XVI.—An Inventory of the Effects of Henry Howard, K. G., Earl of Northampton, taken on his death in 1614, together with a transcript of his Will; prefaced by a Letter to Charles Spencer Perceval, Esq., LL.D., Director

Evelyn Philip Shirley Esq.

doi:10.1017/S0261340900003258

XVI.—An Inventory of the Effects of Henry Howard, K. G., Earl of Northampton, taken on his death in 1614, together with a transcript of his Will; prefaced by a Letter to Charles Spencer Perceval, Esq., LL.D., Director

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

Evelyn Philip Shirley Esq.

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The Inventory which I have the honour to exhibit to the Society of Antiquaries, by the kindness of its owner the Baroness North, was taken on the death of Henry Howard Earl of Northampton, June 15th 1614, and may not be unworthy of the notice of the Society, whether we consider the historical importance which must ever attach to the character of “The Lord Privy Seal,” as his Lordship is here officially called, disagreeably connected as his memory is with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury ; or the still existing “Northampton,” or as it is now called Northumberland,” House, built by this same Earl, “with Spanish gold,” says Osborne, about the year 1605.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 1870 , pp. 347 - 378

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900003258 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1870

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^{page 348 note a} An hour-glass of this description, richly enamelled and set with jewels, is engraved in the second volume of Shaw's Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages. London, 1843.

^{page 348 note b} Thomas Howard Earl of Suffolk, Lord High Treasurer 1614–1618. See the words of this bequest and of the others noted in the margin, in the copy of the Earl of Northampton's will, post.

^{page 350 note a} The Rings given on their creation by serjeants-at-law to the Lord Privy Seal among other high officers of State were to be, according to Sir John Fortescue, of the value of six scuta, that is, as elsewhere appears, one pound sterling.

^{page 350 note b} Robert Carr, cr. in 1613 Earl of Somerset.

^{page 351 note a} Liverie, applied to articles made in a quantity, according to a fixed pattern, for distribution in the several apartments. Nichols in Unton Inventories.

^{page 351 note b} Damasked. The term is not usually applied to plate, though constantly to linen and silk ; it is said first to have been applied to linens figured in imitation of the silks made at Damascus by the manufacturers of Flanders. See Nichols's Glossarial Index to the Unton Inventories.

^{page 352 note a} Posnett, a little cup for posset.

^{page 353 note a} Probably an inkstand with fine sand to be used as we use blotting paper.

^{page 353 note b} Castinge bottle, a bottle used for casting or sprinkling perfume; introduced about the middle of the sixteenth century. Halliwell's Dictionary.

^{page 353 note c} Purslane, porcelain.

^{page 353 note d} Buskedge verdeure, green tapestry edged with busk, or linen cloth. Verdure is, according to Halliwell, used for tapestry generally.

^{page 354 note a} Billetted, a term apparently derived from the billets of heraldry, and applied to a pattern formed of oblong pieces crossing each other.

^{page 354 note b} Andirons and creepers. The andirons, the ornamental irons or brasses on each side of the hearth ; the creepers, the smaller low irons used for the support of the blocks of wood between the andirons.

^{page 354 note c} Watchett, a pale blue color. Halliwell.

^{page 354 note d} Busted, query fustian? See the Bury Wills (Carnd. Soc), note p. 250.

^{page 354 note e} Dansque, Danish.

^{page 355 note a} Buffin. a kind of coarse cloth.

^{page 355 note b} Saye, serge or woollen cloth.

^{page 355 note c} Tabine, a kind of silk. Halliwell. Tabinet, at the present day, is a stuff of silk and wool and mixed.

^{page 356 note a} Probably Matthew Stuart fourth Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland 1570.

^{page 356 note b} Margaret, eldest daughter of Thomas Lord Audley, born 1540. See her portrait, engraved in Lord Braybrooke's History of Audley End, from the original by Lucas de Heere, A.D. 1562, p. 30.

^{page 356 note c} Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, K.G. beheaded 1521. In the supplement to Granger's Biographical History of England it is stated, that there is a portrait of the Duke at Woburn Abbey, but no such picture occurs in the printed catalogue (1834). This Duke of Buckingham is engraved by Houbraken, from a picture at Magdalene college, Cambridge, with the wrong name of Henry the father.

^{page 356 note d} Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk, and wife of Thomas Butler Earl of Wiltshire.

^{page 356 note e} By Margaret daughter of Lord Audley, second wife of Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk. She married Robert Sackville Earl of Dorset. There is a genuine half-length portrait of this lady at Knole.

^{page 356 note f} Jane Howard, married to Charles Neville, Earl of Westmerland, and sister of Henry Earl of Northampton, died 1593.

^{page 356 note g} Robert Devereux second Earl of Essex, or perhaps Robert the third Earl.

^{page 356 note h} Thomas Butler tenth Earl of Ormond, the friend of King Edward VI.

^{page 356 note i} Properly Viscount Howard of Bindon. There were three Viscounts, Thomas Howard, second son of Thomas third Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1582, and his two sons, Henry who died 1590, and Thomas who died in 1610.

^{page 356 note j} William Howard, fourth surviving son of Thomas second Duke of Norfolk, created Baron Howard of Effingham in 1554, ob. 1573.

^{page 356 note k} Thomas Howard, younger son of Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk, created Earl of Suffolk in 1603, ob. 1626.

^{page 357 note a} Catherine, second daughter of the celebrated Henry Earl of Surrey, and sister of Henry Earl of Northampton. She died in 1596, being the wife of Henry Lord Berkeley.

