine Chain—which extended from the
Cheviots down to the district long known as Peakland or the Peak. As
the Romans withdrew, Peakland seems to have been overrun by hordes of
the Picts; but when the pagan English settled in Northumbria a new
element of strife was introduced which affected the line of Pennine
Hills from end to end. This range became a boundary between two hostile
races dissimilar in habits, tongue and creed. The older British race,
Christianized to a considerable extent, took up their position on the
western side, and also held their own in certain parts of the actual
dividing ridge.
It seems likely that the Peakland, for about 150 years after the first
coming of the English—and possibly other parts to the east and south
afterwards known under the common name of Derbyshire—was retained by
the Celts, or Welsh, after the same fashion as they undoubtedly held
the districts round the modern town of Leeds.
With the opening of the seventh century substantial historic data
begin. Ethelfrith, the last pagan king of Northumbria, crossed the
southern end of the Pennine Chain in 603, and by a notable victory at
Chester extended, as Bede tells us, the dominions of the English to
the Mersey and the Dee. The actual conquest of Peakland probably soon
followed. Mr. Grant Allen’s supposition that it was never actually
overrun by a military force, but that the scanty numbers of the Welsh
were by degrees absorbed into the surrounding English population,
may, however, be the true explanation. The general story of English
place-names shows that the majority of our hill and river names are
earlier than the English occupation; but in North Derbyshire there is
not a single river or hill that does not bear a Welsh name, whilst not
a few of the homestead names have a like origin, and even words of
Cymric etymology still linger in the fast disappearing dialect.
It is of interest to remember that those Mercians who settled from time
to time in small groups throughout the wilder parts of Derbyshire bore
the local name of Pecsaete, that is to say, settlers in the Peak; so
that the future county, as Mr. Allen remarks, narrowly escaped being
styled Pecsetshire, after the fashion of Dorsetshire or Somersetshire.
In the development and Christianising of the widespread Mercian
kingdom, South Derbyshire played a very considerable part. Repton, on
the banks of the Trent, is mentioned in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ in
the year 755 in the account of the slaying of Ethelbald, the Mercian
king. The same Chronicle also records the visit of the devastating
Danes to Repton in 874, when they made that town their winter quarters.
The founding of an abbey at Repton early in the seventh century, and
the same place becoming the first seat of the Mercian bishopric from
654 to 667, is dealt with in another part of this volume and need not
be named further in this sketch.
The Peak seems to have known of no widespread Saxon or English
settlement until after the eruption of the Danes. It is also to the
Danes that the town of Derby owes its present name, and the importance
which gave its title to the surrounding shire. When the marauding
Scandinavian bands overran the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia, the
value of the Derbyshire lead soon attracted their attention. Hence they
established themselves strongly and built a fort at Northworthy (the
earlier name for Derby), whence the valley of the Derwent branched
off in different directions to the lead-mining districts. It was the
common practice of the Danes to change the names of the places where
they settled; Northworthy was to them an unmeaning term now that
settlements of importance had been pushed on much further northward.
Deoraby, or the settlement near the deer, was clearly suggested by the
close propinquity of the great forests. There is no part of the county
where the place and field names are of greater interest than in the
Ecclesbourne valley, which leads up from Duffield to Wirksworth. The
intermingling of Norse names shows that at least two distinct streams
of colonists pushed their way to this valuable mining centre.
In the north-eastern portion of Mercia, five of these Scandinavian
hosts, each under its own earl, made a definite settlement; they became
known as the Five Burghs, and formed a kind of rude confederacy. In
this way Derby became linked in government with Nottingham, Stamford,
Lincoln and Leicester. This combination, however, had not long been
made before Ethelfleda, the Lady of the Mercians, the sister of Alfred
the Great, began to win back her dominions from these pagan Norsemen,
building border forts at Tamworth and Stafford. Derby was stormed by
Ethelfleda in 918, after fierce fighting, and this victory secured for
her for a time the shire as well as the town itself. Six years later
Edward the Elder, Ethelfleda’s brother, advanced against the Danes
through Nottingham, penetrating into Peakland as far as Bakewell, where
he built a fort. In 941–2 King Edmund finally freed the Five Burghs and
all Mercia from Danish rule.
