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V. The Defence of Thomas Thackham, Minister, in his conduct towards Julins Palmer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2010
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page 85 note a Not Julias, as it came to be printed in the later editions of Poxe ; but Julins, which appears to have been the colloquial pronunciation of Josceline. The error has made its way into Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, edit. Bliss, ii. 842, and Fasti, i. 125, 232. In an epitaph in Ripon cathedral (1651) we read of “D. Julins Hering Evangelii dispensatoris valde fidelis.”
page 86 note a Thaekham's “slanderer” in his reply charged him that Palmer was at last apprehended at Reading “by your procurement, because he was earnest upon you for money, or elles to make a re-entrye into the Schoole accordyng to covenauntes : for he had tolde his frendes by mouth at his last beyng at Oxford, whiche was the second day of Juyn before he suffered (as apered by his owne handwrityng yet to be shewed) that if he durst he would remove Thaekham from the Schole, because he performed not covenauntes with him, and payd him not his money accordyng to promes. And because he was busye with Thaekham for the same, he sayd that he and others threatened him yet agayne very sore, to exhibite his owne handwrityng against him, except he would geve over his full interest in the Schoole, and departe quyetly without any further molestyng of Thaekham. And then he sayde they helde his nose to the gryndstone “(f. 37 b.)
page 87 note a See hereafter, p. 96.
page 88 note a His name as rector of Beverstone occurs in Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 1712, p. 275, misprinted Bury; corrected to “Purey” in Bigland's History, p. 177. In Bigland, p. 178, is the epitaph of “Catherine Purye, wife of Thomas Purye, Minister of the Word in this place,” who died 1 Dec. 1604, æt. 67 (sic) ; and in Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 284, are six Latin verses inscribed on the chancel wall at Beverstone, headed “Ao 1604. Ætat. 69, Epicedium Katherinæ Pury.”
page 90 note a Robert Bowyer was mayor of Reading in 1553, the first of queen Mary, and again in 1558 and 1570, and one of the burgesses to parliament in 2 Mary.
page 93 note a Styled by Foxe “the good lady Vane,” when he prints a letter of John Bradford, resolving certain questions which she demanded. “This lady Vane was a speciall nourse and a greate supporter, to her power, of the godlie Saints which were imprisoned in quene Maries time. Unto whom divers letters I have both of maister Philpot, Careles, Traherne, Thomas Rose, and of other moc ; wherein they render unto her most gratefull thankes for her exceeding goodnes extended towarde them, with their singulare commendation and testimonie also of her Christian zeale towardes God's afflicted prisoners, and to the veritie of his Gospell. Shee departed of late at Holburne, anno 1568 ; whose ende was more like a sleeps then any death: so quietly and meekly shee deceased and departed hence in the Lord.” Foxe, edit. 1576, p. 1559. Again, “Unto whom (lady Anne Knevet, of Wimondham, near Norwich,) not unworthiely may be compared the ladie Elizabeth Vane, who likewise being a great harborer and supporter of the afflicted martyrs and confessors of Christ, was in great hassardes and daungers of the enemies, and yet notwithstanding, thorough the mercifull providence of the Lorde, remained still untouched.” Ibid. p. 1965.
A large number of the letters mentioned by Foxe were published by him both in “The Letters of the Martyrs, 1554,” 4to. (reprinted in 1837), and in the Actes and Monuments. Among them is one letter of lady Elizabeth Vane's own writing, addressed to Philpot: it is signed F. E., probably meaning E(lizabeth) F(ane). It appears that Philpot had requested a scarf to wear at the stake. “Because (writes the lady) you desire to show yourself a worthy soldier, if need so require, I will supply your request of the scarf ye wrote of, that ye may present my handywork before your Captain, that I be not forgotten in the odours of incense which our beloved Christ offereth for his own : to whom I bequeath both our souls and bodies.” That this act on the part of Philpot was not singular is shewn by the following passage : “Some for triumph would put on their scarfes, some their wedding garments, going to the fire; others kissed the stake, some embraced the fagots,” &c. Foxe, edit. 1610, p. 873.
