Stowe MS 141

ff. 1r–86v: Original papers, warrants, official and private letters, from the reigns of Henry IV to James I and VI. The volume includes several letters from abbots of monasteries before the Dissolution, the reports to the Privy Council of Commissioners appointed to take account of Church goods in 1552–1553, and other historical documents.

f. 1v: Note explaining the designs on the original binding. Stamped in two panels are the royal arms and the devices of John Reynes, bookbinder to King Henry VIII. These bindings have been inlaid on the inside covers.

ff. 2r–v: Title page and a list of contents (written in the same hand as the note about the binding).

ff. 3r–4r: Holograph warrant in French from Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV, to William Loveney, Clerk of his Wardrobe, to supply Jak Davy with cloth for a gown for Davy's father, in addition to gowns already allowed for himself, his mother and his wife, 13 August [1380–1397], Hertford. With signet seal, surrounded with a wisp of plaited grass. f. 4r is a modern note about the letter.

ff. 5r–v: Letter from Thomas Clare, Chancellor of Oxford University to the Privy Council, in favour of John Bathe, a scholar of the University, accused of assaulting Thomas Coule, a burgess of Oxford, no date [1416–1418].

ff. 6r–v: Instructions from [Richard], Duke of York (d. 1460) to ‘John Grave, John Gibland, Thomas Barbour, John Copdoo, and to the Remenant of the Juree empanelled upon an assise betwen the lord Ferieres [Ferrers] of Groby and Thomas Ferieres squier in co. Essex’, praying them ‘to appere and ioyne in the saide enquest for þe deliuerance of þe same assise at þe day aforesaide without any longer delay’, 17 September [no year], Castle of Sandal, York.

ff. 7r–v: Letter from William, Abbot of Stratford, to the Abbot of Bordesley, advising him to pay the subsidy ‘of dubble contributions to be paid of all monasteryes . . . . for diverse considerations concernyng the weale of our religion and defence of our privileges Stratford’, ‘Mydlent Sonday’, [no year, c. reign of Henry VII].

ff. 8r–v: Note of the Grant by Henry VIII to Walter Devereux, Baron Ferrers (of Chartley), of the office of Steward of various lordships in the Welsh Marches, and of the Crown lands in the counties of Stafford, Salop, and Chester, late belonging to Edward [Stafford], Duke of Buckingham, 21 March [1522]. Addressed to William Brewerton, Groom of the Privy Chamber.

ff. 9r–v: Letter from T[homas Ruthall], Bysshop of Duresme [Durham] to [Thomas Grey,] Baron Ferrers of Groby, ‘commending to him his suit against John Nyghtyngale, of Leicester, chapman, for the price of certain beasts and sheep, the defendant pleading that he bad already paid’, 5 September [1509¬–1523], York.

ff. 10r–v, 11v: ‘Articles to move the Kynges grace of, against th'abbot of Chester"; [circ. 1528-1529]. Among other matters, the abbot is accused of refusing to render account to the auditor of goods he had received from certain monks who had died in the monastery of St Albans and from Redbourne Priory, although often called upon to do so, ‘whiche he in no wyse wold do, but contynually by craffty dryftes draweforth the tyme, myndyng wt his fayre and flateryng wordes alweyes to have overcomme the said auditor.’ He is also charged with having Thomas Hewes, alias Sibbethorne continue in his service, who had ‘stroke oon William Leycetour, gent., also servaunt to the said abbot, in the hod wt a dagger, upon the whiche strooke he dyed.’

ff. 12r–v: Letter from Oliver [Adams], Abbot of Combe to the Recorder of Coventry, reporting the result of an inquiry by Dr [Thomas?] Lee and others, into certain disputes between the Abbot and Convent of Vale Royal, Chester, 21 January [c. 1529–30].

ff. 13r–v: Letter from Henry VIII to the Abbot of Bordesley concerning his treatment of Humfrey Androwes, servant of the Princess [Mary], quartered upon the abbey on the dissolution of the Princess's household in Wales, ‘yeuen onder our signet with the said counsaill [of the Princess], at Ludlow Castle, 19 November [1531].

ff. 14r–v: Signed acquittance from Lord Leonard Grey to the Abbot of Bordesley for four marks " for two yeres fee’, 8 June [1534].

