Trans. Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 131 (2013), 229–244
BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
Edited by david J. H. Smith, M.a., F.S.a. and Jill Barlow, M.a.
COnTEnTS
Notes 15. King Henry V’s cradle John Fendley and david Smith
22. The playing of fives (and west gallery music) John Jurica
25. a riot in Tetbury david Smith and Jill Barlow
26. The place-name Awre Richard Coates
27. The priest chairs of St nicholas, Gloucester Robert Tucker
28. Garter Bigland’s funeral Huw Jones
29. Eastington in domesday Book neil Stacy
Queries 30. a 19th-century inscription at Hanham abbots William Evans
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 229 09/01/2014 10:41 230 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES nOTES
15 King Henry V’s Cradle
Much information about this ancient piece is already in the public domain. during the 18th and 19th centuries it was famous locally and was widely believed to be genuine. It was in private ownership but was frequently shown to visitors. By 1839 it had come into the hands of the antiquary George Braikenridge of Brislington, who was said to have bought it for £30. By 1872 it was at Troy House, Mitchel Troy, and its location was reported by William Old to the Royal Historical Society. In 1908 it was auctioned at Christie’s and was bought for 230 guineas by Guy Laking, the royal armourer, bidding on behalf of the king. Four years later the London Museum was set up at Kensington Palace under Laking’s direction and the cradle was given to the museum by George V, where it remains. The cradle is made of oak with two heraldic birds watching over a suspended crib. It is now believed to date from the late 15th century, so is about one hundred years too late to have been used by Henry V, who was born in 1386. In the late 18th century the fashion for visiting country houses was in full swing and many attractive stories and false attributions were invented to interest this first generation of tourists; perhaps the suggestion that the cradle had royal origins was one of these. JOHn FEndLEY and daVId SMITH
22 Fives and west gallery music at Ruardean church
In his Forest of dean history published in 1858 Henry George nicholls, minister of the Forest church at Harrow Hill, indicated that in nearby Ruardean a side of the church tower had been whitewashed for use as a fives court.1 When that was done is not clear but the game in the churchyard may have been discontinued in living memory, perhaps at the latest in the early 19th century. Who or what was responsible for its demise is also unclear but it can be noted that the antiquary Thomas dudley Fosbrooke had a long association with the church following the publication in 1807 of his history of Gloucestershire.2 at the time Ruardean was both an agricultural and industrial parish3 and its church was a dependent chapel of Walford, the Herefordshire parish immediately to its
1. H.G. nicholls, The Forest of Dean; an Historical and Descriptive Account (1858), 152. 2. T.d. Fosbrooke, Abstracts of Records and Manuscripts Respecting the County of Gloucester, Formed into a History (2 vols., Gloucester, 1807). 3. See a.R.J. Jurica, ‘Ruardean’, in The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester (VCH Glos.), V (1996), 231−47.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 230 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 231
north. The Walford living, a vicarage, was in the gift of the precentor of Hereford cathedral and from 1811 until his death in 1842 Fosbrooke served Ruardean church as in turn stipendiary curate and vicar of Walford.4 On Fosbrooke’s death Ruardean church became a separate benefice in the precentor’s gift. Henry Formby, its first incumbent, was an adherent of the Oxford Movement and his ideals soon placed him at odds with parishioners.5 In 1844 he refused to let a friendly society hold its anniversary service in the church on a Friday on the ground that liturgically Friday was a fast day.6 Later that year his objection to the display of secular notices on the church door saw magistrates fine him for removing voter and jury lists.7 Formby, who had an interest in church music, particularly plain chant, moved the choir from the church’s west gallery to the chancel. That change led to a fall in church attendance and prompted a petition for the singers to be returned to the gallery.8 While the playing of fives in the churchyard had presumably stopped by Formby’s time, he clearly sought to end music performances in the gallery during services. The gallery had not long been in place, having been erected in 1776 specifically as accommodation for the singers, and it was removed during a thorough restoration of the church carried out in 1889 and 1890.9 Formby resigned the living at the end of 1845 and became a Roman Catholic soon afterwards.10 JOHn JURICˇ a
25 a riot in Tetbury
Most of the records of the Court of Star Chamber were destroyed by a fire in the Six Clerks’ Office in 1622, but some intriguing documents did survive, among them (in the national archives) STaC 7/4/17, an undated petition of Richard norris, the bailiff of Tetbury. The national archives offers only the date range of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In essence his complaint records that on a market day, which happened to coincide with the annual May day celebrations, he attempted to suppress the usual fun and games because he was concerned that a recent outbreak of plague in the town would spread, due to the crowds. He twice managed to persuade the crowd to disperse, but several named people incited the youth of the town to ignore the bailiff’s proclamation and to go ahead with the celebration. If the bailiff had again tried to stop them he believed he would have been assaulted as the mob included armed men and he had been threatened. So he petitioned for the ringleaders to be subpoenaed to appear before the Court and to be punished for the insurrection. Those named are: George Estcourt, Thomas Bidel, John George the elder, Richard Banner, Richard Farr, Robert Huggins, Robert Bentlat and William Iles. a transcript of the petition is appended to this note.