No personal particulars of the lady Vane are to be collected from her correspondence or from the ecclesiastical historians,—except the date of her death, as above stated by Foxe. She has been supposed (Index to the Works of the Parker Society) to have been the widow of sir Ralph Vane, who was hung in 1551–2, as one of the principal adherents of the duke of Somerset: and such may be accepted as the truth, though her name does not appear in the pedigree of the family of Fane or Vane. Sir Ralph died without issue, when, though his principal estate of Penshurst was forfeited, and granted to the Sidneys, his more ancient family property of Hadlow in Kent went to a cousin, Henry Fane, who was compromised in Wyat's conspiracy, and narrowly escaped with his life, but lived to become the lineal ancestor of the dukes of Cleveland. (See Hasted's Kent, i. 411, note k, ii. 315.) The following entry, confirmatory of Foxe's statement respecting the lady's decease, is from the register of burials at St. Andrew's Holborn : “1568. The 11th of June. The lady Elizabeth Vane.” A book of the lady Elizabeth's Psalms and Proverbs was published by Robert Crowley : see additional note in the Appendix.
page 94 note a “As touching the friendship showed unto the lady Vane, and his zeal therein uttered, truth it is that he received her into his house for money for a small space, in the which time they two did not well agree, for that she could not suffer his wickedness of words and gestures unreproved, but that his wife many times, being of more honesty, made the matter well again ; but, to be short, such was his friendship in the end towards that good lady, being out of his house, that she feared no man more for her life than him. And I being her man, she gave me great charge always to beware of him.” Letter of John Moyer to Thomas Purye, printed by Foxe. Among the “Informations gathered at Reading, in 1571,” we read—”Item. Jhon Galant sayth, that the ladye Vane, talking with hym, called Thackham ‘dissemblynge hypocrite ;’ and told hym how he deceaved poore people, with that which she dyd skymme off, and would not geve to her dog.”
page 95 note a Sir Francis Inglefield, son of sir Thomas Inglefield a judge of the common pleas, was one of queen Mary's household before her accession to the throne, and suffered imprisonment with sir Robert Rochester and sir Edward Waldegrave in defence of the religion therein maintained. He was rewarded after her accession with the office of master of the court of wards and liveries, and a seat in the privy council. He was member of parliament for Berkshire throughout that reign. Retaining his devoted attachment to the church of Rome, he afterwards went abroad, was indicted for treason and outlawed in 6 Eliz., and attainted by Parliament in 28 Eliz. He died at Valladolid about the year 1592. The family of baronets, who enjoyed that title from 1612 until the death of the distinguished antiquary sir Henry Charles Englefield in 1822, were descended from his brother. See further of him in Wotton's English Baronetage, 1741, vol. i. p. 258.
page 95 note b Clement Burdett was the second son of Thomas Burdett esquire, of Bramcote, co. Warwick, by Mary daughter of sir Robert Throckmorton, of Coughton in the same county. (Wotton's Baronetage, 1741, vol. i. p. 333.) He was cousin-german to sir Francis Englefield, whose mother was Elizabeth daughter of sir Robert Throckmorton. (Ibid. p. 258.) Foxe, in his story of John Bolton, speaks of sir Francis Englefield with his bloody brother the parson of Englefield. Burdett was official to the bishop of Salisbury, and at Palmer's examination held a long altercation with him on the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is detailed in Foxe.
page 95 note c Thomas Aldworth, mayor in 1557, as before in 1551, and afterwards in 1571. He was also one of the burgesses for Reading in the last parliament of Philip and Mary, and the first of Elizabeth. During his mayoralty in 1557 he received king Edward the Sixth in the town, as described in Man's History of Reading, 4to. 1816, p. 22.
page 96 note a Thomas Vachell, one of the burgesses for Reading in five parliaments, 30, 32, 36 Hen. VIII., 1 Mary, and 2 and 3 Philip and Mary. He occurs as “master Fachel of Reading,” one of the commissioners for the trial of Marbeck and others at Windsor in 1543. A remark he made is said by Foxe to have been the cause of Marbeck's being cast; and, as he was the lowest of all the bench, he gave judgment on that occasion. He was made surveyor of the demesne of the dissolved abbey of Reading in 31 Hen. VIII, and his descendants were baronets: see Coates's Reading, pp. 78, 125.
