<Here and there in the _Lives_ Aubrey has jotted down notes on
various matters of antiquarian interest. These are collected
here, and a few other notes of the same type from other Aubrey
volumes added to them. Aubrey attached to some of these notes
the title of 'Nouvelles,' e.g. MS. Aubr. 8, foll. 6, 28ᵛ, 103.>
<_'Sir' = dominus_.> I remember, before the late warres, the ministers
in Herefordshire, etc. (counties that way), had the title of _Sʳ._,
as the bachalours of Art[1301] have at Oxon, as 'Sir Richard, of
Stretford,' 'Sir William, of Monkland.' And so it was in Wilts, when my
grandfather Lyte was a boy; and anciently everywhere. The example of
this appeares in the excellent comoedie of _The Scornfull Ladie_, where
'Sir Roger' (the chaplain) has a great part. It was made by Mr. J.
Fletcher about the beginning of King James' time; but in all old wills
before the reformation it is upon record.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
<_The ways of the gentry, tempore Jacobi I._> In those dayes hunting
and falconery were at the height: old Serjeant Latham then lived, and
writt his falconry[1302]. Good cheere was then much in use; but to
be wiser then one's neighbours, scandalous and to be envyed at. And
the nobility and gentry were, in that soft peace, damnable prowd and
insolent.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
<_Ghost-stories._> When I was a child, and so before the civill
warres, the fashion was for old women and maydes to tell fabulous
stories, night-<t>imes, and of sprights and walking of ghosts, etc.
This was derived downe from mother to daughter, etc., from the monkish
ballance, which upheld holy Church: for the divines say 'Deny spirits,
and you are an atheist.' When the warres came, and with them liberty
of conscience and liberty of inquisition, the phantomes vanish. Now
children feare no such things, having heard not of them, and are not
checked[1303] with such feares.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
The first _pointe-de-Venice band_ that was worne in England was by King
Charles the first at his coronation. Now[1304], 'tis common.--MS. Aubr.
6, fol. 1ᵛ.
_Point-bands._ The first point-band worne in England was that which
King <Charles> IIᵈ wore when he was crowned: and presently after,
the fashion was followed infinitely:--from Mris Judith Dobson, vidua
pictoris[1305].--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Apothecaries._ Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the King's
Bench, saies, as I remember, in the College of Physicians case,
that ... Falconti[1306], an Italian, was the first apothecarie in
London. But vide Sir Geofrey Chaucer, in his Prologue of the Doctor of
Physick, [s<ae>c.[1307] xiiiiᵗʰ, thus]:--
'Full readie had he his apothecaries
To send him drugg and electuaries.'
And Mr. Anthony à Wood shewes in his Oxon. Antiquities[1308] that there
was a place there, called _Apothecaria_, 300 yeares ago. In queen
Elizabeth's time the apothecaries did sell sack in their shoppes:
my grandfather[1309] and severall old men that I knew heretofore did
remember it.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Tabor and pipe._ When I was a boy, before the late civill warres, the
tabor and pipe were commonly used, especially Sundays and Holydayes,
and at Christnings and Feasts, in the Marches of Wales, Hereford,
Glocestershire, and in all Wales. Now it is almost lost: the drumme
and trumpet have putte that peaceable musique to silence. I believe
'tis derived from the Greek[1310] _sistrum_, a brasen or iron timbrel;
_cratalum_[1311], a ring of brasse struck with an iron rod--so we play
with the key and tongs.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Clocks_:--Chaucer, Nonne's Priest's tale--(Chanteclere).
'Well sikerer was his crowing in his loge
Then is a clock or in an Abbey an orloge.'
Sir Geoffrey Chaucer obiit 1400, aetatis 72.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 10ᵛ.
<The> clock[1312] at Paule's on the north crosse aisle west side
<is> stately. That at Welles is like it. Vide Chaucer in aliqua
vita[1313].--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 10ᵛ.
_Spectacles_[1314]. Dr. Pell tells me the antiquity of spectacles is
about two hundred yeares standing, and that they were sold, when first
invented, for 3 or 5 _li._ a paire. The ancientest author wherin he
finds them is cardinal Cusa--vide Cusanum, quaere Sir John Hoskins, who
(I thinke) knowes. ['Tis ... Redi, an Italian, about 400 yeares since.]