4. Ibid. 244−5. 5. Ibid. 6. Glouc. Jnl., 13 Jul. 1844. 7. Ibid. 9 nov. 1844. 8. n. Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church I (Cambridge Studies in Music 1983), 256−7. 9. Jurica, ‘Ruardean’, 245. 10. O.W. Jones, Isaac Williams and His Circle (SPCK 1971), 123−4.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 231 09/01/2014 10:41 232 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
as to its date, sadly no list of bailiffs for Tetbury in the reign of Elizabeth has yet been found. The earliest possible year seems likely to have been 157211 and it cannot have been later than 1586 because George Estcourt was chosen bailiff on 7 October that year12 and Richard norris died in december 1588 (his daughter-in-law, Sylvester [sic] Kingscott alias norris, entered a caveat as to probate on 21 december).13 Within this date range the only year when the market day (Wednesday) fell on 3 May, the date given in the petition, is 1581. norris’s stated reason for attempting to cancel the May day celebrations seems plausible. Plague was endemic in England at this time and there had been a serious outbreak in Gloucester in the previous year.14 norris goes out of his way to show that he is not a puritan, describing the event as an honest and laudable pastime, and it is noteworthy that the usual practice was to set up the maypole outside the bailiff’s house, showing that the custom had the sanction of the authorities. as the role of bailiff was an annual appointment this would have meant that the focus of the celebrations was in a different place in the town every year. However it is perhaps worth remarking that his son, Edward, was the vicar at this time, and may have taken a less indulgent view. Edward died in 1583 leaving a posthumous son, another Edward, who became a puritan cleric and emigrated to Salem, Massachusetts. The main organizer of the unlawful assembly was George Estcourt, as evidenced by his being named first onn orris’s list and of the erection of the third and successful maypole outside his house. He was a younger brother of Thomas Estcourt of Shipton Moyne and cousin of Sir Thomas Estcourt.15 He had a reputation as a troublesome neighbour, quick to go to law. He was trying to establish himself as leading inhabitant, already had a lease for 21 years of the market tolls, and later owned nine burgages and much land. Smyth relates at length his later (failed) attempts to gain control of the commons.16 Of the other ringleaders little is known. It is significant that norris does not state that he was actually hurt, only that Richard Banner and others threatened him, and also that no injuries at all are recorded in the petition. as to the long list of weaponry alleged to have been carried by the rioters, this can be taken as common form in a petition of this nature and not as a literal report. For example, it was normal for a gentleman to carry a sword when out in public; this was a symbol of his social status and did not mean that he intended to use it. * * * To our drede soveraigne Ladie the quenes most Excellent Majestie17 In most humble wise sheweth and complayneth unto your most Excellent Majestie your obedient subject and daily orator Richard norrice your // highnes bayly and officer of your Majesties towne of Tedbury in your Majesties countie of gloucester that whereas inhabitants and younge people of // the said towne for the tyme beynge have lately used about the begynnyng of May to assemble themselves together in an honest and laudable // maner and to gather a may pole and
11. Hist. of Tetbury Soc. Jnl. 39, 2-4. 12. Berkeley Castle Mun., GCR 297, f. 7. 13. Glouc. dioc. Rec. (in Glos. archives), R 7/2, p. 495. 14. VCH Glos. IV, 74. 15. For more details about George Estcourt, see Hist. of Tetbury Soc. Jnl. 27, 3–13. 16. J. Smyth, Lives of the Berkeleys, ed. Sir J. Maclean (1883), II, 348–9. 17. Line breaks are shown thus //. abbreviations have been silently extended; capitalization and use of u/v and i/j have been modernized; otherwise the original spelling has been retained.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 232 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 233
bring the same into the said towne with muche gayety and pastime and set the same up alwayes // at the dore of the bayly of the said towne for the tyme beynge, and so use honest and laudable pastyme about the same accordingly // So it is if it may plese your most Excellent Majestie your said orator consydering that the said towne of Tedbury being a great // popeler & a market towne & the plage of pestylence begin to vysyte the said towne in fyve or syx places he by the advyse of // diverse of the most sage substanciall and auncyent inhabitants thereof thought good to restrayne all metynges of youth as muche // as could be convenyently provided, and for that only respect did the third day of May last past forbyd the said assemble of yougth // & the gettyng and settyng uppe of the said maypole after their accustomed manner whereat diverse mysadvised persons of the youthfull // inhabitantes of the said towne were offended & nevertheles in ryotous manner assembled themselves together & then forthwith did fetch // & bring to the said towne a maypole and your said subject caused the same to be cut in sonder and caused the said people to // disperse themselves and this being knowen unto one George Estcourt gentleman Thomas Bedeles John George the Elder Richard Banner // Rychard Farr Robert Huggyns Robert Bentlet & William Iles they of a perverse & froward dysposycyon procured a great number // of youthful people of the same towne the said third daie of May ryotously to assemble themselves together with diverse kind of // unlaufull and warlike wepons and in most ryotus maner in the said towne and eftsones fet a younge tre at a wod dystant thre // myles to the market thereof to make a maypole and were goinge to have sett up the same and your said subject understandynge thereof // mett with them and required them to stay and not to medell any further therein consyderyng that the tyme and