they did before, the young merchant having the cat under his cloak the
king desired to see the thing which he had before so much commended;
when presently he discovered her, and cast her among them; she no sooner
saw these vermine but fell upon them with such a fury that here lay one
panting, there another quite dead; nor left them till she had frighted
and disperst the whole number, but such as she seized their carkasses
lay there as witnesses of their unexpected slaughter.
Great pleasure took the king and the nobility in the sport, vowing that
the hunting of the lyon (of which there was plenty in that country) was
not answerable unto it. In the interim one began to praise her for her
colour, another commending her for her valour, one said she had the
countenance of a lyon, and every one gave his sentence. When the poor
cat finding no more work for her to do, went round to the King and Queen
purling and curling (as their manner is), which they apprehended to be,
as if she inquired of them what she had deserved for that late service.
To cut off circumstance, no price could part them, and the rather when
the factor had told the king that she was with kittens, and that her
brood would in some few years, being carefully lookt into, furnish the
whole kingdom, so that Whittingtons cats adventure only surmounted all
the ships lading beside, with which fortune and unexpected gain we bring
them safe into England; the ship lying at anchor near Blackwal, and the
Pilot and Cape-merchant, with some other officers in the ship at Mr.
Fitzwarrens house, which was by Leaden-Hall, to give accompt of their
voyage. But these caskets of jewels and pearls, with other unvaluable
(_sic_) riches which were given for the cat, they caused to be brought
along, not daring, by reason of their inestimable value, to trust them
in the ship. The Bills of lading and the benefit of the return of the
Commodities being viewed and considered of by the owner, he praised God
for so prosperous a voyage, and called all his servants and gave order
that according to their adventures every one should receive his portion.
At length casting his eye upon those rich caskets and cabinets, he asked
to whose share they belonged; who whispered him in the ear, and told
him to his poor Whittington, relating every particular as is before
discoursed. To whom Master Fitzwarren replyed, if they then be his, God
forbid I should keep from him the least farthing that is his right, and
presently commanded Whittington to be sent for by the name of Mr.
Whittington.
The servants not knowing anything of the business, went unto him into
the kitchin, where he was then rubbing the spits, scouring the kettles,
and making clean the dressers, and told him he must come to his Master
presently into the parlor. The poor man excused himself, that his shooes
were dirty and the room was rubb'd, and if he should but touch any thing
there he should spoyl and deface those things in the room. But still the
master of the House called for Master Whittington, sending one servant
after another till he was brought before him; and having scraped some
few legs, instantly his master took him by the hand, and called for a
chair for Master Whittington, his daughter, the pilot, and the factor,
every one of them saluted him by the name of Mr. Whittington and forced
him to sit down. He wondering what this should mean desired them not to
mock a poor simple man who meant none any harm, &c. and wept (the tears
dropping from his eyes), desiring them not to deride his poverty, for
his ambition was never to come so high as from the kitchin to the hall
much more from the hall to the parlor.
Then came his master to him seriously and said, Indeed Mr. Whittington,
we are all in very good earnest, for you are at this time a better man
than myself in estate, and then shewed him all those cabinets and
caskets, and how richly they were lined.
When he perceived by all their earnest asservations that all was true he
first fell down upon his knees and gave God most hearty thanks, who out
of his great bounty would vouchsafe to cast an eye upon so poor and
wretched a creature as himself; then turning to his master he presented
all his riches before him and told him that all he had was at his
disposing and service, who answered him again, that for his own part God
had sent him sufficient of his own, neither would he take from him the
value of one Barbary ducket. He came nere and with a low leg saluted his
mistris, and told her that when she pleased to make choice of a husband
he would make her the richest marriage in London, because she was so
willing out of her own purse (when he was altogether penniless) to lay
out for his adventure. To the pilot, and master, and every officer, and
common saylor he gave liberal according to their degree, even to the
ship boy, and then to every servant of the house, nay to the very
kitchin wench who was so churlish unto him, and had so often basted him
instead of her roast meats; having caused her to be called unto him he
gave her an hundred pounds towards her marriage.
