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SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
All rif;hts reserved
Sixteenth-Century
Bristol
(Originally published under the title of
"THE CORPORATION OF BRISTOL IN THE OLDEN TIME")
JOHN LATIMER
igo8
BRISTOL
J. W. Arrowsmith, II Quay Street
LONDON
SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company Limited
^J<^^
SATHER
PREFACE
The following papers on Bristol history during the reigns
of Henry VIII. and his three successors are chiefly founded
on extracts from the account books of the Corporation,
ancient deeds and other documents, and the minutes of
the Privy Council. They began to appear in the Bristol
Mercury of December 27th, 1902, and were continued at
weekly intervals during the following four months.
J. LATIMER.
April, 1903.
950907
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
The foregoing Preface and some alterations and
additions to the original articles, included in a
copy presented by Mr. Latimer to the city, have
been incorporated in this book by the kindness of
the City Librarian, Mr. E. R. Norris Mathews.
CONTENTS
Page
Chapter I. i
Bristol in the early sixteenth centuvy — Description of
the town — Surrounded by religious houses — Numerous
public holidays — Endowments, chantries and obits —
Religious and secular pageants — St. Catherine's Eve —
Shooting and wrestling competitions in the Marsh
{Queen Square) — Play-actors and bear-keepers — Bear-
baiting and bull-baiting — Feast of St. Nicholas ;
ceremony of the boy-bishop — Public executions —
Christmas festivities.
Chapter II. ii
Corporate revenue in sixteenth century — Position and
duties of Sheriffs ; an expensive post ; reduction of
their liabilities — Surrender by Corporation of right to
levy toll ; enters into possession of considerable estates
formerly belonging to religious houses — Friary buildings
converted into quarries — Difficulties between Corporation
and Temple Fee — Absorption of the latter by Bristol —
Rapacity of Thomas Cromwell ; appointed Recorder
of Bristol — Newly invented office of High Steward
conferred upon Duke of Somerset — Suppression of
Bristol chantries ; spoliation of the churches.
Chapter III. 24
Population of Bristol in the sixteenth century — Police
and sanitary arrangements of the city — Prevalence of
meyidicants — Use of hops in ale prohibited ; thatch-
roofing forbidden — Erection of houses by the Corporation
on Bristol Bridge.
CONTENTS.
Page
Chapter IV. 30
Bristol and feudalism — Interference of Anne Boleyn
in Bristol affairs — Visit of Anne and Henry VIII. to
Thornbury — Suppression of St. John's Hospital ;
unsuccessful attempt by Corporation to obtain possession
— Trouble with Lord President of Welsh Marches ;
attempts to levy tribute- from Bristol ; his pretensions
finally put an end to — Seizure of Bristol corn by Mayor
of Gloucester — Persecutioyi of Protestants in Bristol —
A ccession of Elizabeth — Bristol trained bands reorganised
and given an independent commission — " Crying down "
of the currency — Erection of turnstiles in Bristol —
" Certificate for eating of flesh in Lent " granted to
Corporation.
Chapter V. 41
Thome family and Bristol Grammar School ; St.
Bartholomew's Hospital acquired ; scandalous behaviour
of the Corporation — Establishment of separate custom
house at Gloucester, to the dismay of Bristolians —
Payment to Members of Parliament — Visit to the city
of Duke of Norfolk — Reformation of Bristol measures —
Dispute between Corporation and Admiralty — Crest
bestowed upon city by Clarencieux, King-of-Arms ;
copy of charter granting this crest — Earl of Leicester
appointed Lord High Steward ; his indifference to
Bristol interests ; his visits to the city.
Chapter VI. 55
Purchase of stone coal by the Corporation — Case of
Councillor John Lacie — Struggle between Corporation
and Merchant Venturers' Society ; ends in the monopoly
of the latter being abolished — Establishment of Meal
Market — Purchase of Brandon Hill summit — Visit of
Queen Elizabeth to Bristol ; lavish preparations for her
reception avid entertainment ; Newgate prisoners receive
royal pardon — Outbreak of plague in the city — Piracy
in the Avon ; fate of the malefactors — Visits of travelling
players to Bristol — Arrival in the port of three vessels
under command of Martin Frobisher — Celebration of
twentieth year of Elizabeth's reign — Renovation of
quay walls by means of tombstones.
CONTENTS. xi
Page
Chapter VII. . . . . . . . . . . 67
Bristol Farthing.
Chapter VIII. 73
The Avon obstructed by a wreck — Soldiers quartered
in Bristol en route to Ireland ; expense incurred by
the Corporation — " Street pitcher " appointed — Diffi-
culties in postal communication — New charter granted
to Bristol ; heavy expenses involved in obtaining the
title " city " — Bristol Parliamentary representative
appointed Speaker of the House of Commons.
Chapter IX. 79
Perambulation of city boundaries — Great dearth of
1585 ; relief measures of the Corporation — Military
enthusiasm ; inspection of Bristol trained bands by
Earl of Pembroke ; his disregard of mayoral pre-
cedence—Death of John Carr, founder of Queen
Elizabeth's Hospital — News received in Bristol of
death of Queen of Scots — Richard Fletcher appointed
Bishop of Bristol — Extraordinary feudal claim made
by Lord Stafford against Richard Cole ; indifference of
the Corporation — Alice Cole — Increase in stipend of
Town Clerk — Fines for relief from office of Mayor —
Present to Lord Leicester — Fatal conflict in Kingroad,
due to attempted infringement of Bristol's monopoly
of hides and skins trade.
Chapter X. 91
Dispute between rector of St. Mary-le-port and his
parishioners — Spanish Armada ; Bristol's contingent
to national fleet ; jubilation at rout of Spaniards —
Trouble with the Dutch ; William Colston — Lord
Burghley created Lord High Steward — Thrifty expen-
diture of the Corporation — Purchase of coal for school
over Froom Gate — Relation of Corporation to orphans
of city the subject of a Parliamentary Bill (1597) —
Arrival in Bristol of Bishop Fletcher — Renovations
and alterations of St. Mark's Church — Depression of
trade in Bristol — Piratical exploits round British
coast.
xii CONTENTS.
Page
Chapter XL .. 102
Philif} Langley fined in lien of serving as Mayor —
Further attempt to deprive Bristol of its Admiralty
jurisdiction — Poverty of Bristol clergy — " Forlorn
Hope " estate of St. Nicholas — Court of the manor of
Temple Fee revived — Merchant Seamen's Almshouse
founded — Dealings of Corporation with John Whitson
concerning purchase of corn — Ship-money revived ; in-
effectual protest of the Corporation — Repeal of " Re-
demptioner " ordinances — Piratical outrage of Captain
Thomas Webb — Claim of Corporation on Privy Council
for financial assistance — Bristol Fair — Visit to city
of Lord Essex, who becomes Lord High Steward ;
succeeded by Lord Treasurer Buckhurst.
Chapter XII. 116
Temporary policy of consideration by Government
towards Bristol — Meat market established ; friction
between the Corporation and Bristol butchers — Cost of
travelling in Elizabethan days — The " Great House "
and Red Lodge — Assessment of the citizens — City
roads repaired by compidsory co-operation of house-
holders— Same method applied to maintenance of
trained bands.
Sixteentk-Century Bristol.
CHAPTER I.
Bristol in the early sixteenth century — Description of the
town — Surrounded by religious houses — Numerous
■public holidays — Endowments, chantries and obits —
Religious and secular pageants — St. Catherine's Eve —
Shooting and wrestling competitions in the Marsh
{Queen Square) — Play-actors and bear-keepers — Bear-
baiting and bull-baiting — Feast of St. Nicholas ;
ceremony of the boy-bishop — Public executions —
Christmas festivities.
Perhaps it may not be uninteresting to readers with some
taste for local history to give a few facts from authentic
records respecting the life and doings of Bristolians in the
far-off days of Henry VHI. The most important of these
records are the account books of the Corporation, which
commence in 1531 ; but they can be supplemented and
illustrated by various other contemporary documents,
and some of the contrasts that can thus be made between
the social customs of the sixteenth and of the twentieth
centuries may prove at least amusing, if not instructive.
The transcendent circumstance which differentiates
the Bristol which saw the accession of Henry from the
city of to-day is the religious faith of the inhabitants.
Roman Catholicism, at the former period, had reached
the climax of its magnificence. It was the Church both of
2
2 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
the State and of the people, and there was not a whisper
of dissent, for nonconformity was punishable with a cruel
death. The young King was a fervent devotee, and an
amateur theologian, and his book against Luther gained
for him from the Pope, in 152 1, the proud title of Defender
of the Faith. A very few years sufficed to work revolu-
tionary changes, but it may be worth while to endeavour
to form an idea of what was really the local situation at
the date that has just been named.
The town — for it had not become a city — was
extremely limited in area, and does not appear to have
much increased in population during the previous two
hundred years, having in the meanwhile been frightfully
ravaged by the Black Death and the Plague. It may be
broadly described as being bounded by Dolphin Street
and Temple Street on the east, the course of the Froom
along Broadmead to St. Augustine's Back on the north
and west, and the town wall between Redcliff and
Temple Gates on the south.
Around all this boundary line were institutions,
independent of corporate jurisdiction. The Royal Castle,
with its extensive fortified precincts, and the church and
monastic buildings^of the Black Friars, lay on the east.
The Priory of St. James, and its adjoining farm lands,
covered a vast space on the north. The Grey Friary,
the Nunnery of St. Mary Magdalene, the Hospital of
St. Bartholomew, the Carmelite Friary, the Hospital of
the Gaunts,"and the Abbey of St. Augustine, each enclosing
wide areas around their respective churches and houses,
entirelyj^surrounded the north-western side of the borough,
while the Hospital of St. John the Baptist and the
Augustinian Friary, lying to the south, continued the
circuit to Temple Fee, belonging to the military monks of
NUMEROUS PUBLIC HOLIDAYS.
St. John, who repudiated the civic jurisdiction claimed by
the Corporation. There was thus no room for suburbs
outside the walls, even if there had been a desire for them ;
but there is no evidence to show that the townsfolk felt
any objection to the ecclesiastical circumvallation. Many
of their wills attest rather their satisfaction at the
multitude of their ghostly comforters. A few years later
seven of the monkish churches around the city had been
swept away, and half of two others was demolished ; but
though there was a rush to get a share of the royal plunder,
few additional dwellings were reared on the vacant sites
until a much later date.
Another peculiarity arising from the then national
faith was the remarkable number of public holidays.
A chronicler of the fifteenth century observed that
in the agricultural districts the aggregate number
of holidays accounted for eight weeks in every year.
The total can hardly have been so large in trading
towns, but it was still very notable. Great church
festivals, called Red Letter Days, were of frequent
occurrence, when attendance at morning service was
obligatory, and as business of all kinds was suspended for
" a general procession " of the civic body, it is unlikely
that much work was done in the afternoon. Many
wealthy Bristolians, again, had bequeathed large sums for
the establishment of what were called chantries in the
parish churches, where, in addition to daily prayers for
the founders' souls by the chaplain or chaplains supported
by each endowment, a grand anniversary service, called
an Obit, was held yearly, attracting a vast attendance of
all classes.
In 1548, when these endowments were seized for the
profit of the Crown, an inquiry was held in Bristol by the
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Royal Commissioners to ascertain the value of the local
estates. The amount reported by them was probably
grossly underestimated, for one of the inquisitors, a
notorious gambler (afterwards hanged) named Partridge,
forestalled all would-be purchasers by obtaining from his
employers, the Government, a grant of the entire property
en bloc; while a congenial colleague, Sir William
Sharington, master of the Bristol Mint, who confessed in
the following year to having committed enormous frauds
in coining base money, lent Partridge the purchase money,
and took fully one-half of the spoil as his own reward.
Even if the value of the estates were justly rendered, the
total, ;^36o per annum, was equivalent to ten times that
amount in modem currency. The chantries of Evrard le
French and William Canynges in St. Nicholas and Redcliff
Churches were returned as of the yearly value of over
;^33 each, and supported four priests, who had no other
duties to perform. A rich merchant, named Knapp, not
only founded a chantry with two priests, but built a
special chapel for it, dedicated to St. John, on the Welsh
Back, the site of which is now* a little playground. About
twenty other chantries had at least one priest each,
independent of the parish incumbents, and if we add about
thirty friars, who held daily services in their four
churches, but were all paid for taking part in " general
processions," the number of available clergymen in the
town four hundred years ago, exclusive of the numerous
monks in two large monasteries, must have far exceeded
the staff of the ancient parishes in the present day.
It remains to be seen how these institutions affected
public holidays. An anniversary Obit took place on the
average about once in three weeks all the year round, and
* 1902. The playground has since been done away with.
RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR PAGEANTS. 5
potent means for securing the attendance of the townsfolk
had been taken by the chantry founders. As a fair
example of the general custom to secure the presence of
the Mayor and Corporation in full state, the proctors of
Hallewey's Chantry in All Saints' Church were directed to
pay 6s. 8d. to the Mayor, 3s. 4d. to each of the Sheriffs,
IS. to the Town Clerk, 4d. to the Swordbearer, and 3d.
each to the four civic sergeants, while, to allure the
working classes, a silver penny was given to each of six
hundred persons — about one-fifth of the adult population
when the chantry was established, and when the daily
wage of an unskilled labourer did not exceed the amount
of the dole. It is not surprising that work came to a
standstill when an attractive street spectacle was backed
by the prospect ot pecimiary profit.
Besides the Obits, there were various occasional
pageants, some religious, some secular. About Whitsun-
tide the Guilds of Weavers and Cordwainers yearly went
in pompous array to the Chapel of St. Anne-in-the-Wood,
near Brislington, a spot greatly frequented by pilgrims,
and more than once visited by Royalty, to place before
the altar two gigantic candles, alleged by William of
Worcester to have been of the somewhat incredible length
of eighty feet each, and to have cost no less than £5 —
equal to the quarterly " wages " of the Mayor. A few
weeks before midsummer brought round the feast of
Corpus Christi, one of the greatest holidays of the year.
The members of every guild — and practically every
Bristolian belonged to a guild — assembled with music,
flags and banners to join in a splendid ecclesiastical
procession through the streets, where the houses were
decorated with tapestry, brilliant cloth, and garlands of
flowers, and the afternoon was spent in the performance
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
in the open air of miracle plays, in which every craft
claimed its special part, to the enjoyment of the whole
community. The excitement caused by this festival can
have scarcely subsided before the inhabitants were called
upon to participate in the corporate parade, called the
"Setting of the Watch" on Midsummer Eve.
