VIII.—The Last Testament and Inventory of John de Veer, thirteenth Earl of Oxford

William H. St. John Hope

doi:10.1017/S0261340900008420

VIII.—The Last Testament and Inventory of John de Veer, thirteenth Earl of Oxford

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

William H. St. John Hope

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The last testament and inventory of John de Veer, the thirteenth earl of Oxford, are documents of their class of more than usual interest and importance: firstly, by reason of the nature of their contents; and secondly, because the testator was a man of great wealth and high social standing. He was consequently the possessor of many beautiful and valuable things; and though, alas, not one of them is now known to exist, their appearances and characteristics are vividly brought before us in the descriptions set down in the inventory of the earl's effects.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 66 , 1915 , pp. 275 - 348

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900008420 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1915

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^{page 275 note 1} The documents that form the subject of this paper were first brought to my notice through the many extracts from them printed by the Rev. Severne A. Ashhurst Majendie in an interesting little book, entitled Some Account of the Family of De Vere, the Earls of Oxford, and of Hedingham Castle in Essex, published by him in 1904. These extracts were made from a manuscript volume of transcripts of documents relating to the Veers collected by the late Mr. Lewis Majendie which has been most kindly lent me by his daughter-in-law Mrs. James Majendie, and from it the texts of both testament and inventory, with her permission, have been set up in type and subsequently collated by myself with the originals. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking not only Mrs. Majendie, but the Rev. Severne Majendie for his kind help in many ways.

^{page 275 note 2} The Earl calls himself and his forbear Aubrey ‘de Veer’, but his brother, uncle, and other kinsmen named in the will are called simply ‘Veer’.

^{page 276 note 1} ii Fettiplace.

^{page 276 note 2} Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. iv, ff. 70–103Google Scholar.

^{page 278 note 1} That is, with vertical stripes.

^{page 278 note 2} Described in the inventory as ‘Iron to stryke fire’.

^{page 278 note 3} A portiforium, porthos, or breviary; a book containing the services for the Hours in a form which the priest could carry abroad.

^{page 278 note 4} A cowcher seems to have been the name for any service book, such as a mass-book or antiphoner, which had to lie upon a desk on account of its large size.

^{page 278 note 5} Described in the inventory as ‘A greate Crosse ennamyled on bothe sydes w^t the iiij Evaungelistes pozo all w^t the tymber and the pyn of Iron lxiij oz. wherof the silver wayeth by estimation xlij oz.’, and valued at £7.

^{page 278 note 6} In the inventory a paten is included, and both are entered as of silver all gilt.

^{page 279 note 1} This is the rubric towards the end of the Benedidio salts et aquae which was done before the Sunday procession that preceded high mass.

^{page 279 note 2} Sarcenet was a silk stuff first made by the Saracens, probably in Spain.

^{page 279 note 3} A ‘pair of vestments’ (a term used in the testament only) probably means an albe and an amice with their apparels, a girdle, stole, and fanon, as well as the chasuble or vestment itself.

^{page 279 note 4} Counterfeit stones made of coloured paste seem to have been used very largely, even for the ornamentation of quite precious objects or pieces of plate. Cf. the description of the jewelled ouches and other portions of the mitre of William of Wykeham, Archaeologia, lx, 473, 474Google Scholar.

^{page 280 note 1} The cathedral church of Amiens still possesses as a most precious relic the front part of a human skull, brought thither from the East in 1206, and reputed to be part of the head of St. John Baptist. See Archaeologia, lii, 672Google Scholar, for a fuller account and description of the relic.

^{page 280 note 2} This does not seem to be noted in the inventory.

^{page 281 note 1} Buckram or bokeram was a kind of coarse linen cloth.

^{page 281 note 2} The inventory describes this as ‘a crosse w^t a foote silver and gilt w^t a vice in the bothom and Images enamilid in the tabernacles under the sokett’.

^{page 281 note 3} In the inventory these spouts are described as ‘ravonbilles’.