The Germans call them _Brill_, from the beril-stone, i.e. chrystall, of
which they were first made. Κρύσταλλος is not properly 'chrystall,' but
'ice.' Erasmus in Colloquio Senis--
'Quid tibi vis cum vitreis oculis, fascinator?'
Vide Thomas Hobbes' Optiques in libro De Homine, where he interprets
this piece of Plautus, in Cistellaria, act. 1, scen. 1:--
'Conspicillo consequutus 'st clanculum me usque ad fores,'
where he proves that there 'conspicillo' could not signify a paire
of spectacles, as we now use it: for then he could not have kenned
her at a distance. I remember he told me 'tis that which the French
call _vidette_, a hole to peepe out at.--Vide <Hier.> Sirturus _de
Perspicillis_, a thin 4to: Mr. Edmund Wyld has it, scil. a rarity.--MS.
Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
[Illustration]
_Gunnes._ The Almanack chronologie tells us (1680)--'Since _the
invention of gunnes_'--by ..., a monke of ..., in Germany--'270
yeares,' scil. in the reigne of <Henry IV>, anno 1410. Philip de
Commines tells us that in his time, when Charles 8 went into Italy,
the country-people flocked mightily to see the great gunnes shott
off, which was the first time they came in use: but musquetts and
fowling-peeces came not to perfection long after. Memorandum:--in
the Princes' Chamber at the House of Lords[1315], scil. the roome
where the king does retire, are very old hangings, viz. of Edward
the Fourth's time, in which is described the invention and use of
gunnes. The muskets there are only a long tube stop't at one end,
with a touch-hole, and fitted to a long staff. This gun one holds
on a rest and aimes; and then another comes with a lighted match in
a stick and gives fire, so that 'twas the worke of two men then to
manage one piece. Till the late warres refined locksmiths' worke, I
remember when I was boy the firelocks were very bungling to what they
now are. And in queen Elizabeth's time they used _calivers_, of which
I remember many in gentlemen's halls before the civill wars (for then
the soldiers converted them into carbines). The stock was like a wooden
basting-ladle, and it had a match-lock, and was not much longer then a
carbine.
'Cualibre' in French signifies the bore of a gun, or the size of the
bore; and (thence) also the size capacity or fashion of any such
thing--Cotgrave's Dictionary.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
<_Printing._> Memorandum, in the librarie of Francis Bernard, M.D., in
London, behind Sepulcher's church, is Tulie's Offices ('tis printed
_Tulii_) in 4to, printed at Mentz by <Johann> Fust, 1466.--The sayd Dr.
sayes that he hath seen Saint Hierome on the Creed, printed at Oxford,
1467[1316].--Memorandum, Mr. ... Morris of Llansilly in Denbighshire
hath a manuscript Bible in Welsh 1500[1317] years old. It was found
at the dissolution of the monasteries in an old wall which parted the
monastery from the Bishop's Palace[1318] at Hereford, lap't-up in
lead, and the inscription on it doeth testifie the antiquitie of it.
'Tis thought 'twas hid and layd-up there when the great difference,
and troubles, was between the Welsh monkes and those of Austin the
monke:--from Mr. Middleton, <of> Denbighshire, merchant in London.
Quaere Mr. Meredith Lloyd de hoc: there may be something of trueth to
be pickt out in this storie.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
_Catafalconi_ is the magnificent contrivance for kings' and princes'
and generalls' effigies to lie in state in some eminent church for some
weekes, e.g. King James Iˢᵗ; Robert, earle of Essex; generall Monke,
duke of Albemarle. It takes its name from 'Falconi,' which signifies in
Italian 'an eagle.'--Memorandum at the solemne funeralls of the Roman
emperors they had an eagle to fly away from the _rogus_ when it tooke
fire.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 3.
<_Stained glass in Oxford._> When I came to Oxford, crucifixes were
common in the glasse windowes in the studies' windowes[1319]; and in
the chamber windowes were canonized saints (e.g. in my chamber window,
St. Gregorie the great, and another, broken), and scutcheons with[1320]
the pillar, the whip, the dice, and the cock. But after 1647 they were
all broken--'downe went Dagon!' Now no vestigia to be found.--MS. Aubr.
8, fol. 3.
