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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
page 1 note * Historic of the Arrival of Edward IV. ; Warkworth's Chronicle ; and Polydore Vergil; being Nos. I. X. and XXVIII. of the Camden Society's publications.
page 1 note † A.D. 1473.
page 2 note * Halsted's Richard III. vol. i. p, 298.
page 2 note † Strickland's Queens of England, vol. iii. pp. 432, 433.
page 2 note ‡ Richard Duke of Gloucester, made high constable of England 29 Feb. 1472, resided at Pontefract as chief seneschal of the king's duchy of Lancaster in the north parts. —Plumpton Correspondence, p. 26, note.
page 2 note § Halsted's Richard III. vol. i; pp. 300, 301.
page 2 note ║ The Harleian Collection contains a memorable instance of Richard's horror of sacrilege in a letter, “whereby the king (calling to remembraunce the dreadfulle sentence of the churche of God, yeven ayenst alle those personnes which wilfully attempt to usurp unto themselffes, ayenst good conscience, possessions or other things of right belonging to God and his said churche, and the gret perille of soule whiche may ensue by the same), commands that 20 acres and more of pasture within the parke of Pountfret, which was taken from the priour and convent of Pountfreit about the 10th yere of K. Edw. the IVth, be restored unto them. Yoven the 2d day of Oetobre, an. primo.” MSS. Harl. 433, fol. 121.—See also Miss Halsted's admirable remarks on this document, Richard III. vol. ii. pp. 174, 175.
page 3 note * Gloucester obtained, in 1475, the reversion of the manor of Coverdale (vide Rot. Par.), a district in close local connexion with the Middleham domain.
page 3 note † Middleham Charters, Appendix A.
page 4 note * Chester was erected into a see on the dissolution of the monasteries temp. Henry VIII., and Ripon was restored in the reign of William IV., on the union of the bishoprics of Gloucester and Bristol, A.D. 1836.
page 4 note † “He had risen by merit from obscurity. He studied at Cambridge, where he gained great distinction for his proficiency in literature, law, and divinity. While still a young man he was elected head of his house, and chancellor of that university. In 1457 he was made Bishop of Durham, while Henry VI. was nominally king, but under the influence of the Yorkists, to whom he continued steadily attached. In his old age he was selected to fill the office of Lord Chancellor. His appointment turned out a great failure—he was accordingly dismissed from the office of chancellor. To console him, he was soon after translated from Durham to York. He died, after having quietly presided over this province between three and four years ; during which time, abandoning politics, he exclusively confined himself to his spiritual duties.”—Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. i. pp. 391 et seq.
“Laurence Booth, Archdeacon of Richmond, succeeded Robert Neville (as Bishop of Durham), and was consecrated the 15th September, 1457. He was master of Pembroke Hall, which he kept till he died ; Chancellor of Cambridge, and Lord Chancellor of England in 1473. He built the college gates at Auckland, with some adjoining edifices, on both sides of the way, at his own expense. After he had been Bishop of Durham about twenty years, he was translated to York, and was buried in Cawood church near that city.”—Sanderson's Description of the County of Durham, p. 78.
page 5 note * Middleham Charters, Appendix B.
page 6 note * Middleham Charters, Appendix C.
page 6 note † Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 172.
page 6 note ‡ See Gale'a Honor of Richmond, Appendix, p. 65.
page 7 note * The archdeaconry of Richmond was at this time filled by that learned man, Doctor John Sherwood, who was subsequently appointed, in the year 1483, to the see of Durham on the decease of Bishop Dudley. The archdeacon had been sent embassador into Italy, where he collected many great Greek books. He held the see nine years, and died 1494., Sanderson's Description of Durham, p. 79.
page 7 note † Middleham MSS. Appendix D.
page 8 note * Middleham MSS. Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 339.
page 8 note † Probably a native of the parish of Kirby-Malzeard, in which there is a township of the name.
page 8 note ‡ Archbishop Rotheram's Confirmation. Appendix E.