^{page 281 note 4} An antiphoner was a book of anthems used in the hour-services; the grayle or graduate contained the musical portions of the altar service; the processioner orprocessionale contained the procession services; and the legenda or legend the long lessons read at mattins.

^{page 281 note 5} Pottle pots were probably vessels capable of holding a pottle or liquid measure of half a gallon.

^{page 282 note 1} A broche here was probably a spike or pricket to set a candle on.

^{page 282 note 2} A sperver or sparver was a complete set of hangings for a four-poster bed, and included the tester or head part, the celour, celer, or seler overhead, the side and foot curtains, the valance, and sometimes the counterpoint or quilt as well. A bed often had only a tester and a celer, with or without side curtains. A trussing-bed was a portable one used in travelling.

^{page 282 note 3} Verdure was perhaps a kind of baize; it was made at Bocking and elsewhere in Essex.

^{page 283 note 1} Fustians were sheets made of coarse linen.

^{page 283 note 2} A garnish of pewter was a set of vessels of that metal for table use, and included twelve platters, twelve dishes, and as many saucers.

^{page 283 note 3} The broches here were spits.

^{page 285 note 1} A root of a tree was the badge of John duke of Bedford. His seal as regent of France (1422–35) has an eagle standing with one leg upon the root or stock of a tree and holding in the other claw a shield of the duke's arms. Possibly this ‘bedde of Roottes’ had once been his.

^{page 286 note 1} Described in the inventory as ‘Item ij Botelles silver parcell gilt w^t cheynes to bere them with xx po viij o di le o iijs. ijd. Summa xxvij li. xijs. ijd.’

^{page 288 note 1} Any large chest was called a standard.

^{page 289 note 1} Crane-coloured, of ashy grey like a crane's feathers.

^{page 290 note 1} Or vessel for heating water.

^{page 290 note 2} The long spirally-twisted tusk of a narwhal.

^{page 290 note 3} ‘Pro factura 10 Torgez et 12 Tortettes ac 14 Brochez.’ Bursar's Roll, 1507—8, Durham Account Rolls (Surtees Soc.), 659.

^{page 291 note 1} Most of the objects described in this list are referred to in Lord Dillon's paper on ‘Arms and Armour at Westminster, the Tower, and Greenwich, 1547’, in Archaeologia, li, 219–80Google Scholar.

^{page 291 note 2} The missing apostles are Matthew, Matthias, and James Minor. Similar series of ‘images gilt’, but in greater number, and with like descriptions of the emblems, occur in the inventories of King Henry VIII.

^{page 292 note 1} Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. ii, part 2, p. 1470Google Scholar.

^{page 292 note 2} From ‘King Henry VIII's Jewel Book’, edited by the Rt. Rev. Edward bishop suffragan of Nottingham, in Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers for 1891, vol. xvii, 181Google Scholar.

^{page 292 note 3} MS. cxxix, fo. 42.

^{page 293 note 1} One of these censers was left to Lady Oxford, and another to Colne priory.

^{page 295 note 1} It was, of course, exceeded greatly in value by the wonderful jewelled collar of SS made for King Henry IV in 1407 at a cost of £385 6s. 8d.

^{page 295 note 2} At the reception outside Calais of the Lady Anne of Cleves in December 1539, it is noted of William earl of Southampton, who was then high admiral of England and Wales, etc. that ‘baudrickwise he ware a chayne, at the whych did hange a whistle of golde set with ryche stones of a great value’. Edward Hall, The Union etc. p. 832.

^{page 297 note 1} The egg was, of course, that of an ostrich and not of a griffin.

^{page 297 note 2} A callack or collock was apparently a tub-shaped vessel. ‘Unam peciam coopertam vocatam le collok’ occurs in a will of 1437 (Test. Ebor. ii, 61Google Scholar).

^{page 297 note 3} Representations of the signs of the months were very popular; see Archaeologia, xliv, 137–224Google Scholar

^{page 297 note 4} A leyer was a laver or jug.

^{page 298 note 1} A pair of snuffers.

