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Rowland Whyte, Elizabethan Letter-Writer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
Extract
Few Letters of any age have proved so useful as those of Rowland Whyte in the last years of the reign of Elizabeth and the first of that of James I. From their first appearance in 1746 in the Letters and Memorials of State edited by Arthur Collins, no contemporary, unless it be John Chamberlain, has so often been quoted for succinct, apposite information regarding the personages and events of the era. Yet Whyte himself has been noticed only in brief footnotes: one by Collins, and a later and largely inaccurate one by Edmund Lodge.
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References
1 Collins, Arthur, Letters and Memorials of State (London, 1746)Google Scholar.
2 Lodge, Edmund, Illustrations of British History (London, 1791), III, 242–243 Google Scholar.
3 Collins, II, 4.
4 Dwnn, Lewys, Heraldic Visitations of Wales, ed. Sir Meyrick, S. R. (Llandovery, 1846), II, 186–187 Google Scholar. Lodge says that Rowland Whyte was the son of Griffith Whyte of Nigol in Caernarvonshire, and implies that Rowland Whyte was born there.
5 Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury … Part XI (Dublin, 1906, H.M.C.), p. 100. I do not know that he ever received this appointment.
6 Hubert Languet, Epistolae adPhillipum Sydneium, ed. Lord Hailes (Edinburgh, 1776), Letters LXXK and LXXXVI, pp. 233-234, 256. The index entry is under Rolandus and is glossed: ‘Roland Whyte, Sydneiorum famulus: vir fidei, probatae, et patronis cams’.
7 Collins, 1, 271; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 94-95 (in part).
8 Collins, 1, 246 and 271.
9 Collins, I, 272.
10 Languet, Hubert, Correspondence of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet, Pears, S. A. (London, 1845), pp. 163–164 Google Scholar.
11 Collins, 1, 285-286.
12 Ibid., 1, 285.
13 Ibid., 1, III.
14 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 63, 69. He may also be the Mr. Whyte referred to in 1580 who delivered in London a report from Sir Henry Sidney about affairs in Anglesey (Collins, 1, 277). A Captain Henry Whyte died in Flushing in 1589, and seems to be the man who had served the Sidney family so faithfully. On 15 September of that year, Sir William Borlase wrote to Sir Robert Sidney: ‘I am very sory to heare of the Death of my very good Freinde Captene Henry White, in whome I knowe your Lordship hath lost a very good Servaunt. I woulde wishe your Lordship to take some Care whom yow admit into the Place which yow had appointed for him, for that he had neede be a Man of some Governement that shall occupie that Roome’ (Collins, 1, 299). As an instance of the kind of summary generally used in the De L'Isle and Dudley Papers, this appears as: ‘I am sorry to hear of the death of Capt. Henry White; he had need be a man of some government to occupy that room’ (II, 103).
15 The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney, ed. A. Feuillerat (Cambridge, 1923), III, 130. Collins (1, 283) reads Circuite for fruite and N. Whyte for H. White. Fueillerat, however, in a note, says that ‘H. White might be N. White'. I am confident that the reference is to Henry Whyte.
16 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 331 and 458.
17 Ibid., II, 160.
18 Ibid., II, 385.
19 Ibid., II, 386.
20 Dwnn, II, 187.
21 Griffith, J. E., Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (Horncastle, 1914), P. 243 Google Scholar.
22 A manuscript transcript in the Society of Genealogists’ Library in London, transcribed for me by Miss P. W. Shield of London.
23 Lodge, III, 243. If Lodge is correct and if at some later time Whyte did marry Anne Pilcher, it may explain a number of references to the births and burials of children of a Rowland and an Anne Whyte, all in early childhood or infancy, in the Register of St. Martin-in-the-Fields during the 1620s (Harleian Society, LXVI). I do not believe this was the letter-writer. Lodge states that Rowland Whyte was survived by an only son, William. I have not found this name elsewhere as a son. The sons of Rowland as given by Dwnn and Griffith are found in many later accounts in Wales.
24 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 413. In passing, it may be noted that Burke's, A. M. Memorials of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster (London, 1914), p. 310 Google Scholar, lists the marriage of a Rowland Whyte to a Jane Bell, 8 June 1600, but this is more than a year later than die date given in Whyte's own letter. Nor does this marriage with Jane Bell agree with the accounts in the register of St. Martin-in-the-Fields of children of a Rowland and Anne Whyte. The register (Harleian Society, XXV, 268) also lists the christening of a Rowlandus Whyte on 26 December 1599, but does not give the names of the parents. This date does not agree with any other I have found.
25 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 471, 473, 474.
26 Ibid., II, 474.
27 Collins, II, 213: De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 481.
28 De L'Isle and Dudley, n, 177,178; 170-172,180,183, etc., deal with Catcher's house.
29 Collins, II, 24, 25; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 242, 245. Collins gives Bernes for Berries.
30 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 384.
