10. Translated in G.G. Coulton,A Medieval Garner.
11.Myroure of Oure Ladye, ed. J.H. Blunt (E.E.T.S., 1873), p. 54. On Tittivillus see my article inThe Cambridge Magazine(1917), pp.158-60.
12.Linc. Visit., ed. A.H. Thompson, II, pp. 46-52; and Power,op. cit.pp. 82-7.
13.V.C.H. Oxon, II. p. 77.
14.Linc. Visit., ed. A.H. Thompson, I, p. 67.
15. On these gaieties see Power,op. cit. pp. 309-14.
16.Linc. Visit., II, pp. 3-4; and see Power,op. cit., pp. 75-7, 303-5, on gay clothes in nunneries.
17.Linc. Visit., II. p. 175.
18. Power,op. cit., p. 307. On pet animals seeibid., pp. 305-9, and Note E ('Convent Pets in Literature'), pp. 588-95.
19. Power,op. cit., p. 77.
20.Ibid., pp. 351-2; and see Chap. IXpassimon the BullPericulosoand the wandering of nuns in the world.
21.Linc. Visit., II, p. 50.
22.V.C.H. Yorks., III, p. 172.
CHAPTER V
THE MÉNAGIER'S WIFE
A. Raw Material
I.Le Ménagier de Paris, Traité de Morale et d'Economie Domestique, compose vers1393par un Bourgeois Parisien ... publié pour la première fois par la Société des Bibliophiles Francois. (Paris, 1846). 2 vols., edited with an introduction by Jérôme Pichon. There is a notice of it by Dr F.J. Furnivall, at the end of his edition ofA Booke of Precedence(Early English Text Soc., 1869 and 1898), pp. 149-54. It was a book after his own heart, and he observes that it well deserves translation into English.
2. On the subject of medieval books of deportment for women see A.A. Hentsch,De la littérature didactique du moyen âge s'addressant spécialement aux femmes(Cahors, 1903), an admirably complete collection of analyses of all the chief works of this sort produced in westernEurope from the time of St Jerome to the eve of the Renaissance. It is full of plums for adventurous Jack Horners.
3. With the Ménagier's cookery book there may profitably be comparedTwo Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, ed. by Thomas Austin (E.E.T.S., 1888).
B. Notes to the Text
1. Pp. 1-2.
2. These long moral treatises on the seven deadly sins and the even deadlier virtues were very popular in the Middle Ages. The best known to English readers occurs in theParson's Talein Chaucer'sCanterbury Tales,and is taken from theSomme de Vices et de Vertusof Frère Lorens, a thirteenth-century author. The sections on the deadly sins are usually, however, well worth reading, because of the vivid illustrative details which they often give about daily life. The Ménagier's sections are full of vigour and colour, as one would expect. Here, for instance, is his description of the female glutton: 'God commands fasting and the glutton says: "I will eat". God commands us to get up early and go to church and the glutton says: "I must sleep. I was drunk yesterday. The church is not a hare; it will wait for me." When she has with some difficulty risen, do you know what her hours are? Her matins are: "Ha! what shall we have to drink? is there nothing left over from last night?" Afterwards she says her lauds thus: "Ha! we drank good wine yesterday." Afterwards she says thus her orisons: "My head aches, I shan't be comfortable until I have had a drink." Certes, such gluttony putteth a woman to shame, for from it she becomes a ribald, a disreputable person and a thief. The tavern is the Devil's church, where his disciples go to do him service and where he works his miracles. For when folk go there they go upright and well spoken, wise and sensible and well advised, and when they return they cannot hold themselves upright nor speak; they are all foolish and all mad, and they return swearing, beating and giving the lie to each other.'--Op. cit., I, pp. 47-8. The section on Avarice is particularly valuable for its picture of the sins of executors of wills, rack-renting lords, extortionate shopkeepers, false lawyers, usurers, and gamblers.--Seeibid., I, pp. 44-5.