This being done, taylors were sent for, sempsters and the like to put
him into cloaths and linnen of the best, who were to accommodate him
with all speed possible, and his lodging in the garret was chang'd into
the best chamber of the house. And when the barber had been with him and
the rest to make him compleat in his habit, there was a strange and
sudden metamorphosis; for out of a smoky and dirty kitchin-drudge there
appeared a proper and well-proportioned man, and gentile merchant, in so
much that his young mistris began to cast a more amorous eye upon him
than before, which not a little pleased Master Fitzwarren her father,
who intended a match betwixt them.
The brute of this great adventure was presently revised through the
whole city, insomuch that his master intreated his late servant to walk
with him into the Exchange to see the fashion of the merchants, which he
did, when all of them came about him and saluted him, some bid God give
him joy of his fortune, others desired of him better and further
acquaintance, and every one as his several fancy led him: some commended
him for his person, others for his modest answers and discreet carriage.
Indeed, wealth is able to make all these good where they are most
wanting, which was not in him as appears by the sequel.
Within few weeks the match was propounded betwixt Master Whittington
and Mistris Alice, and willingly entertained by both parties and not
without great cost, with the invitation of the Lord Mayor and the
Aldermen very nobly celebrated, and the bridegroom by this means had got
acquaintances with the best.
After this his father-in-law demanded of his son what he purposed to
take in hand (his freedom being offered him). Who made answer again that
since God had so blest him in his small adventure he would not leave it
of so, but prove his goodness in a greater, and that his purpose was to
turn merchant, which reply gave him no small content in regard he knew
the best among them would be glad to have the society of so hopeful a
citizen, which he continued adventuring in divers bottoms with his
father, and had very happy and prosperous returns.
The time being come when he was prickt for Sheriff he modestly refused
it as unable to take so great a charge, and would willingly have paid
his fine, which his father-in-law would not suffer, at whose persuasion
he took the place upon him, in which he so well behaved himself in the
management of all affairs belonging to his office that he not only left
it without the least taxation, but with a general love and approbation,
insomuch that the universal eye of the whole city was fixt upon him in
an hopeful expectation what a profitable member of that united body he
might futurely prove, and this hapned in the year of our Lord 1493, Sir
John Hodley grocer being mayor and Drewerie Barentine his fellow
Sheriff, of the truth of which Mr. Fabian in his _Chronicle_ and Mr.
John Stow in his _Survey of London_ can fully satisfie you.
In the year 1497 and the one and twentieth of the same Kings reign, Sir
Richard Whittington was Lord Mayor of London, John Woodcok and William
Askam being Sheriffs, and he held the place with great reputation and
honour. In which time of his Mayoralty there was much discontent in the
kingdom, by reason of many differences betwixt the King and the Commons;
the circumstances whereof were here too long to relate, only one thing
is worthy of observation that whether by his adventures or no may it be
questioned, bringing in yearly such store of gold, silks, sattins,
velvets, damasks, stones, and jewels, &c. into the kingdom might be the
cause of that great pride and rioting in apparel which was used in those
days. But as Harding, Fabian, and others have left to me how in that
year of his Mayoralty and after there resorted to the Kings Court at
their pleasures daily, at the least ten thousand persons. In his kitchin
were three hundred servitors, and in every office according to that
rate. Moreover of ladies, chambermaids, and laundresses about three
hundred, and they all exceeded in gorgeous and costly apparel far above
their degrees; for even the yeomen and grooms were clothed in silks and
velvets, damasks, and the like, with imbroydery, rich furs, and
goldsmiths work, devising very strange and new fashions.
