Add MS 48591

LETTER-BOOK, containing copies (ff. 14-172) irregularly arranged, with occasional inaccuracies, of correspondence, etc., of Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy (b. 1560, d. 1606), of West Harling, co. Norfolk, M.P. (son of the elder Bassingbourne Gawdy), and his fellow Commissioners of Musters for co. Norfolk; Aug. 1588 (f. 44)-6 Mar. 1603/4. Partly Latin. Apart from corresponding amongst themselves, the Commissioners dealt mostly with the Privy Council, but the letter-book also includes copies of royal Letters Patent, warrants, writs, letters, etc., addressed to the Commissioners and others, and warrants, letters, etc., mostly from them to the Chief Constables of the hundreds in, and the Justices of the Peace for, the county, and the Commissioners' correspondence not only with the Mayors, etc., of Norwich, Thetford, King's Lynn, and Yarmouth, but also with those of London, Bristol and Chester, mostly in connection with the despatch of soldiers from the county impressed for service in Ireland and of soldiers and sailors, both pressed men and volunteers, to Ostend and the Low Countries, with lists of men so despatched. In addition, the letter-book records petitions to the Commissioners, and examinations before them, and includes lists, accounts, regulations, etc., relating to officers, non-commissioned officers and men, both cavalry and infantry, of the trained bands of the county, with lists of arms, ammunition, etc., and notes of subsidies and payments for beacon-watch, etc., due from the hundreds of the county. After the accession of James I, however, the contents of the letter-book mostly relate to general county administration, though still including a proportion of entries relating to musters. Amongst other items in the letter-book are regulations for beacon-watch, 29 Aug. 1395 (ff. 66-67), closely resembling those of circ. 23 July 1324 printed by H. W. Saunders, The Official Papers of Sir Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey, Norfolk ... 1580-1620, Camden Third Series, xxvi, 1915, pp. 227-230, instructions for training troops, including examples of words of command, 3 May 1599 (ff. 17-18), a list of prices of arms and equipment, circ. 1601 (ff. 71-71b), and the names of the sheriffs of England for 1601-1602 (ff. 105b-106). Sir Nathaniel's name frequently occurs in the present MS., but his own papers on musters have been lost (Saunders, op. cit., p. xvii). Other material relating to musters for the county is printed in 'A Muster Roll and Clergy List in the Hundred of Holt, circa 1523', ed. B. Cozens-Hardy, Norfolk Archaeology, xxii, 1926, pp. 45-58, 'Muster Roll for the Hundred of North Greenhoe (circa 1523)', Norfolk Record Society,, i, 1931, pp. 40-68, 'The Musters of 1569, 1572, 1574, and 1577', Norfolk Record Society, vi, vii, 1935, 1936, and W. Rye, State Papers relating to Musters, Beacons, Shipmoney, &c., in Norfolk, from 1626 ... [to 1660] (Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, vol. xii), 1907. Other material relating to the Gawdy family is now Add. MSS. 14827, 14828, 27395-27399, 27457, ff. 48-51b, 34079, ff. 21- 26, 36989, 36990, 37535, 56103, Egerton MSS. 2713-2722, 2804, Add. Roll 16549, Add. Ch. 53512-53518, and Bodleian Tanner MS. 241. See also Hist. MSS. Comm., 7th Report, App., pp. 518-537, and 10th Report, App. ii. The present MS. supplements and partially duplicates Add. MS. 23007, the letter book of Sir Richard Jenkinson, Sheriff of Norfolk 1600-1601, and some of the originals of these letters, now Add. MS. 23007, ff. 12-39 passim, are copied in the present MS. at ff. 41b-72b passim, 132, 137-139b. Letters from Sir Bassingbourne and others to Sir Edward Clere and others, 1565-1622, n.d., are now Add. MS. 27960, a letter to the Privy Council, 28 July 1601, signed by the five Commissioners, now Add, MS. 29315, f. 3, is copied in the present MS. at f. 92b, and an order from the Privy Council to Sir Bassingbourne, 4 Aug. 1599, now Add. MS. 27909, f. 21, is copied at f. 20b. Earlier material relating to musters in Eynsford Hundred, April 1539, is now Add. MS. 36936. A duplicate of a letter of the Privy Council, a copy of which is now Stowe MS. 150, f. 182, also appears at ff. 150-150b of the present MS. See also Acts of the Privy Council of England, new series, xvi-xxxii, 1897- 1907. The letter-book proper is preceded (ff. 10-13) by an abstract of each of the 280 or so items for the reign of Elizabeth I, and followed (ff. 173-175) by a list of the sheriffs for Norfolk and Suffolk, temp. Elizabeth I. The fifty-seven items for the reign of James I, though similarly numbered, are not listed. At the beginning of the MS. (ff. 1-5) is a slightly imperfect 16th cent copy of regulations for the household of George, Duke of Clarence, made at Waltham Abbey, 10 Dec. 1468, with notes of fees and perquisites for his household (ff. 5b-6b) and the establishment of horses and mules for the stable (ff. 7-8), and a note of his marriage, etc., 11 July 9 Edw. IV [ 1469] (f. 9), and at the end, reversing the volume, a slightly imperfect copy (ff. 177b- 176b) of a list and valuation of the manors and other property of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, circ. 1533-1534, followed (f. 175) by a few imperfect financial notes, Michaelmas 1571, mentioning the writer's brothers John and Ralf, the second of whom cannot however be identified with Sir Bassingbourne's cousin Ralf Gawdy. See P. Millican, 'The Gawdys of Norfolk and Suffolk', part i, Norfolk Archaeology, xxvi, 1938, p. 347. Paper and (f. i) vellum; ff. i+177. 260 mm.X365 mm. xvII cent. F. i comprises a single leaf, 220 mm.X305 mm., of a Sarum Antiphoner, containing part of the third nocturn of Matins and the beginning of Lauds for Good Friday, late 14th cent.: see W. H. Frere, Antiphonale Sarisburiense, 1901-1924, iii, pp. 226-228. The MS. has at some time suffered from damp, which has caused the loss of parts of the text. Presented by T. S. Blakeney,

Esq., through the Friends of the National Libraries, together with Add. Ch. 75321-75327.