In imitation of a similar ceremony in London, which
cost an enormous sum yearly, the members of the chief
trade companies — who emulated each other in the display
of gay dresses, banners, burning " cressets " and torches,
and in the supply of minstrels and musical instruments —
marched in procession through the streets, the proceedings
terminating in morris dancing and various games, in which
the populace participated. The Corporation left the
chief expenditure of the day to be defrayed by the guilds,
but provided 114 gallons of wine, presumably for the
subsequent suppers of the companies — the weavers and
tuckers receiving ten gallons each, whilst the remainder
was distributed amongst the other twenty-six fraternities.
When the streets were muddy, and they were rarely
otherwise, the city treasurer also paid the cost of covering
them with twenty or thirty tons of sand.
Another civic outlay of the day is somewhat puzzling.
It would appear that the procession ended and the sports
began upon Bristol Bridge, and to that spot a great
quantity of nettles, cut down in the Marsh (Queen Square),
were invariably transported beforehand at the corporate
charge. The only plausible conjecture that can be sugges-
ted to explain this outlay is that the stinging plants were
provided for a rough-and-tumble scuffle. Another " Setting
of the Watch," of a precisely similar character (nettles
included), took place on St. Peter's Day in August.
The eve of St. Catherine, in November, was the most
SHOOTING AND WRESTLING COMPETITIONS. 7
notable festival of the weavers, then the leading and most
numerous local handicraft. According to the Mayor's
Kalendar, written about 1490, the Mayor and members of
the Corporation, after having been entertained in the
Weavers' Hall, near Temple Church, on spiced cake,
bread and wine, " the cups merrily filled about the house,"
returned to their homes, " ready to receive at their doors
St. Katherine's players, making them to drink at their
doors, and rewarding them for their plays," which must
thus have been performed in the open streets. A grand
procession through all the thoroughfares took place on
the following morning.
The Corporation also made provision for various out-
door sports. Extensive butts were maintained in the
Marsh for the practice of archery, which was then obhga-
tory on all capable of bearing arms, and the place was
largely resorted to by bowmen on Sunday afternoons in
the summer months. In July a day was set apart for
wrestling matches in the Marsh, and another and more
popular competition of the same sort, between tov^oismen
and countrymen took place at Lawrencetide, in August,
at Lawrence Hill, a prize of 6s. 8d. being given out of the
city purse on each occasion. As the second display
required the corporate body to march a mile into the
country, a " modest quencher " became, of course,
indispensable, and in 1532 the city fathers disposed of
six and a half gallons of wine, costing 5s. 5d. ; " more for
bread, id., pears 2s. 46.." The bill for wine and fruit
slightly varied in subsequent years, but the penny for
bread was a fixed quantity, whatever might be the
consumption of liquor. In 1543 there was a slight hitch
in the arrangements, explained in the accounts as
follows : —
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
" Paid the wrestlers on both sides, 4s. The old
custom was 6s. 8d., but for because the country side
brought not a goose according to the old custom, there-
fore was paid but 4s. Spent upon them at Laffords
Gate [to smooth matters over ?], 4d."
Soon after this wrestling competition the Worshipful
Mayor and his brethren suspended business at the Tolzey,
and gave themselves a holiday in order to enjoy the cheer-
ful sport of fishing in the Froom, in the presence of crowds
of spectators. As sometimes as much as 4s. were paid " to
the men that went into the water," a large staff must have
been employed to drag the nets. The catch must also have
been generally good, for on one occasion the Mayor was
paid los. " because he did not go a-fishing."
Other causes of distraction from work came from out-
side the city in the shape of travelling companies of play-
actors and bear-keepers. The King and several noblemen
maintained these parties of strangers, who were allowed to
travel about the country when they were not required at
Court, and were always welcome. In 1532 the Corporation
gave los. to the players of Lord Lisle and 6s. 6d. to those
of the Duke of Richmond, the King's illegitimate son,
whom Henry once contemplated to proclaim heir to the
throne. In the same year, from 3s. 4d. to 5s. each were
bestowed on the bear-wards of the Duke of Suffolk, Lord
Westmoreland, and the Duke of Richmond. Bear-baiting
and bull-baiting were two of the most favourite " sports "
of the age, and as, unlike the drama, they could be
witnessed free of expense, every exhibition attracted
thousands of working men.
The civic ceremony which seems the most extraordinary
to modem ideas was that which took place on December
CEREMONY OF THE BOY BISHOP. 9
6th, the feast of St. Nicholas. At this festival a boy,
doubtless one of the servitors of the parish priests, was
solemnly instituted as a bishop, and having been clothed
in episcopal vestments, delivered a sermon in St. Nicholas'
Church, before the Mayor and Common Council, on whom
he gravely pronounced his blessing. And then, says the
Mayor's Kalendar, the spelling of which we modernise : —
" After dinner, the said Mayor, Sheriff, and their
brethren to assemble at the Mayor's compter, there
waiting the bishop's coming, playing the meanwhiles
at dice ; the town clerk to find them dice, and to have
one penny of every raffle ; and when the bishop is come
thither, his chapel there to sing, and the bishop to give
them his blessing ; and then he and all his chapel to be
served there with bread and wine. And so depart the
Mayor, Sheriff, and their brethren to hear the bishop's
evensong at St. Nicholas' Church."
The ceremony of the boy bishop was of ancient date,
and was practised in all parts of the kingdom. In 1299
Edward I. rewarded one of these mock prelates at New-
castle with a sum now equivalent to £40. But conceive
the Bristol Council of our day solemnly assembled to
receive a madrigal boy befigged as a bishop, whiling away
their time with the dice box which the Town Clerk — on
the look-out for his fee — had at hand for the Lord Mayor,
and making four processions through the crowded streets
to and from sham services at St. Nicholas !
It is perhaps hardly fair to include public executions
in the list of holidays, and yet they unquestionably filled
the streets with non-workers. They occurred once (and
sometimes twice) every year as a certain issue of the
sessions, and there was always a small payment for
10 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
" carrying the ladder to and from St. Michael's Hill."
There being no carts in Bristol, the unhappy convicts had
to make their long journey from Newgate to Gotham on
foot, and were swung off the ladder by the hangman.
Finally, during Christmas week, the lord of misrule
was in full supremacy, and holiday keeping generally
extended from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night. A day or
two before the festivities the Mayor, for the sake of public
order, made public proclamation that no inhabitant,
gentle or simple, should go about mumming with masked
faces at night after the tolling of the curfew bell unless he
carried a torch, lantern, candle, or sconce, and that no one
should wear weapons by night or by day, on pain of fine
or imprisonment. In a season of universal license it may
be questioned whether much heed was paid to the regula-
tions. It was the season of unlimited guzzling, the city
magnates setting the example. By an ordinance of the
Common Council in 1472, the Mayor's Christmas drinking
was fixed to take place on St. Stephen's Day (December
26), the Sheriff's drinking on St. John's Day (December 27),
the senior Bailiff's drinking on Innocents' Day (December
28), and that of the junior Bailiff on New Year's Day.
" And on Twelfth Day to go to the Christmas drinking of
the Abbot of St. Augustine as of old custom, if it be prayed
by the Abbot and Convent."
CHAPTER II.
Corporate revenue in sixteenth century — Position and
duties of Sheriffs ; an expensive post ; reduction of
their liabilities — Surrender by Corporation of right to
levy toll ; enters into possession of considerable
estates formerly belonging to religious houses — Friary
buildings converted into quarries — Difficulties between
Corporation and Temple Fee — Absorption of the latter
by Bristol — Rapacity of Thomas Cromwell ; appointed
Recorder of Bristol — Newly invented office of High
Steward conferred upon Duke of Somerset — Sup-
pression of Bristol chantries ; spoliation of the
churches.
On a cursory examination of the corporate account books
in the middle of Henry VIII. 's reign, the income and
expenditure of the civic body appear to be marvellously
insignificant as compared with the importance and reputa-
tion of the port and borough. In the year ending
Michaelmas, 1536, for example, the total receipts of the
Chamberlain (Treasurer) are stated to have been
£186 8s. ii|d., whilst his outlay was no more than
£161 los. id. Further examination, however, reveals the
fact that this official was the recipient of little more than
the waifs and strays of the corporate revenue, and that
the chief financial business was in the hands of the Sheriffs,
whose accounts have not been preserved in the Council
House. The true state of affairs is revealed in an elaborat e
document addressed to the all powerful minister, Cardinal
11
12 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Wolsey, by William Dale, one of the Sheriffs elected in
15 1 8, complaining of the manner in which he and his
colleague, like all previous Sheriffs, had been victimised
by the Common Council. According to the detailed
figures which he set forth (which must be multiplied by
twelve to represent the currency of modem days), the
shrieval income, including £60 received from the Chamber,
was £232 los. 8d.
On the other hand, the Sheriffs were required to pay
the fee-farm of the town, yearly due to the Crown, which
with subsidiary expenses amounted to £172 ; to furnish
the Mayor with his " pension " of £20 ; to provide his
worship with a splendid robe of scarlet and fur, wine,
minstrels, and many other items, costing altogether £y] ;
to disburse all the charges for watches, wrestlings, bear-
baitings, and Christmas drinkings referred to in the
previous chapter, which, with other like matters, involved
an outlay of over £\^ ; to paj;- the salaries of the Recorder,
Town Clerk, Town Steward, Town Attorney, Priest of
St. George's Chapel, porters of the town gates, and minor
corporate officials, and to bedeck the whole of them with
robes, at a total outlay of over £100 ; to defray the cost
of the Sessions, £12 ; to pay the wages of the members of
Parliament for the city when at Westminster, 2S. per day
each ; to keep in order St. Nicholas' clock ; to give doles
to the four orders of Friars, &c. ; the aggregate outlay
amounting to over £378. Mr, Dale and his companion
were thus out of pocket £146, exclusive of £240 alleged to
be " both Sheriffs' expenses and costs of household, and
the apparel of them and their wives."
The Common Council were highly indignant at these
revelations, and warmly protested that the expenditure
of the Sheriffs was in accordance with ancient custom, and
SURRENDER OF RIGHT TO LEVY TOLL. 13
that the charges, alleged to be partly exaggerated and
partly due to " high and prodigal minds," might well be
borne by prosperous men in consideration of the worship-
ful dignity conferred upon them. The Cardinal, never-
theless, commanded a reform of the system ; and in 1519
the Corporation, doubtless much against its will, made
new arrangements. The allowance of £60 to the Sheriffs
was discontinued ; but the dues derived from shipping
entering the port, then amounting to nearly £83, were
thenceforth to be received by the Sheriffs, together with
the tolls collected at the town gates, £sy. Their cus-
tomary income derived from the great St. James's Fair,
£23 ; from law fines and forfeitures, £30 ; and £12, the
profits of the gaol (for, strange to say, the gaol was a
profitable institution) were to be retained, and a few
trifling items raised the shrieval income to £215. As re-
garded expenditure, the Sheriffs were relieved from the
expense of the Mayor's " pension " and robes, and from
the wages (but not from the robes) of the Recorder and
city officers, whilst a few charges for wrestlings, drinkings,
&c., were also transferred to the Chamber, their total
expenditure being thus cut down to £273, being still an
excess over income of £58. Subsequent Sheriffs must never-
theless have been grateful to Mr. Dale and the Cardinal.
The custom of demanding toll at the town gates on
goods entering or leaving a fortified borough was originally
established for the purpose of maintaining the walls, and
was probably universal in the Middle Ages. Even to the
present day the Corporation of Newcastle* derives a great
yearly income from this source, and the proceeds of the
octroi at Paris meet the ordinary outlay of the munici-
pality. The system, however, was very unpopular in
* The collection of the Thorough Toll, Newcastle-on-Tyne, will cease
on August 5 th, 1910.
14 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Bristol, and the complaints of the inhabitants eventually
culminated in scenes of violence. In 1546 a happy thought
suggested itself to some worthy citizen, and was received
with general applause. As need hardly be stated, the
then recent suppression of the monasteries had led to the
seizure by the Crown of an almost fabulous amount of
wealth in the shape of gold and silver plate, many cart-
loads of such treasure having been secured at Canterbury,
Durham and York, and vast quantities in the wealthier
abbeys. In the year just named the Government had
already turned a covetous eye on the chantries in the
cathedrals and parish churches, which with many " free
chapels " were upwards of 2,300 in number, and there was
ample reason for suspecting that the churches themselves
— which were richly stored with valuables in the shape of
processional crosses, monstrances, incense boxes, thuribles,
and eucharistic vessels — would not long escape spoliation.
Now the Corporation had succeeded in obtaining from
the King in 1540 an extensive grant of the estates of the
dissolved religious houses, and a further grant in 1544
of properties in Bristol to be referred to presently,
but had been forced to borrow the purchase moneys,
£1,790, and was in painful financial straits. The pro-
pounder of the brilliant idea just referred to suggested
that the parochial vestries should offer the Corporation a
quantity of plate sufficient to pay off a large portion of
its liabilities, on condition of its surrendering its rights to
levy tolls. The proposal having been approved by
fourteen out of the seventeen city parishes, and eagerly
accepted by the Common Council, the accounts of the
Sheriffs for the previous ten years were examined to
ascertain the amount received at the gates, and also the
sum collected in the shape of dues on victuals and grain
POSSESSION OF CONSIDERABLE ESTATES. 15
of all kinds, wool, yam and flannel brought to the quays
by ships. In the result, a net sum of £44 per annum was
settled upon as adequate compensation to be paid by the
Council to the Sheriffs for the abolition of the tolls and
dues. The fourteen vestries thereupon produced plate
to the value of £523 los. 8d., taking security from the
Corporation to be borne harmless in case the treasure
should be thereafter claimed by the Crown.