And in this year also, about the feast of St. Bartholomew, grew a great
discord betwixt the Duke of Hereford and Mowbery, Duke of Norfolk, the
beginning thereof being as followeth: The two Dukes riding from the
Parliament towards their lodgings, the Duke of Norfolk said to the
other, Sir, you see how variable the King is in his words, and
(reflecting upon what had past) how without mercy he putteth his Lords
and kinsfolks to death, imprisoning some and exciting others. Therefore
it behoveth us not too much to trust to his fair and smooth language,
for doubtless in time he will bring even to us the like death and
destruction. Of which words he accused him to the King, which the other
denying it was to be tryed by combate. The lists were appointed and the
day of meeting the eleventh day of September, to which place and on the
day assigned came both the Dukes and bravely accoutred, appeared before
the King ready to enter into battel; when the King threw down his
warder, and staying the combate banished the Duke of Hereford for ten
years, but the Duke of Norfolk for ever, was travelling many countries,
at the last came to Venice and then ended his life.
Again in 1406, and in the eighth of Henry the fourth, Sir Richard
Whittington was the second time Lord Mayor, Nicholas Worton and Geffery
Brook being Sheriffs. Again in the year 1409, being the seventh year of
Henry the fifth, he supplyed the Pretorship, Robert Whittington (his
near Kinsman) and John Butler being Sheriffs, and which is more
remarkable of him then of any other that ever preceded him in that place
of honour, he was once Sheriff and three times Lord Mayor of this famous
and honourable City in three several Kings reigns.
Now to cut off all circumstances and come close to the matter, we may
easily find what this man was, by the pious and religious acts done in
his life to the Cities present grace, use and benefit, and to his own
blessed memory for ever.
In the Vintry-ward he built a church and dedicated it to S. Michael
calling it Pater Noster in the Royal, and added to it a Colledge founded
to St. Mary, and placed therein a President and four fellows which ought
to be masters of arts, besides other yearly allowance to clerks and
young schollars, near which he erected an Hospital which he called God's
house, for thirteen poor men, and there according to the devout
superstition of those days were to pray for the souls of his
father-in-law Hugh Fitzwarren and Dame Molde his wife, for whom he
erected a fair tomb in the church he before built, leaving also a place
for himself and Dame Alice his lady when it should please God to call
them. In which place they were afterwards both of them according to
their degree very honourably interred, great mourning and much
lamentation being made for him by the Commons of the City in regard he
was a man so remarkable for his charity.
He builded another brave structure which he called after his own name
Whittington Colledge, with a perpetual allowance for Divinity Lectures
to be read there for ever, leaving good land for the maintenance
thereof.
And on the west side of the City he built that famous gate and prison to
this day called Newgate, and thereupon caused the Merchants arms to be
graven in stone. He added to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in Smithfield
and was at the charge of repairing thereof.
Further at the Grey-Fryars in London he erected a Library as a testimony
of the great love he had to Learning, which he began in the year of our
Lord 1421 and finished it in the year following. Moreover that place
which is called the Stocks to this day, betwixt Cheapside and Cornhill,
a good house of stone, which for a flesh market and a fish market
greatly beneficial to the City.
Besides he enlarged Guild Hall and glazed most or all of the windows at
his own costs or charges, paving the Hall and contributing largely to
the Library, adding to those places a conduit which yieldeth store of
sweet and wholesome water to the general good and benefit of the City.
In the year 1497, when Sir Richard Whittington was first elected Lord
Mayor, that rebel Sir John Oldcastle was taken in the territories of the
Lord Powess, not without danger and hurt of some that took him, at which
time all the States of the realm were assembled at Parliament in
London, therein to provide the King of a subsidy and other aid of money
and ammunition, who took great pains beyond the seas in France. These
Lords and others when they heard that the publick enemy was taken they
agreed all not to dissolve the Parliament, until he were examined, and
heard to answer in the same. Whereupon the Lord Powess was sent for to
fetch him up with power and great aid, who brought him to London in a
lyter wounded very much having received seventeen wounds and also a
clerk which he called his Secretary with him that was of his counsel in
all his secrecy. As soon as the aforesaid Sir John Oldcastle was brought
into the Parliament before the Earl of Bedford who was then left Regent
and Governour of the Realm in the time of the King's absence being in
France and other Lords and States, his indictment being read before him
of his forcible insurrection against the King and State in St. Gyles's
Fields, and other treasons and outrages by him committed, the question
was asked how he could excuse himself and show why he should not be
judged to dye according to the law. But he seeking other talk and
discourse of the mercies of God, and that all mortal men that would be
followers of God ought to prefer mercy above judgment and that vengeance
pertained only to the Lord, and ought not to be practised by them that
worship, but to be left to God alone, with many other words to protract
the time, until the Lord Chief Justice admonished the Regent not to
suffer him to spend the time so vainly, in molesting the nobles of the
Realm, whereupon the Duke of Bedford, Regent, commanded him to answer
formally and punctually to the matter laid to his charge.