season was // daungerous for infeccion of the plage and also consydering that order was taken by him and others of the most worthiest of // the inhabitants there to the contrary whereuppon they were contented to lay downe the said pole and the same was farthwth // Cut in sonder and the people by the perswasion of your said subject were willing to depart without any further doyng theron but notwithstanding // all that if it may plese your highnes the said George Estcourt Thomas Bidel John George thelder Richard Bannar Rychard Farr // Robert Huggins Robert Bentlat and William Iles not regardyng your majesties laws nor offycers in dispit of the said order taken and // comaunded by the advise of the sagest of the said towne the said third day of May stirred up a new multitude of CCC persons which were arrayed with force and // armes that is to say with bills staves swords buckelers daggers and divers other kyndes of wepons both invasyve and defensyve who then and // there assembled themcelves about xj of the clock of the said day at the said towne and then and there contemptuously & routesly in // manner of a rebellyon issued out of the said towne unto a wodd about a myle and more dystant from the said towne and there // felled an other pole which they brought and sett up at the dore of the said George Estcourt one of the chefest of the said rioters and // made such a terrible noys & uprore in manner of a rebellyon that it was not only a great feare and terer to your said subject but // also a great feare and disquieting of all your majesties subjects and inhabitants of the said towne and yet notwithstandyng this your majesties // said subject before the said pole was set up caused a proclamacion to be made and required the said rioteres and other evil disposed // people in your majesties name not to sett up the said pole but to avoyde quietly, and the people there with all were somewhat stayed and // yet eftsones they were forth with sett in most contemptuos and rebellyos manner provoked and set on agayne by the said George Estcourt // & other the resyted ryoters to sett up the said pole and so in contempt of the said proclamacion they ryotously sett up the said may pole to // satisfie their owne plesure and then and there procouered and contynued in a rebellyus manner by the space of one day beying the // market day in the said towne to the gret terror fere and disturbance of your majesties said lyege people & subjects, and the said Richard // Banner and all other the said Ryoters not thus contented but beyng very muche dysplesed with your said subject for because he had caused // proclamacions to be made and wold have stayed their evell mysdemenours &
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 233 09/01/2014 10:41 234 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
myndyng eyther to haue slayne mayhemed or wounded // your majesties said subject and eyther with their accomplyces lye in wayt in the said towne for your said subject as he was goynge about // to do and execute his said office and then and there assauted your said subject and orator so that he durst not goe in the strete // to see good order observed upon the said market day to the great terror and feare of your majesties said subiect and in contempt of your majesties// good and holsom lawes and statutes in such cases provided and to the pernicyous example of other evil disposed persons to comytte the // like offences if condygne punishment and spedy reformacion be not herein spedely provided by your majestie. In tender consyderation thereof // may yt plese your hyghnes to graunt your several writts of subpoena to be dyreccted to the said George Estcourt Thomas Bedell John // George thelder Richard Bannar Rychard Farr Robert huggins Robert Bentlet & William Iles comaundyng them by return // thereof to be and personally appere before your majesties honorable pryvy counsell in your highnes Court of Starchamber then and there // to answer to the premisses &c and your majesties said subject shall according to his bound duety dayly pray unto almytghty God for the // preservation of your majesties royall estate daVId SMITH and JILL BaRLOW
26 The place-name Awre
The name of the parish and village of awre (OS nat. Grid SO 7008) on the west bank of the Severn has been considered difficult. a.H. Smith, in The Place-Names of Gloucestershire (vol. 3: 250–1), shows that it cannot be, as once supposed, from Old English alor ‘alder-tree’. But, despite his efforts to argue the case, the recorded spellings do not support his own explanation that it derives from Old English afor ‘sour’, which is a word otherwise unknown in place-names, but here, according to Smith, applied elliptically to a place that might also have been named using a compound of eg ‘island’ or ea ‘river’. Smith says that a ghost of this element may be visible for the first time as late as two 15th-century spellings (Auerey) in a central government document; but that would be most implausible chronologically. In this note I suggest a source not previously considered, namely Latin augurium ‘augury’ in its secondary sense of ‘fruit of the act of divination; omen, prophecy’, which I have argued in full elsewhere18 is likely to be the source of the Old English word-element eagor-, egor- used in words denoting water phenomena and very likely also meaning ‘(tidal) bore’, and of regional English words deriving from it. This has no obvious Germanic or Celtic etymology. The appropriateness of augurium in this sense as a word for a perplexing natural phenomenon, a tidal bore, in the context of first-millennium Britain, does not need to be emphasized.19 I shall argue that the same word is also the source of Awre. Let us rehearse the philological justification for the basic idea first. Vulgar Latin [au] is rendered by ea in the earliest borrowings into Old English, as in seam ‘burden’ from sauma (itself from earlier sagma) and ceac ‘jug’ from caucus. On the face of it, the English phonetic change called i-umlaut should have turned augurium into Old English *egyr in the anglian (Mercian) dialect, or *iegyr in the West Saxon dialect. But, if borrowed early enough, the word could have escaped
