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XXI.—On an Inventory of the Household Goods of Sir Thomas Ramsey, Lord Mayor of London 1577

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

F. W. Fairholt
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Extract

The value of Wills and Inventories as exponents of the domestic lives of our ancestors cannot be too highly estimated. To them we must look as to the most fertile sources from whence a knowledge is to be obtained of that curious unwritten history, the history of the people. The glimpses they afford of domestic manners are all the more precious, because of their rarity elsewhere.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , 1867 , pp. 311 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1867

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References

Notes

1. [one drawing joyned table] a table made with a leaf to draw out and increase its size when needed ; “joyned tables” and “joyned stools” indicated superior articles of furniture in contradistinction to common carpentry. The London civic companies of joiners and carpenters were distinct, and very jealous of each other's privileges, which were most minutely regulated. A curious account of their disputes, and the solemn trifling over trade-distinctions which occupied City magnates at this time, may be seen in Jupp's “Account of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters,” by which it appears the carpenters might only make such rough furniture as might hold in sockets or by nailing “without glue;” the joiners having the monopoly of making “all tables of wainscote, walnutt, or other stuffe, glued, with frames, mortesses, or tennants, or any other articles of furniture that require to be dovetailed, pinned, or glued.”

2. [an iron to keepe in the fire] a lump of metal similar to the heater of an italian-iron, which was placed among the coals to economize heat.

3. [tilletes] coarse wrappers, “tyllet to wrap cloth in.” Palsgrave, 1530.

4. [trundle bedde] a bed that fitted beneath another, and was pulled forward, or “trundled,” on wheels. It was used for servants, or attendants on the sick. There is a very curious representation of one in an illumination to the romance of the Comte d'Artois (15th cent.) published by M. Barrois, of Paris, in which the Count is represented in the canopied bed, while his valet occupies the truckle or trundle. It has been copied in Halliwell's folio Shakespeare, voL 2, p. 437.

5. [a court cupborde] a buffet for the display of plate. It may have obtained its name from originally denoting the rank of its owner. On its summit was a series of receding shelves, upon which the plate was arranged. Persons of royal blood, only, were allowed the use of five shelves; those with four were appropriated to nobles of the highest rank; those with three to nobles under the rank of dukes; those with two to knight-bannerets; and those of one step to persons of gentle descent.

6. [a suffering fati] a vat used for salting meat, having a vent at bottom to drain off the brine when necessary.

7. [a hayer line] lines or ropes to dry clothes upon were usually made, at this time, of horsehair. This gives point to Stephano's jest in Shakespeare's Tempest, Act 4. Among the representations of itinerant traders forming a series of “Cries of London,” temp. Jas. I. in the British Museum, is one crying, “buy a hair-line.”

8. [an old standing bedstead with a settle] This item is very correctly described ; such bedsteads were peculiar to the two preceding centuries. The settle was attached to the foot of the bed, and used for undressing. In the romance of Meliadus, (Brit. Mus. addit. MS. 12,228, fol. 312,) is a very correct representation of one. (14th cent.)

9. [billament lase] ordinary ornamental lace. See Proceedings, 2nd S. III. 103.

10. [bujjin] a coarse common cloth, much used for the gowns of humbler citizens, as appears from allusions in the comedy of “Eastward Hoe,” 1605, and Massinger's “City Madam.”

11. [danske] Danish.

12. [drawing candlesticks] candlesticks made to draw upward in a socket as the candles burnt down.

13. [Alman rivets] i.e. German rivets. A great improvement on the old fixed rivet, in use till the time of Henry VIII. They were formed like a double button, connected by a metal band, which passed through a slot in each piece of armour, holding both firmly, but allowing freedom of motion.

14. [Spanish morrians] light metal head-pieces, with a rim only round the head, having neither visor nor cheek-pieces.

15. [combe inorrians] morions with a raised ridge in the crown like the comb of a cock.

16. [calivers] A light kind of musket. It was invented in France, and derived the name from the barrel being always of one calibre. See Meyrick and Hewitt.

17. [skulls] close-fitting metal head-pieces for foot-soldiers.

18. [bandilyeres] small wooden cases, each containing a charge of powder, hung to a leather baldrick, and slung across the shoulder of a soldier.

19. [gussets of maile] small pieces of chain-armour worn at the junction of plate armour.

20. [male pillions] large saddles for travelling, having a seat behind for a lady, and being provided with leather bags for light luggage.

21. [erasers] coverings of leather for the left arm of the bowman, reaching from wrist to elbow, to prevent injury by percussion of the bowstring.

22. [p'masitie] spermaceti.

23. [scantling for beare] wooden frames for beer barrels to stand on.

24. [neste of guilte bowles] small drinking cups made to fit into each other.

25. These salts probably fitted one over the other so as to require only one cover.

26. [the olde towche] the touch was the assay formerly made by the Goldsmiths' Company, of the purity of gold by testing it with the touchstone. Hence the term was applied to the stamps placed by them on gold or silver articles that had been submitted to their assay.

27. [hanse potts] pots of Flemish manufacture.

28. [a booke of golde] probably, judging from its small value, this was a small pouncet box shaped like a book.

29. [diaper cowchers] diaper coverings for couches ?

30. [mylded] mildewed.