Then said Sir John, being thus urged at last after deliberation taken,
he said, It is the least thing that I account of to be judged by you as
of man's judgment, and again he began to talk, but nothing to the
purpose until the Chief Justice commanded him again to answer finally,
and to answer them if he could, why he should not suffer death according
to his desert. To which he stoutly answered that he had no judge amongst
them, so long as his liege Lord King Richard was alive and in his realm
of Scotland, which answer when he had made, because there needed no
further witness, he was then presently censured to be drawn and hanged
on a gallows and then to be burnt hanging upon the same, which judgment
was executed upon him the thirtieth day of December in St. Gyles's
Fields, where many honourable persons were present, and the last words
that he spake were to Sir Thomas Upingham, adjuring him that if he saw
him rise from death to life again the third day he would procure that
his sect which he had raised might be in peace and quiet. He was hanged
by the neck in a chain of iron and after consumed by fire.
Moreover it is recorded that in the time of this worthy pretor Sir
Richard Whittington the glorious city of Constantinople was taken by
Mahomet the Second, Prince of the Turks, whose souldiers sacked it with
all extremity and omitted no manners of cruelty by violence to either
virgins, aged women, or sucking babes. This Sir Richard Whittington had
traffick from thence by his factors which there abode, and were then
taken prisoners, so that he lost near upon fifteen thousand pounds,
which when he heard of never was so much as cast down or dismayed, but
said God will send more; yea such was the incessant practice of the
Turkish tyranny upon this imperial city, as it exceeded the damage,
rapes and spoyls of other cities. They also beheaded at the same time
Constantine, sticking his head upon a launce, and with derision caused
it to be carried thorow the Turkish camp.
In the space of a week after, there hapned a horrible tempest of thunder
and lightning which burned almost eight hundred houses and spoiled three
thousand people at the sacking of the aforesaid city by the said
Mahomet. The Turks found therein so much treasure that they wondred that
the citizens would not spend it in souldiers for their own defence, but
so dotingly to spare the true spending thereof to become an enticing
prey for their irreconcileable enemies, for indeed it was thought that
if the State would have hired souldiers, and given them good pay they
might have raised the siege of the Turks. It is an old and true saying,
Covetousness is the mother of ruine and mischief.
This strange thing happened in the second time that he was elected Lord
Mayor and that was upon the twenty-seventh of April, being Tuesday in
Easter week: William Foxley, Pot maker for the Mint in the Tower of
London, fell asleep, and so continued sleeping and snoring and could not
be wakened with pricking, cramping, or otherwise burning or whatsoever
till the first day of the term, which was full 14 days and 15 nights.
The cause of this his sleeping could not be known though the same was
diligently searched for by the King's Command of his Physicians and
other learned men, yea the King himself examined the said William
Foxley, who was in all points sound at his awaking to be as if he had
slept but one night, and yet lived 41 years after. But in length of time
did call to mind how he did wish to God that he might sleep a fortnight
together if it was not so and so concerning a bargain between a
neighbour of his and himself.
One Thursday in Whitson week following the Duke of Somerset with Anthony
Rivers and four others kept Justs and Tournament before the King and
Queen and others of the nobility in the Tower of London, against three
Esquires of the Queen's Bedchamber, which were performed before some of
the French nobility that then were Prisoners to the King, which he took
in France, to the great admiration of those strangers who never saw the
like action before, being so earnestly performed. There was also Sir
Richard Whittington and the two Sheriff's, and that night the King and
Queen did sup with the Lord Mayor.