Mr. Fabian Philips sayes the winter 1625 before the plague was such a
mild winter as this[1321]: quod N.B.--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 6.
Quaere Dick Brocas, prisoner in King's Bench, pro legier booke of
Bradstock abbey.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
Quaere nomen ecclesiae unde deducebantur picturae Mri. Davys.--MS.
Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
Oliver turned out the parliament, 20 Apr. 1653.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5.
... Knox began his voyage to Tunquin, Aug. 18, 1681.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol.
5ᵛ.
_The first beginning of the Royal Society_ (where they putt discourse
in paper and brought it to use) was in the chamber of William Ball,
esqr., eldest son of Sir Peter Ball of Devon, in the Middle Temple.
They had meetings at taverns before, but 'twas here where it formally
and in good earnest sett up[1322]. In Dr. Spratt's History you may see
when the patent was granted.--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 6.
<_Wiltshire._> Quaere Mr. <Thomas> Mariet and Mr. Packer (pro
Anthony Wood) if <there is> a camp neer Camden, and if another
on Broadway.--Memorandum ... <to put> my brother's notes of ...
Hyde, etc., into 'Liber[1323] B' before I send it to Anthony
Wood.--'Liber[1324] A' (preface)--the 'clerici' (i.e. parish priests)
did write the bayliffs' accounts and that in Latin, a specimen whereof
I have with me of....--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 13.
<_Oxford._> Insert the shields in St. Ebbe's church at Oxon in 'Liber
B.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
The _paper mill_ at Bemmarton, Wilts, is 112 yeares standing (1681).
'Twas the second in England.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
_Jessamines_ came into England with Mary[1325], the queen-mother;
_Laurell_ was first brought over by Alathea[1326], countesse of
Arundell, grandmother to this duke of Norfolke[1327].--MS. Aubr. 8,
fol. 28ᵛ.
Rider's <Almanack>, 1682:--'Since _tobacco_[1328] brought into England
by Sir Walter Raleigh, 99 yeares; the custome[1329] wherof now is the
greatest of all others and amounts yearly to....--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 103.
Rider's Almanack, 1682:--'Since Tobacco first used, 99 yeares; since
the New River was brought to London, 79; since _coaches_ were first
used, 128.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
The first _glasse-coach_ that came into England was the duke of Yorke's
when the king was restored. In a very short time they grew common,
and now (1681), at Waltham or Tottnam high crosse, is sett-up a mill
for grinding of coach-glasses and looking glasses (much cheaper,
viz.).--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
_Penny Post Office_, vide vitam R. Morey[1330]. Mr. Robert
Murrey began it in May 1680, and the duke of York seized on it in
1682[1331]--quaere about what time of the yeare? Let Mr. Murry goe to
Dr. Chamberlayne at Suffolke house.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
<_The penny post._> Doe right to Mr. Murrey in a Memorandum as to the
refelling of Dr. <Edward> Chamberlayne who ascribes that invention or
project of the 1ᵈ post to W. Dockwray, which is altogether false.--MS.
Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 13.
<_Printing._> Mr. J. Gadbury assures me that the first printing in
England was in Westminster Abbey. They yet retaine the name 'Treasurer
of the chapell.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
Mr. Theodore Haak saieth that the antiquity of _pinnes_ is not above
200 yeares. 'Before, they used a thorne, etc., _more primitivo_. He
saies moreover that he heard the Swedish ambassador asked two other
ambassadors what they thought was the greatest waste of copper. One,
said bells, another said cannons. 'No,' sayd he, ''tis pinnes'--quod
N.B.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
_Shoes._ I doe remember, in my native county of North Wilts, husbandmen
did weare high shoes till 1633 common enough, scil. 1/2 bootes slitt
and laced. The Benedictine monks wore bootes, I beleeve, like these--at
least 1/2 bootes.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
_Gentilisme_[1332]. Memorandum in Yorkeshire the country woemen doe
still _hailst the new mewne_, scil. they kneele with their bare knees
on a _grownd-fast stene_ and say _all haile_, etc. The moon hath a
greater influence on woemen than on men.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69.
_Gentilisme._ Weddings out. Ovid's Fastorum lib. <iii. 397, 398>:--
His etiam conjux apia sancta[1333] dialis
Lucibus impexas debet habere comas--
see the two distiches preceding.