ff. 15r–v: Letter from William Wise to Sir Jolin Russell on the state of Ireland, the following passages being included: " If the Kinges grace help not this land or cristmas, we ar al like ether to fie or alter our allegeaunce, and of trouth it is so litel that it may be sone lost. . . . O nele wth al his power, o conor & o rely wth al ther affynyte, ar redy to invade thenglishry, which if they so do, xxmli. shal not reduce it to thys estate again, c. 1534.

ff. 16r–v: Letter from W[illiam, 4th Baron] Mountjoy to his father-in-law, Sir William Say, asking for venison, etc., for the wedding of William Uvedale, his servant, with Jane Dansey, his wife's gentlewoman, with the postscript, ‘Syr, I requyre you, as shortely as you convenyentley maye, you wyll certefy me what nomber of men I shalhave owte of Hertefordshyre, ande what personages they be, ande howe many bowes ande howe many bylles’, 6 May [before 1535], Greenwich.

ff. 17r–v: Letter from [Sir] Richard Ryche, [Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations,] to [Thomas] Myldemay, Commissioner for the Suppression of Monasteries, directing him to dissolve the nunnery of Cheshunt and deliver the same to Anthony Denny, Esquire, 27 May [1526], London.

ff. 18r–34v: Letters to Sir William Brereton, Steward of the Holt [Welsh Marches] and Chirkland (1527–1536), Chamberlain of the Palatinate of Chester (1531-1536), Groom of the King's Privy Chamber (beheaded 1536), from the following:

ff. 18r–v: Letter from Robert Acurs, 19 December [no year], Berkeswell Park.

ff. 19r–v: Letter from ‘John [Touchet, 8th] Lord Audelay’ [Audley], complaining that ‘oon Cooke being Regester to my lord of Wynchestre and Keper of the Forest of Bear’ had obtained a royal warrant for 100 deer to be drawn from the New Forest, and chiefly from the walks of his brother James [Touchet], 16 November [no year], Wade.

ff. 20r–21v: Gylbert Godbehere, ‘dwellyng In the Abbay of Chester’ asking for protection against his ill-treatment by the Abbot, 16 June [no year], Chester.

ff. 22r–v: Letter from Richard Leftwiche, Constable of the Holt, no date.

ff. 23r–v: Letter from Leyson Thomas, Abbot of Neath, giving a report of his enquiry made at the request of [Henry Fitzroy], Duke of Richmond (d. 1536), ‘at hys monastery of Vallys Crucis in Yale’ [county of Denbigh], into the alleged malpractices of the Abbot there, ‘scryblyd at Vallis Crucis’, 17 February [no year].

ff. 24r–v: Letter from John Norbery, desiring him ‘to sende to the Whitt Hynde withoute Cripylgate in London for the Abbot of Neyth and speke wt hym to appoynte a daye to come to the Abbey of Vala Crucis’, etc., 26 June [no year].

ff. 25r–v: Letter from [Sir] William Pole [Sherifir of co. Chester, 1527], in favour of a suit of James Ketill, his kinsman, etc., 31 October [no year], Pole [Poole, Chester].

ff. 26r–v: Letter from John Puleston, Serjeant-at-arms, Constable of Caernarvon, etc., concerning the office of Sheriff of Caernarvon, and complaining that ‘John ap Madoc ap Hoell, which ys deputye to Sir Hugh Vaghan, doys impanelle theffes & wreches to yndite my servants and baillifes’, 9 July [no year], Caernarvon.

ff. 27r–28v: Letter from John Puleston on the state of county Merioneth, of which he is Sheriff, 21 October [no year] and 12 November [no year], Caernarvon.

ff. 29r–31v: Three letters from Edward Smytting, on money matters in connection with a ‘faulse pryest and his broder’, etc., and begging him to procure him the king's protection, 3 March [no year], Chester; 28 November [no year], Westminster, 13 April [no year], Chester.

f. 32r: Letter from Hugh Starky, St Bartholomew's Day [no year], Darley.

ff. 33r–v: W. Walsshe to ‘his brother Wylliam Brereton’, asking for his interest with the King for his brother Sir Edward Walsshe, ‘whiche ys a priste and stewdythe at Cambryge’, when the living of Hanworth should become vacant, no date.

f. 34r: Letter from ‘All ye Kynges true tenaunts of Kenlleth and Moghnant in Chirkland’ to the ‘Master Stuard of Chirkland’ [William Brereton], complaining that ‘thay be dayly and nyghtly robbyd and thare goodes and catelles stollyn . . . and all in defawte of good officers’, etc., no date.