page 9 note * “He owed his elevation to his own merits. His family name was Scot, unillustrated in England at that time, and instead of it he assumed the name of the town in which he was born. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, and was one of the earliest fellows on this royal foundation, which has since produced so many distinguished men. He was afterwards master of Pembroke Hall, and chancellor of this university. For his learning and piety he was at an early age selected to be chaplain to Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, and he was then taken into the service of Edward IV. Being a steady Yorkist, he was made Bishop of Rochester in 1467, and translated to Lincoln in 1471. To finish the notice of his ecclesiastical dignities, I may mention here that in 1480 he became Archbishop of York, and that he received a red hat from the pope, with the title of Cardinal S'tas Ceciliæ.” (Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i. p. 393, ch. 23). The Archbishop died of the plague at Cawood, in the year 1500, and was buried in his own cathedral. He was the founder of Lincoln College, Oxford.—Ibid. p. 403.
Doctor Whitaker (Richmondshire, p. 337) states that this confirmation and resignation of his jurisdiction was granted by Archbishop Savage, Booth being now dead. The chronological data which we have already given shew the error into which Dr. Whitaker has fallen. Archbishop Rotheram immediately succeeded Booth, and held the see till 1500.
page 10 note * Middleham Charters. Appendix E.
page 11 note * Middleham MSS. Append. F. Strange to say, “that though the college were never dissolved, the advowson never passed according to the founder's grant, to the dean and chaplains.” Such is Whitaker's statement, vol. i. p. 338. But the probability is, if the matter were more closely investigated, that the grant of the advowson did pass, and that, on the appointment of a dean by the crown, he at first presented the parish to himself, until in process of time, and during the stormy periods which ensued, the distinction between the dean of the collegiate church and the incumbent of the parish seems to have been forgotten, and the appointment to the one considered necessarily to imply the presentation to the other also.
page 11 note † Middleham MSS. Append. G.
page 11 note ‡ Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 348.
page 11 note § Middleham Charters, Append. H.
page 12 note * Middleham MSS.
page 12 note † Middleham MSS.
page 12 note ‡ Middleham Charters, Append. I.
page 12 note § Now called Jervaux, the magnificent ruins of which continue in careful preservation in the parish of East Witton, which adjoins to the deanery of Middleham.
page 13 note * Middleham MSS.
page 13 note † See Appendix E.
page 14 note * Harleian MSS. 433, fol. 67, b.
page 14 note † Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 68.
page 14 note ‡ Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 101.
page 14 note § Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 152 b.
page 14 note ║ Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 123.
page 14 note ¶ Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 201 b.
page 15 note * Geoffrey Pranke here mentioned was also receiver of the lordship of Middleham, and appears to have been much in Richard's confidence. Harl. MSS. 433, passim.
page 15 note † Of Sheriff Hutton it is only necessary to remark that it formed a portion of the Neville property until seized by Edward IV. and given by him to his brother, the founder of the collegiate church at Middleham.
page 15 note ‡ Harl. MSS. 433, fol. 283.
page 16 note * Halsted's Richard III. vol. ii. p. 324.
page 16 note † Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 348.
page 17 note * Middleham MSS. Appendix K. Whitaker's words are:—.
“William Beverley, last rector and first dean. He seems to have lived to the year 1515.
“Simon Walden, installed by royal mandate, 1515.” Richmondshire, p. 340.
But this statement, as we have shewn, is evidently incorrect.
page 17 note † Valor Ecclesiasticus, printed by the order of the House of Commons 1825, vol. V. See Append. L. See also Appendix, Gale's Honor of Richmond, p. 96.
page 17 note ‡ Whitaker, in his catalogue of Deans, i. 340, says “John Smyth occurs 1535.” No mention of a Dean of this name can be discovered in any public document, or among the Middleham MSS. with the exception of an erroneous transcript of the Valor Ecclesiasticus, made many years since, to which is subscribed “Johes Smyth, Incumbens.” It is difficult to conceive how this should have happened, except from the circumstance of “Johēs Smyth, Incumbens” standing at the head of the valuation of Well Hospital, which immediately succeeds that of Middleham, and which may possibly have led the copyist into the mistake which has been committed. In that publio record Simon Welden is described as Incumbens Mense Maii, Ao 1535, and William Willes was Dean in April 1536. It seems therefore highly improbable that John Smyth could be Dean, as stated by Dr. Whitaker, in 1535.