18. R. Coates, ‘The genealogy of eagre “tidal surge in the river Trent”’, English Language and Linguistics 11(3) (2007), 507–23. 19. This would have been a so-called augurium ex diris or ex signis, the default class of natural signs or omens.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 234 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 235
i-umlaut, as for example did [u] in the Kent place-name Reculver (Old English e.g. Reculf, Raculf(e)), from (Romano-)British Regulbium, from which we must assume that [i] in the final syllable was lost in the borrowing process before it could trigger i-umlaut to yield *Recylf.20 There is an alternative to very early borrowing. Augurium was originally heteroclite, that is, its singular and plural participated in two different noun declension types, and it had an alternative plural form augura as well as the normal auguria. We could therefore reckon with a new analogical singular *augurum developing from time to time. The resultant borrowed English form, following either of the possibilities just sketched or even regarding the alternative plural form itself as the source, would, with complete regularity,21 have been West Saxon Old English eagor (anglian/Mercian egor), and this is recorded in two compound words with senses suggesting an extreme maritime phenomenon: egor-here ‘deluge’ and e(a)gor-stream ‘water-stream, sea’, which are formed with here ‘army’ and stream ‘flow, river’. now an additional fact about Vulgar Latin phonology must be considered. a word with the structure of augurium should regularly, at least in some areas of the Empire, appear in Vulgar Latin as *agurium by a well-known process eliminating a sequence of nearly-adjacent [u].22 The Welsh word Awst ‘august’ may (but for technical reasons need not23) show that this process affected a similar word borrowed into British Celtic: Latin augustus, which via *agustus gives Awst.24 The eventual form of another Gloucestershire place-name Aust, which also derives from this word,25 is consistent with a similar development.26 If we assume then that the Severn bore could be referred to as *agurium in the Vulgar Latin spoken in Britain, that allows the interesting supposition that this word-form is the basis of the name Awre.27 Compare agustus: Aust with agurium: Awre (often spelt Aure in Middle English). It cannot be a coincidence that awre, or strictly awre Point in that parish, where the Severn forms a right-angle bend, is precisely the point at which the bore in its strongest manifestations starts to form a breaking wave or head. In fact, this happens at a sandbank in the river close to awre Point called The Noose,28 where the two kings of Severn, ‘duorig habren, id est duo reges Sabrinae’,29 meet to
20. and that borrowing into Old English took place before a similar change in late British Celtic, called final i-affection, had applied in this name. 21. With a technical reservation regarding modern dialect forms which is addressed fully in Coates, ‘Genealogy of eagre’, but not actually relevant here. 22. V. Väänänen, Introducción al Latín Vulgar (Madrid, 1971), 76–7. The Basque general greeting-word agur is believed to derive from precisely this form: R.L. Trask, ‘Some important Basque words (and a bit of culture)’ (1996), accessed online at www.buber.net/Basque/Euskara/Larry/WebSite/basque.words.html. 23. The reasoning of K.H. Jackson, Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh, 1953), 321–3, suggests that if its borrowing into Welsh was early, Augustus might have been expected to yield Modern Welsh *Euwst, or something similar – at any rate something other than Awst. But if its borrowing was late and bookish, it could have yielded Awst as required, via an intermediate form */au. ust/. The *Agustus proposed here, on the other hand, would definitely yieldAwst at all relevant periods.ˈ 24. Jackson, Language and Hist., 93, 433 n. 1. 25. R. Coates, ‘aust and Ingst, Gloucestershire’, in R. Coates and a. Breeze, with a contribution by d. Horovitz, Celtic Voices, English Places (Stamford, 2000), 54–7. 26. aust (OS nat. Grid ST 5789) overlooks the Severn, by a remarkable coincidence opposite the mouth of the Wye, almost exactly at the point at which the first swell of the bore at its maximum may be detected. 27. It is interesting that two more of the very small number of place-names in Britain of ultimately Latin origin overlook the Severn estuary about 13 miles from awre, viz. Aust and Ingst: Coates, ‘aust and Ingst’. 28. From Old English wase ‘mudflat’, with Middle Englishatten ‘at the’ leaving the trace of its final consonant. 29. The text, in Mommsen’s edition, reads: ‘aliud miraculum est duorig habren, id est duo reges sabrinae. quando inundatntur [sic, for inundatur] mare ad sissam in ostium sabrinae, duo cumuli spumarum congregantur
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 235 09/01/2014 10:41 236 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
do battle, according to the list of wonders of Britain appended to some manuscripts of nennius’ 9th-century Historia Britonum (as §§67–74, this being §68). That can easily be interpreted as meaning that the bore proceeds upstream with crested waves at its two extremities, and where the estuary narrows, the western leading edge at its strongest recoils off Hock Cliff in Fretherne on the east bank, and as it reforms collides with the still-advancing eastern edge (Fig. 1).30 *Agurium should yield Proto-Welsh *[aγyr] by a phonetic change in that language called final i-affection, or *[eγyr] by double (iterative) affection.31 a form*agor could be borrowed into Old English from the Proto-Welsh *[aγyr],32 involving a process practically identical with well- understood suffix-substitution,33 which involves substituting -or for -er to suit the raised back of the tongue necessary to form the preceding consonant. It gives us a perfectly good formal source for Awre: it is named from the nennian wonder