3.Prudence and Melibeusis worth reading once, either in Chaucer's or in Renault de Louens' version, because of its great popularity in the Middle Ages, and because of occasional vivid passages. Here, for instance, is the episode in Chaucer's version, in which Melibeus, the sages, and the young men discuss going to war, and the sages advise against it:'Up stirten thanne the yonge folk at ones, and the mooste partie of that compaignye scorned the wise olde men, and bigonnen to make noyse, and seyden that "Right so as, whil that iren is hoot, men sholden smyte, right so men sholde wreken hir wronges while that they been fresshe and newe"; and with loud voys they criden, "Werre! werre!" Up roos tho oon of thise olde wise, and with his hand made contenaunce that men sholde holden hem stille, and yeven hym audience. "Lordynges," quod he, "ther is ful many a man that crieth 'Werre! werre!' that woot ful litel what werre amounteth. Werre at his bigynnyng hath so greet an entryng and so large, that every wight may entre whan hym liketh and lightly fynde werre; but certes, what ende that shal ther-of bifalle it is nat light to knowe; for soothly, whan that werre is ones bigonne ther is ful many a child unborn of his mooder that shal sterve yong by cause of that ilke werre, or elles lyve in sarwe, and dye in wrecchednesse; and therefore, er that any werre bigynne, men moste have greet conseil and greet deliberacioun."--Chaucer,Tale of Melibeus,§ 12; and see the French version,op. cit., I, p. 191.
4. II, p. 72-9.
5. I, pp. 71-2. These medieval games are very difficult to identify. The learned editor remarks thatbric, which is mentioned in the thirteenth century by Rutebeuf was played, seated, with a little stick;qui féryis probably the modern game called by the Frenchmain chaude; pince merille,which is mentioned among the games of Gargantua, was a game in which you pinched one of the players' arms, crying 'Mérille' or 'Morille'. Though the details of these games are vague, there are many analagous games played by children today, and it is easy to guess the kind of thing which is meant.
6. I, pp. 13-15.
7. I, 92, 96.
8. The story of Jeanne la Quentine is reproduced in theHeptameronof Margaret of Navarre (the 38th tale, or the 8th of the 4th day), where it is attributed to abourgeoiseof Tours, but it is probable that the Ménagier's is the original version, since he says that he had it from his father; although, knowing the ways of the professional raconteur, I should be the first to admit that this is not proof positive.
9. I, pp. 125-6.
10. I, p. 139.
11. This was a favourite saying. It occurs in the story of Melibeus, 'Trois choses sont qui gettent homme hors de sa maison, c'est assavoir la fumée, la goutière et la femme mauvaise.'--Ibid., I, p. 195. CompareChaucer's use of it: 'Men seyn that thre thynges dryven a man out of his hous,--that is to seyn, smoke, droppyng of reyn and wikked wyves.'--Tale of Melibeus, §15; and
'Thou seyst that droppying houses, and eek smoke,And chidyng wyves, maken men to fleeOut of hir owene hous.'--Wife of Bath's Prologue, LL, 278-80.
12. I, pp. 168-71, 174-6.
13. II, p. 54. The Ménagier also warns against running up long bills on credit. 'Tell your folk to deal with peaceable people and to bargain always beforehand and to account and pay often, without running up long bills on credit by tally or on paper, although tally or paper are better than doing everything by memory, for the creditors always think it more and the debtors less, and thus are born arguments, hatreds, and reproaches; and cause your good creditors to be paid willingly and frequently what is owed to them, and keep them in friendship so that they depart not from you, for one cannot always get peaceable folk again.'
14. II, pp. 56-9.
15. It is curious here to note the antiquity of the term 'bloody' as an expletive. The Ménagier says: 'Forbid them ... to use ugly oaths, or words which are bad or indecent, as do certain evil or ill bred persons who swear at bad bloody fevers, the bad bloody week, the bad bloody day ('de males sanglantes fièvres,' 'de male sanglante sepmaine,' 'de male sanglante journée'), and they know not, nor should they know, what a bloody thing is, for honest women know it not, since it is abominable to them to see the blood but of a lamb or a pigeon, when it is killed before them.'--Ibid., II, p. 59.
16. The section on household management described above occupies sec. II, art. 2, of the Ménagier's book (II, pp. 53-72).
17. I, pp. 171-2.
18. I, pp. 172-3.
19. The cookery book occupies sec. II, arts. 4 and 5 (II, pp. 80-272).
20. II, pp. 222-3. Translated by Dr Furnivall inA Booke of Precedence(E.E.T.S.), pp. 152-3.
21. II, pp. 108-18, 123. The feast was still a thing of the future when the Ménagier thus gathered all the details. He calls it 'L'ordenance de nopces que fera maistre Helye en May, à un mardy ... l'ordonnance du souper que fera ce jour.'