The establishment of a mint at Derby during the reign of Athelstan
(924–940) is a clear evidence of the advance of civilisation. Coins
minted at Derby are also extant of the reigns of Edgar, Edward II.,
Ethelred II., Canute, Harold I., Edward the Confessor, and Harold II.
The division of Derbyshire among the conquering Normans, together with
the social conditions of the times, so far as they can be gathered from
the entries in the Domesday Survey, have been admirably treated of at
length in the recently issued opening volume of the _Victoria History_,
to which reference has already been made. The number of manors held
by the Conqueror in this county was very considerable. He derived his
Derbyshire possessions from three sources. In the first instance he
succeeded his predecessor, the Confessor, in a great group of manors
that stretched without a break across the county in a north-easterly
direction from Ashbourne to the Yorkshire borders near Sheffield. The
second division of the Kings’ land consisted of the forfeited estates
of Edwin, the late earl of the shire, and grandson of Earl Leofric of
Mercia. These lay in a widespread group along the Trent south of Derby,
and included Repton, so famous in earlier Mercian history. In the
north of the county the King also secured a very considerable number
of manors which had belonged to various holders, such as Eyam and
Stony Middleton, Chatsworth and Walton, and a considerable group round
Glossop.
There were two ecclesiastical tenants-in-chief in the county, namely,
the Bishop of the diocese, who held Sawley with Long Eaton, and the
manor of Bupton in Longford parish, and the Abbot of Burton-on-Trent,
who held the great manor of Mickleover and several others which nearly
adjoined the Abbey on the Derbyshire side.
By far the largest Derbyshire landholder was Henry de Ferrers, lord
of Longueville in Normandy, whose son in 1136 became the first Earl
of Derby. He held over ninety manors in this county, but the head of
his barony, where his chief castle was, lay just outside the border of
Derbyshire, at Tutbury. Just a few of the smaller landholders seem to
have been Englishmen, confirmed in their rights by the Conqueror. In
one case it can be definitely said that an Englishman not only held
land at the time of the survey, under Henry de Ferrers, but became
the ancestor of a family which continued for centuries to hold of
Ferrers’ successors. This was “Elfin,” who held Brailsford, Osmaston,
Lower Thurvaston, and part of Bupton. During the reigns of William
the Conqueror and his two sons, Rufus and Henry, genuine historical
particulars relative to the county are almost entirely absent. When
persistent civil war raged for so long a time over the greater part of
England during Stephen’s reign, Derbyshire was but little disturbed,
for the leading men of the county adhered loyally to the King and
held its several fortresses on his behalf. In the great Battle of the
Standard, fought against the Scots at Northallerton in 1138, Derbyshire
played the leading part in winning the victory; its chief credit being
due to the valour of the Peakites under Robert Ferrers. Ralph Alselin
and William Peveril, two other Derbyshire chieftains, were also among
the successful leaders of the battle.
Peak Castle, built by William Peveril in the days of the Conqueror,
passed to the Crown in 1115 on the forfeiture of his son’s estates. The
_Pipe Roll_ of 1157 shows an entry, repeated annually for a long term
of years, of a payment of four pound, ten shillings, and two watchmen,
and the porter of the Peak Castle. In that year Henry II. received
the submission of Malcolm, King of Scotland, within the walls of this
castle. There are records of other visits made to this castle by Henry
II. in 1158 and 1164.
In this reign a variety of interesting particulars relative to the
castles of Bolsover and the Peak can be gleaned from the _Pipe Rolls_,
particularly with regard to their provisioning, garrisoning and
repairing between 1172 and 1176, during the time of the rising of the
Barons. Richard I., at the beginning of his reign, gave the castles of
the Peak and Bolsover to his brother John, who succeeded to the throne
in 1199. In 1200, King John was at Derby and Bolsover in March, and at
Melbourne in November. This restless King’s visits to the county were
frequent throughout his reign, and included a sojourn at Horsley Castle
in 1209. During this turbulent reign Derbyshire was again fortunate
in escaping any material share of civil warfare. The party of the
Barons gained but little support, for the three notable fortresses of
Castleton, Bolsover and Horsley were held for the King with but slight
intermission.