^{page 357 note b} Jane, eldest daughter and coheir of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and first wife of John Lord Lumley, who died in 1609.

^{page 357 note c} Thomas Lord Seymour, Lord High Admiral, beheaded in 1549. A portrait of him is at Longleat.

^{page 357 note d} The Countess of Wiltshire, Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Howard second Duke of Norfolk.

^{page 357 note e} Robert Devereux second Earl of Essex had three children, Robert, afterwards third Earl; Lady Frances, who married William Seymour, Duke of Somerset; and Lady Dorothy, the wife of Sir Henry Shirley, Bart.

^{page 357 note f} Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Knevitt, wife of Sir William Bevill of Cornwall. She afterwards married Roger fifth Earl of Rutland, whose daughter by her married George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

^{page 357 note g} Sir John Howard, “Jack of Norfolk,” created Duke of Norfolk in 1483. The Lord Maltravers of 1614 was Henry Frederick, eldest surviving son of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.

^{page 357 note h} Lacquered work.

^{page 357 note i} Hakluyt, in the preface to his Principall Navigations (1589), says, “I have contented myselfe with inserting one of the best generall mappes of the world onely, untill the comming out of a very large and most exact terrestriall globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoveries, both Spanish, Portugall, and English, composed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession, being therein for divers yeeres greatly supported by the purse and liberalitie of the worshipfull merchant, Mr. William Sanderson.” For this reference I have to thank R. H. Major, Esq. F.S.A.

^{page 358 note a} William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, ob. 1404.

^{page 358 note b} The King's mother; or, as we now call her, Mary Queen of Scots.

^{page 358 note c} Probably Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, beheaded in 1541–2.

^{page 360 note a} Grogeron,—Grogram, a coarse kind of silk taffety, usually stiffened with gum. Halliwell.

^{page 360 note b} William Cecil, the first and great Lord Burghley, ob. 1598.

^{page 360 note c} The Countess of Hertford. (Two pictures.) Probably Frances Howard, sister of Charles Earl of Nottingham, who died in 1578 ; or, Frances, daughter of Thomas Viscount Howard of Bindon,—the second and third wives of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford.

^{page 361 note a} See notes in previous pages.

^{page 361 note b} Grave (i.e. Graf) Maurice. Probably Prince Maurice of Nassau, who died in 1625.

^{page 361 note c} Purled, bordered or trimmed. Halliwell.

^{page 362 note a} Probably Anne, sister and coheir of George Lord Dacre of Gillesland, wife of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel.

^{page 362 note b} Compartment ?

^{page 363 note a} As to Parchment Lace, see Mrs. Palliser's History of Lace, 1865, p. 68.

^{page 364 note a} See ante.

^{page 365 note a} John Griffith was the Earl's secretary, and, together with William Byng and Robert Cole, an executor of his will. At the end of the epitaph on the Earl's monument, now in the chapel of Trinity Hospital, Greenwich, is the sentence, “Johanne Griffitho, huic comiti ab epistolis, curante positum.” See Dugd. Baronage and Hasted, Kent, i. 31. All the gentlemen and others named here will be found as legatees in the schedule to the will, post.

^{page 366 note a} Raced, pricked or marked.

^{page 366 note b} See ante.

^{page 367 note a} Fringed or paned. Pane, a division, side, or piece.

^{page 367 note b} Hang or hanger; the loop or strap appended to the girdle in which the dagger or small sword hung.

^{page 368 note a} Pillow beere, a pillow-case.

^{page 370 note a} Court cupboard, a moveable sideboard used for the display of plate.

^{page 370 note b} Vert and or; from this and other heraldical terms in this Inventory, it would seem to have been compiled by a Herald.

^{page 370 note c} Traverse, a portable screen.

^{page 371 note a} Cruell, fine worsted.

^{page 371 note b} Fr. Macquereau.

^{page 372 note a} Poppingey, popinjay, a parrot.

^{page 372 note b} A picture at large of Prince Henry on horseback in arms. This picture is not at present known to exist.

^{page 372 note c} Coleman's Arbour Royal, or Genealogie of the King and Queene. This work is described by Moule, in his Bibliotheca Heraldica, p. 65. It was comprised in 10 sheets, and contained “all the arms of the Matches ” cut in wood; and in the border “The Arms and Matches of all the Nobility of England.” It was published in large quarto in 1608 by Morgan Colman.

^{page 375 note a} He was accordingly so buried; but in 1696, the old chapel becoming ruinous, the Mercers' Company piously removed the Earl's body and the monument which had been placed over it to the chapel of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Greenwich, of which he was founder.

^{page 375 note b} See Inventory among “Georges.”

^{page 375 note c} See Inventory among “Jewels,” where the marginal note occurs, “Bequeathed by will to the Lord Treasurer.”

^{page 376 note a} See Inventory among “Georges.”

^{page 376 note b} Lord William Howard was second son of Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk, brother of the testator, by Mary daughter and eventual heir of Henry FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel.

^{page 376 note c} George Lord Berkeley, great nephew of the testator, being son of Thomas Berkeley who died in the lifetime of his father, Henry Lord Berkeley, who married the Lady Catherine Howard, Lord Northampton's sister.

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XVI.—An Inventory of the Effects of Henry Howard, K. G., Earl of Northampton, taken on his death in 1614, together with a transcript of his Will; prefaced by a Letter to Charles Spencer Perceval, Esq., LL.D., Director

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