ff. 35r–v: Letter from John Salomon to ‘my Lord Abbot off Borslay’ [Bordesley], 22 January [1537].

f. 36r: Declaration of eight of the Bishops of the Church of England recognising the jurisdiction of Christian Princes in ecclesiastical matters; [1538]. Signed by T[homas Cranmer, Archbishop of] Canterbury; Cuthbert [Tunstall, Bishop of ] Durham; John [Stockesley, Bishop of] London; Jo[hn Clerk, Bishop of] Bath and Wells; Thomas [Goodrich, Bishop of] Ely; Nicholas [Shaxton, Bishop of] Salisbury; Hugh [Latimer, Bishop of] Worcester; and J[ohn Hilsey, Bishop of] Rochester.

ff. 36*r–v: Notes in a modern hand related to the previous item (the same hand who wrote the notes about the original bindings inlaid in the volume).

ff. 37r–v: Notes of one of the Commissioners for the Visitation of Monasteries, on the condition, etc., of certain Houses in co. Lincoln, namely Grimsby, Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Boston, and Bardney, c. 1538. The note on Bardney is as follows, ‘To know all so what shalbe done wt the bells, lede, & soperflose byldynges of bardeney, wyche hathe stoud hole thys xii monthys, & as I tak it to no purpos; yt ys nether fayre nor howlsome and the fennys buttes one yt; the lede ys letyllysse worthe than a thowsand marke.’

ff. 38r–v: Signed letter from Thomas Cromwell [Baron Cromwell, 1536, Earl of Essex, 1539], Secretary of State, to the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, requesting him to take steps to apprehend certain pirates, 1 April [before 1539], London.

ff. 39r–v: Letter from William Paulet [Marquis of Winchester, 1551], Lord High Treasurer, to Randolph Brereton, with certain directions on the part of the king, ‘and in case you breke with me in theise thinges I shal surely take another order that wil discontent you’, 10 March [before 1539], London.

ff. 40r–v, 41v: Letter from [Sir] Oliver Wallop, keeper of Christchurch Castle to Sir John Gates, Vice-Chamberlain to Henry VIII, to whom the king had granted the castle, with the chase of Stourfield, 2 July [1543], Farley.

ff. 42r–v: Letter from William Latymer, Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford to the Abbot of Bordesley, 29 July [before 1545], Oxford.

ff. 43r–v: Signed letter from Charles [Brandon, Duke of] Suffolk, to Walter Walsche, Groom of the Privy Chamber, agreeing to the appointment of Henry Wingfield, as Comptroller of Ipswich, in the place of Sir Edward Echingham, 14 July [1514–1545], Butley.

ff. 44r–v: Letter from Harry Wyngfeld to Walter Welche on the proposed appointment of the former to the Comptrollership of Ipswich, 5 July [no year], Ipswich.

ff. 45r, 46v: Letter from John Bakere and John Pakyngton to the Duke of Norfolk, sending an award between Lady Brereton and her younger sons and Ranulph Brereton, her eldest son, 28 July [no year], London.

ff. 47r–v: Letter from [Harry Bywatter ?] to his ‘cosyn Sir Thomas Arundoll, Knyght’, no date. ff. 48r–v: Letter from Henry [Grey, Marquis of] Dorset, to his ‘cosyn Arundell’ [Sir Thomas Arundel?], lamenting the decay of his ‘game and plesur’ in Porlock, Somerset, and requesting Arundel to see ‘that hit schalbe schortly in sume better sorte and order’, 27 January [1530–1551], Westminster Palace.

ff. 49r–v: Robert Fenne to Sir William Say, begging that he may have his money, ‘as ye knowe well is due to me by your bille’, ‘Stapelford Tany at moder in lawes maner in Essex, uppon Seynt Peter Evyn’ [no year].

ff. 50r, 51v: Letter from Katharine Heneage [wife of Thomas Heneage, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber] to Sir Thomas Arundel, desiring him to deliver to Heneage's chaplain ‘all suche evydences and wrytynges as dothe apperteyne to Seynt Mary Magdalene in Hollowey besydes Bathe’, 18 February [no year], Westminster.