page 96 note b John Bolton's story, which was written by himself, is printed by Foxe under the year 1554 ; and a commentary upon it, pointing out several misstatements, is given in Strype's Memorials, vol. iii. Appendix, No. LVIII. This is signed, “By me, John Moyer,” and dated “At Wotton, this 18th of March, anno D'ni 1564 :” which Moyer (already mentioned in p. 88) had been the real author of the libel for which Bolton was prosecuted, and a fellow-sufferer with him. The same writer in his letter to master Purye, comments thus upon Thackham's statement in the text : “As touching his frendship towards John Bolton in prison, I am sure he never found any, as they that used to visit him can somewhat say; except you count this friendship that, he (Bolton) being bereft of his senses, Thackham brought him to yield unto the papists, and as a right member of them became his surety that he should be obedient unto them. And he (Bolton) being burdened in conscience therewith, fled away unto Geneva; in the which flying Thackham had nothing said unto him, which showeth that he was their instrument. And this [was his] friendship to John Bolton.” But this is partly contradicted in the “Informations gathered at Reading anno 1571,” in which it is stated that, “Bolton, of whom Thackham speaketh, was set at lybertie by sir Fraunces Inglefield, without any suerties, as appeareth in the storye of Bolton. Also Jhon Ryder of Readings capper and Wyll'm Dyblye weaver do beare witness therunto. And of this Bolton hymselfe, dwelling in Longe lane by Smythfield in London, can tell more. He ys a sylke weaver.”
page 97 note a William Edmunds, mayor of Reading in 1550, and previously in 1540; burgess for the town in the parliament of 14 Hen. VIII.
page 98 note a This was denied : “where it apereth that within five dayes before his swete sufferyng for the testimony of Christes truthe, he apoynted a faithfull frende of his, then a felow of Magdalen college, to be his laufull deputye or attorney to receave for him and to his use a certeyne some of money at the handes of Thomas Thackham skoolmaster at Readyng.” (Reply, f. 38.)
page 98 note b See a note in a subsequent page.
page 100 note a “That mr. Palmer was fet from the Cardinal hatt in the night tyme, contrary to Thackham's assertion, the goodwyffe of the Cardynall hatt, with her sonne in law Harrye Singleton, and Stephen Netherclief ostler of the howse then and yet, do beare witnesse. The tyme was, to theyr judgment, betwene x and xj of the clocke at night, or thereabowt.” Informations gathered in Reading, 1571.
page 100 note b “And whether Palmer called for a. close chamber or not, yt ys confessed by them of the howse that he was lodged in the closyst chambre in the howse, to wyt, in the chambre beyond the hall, and that there he was fetched owt. Also Stephen Nethercliefe the ostler saith that he called for a close chambre. The goodwyfe of the Cardynall hatt saith she was in a merveilous feare when they did fetch hym, and therfore belyke there were more than one seargeant.” (Ibid.) It is probable that at this period the ostler of an inn was one who had the direction of internal arrangements, and not merely of those of the stables.
page 101 note a In the Reply at this point is the following passage, which I quote for the sake of the remarkable notice of a Flanders lock which the simile presents : “Also, though you and youre confederates knewe not of his (Hampton) beyng there, yet either you alone, or you with some other, or youre confederates alone or with some other, knewe it. You allwayes seke to myngle thynges together when they should be severed, or to dissever them when they should be joyned together, to the entent you maye the better blynde the simplicitie of the matter, lyke unto the men that use to make soche Flaundyers lockes as be opened by order of certayne letters, who use to myngle other letters with those that serve to the purpose, to blynde and hynder them that seke to fynde out the true placyrig of the letters wherby the lockes are opened.” (f. 9.)
