Harley MS 1576

A volume of copies of state and law papers, letters, speeches, cases and axioms, with some epitaphs, verse and miscellaneous material. In more than one hand, with an ‘Index’ of contents (f. 4r). Dated December 1616 at beginning (f. 5), and including items up to the 1660s. Top and left hand margins of folios ruled in red.

f. 1v: Small part of a law case arising from the will of Jhon Sydenham.

f. 2: Two poems:

• The Character of a Happy Life, by Sir Henry Wotton
• Even such is time who takes in trust, by Sir Walter Raleigh

f. 3: Bill for food items.

f. 4: Partial ‘Index’ of the volume.

ff. 5-17: Law tract on the subject of Accompt.

f. 18: Resolutions or Axioms on proclamations, dated 26 October 1610. Statement of the difference between a rout and a riot.

ff. 19-20r: Concerning crimes triable in the Star Chamber.

ff. 20v-22v: Latin sayings from various authors.

ff. 23-73: Collection of law axioms in Latin.

f. 74: Notes on deer stealing, in the Star Chamber. Dated 23 October (no year).

ff. 75v-80v: Speech by King James before sitting as judge on the trial in the Star Chamber of one who had fought a duel, with another speech before giving the sentence.

ff. 81-82: Two speeches by Francis Bacon - speech to Sir William Jones (1617), and speech in the Star Chamber (10 July 1617).

ff. 83v-85v: Speech made to Serjeant Sir Henry Montague when he was made Chief Justice of the Kings Bench 16 November 1616, with his response.

86r-89r: Speech at first taking his seat in Chancery, by Francis Bacon

f. 90: Unsigned letter (intended to accompany a book) sent, perhaps, to the Lord-Keeper Chancellor Francis Bacon.

ff. 91r-92r: Speech by Francis Bacon in the Star Chamber, 13 February 1617/8.

ff. 93-95: Sir Walter Raleigh’s speech on the scaffold, 29 November 1618. Copies of letters from Raleigh to the King, Lady Raleigh, and Sir Robert Carr.

ff. 96r-103v: Francis Bacon, Ordinances in Chancery.

ff. 104r-105r: ‘Addiconall Rules of better governing of the Courts of Chauncery, and the Greate Seale’.

f. 106: Speech by Francis Bacon in Chancery to Mr Whitlock, 29 June 1620.

f. 107: Petition of Robert Dallington and Endymion Porter to the King asking him to set up an office in Chancery for keeping records of bills etc.

f. 108r: Oration by Ambrogio Spinola Doria to his army. Headed ‘Marco Spinolas orracon to his Army when he brake his Bridge of Boates being passed over the Ryne nere the Confines of the Pallatinate’.

f. 109: Articles of Agreement between Marquis Spinola, captain of the Imperial army in the Palatinate, and Joachim Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, mediated by the Elector of Mainz and Ludwig, Landgrave of Hesse. Mainz, 12 April 1621.

ff. 110-111: Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon’s letter of submission to the House of Lords. 22 April 1621.

ff. 112-115: Order in Chancery, that every man may have a sub-poena, without any bill first exhibited.

ff. 116-117r: ‘The Fees of the Ordinarie Proces of the Courte of X’ (Chancery?).

ff. 117v-119r: Speech of Dr John Williams, Dean of Westminster, on being made Lord-Keeper. 1st day of term, 22 September 1621.

f. 120: Agreement between William Ferne of Lincolns Inn, Johanna Smith widow and Henry Smith of London. Latin. With shorthand notes dated 1618 below.

ff. 121-122r: Account of the method of proceedings in Chancery; with costs.

ff. 122r-v: Ordinances provided in Easter Term, 38.Eliz. I by Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, for the remedy of various abuses in the Court of Chancery.

f.123: Opinion of Council upon a defendant being arrested by the plaintiff. 22 May 1626.

f. 124: Declaration of the House of Commons to stand by the King with regard to the Palatinate affair. 4 June 1621

ff. 125-128: Extracts from the Chancery Cost Book, dating from the 27th to the 41st year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

ff. 129-131: Reasons for the deterioration in trade, collected from the observations of experienced merchants. With a response.

ff. 131v-133r: Prophecy of Mervey or Merlin.

ff. 133v -134: Agreement of the six clerks of Chancery, made 12 December 1621.

ff. 135, 135*, 135b, 136: Miscellaneous material

• Shorthand (ff. 135, 136v-137r). Includes dates in the 1620s.
• Printed broadside ballad, The Sence of the House; or, the Opinion of some Lords and Commons concerning the Londoners Petition for Peace (Oxford: Leonard Lichfield, 1643) (folded, ff. 135*-135b).
• Lady Denton’s recipe for medicine to cure an ague. Lady Denton was wife of Paul D’Ewes (1567-1631), one of the Six Clerks in Chancery.