page 18 note * Middleham MSS.
page 18 note † See Spelman's History and Fate of Sacrilege, passim.
page 19 note * Middleham Charters. Append. M. The Words in the original are important, “Decano ac Ministris ;“thereby evidently shewing that there were other spiritual persons associated with the Dean at this period in the College of Middleham.
page 19 note † Middleham MSS.
page 19 note ‡ Middleham MSS. Append. N.
page 20 note * Page 340, note.
page 20 note † P. 340. Whitaker bere falls into another error, there was no —— D.D. or LL.D admitted 1661 ; but, as will hereafter be shewn, Thomas Holdsworth, M.A. was installed in 1660, and held the deanery till his death in 1681.
page 22 note * Maude's Wensleydale, p. 76, notes.
page 24 note * The family of Pulleine is said to be descended from Burdet. It was a family of note, seated for some centuries at Killinghall, near Harrogate. Heaps of ruins covered with grass mark the spot where their residence stood. See Harl. MSS. 1074, fol. 70. Also Burke's Commoners, art. Pulleine.
page 25 note * Middleham MSS.
page 26 note * Maude's Wensleydale, p. 76, notes.
page 26 note † Richmondshire, vol. i. pp. 348, 9.
page 26 note ‡ It may not be unworthy of remark that the family of Lofthouse was seated at Swineside, a hamlet in the parish of Coverham, and not far distant from Middleham, for many centuries.—Vide Peerage, art. Marq. Ely.
page 28 note * “Middleham—a royal peculiar, having all ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the parish, and exempt from all visitation, but that of the Crown. C. J. Chester, July 4th; 1815.” Valor Ecclesiasticus, Vol. V. p. 334.
page 28 note † Middleham Charters. Append. O.
page 28 note ‡ “Antiquities of the Abbey or Cathedral Church of Durham, &c., by P. Sanderson, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1767,” p. 107.
page 29 note * Sanderson's Description of Durham, p. 107.
page 30 note * Bowbridge Hall, the ancient residence of this family, is situate near the road from Askrigg to Bainbridge, and, though now reduced to the condition of a farmhouse, bears indubitable marks of former importance.
page 32 note * This is established beyond contradiction by the licence granted by Luke Cotes (Vide Appendix P.), bearing date 1720, in which he is expressly styled Dean of Middleham. This was several years prior to the decease of Mr. Coleby, who seems after his resignation of the deanery to have resided at Middleham, where he lies interred.
page 32 note † Maude's Wensleydale, p. 75, notes.
page 33 note * See Addenda.
page 34 note * Whitaker's Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 340.
page 34 note † Ibid. vol. ii. p. 472.
page 35 note * The following entry of her burial is extracted from the parish register:—” Mary, daughter of Thos. Smithson, of Moulton, Gentleman, and wife of Luke Cotes, Master of Arts, Dean of this Church, died the 17 day and was buried the 19 day of December, 1740.”
page 35 note † The monument here alluded to is now nowhere to be seen, and if erected, as above stated, must have been since removed: an act which reflects no credit on the parties, whoever they may have been, that were accessory to such desecration.
page 35 note ‡ Doctor Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of Canterbury, b. in 1692, d. 19th March, 1758, second son of John Hutton, Esq., of Marske, com. Ebor. A family of great antiquity and high station, and memorable for having produced two archbishops, viz., the subject of the present notice, and Doctor Matthew Hutton, his direct ancestor, translated to the archiepiscopal see of York, 24th of March, 1594.—See Burke's Commoners, vol. iii. pp. 304, 305.
page 36 note * This account was written in the year 1823.
page 36 note † Middleham MSS. Appendix P.
page 36 note ‡ The family of Plaice has long been connected with the district of Riclimondshire, but it does not clearly appear which branch of it produced the sire and son who were deans of Middleham. Amongst the miscellaneous pedigrees Harl. MSS. 1174, 150 b, is one commencing with Edward Lord Plaice, temp. Edward II, and carrying the line to the close of the sixteenth century.
page 36 note § See also Harl. MSS.