Those strangers which beheld those Justs were prisoners in the Tower at
that time, namely, the Duke of Orleance and Burbon, brother to the Duke
of Britain, the Earls of Vaudosine, of Ewe and Richmond, and the High
Marshal of France, and many other Knights and Esquires to the number of
seven hundred, all which were at one time prisoners to the King, but
nobly used and attended every one according to their rank and quality,
who when they were ransomed made it known to their King how honourably
they were attended in England, and what respect the King and our English
nation shewed them being prisoners who might have taken their lives away
as well as their persons prisoners.
The second thing that was remarkable in Sir Richard Whittington's year
was that the King kept his Christmas at Lambeth, and at the feast of
Purification seven Dolphins of the sea came up to the River of Thames
and played there up and down until four of them were kill'd.
On Saturday the eve of St. Michael the Archangel the year following, in
the morning before day, betwixt the hour of one and two of the Clock,
began a terrible earthquake with Lightning and thunder which continued
the space of six hours, and that universally through the whole world, so
that most men thought the world as then would have ended. The
unreasonable beasts roared and drew to the town with a hideous noise,
also the fowls of the ayr cryed out, such was the work of God at that
time to call his people to repentance.
The four and twentieth day of January following a battel or combat was
fought in Smithfield within the lists before the King between the men of
Feversham in Kent, John Upton Notary Appelant and John Down Gentleman
defendant. John Upton accused John Down that he and his compiers should
design the King's death on the day of his Coronation following. When
they had fought somewhat long and received each of them some wounds, and
still persisting in their violent action and no hopes to find out the
truth, the King took up the matter and forgave both parties.
On Candlemas eve following in divers places of England was great
weathering of wind, hail, snow, rain with thunder and lightning, whereby
the church of Baldock in Hertfordshire and the church and part of the
town of Walden in Essex, with other neighbouring villages, were sore
shaken, and the steeple of St. Pauls in London about two in the
afternoon was set on fire in the midst of the shaft first on the west
side and then on the south, and divers people espying the fire came to
quench it in the steeple, which they did with vinegar, so far as they
could find, so that when the Lord Mayor with much people came to Pauls
to have holpen if need had been they returned again every man to his own
home, trusting in God all had been well, but anon after between eight
and nine of the clock the fire burst out again afresh out of the
steeple, by reason of the wind more hot and fervent then before, and did
much hurt to the lead and timber thereof. Then the Lord Mayor and many
people came thither again and with vinegar quenched the fire which was
so violent, but no man received any hurt.
Moreover in Sir Richard Whittington's time lived one Richard Fleming,
Bishop of Lincoln, in the year 1430 who founded Lincoln Colledge in
Oxford, which was afterwards in Richard the third's time in the year of
our Lord 1479 by Thomas Rotherham Bishop of the same sea (_sic_) much
augmented and enlarged with great revenues. Likewise Magdalen Colledge
in Oxford was built by William Wainfleet Bishop of Winchester, who was a
loving and constant friend to Sir Richard Whittington and did much good
in many parts of this kingdom, and the said Sir Richard did largely
contribute to these and the like pious uses by the intreaty of this
Bishop.
In the year of our Lord 1419, in which Sir Richard Whittington was the
third time inaugurated into the Mayoralty as is before mentioned King
Henry the fifth, who having conquered the greatest part of France and
espoused Katherine sole daughter to the King and heir to the crown,
taking leave of his father-in-law, embarked with his Royal bride and
landed at Dover upon Candlemas Day, leaving in France for his deputy his
brother the Duke of Clarence, from thence arrived in London the
fourteenth day of February, and the Queen came thither the one and
twentieth day of the same month, being met upon Black-Heath by the Lord
Mayor and three hundred aldermen and prime citizens in gold chains and
rich costly habits with other sumptuous and brave devices as pageants,
speeches and shows to the great delight and content of both their
Maiesties.