Add MS 78171

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. IV (ff. 53). Accounts for works at Deptford, Portsmouth and Gillingham, etc.; 1562-1564; with some family and estate papers, 1572-1577. Partly drafts.

1. Accounts for works at Deptford, Portsmouth and Gillingham; 1562-1564, 1590. See also Bodleian MSS Rawl. A 200-202. From Evelyn MSS 68, 69 and 283. ff. 37. Viz: (a) ff. 8+2. Accounts for carriage of timber to Deptford; 8, 30 June-8 Nov. 1562. In the sewn gathering the contractors are named as Henry Bamford, George Bridges, John Leech and Henry Austin. A separate bifolium copied in the same hand, bearing entries dated 8 June that were later deleted by crossing through, is annotated ‘per S Alexaundre for mydsomer quarter 1562’. A final note of payment to Leech dated 30 Oct. 1562 is added in another hand. Found loose in Evelyn MS 68; - (b) ff. 8. Accounts for work on named vessels at Portsmouth in Michaelmas and Christmas Quarters; 1 Oct.-31 Dec. 1562. Each page is signed below the accounts by William Holstock and William Wynter, with an additional item signed by Holstock; - (c) ff. 16. ‘[Thomas] Morleys acompte for Charges Sustened as well in groundinge of the quens mats Shippes at portesmouthe docke as allso in perfiteing of the Jennetes docke for the brengyng in of the harte / which Charges begane and monye defraid Sens aprell Laste / 1563 and in Cluded in mydsommer quarter endinge the fyue of June’. Partly deleted by crossing through, and bearing occasional marginal notes in another hand. On the verso of the final leaf is a statement of the final account, with Morley’s autograph note of receipt, 6 Nov. 1563. Inserted loose are two bills, 1561 and n.d., bearing orders to Morley for payment, signed by William Wynter, 12 Aug. 1563. Docketed on first page in Evelyn’s hand ‘MSS 12. Accompts’, and in modern pencil ‘MS. [292 deleted] 183’; - (d) f. 1. Draft accounts for Deptford and Gillingham dockyards from Lady to Christmas Quarters 1562. Found loose in Add. MS 78170; - (e) f. 1. ‘Tho Willson his Reconyng To Ende the Last of December 1562 for victualls’, 1 March-31 Dec. 1562. Found loose in Add. MS 78170; -(f) f. 1. Receipt by Richard Dethick for payment by Gonson of his father ‘John Dethickes Reconnynge made the xv^th Daie of June. 1564’ for work done in Michaelmas and Christmas quarters 1563. Found loose in Add. MS 78170; - (g) Note of wages paid to artisans in the docks, storehouses and ‘trynete harre’ and of rent paid for the great dock and charterhouse at ‘brychyngsaye’ [?Birchington-on-sea’, a member of the Cinque Ports], with note in a different hand ‘entred in Colne in Mighellmas quarter 1563 per S. Alexsaunder’. Docketed `A cope of the gret boke for the charges at colne begone the fyrst daye of July & Endyd the last of September’. Origin uncertain.

2. ff. 14. Family and estate papers of Benjamin Gonson, the elder; etc.; 1572-1577. These relate partly to the manor of Fritwell, co.Oxon., formerly granted to William Gonson in 1530, that devolved through his son Christopher (d. 1553) to his grandson Benjamin (d. 25 June 1576), and of which the Earl of Rutland was lord: see VCH Oxon., VI, 1959, p. 138: (a) ff. 3. Receipt of sums from named tenants in Fritwell and Somerton, co. Oxon., for twelve-year leases granted to them at Michaelmas; 24 Oct. 1572. Signed by Benjamin Gonson the elder and Sir John Hawkins. With a contemporary copy; - (b) f. 1. Receipt by Roger Wood, servant of the Earl of Rutland, to the elder Gonson and Sir John Hawkins for two hundred marks in full payment for the Earl’s lease of the manor of Fritwell, co. Oxon.; Rolls Chapel, 29 Sept. 1573. Copied on the verso and recto of a leaf bearing memoranda in a different hand ‘To Enquier for’ an Act of Parliament in 28 Henry VIII [1536] and the restitution of the Earl of Rutland’s lands by Queen Mary, [1553]; - (c) ff. 2. Memorandum by Thomas Ellis of an agreement between Benjamin Gonson the elder and [Edmond] Hopcroft for the purchase by Hopcroft of two tenements in Fritwell, with one close in the occupation of Benjamin Gonson of Fritwell; n.d., [circa 1573]; - (d) ff. 2. Letter of Benjamin Gonson of Fritwell to his uncle, Benjamin Gonson the elder, rel. to his outstanding debt; 8 April 1575; - (e) ff. 2. Letter of [?Florence] Harle to Gonson [the younger? (his will 1 Sept. 1594, with ratification of 25 May 1600, signed by him on each page, is now Add. MS 74210)], following the death of ‘your Cozen & my loving sonne in lawe’, Benjamin Gonson of Fritwell, relating to the debt inherited by his widowed daughter; Duddington, 27 June 1576; - (f) ff. 2. letter of John Edmondes to Gonson at Great Baddow rel. to twenty marks owed to ‘my sister [i.e. sister-in-lawe] your poor kinswoman [gonson]’; ‘From yo^r howse in Tower Streat’, 21 Aug. 1577; - (g) ff. 17. Six letters, etc., in Spanish, dated from Gran Canaria, mostly dated 2 Dec. 1549. Writers include Don Rodrigo Manrique de Acuna, Pedro Aron and Juan de Claderon. Also included is a bill of lading in English for goods to be transported Gran Canaria to Rouen, partly for delivery to merchants of Lyon. Formerly Evelyn MS 290; found with Add. MS 78244 below. Two other mercantile documents of 1547 (an inventory) and 1549 are amongst the Evelyn estate papers in Surrey History Centre.