page 38 note * Mr. Place held the Rectory of Bedale from the year 1731 till his death, which we find, by the following extract from the register of burials in that parish, occurred in “1775; May the 10th. The Rev. Edward Place, A.M., Rector of this parish.” He was interred beneath a pew, belonging to the Rector, in the chancel, but without any inscription. Among the bequests recorded in the south aisle there is the following:
“The Rev. Edward Place, Clerk, late Rector of this parish, by will left twenty pounds, the yearly interest thereof to be laid out in coals for the use of the Brethren of Bedale Hospital.”
page 38 note † Middleham Court Book, passim.
page 40 note * Middleham MSS. Appendix Q.
page 40 note † Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXXXIV. ii. 405.
page 40 note ‡ Life of Wilberforce, vol. I. p. 161, et passim.
page 41 note * The following extract bears strongly on this point: “As Mr. Hardy has totally confined his ‘Tribute’ to one point in the many composing the late Dean's character, perhaps you will allow me to call your observation to a document, strongly characteristic of him as an excellent and attentive parish priest. The following is a copy of a ‘notice’ which he dispersed throughout his cure, previous to the fast-day, in February, 1807.
‘NOTICE.
‘The Rector of this parisha does hereby earnestly exhort and premonish all persons in this his cure, strictly to observe the King's proclamation for a General Past on Wednesday, the 25th instant, by resorting to the House of God for the solemnities of devotion, in due season for the commencement of the service, both in the morning and in the afternoon ; also by a religious abstinence till the service is over, and by a pious conduct in their families afterwards ; and all publicans are premonished not to entertain any guests or travellers during the hours of divine worship. The most serious regard to this admonition is enjoined upon all in this day of public danger, as they desire the favour and blessing of Almighty God, upon themselves and their country.’
“The Dean was particularly attentive to the ‘Youth of the Flock,’ and I cannot avoid expressing an earnest wish, that some of his reverend brethren will endeavour to raise a ‘tribute’ to his clerical character, and snatch it from that oblivion which encircles the gloomy mansions of the dead, and hides their excellencies or their foibles from the observation of posterity. C.R.” Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1816, p. 400.
page 41 note a Stoney Stanton.
page 42 note * Middleham Court Book.
page 43 note * “The following elegant epitaph now graces a neat tablet that has been erected at Stoney Stanton, to the memory of this truly worthy Dean;—
Underneath
are deposited the mortal remains of
The Very Reverend
Robert Boucher Nickolls, LL.B.
Dean of Middleham, and
Rector of this parish.
His Christian zeal and extensive learning were shown by numerous publications in Defence of Religion ; and a diffusive charity, the fruit of his faith, shone forth in his daily example. After a long life, spent in the Service of his Saviour, in whom alone he trusted for acceptance with God, he was removed by a short
illness to eternal rest,
on the 11th day of October, 1814,
in the 75th year of his age.
This monument was erected by his Afflicted surviving Brother, James Bruce Nickolls, of Alexandria, in Virginia, in grateful remembrance of his private
virtues and public usefulness.
‘The memory of the just is blessed.’”
Gent, Mag. June 1818, p. 485.page 46 note * See “The Duty of supporting and defending our Country and Constitution : a Discourse preached in the Collegiate Church of Middlehsm, Feb. 10, 1793, on the prospect of a war.”
page 46 note † See his “Essay on the principles of French Civism,” published in 1792.
page 47 note * “The Dean was a native of the West Indies.”
page 47 note † The above is the substance of what he once mentioned to me in conversation ; probably, however, the Dean entertained by far too harsh an opinion of the Guinea merchants and West India planters: it is well known that many of the latter were men of the most correct notions and humane habits; and, with regard to the former, candour compels us to hope that, amongst them, there were many whose employment had not so steeled the heart as to render it impervious to the calls of humanity!
page 48 note † “As his reply to the above cavil, I could fancy our lamented friend adopting the celebrated sentiment of the Roman Comedian—‘Homo sum, et humani nihil a me alienum puto;’ a sentiment, which is said to have been received with reiterated plaudits by a Roman audience, and which has been handed down to succeeding ages, as one, ‘which speaks with such elegance and simplicity the language of nature, and supports the native independence of man.’”