ff. 52r–v: Letter from Sir George Holford [Sheriff of co. Chester, 1524] to Sir Robert Southwell, as examiner of 'recognysances madefor fynes of outlawres’, beseeching him to ‘be good master to me, for so hit was that I was outlawde oppon a feynyde accion in the kynges dais that dede is’ [Henry VII], 25 August [c. 1510].

ff. 53r–54v: Two letters from Robert Smyth to John Ferrers of Tamworth. The first concerns the presentation to the benefice of Stook, and the second has news of the expected arrival of Philip of Spain, etc., 15 February [no year], London and 21 June [1554], London.

ff. 55r–v: Letter from William Thynne [Master of the King's Kitchen] to [Walter] Walshe [Groom of the Privy Chamber], acknowledging his interest on behalf of one Robert ap Raynold, ‘wherfor eftsonez I hertyly thancke you’, 16 July [no year], Windsor.

ff. 56r–v: Letter from Bryan Tuke [Treasurer of the Privy Chamber] and Sir Richard Lyster [Attorney General] to ?, agreeing that a lease be made to William Brereton of certain manors, lands, etc., recovered to the king's use against Sir John Savage, St Andrews Day [c. 1525], London.

ff. 57r, 58v: Letter from [John Wyndors?] to Sir Thomas Arundel, concerning a debt due to him from the Abbot and Prior of Cliffe for corn and cattle, no date.

ff. 59r–70v: Reports to the Privy Council of the Commissioners appointed to take account of Church goods, as follows:

ff. 59r, 60v: John Prise, George Cornwall, and Thomas Domsey, Commissioners for Hereford, reporting on the plate, etc., in Hereford Cathedral, 19 May 1553.

ff. 61r–v, 62v: Thomas Warde and Edward Barton, Bailiffs of Derby, and Thomas Sutton, Commissioners for the town of Derby, 26 May 1553.

ff. 63r, 64v: Thomas [West, 9th Baron] La Warre, and others, for Sussex, reporting only on the Rape of Bramber. 30 May 1553.

ff. 65r, 66v: William Vavasour, Francis Frobiser, and others, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, 2 June 1553.

ff. 67r, 68v: Sir Peter Carew, Sir Gawain Carew, and Anthony Harvey, for Devon, 16 June 1553.

ff. 69r, 70v: Myles [Coverdale, Bishop of] Exeter, Sir Peter Carew, and others, for the city and county of Exeter, 16 June 1553.

ff. 71r–v: Robert Kyrkham, Commissioner for Church goods, to Sir Walter Mildmay, reporting that he has summoned certain of the inhabitants of Peterborough to appear before ‘the Kyngs Commyssyoners for a certtyne crose of Sylver, the wyche the [sic.] solde by the consent of the hole towne for the reparynge of ther bryge and also of ther churchs’, Fineshed, 18 June [1553]. With a note by Mildmay.

ff. 72r, 73v: Sir Edmund Peckham to Sir Walter Mildmay, Surveyor General of the King's lands, recommending the suit of two of his ‘poure neygbours’ at Bitlesden, 20 June 1553, Denham.

ff. 74r–75v: Speech of Sir Walter Raleigh on the scaffold [29 October 1618], with the verses ‘Even such is time’, etc., said to have been written by him the night before his death.

At the end of the manuscript (ff. 76r–82r) are transcripts of the following:

ff. 76r–v: Letter from Henry de Lasci, Earl of Lincoln to Edward I, 2 October [1301], ‘Gaveie sur Creche’ [Galloway]. In French.

f. 77r–v: Letter from [Thomas de Hatfield,] Bishop of Durham, [William de Bohun,] Earl of Northampton, and other nobles attending the king in France, to the Lords of Parliament, 8 September [1346], Calais. In French.

ff. 78r–79r: Appointment of Thomas Wriothesley and Ralph Sadler as Principal Secretaries of State [1539].

ff. 80r–v: Opinion of the Judges and the Privy Council concerning Lord Dacre's lands, and other information from ‘the Council resident at London to the Lords of the Kings Majesty's Council at the Court [at Dunstable] 8 July 1541.’

ff. 81r–82r: Two letters from Thomas [Cranmer, Archbishop of] Canterbury to Henry VIII, 11 April 1533, Lambeth, and 12 May 1533, Dunstable.

f. 83v: Notes in a modern hand about the printed pages following, which were taken from Sloane MS 1523.

ff. 84r–v, 86r–v: Printed pages; notes on eminent men, including Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir John Cheke.