By the aid of this handsome gift the civic body over-
came its pecuniary embarrassments, and entered into full
possession of the estates of Gaunt's Hospital (save the
rich manor of Pawlett, in Somerset), the Bristol houses of
the Grey and Carmelite Friars, the manor of Hamp,
formerly belonging to Athelney Abbey, and a slice of
land, previously the property of the Magdalene Nunnery,
on St. Michael's Hill, for all which the Crown had received
;^i,ooo, and also of the Bristol properties still to be
described. (The country estates of Gaunt's Hospital were
sold in 1836 for nearly £60,000. Colston Hall and the
property in the rear, including the Red Lodge, represent
the site of the Carmelite Friary.) On June 14th, 1546, a
formal agreement was drawn up between the Corporation
and " the discreet and loving burgesses," whereby it was
declared that, after due deliberation of the disquietness
created by the tolls, the perjuries and blasphemies caused
by them, and the evil slanders against the city thereby
arising, and in further consideration of the future good of
the city and of those resorting to it, all the gates should be
thenceforth freed from all manner of tolls, and that no
shipping dues should be levied on the goods and wares
mentioned above. The relief from an oppressive burden
was proclaimed at the High Cross amidst general re-
joicing.
16 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Not the slightest allusion is to be found in the corporate
account books to the purchases from the Crown or to the
contributions of the parishes. The transactions were
doubtless dealt with in a separate volume, since lost.
Certain " church plate," probably from St. Mark's Church
(Mayor's Chapel) was carried to the Council House, in
order to be " sent to London," and i6d. was spent " for
beer, ale and wine," drank when the plate was counted
and packed into baskets for the carrier. But no time was
lost in turning the acquired property to account. The
Friary buildings were at once converted into quarries.
" Paid two men for choosing out of the Friars certain
paving stones to pave withal, 2s. 6d." Hundreds of
sledge loads of stone, including chimney pieces and other
ornamental work were afterwards drawn from thence for
building purposes. As the gross rents of the monastic
estates amounted to £266 in 1548, when they make their
first appearance in the audit book, it is clear that the
purchase produced an enormous return from the outset.
The second royal grant to the Corporation was of
much less value than the first, but it definitely settled a
controversy that had been a chronic trouble for many
generations. Early in the twelfth century, Robert
Fitzroy, Earl of Gloucester, lord of the great manor of
Bedminster, which then extended to Bristol Bridge,
granted to the Order of Templars a portion of the borough
of Redcliff, which severed portion was thenceforth known
as Temple Fee. On the ruthless destruction-of the Templars
in the reign of Edward II. this Fee was part of the estate
which the King conferred on the knights of St. John of
Jerusalem, and formed part of their preceptory of Temple
Combe. The new owners, like their predecessors, were
empowered to hold their own courts, to execute felons.
CORPORATION AND TEMPLE FEE. 17
and to exercise all other feudal privileges in their domains,
independent of the ordinary authorities. When Redcliff
became incorporated with Bristol, the attempts of the
Corporation to extend their jurisdiction over Temple Fee,
which seems to have become a refuge for outlaws, was
strongly resisted by order of the non-resident knights,
and civic officials pursuing malefactors appear to have
frequently returned with empty hands and broken heads.
In 1532, when the contest for jurisdiction was in one of
its acute stages, a member of the Order, styled " the
Knight of Rodys " (Rhodes) in the corporate accounts,
paid a visit to Bristol to discuss the matter, and was
entertained by the city with two gallons of wine and a
quantity of sweetmeats, without anything being gained
by the expenditure.
No settlement being effected, the respective parties
appealed to the King, the Prior of St. John, who had a
seat in the House of Lords, alleging that Temple Street,
as part of the Fee, enjoyed liberty of sanctuary for felons
and murderers, and that his tenants there had a right to
buy and sell though not burgesses of Bristol, claiming also
to hold courts, and to have the return and execution of
writs, all which privileges were denied by the Corporation.
The King referred the dispute to two of the superior judges,
who, after hearing evidence, adjudged in 1535 that the civic
officers had a right to arrest felons in the Fee and to
execute writs, but postponed their decision on other points.
Troubles with the military monks came to a summary end
in 1541, when their possessions were confiscated. In 1544
the Corporation petitioned the King for a grant of the
lands, quit-rents, &c., of the Fee, and the advowson of
Temple Church, estimating the yearly value at £14 7s. iid.
They also prayed to be granted the estate in Bristol, then
3
18 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
lately belonging to Viscount Lisle,* but fallen into the
King's hands, the annual value being estimated at
£57 8s. 3d. His Majesty acceded to the request, and
granted both the estates in consideration of a payment
of £'j^^ 17s. lod. The above estimates of value are
shown to have been pretty accurate by the civic audit
book for 1548, in which the properties make their first
appearance. The rents had produced £94, reduced to
about £68 by outlay for repairs.
The corporate estates were not secured by a simple
payment of the King's demands for their concession.
The civil government of the country, after the fall of
Wolsey, fell into the hands of Thomas Cromwell, whose
insatiable rapacity was phenomenal even in his own time.
The astonishing results are to be read in the State Papers
of the reign. It came to be universally understood that
any claim, however just, and any petition, however
reasonable, addressed to the despotic monarch was
doomed to certain rejection unless favoured by the
Minister, and that such favour was hopeless unless pur-
chased by a bribe. A golden stream flowing from all
ranks accordingly set in, and yearly increased. Even
* Derivation of the civic estate known as "Lord Lisle's Lands."
John Talbot = Joan
Created Viscount Lisle. Eldest heir I daughter and coheiress of Thomas Cheddar,
general of Thomas, fourth Lord Berkeley. heir of a wealthy Bristol family.
Thomas Elizabeth Talbot = Edward Grey
second Viscount, killed at the
battle of Nibley Green, 1469.
Died without issue.
second son of Lord Grey
of Groby. Created
Viscount Lisle. Ob. 1491.
John Grey Elizabeth Grey = ist, Edmund Dudley.
Viscount Lisle. Ob. 1512. By heiress of her niece,
his wife Myriel, daughter of
the Earl of Surrey, left an only
child, Elizabeth, who died
without issue.
2nd, Arthur Plantagenet,
bastard son of Edward IV.
CreatedViscount Lisle 1533.
Ob. 1541 without issue.
John Dudley
Created Viscount Lisle 1542.
Sold the Bristol estates same
year to Henry VIII. Created
Dulie of Northumberland 1551.
E.xecuted i553-
THOMAS CROMWELL. 19
before the monasteries were threatened, abbots and
priors vied with each other in showering gratifications
on the dreaded Secretary. When they fell, and the Court
was besieged by innumerable suitors for a share in the
gigantic spoil, the flood of money that poured into the
Vicar-General's coffers must have astounded even himself.
(A characteristic example of his unscrupulousness occurred
shortly before his fall. In August, 1539, Gwylliams, the
last abbot of St. Augustine's, transmitted him a bribe of
£100 to secure the Royal confirmation to that office,
which he was forced to surrender only four months later.)
The Corporation of Bristol took a just measure of Crom-
well's character at an early date. In 1533, the office of
Recorder falling vacant, it was conferred upon the
Secretary as a sinecure, bringing in £20 a year, and
securing his countenance, which was the one thing needful.
It may be safely assumed that a larger gratification had
to be offered to him when the negotiation was opened for
the Gaunt estates, but the records have disappeared. The
Royal grant had passed the Great Seal only a few weeks
when Cromwell, having served his master's purposes, met
with the customary fate of Tudor instruments. The follow-
ing entries occur in the civic account book for 1540 : —
" Paid to the Lord Privy Seal by the hands of
Mr. Davy Broke, Recorder, £20." [Note by the
Auditors] " Forasmuch the £20 charged paid to the
Lord Essex, late Recorder, for his fee due to him at
the Feast of the Nativity, 1540, which accustomally
was used to be then paid at won [sic] time, and for
that this said Lord of Essex was beheaded before the
said feast in the said year, we the Auditors find that
the £20 ought not to be allowed in this account."
How this little diffic\ilty was settled does not appear.
20 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
The fall of Cromwell was followed by the rise of
another ignoble and greedy tool of despotism, Edward,
brother of Queen Jane Seymour, created Earl of Hertford
and Duke of Somerset, who afterwards usurped the place
of Lord Protector. Seymour had Bristol blood in his
veins, and the Corporation, with its usual predilection for
a powerful friend at Court, invented the office of Lord
High Steward, endowed it with a yearly fee of £4, and
presented it to the rising luminary. Soon after the death
of Henry VIII., Somerset and his myrmidons laid hands
on the chantries in the manner narrated in the previous
chapter, and the Protector paid a visit to Bristol to watch
local operations. His inquisitorial commissions reached
the city about the same time, and were profusely enter-
tained by the Corporation, which, with a sharp eye for
contingencies, presented the Lord High Steward with
his " fee," accompanied by two butts of wine, and paid
the charges of his retinue. The results proved highly
satisfactory. The chantries with all their estates and
effects were, of course, entirely swallowed up. The
Merchant Venturers' Chapel of St. Clement, the Weavers'
Chapel of St. Catherine, the Tailors' Chapel of St. John,
and Knapp's Chapel on the Back were suppressed, and
their contents confiscated. Services at the Chapel of
St. George in the Guildhall were stopped, and the image
of the patron saint was torn down. The Chapel of the
Three Kings of Cologne at Christmas Steps and Trinity
Chapel in the Old Market, both attached to almshouses, of
which the Corporation were trustees, were not included
in the sale of the chantry estates. The Commissioners,
however, decreed that they were the property of the
Crown, and ordered the confiscation of so much of each
of the hospital estates as was equivalent in yearly value
SUPPRESSION OF CHANTRIES. 21
to the stipend of each of the dispossessed chaplains
(about ^6). This decision appears to have been long over-
looked. But it was discovered in 1577 by two legal
sharpers, who forthwith j^rocured a grant of the two
chapels and the reserved lands from Queen Elizabeth.
The grantees then came down upon the Corporation, who
were compelled to submit to their terms, and who paid
them £66 13s. 4d. for a transfer of the Queen's con-
veyance.
The Chapel of St. Mary on Bristol Bridge, with the
adjoining dwelling of the priest, was bestowed upon the
corporate b(^dy, though the estates of the fabric went
with the rest of the chantries. The transaction is re-
corded in the audit book : —
Paid to the King for the purchase of the site, with
the Priest's Chamber, and the lead, with all
the appurtenances belonging to the same . . £40
More to the King for the bells and all the vest-
ments and implements £11
There were, however, large incidental expenses.
Several journeys had to be made to London to get the
grant passed in due form. The Lord Chancellor had to be
paid for the patent, the Lord Privy Seal had to be feed for
the signet, and gratuities had to be offered to Court
underlings, scribes, and attorneys, the total expenditure
being thereby raised to nearly ^88. But, on the other
hand, the proctors and auditors of the chapel paid over
funds in hand (of which, it may be safely suspected, the
royal agents had been kept in the dark) amounting in
round figures to £55 ; the bells and implements sold
for £11 ; and one, Mrs. Compton, paid £6 13s. 4d. " for
the consideration that Sir Thomas, her kinsman, might be
22 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
admitted to the same service " — that is, be appointed
chaplain, which he possibly was for life. The actual
outlay by the Corporation was thus reduced to a few
pounds. The chapel extended right across the bridge,
being erected over an archway similar to that of St.
John's Church in Broad Street.
In 1553 another gang of spoliators was nominated by
the Government to confiscate the plate of all the churches
in the kingdom, and Bristolians had good reason to con-
gratulate themselves on their proceedings in 1546. With
the exception of two small chalices in the Cathedral, and
one in each of the parish churches, which were ordered
" safely and surely to be kept for the King's Majesty's
use," every precious article was carried off, together with
most of the parochial bells. (The Cathedral was deprived
of five great bells and nearly 130 tons of lead roofing.)
The returns as to the quantity of plate actually seized
have perished, but some conception of the total may be
arrived at by recorded facts relating to St. Nicholas'
Church. When the parochial gifts were made to procure
the freedom of the gates this church possessed 694 ounces
of silver ornaments, and the vestry contributed £46 15s.,
which, at 5s. 6d. per ounce, the current value of silver
bullion, would represent 170 ounces. The Commissioners
therefore swept off the remaining 524 ounces, less one
chalice of 15 ounces, left to the parish. As regards All
Saints' Church, a document is in existence proving that
420 ounces were taken thence to the Bristol Mint. These
were probably the two wealthiest parishes in the city ; but
even the little parish of St. Leonard was despoiled of
222 ounces, and it may be fairly assumed that the
aggregate spoil from the Cathedral and the seventeen
parochial churches must have reached about 5,000 ounces
SPOLIATION OF THE CHURCHES. 23
of silver, to say nothing of the value of the lead and
bells. The plate was probably removed to the local
mint and converted into base money, the shillings
coined by Sharington being intrinsically worth about
threepence.
CHAPTER III.
Population of Bristol in the sixteenth century — Police and
sanitary arrangements of the city — Prevalence of
mendicants — Use of hops in ale prohibited ; thatch-
roofing forbidden — Erection of houses by the Corpora-
tion on Bristol Bridge.
To modem readers the most interesting fact preserved in
the State papers in relation to the local chantries is the
numbering of the inhabitants of Bristol, which they luckily
record. The Royal mandate to the Chantry Com-
missioners required the churchwardens not only to produce
a detailed account of the yearly proceeds of each chantry
estate, but also to return the number of inhabitants
dwelling in each parish, and this census accordingly stands
at the head of each parochial report. Whatever may have
been the knavery of the Commissioners in underestimating,
for the benefit of two of themselves, the value of the con-
fiscated property, neither the visitors nor the local authori-
ties had any inducement to misrepresent the actual popu-
lation of a city. In a few parishes the numbering
seems to have been made with scrupulous exactness. In
others the round figures show that the churchwardens
were content to offer an approximate estimate of " the
houseling people" living within their respective boundaries ;
but it is unlikely that any of the returns were intentionally
magnified or diminished, for no purpose could be served by
falsification. The following are the figures : —
24
POPULATION OF BRISTOL.
25
Parish of St. Werburgh i6o
St. James 520
St. Thomas 600
St. PhiUp 514
St. John 227
St. Nicholas 800
St. Peter 400
Christ Church 326
St. Stephen 461
St. Mary Redcliff 600
All Saints 180
Temple 480
St. Ewen 56
St. Leonard 120
St. Michael 252
St. Mary-le-port 180
5876
As there were no chantries in St. Augustine-the-Less^
which had been a dependency of the neighbouring abbey,
a census of that parish does not appear. The number of
inhabitants, however, must have been inconsiderable, for
with the exception of a fringe of dwellings at and near St.