page 49 note * “I believe the ever-to-be-remembered Granville Sharp presided when the above vote Was passed.”
page 51 note * “It is unfortunate for the discussion of the Roman Catholic claims, that, unless great care be taken, the party opposing them is very frequently betrayed into the use of expressions, which are calculated to wound the feelings of most honourable and respectable characters. It would be absurd to deny that amongst the Roman Catholics there is every thing good, great, and noble; and this is most sincerely to be regretted, when it is considered, that those who are otherwise every way calculated to be the ornaments and pride of their native country, are necessarily excluded, by the fundamental laws of that country, from directing her affairs or assisting at her Legislative Councils. It would give me great pain, if, in the general observations which I have made, I should hurt the feelings of any member of the Roman Catholic body ; but it would have given me far greater pain if, to avoid hurting those feelings, I had hoodwinked the consideration of a great national question.”
page 52 note * The Tracts, &c., which the Dean wrote and dispersed upon this, his favourite question, were (I had almost said) innumerable : at the period above referred to, a week seldom passed without one of them making its appearance ; and his sitting room bore a greater resemblance to a compositor's study than the apartment of a private clergyman.
page 54 note * “He published, in 1782, a discourse preached at Leicester, May 6, at the Visitation of the Archdeacon, from 1 Tim. iv. 15. under the title of ‘The general objects of Clerical attention considered, with particular reference to the present times ;’ in which the peculiar objects of Christianity are inculcated with great energy, in opposition to the principles of Hobbism ; and he distinguished himself honourably in 1788, by a very humane pamphlet on the Slave Trade, under the title of ‘A Letter to the Treasurer of the Society instituted for the purpose of effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.’ In answer to a request of Mr. Nichols to be furnished with a list of his publications for his ‘History of Leicestershire,’ the good Dean said, ‘I have done nothing of importance enough to merit notice ; and the things I have published, about half a dozen Sermons, and nearly twenty anonymous tracts, I have set so little value upon, that I have not even kept Copies by me, except of a very few of the printed ones. The MSS. were left in the hands of the different printers ; and I have not even a list of the titles. Some of the last things, small pieces, were published in the Anti-Jacobin ; one upon the Dissolution of Parliament—Considerations on the Rejection of the Catholic Bill, printed at Hinckley, and inserted by the Anti-Jacobin (not by my desire) for April, or May, or June 1807; another on the Curates proposed Bill in the same Review, in one of those months in the next year, 1808; another, On the Authenticity of St. Matthew's Gospel, in answer to Evanson, December, 1808 ; the last, signed Eusebius, in the same Review for May, 1809, ‘ On the Growth of Schism in the Church, and the means of checking it.’
“Mr. Nichols was indebted to this gentleman for some interesting memoirs of the Rev. John Bold, formerly Curate of Stoney Stanton.a These memoirs have been adopted by Mr. Chalmers in his ‘Biographical Dictionary.’
“By the death of this worthy Divine, the cause of true Religion and the Church of England has been deprived of a most valuable friend and advocate ; and all the poor with whom he was in the remotest degree connected have sustained a severe loss.”—Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxiv. ii. 405.
page 54 note a See “History of Leicestershire,” vol. iv. p. 975.
page 55 note * Rector of Littleton, Middlesex, and Vicar of Middleton, Norfolk.
page 55 note † Curate of Littleton, Middlesex.
page 55 note ‡ Chaplain to Right Hon. Lord Louth.
page 55 note § Rector of St. Peter's Martin, Bedford ; and Chaplain to H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge.
page 55 note ║ A Count of the Holy Roman Empire ; Vicar of Tortington, Sussex ; and Domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Limerick.
page 55 note ¶ Rector of Eversley, Hants ; and Domestic Chaplain to Viscount Sidney.
page 55 note ** Vicar of Stebbing, Essex ; and Chaplain to H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge.
page 55 note †† Dep. Registrar for the Archdeaconry of Richmond.
page 56 note * In this Catalogue each minister is designated by the title affixed to his name in the parish registers or other documents, in many instances by the individual himself.