In any historic survey of Derbyshire, however brief, it must
not be forgotten that the Normans, for the convenience of civil
administration, linked together this county and Nottinghamshire, giving
precedence in some respects to the latter. The Assizes, for instance,
up to the reign of Henry III., were held only at Nottingham, and the
one county gaol for the two shires was in the same town. From the
beginning of the reign of Henry III. up to the time of Elizabeth, the
Assizes were held alternately at the two county towns. During the whole
of this period there was but one sheriff for the two shires; it was not
until 1566 that they each possessed a sheriff of their own.
Derbyshire possessed a fourth great fortress, which has generally been
overlooked; it does not appear on the _Pipe Rolls_, as it was never
held by the Crown. Duffield was a convenient centre for the great
Derbyshire possessions of Henry de Ferrers. The castle at this place
stood on an eminence commanding an important ford of the Derwent, at
the entrance of the valley that led to Wirksworth with its lead mines,
and hence forwards to the High Peak. Here was erected in early Norman
days (as we know from the long-buried remains) a prodigiously strong
and massive keep. William, Earl Ferrers, was a stalwart supporter of
Henry III. until his death, but his grandson, Robert de Ferrers, soon
after he came of age, in 1260, threw himself with ardour into the
baronial war against the King. Eventually he was overcome when fighting
with his allies at Chesterfield in 1266. Ferrers was taken prisoner,
and his life spared; but all his lands, castles, and tenements were
confiscated to the crown, and conveyed by Henry to his son Edmund, who
was afterwards created Earl of Lancaster. It would be at this period
that Duffield Castle was demolished.
The foundations of this castle were accidentally discovered in 1886.
The lower part of the walls of a great rectangular keep, 95 feet by 93
feet, were brought to light, the walls averaging 16 feet in thickness.
These measurements show that Duffield Castle far exceeded in magnitude
any other Norman keep, with the single exception of the Tower of London.
Before taking the next step in this sketch of the political history of
the county, it will be well to go back a little in the account of the
great Derbyshire family of Ferrers, with special reference to their
connection with the Peak Forest. William de Ferrers, the fourth Earl
of Derby, was bailiff of the Honour of the Peak from 1216 to 1222. It
was charged against him that during that time he had in conjunction
with others taken upwards of 2,000 head of deer without warrant. At
the Forest Pleas held in 1251, five years after the Earl’s death,
formal presentments as to these offences were made, when Richard
Curzon was fined the then great sum of £40 as one of the late Earl’s
accomplices, and other county gentlemen in smaller amounts. But much
more serious matters occurred in the wild region of the Peak later
on in the reign of Henry III., when the transgressor was Robert de
Ferrers, the grandson of the Earl just mentioned. The Pleas of the
Forest were generally held at long and somewhat fitful intervals. It
was not until September, 1285, that these pleas were again held at
Derby, when all the offences committed during the thirty-four years
that had passed since the last eyre were presented by the forest
officials. By far the gravest charge at this eyre was that made
against the last Earl of Derby (of the first creation), who died in
1278. It was charged against Robert de Ferrers that on three separate
occasions, in July, August and September, 1264, he had hunted in the
forest, with a great company of knights and others, and had on these
occasions taken 130 head of red deer, and had driven a still greater
number far away. These illicit hunting affrays were evidently made on
a great scale, for thirty-eight persons are named in the presentment,
and there were many others, besides the Earl himself, who were dead
before the eyre was held. Others, too, were not summoned because they
were mere servants of the Earl. Eight out of the thirty-eight were
knights, and it is not a little remarkable that hardly any of those who
joined in the forest affrays were of Derbyshire families; they came
from such counties as Warwick, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Yorkshire,
Cambridgeshire, etc. Reading between the lines, though it is not
mentioned in the presentments—the originals of which can be studied at
the Public Record Office—it becomes clear that these incursions into a
royal forest must have been animated by something deeper than a love
for wholesale poaching. In May, 1264, the battle of Lewes was fought,
when the King’s forces were defeated by those of the barons. For two
or three years from that date, as an old chronicler has it, “there was
grievous perturbation in the centre of the realm,” in which Derbyshire
must have pre-eminently shared, for the youthful Earl Robert was one of
the hottest partisans of the barons. There can be no reasonable doubt
that these three raids on the Peak Forest in the months immediately
following the battle of Lewes, were undertaken by Robert de Ferrers and
his allies, issuing probably from his great manor house at Hartington,
much more to show contempt for the King’s forest and preserves, and to
get booty and food for his men-at-arms, than for any purposes of sport.