This St. Andrewe's crosse we wore on our hatts, pinned on, till the
Plott, and never since:--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69.
_Avebury._ Between pages 1 and 2[1334] insert the scheme of
Avebury.--... miles westwards from Marleborough (not far from
Bristowe-roade) is a village called Avebury which stands within one
of the most remarkeable monuments of its kind in England. It seemes
strange to me that so little notice hath been taken of it by writers.
Mr. Camden only touches on it and no more.--MS. Aubr 9, fol. 50ᵛ.
<_Palm Sunday._> Antiquity--the fashion hereabout[1335] was before
the warres that on Palme Sunday the young men and maydes received the
communion, and in the afternoon walkt together under the hedges about
the cornefields, which was held to be lucky.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 2ᵛ.
<_Simples._> Some write that the water ..., vervayn, ..., ... of
sprinkled about the hall or place where any feast or banket is kept
maketh all the company both lusty and merry.--Dodoens _Herball_.--MS.
Aubr. 21, a slip at fol. 9.
_Witches_ (maleficae). Twisting of trees, tearing and turning up oakes
by the roots. Raysing tempests; wracking ships; throwing down steeples;
blasting plantes; dwindle away young children. To overlooke and binde
the spirits and phantasy; bewhattling and making men impotent, woemen
miscarry (countesse of Carlisle). Whirlewinds; haracanes.
Mr. Morehouse[1336]:--spirits in 'em. Bishop of Bahuse; the devill's
black mace of rammes hornes; the session, à la mode de Royal Society,
with ballotting box. Memorandum;--Sir H. B. <said> wise men alwaies saw
that as some malicious woemen increased in yeares, increased also in
malice: set howses on fire, mischiefe <to> children, etc. Thought it
better to have them underground then above ground and raise storms: the
familiars could not handsomely knock 'em in the head.--MS. Aubr. 21, p.
11.
<_Provincial ignorance._> Sir Eglamour and Fitz-ale <two of the persons
in Aubrey's Comedy _The Country Revel_> discourse of the gothique
manner of living of these gentlemen, of their ignorance, and envy of
civilized and ingeniouse men; of the promising growth of civility
and knowledge in the next generation[1337] (in our grandfathers' or
great-grandfathers' dayes few gentlemen could write a letter: then 'the
clarke made the justice'); that there is a sort of provinciall witt, or
rather a humour that goes for witt, e.g. in the west, which if used in
the north, or elsewhere, seemes strange and ridiculous.--MS. Aubr. 21,
p. 11.
_Summer watch._ Vide Sir Thomas Smyth's _Commonwealth_ de hac. Cause
is that the blood is then high: keepe downe the _juvenilis impetus_.
The old men in those dayes were not so ignorant in philosophy as the
virtuosi, forsooth, doe thinke they were. They knew, etc.--MS. Aubr.
21, p. 11.
<_Provincial manners._> Collect[1338] the gothicismes and clownrys
of ... in Chester. Dick Pawlet, Secole Chivers, W. Ducket's clan of
Clowne-hall. Their servants like clownes too, drunkards too: _qualis
herus, talis servus_; breeches of one sort, doublet of another, drabled
with the teares of the tankard and greasie. He built an alehouse for
his servants, without the gate, for convenience sake, because the
servants should be within call. (Before they came hither above a mile
for their ale.) Vide Osburne, of distinction of habitts.--MS. Aubr. 21,
p. 12.
_Country magique._ Walking about the church Midsomer eve at night,
one shall meet the party that shall marry. They must goe round the
church nine times (or seven times), with a sword drawne, if a man; if a
woman, with a scabbard.--To putt a smock on the hedge on Midsommer-eve
night, the man that is to have her shall come and turne it.--They take
orpin and stick branches of it on the wall, and fancy such a branch
for such a man, such a branch for such a woman, and divine their loves
and marriage or not-marriage by the inclining or aversion of the
branches.--They tye magicall knotts with certayne grasses, which, putt
in the bosome of the man or woman, if their love have not love for
them, will untye.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 24ᵛ.
<_Sketches for designed inventions_: MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 57: illustrated
in most cases by drawings. One (fol. 57) is for _a cart with one
wheel_, imitated from 'the slids in the forrest of Deane, for their
narrow wayes where carts cann't passe.'