^{page 298 note 2} The use of forks ‘to eate grene gynger with all’ was a common one according to English inventories; see Archaeologia, xxxviii, 361Google Scholar, note a.

^{page 298 note 3} It is uncertain what these were for.

^{page 298 note 4} A set of ivory goblets such as these is unusual.

^{page 299 note 1} Standard silver at the present time averages from 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ounce: standard gold from about £3 18s. or 78s-. per ounce. Pure gold is £4. 5s. per ounce.

^{page 300 note 1} The very unusual ‘Image of o^r Lady w^t the trinitie in hir wombe’ had its parallel in the monastical church of Durham, wherein there was kept, according to Rites, over the middle altar in the south transept called the Lady of Bolton's altar:

a merveylous lyvelye and bewtifull Immage of the picture of our Ladie socalled the Lady of boultone, whiche picture was maide to open with gymeres from her breaste downdward. And w^thin y^e said immage was wrowghte and pictured the Immage of our saviour [sic] merveylouse fynlie gilted houldinge uppe his handes, and holding betwixt his handes a fair & large crucifix of christ all of gold, the whiche Crucifix was to be taiken fourthe every good fridaie, and every man did crepe unto it that was in y^t churche as that Daye. And ther after yt was houng upe againe within the said immage and every principall Daie the said immage was opened that every man might se pictured within her, the father, the sonne, and the holy ghost, moste curiouslye and fynely gilted. Rites of Durham (Surtees Soc., 107), 30.

^{page 302 note 1} If the first piece hung at the back of a dais, the 6½ yards at the opposite end of the room, the two 3½ yards at the ends of the dais, and the 8 yards, and the 4½ yards with the 3¼ yards, along the sides, they would just cover the walls of a hall about 35 feet long and 20 feet wide.

^{page 304 note 1} Brit. Mus., Harley charter 57. c. ix. This has for counterseal a signet of the earl bearing his badge of the calygreyhound. Another impression of this signet is used to seal another deed of the same year (1466), Addl. Charter 30,421.

^{page 305 note 1} A fine and perfect impression is appended to Brit. Mus. Addl. Charter 989 of the year 1496, while Addl. Chr. 16,572 of the year 1509 has a fragment of the same seal.

^{page 307 note 1} MS. iv, f. 124.

^{page 308 note 1} It was used by the fifteenth earl as one of his supporters, and is finely shown on his monumental slab of black marble in Castle Hedingham church (Archaeological Journal, xviii, facing p. 89Google Scholar).

^{page 309 note 1} The same beast appears again on the monument at Castle Hedingham of the fifteenth earl as his sinister supporter.

^{page 310 note 1} Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 11 Fettiplace.

^{page 312 note 1} Woburn is actually in Bedfordshire.

^{page 312 note 2} The houses of religion referred to by the earl, with their reputed founders and dates of foundation, were: Woburn Abbey (Beds.), Hugh Bolebec, 1145; Stratford Langthorne (Middlesex), William de Montfitchet, 1135 (or the nunnery at Stratford-at-Bow, also in Middlesex); Hatfield Broadoak Priory (Essex), Aubrey de Veer, c. 1135; Oxford Blackfriars, Isabel Bolebec, widow of Robert earl of Oxford, 1221; Cambridge Blackfriars, Alice widow of Robert earl of Oxford, before 1275; St. Osithe's Abbey (Essex), Richard bishop of London, temp. Hen. I; Swaffham Bulbeck Nunnery (Cambs.), a Bolebec, late twelfth century; Hedingham Nunnery (Essex), Aubrey de Veer, late twelfth century; Ickleton Nunnery (Cambs.), ? Aubrey de Veer, 1190; Thremhale Priory (Essex), Gilbert de Montfitchet, mid twelfth century; Blackborough Nunnery (Norfolk), Roger de Scales, c. 1150; Bromehill Priory (Norfolk), Hugh de Plaiz, c. 1224; Lynn Whitefriars (Norfolk), Lord Bardolf, temp. Hen. III; Blackmore Priory (Essex), John de Sandford, late twelfth century; Royston Priory (Herts.), Ralph of Rochester, c. 1184; Medmenham Abbey (Bucks.), Hugh Bolebec, c. 1200; Hempton Priory (Norfolk), Roger de Sancto Martino, temp. Hen. I.