It is interesting to note that in April, 1264, Henry III. came into
Derbyshire, and lodged for a time at the castle of the Peak after the
subjection of Nottingham.
Definite Parliamentary rule began in England under Edward I. No
Derbyshire writs are extant for the Parliaments of 1283, 1290 or 1294.
The first Parliamentary return extant for Derbyshire names Henry de
Kniveton and Giles de Meynell as summoned to attend the Parliament
at Westminster in November, 1295. The county representatives in 1297
were Robert Dethick and Thomas Foljambe; in 1298, Henry de Brailsford
and Henry Fitzherbert, and in 1299 Jeffrey de Gresley and Robert de
Frecheville. John de la Cornere and Ralph de Makeney represented the
borough of Derby in 1295. The maintenance of the knights of the shire
when attending Parliament, as well as their travelling expenses, were
paid by the county. The scale of payment per day in the fourteenth
century varied from 3s. 4d. to 5s., whilst the payment of the borough
members varied from 20d. to 2s. a day.
Soon after the accession of Edward I., inquiries were made into
the various abuses that had arisen during the latter part of the
turbulent reign of his predecessor. A considerable number of official
irregularities and illegalities were brought to light in this county,
including both the imprisoning and undue releasing from prison at the
Castle of the Peak.
Edward I. visited Derbyshire in 1275, tarrying both at Ashbourne and
Tideswell, when on his way to North Wales. In the subjugation of Wales,
various of the great landholders of Derbyshire, with their tenants,
took a prominent part; among them were William de Ferrers, William de
Bardolf, Henry de Grey, Edward Deincourt, John de Musard, and Nicholas
de Segrave.
Between 1290 and 1293 the King was frequently in the county, coming on
more than one occasion for sport amongst the fallow deer of Duffield
Frith, at the forest lodge of Ravensdale. Derbyshire was closely
concerned in the long dispute as to the succession to the Crown of
Scotland, of which Edward I. was made arbitrator in 1291. His decision
was in favour of John Balliol, who was most intimately connected with
this county. Balliol held for a time the custody of the Peak, with
the Honour of Peveril; he was lord of the manors of Hollington and
Creswell; and he had served as joint sheriff of the counties of Derby
and Nottingham from 1261 to 1264. All the leading men of Derbyshire
were engaged from time to time in the prolonged wars with Scotland
which resulted in the deposition of Balliol in 1296. This county had
its share in the discreditable honours that Edward II. showered on his
favourite, Piers Gaveston, for early in the reign he held the custody
of the High Peak. In 1322 the Scotch forces entered into alliance
with those of the rebel Earls of Lancaster and Hereford. After fierce
fighting at the bridge of Burton-on-Trent, the royalists crossed
the river by a ford and drove Lancaster’s forces before them into
Yorkshire. During the retreat Derbyshire suffered severely. The King,
with several of his ministers, tarried for a few days at Derby; from
thence he visited Codnor Castle, which was held by one of his ardent
supporters, Richard, Lord Grey. Edward II. also, on several different
occasions, sojourned at the lodge of Ravensdale, amid the beautiful
parks of Duffield Forest.