which occurred, and still occurs, there.34 The alternative Latin form argued for above, namely *a(u)gurum, or its plural *a(u)gura would also provide a perfect source for Awre whether transmitted into Old English from Proto-Welsh or directly from Latin. It would be remarkable for a word meaning ‘omen; bore’ to form the name of an inhabited place without being compounded with a word meaning ‘farm, village’ or the like, and this should be acknowledged. The nottinghamshire place-name Averham is from the dative plural of the Old English word referred to at the beginning of this article,35 meaning in effect ‘at the bores’, and perhaps we should regard Awre as descending through early Welsh from the prepositional type of Latin place-name, perhaps *Ad Agurium ‘at the bore’ or the corresponding plural, equivalent to Averham. Compare other such prepositional names mentioned by Rivet and Smith.36 This discussion shows that Latin *agurium, from augurium or *augurum, can, through early Welsh, be an indirect source for Awre. The Severn bore is sometimes (rarely) visible as a beginning wave around the mouth of the Wye, as noted earlier, but in the most extreme and spectacular conditions the bore head forms as the surge approaches and passes awre Point to break on Hock Cliff. The survival of a Welsh place-name between Severn and Wye in Gloucestershire is rare,
separatim et bellum faciunt inter se in modum arietum et procedit unusquisque ad alterum et collidunt se ad inuicem et iterum secedit alter ab altero et iterum procedunt in unaquaque sissa. hoc faciunt ab initio mundi usque in hodiernum diem.’ (‘another wonder is duorig Habren, that is the two kings of Severn, when the sea is flooded at the spring tide in the Severn estuary, two mounds of foam gather separately and fight like rams and each goes and crashes into the other and they part again one from the other and approach again at every spring tide. They have been doing this from the beginning of the world till today.’ – RC.): T. Mommsen (ed.), Chronica Minora III (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, auctores antiquissimi 13, Berlin, 1894–8), 111–22. See also J. Morris (ed. and tr.), Nennius: British History and The Welsh Annals (Chichester, 1980), 40, 81. 30. The scenario just described is amply reported in published accounts of the bore, e.g. www.tidalbore. info/england/severn_wonder.html (accessed 19/12/2012). What I have written may be seen as presuming unchanging conditions in the river, but it is known that the main and subsidiary channels have varied in position (see e.g. VCH Glos. V, under awre) and this does not invalidate the essentials of the case made. 31. Jackson, Language and Hist., 591–2. 32. The letter
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 236 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 237
but we can point to Lancaut and Stroat37 near Chepstow, possibly the first element ofYartleton and York Hill,38 and the commemoration of a Welsh saint in St Briavels and in St Triak’s/ Twrog’s/ Tecla’s Chapel in Beachley.39 RICHaRd COaTES
Fig. 1. The Severn estuary, showing the position of awre Point, Hock Cliff (at Fretherne) and The noose (mudbank in the river where it widens downstream of Fretherne).
37. Stroat, from Latin strata ‘(paved) road’, appears with a vowel otherwise unknown in this word in Old English, which gives modern street. This vowel appears to be from a Proto-Welsh *stro˛ d (from the same Latin source); cf. a.H. Smith, The Place-Names of Gloucestershire, III (Surv. of Eng. Place-names 40, Cambridge, 1964), 265. 38. Smith, Place-Names of Glos., III, 192, 228. 39. Ibid. 265.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 237 09/01/2014 10:41 238 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 27 The priest chairs of St nicholas, Gloucester
during the middle ages Gloucester had at least 11 parish churches. Today remains of only five survive. One of these is the redundant church of St nicholas. as the medieval churches were closed it was not uncommon to distribute some of their contents to other churches. amongst the items that have migrated between churches in Gloucester are pews, lecterns, monuments, candlesticks, plate, an organ and a lectern. Undoubtedly there are many more similar articles the provenance and historical context of which have been lost. St nicholas benefited from such closures, according to Rudge, by acquiring items. He states when Holy Trinity was destroyed in 1699, ‘the bells, seats, and other things … were removed to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, to Taynton, St nicholas and other places’.40 Contrariwise when St nicholas was closed it suffered the opposite fate. The organ and plate were acquired by the nearby church of St Mary de Lode, with which St nicholas was united in a single benefice in 1951. St nicholas was closed in 1967 and is now vested in the Churches Conservation Trust. On the west wall of the south aisle of St nicholas there is an example of Jacobean carving dating to c.1621. It is described in The Buildings of England series as ‘good oak Jacobean panelling’.41 The panelling is the remains of the front of a gallery that once extended across the nave. The gallery was cut down during refurbishment in 1865 and placed in the tower. Subsequently it was moved during the strengthening of the tower to its present position. When the gallery was shortened to fit into the tower two panels which were superfluous were used to form the backs of priest chairs. according to the church guide of 1914 they used to be in the chancel on either side of the Holy table. They are no longer in the church. due to the close relationship with St Mary de Lode all the chairs in this church were examined. Two chairs were identified which appeared to be strong candidates for the missing priest chairs. The backs of the chairs and the gallery panels were subsequently compared photographically.
40. T. Rudge, The History and Antiquities of Gloucester (London, 1811), 335. 41. d. Verey and a. Brooks, The Buldings of England: Gloucestershire, II (2002).