page 104 note a “Yet, when all is done, you buyld all your bravery herein upon the credyte of one poor catchepolle.” (Reply, f. 11.) I quote this merely to show that the terms Serjeant and catchpole were synonymous. In modern times our Serjeants of police are officers in command of inferior constables ; in the sixteenth century the Serjeants were the men under the orders of a commanding constable. See in Underbill's narrative hereafter, Newman the ironmonger serving as constable of the night watch at Newgate. The chief of the whole force was sometimes styled the headborougk.
page 104 note b In MS. and.
page 104 note c These words are supplied from the printed text of Foxe.
page 104 note d “The Golden Bear inn, a very old building, now a dwelling-house.” Coates, History of Reading, 1802, p. 332.
page 105 note a Sic MS. qu ? or whit.
page 105 note b In the Reply, this and nearly every other statement of Thackhani is discredited, and combated to the uttermost, and from point to point. As already stated, the special pleading, whether one side or the other was right, is not worth the space it would occupy. But many phrases and expressions are remarkable. And here the writer says, “but in dede this is another Banbury glose to make your cause probable.” (f. 12 b.)
page 106 note a Foxe altered this to “the procurement of certain false brethren (the Lord knoweth what they were), who had been conversant with Palmer, and robbed his study.”
page 107 note a “In deede, as the gatherers of this story, when they wrote it, had not heard that you were a minister, nor of what religion you were : so they knew full well that mr. Thackham of Dursley was bothe a learned devyne, a phisicion, and a godly preacher, and that he hathe a brother of the same name, not unlyke unto himselfe; and therefore in conscience they thought it their partes (seyng eache of theim is called Thomas) to exempt theim from the name of this quarell that perteyned nothing to theim. And yet is mr. Thackham of Duraley nothing the more beholdyng to theim for doyng this their duetye. Where in disdayne that you are not called ‘mr.’ you seme to signefy that you are of some degree of Schoole: trulye, although you be so, it foreeth not moche. Yet verely some do suppose that you are of greater degree of sehole than a cobler or a taylor, of whome you speake so contempteously and disdeynfully, as if no cobler nor taylor in England were worthy of the name of a master. Agayne, I doubt not but Bome shal be found that have bene taylors and coblers, and are at this present as worthy ministers as you.” (Reply, fol. 15.) The writer (f. 26) admits his knowledge that Thackham (his opponent) was also “a phisician.”
page 107 note b The letters patent were granted to Leonard Coxe in 1541, with a yearly pension of 10 li.: the same sum having been assigned to the school, out of the crown rents of the town, by king Henry VII. (Coates's History of Reading, pp. 16, 311.)
page 108 note a Leonard Cockes, or Coxe, author of The art or craft of Rhetoryke, 1532, and other works. (See memoirs of him in Coates's History of Reading, 1802, pp. 322–327; and Athenæ Cantabrigienses, 1858.)
page 108 note b Leonard Bilson, of Merton college, Oxford, M.A. 1546. He was uncle of dr. Thomas Bilson, bishop of Winchester. (See Coates's Reading, p. 327.)
page 108 note c John More was presented to the vicarage of St. Giles's by sir Francis Englefield, and instituted Nov. 14, 1540. He appears to have held it to 1561. (Coates's History of Reading, p. 350.)