31 Ibid., II, 381, 470, 477.
32 Ibid., II, 470.
33 Ibid., II, 267.
34 Lodge, III, 345.
35 Ibid., I, 9.
36 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1598-1601, p. 213.
37 C.S.P.D., 1603-10, p. 87.
38 Ibid., pp. 210, 222.
39 Exchequer Proceedings concerning Wales in Tempore James I, ed. T. I. J. Jones (Cardiff, 1955). PP. 6-7.
40 De L'Isle and Dudley, I, 15.
41 Calendar of Wynn (of Gwydir) Papers 1515-1600 (Cardiff, 1926), p. 207.
42 Exchequer Proceedings concerning Wales, p. 46. A reference to Whyte in 1609 is given in the Commons Debates, ed. Wallace Notestein (New Haven, 1933), VII, 441. A commission to several persons, including Whyte, and to ‘all justices of peace and town officers’, gives orders about grain too musty for food that could now be released for the making of starch.
43 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1603-10, p. 14; Addenda, 1580-1625, p. 424; Breese, Edward, Kalendars of Guynedd, Chronological Lists of Lords Lieutenants, etc. (London, 1873), p. 127 Google Scholar.
44 Calendar of Wynn of Gwydir Papers, p. 165.
45 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611-18, p. 252.
46 Ibid., p. 555; C.S.P.D., 1619, p. 236.
47 Calendar of Wynn of Cwydir Papers, p. 128.
48 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1625-6, p. 49.
49 C.S.P.D., 1628-9, pp. 29, 115.
50 Calendar of Wynn of Gwydir Papers, pp. 176-177.
51 Acts of the Privy Council, 1626, June-Dec, pp. 113-114.
52 Archaeologia Cambrensis, Ser. I, Vol. IV (1849), 284.
53 Acts of the Privy Council, n.s. XXIX, 1598-9, p. 192.
54 A.P.C., n.s. XXXI, 1600-1, p. 13.
55 A.P.C. 1613-1614, pp. 134-135, 257, 485-486.
56 A.P.C. 1615-1616, pp. 11, 259, 672, etc.
57 Lodge, III, 242, 259.
58 Salisbury MSS., Part XIV (London, 1923), p. 164.
59 For Sir Stephen Le Sieur, see my ‘Sir Stephen Le Sieur and Sir Philip Sidney’, Modem Language Quar. XVII (1956), 340-351.
60 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 387, a letter of 1 September 1599.
61 Ibid., II, 322, a letter of 15 February 1598.
62 Ibid., II, 415, a letter of 13 November 1599.
63 Ibid., II, 425.
64 Collins, 1, 385; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 205 (in part).
65 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 427.
66 Ibid., II, 461.
67 Ibid., II, 461.
68 Ibid., II, 481.
69 This passage is quoted above, p. 222.
70 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 481.
71 Ibid., II, 475.Jests= (lists of) the stages of the progress.
72 Ibid., II, 205, 381.
73 Lodge, III, 311.
74 Collins, II, 216; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 484 (in part).
75 Collins, II, 220.
76 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 225.
77 Ibid., II, 319.
78 Ibid., II, 191.
79 Ibid., II, 243-244.
80 Collins, 1, 285.
81 Ibid., II, 94.
82 Ibid., II, 215; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 484 (in part).
83 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 164. For Sir William Sidney, oldest son of Sir Robert, see my ‘Ben Jonson's “To Sir William Sidney, on his Birthday” ‘, Modern Language Rev. LII (1957), 168-176. For the daughter named Philip, see my ‘Ben Jonson's Epigram CXIV, to Mistress Philip Sidney’, Jour, of English and Germanic Philology XLV (1946), 214-217.
84 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 176.
85 Collins, 1, 366; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 191.
86 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 223.
87 Ibid., II, 241. A later letter says that Lady Sidney is still troubled with the ‘tooth ake, and Mrs. Bess Sidney hath an ague, but Mrs. Kat. is recovered of the yellow jawniss’ (ibid., II, 246).
88 Collins, II, 26.
89 Ibid., II, 44.
90 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 437.
91 Collins, II, 190.
92 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 409.
93 Collins, II, 199; De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 467.
94 De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 452.
95 The entire incident is from De L'Isle and Dudley, II, passim.
96 Collins, II, 218; greatly altered and condensed in De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 488.
97 Collins, II, 219; likewise greatly abbreviated in De L'Isle and Dudley, II, 489.
98 Collins, II, 11.
99 Ibid., II, 369-370.
100 Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, s.v. Leicester. The first Countess of Leicester died in 1621. Sir Robert Sidney, first Earl of Leicester, died in 1626, aged sixty-two. He had married again the same year.
101 Register of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 1619-36 (London, 1936, Harleian Society, LXVI), p. 268.