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 238 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 239
The photographs show two adjacent panels from the right of the five remaining in St nicholas bracketed by the two priest chairs from St Mary de Lode. The similarity is striking. It is evident that they must have originated from the same source. not only are the designs on the backs of the chairs almost identical to the panels they also contain similar pilasters including the protruding capitals. On enquiring it was found that there is an oral memory in St Mary de Lode that the chairs had originated from St nicholas, but the age and significance of their backs were not known. It seems likely that St Mary de Lode acquired the chairs when St nicholas was closed. Undoubtedly the provenance and significance of many of the items no longer in their original churches have been lost. To preserve their continuity it is important that the relevance of items such as the priest chairs should be recorded, especially where they are of historical or artistic significance. now visitors to two medieval churches in Gloucester have the opportunity to examine beautiful examples of Jacobean carving and to appreciate their relationship. ROBERT TUCKER
28 Garter Bigland’s Funeral
On Thursday 8 april 1784, the west door of Gloucester cathedral was opened to receive the funeral procession of Ralph Bigland, lately Garter Principal King of arms. Garter Bigland had died at his lodgings in the College of arms on Saturday 27 March 1784 and before his body left London a service had taken place. The minister of ‘St Bennett’s Wharfe’ – the church of St Benet, Paul’s Wharf, was the church of the College of arms – had been provided with a ‘rich armageor silk scarf’ for the occasion; he was probably the rector, Revd Edmund Gibson. Bigland’s body had been transported to Frocester, where it had lain in state before being taken to Gloucester. at the cathedral door, the cortège was met by the precentor and gentlemen of the choir. a procession was formed led by two conductors who were followed by the choristers, the ‘singing men’, and then the precentor. Two members of the clergy, friends of Garter Bigland, followed, with a man bearing the plume of feathers behind them, and after him four more clergy in mourning cloaks. The Messenger of the College of arms came next bearing Garter Bigland’s embroidered robe of office, the collar of S.S., sceptre and coronet on a velvet cushion. Then came ‘THE BOdY’. For the six pall bearers, all described as gentlemen, the weight of the coffin must have been considerable. Ralph Bigland’s body, wrapped in a ‘large superfine shroud sheet’ with a cap and pillow for the head, had been placed in a ‘large, strong oak coffin, the sap all got out’. It was lined and ruffed with fine crepe with a mattress of similar material. The coffin was then placed inside a ‘Strong Leaden Coffin’ which was very thick and heavy and well soldered with a ‘Head Plate of Inscription’. The whole was then enclosed in a ‘large strong oak case the sap all got out’. It was covered in black cloth held with two rows of brass nails and ornamented with ‘Brass angel Ornaments’; the four pairs of handles were ‘Large Brass Gloria Big Handles with wrought grips all finely lacquered’. It was described as being ‘adorned with the escutcheons of the arms of the deceased impaled with those of the Order of the Garter’. Then followed the mourners, the procession moving to the choir where the coffin was placed with Garter Bigland’s insignia thereon. The service included an anthem and was conducted by the
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 239 09/01/2014 10:41 240 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
precentor. at its conclusion, he led the procession to the north aisle where the burial took place. The description of the funeral42 was possibly written by Robert Raikes, junior, who owned and edited the paper and was very involved in county literary matters. It was he surely who wrote: ‘we sincerely hope that the world will not be deprived of the large and valuable collections of the monumental inscriptions &c. relative to this county made by the above gentleman’. after an incredibly long and difficult period of gestation, Bigland’s Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections, relative to the County of Gloucester were eventually published, the most complete set being those published in the Society’s Record Series between 1989 and 1995. The details of the funeral come from a handwritten note of fairly recent origin which was probably copied from an earlier manuscript.43 It is clear that the copy is faulty and is even headed ‘To the Funeral of Robert [sic] Bigland …’ There are 22 sums of money listed which amount to about £60; it is unsigned. There are still several puzzles relating to Garter Bigland’s funeral which remain unsolved. In 1903, the Society met at Gloucester for its annual general meeting and, as was customary at that period, a ‘loan collection’ was established in a ‘temporary museum’. among the exhibits was Ralph Bigland’s robes as Garter and the bill of his funeral expenses, a list of 51 items valued in total at £224 6s. They were lent by the Misses Hayward of Eastington.44 In 1956 Irvine Gray noted that some of Ralph Bigland’s possessions were then in the possession of descendants of the Hayward family, including the Garter robes, but there was no mention of the account of funeral expenses.45 Brian Frith, in his introduction to the Society’s publication of the Collections, noted that the funeral had cost £224 6s., but provided no reference. In his notes, however, is a quotation attributed to ‘P.E. Prince’s ‘Bigland Letters p. 79’, which reads: Received June the 28th 1785. The Sum of Two Twenty Four Pounds Six Shillings of Mr Richard Bigland in full for the funeral charges of Ralph Bigland Esq. and all demands. William Lyne £224.6s. 46 (Frith attributed the original transcript from Prince’s dossier of Bigland notes to ROL G3, a reference which has so far escaped identification.) Here one wonders what ‘all demands’ include, particularly as the payment was the equivalent of £14,000 today. Certainly there may well have been other expenses such as payments to the cathedral choristers. The charge of £2 made by the cathedral chapter for the burial is not included; a sum which had been first introduced in October 1617.47 and we do not know how much his monument in the north aisle of the cathedral cost, or when and by whom it was erected. Even so, one wonders whether this was not a final payment for the settlement of Ralph Bigland’s estate and not just an account of his funeral expenses. Was William Lyne an attorney acting for Richard Bigland as sole executor of his father’s will perhaps? The settlement was over a year since the funeral had taken place. Perhaps someone knows of the location of the longer, original list of funeral expenses. When found it might solve several of the queries surrounding Garter Bigland’s funeral. HUW JOnES (1932–2012)