In the various wars of the reign of Edward III. Derbyshire was often
called upon to supply forces for the hastily raised armies of the
King. The number of men levied on several occasions in this county
were considerably in excess of its due proportion when compared with
neighbouring shires, either in acreage or population. This may, we
suppose, be taken as a compliment to the valour of the county, and it
is by no means improbable that the hardy lead miners of the north of
the county would furnish better men, and perhaps more capable archers,
than were to be found in purely agricultural districts. Early in 1333,
when the Scots were making great preparations for invasion, John de
Twyford and Nicholas de Longford were appointed Commissioners of Array
for Derbyshire, to call out and have in readiness for the field all men
between sixteen and sixty years of age. Soon afterwards they received
a definite warrant to send to the front five hundred archers and two
hundred light horsemen from within the county. Derbyshire archers to
the number of six hundred set forth for Scotland in 1344, and there
were frequent levies of them during this reign to proceed to France.
Derbyshire, however, considering the fame of its archers and the
fighting-men of the Peak, took but a small part in the French campaign
of 1346–7, which resulted in the crowning triumph of Crecy and the fall
of Calais. The reason for this was that only those counties that were
_citra Trent_ received summonses to take part in the French expedition;
the forces of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and other northern counties
were kept at home for fear of aggression from Scotland. There were,
however, a sprinkling of Derbyshire men in the ranks of the English at
Crecy, including Sir John Curzon, Nicholas de Longford, and Anker de
Frecheville.
The wide-spread revolt of the peasantry was the great feature of the
reign of Richard II.; but Derbyshire, together with most of the west
midlands, remained unaffected by these serious disturbances, in which
the miners, at all events, had no inclination to take part.
Henry IV. was not unfrequently in Derbyshire in connection with the
rebellious movements of that much-troubled reign. In the summer
of 1402 the King tarried for some little time at the small town of
Tideswell in a secluded district of the Peak, issuing from thence a
variety of orders to sheriffs and other officials as to the military
preparations against the Welsh. When sojourning about the same time at
the royal hunting lodge at Ravensdale, he dispatched thence orders for
hastening resistance against serious Scotch invasion.
In the following year, when the Percys and their followers suddenly
raised the standard of revolt, the King hastened to Derby with all the
forces he could gather. After waiting there a few days to rally the
musters, he proceeded through Burton-on-Trent to Shrewsbury, where a
terrible battle was fought on July 20th. Early that morning, before
the fray began, Henry knighted several of the gallant esquires of
Derbyshire. Of these Sir Walter Blount, who bore the King’s standard,
Sir John Cokayne, and Sir Nicholas Longford were slain in the fight,
whilst Sir Thomas Wendesley died soon afterwards of the wounds he had
received. It is not a little interesting to note that the last three
of these Derbyshire knights, who held their honour for so brief a
period, have their effigies still extant in fair preservation in the
respective churches of Ashbourne, Longford, and Bakewell; the fourth,
Sir Walter Blount, was buried, in acordance with his will, at Newark.
Of the 4,500 men slain or grievously wounded on the King’s side in the
Battle of Shrewsbury, a large proportion must have been Derbyshire men.
It was, perhaps, out of compliment to this county that Henry, when the
fray was over, proceeded yet again to Derby before going north to York
to receive the Earl of Northumberland’s submission.
It was under Henry V. that the memorable Battle of Agincourt was fought
on October 25th, 1415. In this battle the county played a prominent
part. Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, was at the head of a large
contingent of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire retainers and tenants.
The list of horsemen under him begins with two Derbyshire knights—Sir
John Grey and Sir Edward Foljambe, and it also includes such well-known
county names as Cokayne, Strelley, FitzHerbert, and Curzon. Another
contingent of Derbyshire men was in the retinue of Philip Leach, of
Chatsworth, whilst an important command was held by Thomas Beresford,
of Fenny Bentley, as recorded on his monument in that church.