Augustine's Back, College Green, Frog Lane, and Limekiln
Road, the district was divided into grass land and garden
ground. Thus the total population of the city appar-
ently did not much exceed 6,000. Similar returns for the
city of Gloucester show an aggregate population of 3,159.
One seeks in vain for definite information as to the
police and sanitary arrangements that were in force at the
date of the above census. In 1508 the Corporation passed
an ordinance declaring that the mayor, two aldermen, and
the forty " men " (common councillors) were entitled to
26 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
levy dues " on the goods of the townsmen, as well on rents
as on merchandise " ; but this power seems to have been
exercised only on great emergencies, and, if the audit books
may be trusted, local rates in the modern sense were un-
known. The paving of the chief thoroughfares was com-
pulsory on the owners of the frontages, each maintaining
the surface of the street as far as the central gutter. The
lighting of the streets at night was never dreamt of. Such
scavenging as was thought indispensable was long under-
taken by a single individual, who sought his remuneration
from the goodwill of the householders ; but in 1543 the
Common Council resolved to pay this public servant is. 6d.
per week, or 20s. per quarter, and as the luckless " raker "
could not live on this stipend and continued his perquisi-
tions, he was afterwards voted 12s. a year extra " because
he shall take no toll." In 1557 the Council increased his
salary to £12 per annum, but relief from this charge was
immediately secured by ordering a " collection " to be
made from the citizens. It is not stated on what basis the
money was levied, but the whole outlay was brought in,
and the only corporate disbursement was twopence weekly
for keeping the front of the Council House and Guildhall
in decent order. Even a parsimonious trader could hardly
have grumbled at having to contribute some small fraction
of a penny towards raising 4s. 6d. a week. About the
same date the civic body laid out 3s. 8d. for a lantern to
hang at Froom Gate, and there is also mention of a lantern
at the High Cross, but no payment occurs for candles,
except occasionally on the Midsummer Watch night, when
sixpence might be laid out for " tapers " at the Cross.
Mendicants becoming increasingly troublesome, a new
official, styled the master of the beggars, was appointed in
1532, and provided with a yearly coat and the modest
PREVALENCE OF MENDICANTS. 27
salary of 3s. 4d, per quarter, subsequently raised to 5s,,
from which one must infer that he was employed rather for
occasional show than for daily use. Mendicity, indeed,
was not merely tolerated before the invention of poor
rates, but actually patronised by the Corporation. The
following items occur in the audit book under March,
1571 :—
" Paid for graving a mould of the town's arms to
cast in tin for 40 badges, to set upon 20 poor people to
go into Somerset to seek relief, 2s. ; 7 lbs. tin to cast
them, 4s. 8d. ; casting and making holes whereby they
might be sewed upon their backs and breasts, 2S. 6d. ;
thread, id."
Finally, the provisions for the suppression of crime
and for the preservation of good order were ludicrously
feeble. The Corporation maintained a staff of four
sergeants, remunerated by fees. But these officers, when
not in attendance upon the magistrates, as they were
expected to be daily, were largely employed in the legal
business arising out of civil actions in the Mayor's and
Sheriffs' Courts, and naturally shirked all duties that
offered no prospect of remuneration. Parish constables,
again, were selected yearly — one half at the Midsummer
Watch, and the others on St. Peter's Day — from the able-
bodied residents of each ward ; but they rarely undertook
active service except when specially summoned to quell
disturbances, and casual brawls were left to settle them-
selves. When a malefactor was not caught in the act, or
left no traces of his identity, he had evidently little to fear
in the shape of detection and retribution. One or two
corporate ordinances presumably intended to promote
the health and safety of the public may be briefly noted.
There is a current legend that the hop plant came into
28 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
England with the Reformation. But it was used by
Bristol brewers in the reign of Henry VII., to the discon-
tent of the Common Council, who issued an edict in 1505,
forbidding hops to be put into ale except in the months of
June, July, and August, on pain of a penalty of 40s. And
apparently to detect infringements of this order, an " ale
Conner " was appointed in 1519, who was ordered to go
boldly into every brewer's premises, to taste his ale, and if
it was found unwholesome, to forbid its sale. A few years
later this officer was deemed so useful that two " conners "
were appointed, with a joint yearly salary of £1 6s. 8d.
It was not until 1574 that an ordinance was enacted
forbidding the use of thatch for roofing houses and other
buildings in the city.
Soon after the Corporation had obtained the Royal
grant of the chapel on Bristol Bridge, it undertook a work
of some importance — the construction of two houses on the
same thoroughfare of a character far surpassing the
customary style of tradesmen's dwellings, which rarely
exceeded two stories in height. The project seems to
have been instigated by the receipt of a legacy of £100,
bequeathed for public purposes by one Thomas Hart, and
by the payment of one-half of a similar bequest of £40 left
by Thomas Silk. Moved by a somewhat cool appeal for
further assistance to carry out the design. Alderman
Thomas White, of London, a member of a Bristol family
remarkable for its liberal benefactions to the city, generously
presented another £100. With these funds in hand, the
Common Council, in 1548, gave orders for beginning the
work, which was executed by workmen paid weekly by the
Chamberlain. As the houses were to be chiefly of wood,
a carpenter was brought down from London as super-
intendent, and was paid one shilling per day, the local
HOUSES ERECTED BY CORPORATION. 29
workmen receiving eightpence, and the labourers fivepence
per head. The first order for timber brought in seventeen
Jarge trees, and many more were required subsequently.
The chimneys and fireplaces were of brick, which appears
to have been imported, and was costly, two parcels costing
^^38. The bricklayer was paid one shilling per day. Some
old glass was made available, and 258 feet of new glass cost
the high price of sixpence per foot. Two of the Friaries
were pillaged for some ornamental stonework. Probably
owing to the workmen being left much to their own devices,
the building operations extended over eighty-six weeks,
and the total expenditure was no less than £495 13s. gd.,
an extraordinary sum for that period. The houses were
let for £6 13s. 46.. each in 1551, in which year the Corpora-
tion, which had just rebuilt the Tolzey in Com Street as
a Council House, set about the erection of a block of ware-
houses in the " Old Jewry," the locality inhabited by the
Bristol Jews previous to their expulsion from England in
1290, and now represented by part of the buildings
standing between Bell Lane and Quay Street. The outlay
on this undertaking was £470. The cost of the new
Tolzey or Council House cannot be ascertained.
CHAPTER IV.
Bristol and feudalism — Interference of Anne Boleyn in
Bristol affairs — Visit of Anne and Henry VIII. to
Thornbury — Suppression of St. John's Hospital ;
unsuccessful attempt hy Corporation to obtain possession
— Trottble with Lord President of Welsh Marches ;
attempts to levy tribute from Bristol ; his pretensions
finally put an end to — Seizure of Bristol cor7t by
Mayor of Gloucester — Persecution of Protestants in
Bristol — Accession of Elizabeth — Bristol trained bands
reorganised and given an independent commission —
" Crying down " of the currency — Erection of turn-
stiles in Bristol — " Certificate for eating of flesh in
Lejit " granted to Corporation.
The sketch of corporate transactions down to the middle of
the sixteenth century, given in the three previous chapters,
has chiefly dealt with subjects relating to the internal
affairs of the city. Before proceeding further, a few
matters may be noticed in which the Common Council
were acted upon by outside influences. Feudal privileges,
for example, though decaying, were by no means extinct.
There were still many manors in Gloucestershire in which
the labouring population were serfs, attached to the soil
they cultivated, and liable to be transferred with the soil
from one owner to another. Many Bristolians living at
the accession of Henry VHI. must have remembered that,
less than thirty years previously Lord de la Waire, an
opulent local landowner, had threatened to recover as
one of his bondsmen a rich merchant, William Bird, who
30
INTERFERENCE OF ANNE BOLEYN. 31
had served the offices of Mayor and Sheriff of the town,
his lordship claiming the right to treat the aged gentleman
as a runaway beast, to take possession of his property,
and to appropriate his family as " villeins." Happily
Mr. Bird was able to prove beyond dispute that though his
grandfather had lived for some years on one of De la
Warre's manors, where his children were bom, his ancestors
had dwelt in Birmingham as free men for many genera-
tions, and upon the Corporation taking action on behalf
of a valued colleague, the peer found it prudent to abandon
his claim. The threat was, in fact, preposterous, it being
one of the immemorial privileges of Bristol that a country-
man who had lived for a year and a day within the walls
was a townsman, and entitled to permanent protection.
The issue was recorded in the Great Red Book at the
Council House by a " Remembrance, to be had in perpetual
memory for a president to all slanderous persons having
their tongues more prompter to speak wickedly than to
say truth."
Interference on the part of Royalty was a more serious
matter. Queen Anne Boleyn, during the brief period of
her favour, followed the example of the courtiers around
her, who habitually sold what influence they possessed to
those willing to buy it. In January, 1534, Her Majesty
addressed what was practically a mandate to the Mayor
and Corporation, requiring them to confer the next
presentation of the Mastership of St. John's Hospital at
Redcliff, of which they were patrons, upon two officers of
her household and David Hutton, of Bristol, grocer,
stating that they would appoint a fitting person when the
office became vacant. The Corporation obeyed the com-
mand with great alacrity, the grant of the presentation
tc the Queen's nominees being made only four days after
32 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
the date of her letter. Whether Mr. Hutton, who was
doubtless the prompter of the transaction, got his money's
worth for his money is a matter of conjecture. He was
a. man of good position, and had served the office of Sheriff.
Probably, in consequence of this transaction, the Common
Council passed an ordinance in 1551, forbidding any
member suing the Crown for any office in the gift of the
city on pain of being dismissed and disfranchised. Before
dealing with the fate of the Hospital a further reference
must be made to the Queen.
In 1535 the King paid a visit to Thornbury Castle, one
of the fine estates of the Duke of Buckingham, whose
judicial murder a few years earlier had been mainly
determined upon and ruthlessly perpetrated for the sake
of cutting off a nobleman whose royal descent was a
standing menace whilst there was no male heir to the
Crown, and whose vast possessions aroused the greed of an
unscrupulous despot. Henry was accompanied by his
second consort, and they purposed to pay a visit to Bristol,
but had to abandon that project through a deadly out-
break of the plague. The Corporation manifested much
anxiety to propitiate their formidable Sovereign. Ten fat
oxen and forty sheep were forwarded to plenish the Royal
larder, and Queen Anne was presented with a massive gilt
cup, containing 100 marks in gold, as the offering of
" The Queen's Chamber," the title proudly claimed for
Bristol. The gay recipient then little imagined that she
was within nine months of her doom.
Reverting to St. John's Hospital, it would appear that
the mastership did not fall vacant until 1542, when one
Bromefield, presumably Hutton's nominee, was appointed ;
but the institution was suppressed and its estates confisca-
ted in March, 1544. The Corporation immediately
SUPPRESSION OF ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL. 33
attempted to obtain a grant of the spoil. A deputation
was sent up to Court, and the Members of ParUament
rendered earnest assistance. The expenses of the
Chamberlain during this negotiation appear in the audit
book, and afford a striking illustration of the cheapness
of travelling at that period. The officer and his man were
absent fifteen days, and the total outlay for their main-
tenance and that of their horses at inns on the road and
in London was 38s. 8d., being less than is. 3|d. per day
for each man and his horse. The hire of two horses cost
IIS., or 4|d. per horse per day. The servant's wages were
5s., or 4d. per day, and a special breakfast for the city
members " for their pains," at a London tavern, cost 4|d.
per head.
The corporate efforts were fruitless, the King giving
the Hospital and all its belongings to his physician, George
Owen. The worthy doctor, however, seems to have had
some compunction in appropriating a charitable founda-
tion, for in 1553 he granted the Corporation a ninety-
nine years' lease of numerous houses in Bristol, and 130
acres of land at Chew Magna, formerly belonging to the
Hospital in trust, to maintain ten additional inmates in
Foster's Almshouses at a cost of about £15 a year. At a
later date the Corporation purchased the fee simple of
this estate from Owen's representative, and in recent
years the rents have brought in £1,500 a year to the
Charity Trustees, one-sixth of the proceeds being credited
to Foster's Almshouses and the remainder to the
Grammar School.
One of the most vexatious and most lasting outside
troubles of the Corporation was the claim of the Lord
President of the Welsh Marches to contributions from
Bristol towards the expenditure of his Council. The
4
34 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
courts of this great official were held at Gloucester,
Ludlow, or Wigmore Castles, and it was his custom to
assume that this city was within his jurisdiction, and to
summon the Mayor to wait upon him and render military
service and tribute for the defence of the Marches. The
first recorded instance of this preposterous demand occurs
in 1542, when the Chamberlain paid fees to two pur-
suivants bringing " commands " of this character, but no
response seems to have been returned. In 1551 a similar
mandate was issued by Sir William Herbert, Lord
President, in a more peremptory style, and after vainly
seeking protection in London, the civic body sent a
deputation to Ludlow to protest against the aggression.
The result must have been unsatisfactory, for further
appeals were forthwith made by the Corporation to the
Royal Court. A butt of wine, costing £8 los., was ordered
to be sent to " the Duke's grace of Somerset," and 33s. 4d.
was paid for its carriage to London ; sugar loaves were
forwarded to a judge and two legal officials, and directions
were given to the city delegates to inquire " whether
Sir Henry had any such authority to direct any such
commission sent to the Mayor, or that we were within his
Principality of the Marches, and how London was served
in this case." The Lord Chancellor at length ordered the
issue of a writ of oyer and terminer to settle the question,
but there is no record of the result.