22. 'The office of the woman is to make provision of tapestries, to order and spread them, and in especial to dight the room and the bedwhich shall be blessed.... And note that if the bed be covered with cloth, there is needed a fur coverlet of small vair, but if it be covered with serge, or broidery, or pinwork of cendal, not.'--II, p. 118. The editor quotes the following ceremony for blessing the wedding bed: 'Benedictio thalami ad nuptias et als, Beredic, Domine, thalamum hunc et omnes habitantes in eo, ut in tua voluntate permaneant, requiescant et multiplicentur in longitudinem dierum. Per Christum, etc.Tunc thurificet thalamum in matrimonio, postea sponsum et sponsam sedentes vel jacentes in lecto suo. Benedicentur dicendo: Benedic, Domine, adolescentulos istos; sicut benedixisti Thobiam et Sarram filiam Raguelis, ita benedicere eos digneris, Domine, ut in nomine tuo vivant et senescant, et multiplicentur in longitudinem dierum. Per Christum, etc. Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti descendat super vos et maneat super vobiscum. In nomine Patris, etc.'--Ibid., I,Introd., p. lxxxvi.
23. Chaucer,Tale of Melibeus, § 15.
CHAPTER VI
THOMAS BETSON
A. Raw Material
1.The Stonor Letters and Papers, 1290-1483, ed. C.L. Kingsford (Royal Hist. Soc., Camden, 3rd Series), 2 vols., 1919. The Betson correspondence is in vol. II.
2.The Cely Papers, selected from the Correspondence and Memoranda of the Cely Family, Merchants of the Staple, 1475-88, ed. H.E. Malden (Royal Hist. Soc., Camden 3rd series), 1900.
I am much beholden to the excellent introductions to these two books, which are models of what editorial introductions should be.
3. The best introduction to the history of the Company of the Staple is to be found in Mr Malden's aforesaid introduction toThe Cely Papers, which also contains a masterly account of the political relations of England, France and Burgundy during the period. I have constantly relied upon Mr Malden's account of the working of the Staple system. Other useful short accounts of the wool trade and the Stapler's Company may be found in the following works: Sir C.P. Lucas,The Beginnings of English Overseas Enterprise(1917), c. II; and A.L. Jenckes,The Staple of England(1908).
B. Notes to the Text
1. Four interesting contemporary illustrations of Parliament in 1523, 1585, some date during the seventeenth century, and 1742 respectively, are reproduced in Professor A.F. Pollard's stimulating study ofThe Evolution of Parliament(1920).
2.The Lybelle of Englyshe Polycye, inPolitical Poems and Songs, ed. Thos. Wright (Rolls Ser., 1861), II, p. 162. This remarkable poem was written in 1436 or 1437, in order to exhort the English 'to kepe the see enviroun and namelye the narowe see' between Dover and Calais, since in the author's opinion the basis of England's greatness lay in her trade, for the preservation of which she needed the dominion of the seas. Its chief value lies in the very complete picture which it gives of English import and export trade with the various European countries. There is a convenient edition of it inThe Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation by Richard Hakluyt(Everyman's Lib. Edition, 1907), I, pp. 174-202.
3. G.W. Morris and L.S. Wood,The Golden Fleece(1922), p. 17.
4. For accounts of these brasses see H. Druitt,A Manual of Costume as Illustrated by Monumental Brasses(1906), pp. 9, 201, 205, 207, 253. John Fortey's brass and William Greville's brass are conveniently reproduced in G.W. Morris and L.S. Wood,op. cit., pp. 28, 32, together with several other illustrations, pertinent to the wool trade.
5. Gower,Mirour de l'OmmeinThe Works of John Gower. I.The French Works, ed. G.C. Macaulay (1899), p. 280-1.
6.The Paston Letters, ed. J. Gairdner (London, 1872-5); Supplement 1901. See also H.S. Bennett,The Pastons and their England(1922).
7.Plumpton Correspondence, ed. T. Stapleton (Camden Soc., 1839).
8.Cely Papers, p. 72; and compare below p. 134.
9.Stonor Letters, II, p. 2.
10.Ibid., II, pp. 2-3.
11. The brasses of his father 'John Lyndewode, woolman', and of his brother, also 'John Lyndewode, woolman' (d.1421), are still in Linwood Church. They both have their feet on woolpacks, and on the son's woolpack is his merchant's mark. See H. Druitt,op. cit., pp. 204-5.