page 109 note a In the “Informations gathered at Reading, 1571,” it is remarked that “Thackham speaketh of one Coxe in his answer; and the story meaneth another called William Coxe, the cooke which was Palmer's hoste.” This charge of presumed duplicity is thus enlarged upon in the Reply. “Now, as before you playde the sophister, blyndyng the truth somotyme with the difference and otherwhile with the confusion of tyme, place, and order of thinges, so here also you endevour to cast a myst before our eyes ex differentia personarum, convertyng your talke from that Coxe whiche is meant and touched in the storye, and applying it to another verye honest man of the same name, not meant nor spoken of, and now dead. Belyke you were so moche ashamed of your olde frende William Coxe, that is to(o) well knowen, and also by you confessed, to have bene a great doer against Palmer, that you thought best to bewtefle the deformitie of him with the honestye of a very godly man of the same name, and it is a worlde to se what peynes you take with many wordes to commend a verie good man, knowen to have bene so godly that he litle neded your prayses. But you would not have wrested the sence of the storye to this Coxe, nor praysed him so moche, savyng that you thought that the worthynes of his name would purchase great credite to your lyes and tales, and for every childe that knoweth you and William Coxe the cooke, that was Palmer's hoste, knoweth, that you could not do this by errour and ignorance, but of a set purpose to helpe up your market. And because you be very lothe to have your frende Coxe yet lyving to be knowen, or youre alone legerdemayn and craftie conveyaunce to be sene, whensoever you speake of William Coxe, or of any thing that concerneth him (as you do often), you never call him by his name, but sometyme he is the cooke, sometyme the woman's housband, sometyme Palmer's hoste, sometyme his hostesse’ housband; but his name you dissemble still, lyke a craftie crowder expert in these feates, not by wit and arte, but by often practice and long contynuaunce. You walk naked in a net, and thinke you go invysible, and yet you are afrayd of the light. The Lorde stryke your olde hearte with repentaunce before he pluck you awaye!” (fol. 16 b.)
page 109 note b So in MS. qu ? no.
page 110 note a “For Downer, I have heard no evil of him. For Gately, and Radley, now vicar of St. Lawrence [John Radley, instituted Nov. 29, 1535, resigned 1574,], and Bowyer a tanner, they three left no means unpractised to cateh and persecute the members of Christ, as I myself can well prove.” (Letter of John Moyer to master Purye.) Gateley was the man who, being the constable (see p. 117), really searched Palmer's study: which was in the school-house. (Informations, &c.)
page 110 note b matter in MS.
page 110 note c Blank in MS.
page 111 note a MS. yet.
page 111 note b “In the begynnyng of this section, you seke to dasyll our eyes in the clere daye, even as the fishe called a cuttell, to shift himselfe in the clere water that he maye not be sene, casteth foorth a certeyn black substance to darken the water, so you here, to hide the truthe from mennes eyes, cast foorth wordes to darken the true sence of the storie, and to leade awaye the reader's mynde to another meanyng ; for where as the storye sayth that by your procurement, when he was brought before the maior, dyverse crymes were layde to his charge, (whiche thing might have bene done without company, betwene the maior and and Palmer alone, or elles in the presence of fewe besydes,) yet you woulde the reader should thinke that the maior sate formally pro, tribunali; that Palmer, together with Thaokham, Gateley, Coxe, and Downer were solemply brought foorth ; that the playntif and defendant, with the witnesses, accordyng to forme of lawe, were openly called in the face the courte ; that the accuser pronounced openly against him; that the witnesses were formally charged, and did in open audience depose and testefye against him; that Palmer was openly convicted, the maior pronouncyng sentence against him in publique assembly, But the story importeth no soche thing; and the worlds knoweth that in those dayes fewe thinges were done formallye and justly, and that the martirs were hardly Suffered at that tyme to plead for theimselves openly, but that most thinges touchyng theim that professed the Gospel were handeled in hncher mucker against all order of lawes, reason, and conscience, &c.” (Reply, f. 19.) In an earlier passage the writer had expressed himself in the same way: “Many thinges were handeled in those dayes in hucker mucker, and with moche percialitie.”
page 112 note a servantes of God in Foxe.
page 112 note b Foxe.
page 112 note c a sower.
page 112 note d a procurer in Foxe.
page 113 note a Caversham bridge.
page 114 note a “The cage then stood over the entrance into the churchyard belonging to St. Lawrence's parish, and now forms part of mr. John Blandy's house: it was rented of the parish by the corporation, at the yearly rent of twelve-pence.” (Note in Man's History of Reading, 4to. 1816, p. 198.)
page 114 note b colorr in MS.
page 116 note a “Albeit you knowe not (as you saye) how Palmer clered himselfe, and be also certeyn that he clered not himselfe, as the storye reporteth, yet I woulde you should right well understand that the God of truthe hathe made it knowen to the godly: yea, heaven, earth, and hell shall, to his everlastyng comfort, and to the confusion of his enemyes, and all blooddye papistes, perceave and knowe, that, by the assistance of Groddes holye spirite the Comforter, he mightely and clerely confounded his enemyes and defended his owne innoceney against them.” (Reply, f. 21 b.)