In 1558 renewed arbitrary injunctions of the President
provoked the Corporation to vigorous resistance, and the
Chamberlain was sent up to London with a " Supplication
to Parliament." What was more to the purpose in those
days, a butt of " muscadel of Candia " was presented to
the Lord Treasurer, whose secretaries and porters and
various other underlings were duly " gratified," and
TROUBLE WITH LORD PRESIDENT. 35
£6 13s. was given to the Solicitor-General " for his counsel
and friendship." The Chamberlain was thereby enabled
to return in triumph, bearing letters of rebuke to the
President, which — submissive courtesy being no longer
indispensable — were sent to Ludlow by a groom. Only
four years later, however, in 1562, the claim was raised
again in all its former extravagance, much to the
indignation of the civic body. On this occasion, after a
fruitless effort by the Chamberlain, from whom the
President extorted 30s. for " harness, pikes, and other
monyshyon," the Mayor, John Pykes, and some of his
brethren, went in some pomp to London, and spent money
so freely, yet so judiciously, that, according to a minute
in one of the Council House books, " the citizens were
exempted from the Marches of Wales for ever, which
before it was great trouble unto them." The Mayor
seized this opportunity to sue Queen Elizabeth for a
charter granting additional privileges to the Corporation,
and this effort, for the time unsuccessful, doubtless added
to the civic outlay, which, owing to a widespread
scattering of gratifications, including a black satin robe
for the Lord Chief Justice, exceeded £200. Even after
this crushing defeat, the Welsh officials had the audacity
in 1586 to again assume suzerainty over Bristol ; but a
journey to Court of one of the legal advisers of the city,
possibly aided by " gratuities," put a final end to the
Lord President's pretensions.
In times of scarcity the Common Council was accus-
tomed to make purchases of corn for distribution amongst
the poor at cost price, and had sometimes to go far afield
for supplies. In 1531 a quantity of wheat was bought
in the upper valley of the Severn, and was being brought
down in boats, when, on reaching Gloucester, it was
36 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
seized by the Sheriffs by direction of the Mayor, who had
it sold, and coolly retained the proceeds. The Bristol
authorities thereupon appealed to the Court of Star
Chamber, which forthwith ordered the Gloucester officials
to deliver at Bristol within six weeks as much good wheat
as they had appropriated, whilst the impudent Mayor was
summoned to London to answer for his conduct, and he
and his Sheriffs were mulcted in £6 13s. 4d. each, to be
paid to the Corporation of Bristol.
The corporate audit books for the first three years of
Mary's reign have disappeared, and we are consequently
deprived of information respecting the attitude of the
local authorities in reference to the religious reaction of
the time. The expense of burning unhappy Protestants
must have fallen upon the civic purse, but as the records
are lost, it is impossible to determine the precise number
of victims, on which the old calendar writers strangely
disagree. If it be true, and it is probably only too true,
that the officers who carried out the sentences, instead
of taking dry faggots from the plentiful stores on the
quays, bought green wood at Redland to increase the
agony of the sufferers, let us hope that the Corporation
were not responsible for this additional torture. The
account book for 1557 shows that the King and Queen's
players and those of the Earl of Oxford visited the city
to offer diversions amidst the prevailing horrors, and that
the former were paid 15s. and the latter los. for the
entertainments. It also appears that the Corporation
had revived the celebration of Spencer's Obit in accordance
with the original trust ; but this may have been due to
compulsion ; and the flight of two of the city ministers to
escape persecution indicates that in Bristol, as in London,
Protestant doctrines had taken a deep root.
TRAINED BANDS REORGANISED. 37
The accession of Elizabeth, which put an end to the
reign of terror, was hailed with rejoicings and bonfires,
and still greater manifestations of joy took place at her
coronation. " Paid as a reward to the parson and clerk
to sing Te Deum, commanded by the Mayor, 2s.," in-
dicates that the Corporation refused to attend Mass at
the Cathedral. The civic body soon after appealed to
their new Sovereign for a confirmation of the city charters,
and after some demur the petition was complied with, the
huge patent entailing an outlay of about £50 in fees at
Court.
The Government seems to have speedily taken a
new departure in reference to the armed forces of this
and other cities. The annual muster of the trained bands
had been previously a mere form. In 1561, after some
rusty old armour had been put in order at the expense of
the Chamber, twenty " gunners " were dressed in uniforms,
provided with gunpowder, paid 6s. 8d. each as " conduct
money," and ordered off to take part in the general muster
of Gloucestershire. Four civic visits were paid to Lord
Chandos, Lord Lieutenant, in the course of the year, and
he was presented with four hogsheads of wine. The
inclusion of the Bristol force in that of the county, how-
ever, was regarded as derogatory. The Chamberlain was
despatched to London to plead the privileges of the city,
and by liberal presents to the proper officials, including a
butt of sack to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord High Steward
of Bristol, the messenger succeeded in obtaining a pledge
that the city should henceforth receive an independent
commission. Thereupon, " 12 ells of sarsenet, red, blue
and yellow " — the city colours — were bought in London
for ;^3 5s. to make a grand " ensign " for the troopers,
which was decorated with " two buttons of gold, and tassells
38 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
to hang at the top," and two drums were purchased to give
a martial tone to the music of the city waits. All prepara-
tions being completed, the next year's muster of the
trained bands took place in the Marsh before the Mayor
and Corporation, who dispensed £4 i6s. 8d. in gratifications
to the captains, ensign-bearer, and other officers. The
force was strong, having regard to the population, for in
1570 the Chamberlain laid out more than £65 in pur-
chasing " 8 score cassocks (with laced sleeves), and 8 score
breeches, for 8 score soldiers." Iron corslets and hand
guns — then just coming into vogue — for twenty men were
also stored in the Guildhall. After this reorganisation the
saturnalia of the Watch Nights became less popular ; and
in 1572 the Corporation laid out a large sum for " harness,"
which probably meant fire-arms, as shooting matches were
fixed to take place in the Marsh on Midsummer Day,
St. Peter's Day and St. Bartholomew's Day.
One of the greatest difficulties of the early years of
Elizabeth's reign was the debasement of the currency
perpetrated by Henry VIII. and the base ministers of
his successor. With a view to restoration, repeated
" cryings down " of the value of current coin were made
by proclamation. At the first of these operations, in
1559, the Chamberlain obtained only 6is. 6d. for eighty-
eight shillings, and on coins professing to be worth
£10 gs. 6d. he lost £3 9s. lod., or one-third of the face value.
" The worser sort " of shillings, says a local chronicler —
and the worser sort invariably passed as wages to the
poor — were cried down to 2|d., causing infinite distress.
All " outlandish money," which from its superior intrinsic
value had come largely into circulation, was next forbidden
to pass current, and the city treasurer lost some money on
the French crowns and pistolets and Flemish angelettes
ERECTION OF TURNSTILES. 39
that he had on hand. The Queen finally prohibited the use
of base coin, and issued pieces which, though far inferior
in value to the currency of the Plantagenets, were an enor-
mous improvement on that of her father and brother,
and afforded incalculable relief to the whole community.
The town wall, which at this period extended from
the Froom near Thunderbolt Street to the Avon at the
Welsh Back, had long been of no practical value for the
defence of the city, and the gate in it, called the Marsh
Gate, was merely an obstacle to traffic. During a riot in
1561, arising, it is said, out of the baptising of a child,
the doors of this gate were removed, and they were never
restored. But some substitute being thought necessary,
the Council ordered the erection of a " turnpike," also
called a " whirligig," and really a turnstile. Another
whirligig was about the same time placed near the upper
end of Steep Street, and doubtless stood at the top of a
precipitous footpath on the site of the modern Christmas
Steps. (Christmas Street had not then entirely lost its
original name of Knifesmiths Street, and how the singular
transformation was brought about remains a mystery.)
There was a third whirligig in Tower Lane under the gate
still standing there. It is not surprising to find that the
turnstiles required as frequent renovations as the stocks,
which the Corporation maintained in all parts of the city
for the punishment of rogues, and were constantly in need
of repair. Having mentioned this quaint instrument of
correction, which each of the thousands of manors in
England was bound to maintain, and which was every-
where to be seen down to about the beginning of Victoria's
reign, it may be added that the corporate accounts contain
numberless items for renewing or mending the Ducking
Stool for ducking vixenish women, three of whom are
40 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
recorded to have been " washed " in a single day, that
the pillory was always getting worn out, and that a new
ladder for the gallows was required at short intervals. A
cage for frantic disturbers of the peace, and a den styled
" Little Ease," in Newgate, were amongst the other
amenities of those good old days.
Elizabeth's Privy Council were accustomed to issue
a yearly proclamation forbidding all persons, save invalids,
from eating butchers' meat during the season of Lent.
The Corporation, however, sought some further relief
from the restriction, for the Chamberlain paid a yearly
fee of one shilling to " the Lord Keeper's man for entering
a certificate for eating of flesh in Lent," and this proceeding
gave so much satisfaction that the fee was doubled, and
was paid for many years. But the Common Council on
one occasion presumed rather too far in its evasion of the
Royal commands. In consideration of the sum of £13,
to be paid by yearly instalments, a licence was granted
to a butcher, living in one of the parishes outside the walls,
to sell meat to all comers throughout the forty days' fast.
But in 1570, when the favoured trader had paid £8 6s. 8d.
of the money, either the Butchers' Company raised a
clamour against the violation of their statutes, or some
informer had acquainted the Privy Council of the contempt
and induced it to send down a reprimand, for the Common
Council hurriedly revoked the licence, and ordered the
repayment of the amount received, declaring that " it
was not lawful to sell flesh contrary to the butchers'
ordinances." Though the Royal mandate for abstinence
continued to be issued for more than half a century after-
wards, the rapid growth of Puritanism caused it to be
ever less regarded, and except amongst a sprinkling of
High Churchmen, it was finally treated with contempt.
CHAPTER V.
Thome family and Bristol Grammar School ; 5^. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital acquired ; scandalous behaviour
of the Corporation — Establishment of separate custom
house at Gloucester, to the dismay of Bristolians —
Payment to Members of Parliament — Visit to the city
of Duke of Norfolk — Reformation of Bristol measures —
Dispute between Corporation and Admiralty — Crest
bestowed upon city by Clarencieux, King-of-Arms ;
copy of charter granting this crest — Earl of Leicester
appointed Lord High Steward ; his indifference to
Bristol interests ; his visits to the city.
A DEED of conveyance made to the Corporation in July,
1561, by a citizen named Nicholas Thorne, for the alleged
benefit of the Bristol Grammar School, is worthy of some
attention, especially as all the statements hitherto pub-
lished respecting the foundation of that institution are
more or less defective and inaccurate. Robert Thorne,
the grandfather of the above Nicholas, was a prosperous
local merchant in the reign of Henry VH., and is asserted
to have been one of the chief promoters of the memorable
enterprise in which John Cabot discovered Newfoundland
and the American mainland in 1497. He, or his son
Robert, served as Mayor of Bristol in 1514-5, but he even-
tually removed to London, where he died in 15 19. There
is no bequest towards founding a school in his will, but
from a circumstance to be noted presently, he probably
left some private directions to his family and executors.
His eldest son, Robert, who was M.P. for Bristol in 1523^
41
42 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL
had spent his early hfe in Spain, where he acquired great
wealth, and in 1532, in conjunction with his brother
Nicholas and his father's surviving executor, John
Goderich, he determined to found a grammar school.
There was at that date a hospital, almshouse and
church dedicated of St. Bartholomew, to which the beauti-
ful Early English gateway near the bottom of Christmas
Steps is now the only existing relic. The charity was
founded by one of the Barons De la Warre, and the living
representative of that family was then the patron ; but the
yearly value of the endowment hardly maintained the
master and brethren, the buildings were falling into decay,
and De la Warre's embarrassed resources rendered him
desirous of being relieved of the institution. So on
January 31st, 1532, an important legal document was
executed by his lordship, with the assent and co-operation
of the master of the hospital. It recited that agreements
had been entered into between them and Robert Thorne,
by which the latter had undertaken, provided the hospital
and its estates were conveyed in fee to himself, his brother,
and the a.bove executor, to convert the buildings within
six years into a convenient house for a grammar school,
to provide a schoolmaster and usher, and to found a yearly
obit service in the hospital church, at which ten priests and
six clerks should pray for the welfare of De la Warre and
the souls of all his ancestors. It had been further stipu-
lated that the existing almspeople should remain in the
hospital for their lives, receiving fourpence each per week
for food, and that a .priest should be maintained to pray
daily for his lordship until the school was opened. In
consideration of which covenants, De la Warre and the
master renounced all rights and titles to the building and
its estates for ever.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL ACQUIRED. 43
No mention is made of any pecuniary payment, but it
is certain that the peer owed money to Thome. The
above transaction was illegal until it had obtained the
assent of the Crown, but a licence in mortmain was granted
by Henry VIII. in the following March, with permission to
convey the property to the Corporation, in trust for
Thome's " laudable purpose." Robert Thome died a few
months afterwards, but had previously appointed the first
schoolmaster (the school being temporarity held in a large
room over Froom Gate), and he bequeathed by will £300,
and a debt due from De la Warre, towards the " making
up " of the new institution, besides devising several
hundred pounds for various charitable purposes in Bristol.
By his death, followed soon after by the demise of Goderich,
Nicholas Thome, the brother (Mayor in 1544-5), became
seized in fee of the Bartholomew estate, but although he
survived for many years, he took no steps to convey the
property to the Corporation. In his last will, however,
dated in August, 1546, a few days before his death, he
directed the transfer to be made by his executors at the
cost of his estate, and bequeathed a legacy, with his books,
maps, &c., to the school. His eldest son, a little boy, thus
became legal owner of the hospital, and nothing could be
done by the executors. On the death of the youth, still
under age, in 1557, the property devolved upon his next
brother, Nicholas.
The Corporation now thought it time to intervene, and
in 1558 Nicholas covenanted with the two Members of
Parhament for the city that he would, on " coming
of age," convey the property to the Corporation, on
condition of being granted for a term of years or for
life such portions of the estate as he might select.
Accordingly, in July, 1561 — as stated at the beginning
44 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
of this chapter — he granted the estate to the civic
body in fee simple, for the alleged purpose of carrying
out his father's and uncle's intentions. Although
some Corporate money was spent on taking possession of
the charity lands, the whole affair was a delusive farce, and
the conduct of the Corporation, clearly due to a secret
arrangement, was almost incredibly scandalous. Nicholas
Thorne having influential friends at the Council House,
where he afterwards became Chamberlain, the Common
Council, in the following September, demised to him and
to his " heirs for ever " the entire hospital estate (the
school buildings excepted) , reserving a ground rent of £30.
In consequence of this conveyance, the property at his
death devolved upon one of his daughters, Ann Pykes, as
absolute owner, and she speedily raised a large sum by
granting leases for considerable periods. Some public-
spirited citizens, indignant at the malversation, at
length sued the Lord Chancellor for an inquiry, with the
result that the grant of the Corporation was adjudged to be
fraudulent. Much litigation followed, and Mrs. Pykes, who
stuck tenaciously to the property, was in 1610 allowed to
retain it, on covenanting to pay £41 6s. 8d. per annum.