[Illustration: 'A forrest cart']
Another (fol. 57ᵛ) is for _a balloon_:--'Fill or force in smoake into a
bladder and try if the bladder will not be carryed up in the ayre. If
it is so, severall bladders may drawe a man up into the ayre a certaine
hight, as the holly-berrys arise to the middle of water in a glasse.
Memorandum try to what hight they will ascend in a deep vessell, and
also try other berryes if any will doe so.'
Another (fol. 57) is for _a flying machine and parachute_:--'Memorandum
to propose that Mr. Packer sends to Norfolk or Suffolke to the
gentleman that hath with much curiosity measured the feathers in the
wings of severall birds and taken proportions of them and the weight
of their bodies, and to send to Mr. Francis Potter for his notions of
flying and of being safely delivered upon the ground from great heights
with a sheet, etc.'
Another (fol. 58) is for _sailing a ship_:--'Memorandum Dr. Wilkins his
notion of an umbrella-like invention for retarding a ship when shee
drives in a storm.'
Another (fol. 59) is for _a sowing-machine_:--'Let a ginne be invented
to shatter out corne by jogging in stead of soweing or setting, the one
being, too wastfull, the other taking up too much time; and that the
soweing and harrowing may bee but one and the same labour.'>
_Herifordshire._ All the earth red, as also all Wales from Severn to
the sea.--The twanging pronunciation more here then in South Wales; in
North Wales, not much. So about Newcastle they speak more of the Scotch
twang than they doe at Berwick or Scotland.--Get the song or speech
of serjant Hoskyns of the earl of Northampton, the Lord President
of Wales.--At Mordeford, the serpent with 6 or 8 wings, every ... a
paire.--Vide the little bookes of the old earl of Worcester[1339] in
12mo, where, amongst other things, he mentions a profecie by a bard of
Ragland, that it should be burnd or destroyed and afterwards be rebuilt
out of Redwood; set forth (vide), I thinke, by Dr. <Thomas> Bayly his
chaplain: where be many pretty romances of that earle, etc., his life
and death, etc. The same Dr. also writt a booke in folio (thinne)
called _Parietaria_: which see. He (or his father[1340]) would shoe his
horse. Was a great patron to the musicians, e.g. Caporavio, etc. This
duke's father[1341] had an excellent mechanicall head: quaere what he
writt: Mr. Wyld, I thinke, hath the booke printed in red.--MS. Aubr.
31, p. 68.
_Monmouthshire._ About the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's time Welsh
was spoken much in Hereford and I believe 100 years before that as far
as the Severn. It weares out more and more in South Wales, especially
since the Civill Warres (and so in Cornwall: Mr. Francis Potter did
see one that spake of a woman towards the farther end of Cornwall that
could speak no English)--but they still retaine their ancient way of
pronunciation, which is with a twang worse than the Welsh.--MS. Aubr.
21, p. 68ᵛ.
<_Dress._> Memorandum--anciently no bandes worne about their neckes,
but furre: as in old glasse pictures.--Memorandum till queen
Elizabeth's time, no hattes, but cappes, i.e. bonnetts.--Trunke hose in
fashion till the later end of King James the first.--About 90 yeares
ago[1342] (1670) noblemen and gentlemen's coates were of the fashion of
the bedells and yeomen of the guard, i.e. gathered at the girdle place;
and our benchers' gownes retayne yet that fashion of gathering.--MS.
Aubr. 21, fol. 95ᵛ.
By reason of fasting dayes all gentlemen's howses had anciently
_fishponds_, and fish in the motes about the howse.--MS. Aubr. 31, fol.
95ᵛ.
Heretofore _glasse windowes_ were very rare, only used in churches and
the best roomes of gentlemen's howses. Yea, in my remembrance, before
the civill warres, copyholders and ordinary poore people had none. Now
the poorest people, that are upon almes, have it. In Herefordshire,
Monmouth, Salop, etc., it is so still. But now this yeare (1671) are
goeing up no lesse then 3 glasse-howses between Glocester and about
Worcester, so that glasse will be common over all England.--MS. Aubr.
21, fol. 95ᵛ.