page 116 note b MS. this.
page 117 note a “Where you doubt not but Gatelye is well liable to clere him selfe of this great robbery, you are the bolder so to saye, because he was at the tyme constable [see note in p. 110] and might do it by good authorite. Notwithstandyng, good men maye be bolde to call him thefe for his laboure, seyng that before God it was playne robbery ; and in the judgment of the Godly learned, that thinge maye well be sayd stollen, whiche is by fraude, sleight, or violence taken from a just man, even by an officer.” (Reply, f. 23.)
page 117 note b “The worst that ye could then do was to accuse him wrongfully, and to laye that thing to his charge, whiche if he woulde have renounced and forsaken, he might have lyved in earth more prosperously than ever you could, or have done, by often chaungyng your typpet and turnyng your coate.” (Reply, f. 28 b.)
page 118 note a Clement Burdett, rector of Englefield, before noticed.
page 118 note b See before, p. 74.
page 118 note c xvith in Foxe, edit. 1576, p. 1843.
page 120 note a Of Horton, co. Northampton : see a note in Machyn's Diary, p. 394.
page 120 note b Afterwards sir Christopher Yelverton, serjeant at law 1599, judge of the queen's bench 1602, died 1607 : ancestor of the earls of Sussex. See an account of him in Collins's Peerage, 1779, iv. 338.
page 120 note c “In deede S. Paul (whose example for a shewe to mocke an ape withall you bryng in) was never a tyrant, but a persecutor we reade he had bene : yet when he persecuted, he never bare ij. faces in one whoode, as yon did in quene Maries tyme, and God graunt you be voyde of it now !” (Reply, f. 26.)
page 121 note a See p. 108.
page 121 note b At the dissolution of monastic houses king Henry determined to maintain the abbey of Reading as a royal palace; and, though it was not often occupied in that capacity, yet we find king Edward VI. lodged there, as “the Kinges Place,” on his visit to the town in 1552, and king Philip and queen Mary in 1554. Camden says, “Themonastery, wherein king Henry the First was interred, has been converted into a royal seat; adjoining to which stands a fair stable stored with noble horses of the king's.” It was on account of this royal stable that mr. Ridges, the officer mentioned in the text, had his residence at Reading. The abbey was still regarded as royal property in 1650, when it was surveyed as parcel of the late possessions of king Charles : see Coates's Reading, p. 267.
page 121 note c To the north of the town, at the back of Friars’ street, in the map given in Coates's History of Reading, will be found fields called, The home Vastern, The little Vastern, and The farther Vasterns. There is now a short street called Vasterne street. Fasterne great park near Wotton Basset was subject to right of common for the inhabitants of that town, (see the Topographer and Genealogist, vol. iii. 1858, p. 22,) and perhaps the derivation of the name is from waste or common land, in the Latin vastum. Otherwise, they might be old inclosures in which cattle were kept fast.
page 121 note d “Master Rider of Reding, a faithfull favourer of Goddes gospell,” as Foxe terms him, who sent his servant to Palmer the night before his departure to Newbury, “with a bowed groat in token of his good harte towarde hym,” offering to provide him with any necessaries that he lacked. He has been mentioned before in p. 96, note b, as “John Ryder of Reading capper.”
page 122 note a Leonard Coxe: see before, p. 108. The patent granted to Coxe will be found in the Appendix.
page 123 note a Horsington is Horsenden in Buckinghamshire. The manor, with that of Saunderton; belonged to the family of Donne, but appears to have been temporarily held by Ralph Lee esquire. He presented to the rectory of Horsenden in 1554, and to that of Saunderton in 1572. In the latter year he received a grant of arms, being then styled of Saunderton. In that year also his wife Frances, daughter of Thomas Joanes, was buried in the Savoy church, London, Somerset herald attending. Ralph was the son of Thomas Lee, elder brother of Francis the grandfather of sir Thomas Lee who married the heiress of Hampden of Hartwell. His name, with that of his son and heir Edward, the pupil of Julins Palmer, occurs in the Lee pedigree. (Compare Lipscombe's Buckinghamshire, vol. i. p. 163, vol. ii. p. 334, vol. iii. pp. 626, 628.)