The Common Council had by that time become ashamed
of the misdoings of their predecessors, and in 1617 the
charity lands were recovered for the benefit of the Grammar
School by a payment of £650 to the illegitimate possessors.
The estate now produces about £700 per annum.
In 1565 the Common Council learnt with consternation
that an effort was being made by the inhabitants of
Gloucester, then a " creek " of Bristol, to procure an
independent Custom House for that port. Petitions
against a proposal regarded as highly injurious to local
commerce were hurriedly despatched to London, the Lord
CUSTOM HOUSE AT GLOUCESTER. 45
Treasurer's aid was besought with a " gratification," and
the rejection of the project was temporarily secured. In
1576 the Members of Parhament for Gloucester introduced
a Bill to carry out the desire of their constituents, but it
was stoutly opposed by their Bristol colleagues, Serjeant
Walsh, Recorder, and Philip Langley, and was ultimately
thrown out. But in 1580, to local dismay. Queen Eliza-
beth, by letters patent, established a Custom House at
Gloucester, and attached to it the other upper creeks of the
Severn. Earnest protests against this arrangement were
addressed by the Corporation to the Privy Council, who,
in 1582, directed a Commission to sit at Berkeley to inquire
into the merits of the case. To meet the outlay incurred
on this and other matters, the Common Council took the
unusual course of levying a rate upon the citizens, which
produced £80. A great effort was thereupon made to
induce the Government to change its policy, the Recorder
of London and other counsel being employed to set forth
the ancient privileges of Bristol. In a petition to the
Privy Council — the arguments of which do not hang very
well together — the Corporation maintained that the up-
country creeks of the Severn from Berkeley to Worcester
had belonged to this port for time out of mind, that the
chiefest vent of the city, as well as its chiefest source of
grain and victuals, was the course of the Severn as far as
Shrewsbury, and that the shutting up of this vent and
supply by granting a Custom House to Gloucester
threatened the imminent ruin of Bristolians, Gloucester,
it was contended, was a place of no merchandise or trade,
and what was adventured there to sea was only corn and
prohibited exports, laden in small barks belonging to
farmers and the like, to the defrauding of the Queen's
Customs. Moreover, these barks were forced to lade and
46 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
discharge at Gatcombe, fifteen miles below Gloucester,
and the depth of water there would not accommodate even
50-ton ships, except at high tides. Yet " Irish barks had
found a direct trade to Gloucester, and all to ship away
corn, and so we lose the benefit of their commodities and
the uttering of our own." " The trade and shipping of
Bristol is already so decayed by reason of the premises
that they have done away, and must do away, with their
great shipping, and have offered them to be sold to their
great loss." It is finally prayed that, in regard to this
urgent distress, the port of Bristol be restored to its
ancient status. The appeal met with no response.
The reference to the Irish demand for com made in this
petition confirms much other evidence in the Corporate
books, to the effect that the sister island was frequently
unable to grow sufficient grain to provide food for its
population.
It has been already stated that the Members of Parlia-
ment for Bristol were paid " wages " of two shillings a day
each during their attendance at Westminster. The
amount of their stipend had remained unaltered for over
two centuries, and was originally fixed by statute. The
reduced value of money having been recognised in 1567,
when the travelling expenses of the Chamberlain, with his
servant and two horses, had risen from 2s. yd. per day, the
sum paid twenty years earlier, to 6s., the Common Council
raised the Members' stipend to 3s. 4d. per day each, and a
further grant of £12 was made for the hire and keep of
their horses. The Session had lasted ninety-eight days.
In the next Parliament, in 1571 — which sat for sixty-three
days — the " wages " were increased to 4s. per day, and as
the Members had been obliged to make two journeys up
and down, the allowance for horses was £18 12s. No
VISIT OF DUKE OF NORFOLK. 47
further change was made for many years. In the following
century the " wages " were increased to 6s. 8d. per day,
but the grant for horses was abolished after the intro-
duction of coach travelling.
In April, 1568, while the Duke of Norfolk was sojourning
at Bath in company with the Earl of Worcester, Lord
Berkeley, and other noblemen, six hogsheads of wine were
bought for presentation to him by the Corporation of
Bristol, and four of them were sent on to him with an
invitation to visit the city, which his Grace accepted.
The preparations for his reception were so extensive that
rumours of his ambitious desire to marry the unhappy
Queen of Scots, widely regarded as presumptive heir to
the English Throne, must have reached the civic body.
The shooting butts in the Marsh underwent extensive
repairs, the exterior of the Guildhall was renovated,
workmen were employed day and night in decorating it
within with gold and colours, and a large sum was spent
upon the stained-glass windows of St. George's Chapel
and the Tolzey. A small outlay on the latter building —
" Paid for burnishing the beasts upon the Tolzey " — is
now inexplicable. Strangely enough, the expense of the
Duke's reception and entertainment does not appear in
the accounts, and was probably defrayed by subscription
or a small rate. According to the chroniclers, his Grace,
during his brief stay, attended service at St. Mary Redcliff,
and proceeded then to Temple Church to watch the
swaying motion of the tower whilst a peal was rung upon
the bells, then a local marvel. His visit seems to have
given umbrage at Court, and some annalists allege that he
departed abruptly for London by command of the Queen.
He was executed for alleged treason in 1572.
In the Middle Ages almost every corporate town
48 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
followed its own caprices in regard to the size of measures.
Even to the present day, I believe, the so-called hogshead
of cider at Taunton is of vastly dissimilar size from the
hogshead at Gloucester, and the " gill " of beer at
Newcastle is actually half a pint. Some reformation of
Bristol measures was begun by the Common Council in
1:569. In the accounts for March appears : " Paid for
making the gallon of brass greater, which was done by
John Coleman, tinker, 3s. 4d." The Mayor's kalendar
-states that four years later " the Mayor caused a good
reformation to be made for measures of barrels and
kilderkins, which were made larger and of a bigger assize
than they were before. And the old vessels repelled."
The Corporation was much excited in 1569 by the
wreck of a vessel, stated in one entry to have occurred
at Portishead Point, while in a later, and doubtless more
•correct, statement the disaster is said to have taken place
on " the rocks called Plotneys m Kingroad." In either
case. Lord Berkeley, as lord of the manor of Portbury,
claimed the ship and cargo, and ordered two of his officers
to sell them, which appears to have been done. The
Corporation, on the other hand, maintained that the dere-
lict vessel and its contents belonged to the city by virtue
of the Admiralty privileges granted by Royal charter.
The dispute resulted in a law suit, brought to a hearing
at Somerset Assizes, held at Chard in 1572, when a verdict
was given for the Corporation, who recovered £16 damages
and costs from one of Lord Berkeley's agents, whilst the
other was consigned to a debtor's prison in default of
doing likewise. The civic outlay had much exceeded the
receipts. Some of the items are curious. The leading
counsel for the plaintiffs received a fee of 20s., and two
juniors los. each. The Clerk of the Crown, " for his favour
CREST BESTOWED UPON CITY. 49
touching expedition," had a tip of los., and " a dinner to
the jury after the verdict " cost 12s. iid. The Corpora-
tion at this period held an Admiralty Court yearly,
sometimes at Clevedon, but more often at Portishead.
The court was not held in a house, but in an arbour
constructed of tree branches, and a good deal of gunpowder
was spent in firing salutes. The outlay did not usually
exceed £3 or £4, but in 1570, when the above dispute was
pending, the civic body flouted Lord Berkeley by holding
a court at Clevedon, before the Mayor, some of the alder-
men, and many burgesses, to the number of 100 horses,
besides footmen and sailors, when the outlay was upwards
of £27. In 1574, when the contest was over, the authori-
ties contented themselves with giving a " drinking " to the
jury, at the economical outlay of 13s. 6d.
When the Corporation resolved on flaunting a gay
ensign at the muster of the trained bands, as already
related, annoyance seems to have been felt that the city
arms were destitute of an heraldic crest and supporters,
in the fashion of London. Application was consequently
made to the Herald's College, and in 1569 Clarencieux,
King-of-Arms, granted by his letters patent the required
decorations for the modest consideration of £y. All
Bristolians are acquainted with the extraordinary crest
which this grotesque official bestowed upon the city.
Perhaps they may be glad to have his explanation of the
emblem. The Chamberlain records that a new Common
Seal was at once engraven by Giles Unyt, goldsmith, the
outer sides of which displayed the two unicorns as
supporters, and at the top was the crest," the signification*
of which is as followeth : Forasmuch as to the good
government of a city pertaineth wisdom and justice,
* Given presumably by the inventor.
5
50 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
therefore the arms issuing out of the clouds signifieth that
all good gifts come from above ; the balance signifieth
right judgment ; the serpent signifieth wisdom ; the
nature of the unicorn is that unto those that be virtuous
they will do homage. The wreath about the helm is
gold and gules, which is the colour that was devised by
the King of Heralds. The lower part of the seal hath no
addition, save the subscription." The new seal cost £4.
The charter granting the crest runs as follows : —
TO ALL AND SINGULAR AS WELL
NOBLES AND GENTLEMEN as others to whom
these presents shall come ROBERT COOKE
esquire alias CLARENCIEUX, Principall Heraulte
and king of armes of the southe easte and weste
partes of this realme of England from the river of
trent southwardes sendi the humble comendacon?
and greeting FORASMOCHAS aunciently from the
begining the vaiiaunt and vertuous actes of worthi
persons have ben comended to the worlde with
sondry monumets and remembrances of their good
deserts, emongst the which the chiefest and most
usuall hathe ben the bearing of signes in shildes
caled armes which are evident demonstracons of
prowes diversly distributed accordinge to the qualities
and deserts of the persons meretinge the same to the
end that suche as have done comendable service to
their prince or contry eyther in warre or peace may
both receave due honor in their lives and also derive
the same successively to their posteretie after them
and WHEREAS THIS CITIE OF BRISTOLL
hath of long time ben incorporate b}^ the name of
mayor and comonalty as by the moste noble prince
COPY OF CHARTER GRANTING CREST. 51
of famouse memory KING EDWARD the third
and lately confirmed by the QUENES MAJESTIE
that now is by the name and names as is aforesaid
by virtue of which corporation and sithens the first
grant thereof there hathe ben auncient armes in-
cident unto the said mayor and comonaltie that is
to saye gules on a mount vert issuant out of a castle
silver uppon wave a ship golde YET NOTWITH-
STANDING UPPON divers considerations they
have required me the said Clarencieux king of armes
to grant to their auncient armes a creste withe sup-
portars due and lawfuU to be borne WHEREUPON
CONSIDERING their worthines and knowenge their
request to be reasonable I have by vertue of my
office of Clarencieux kinge of armes confirmed given
and granted unto John Stone now Mayor John
Hipsley recorder, David Harris Willm Pepwell
Robert Sayer Roger Jones and Willm La we, Alder-
men, Thomas Crickland and Richard Yonge sherives
Robert Halton chamberlayii and Richard Willimot
towneclarke and to their successors in life office this
Creaste and supportars hereafter followenge that is
to say uppon the heaulme on a wreathe golde and
gules issuant out of the clowdes two armes in saltour
chamew in the one hand a serpent vert in the other
a pair of balance gold supported with two unicornes
seant gold mayned homed clayed sables mantled gules
doubled silver as more playnely aperth depicted in
the margent TO HAVE and HOLD THE SAID
armes creaste and supportars to the said mayor and
comonalty and to their successors and they it to use
beare and shew for ever more without impediment
let or interuption of any person or persons. In
52 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Witness whereof I have subscribed my hande and
set hereunto the seale of my ofhce the fower and
twentithe day of August in the yere of our Lorde
God A thousand fiv hondrethe thre score and
nyne and in the eleventh 3'ere of the reigne of our
sovereigne lady Elizabethe by the grace of God
Queue of England France and Irelande Defendor of
the Faithe et cet.
" Robert Cooke Alias Clarencieux,
" Roy D'armes.
The Earl of Pembroke, who was appointed Lord High
Steward of the city on the fall from power of the Duke of
Somerset in 1549, ^i^^ i^ I570- I^is lordship does not
seem to have used much influence at Court on behalf of
the city, though, of course, he was appealed to in
emergencies, and civic presents to him rarely appear in
the accounts. On his demise the vacant post was solicited
by Lord Chandos, Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire,
and also by the late Lord Steward's son ; but the Common
Council, always solicitous to ingratiate themselves with a
prominent courtier, bestowed the office on Elizabeth's
" Sweet Robin," the Earl of Leicester, of dubious fame.
Lord Chandos was consoled with the gift of a butt of sack,
whilst the Chamberlain, on going up to London to present
the civic patent to Leicester, got the help of the Recorder
in endeavouring to " pacify my Lord of Pembroke."
The new Lord Steward proved to be a costly ornament.
In 1571 eight hogsheads of wine were sent to " Killing-
worth " by way of a boat to Bewdley, at a cost of £30 ;
two hogsheads of sack were bought for him in London in
the following year, and four hogsheads were sent to
Warwickshire in 1576. The Corporation were in the
EARL OF LEICESTER. 53
meantime beseeching him to obtain a Ucence from the
Crown to purchase the weekly wool and cattle market in
St. Thomas's Street, then belonging to the parish, in which
he succeeded ; but its further suits for leave to farm the
Customs of the port and for the appointment of a Bishop
of Bristol (the See was then held in conjunction with that
of Gloucester) were of no avail. The Chamberlain made
many journeys to London in pursuit of these objects,
and had, as usual, to give repeated bribes to secretaries
and underlings to get an audience with the favourite-, and
" to keep his lordship in mind " of the city's desires. On
Easter Eve, 1587, Leicester, accompanied by his brother
the Earl of Warwick, paid a visit to Bristol, where elaborate
preparations had been made to do them honour. For five
days previously a band of drummers and fifers paraded
streets, summoning the citizens to muster in arms to the
receive them, and a grand " skirmish " took place on
their arrival amidst salutes of cannon. Alderman Kitchin's
house in Small Street, had been prepared for their lodgings,
no less than £5 was given for the services of an imported
cook, and the total cost of their entertainment, during a
two nights' sojourn, exceeded £100, exclusive of over £2;^
for the horse meat of their retinue, which must have
numbered several hundreds. After their departure on
Monday morning, six horse-loads of sugar, marmalade,
figs, and raisons followed them to Bath as a further
compliment, but failed to render Lord Leicester happy.