Colne Priory (Essex) was founded by Godfrey de Veer about 1100; and St. John's Abbey at Colchester by Eudo called Dapifer, temp. Hen. I.

^{page 317 note 1} Sic; but query for yefte = gift.

^{page 320 note 1} Public Record Office, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. iv, ff. 70–103.

^{page 321 note 1} Fustians, sheets made of coarse linen.

^{page 321 note 2} Bustians, sheets of cotton twill.

^{page 321 note 3} Counterpoint, a quilted cover for a bed.

^{page 321 note 4} Gripe, a griffin.

^{page 321 note 5} Herensewe, a young heron or hernshaw.

^{page 322 note 1} Arais, arras, tapestry made at Arras in Artois. Counterfeit arras was an imitation.

^{page 322 note 2} Canvas, coarse unbleached hempen or linen cloth.

^{page 322 note 3} Bery = Bury St. Edmunds.

^{page 322 note 4} On the stall-plate of John Bourchier lord Berners, K.G., 1459–74, the mantling is of red with gold billets and of white with black water-bougets and Bourchier knots. White and red were apparently the Bourchier colours.

^{page 323 note 1} A fabric of silk, worsted, or wool, originally made at Dornick, otherwise Tournay, in Flanders.

^{page 323 note 2} Andirons, fire-dogs.

^{page 323 note 3} A hale was a long tent used in the field.

^{page 323 note 4} A chafer was a vessel for heating water, or a saucepan.

^{page 323 note 5} A portable or travelling bed.

^{page 323 note 6} Corset, corslet, defensive body armour.

^{page 323 note 7} Defences for the arms and shoulders; see Archaeologia, li, 259Google Scholar.

^{page 323 note 8} Ibid. 260.

^{page 323 note 9} Ibid. 237, 238.

^{page 324 note 1} Bourde alisaunder, bord-Alexander, a kind of striped silk made at Alexandria.

^{page 325 note 1} My lord's word or motto was En dieu est tout.

^{page 325 note 2} Probably the story of the meek and patient Grissell or Griselda immortalized by Boccaccio and Petrarch, and by Dan Geoffrey Chaucer in ‘The Clerk's Tale’.

^{page 325 note 3} Chafer, a vessel for heating water.

^{page 326 note 1} The twisted tusk of a narwhal was looked upon as the horn of an unicorn

^{page 327 note 1} Pair of beads, a rosary, or pair of paternosters.

^{page 328 note 1} Portatives were small portable organs.

^{page 329 note 1} Bollions, bullions (N. E. D.), knobs or bosses of metal.

^{page 330 note 1} Fane, a banner-shaped vane.

^{page 330 note 2} Chafing-dish, a vessel for holding live charcoal.

^{page 330 note 3} Bruges.

^{page 330 note 4} Chace, a groove or hollow.

^{page 330 note 5} Pounced.

^{page 330 note 6} Bayles, hoop handles.

^{page 331 note 1} Balace, balas, a balas-ruby.

^{page 332 note 1} Safres, sapphires.

^{page 332 note 2} Disser, desour, disard, a jester or fool.

^{page 333 note 3} Sic, but query for ‘cover ’.

^{page 334 note 1} Downright, right down, vertical or straight.

^{page 334 note 2} A gryppe's, gripe's, or griffin's egg was actually the egg of an ostrich.

^{page 334 note 3} Callak, collok, apparently a tub-shaped vessel.

^{page 335 note 1} Leyer, a laver or jug.

^{page 335 note 2} Perys, query pears, pear-shaped.

^{page 335 note 3} Ivy = ivory.

^{page 335 note 4} Vernacle, the imprint of our Lord's face on St. Veronica's handkerchief.

^{page 336 note 1} A vessel made of maple wood. See a paper on ‘The English medieval drinking bowls called Mazers’ in Archaeologia, 1, 129–93.