12. SeeMagna Vita S. Hugonis Episcopi Lincolniensis, ed. J.F. Dimock (Rolls Series, 1864), pp. 170-7.
13. For these extracts see a vastly entertaining book,Child Marriages and Divorces in the Diocese of Chester, 1561-6, ed. F.J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S., 1897), pp. xxii, 6, 45-7.
14.Stonor Letters, II, pp. 6-8.
15.Ibid., II, pp. 28, 64.
16.Ibid., II, p. 64.
17.Ibid., II, pp. 42-43.
18.Ibid., II, p. 44.
19.Ibid., II, pp. 61, 64-5.
20.Ibid., II, pp. 46-8.
21.Ibid., II, p. 53.
22.Ibid., II, p. 28.
23.Ibid., II, p. 47.
24.Ibid., II, p. 53.
25.Ibid., II, pp. 54-5.
26.Ibid., II, pp. 56-7.
27.Ibid., II, p. 69.
28.Ibid., II, pp. 87-8.
29.Ibid., II, pp. 88-9.
30.Ibid., II, p. 89.
31.Ibid., II, pp. 102-3, 117.
32. See Richard Cely's amusing account of the affair in a letter to his brother George, written on May 13, 1482,Cely Papers, pp. 101-4. For other references to the wool dealer William Midwinter seeibid., pp. 11, 21, 28, 30, 32, 64, 87, 89, 90, 105, 124, 128, 157, 158.
33.Stonor Letters, II, p. 3.
34.Ibid., II, p. 64.
35.Testamenta Eboracensia(Surtees Soc.), II, p. 56. He was a well-known wool merchant of York, at different times member of the town council of twelve, sheriff and mayor, who died in 1435. He is constantly mentioned in the city records; seeYork Memorandum Book, ed. Maud Sellers (Surtees Soc., 1912 and 1915), vols. I and II,passim.
36.Cely Papers, pp. 30-1.
37.Ibid., p. 64.
38. See his will (1490) inTest. Ebor., IV, p. 61, where he is called 'Johannes Barton de Holme juxta Newarke, Stapulae villae Carlisiae marcator,' and ordains 'Volo quod Thomas filius meus Johannem Tamworth fieri faciat liberum hominem Stapulae Carlis,'ibid., p. 62.
39.Ibid., p. 45.
40.Ibid., p. 48.
41.Ibid., pp. 154-5.
42.The Lybelle of Englysche Polycyeinloc. cit., pp. 174-7,passim.Compare Gower's account of the machinations of the Lombards,op. cit., pp. 281-2.
43. See the clear account of all these operations in Mr Malden's introduction to theCely Papers, pp. xi-xiii, xxxviii.
44.Ibid., p. vii.
45.Cely Papers, pp. 194-6; and seeIntrod., pp. xxxvi-viii.
46.Ibid., pp. 71-2.
47.Ibid., pp. 174-88, a book entitled on the cover 'The Rekenyng of the Margett Cely,' and beginning, 'The first viage of the Margaret of London was to Seland in the yere of our Lord God m iiijciiijxxv. The secunde to Caleis and the thrid to Burdews ut videt. Md to se the pursers accomptes of the seide viages. G. Cely.'
48.Ibid., p. xxxviii.
49.Stonor Letters, II, p. 2.
50.Ibid., II, p. 4.
51.Cely Papers, pp. 112-13.
52.Ibid., p. 106; compareibid., p. 135.
53. 'Sir, the wool ships be come to Calais all save three, whereof two be in Sandwich haven and one is at Ostend, and he hath cast over all his wool overboard.'--Ibid., p. 129. 'Item, sir, on Friday the 27 day of February came passage from Dover and they say that on Thursday afore came forth a passenger from Dover to Calais ward and she was chased with Frenchmen and driven in to Dunkirk haven.'--Ibid., p. 142. (There are many records of similar chases; seeIntrod., pp. xxxiv-v.)
54.Ibid., p. 135.