[Illustration: =MELBORN CASTLE= _in the County of DERBY_.
_Formerly a Royal Mansion, now in Ruins; where John Duke of Bourbon
taken Prisoner by K: Henry V^{th}. in the Battle of Agincourt (An^o.
1414.) was kept Nineteen Years in Custody of Nicholas Montgomery the
Younger; he was released by K: Henry VI^{th}._
_This Draught is made from a Survey now in the Dutchy office of
Lancaster, taken in the Reign of Q: Elizabeth. Sumptibus, Soc: Ant:
Lond: 1733._
]
The notable triumph of Agincourt must have been long held in
remembrance in Derbyshire, for the midland fortress of Melbourne Castle
was selected as the place of imprisonment for the most notable prisoner
taken on that field of French disaster. John, Duke of Bourbon, was
confined at Melbourne for nineteen years; at first under the custody of
Sir Ralph Shirley, one of the leaders in the fight, and afterwards in
the charge of Nicholas Montgomery the younger.
In the deplorable Wars of the Roses, between the Lancastrians and
the Yorkists, which extended over thirty years from 1455 to 1485,
Derbyshire men took no small part, now on one side, now on the other,
whilst occasionally they were found in the ranks of both parties. A
commission issued in December, 1461, to Sir William Chaworth, Richard
Willoughby, and the Sheriff of Derbyshire, illustrates the disturbed
condition of the county in the beginning of the reign of Edward IV.
These commissioners were ordered to arrest John Cokayne, of Ashbourne,
who is represented as wandering about in various parts of the county
with others, killing and spoiling the King’s subjects, and to bring him
before the King in council.
A manuscript list of the “names of the captayns and pety captayns wyth
the bagges, in the standerds of the army and vantgard of the king’s
lefftenant enterying into Fraunce the xvj day of June,” 1513, begins
with George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the King’s lieutenant of the vanguard,
who bore on his standard “goulles and sabull a talbot sylver passant
and shaffrons gold”; the Derbyshire banneret, Sir Henry Sacheverell,
with John Bradburne for his petty captain, bearing “goulles a gett buk
sylver.” Other Derbyshire gentlemen who were captains in this array,
each having his petty captain and his “bagges” (badges) or arms as
borne on his standard, were:—Robert Barley with John Parker, Nicholas
Fitzherbert with John Ireton, Sir John Leek with Thomas Leek his
brother, Sir Thomas Cokayne with Robert Cokayne, Sir William Gresley
with John Gresley, Sir Gylbert Talbot the younger with Humphrey Butler,
Robert Lynaker with George Palmer, Thomas Twyford with Roger Rolleston,
Sir John Zouch (of Codnor) with Dave Zouch (his brother), Arthur
Eyre with Thomas Eyre (his brother), Ralph Leach and John Curzon (of
Croxall) with Edward Cumberford.
In addition to all these Derbyshire gentlemen, William Vernon bore
the banner of St. George, John Leach the banner of the lieutenant’s
arms, and Thomas Rolleston the standard of the talbot and chevrons.
Derbyshire considerably preponderated in this army of the vanguard,
there being twelve companies from that county. Shropshire had nine
companies, Staffordshire eight, Nottinghamshire six, and Leicestershire
and Cheshire two each; five other counties only furnished a single
company.
Into the grievous question of the cruel way in which the monasteries
were suppressed by Henry VIII. it is not proposed here to enter, even
after the briefest fashion. It may, however, be remarked that although
the county had no religious houses of first importance within its
limits—the most noteworthy being the Premonstratensian Abbeys of white
canons at Dale and Beauchief, and the houses of black or Austin canons
at Darley Abbey and Repton Priory—the amount of landed estates, both
large and small, held throughout Derbyshire under abbeys or priories
situated in other shires, was very considerable. If there is one
social or economic fact that is thoroughly established in connection
with this great upheaval, whose main object was to secure pelf for the
Crown, it is that the condition of the monastic tenantry was far better
than that of those under often changing secular rule.