^{page 336 note 2} A drinking bowl or pot made of wood.

^{page 337 note 1} Assay.

^{page 337 note 2} Serpentine, a dark-green ornamental spotted stone found in Cornwall.

^{page 338 note 1} Ivy = ivory.

^{page 339 note 1} Bawdekyn, a rich gold brocade or cloth of gold.

^{page 339 note 2} Sic, probably for ‘whistille’.

^{page 339 note 3} Frontlet, a narrow strip of embroidery sewn along the front edge of the linen altar-cloth.

^{page 339 note 4} Plonkit, plunket, lead-coloured.

^{page 340 note 1} Dome, the Doom or Day of the Great Judgement.

^{page 340 note 2} Water flowers, probably the conventional lily-like flowers so common on medieval embroideries.

^{page 341 note 1} Skochions, shields of arms.

^{page 341 note 2} Superaltar, a small portable altar slab of stone or marble.

^{page 341 note 3} Images painted or ‘steynid’ on linen: a cheap and popular way of adorning hangings.

^{page 341 note 4} Bound in red leather.

^{page 341 note 5} Cf. the alabaster image of Our Lady and Child with its painted housing, exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries on 27th Feb., 1913 (Proceedings, xxv, 80)Google Scholar.

^{page 341 note 6} Boge, the fur called budge, of lambskin with the wool dressed outwardly.

^{page 341 note 7} Probably a set of shawms, or recorders.

^{page 342 note 1} See note ante, p. 300.

^{page 342 note 2} Sic, but query for ‘veil’.

^{page 342 note 3} Perhaps a mistake for ‘whistillt ’.

^{page 342 note 4} Sic, but query for ‘whistillt’.

^{page 342 note 5} Pricke song, plain song, music sung in unison.

^{page 342 note 6} Chamblett, camlet, a cloth or stuff made of wool and silk or linen.

^{page 342 note 7} Martorns, martens' skins.

^{page 342 note 8} Letuons, lettice, a whitish-grey fur.

^{page 343 note 1} See an article on ‘The Cap of Maintenance’ by W. H. St. John Hope in English Coronation Records by L. G. Wickham Legg (Westminster, 1901), lxxxii–lxxxviii.

^{page 343 note 2} Plonkitt, plunket, lead-coloured.

^{page 343 note 3} Chaungeable = shot.

^{page 345 note 1} Bankar, banker, a covering for a bench.

^{page 346 note 1} Dome, the Doom.

^{page 346 note 2} Sic, for ‘sperver’.

^{page 347 note 1} Morions, Moors, blackamoors, or black men. See also the description of a salt on p. 329.

^{page 347 note 2} The identity of the ‘viij valiauntes’ is somewhat doubtful. Originally there were nine valiants or worthies: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus; Hector, Alexander, and Caesar; Arthur, Charles the Great, and Godfrey de Bouillon. Dante, in the 18th canto of his Paradise, substitutes three Christians for the three Pagans and suppresses David, bringing the number down to eight: Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus, Orlando, William (the Conqueror according to Didron), Renaud (or Rinaldo), Robert Guiscard, Charles the Great, and Godfrey de Bouillon. (See Didron in Annales Archeologiqiies, xvii, 299Google Scholar.) The Provost of King's, Dr. M. R. James, whose kind help in the first place I must acknowledge, tells me, however, that he finds a difficulty in believing that Dante's selection could have percolated (otherwise not coming to the surface) to the maker of tapestries, and suggests instead the eight kings and knaves who appear in the packs of cards. Here, I fear, the matter for the present must rest.

^{page 347 note 3} Sic, for ‘Cloelia’.

^{page 347 note 4} Woodehouse, wodewose, a wild man of the woods.

^{page 347 note 5} Sic, for ‘Celor’.

^{page 348 note 1} The story of Nebuchadnezzar: see the Book of Daniel.

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VIII.—The Last Testament and Inventory of John de Veer, thirteenth Earl of Oxford

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