55. 'Sir, I cannot have your wool yet awarded, for I have do cast out a sarpler, the which is [ap]pointed by the lieutenant to be casten out toward the sort by, as the ordinance now is made that the lieutenant shall [ap]point the [a]warding sarplers of every man's wool, the which sarpler that I have casten out is No. 24, and therein is found by William Smith, packer, a 60 middle fleeces and it is a very gruff wool; and so I have caused William Smith privily to cast out another sarpler No. 8, and packed up the wool of the first sarpler in the sarpler of No. 8, for this last sarpler is fair wool enough, and therefore I must understand how many be of that sort and the number of the[m], for they must be packed again' (12 Sept., 1487).--Ibid., p. 160. Item, sir, your wool is awarded by the sarpler that I cast out last, etc. Item, sir, this same day your mastership is elected and appointed here by the Court one of the 28, the which shall assist the Master of the Staple now at this parliament time.'-Ibid., p. 162.
56. Gower,op. cit., p. 281.
57.Cely Papers, pp. xii, xxiv-v.
58.Stonor Letters, II, pp. 62-3; see alsoCely Papers, pp. 1, 10, 13.
59.Stonor Letters, II, p. 4.
60. Chaucer,Canterbury Tales (Shipman's Tale) LL, 1243-6.
61.Stonor Letters, II, p. 48.
62.Cely Papers, p. xxiii.
63.Lybelle of Englysshe Polycyeinloc. cit., pp. 179-81.
64. With deference, I think that Mr Malden in his introduction to theCely Papers, App. II, pp. lii-iii, is mistaken in seeking to identify Synchon Mart with a particular fair at Antwerp on St John's Day, Bammes mart with the fair at St Rémy (a Flemish name for whom is Bamis) on August 8, and Cold Mart with Cortemarck near Thourout. The names simply refer to the seasons in which there were fairs in most of the important centres, though doubtless in one place the winter and in another the spring, summer, or autumn fair was the more important. That the names refer to seasons and not to places appears quite clearly in various letters and regulations relating to the Merchant Adventurers of York. SeeThe York Mercers and Merchant Adventurers, 1356-1917, ed. M. Sellers (Surtees Soc., 1918), pp. 117, 121-5, 160, 170-1; see Miss Sellers' note,ibid., p. 122, quoting W. Cunningham: 'The ancient Celtic fairs ... were a widespread primitive institution and appear to have been fixed for dates marked by the change of seasons.'--Scottish Hist. Review, xiii, p. 168. For instance, a document of 1509 ('For now att this cold marte last past, holdyn at Barow in Brabond,'loc. cit. p. 121) disposes of the idea that the Cold mart was the mart at Cortemarck, while another document refers to merchants intending to ship 'to the cold martes' and 'to the synxon martes' in the plural.Ibid., p. 123. The identification of Balms mart with the fair at St Rémy on August 8 is, moreover, belied by the same document (1510-11), which runs, 'Whereas this present marte ... we have lycensed and set you at libertie to shipp your commodities to the balmes marte next coming. Nevertheless ... we thinke it good ... that upon the recepte of these our letters ye ... assemble and consult together, and if ye shall thinke good amongest yourselffs ... discretly to withdraw and with holde your hands from shippyng to the said balmes marte.... Wryten at Andwarp the xvij day of August.'Ibid., p. 124. The Balms mart was obviously the autumn fairtide, and Mr Malden is no doubt right in identifying Balms (Bammys, Bammes) with Bamis, the local Flemish name of St Rémy; St Rémy's Day was October 28, and the Balms mart was not the mart held on August 8 atSt Rémy, but the mart held on and round about St Rémy's Day. Another document of 1552 gives interesting information about the shippings for three of the marts: 'The last daye of shippinge unto the fyrst shippinge beinge for the pasche marte is ordeyned to be the laste of Marche nexte ensuyinge; and the seconde shippinge which is appointed for the sinxon marte the laste day to the same, is appoynted the laste of June then nexte followinge; and unto the colde marte the laste day of shippinge is appoynted to be the laste of November then nexte insuyinge.'--Ibid., p. 147. The Merchant Adventurers tried sometimes to restrict merchants to the Cold and the Synxon marts, which were the most important.
65.Cely Papers, p. xl, andpassim.
66.Ibid., p. 74. Richard Cely the younger to George: 'I understand that ye have a fair hawk. I am right glad of her, for I trust to God she shall make you and me right great sport. If I were sure at what passage ye would send her I would fetch her at Dover and keep her till ye come. A great infortune is fallen on your bitch, for she had 14 fair whelps, and after that she had whelped she would never eat meat, and so she is dead and all her whelps; but I trust to purvey against your coming as fair and as good to please that gentleman.'--Ibid., p. 74.