42. Glouc. Jnl., 12 apr. 1784. 43. Ga, d 9340. 44. anon., ‘Proceedings at the annual Summer Meeting at Gloucester’, Trans. BGAS 26 (1903), 74. 45. I. Gray, ‘Ralph Bigland and his family’, Trans. BGAS 75 (1956), 133. 46. Ga, d 9913, Frith: Research notes, Box 8 of 10. 47. S. Eward, No Fine But A Glass Of Wine: cathedral life at Gloucester in Stuart times (1985), 4.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 240 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 241 28 Eastington in domesday Book
no domesday entry has been allocated for Eastington near Stroud, although its history from 1092 onwards provides clear indications of where one should be sought. In 1316, it lay in Whitstone hundred, and was held by Hugh audley in right of his wife, whose first husband had been Walter de Ballon of Much Marcle (Herefs.).48 Walter had held Eastington as one knight’s fee within the barony of Roger de Moels, whose father had married a coheiress of James de neufmarché of dyrham (Glos.) and north Cadbury (Somerset). The fee had been held by John de Ballon of Much Marcle in 1227, and was represented in the carta of Henry de neufmarché in 1166 by the fee granted out of demesne after 1135 to Matthew de Ballon.49 In 1092 the tithes of Eastington had been given to Bermondsey abbey by Henry’s grandfather, Winebald de Ballon, who presumably held the manor in demesne.50 Henry’s barony comprised all the manors (except those in Herefordshire) held in 1086 by Turstin fitz Rolf and his nephew, William fitz Guy,51 so it is amongst these entries in domesday Book that we should expect to find Eastington. neither William nor Turstin held anything in Whitstone hundred in 1086, but Turstin did have two manors in the hundred of Blachelaue, which by 1220 had been absorbed into that of Whitstone.52 One manor was Fretherne, and it has been assumed that Eastington was included unnamed among its three hides.53 The other manor was Stantone, which has hitherto been identified as King’s Stanley.54 Both suggestions are attended by serious problems. Firstly, the three hides, valued at 30s., which domesday allots to Fretherne, leave no room for the inclusion of a manor which was to be enfeoffed as a whole knight’s fee by 1166. apart from its being separated from Eastington by Frampton on Severn, Fretherne is fully accounted for as part
48. H.C.M. Lyte (ed.), Feudal Aids 1284–1431, II (London, 1900), 266; G.E.Cockayne, Complete Peerage, I (2nd edn., London, 1910), 347. 49. I.J. Sanders, English Baronies: a study of their origin and development (Oxford, 1960), 66, 68; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, II (HMSO, 1906), no. 119; Book of Fees, I (HMSO, 1920), 439; E.a. Fry (ed.), A Calendar of the Feet of Fines relating to the County of Wiltshire, 1195–1272 (Wilts. archaeol. and nat. Hist. Soc., devizes, 1930), 14–15; C.R. Elrington (ed.), Abstracts of Feet of Fines relating to Gloucestershire, 1199– 1299 (Glos. Rec. Ser. 16, BGaS 2003), nos. 213–14, which inexplicably gives the place as ‘Taynton’, reading Tainton, although The national archives, CP 25(1)/250/5/19 and 283/9/52–3 quite clearly have Estinton. Matthew was evidently a junior member of the Much Marcle family, whose head in 1166, William fitz Reginald, also appears in then eufmarché carta holding a fee (at Sutton Veny, Wilts.), whose lordship was uncertain: H. Hall, The Red Book of the Exchequer, I (Rolls Ser., 1896), 297; J.H. Round, Studies in Peerage and Family History (London, 1901), 194–210. 50. H.R. Luard (ed.), Annales Monastici, III (Rolls Ser., 1866), 427. 51. Sanders, Engl. Baronies, 68. For the relationship between Turstin and William, see n.E. Stacy (ed.), Cartae Baronum (Pipe Roll Soc., forthcoming), no. CXV note. 52. Smith, Place-Names of Glos., II, 174. 53. VCH Glos. X, 127; a. Farley (ed.), Domesday Book, seu Liber Censualis Willelmi Primi Regis Angliae, I (London, 1783), 169bii; J.S. Moore (ed.), Domesday Book, Gloucestershire (Chichester, 1982), no. 67/7. 54. Smith, Place-Names of Glos., II, 199; VCH Glos. X, 245; H.C. darby and G.R. Versey, Domesday Gazetteer (Cambridge, 1975), 153; Moore, Domesday Book, Glos., no. 67/6; a. Williams (ed.), The Gloucestershire Domesday (alecto, London, 1989), 60; J.S. Moore, ‘The Gloucestershire section of domesday Book: geographical problems of the text, part 4’, Trans. BGAS 108 (1990), 120–1.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 241 09/01/2014 10:41 242 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
of the fee of two knights held of neufmarché in 1166 by William of Fretherne.55 Secondly, the identification of Stantone as King’s Stanley is etymologically improbable: its neighbour, Leonard Stanley, appears as Stanlege, as does Stanley Pontlarge in the north of the county.56 Moreover, King’s Stanley was in the king’s hand between 1160 and 1188.57 Why, alone of the Gloucestershire lands of Turstin fitz Rolf and William fitz Guy, should King’s Stanley have escheated to the Crown, while all the rest passed via Winebald de Ballon to the neufmarchés? a much stronger candidate for identification as King’s Stanley is that part of the neighbouring royal manor of Woodchester which lay in Blachlaue hundred (whereas the rest of Woodchester was in Longtree), and which in 1086 was held, beneficially hidated as one hide (valued at £5), by Brihtric as a king’s thegn.58 Stantone, with its five hides valued at £5, is thus left as a candidate for Eastington, a candidacy strengthened if we accept that in 1086 the Exchequer scribe made a rare mistake. When observed presenting data from the Liber Exoniensis, he is seen to omit the prosthetic E frequently used before s by his source.59 This policy, presumably adopted throughout the Exchequer volume, carried with it the risk of dropping an initial E which was not prosthetic. This seems to have happened once in the Shropshire folios,60 and the error was almost certainly replicated in the case of Eastington, whose domesday data can now be removed from the history of King’s Stanley, and attributed to their proper location: Estantone. nEIL STaCY