The sternest possible measures were taken to suppress the least
disaffection shown against the policy of dissolution. Lives were lost,
even of those in high position up and down the country, on the merest
hearsay evidence of having indulged in private talk against the King’s
policy. At the time when Henry and his Court were seriously alarmed by
the Lincolnshire rising on behalf of the smaller monasteries, lists
were drawn up on October 7th, 1536, of the names of noblemen and
gentlemen to whom it was proposed to write, under privy seal, requiring
their aid with men and horses fit for war. The Derbyshire names on
this list were: the Lord Steward, Lord Talbot, Sir Henry Sacheverell,
Matthew Kniveton, Sir Godfrey Foljambe (Sheriff), Roland Babington, and
Francis Cokayne. The rising was, however, so summarily suppressed that
there was no necessity for the calling out of any general array.
There are full particulars extant of the Derbyshire musters for April,
1539, giving the exact number under each parish of archers with
horses and harness, of billmen with horses and harness, and also of
unharnessed archers and billmen. The total for the various hundreds of
the county, including the town of Derby, reached the total of 4,510.
As to the various religious changes in the reigns of Henry VIII.,
Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, which affected Derbyshire as much
as any other part of the kingdom, it is not proposed here to enter.
Suffice it to say that their distinguishing feature under Elizabeth,
which was also continued throughout the greater part of the seventeenth
century, was the fierce persecution and ruinous fining directed
against the recusants of the Roman obedience. The reason for the
pre-eminence of Derbyshire in this respect arose from two facts:
firstly, that some of the most influential of the old Derbyshire
families, such as the Fitzherberts and the Eyres, remained steadfast
to the unreformed faith; and, secondly, that the wild districts of the
Peak afforded so many places of shelter to those recusants of this and
the neighbouring counties who desired to escape the rigorous search of
Elizabeth’s pursuivants.
Throughout the long reign of Elizabeth, the county musters were
under frequent survey. A few months before the reign began, the old
local militia, with its scale of arms (including bows and arrows) as
revised in 1285, which had continued for more than four centuries in
accordance with the scheme laid down by Henry II., came to an end.
The old Assize of Arms had long been found unsuitable to the advance
in the art of war. Eventually an Act of Parliament of Philip and Mary
“for the having of horse armour and weapon,” which provided that
after May 1st, 1558, everyone who had an estate of inheritance of
the value of £1,000 or above was to keep at his own cost six horses
meet for demi-lances (heavy cavalry), and ten horses meet for light
horsemen, with the requisite harness and weapons; also 40 corselets
for pikemen, 40 Almayne rivettes (flexible German armour), 40 pikes,
30 longbows, 30 sheaves of arrows, 30 steel caps, 20 black bills or
halberds, 20 hand-guns, and 20 morions or light open helms. A sliding
scale followed, making due provision for what was required from those
having lands of various values down to £10, and these last had to find
a longbow, a sheaf of arrows, a steel cap, and a black bill. Another
section of the Act provided that the inhabitants of every town, parish,
or hamlet, other than those who were already charged in proportion to
their landed property, were to find and maintain at their own charges
such harness and weapons as might be appointed by the commissioners of
the musters.
Within a few months of Elizabeth’s accession, this new legislation
was tested by calling out the general muster throughout the kingdom,
and by obtaining returns of the number in equipment from each county.
The long, interesting return for Derbyshire, dated March 9th, 1558–9,
is extant; it is signed by seven justices—George Vernon, Humphrey
Bradbourne, Henry Vernon, Francis Curzon, John Frances, Gilbert
Thacker, and Richard Pole. Every hundred and township is set forth in
detail, both as to the arms and the men. There was only one landowner
of sufficient wealth in the county to be called upon to provide all
that was requisite for a heavy horseman; but there were ten light
horsemen. The total of “the able Footemen harnissed and unharnissed”
amounted to 1,211, namely, 56 harnessed archers, 135 harnessed billmen,
236 unharnessed archers, and 784 unharnessed billmen.