67.Ibid., p. xlix.
68.Ibid., App. I., pp. xlix-lii, a very interesting note on contemporary coinage, identifying all the coins mentioned in the letters.
69.Ibid., p. 159.
70.Ibid., p. 161.
71.Stonor Letters, II, p. 43. So Dame Elizabeth Stonor ends a letter to her husband: 'Written at Stonor, when I would fain have slept, the morrow after our Lady day in the morning,'--Ibid., p. 77.
72. Chaucer,Canterbury Tales (Shipman's Tale), LL, 1265-78, inWorks(Globe Ed., 1903), p. 80.
73. The will is P.C.C. 24 Logge at Somerset House. For this analysis of its contents and information about the life of Thomas Betson after his breach with the Stonors seeStonor Letters, I, pp. xxviii-ix.
74. They are (1) John Bacon, citizen and woolman, and Joan, his wife (d. 1437); (2) Thomas Gilbert, citizen and draper of London and merchant of the Staple of Calais (d. 1483), and Agnes, his wife (d. 1489); (3) Christopher Rawson, mercer of London and merchant of the Staple of Calais, Junior Warden of the Mercers' Company in 1516 (d. 1518), and his two wives. Thomas Betson was doubtless acquainted with Gilbert and Rawson.
CHAPTER VII
THOMAS PAYCOCKE OF COGGESHALL
A. Raw Material
1. The raw material for this chapter consists of Paycocke's House, presented to the Nation in 1924 by the Right Hon. Noel Buxton, M.P., which stands in West Street, Coggeshall, Essex (station, Kelvedon); the Paycocke brasses, which lie in the North aisle of the parish church of St Peter ad Vincula at Coggeshall; and the wills of John Paycocke (d. 1505), Thomas Paycocke (d. 1518), and Thomas Paycocke (d. 1580), which are now preserved at Somerset House (P.C.C. Adeane 5, Ayloffe 14, and Arundell 50, respectively), and of which that of the first Thomas has been printed in Mr Beaumont's paper, cited below, while I have analysed fully the other two in my book,The Paycockes of Coggeshall(1920), which deals at length with the history of the Paycockes and their house. See also G.F. Beaumont,Paycocke's House, Coggeshall, with some Notes on the Families of Paycocke and Buxton(reprinted from Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc., IX, pt. V) and the same author'sHistory of Coggeshall(1890). There is a beautifully illustrated article on the house inCountry Life(June 30, 1923), vol. LIII, pp. 920-6.
2. For an apotheosis of the clothiers, seeThe Pleasant History of John Winchcomb, in his younger days called Jack of Newbery, the famous and worthy Clothier of EnglandandThomas of Reading, or the Six Worthy Yeomen of the West, inThe Works of Thomas Deloney, ed. F.O. Mann (1912), nos. II and V. The first of these was published in 1597 and the other soon afterwards and both went through several editions by 1600.
3. On the cloth industry in general see G. Morris and L. Wood,The Golden Fleece(1922); E. Lipson,The Woollen Industry(1921); and W.J. Ashley,Introd. to English Economic History(1909 edit.). For the East Anglian woollen industry see especially theVictoria County Historiesof Essex and Suffolk. For a charming account of another famous family of clothiers see B. McClenaghan,The Springs of Lavenham(Harrison, Ipswich, 1924).
B. Notes to the Text
1.Deloney's Works, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213.
2. Thomas Fuller,The Worthies of England(1622), p. 318.
3. A convenient introduction to the study of monumental brasses,with illustrations and a list of all the surviving brasses in England, arranged according to counties, is W. Macklin,Monumental Brasses(1913). See also H. Druitt,Costume on Brasses(1906). These books also give details as to the famous early writers on the subject, such as Weaver, Holman, and A.J. Dunkin.