f. 138: Wills:

• Extract from the will of Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester
• Preamble of the will of Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton College.

ff. 139r-140r: Observations on the methods of proceeding in Chancery.

ff. 140v-145: Petitions and speeches:

• Richard Norton’s Petition to Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord Keeper, with the report on it (f. 140v).
• Notes of the King’s speech in the House of Lords; Speech of the Speaker of the House of Commons to King Charles I (f. 141r).
• Petition of Conyers Darcy and others to Lord Keeper Coventry (f. 142r).
• Wllliam Pennyman’s answer to the petition (f. 142v).
• Petition of Richard Richards, clerk to Lord Keeper Coventry (f. 143r).
• Lord Keeper Coventry’s speech at the swearing of Sir Richard West Lord Treasurer, 14 October 1628 (ff. 144-145).

ff. 146-154: Reports of Chancery cases, headed ‘Mixt Matters. Particular cases of diverse yeares’.

ff. 155v-156r: Unsigned letter to Robin Dunstable, a miller who had written on theological matters, disputing and insulting him.

ff. 157-158: Ordinances for the well ordering of records and guidance of clerks made by Sir William Cordell, Master of the Rolls of the High Court of Chancery, 25 December 1574.

ff. 159-173: Chancery cases.

f. 174: Relative powers of the council at York and Chancery or other superior court at Westminster. ‘That the Councell at Yorke have noe Authoritie to stay Proceedings in the Chancery; or in any superior Court at Westminster’. 6 Feb. 40. Eliz. I.

ff. 175: Relative powers of the Court of Wards and Chancery. ‘That the Court of Wardes hath not Authoritie to stay Proceedings in the Chancery’. 22 October 3. And 4. Phil. & Mar.

ff. 177-180: Copy of the special pardon for Cardinal Wolsey from Henry VIII. Latin.

ff. 181-185: Copy of the patent for incorporating the six clerks and three petty bag clerks for the inrolling of all deeds. 16. Eliz. I. Latin.

ff. 186-187: Complaint of Thomas Bond against Thomas Heliard, who had procured a patent for digging for salt-petre, in the Star Chamber 1631.

f. 189r: On cancelling the royal patent of James I by which Robert Lee was appointed receiver general for Oxfordshire. Latin.

ff. 189v-195: Plan for remedying abuses committed in Chancery.

f. 196r: Matters for reform in the Prothonotaries Office of the Kings Bench.

ff. 197-204: Ordinances made by Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord Keeper, with advice from Sir Julius Cesar, Master of the Rolls, for the redress or errors and failings in the High Court of Chancery., Michaelmas Term, 11 Charles. I (1635).

ff. 205r-208v: Thomas Lord Coventry, Lord Keeper’s speech, or delivery of the charge received from the King, to the Judges of Assize, by the rule of Star Chamber.

ff. 208r-209r: Sir Francis Bacon's speech in the Star Chamber, Trinity 1617.

ff. 209v-213: Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh:

• Copy of letters by Sir Walter Raleigh, including to James I (1603) and to Sir Ralph Winwood (1618) (ff. 209v-10v, 212v-13r)
• Sir Walter Raleigh, Short Apology for his last Actions at Guiana (f. 211)
• Sir Walter Raleigh, Raleigh's Arraignment (f. 212)

ff. 214r-219r: Case regarding the Marches of Wales, by Serjeant Harris, Serjeant Hutton, and Sir Francis Bacon. Copy headed ‘Sir Thomas Egertons Arguments &c.’

ff. 219v-220r: Concerning wrongful imprisonment of the subject.

ff. 221-223: On dreams, sleep, and sleep talking. Headed ‘A breife discovery of the nature of dreames, shewing how farr the reasonable Soule exercises hir facultyes & operations in the tyme of Sleepe; and prooving, that in Sleepe there can bee no reasonable & methodical Speeche’.

f. 224: Panegyric on King Henri IV of France.

ff. 225-226r: Letter from Sir Thomas Roe, English ambassador at the court of the Great Moghul.

f. 226v: Letter from Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, to Queen Elizabeth I, 30 August 1599, before his expedition to Ireland (starts: ‘From a mind delighting in sorrow...’). Incorporates poem, ‘Happy hee could finishe forth his Fate’.

f. 226v: Letter of Lord Norrice to the King after he had killed one of Lord Willoughby’s servants.

ff. 227-228: Letter to the King from the House of Commons in the first year of his reign, with the King’s answer.

ff. 229-230r: Concerning examination of the credit of witnesses in Chancery.

ff. 23or-232r: In what cases Chancery relieves proceedings in the Exchequer. 26 January 8. Car. I.

