XXVII. Extracts from the Private Account Book of Sir William More, of Loseley, in Surrey, in the Time of Queen Mary and of Queen Elizabeth
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
284 XXVII. Extracts from the Private Account Book of Sir William More, of Loseley, in Surrey, in the time of Queen Mary and of Queen Elizabeth. Communi- cated in a Letter from JOHN EVANS, Esq. F.S.A. to J. Y. AKEKMAN, Esq. Secretary. Read January 10, 1856. Nash Mills, Hemel Hempsted, Dec. 10, 1855. MY DEAR SIR, I HAVE again the pleasure of sending you a transcript of some of the numerous documents of antiquarian interest preserved in the Muniment Hoom of Loseley House, near Guildford. for access to which, as on a previous occasion, I am indebted to the kindness of their proprietor, James More Molyneux, Esq. of Loseley, a Eellow of this Society. The papers which I now transmit to you, for the purpose of their being laid before the Society, are extracted from a MS. book in folio, mostly in the hand- writing of Sir William More, whose private account-book it appears originally to have been. The first is an inventory of all the goods in his possession in 1556, and is of considerable interest, as showing not only the contents and furniture of a country gentleman's house at that period, but also the value of each separate article, as appraised by Sir William More himself. Though the inventory of the whole house was never completed, we have the contents of the hall, the parlour, the children's chamber, Sir William More's own chamber, and the closets of himself and his wife, so that the contents of those rooms are faithfully recorded, which are the most important and instructive in throwing a light on the domestic arrangements and habits of the time of Mary. The furniture of the hall is excessively scanty and plain, consisting of but a single table and two forms, of the total \ alue of 4<s. Qd. In the parlour, however, is a much greater abundance of furniture, as, in addition to the main table, there is the side table and another small table, a chair and six stools with embroidered cushions, besides footstools; while for the decoration of the room we find a portrait of Henry VIII. and hangings of green saye, and, for the amusement of Extracts from the Private Account Book of Sir William More. 285 the family and guests, a pair of virginals, a base lute, and a guitar, with chess and backgammon boards for those not musically inclined. The children's chamber, or nursery as we should call it, is comfortably provided with bedding and nursery requisites, and contains a cupboard, two coffers, and a great wicker hamper, as receptacles for the clothes, &c. The allowance of blankets appears but small, being only one pair to a bed, either in the nursery or the bedroom of the master of the house. The latter room is provided with a walnut-tree bed- stead, adorned with green fringe, and having a coverlet of tapestry, a walnut table, chairs and stools, curtains for the windows of green saye, a warming-pan, and, as a ready means of defence against thieves or intruders, a pole-axe. In an inner closet, leading out of this room, are four stills, for the use of the lady of the house. Sir William More's own closet is so well appointed that it might almost serve for a model for the morning-room of a country squire of the present day On the walls hang maps of the World, of France, of England, and of Scotland, and a picture of Judith, a little chronicle, and a perpetual almanack in frames. Among the accessories are a globe, a slate to write on, and a counterboard and cast of counters, with which to make calculations and cast accounts, in the manner then in vogue. On the desk are a pair of scales and a set of weights, a pair of scissors, a penknife, a whetstone, a pair of compasses, a foot-rule, a hammer, a seal of many seals, and an inkstand of pewter, with a pounce-box, and pens both of bone and steel. Around the room is a collection of about 120 volumes of books ; among them are some of the best chronicles of the time, as Fabyan, Langton, Harding, Carion, &c.; translations from the classics, as well as some in their original language; for magisterial business there are the statutes of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and Mary, and all the statutes before, as well as the New Book of Justices, and other legal works; for medical use we find a Book of Physic, the Glass of Health, and a book against the Sweat, as well as a Book of Medicines for Horses; while for lighter reading there are such books as Chaucer, Lydgate, Skelton, and others, not only in English but also in French and Italian ; and for religious study, besides a Bible and Testaments in various languages, the Scala Perfectionis, Flores Biblise, &c. The whole catalogue is worthy of attentive perusal by the bibliographical antiquary, and affords the titles of some English works which are not, I believe, at present known. In the closet of the lady of the house are a few more books, principally of prayers, a large collection of trunks and boxes, a number of glass vessels of various forms and uses, and a few of enamel or china, with trenchers, knives, 2r 2 286 Extracts from the Private Account Book shears, graters, snuffers, moulds, brushes, and other miscellaneous properties of a good housewife. The inventory of plate belonging to Sir William More is appended, and com- prises a goodly assortment. It was made out two years subsequently to the other inventory. Of the size and relative position of the rooms in the house we know nothing, the house of which they formed a part having been pulled down at the time the present Loseley House was built, and probably some of its ornaments and fittings transferred to the new house. It is an account of the expenses of the erection of the present building by Sir William More that is entered in the same book as the inventory, and which likewise I have transcribed, and send you. The building commenced in 1561, and extended over a period of eight years, till 1569, involving an outlay of £1,660 19s. 7-§c£. The account is of interest, as giving the rate of wages of the various artificers, and the prices of various building materials, including the cost of making bricks and burning lime. It likewise furnishes some illustrations of the manners of the time in relation to the payment and treatment of the workmen. We find, for instance, masons engaged by the year, with their meat and drink, and two liveries found them; indeed, meat and drink were pro- vided for nearly all the workmen, except some few employed at a distance from the house, who " found themselves." I know that some excuse is necessary for not having abridged this account, but it is so difficult to foresee for what purposes it might be consulted, and many things which appear of no general interest so often possess a local interest to those who are the most likely to refer to it, that I thought it better to send it to you in extenso, and leave any abridgement that may be considered advisable to be made by abler hands. For a description of Loseley House I must refer you to the Preface to Kempe's Loseley Manuscripts, 1835, 8vo. and the county historians of Surrey. Suffice it for me to say, that the portion of the house built by Sir William More remains very nearly in the same state now as when he lived there. The lofty hall, the mullioned windows, the panelled walls, and grotesquely-carved chimney-pieces, all carry us back to the early Elizabethan era. It remains now merely to give some slight account of Sir William More, that, his position and standing being known, a value may be given to documents throwing a light on his domestic life, which they would not otherwise possess: and here I shall again be largely indebted to Mr. Kempe's Preface. I have hitherto by a slight anachronism called him Sir William More, but he of Sir William More of Loseley in Surrey. 287 was not knighted until 1576, when he was dubbed by the Earl of Leicester, in the Earl of Lincoln's garden at Pirford in Surrey, Queen Elizabeth being present. He was born in January, 1520, the eldest of five sons and two daughters of Sir Christopher More of Loseley, twice Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, to whose estates he succeeded in 1549. He represented the borough of Guildford several times in Parliament in the reigns of both Mary and Elizabeth ; and, under the latter, was like his father twice Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, and also Vice-Admiral of the latter county, as well as Treasurer and Master of the Swans of Surrey. He married twice; and by his first wife Margaret, the daughter of Ralph Daniel, of Swaffham, Norfolk, had three children; the eldest, George, born in November 1553, and one of the occupants of the children's chamber when this inventory was made. Beside the house at Loseley, Sir "William had a house at the Black Friars in London, which had formerly belonged to Sir Thomas Oawarden. His clear yearly income, or "the valewe of his living," arising from landed property, was, as appears from an entry in the book from which the extracts I now send you were made, in 1557, £146 lls.