His lordship's sleeping accommodation in the sister city
seems to have presented a sorry contrast to the luxurious
provision made in Bristol, and as an effectual remedy for
the shortcoming, he coolly asked Alderman Kitchin, who
had accompanied the presents, for a gift of the bed on
which he had reposed. The civic audit book shows that
54 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
the obsequious Corporation more than responded to the
request, despatching an entirely new bed, but apparently
allowing Mr. Kitchin to provide the bedding —
" Paid to Mrs. Blande for a feather bed with a
cannapayne and curtains of green sail belonging unto
him [the bed] £4. To two labourers for fetching it to
Mr. Kitchin's house 46.., which bedding with the
appurtenances was sent to Bath to my Lord of
Leicester to lye in, who desired to have one for his
Bath bed. Paid to a foot post for bringing a letter
from Mr, Kitchin to Mr. Mayor concerning the same
IS."
As no expense was incurred for removing the bed to
Bath, it may be presumed that Leicester made certain of
his prize by sending some of his servants to take charge
of it.
CHAPTER VI.
Purchase of stone coal by the Corporation — Case of Coun-
cillor John Lacie — Struggle between Corporation and
Merchant Venturers' Society ; ends in the monopoly of
the latter being abolished — Establishment of Meal
Market — Purchase of Brandon Hill summit — Visit of
Queen Elizabeth to Bristol ; lavish preparations for her
reception and entertainment ; Newgate prisoners receive
royal pardon — Outbreak of plague in the city — Piracy
in the Avon ; fate of the malefactors — Visits of travel-
ling players to Bristol — Arrival in the port of three
vessels under command of Martin Frobisher — Celebra-
tion of twentieth year of Elizabeth' s reign — Renovation
of quay walls by means of tombstones.
Although surrounded by extensive coal-fields, Bristolians
of all classes long preferred the use of wood as fuel,
timber being extremel}^ cheap owing to the vast extent of
Kingswood and other neighbouring forests. The winter
of 1570, however, was exceptionally rigorous, and through
the diificulties of transit, caused by heavy snowstorms,
the dearth of wood occasioned extreme distress. The
Corporation consequently ordered in several hundred horse
loads of " stone coal, to the intent to bring down " prices ;
and though there was some loss on the transaction, great
relief was afforded to the poor. Charcoal was the only fuel
purchased for the Council House for upwards of a century
aftenvards.
The Common Council in 1571 were called upon to con-
sider the case of an impoverished member of the body, and
55
56 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
adopted a singular expedient for his relief. The following
item occurs in the Chamberlain's receipts : —
" Received of John Lacie, mercer, in part payment
of £io fine, for that he should continue a burgess, being
dismissed of the Common Council until he may be here-
after called to the Common Council again when he shall
be of better ability, £5."
As the remainder of the fine was never paid, it may be
inferred that Mr. Lacie did not recover his position.
The first record of a violently-contested election of
Members of Parliament for the city occurs in the spring of
157 1. The question involved in the struggle was one of
deep interest to the trading classes generally. In the last
previous Parhament, in 1566, the Society of Merchant
Venturers had succeeded in obtaining an Act forbidding
any citizen, excepting members of the society, or persons
who had served an apprenticeship of seven years to a
merchant, from trafficking in merchandise beyond the
seas, upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods so imported
or exported. The monoply thus established excited great
discontent amongst a numerous body of tradesmen who
had been accustomed to make small foreign adventures,
as well as amongst the workmen employed by them ; and,
what was still more significant, the Common Council,
which for centuries had been dominated by the mercantile
interest, revolted against it, and supported the agitation
of the burgesses. No details in reference to the election
have been preserved except that the contest was violent
and protracted, but the return of the Recorder as one of
the Members clearly marked the defeat of the Merchants'
Society. The Corporation followed up this success by
appealing to Lord Burghley for a repeal of the Act, declared
CORPORATION AND MERCHANT VENTURERS. 57
to be injurious to the trade of the city, and a Bill to that
effect was read a first time at the fifth sitting of the House
of Commons, passed through all its stages in both Houses
in despite of a vigorous resistance, and received the Royal
Assent. In consequence of the struggle, the Common
Council appears to have been the scene of frequent virulent
disputes. During the year ending Michaelmas, 1572, the
following receipts occur in the audit book : —
i s. d.
" Received of Mr. Snyg, for calling Mr. John
Jones knave in his ear o 13 4
Received of Mr. Langley (M.P.), for saying
to Mr. Saxie : You behe me o 20 0
Received of Mr. Robt. Taylor, merchant, for
abusing Mr. Thomas Colston with con-
tumelious words 068
Received of Mr. Robt. Cable, for abusing
Mr. Richard Cole o 6 8 "
Strange to say, no ancient copy of the Act restoring
freedom of trade to Bristolians is to be found in the city,
and not even the slightest allusion to the statute is made
in any of the local chronicles, or in the histories of
Barrett, Seyer, Evans, Pryce, and Nicholls. Only
the title of the measure, " A Bill for Bristowe," is
given in the " Statutes at Large." But it is, of
course, duly registered in the Chancery Rolls. During
the Stewart dynasty the Merchants' Society made many
efforts to procure its repeal, and the Corporation, again
submissive to mercantile influences, were generally zealous
in supporting the would-be monopolists, but the costly
exertions proved fruitless, and were finally abandoned in
despair.
All the markets in the city were at this time held in one
58 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
or the other of the principal streets, but the inconvenience
of deaHng in flour and meal in the open air during wet
weather induced the Common Council in 1572 to order the
construction of a special building for the sale of those
articles. The site chosen was a piece of vacant ground,
entered through a " freestone gateway," in Wine Street.
Towards the expense of the building, which cost about
£250, the Vestry of Christ Church made a donation of £10,
and a further sum of over £30 was extracted from two
soapmakers. The Bristol merchants had at this period
acquired a large trade in the Mediterranean, and olive oil
being largely imported by them, the)' had induced the
Corporation to pass an ordinance prohibiting the manu-
facture of soap made of tallow or fish oil. Owing to the
costliness of the foreign material, the ordinance was
frequently evaded ; but Mr. William Yate, a soapmaker,
whose dwelling closely adjoined the new 'Sleal Market,
having been detected in boiling tallow, Vv^as now fined
£13 6s. 8d. for his infraction of the edict, whilst another
manufacturer is alleged to have given £20 " of his good-
will " — an assertion of doubtful credibility, seeing that he
was fined £10 in the following year " for boiling trayne
oil." The Meal Market was for many years set apart during
the annual great fair for the accommodation of the
numerous goldsmiths from London and elsewhere who
attended to exhibit their wares. In the troubled times of
the following century it seems to have been converted into
a guard house for soldiery. The fine " freestone gate-
way " referred to above still remained, and was well known
to every citizen until its removal in 1881. The crown of
the arch bore the letter " W " and the device of a gate,
from which the surname Yate was derived.
One Walker, " the miller of Brandon Hill," turns up in
PURCHASE OF BRANDON HILL SUMMIT. 59
the civic accounts for 1573, having paid a trifling fine for
breaking into the city pound and rescuing his horse, con-
trary to law. The wooden windmill which stood on the
summit of the hill was then a new structure, having been
erected by William Rede, Town Clerk, who had obtained a
sixty years' lease of Brandon Hill from the Corporation in
1564, at a rent of £1 6s. 8d. Only a few years later, in 1581,
both the civic body and its lessee were thrown into con-
sternation by the property being claimed on behalf of the
Crown. A discovery had in fact been made that a small
plot of ground on the top of the hill had been given by
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, to Tewkesbury Abbey, when
he founded St. James's Priory, but had escaped appropria-
tion on the suppression of the monastries, doubtless from
its yielding no rent. The men who wormed out these
facts thereupon petitioned Queen Elizabeth for a grant of
the ground as " concealed Crown land," and this having
been conceded to them at a fee farm rent of 5s., they
demanded the estate from the Corporation, who were
forced to buy their interest for the sum of £'^0. As there
is a common tradition that the Queen granted Brandon
Hill to the city as a place to dry clothes, it may be added
that the hill, with the exception of the above plot, had
belonged to the Corporation from time immemorial, and
that the right of free passage over it by the public, and of
user by washerwomen, was formally recognised in a
corporate document of 1533, before Elizabeth was born.
The year 1574 was long memorable amongst Bris-
tolians for the magnificent entertainment of Queen
Elizabeth during her " progress " through the Western
Counties. A visit had been anticipated in the summer of
1570, but after the Corporation, in a panic at its neglect of
the roads near Newgate, had laid out a large sum on
60 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
repairs, the Queen altered her route. The assurance of
her arrival four years later induced the Common Council
to make unprecedented exertions to gratify their pomp-
loving Sovereign. It was in the first place resolved to
raise funds by a general " collection " from the inhabi-
tants, which was doubtless effected by a rateable assess-
ment. The amount thus secured was £535 is. yd.,
obtained as follows : —
All Saints' Ward £173 10 o
Trinity Ward 104 7 o
Mary-le-port Ward 91 4 7
St. Ewen's Ward 94 17 8
RedcHff Ward 71 2 4
A further sum of £450 was borrowed from charity
funds, " to be repaid as speedily as convenient," and the
Dean and Chapter contributed £5. Thus supplied, the
authorities proceeded to paint and gild the High Cross,
Lawford's Gate, Newgate, and Froom Gate, to order fifty-
three lighter loads of sand for the purpose of levelling the
streets, to purchase nearly two tons of gunpowder, to
collect one hundred and thirty pieces of cannon, to enrol
four hundred infantry clothed in the city uniform, and to
make various other provisions for her Majesty's entertain-
ment. The Queen arrived on August 14. After making
a preliminary halt at St. Lawrence's Hospital for the
purpose of changing her travelling dress for more gorgeous
apparel, her Majesty advanced to Lawford's Gate, where
she was received by the Mayor and Common Council,
whose mouthpiece, the Recorder, addressed her in the
extravagantly flattering terms in which she delighted, and
presented her with a splendid purse containing ;^ioo in
gold. The gay procession then started, and after a brief
VISIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 61
stop at the High Cross, where " some pleasant sights were
showed," and another at the Grammar School in Christmas
Street, where the boys' poetical orations were so lengthy
that they were brusquely cut short, the Royal visitor
reached the Great House on St. Augustine's Back, the
newly-finished mansion of Mr. John Young, which had been
prepared for her reception, her arrival being saluted by
deafening peals of cannon and musketry. The Queen
remained in the city a week, and those desirous of details
respecting the amusements offered her, consisting mainly
of sham fighting on land and water and tedious rhymed
twaddle by a man named Churchyard, may be referred to
Nichols's Progresses and other works. Her Majesty
rewarded her host with the honour of knighthood. The
Corporate outlay during the visit was £1,053 14s- nd., of
which amount £37 were demanded by Royal officers,
including the " Yeoman of the Bottles," for their fees.
The visit of Queen Ehzabeth to Bristol subsequently
involved the Corporation in an expenditure that appears
to have been much begrudged. It is probable that
when the Recorder, who lived at Wellington, near
Taunton, travelled hither to take part in the Queen's
reception, advantage was taken of the opportunity
to hold the annual gaol delivery. At all events, when
Elizabeth arrived nine prisoners condemned to death were
lying in Newgate, and on the Queen becoming acquainted
with the fact she intimated her intention of pardoning
them as a special act of grace. The Royal word, however,
did not satisfy the requirements of the law, which could
be met only by a formal instrument under the Great Seal,
and the Lord Chancellor and his subordinates forthwith
came down upon the Corporation for the^^customary fees,
amounting to over £14. The disgusted civic body had no
62 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
alternative but to pay the mone}', but partially recouped
itself by appealing for the assistance of the parish churches,
by which £8 13s. 4d. were brought in, while the Bishop of
Gloucester, who held the See of Bristol in commendam,
forwarded a personal donation of £2 13s. 4d., thus reducing
the civic outlay to a trifling sum.
The year 1575 was marked by a terrible visitation of
plague, which broke out immediately after the great fair
in July and continued its ravages for six months. Con-
temporary annalists assert that the victims numbered
upwards of 1,900, but the figures are probably much
exaggerated. Four ex-Mayors, three of whom were
Aldermen, were, however, carried off. The virulence of
epidemics in Bristol, as in other old towns, was doubtless
largely attributable to the unhealthy supply of water,
chiefly drawn from wells in close proximity to the parochial
burial grounds, most of which were in crowded localities
limited in area, and reeking with putridity. The quay
pipe was supplied from an abundant spring, the so-called
Boiling Well at Ashley ; but a large portion of the
long conduit was unprotected, and the Chamberlain was
incessantly called upon to remove the obstructions in
covered pipe, caused by the bodies of dead cats. Thus,
in December, 1574, he enters : —
" Paid for taking three cats out of the key pipe,
where one was two yards long, five days, 5s. 6d."
The pestilence caused on this occasion a general prostra-
tion of local trade, and the depression was seriously
aggravated by unprecedented disasters at sea. In
November, 1576, the Chamberlain was despatched to
London with a " supplication " to the Queen, representing
the decay of the city and the lamentable condition of its
PIRACY IN THE AVON. 63
merchants, through the recent loss of eleven ships and
live barks — no inconsiderable proportion of the entire
shipping of the port, which, according to an official report
drawn up by the Customs officers, numbered only forty-
four vessels in 1572. The petition was presented by Lord
Leicester, but the applicants met with no warmer consola-
tion than that " the Queen was very sorry." The com-
merce of Bristol did not recover from these disasters for
upwards of thirty years.
An audacious act of piracy was committed in the
Avon in July, 1577, by a gang of sailors and ruffians, who
took forcible possession of a small Dungarven vessel
lying at Pill, robbed several other ships laden with goods
for the fair, and eventually sailed off with their booty.
How an alarm was raised does not appear, but the record
states that the pirates were pursued by " Lord Leicester's
Flebote " — whatever that may have been — with a crew
of sixty armed men, and that the villains, dreading
capture, landed at Start Point, when all but four managed
to escape. Those apprehended were tried at the gaol
delivery in September, when three were sentenced to
death, and one, says the Chamberlain, was " saved by
his book " — an expression perfectly intelligible to every
reader eighty years ago, but now requiring explanation.