Memorandum--without doubt, before the Reformation there was no county
in England but had severall _glasse-painters_. I only remember one
poore one, an old man (Harding) at Blandford, in that trade.--MS.
Aubr. 21, fol. 95ᵛ.
_Riding at the quintin at weddings_ is now left in these partes[1343]
but in the west of England is sometimes used yet. I remember when I
learned to read English I saw one at Will Tanner's wedding sett up
at the green by Bownet howse by the pounde. Vide the masque of Ben
Johnson, wher is a perfect description of rideing at the quintin.
Quaere the antiquity and rise of it.--Memorandum I sawe somewhere
that rideing at the quintin is a remayn of the Roman exercise; vide
Juvenal[1344], Satyr vi. 248--
Aut quis non vidit vulnera pali[1345]
Quem cavat assiduis sudibus, scutoque lacessit
Atque omnes implet numeros?
A quintin[1346] ('quintaine' in French).
(_a_) a leather satchell filled with sand.
(_b_) a roller of corne[1347] pitched on end in some crosse way or
convenient place where the bride comes along home.
(_c_) at this end the fellowes that bring home the bride give a lusty
bang with their clubbes or truncheons which they have for the purpose,
and if they are not cunning and nimble the sandbag takes them in the
powle ready to hitt them off their horses. They ride a full career when
they make their stroke.
(_a c_) a piece of wood about a nell[1348] long that turnes on the
pinne of the rowler (_e_).--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 95.
_Chelsey Hospitall._ On Thursday morning, February the sixteenth
1681/2, his majestie layed the foundation stone of the college
appointed for the reliefe of indigent officers at Chelsey College.--MS.
Aubr. 23, fol. 20ᵛ.
<_Siamese twins_[1349].> May 19, 1680, about sun rising were borne at
Hillbrewers neer Ilminster in Somerset twinne sisters growne together
at the belley: christned Aquila and Priscilla. Quaere the judgment by
Dr. Bernard.--MS. Aubr. 33, fol. 92.
_Rollright stones._ Except 1, 2, the rest + - 4 foote[1350]; about
4-1/2; quaere quot[1351].--MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. 92.
[Illustration: Roll-right stones]
<_Apparition_[1352].> 1679: as he was a bed sick of an ague, (he
awake--daytime) came to him the vision of a Master of Arts with a white
wand in his hand, and told him that if he lay on his back three howres,
viz. 10 to 1, that he should be rid of his ague. He was weary[1353] and
turned and immediately the ague came: after, he did not, etc., and was
perfectly well.--MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. 100ᵛ.
<_Soap._> A Bristow-man living in Castile in Spain learn't their art
of making soape, which he did first set up in Bristowe about the yeare
1600. By this, alderman Rogers there gott a great estate, and Mr. ...
Broughton[1354] was the first that improved barren ground there with
the soape-ashes, now not uncommon.--MS. Aubr. 26, page 18.
A Bristow-man living in Castile in Spaine learnt their art of makeing
soape, which he first sett-up in Bristow, now (1681) 80 + yeares
since.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
<_The Fishmongers' Company, London._> To discover[1355] and find out
the lands concealed and embezilled by the Fishmongers' company, which
was to maintain so many scholars in Oxford and for the ease of poor
Catholiques in Lent. Mr. Fabian Philips tells me I may find out the
donation in Stow's Survey of London: he can put me in a way to help
me to a third or fourth part for the discoverie. J. Collins, who
enformed me of this discovery, sayd the lands are worth some thousands
per annum, scil. two or three thousand pounds per annum, which
devout Catholiques in ancient times gave to this company for their
pious and charitable use. My lord Hunsdon would be a good instrument
herein. Memorandum in the records of the Tower are to be found many
graunts, etc., to the Fishmongers' company. Edmund Wyld; esq., saith
that the old Parliament did intend to have had an inspection into
charitable uses. See Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle pag. 267 G, anno
22 Henry VII <1507>, scil. Thomas Knesworth, mayor of London, gave
to the Fishmongers' company, certain tenements for which they are
bound to allow fower scholars, that is to say, two at Oxon, and two
at Cambridge, to each of them fower pounds per annum, as also to poor
people prisoners in Ludgate something yeerely. Quaere Anthony Wood de
hiis.--MS. Aubr. 26, page 1.