4.Testamenta Eboracensia, a selection of wills from the Registry at York, ed. James Raine, 6 vols. (Surtees Soc., 1836-1902). The Surtees Society has also published several other collections of wills from Durham and elsewhere, relating to the northern counties. A large number of wills have been printed or abstracted. See, for instance,Wills and Inventories from the Registers of Bury St Edmunds, ed. S. Tymms (Camden Soc., 1850);Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Hastings,London, ed. R.R. Sharpe, 2 vols. (1889);The Fifty Earliest English Wills in the Court of Probate, London, ed. F.J. Furnivall (E.E.T.S., 1882);Lincoln Wills, ed. C.W. Foster (Lincoln Record Soc., 1914); andSomerset Medieval Wills, 1383-1558, ed. F.W. Weaver, 3 vols. (Somerset Record Soc., 1901-5).
5. The will of the other Thomas Paycocke 'cloathemaker', who died in 1580, also refers to the family business. He leaves twenty shillings 'to William Gyon my weaver'; also 'Item, I doe give seaven poundes tenne shillinges of Lawful money of Englande to and amongest thirtie of the poorest Journeymen of the Fullers occupacion in Coggeshall aforesaide, that is to every one of them fyve shillinges.' William Gyon or Guyon was related to a very rich clothier, Thomas Guyon, baptized in 1592 and buried in 1664, who is said to have amassed £100,000 by the trade. Thomas Paycocke's son-in-law Thomas Tyll also came of a family of clothiers, for in a certificate under date 1577 of wool bought by clothiers of Coggeshall during the past year there occur the names of Thomas Tyll, William Gyon, John Gooddaye (to whose family the first Thomas Paycocke left legacies), Robert Lytherland (who receives a considerable legacy under the will of the second Thomas), and Robert Jegon (who is mentioned incidentally in the will as having a house near the church and was father of the Bishop of Norwich of that name). See Power,The Paycockes of Coggeshall, pp. 33-4.
6. Quoted in Lipson,Introd. to the Econ. Hist, of England(1905), I, p. 421.
7. Quotedibid., p. 417.
8. On John Winchcomb Power,op. cit., pp. 17-18; and Lipson,op. cit., p. 419.
9. Deloney's Works, ed. F.C. Mann, pp. 20-1.
10.Ibid., p. 22.
11. Quoted in C.L. Powell,Eng. Domestic Relations, 1487-1563 (1917), p. 27.
12. The house subsequently passed, it is not quite clear at what date, into the hands of another family of clothiers, the Buxtons, who had intermarried with the Paycockes some time before 1537. William Buxton (d. 1625) describes himself as 'clothyer of Coggeshall' and leaves 'all my Baey Lombs [Looms]' to his son Thomas. Thomas was seventeen when his father died and lived until 1647, also carrying on business as a clothier, and the house was certainly in his possession. He or his father may have bought it from John Paycocke's executors. By him it was handed down to his son Thomas, also a clothier (d. 1713), who passed it on to his son Isaac, clothier (d. 1732). Isaac's two eldest sons were clothiers likewise, but soon after their father's death they retired from business. He apparently allowed his third son, John, to occupy the house as his tenant, and John was still living there in 1740. But Isaac had left the house by will in 1732 to his youngest son, Samuel, and Samuel, dying in 1737, left it to his brother Charles, the fourth son of Isaac. Charles never lived in it, because he spent most of his life in the pursuit of his business as an oil merchant in London, though he is buried among his ancestors in Coggeshall Church. In 1746 he sold the house to Robert Ludgater and it passed completely out of the Paycocke-Buxton connexion, and in the course of time fell upon evil days and was turned into two cottages, the beautiful ceilings being plastered over. It was on the verge of being destroyed some years ago when it was bought and restored to its present fine condition by Mr Noel Buxton, a direct lineal descendant of the Charles Buxton who sold it. See Power,op. cit., pp. 38-40.
13.Deloney's Works, ed. F.O. Mann, p. 213.
14. Defoe,Tour through Great Britain, 1724 (1769 edit.), pp. 144-6.
15. 'This shire is the most fatt, frutefull and full of profitable thinges, exceeding (as far as I can finde) anie other shire for the general commodities and the plentie, thowgh Suffolk be more highlie comended by some (wherewith I am not yet acquainted). But this shire seemeth to me to deserve the title of the Englishe Goshen, the fattest of the lande, comparable to Palestina, that flowed with milk and hunnye.'--Norden,Description of Essex(1594), (Camden Soc.), p. 7.
16. According to Leake, writing about 1577, 'About 1528 began the first spinning on the distaffe and making of Coxall clothes.... These Coxall clothes weare first taught by one Bonvise, an Italian.'--QuotedV.C.H. Essex, II, p. 382.