page 123 note b This occurrence of two prœnomina, so unusual at the period, is very remarkable. It seems to imply a relationship between Ralph Lee and the Donnes. Was his wife a widow of one of the Donne family ?
page 123 note c See before, p. 97.
page 123 note d Edward Butler was mayor of Reading in 1554, 1559, 1575, and 1581; and a fifth time (perhaps at the close of the mayoralty of a mayor dying when in office), according to his epitaph formerly in St. Lawrence's church: which will be found in Ashmole's Berkshire, and in Coates's Reading, p. 174. In Ashmole's time there existed brass-plates, now lost, representing master Butler in his gown, his wife, his three daughters and his grandchildren. He died July 7, 1584.
page 123 note e Thomas Turner was mayor in 1556, 1560, and 1567.
page 123 note f See before, p. 95.
page 124 note a Steward of the estates formerly belonging to Reading abbey, and now to the crown, (see before, p. 121.) In July 1552 the office of steward of the borough and lordship of Reading, and of the possessions of the late monastery, was granted to the marquess of Northampton. (MS. Reg. 18 C. XXIV. f. 244 b.) The same office was afterwards held by the family of Knollys, who resided in the mansion formerly the abbey, and there entertained queen Elizabeth for some days in the year 1572.
page 126 note a See pp. 74, 118.
page 126 note b Clement Burdett: see p. 95.
page 127 note a “At the last, to make your tale credible, you saye that one, you knowe not who (yet no man knewe the commissioners better then you), asked you, whether you were prevy to the letter that you delyvered, whereunto you saye that Palmer as a man yet once agayne willyng to dye, though he ranne awaye first from the sergeant, or rather as an impudent man, not content to write raylyng matter against hia prince and the lawes, but redely to advouche it, made quyck and spedy aunswere immediatly without any deliberacion or craving of pardon (as a desperate Dick desyrous to dye without cause), and boldly sayd, ‘Sir, I wrote it, and will stand to it. As for mr. Thackham he knewe not what it was. Quare si me queritis, sinite hunc abire.’ O trym tale ! now mr. Thackham (teste se ipso) is clered, and Palmer become giltie of his awne deathe ! But if Palmer did confesse it to be his letter and hand.writyng, why were you sent for and examyned aboute the writyng therof? shall we think that they did not first demaund of Palmer, whether he wrote the letter or no ? no doubte they did; wherunto when he had aunswered that he wrote it not, then were you immediatly sent for ; and to be playne with yon, it shalbe proved by the witnes of honest and godly men, that Palmer himselfe, beyng in prison, did greatlye complayne to his frendes, that he was betrayed, that his hand was counterfeated, and that Thackham had forged a letter in his name, and brought it to light, to cause him to be examyned of his conscience. And therewithall you presented also, accordyng to your awne tale, other thinges of his awne hand writyng, howbeit greatlye against his will, and not at his request, as you write.” (Reply, f. 32.)
page 128 note a John Bourn, mayor of Reading in 1546, 1547 and 1552 ; burgess in parliament for the town 6 Edw. VI. and 1 and 2 Philip and Mary.
page 128 note b “Where you saye that after that daye you never sawe him, I saye agayn, the lesse grace was in you, and the greater token it is that you had dealt Judasly with him; for elles, seyng (as you saye) that you were Palmer's great frende, and that the keper was his speciall good frende and yours also, it maye be thought you were either wicked, or very colde and without godly zeale and charitie, that in all the space that he laye in that dongeon, you would neither visit him, nor finde meanes once to beholde him along, as Peter folowed Christ. But, alas! Judas also never sawe Christes face after he had betrayed him.” (Reply, f. 32.)
Note.—Among the errors in Strype's copy of Thackham's defence, is that of misreading the date at its close, (p. 128,) as 1572 instead of 1571. This error occurs in the Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. iii. p. 356 and p. 362.