QUERIES
30 a 19th-century inscription at Hanham abbots
From the 16th century onwards owners of some large houses flaunted their status and education by affixing a plaque inscribed with a Latin tag.a t dyrham, for example, the Blathwayt owner invited visitors HIS UTERE MECUM – share my enjoyment – albeit not on the front elevation where all visitors would see it, but on the west-facing rear façade overlooking the garden, where only those already admitted to the house would read it. at Stoke Park in Stoke Gifford, norborne
55. The rest of this fee comprised Childrey (Berks. [8 hides]) and north Cheriton (Somerset [2 hides]): Book of Fees, I, 439; II, 851, 861; E.a. Fry (ed.), Inquisitiones Post Mortem for Gloucestershire, V (Brit. Rec. Soc., 1910), 155; Farley, Domesday Book, I, 63ai, 97bii. 56. Farley, Domesday Book, I, 163bi, 168aii; Moore, Domesday Book, Glos., nos. 1/33, 43/2. 57. Pipe Roll, 1159–60 (Pipe Roll. Soc. 2, 1884), 29, and subsequent rolls; n. Vincent, J.C. Holt and J. Everard (eds.), The Acta of Henry II (Oxford, forthcoming), no. 2763. 58. Farley, Domesday Book, I, 164aii, 170bi; Moore, Domesday Book, Glos., nos. 1/63, 78/14. This identification would clarify the future history of Brihtric’s manor: cf. Moore, ‘Glos. section of domesday Book, part 4’, 125. 59. O. von Feilitzen, The Pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book (nomina Germanica 3, Uppsala, 1937), 9. 60. Farley, Domesday Book, I, 254aii; F. and C. Thorne (eds.), Domesday Book, Shropshire (Chichester,1986), no. 4/3/11, where Easthope appears as Stope; cf. M. Gelling and H.d.G. Foxall, The Place-Names of Shropshire, I (Engl. Place-name Soc. 62–3, 1990), 113–14.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 242 09/01/2014 10:41 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES 243
Berkeley’s text was MIHI VOBISQUE – for me and for you – perhaps also intended to convey an impression of the owner’s generous hospitality, at any rate to those polite visitors with enough education to understand it. In a different vein is the stone set high up on the side elevation of Riverside Cottages in what is now the parish of Hanham abbots, once part of Bitton. The terrace used to be known as Couch’s Rank. John Couch, chapelwarden at St George’s, Hanham abbots, owned a quarry which was open from 1819 to 1839, operated barges to carry stone, let land and brewed beer. He was literate: he kept a ledger and a diary, both in private ownership. at the rear of the Cottages Couch’s own house has a datestone inscribed J COUCH 1840, with masonic symbols. Couch died in 1864, aged 90. The Latin inscription reads:
STULTI adIFICE dOMI PRO SaPIEnS POPULUS VIVERE
Local tradition translates that as ‘The foolish build for sacrifice for wise people to enjoy life’. The Latin, however, is ungrammatical nonsense. STULTI, adjective or adjectival noun (stupid) could be genitive singular or nominative plural. adIFICE looks like ablative singular of a noun adIFEX, a form of aEdIFEX (builder) but found only in late Latin, e.g. Tertullian. dOMI looks like a dative singular (at home), but as dOMUS can be second or fourth declension, it could be a genitive singular or a nominative plural. PRO looks like a preposition (for) but normally takes the ablative. SaPIEnS POPULUS is nominative singular (wise people), so ought to be the subject of the sentence, but VIVERE, the only verb (to live) is in the infinitive. The words do not scan into any known classical verse form. They are not a quotation from any known classical text. Heraldic mottos often omit words (as does the University of Bristol’s, whose alumni are expected to know that according to Horace (Carmina 4.4.33) it is doctrina that promovet the vim insitam, assuming there is any there in the first place), but it is difficult to insert words so as convert the inscription into a line of grammatical, let alone understandable, text. Original inscriptions often contain abbreviations, as do medieval manuscripts and modern mobile telephone texting, but it is not possible to insert letters to make the inscription make sense. Several possibilities spring to mind: 1. It was deliberate cod nonsense, intended humorously, somewhat like the later nIL CaRBORUndUM. 2. Couch dictated the wording and knew a little Latin, but not enough to make sense or to express what he wanted to say. 3. Ignorant of Latin, Couch commissioned the inscription from a mason of limited Latinity. 4. Ignorant of Latin, Couch commissioned the inscription, and the Latin-literate mason mischievously carved nonsense knowing that, as the stone was so high up, few would read it, and if anyone did, few would puzzle over a translation, and certainly not Couch.
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 243 09/01/2014 10:41 244 BRISTOL and GLOUCESTERSHIRE nOTES and QUERIES
5. Couch may have relied on some local savant such as the incumbent or schoolmaster, who did not know enough Latin to make sense. 6. The words are of some Masonic significance. 7. Couch knew enough Latin to concoct an inscription that he knew would puzzle antiquarians and generate ferocious debate within organisations such as archaeological societies. From context, the words might be a clumsy attempt at ‘Houses of a silly builder for wise people to live in’, but that would require something along the lines of STULTI aEdIFICIS dOMI (or dOMUS) UT SaPIEnTES HaBITaREnT. Pretentious nonsense, whimsical joke or Masonic esoterics? WILLIaM EVanS
229-244_BGAS131_Notes&Queries.indd 244 09/01/2014 10:41