f. 232v: Extract from the journal of the House of Lords on the privilege of peers from arrests and attachments arising from any civil action. 12 January 1645.

ff. 232v-236v: Chancery cases.

ff. 237r-241: Manner of holding Parliament, with historic notes. Latin.

ff. 242-244: Proceedings in the case of Richard Cavendishe. 29. Eliz. I.

f. 245: List of the children of Frederick, King of Bohemia, Elector Palatine and Queen Elizabeth. Latin.

f. 246: Beginning of an account of the course of proceedings in English suits in Chancery.

ff. 247r-50v: Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Gesta Grayorum. Account of the revels at Grays Inn, headed ‘Noctes Templariæ Or a breife chronicle of the dark Raigne of the bright Prince of burning Loue’, subscribed ‘Benjamin Rudier’. c.1650.

ff. 251-259: ‘Commoyson in Norfolk, 1549’, by Nicholas Sotherton. Account of Kett’s Rebellion.

ff. 260-279: On Popes Clement VIII and Urban VII:

• Discourse on Pope Clement VIII, his family, deeds, revenues and forces, and likely successors. 1600.
• Relation of occurrences in the conclave when Pope Urban VII was elected 6 August 1623.

f. 280: Description of the Infanta Donna Maria, by Sir Toby Matthew. Madrid, 28 June 1623.

f. 281r: ‘Letter written by one Signior Madre from Millain to Venice, and from thence sent to the Venetian Ambassador here & by him presented to the King and Queen, about the Pranks plaid in Milan, by an infernal Spirit who styled himself Prince Mammon, Prince of 15 Legions.’

f. 282r: Letter from Bishop Williams to Charles I upon delivering up the Great Seal.

f. 283: Speech of Duke of Lennox to Charles I on whether to make war with Scotland.

ff. 284-285r: Speech of Sir Harbottle Grimstone in Parliament before its dissolution.

f. 286: Resolution of the Judges on the Stanneries, 26 November 1608, Serjeants Inn.

f. 287: Explication of the first article of the resolution made by the Judges at Serjeants Inn, 14 November 1627.

ff. 288-293: A music lecture, by Mr West of Christ Church, Oxford. 1640.

f. 294: Letter from William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, to the University of Oxford, accompanying one of his donations of manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. 6 November 1640. Latin.

ff. 295-296: Account of the rich clothes of the Duke of Buckingham, and the number of servants and nobles in his train, when he went to Paris to bring over Queen Henrietta-Maria in 1625.

ff. 297-299: Speech of King Charles II to the House of Commons about increasing his revenue.

ff. 300r, 301r, 302r: Articles of high treason and other misdemeanors against Edward, Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor of England. 1652

f. 302v: The King’s message to the House of Commons, concerning Sir Richard Temple, 16 June 1663.

f. 303-304: Elegy on the death of Sir Bevil (Granville). Begins ‘Pardon these teares greate Bevill doubly shed’.

f. 305: Two epitaphs on the tomb of the Duke of Montmorency (French), and the tomb of Henri de Schomberg (Latin).

f. 306: Lord Claypole’s reason for throwing out the Decimation Bill.

ff. 307-308: Account of the King’s Revenue to the House of Commons, by Sir Philip Warwick.

ff. 309-311r: Letter to his father the Earl of Manchester, by Walter Montagu, giving his reasons for turning Catholic. Paris, 21 November 1635.

ff. 312v-313v: A Letter from an Alderman of Newcastle on the local grievances. 8th September 1640. Followed by a relation of the aggression of the Scots in Northumberland and the Bishopric of Durham. York, 19 September 1640.

ff. 314-316: Argument against peace, 1587, headed ‘A Disswasion of Q. Elizabeth from the Conclusion of Peace with the low-Countries and the Spaniard. A.D. 1587’.

ff. 317-319: Relation of the state of the United Provinces in the Low-Countries.

ff. 320-322: Letter from Baron Jöchim Ernestus von Sintzendorff to Captain Henry Bell in London. Frankfort, 12 December 1621.

ff. 323-324: On conscience and cases of it.

f. 325: Books printed at the royal press in Paris.

f. 325v: Survey of the bishopric of Sar: valuation of revenues accruing to the Bishop.

ff. 326-327: Letter from the Lord of Cork to the Lord of Newbourgh, Chancellor of the royal Exchequer in Ireland, on the Irish rebellion and massacre.

ff. 328-334v: Observations or collections from a French history. Followed by a petition from the afflicted Christians in the east (Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Helvetia) to the Christian kingdoms of western Europe.

f. 334v: Medicine for the stone.

f. 335. Title of Edward Popham to certain manors leased out for 80 years, by William Benson, Dean of Westminster. 6 June 2. Edw. VI [1548].

ff. 337v-338r: Shorthand with 1620s dates.