In the Middle Ages the ordinary criminal courts could not
pass sentence on a felon (traitors excepted) who claimed
to be in Holy Orders, and who was amenable only to an
ecclesiastical tribunal. And as practically everyone,
except a priest, was then illiterate, it became an established
point in legal practice that a prisoner was to be deemed
a cleric if he w^ere able to read a certain verse, vulgarly
known as the " neck verse," in the Book of Psalms. The
imreasoning conservatism of the legal profession has.
€4 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
perhaps, no better illustration than the fact that the
above privilege, commonly known as " benefit of clergy,"
was not abolished until 1827, although long before that
date nearly every description of felony had been exempted
from the relief by successive Acts of Parliament, and a
thief might be hanged for stealing twelvepence-farthing.
It may be added that criminals known to be laymen were
■entitled to the benefit only once, and that, to secure their
conviction for a second offence, they were seared on the
thumb for the first with a red-hot iron. Only a few weeks
before the trial of the above pirates there is the following
item in the civic accounts : —
" Paid a smith for making iron cuffs, set in the
Guildhall behind the prisoners' bar, for the burning
of persons in the hand, 2s. 6d."
To return to the three convicts, the Corporation,
believing that seafaring malefactors needed an impressive
warning, resolved on hanging and gibbeting the criminals
on Canons' Marsh, at the junction of the Avon and Froom,
and in view of every passing vessel, the bodies being
suspended so low that they were immersed at every high
tide. The carpenter's wages for making the gibbet were still
only one shilling per day, and those of two apprentices is. 2d.
A civic payment made to a travelling dramatic com-
pany in October, 1577, is of some interest to students
of Elizabethan literature, inasmuch as it mentions the
name of the play then performed. The record also in-
dicates, for the first time, that the entertainment took
place in the evening : —
" Paid my Lord of Leicester's players . , . and for
links to give light in the evening. The play was called
' Myngo.' £1 2s."
MARTIN FROBISHER. 65
The audit book of the following year shows that six
bands of comedians visited the city. Lord Berkeley's
players are stated to have performed " What Mischief
Worketh in the Mind of Man " ; Mr. C. Howard's " The
[illegible] Ethiopian " ; The Earl of Suffolk's " The Court
of Comfort " ; and the Earl of Bath's " Quid pro quo."
The players of the Earl of Derby and the Lord Chamber-
lain afterwards appeared on successive nights in one week,
but the Chamberlain, then and afterwards, failed to note
the pieces performed.
Some excitement was caused in October, 1577, by the
arrival in the port of two vessels under the command of the
famous Martin Frobisher. The ships, according to the
chroniclers, had come direct from Cattaie or Cataya, after
a fruitless endeavour to discover a passage to India and
China by way of the Arctic Seas. They brought home,
however, a large quantity of ore, esteemed to be " very
rich and full of gold," and on information being sent to
the Government, the Privy Council directed that the
treasure should be lodged for safety in the Castle until
some specimens had been analysed. The stone eventually
proved worthless . Frobisher also brought three " savages , ' '
doubtless Esquimaux, clothed in deer skins, but all of
them died within a month of their arrival.
The " Virgin Queen " entered upon the twentieth year
of her reign on November 17th, 1577, and the event was
celebrated in Bristol in a manner that manifested the
loyalty and affection of the citizens. The members of the
Corporation, robed in scarlet, repaired to the Cathedral to
"hear the sermon" — a mode of attending service that
became more and more in favour with the growth of
Puritanism — and on returning from church five trum-
peters from the " Cataya " ships were engaged to head the
6
66 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
civic procession and fill the air with martial music. In
the evening a great bonfire blazed before the High Cross.
The demonstration was thenceforth repeated annually,
and was continued for many years after the Queen's death.
The quays of the city being at this period in urgent
need of repair, a strange expedient for their cheap renova-
tion was devised by the Common Council. The first
mention of the matter occurs in the audit book, November,
1577, 3-S follows : —
" Paid the churchwardens of St. Stephen's for one
tombstone for the Quay wall, 4s."
Immediately afterwards four large tombstones and
five sledge-loads of smaller stones (head-stones ?) were
extracted from St. Lawrence's Church, adjoining St.
John's, and another large block was taken from a church
not specified. Soon afterwards a ponderous stone, re-
quiring " two brace of horses " to drag it, was removed
from St. Lawrence's Church, and many similar abstractions
are noted subsequently. The ruined Friaries were further
drawn upon, and a massive monument out of the de-
molished Carmelite Church was contributed by Sir John
Young, of the Great House. No reference to these
desecrations is made by the annalists, nor do they mention
the closing of St. Lawrence's Church, of which the Cor-
poration were the patrons. The deed annexing the
parish to that of St. John, dated in March, 1580, asserts
that the income of the former was only £4 los., which was
insufficient to maintain a minister. The church was
converted into a warehouse. Its burial ground in
Christmas Street, is believed to be now covered by the
premises recently built by Messrs. J. S. Fry and Sons,
CHAPTER VII.
Bristol Farthing.
The story of the curious square Bristol farthings, issued
in the reign of Queen EHzabeth, has scarcely been alluded
to by the historians of the city, being apparently regarded
as unworthy the dignity of their works. Those grave
writers little imagined that the tokens they contemptu-
ously ignored would be so highly prized in our time that
some of the aforesaid histories have become of less value
in the market than the despised farthings — a variation
from original prices that is likely to widen rather than
diminish. Under the altered circumstances, local readers
will perhaps be glad to have further information on the
subject from authentic sources.
Down to the period at which this narrative has arrived,
and indeed to a much later date, the English Government
issued no coins inferior in value to the silver penny — a
somewhat remarkable fact when it is remembered that
the purchasable power of the Elizabethan penny was
fully equal to that of the fourpence of modem days. To
supply an obvious want, about the year 1574 certain
tradesmen in various towns began to issue farthing tokens
of lead, tin, mixed metal, and even of leather, and trouble
speedily arose out of the valueless character of the pieces,
which often could not be traced to the persons that profited
largely by circulating them. That the grievance spread
to this city is proved by a minute of the Privy Council,
dated November 17th, 1577, ordering a letter to be sent
to the Recorder of Bristol, Mr. Hannam, then practising
67
68 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
in the Courts at Westminster, informing him that " certain
small coins of copper," of which samples were enclosed,
had been " lately stamped " in the city, " and not only
uttered and received from man to man for farthings, but
also current for that value almost throughout the country
thereabout." The Recorder was further directed to make
diligent inquiry on the spot by whom the coins had been
issued, and by what means they had become so widely
prevalent, and to certify the result without respect of
persons. Oddly enough, there is no further mention of
the subject in the Privy Council minutes. But the lacking
information is supplied in the corporate records, which
preserve a letter from the Privy Council to the Mayor
dated three weeks later, December 8th, showing that the
Recorder had not only fulfilled his mission with great
alacrity, but had already forwarded its results to the
Government. The Recorder had reported that the tokens
in circulation were of numerous varieties, and were
" uttered by innholders, bakers, brewers, and other
victuallers, who refused to receive them again because
divers had been counterfeited ; for remedy whereof, and
lor the benefit of the poor, the learned council of the city
had advised the use of a general stamp," meaning
doubtless a stamp belonging exclusively to the Corpora-
tion, through whom he transmitted his report. The
letter to the Mayor then proceeds : — " The Privy Council
very well allow this, and commend the providence of the
citizens, and notify its contentment that the use of these
farthings shall continue, provided that the quantity do
not exceed the value of £^o, and that they may be made
current only within the city."
A warrant sanctioning the above privileges was brought
down by two corporate delegates, whose travelling
BRISTOL FARTHING. 69
expenses were largely swollen by the extortions of
Government officials. (The Corporation rewarded the
Recorder, " for his pains," with a large sugarloaf costing
i8d. per lb., and a gallon of wine.) And no time was lost
in stamping tokens, for on January 14th, 1578, the
Chamberlain records : —
" Received of Mr. Mayor in copper tokens the sum
of £15, to be delivered to the commons of this city and
to be current for farthing tokens . . . according to
the warrant procured by Mr. Smythes and Mr. John
Cole, £15."
It is probable that these pieces were struck in London,
and the cost included in the delegates' expenses.
Two further parcels, raising the issue to the sum of
£30 fixed by the warrant, were received in July and
September, " and the stamp was delivered to Mr, Mayor
again." These pieces were struck by Edward Evenet, a
local goldsmith, who was paid £5 for the copper and
stamping, leaving the Corporation a clear profit of £10.
No issue took place in 1579. But in April, 1580,
Evenet struck £15 worth " by command of the Mayor,
the Recorder, and the Aldermen, for that there was a
great want of them in the town," and the quantity was
doubled in September. Notwithstanding this copious
issue, the demand seems to have exceeded the supply,
for in the audit book of 1581 are the following entries : —
" Received of E. Evenet in copper tokens, stamped
by warrant of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Recorder,
in pursuance of the warrant of the Privy Council,
which doth extend to the stamping of £30 worth at
a time, £30."
" Paid Evenet for stamping, £10."
70 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
The audit book for 1582 is lost, but it is not improbable
that the civic body took further advantage of its
profitable privilege. We have proof that in 1583 Evenet
received fresh orders, and coined 28,800 tokens, using
on this occasion " a new mould," costing 6s. 8d. In 1584
the Chamberlain journeyed to London for, amongst other
matter, obtaining a renewal of the coinage warrant ; but
no further issues took place for some years. Seeing,
indeed, that in the previous six years the number of tokens
known to have been coined was nearly 120,000, and may
have been over 140,000. there could have been no real
lack of small change. But when the legal pieces ceased to
appear, knaves hastened to supply their place. In March,
1587, a butcher named Christopher Gallwey, having been
convicted of " counterfeiting the copper tokens of this
city to the great hurt and hindrance of the commons,"
paid a fine of £5. But many other swindlers must have
been at work, for in the following month, apparently at
the command of the Government, the Corporation bought
up no less than 12,600 false tokens. The treasurer's
record is : —
" Paid by the Mayor and Aldermen's command-
ment, with the consent of the whole Common Council,
according to a proclamation, to divers persons as well
of the city as of the country, for divers sorts of copper
tokens received of them because they were counter-
feited by divers evil disposed persons, and therefore
l^ey were not allowed in this city, £13 2s. iid."
No further mention of tokens occurred until 1594,
when the Privy Council informed the Mayor by letter
that it had come to their knowledge that many Bristol
tradesmen had illegally stamped farthing tokens in brass
BRISTOL FARTHING. 71
and lead, and, after uttering, had refused to accept them
again, whereby grievous inconvenience was caused to the
poor. The magistrates were ordered to suppress such
proceedings, and to compel the fraudulent utterers to
change the tokens for current money. The Corporation
thereupon obtained a fresh warrant from the Government,
authorising the issue of £40 worth of farthings, and paid
£7 for the warrant and 3s. 4d. for a new stamp. The cost
of stamping, including the copper, was now reduced to
4s. in the pound, and, though the Chamberlain was
allowed another shilling in the pound for his trouble in
paying them away to traders and workmen, the tokens
yielded a profit of 15s. in the pound. Whether this
lucrative business was or was not continued in 1595 is
unknown, owing to the disappearance of the accounts ;
but it was resumed in 1597, when Thomas Wall, a Bristol
goldsmith, was ordered to stamp to the value of £13 los.,
the cost amounting to one fourth of the value as before.
Those two issues produced an aggregate of 51,360
farthings to be added to the figures already given. In
1598 the authorities ordered the preparation of an
improved mould, but this was never used. In fact, the
civic rulers, in their pursuit of gain, had overshot the
demand, and temporarily lost almost as much as had been
brought in. In the autumn of 1598 the Chamberlain
records :
" Paid out, for to take in brass tokens, to Thomas
WaU in money, £33 i6s. 6d."
The loss was, however, partially redeemed in subsequent
years by cautious reissues. The whole of the authorised
Elizabethan tokens were square in shape, and bore the
letters " C.B." on one side, and the arms of the city, very
72 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
rudely cut, on the other. Although only three moulds are
mentioned in the accounts, they seem to have been more
numerous, for Mr. H. B. Bowles, who has given much
attention to the subject, and possesses a unique collection
of English tokens, has noted eight varieties, some of
which have the city arms reversed, that is, with the
ship sailing to the right, but these may have been
forgeries. Few things, indeed, were easier to rogues than
to counterfeit work so clumsy, and the temptation to do
so was great when a shilling's worth of copper produced
twenty shillings' worth of tokens.
On the accession of James I., the Corporation petitioned
for a renewal of the lapsed privilege, but the prayer met
with no response, and, as nothing was done by the Govern-
ment, privately-issued tokens, many of the basest character,
naturally reappeared. In 1609 the celebrated Sir Robert
Cotton, in urging the Government to issue a national
copper coinage, aserted that not less than 6,000 traders
in various parts of England were then every year casting
lead tokens, practically valueless, yet of the pretended
aggregate value of about £30,000, " whereof nine-tenths "
disappeared yearly to the profit of the utterers. His
recommendation was not adopted, but in 1613 Lord
Harrington was granted for three years the sole right of
coining farthings, " to avoid the great abuse of leaden
tokens made by the city of Bristol and others," and private
coining was thenceforth forbidden. No local tokens
struck in lead appeared to have been preserved.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Avon obstructed by a wreck — Soldiers quartered in
Bristol en route to Ireland ; expense incurred by the
Corporation — " Street pitcher " appointed — Difficulties
in postal communication — New charter granted to
Bristol; heavy expenses involved in obtaining the
title "City" — Bristol Parliamentary representative
appointed Speaker of the House of Commons.
A SHIPPING disaster, which appears to have long obstructed
the navigation of the Avon, occurred at Hungroad in
March, 1579, when a large vessel called the Lion, laden
with Spanish salt and oil, struck the rocks and immediately
foundered in the river. The Corporation called on a
number of ship captains to superintend the raising of the
ship, but the measures they took were unavailing, and the
civic body, in great alarm, sought the advice of the Privy
Council, apparently without result. At length, in May,
the hulk was weighed and brought to shore ; but it soon
afterwards slipped back into the river, and the situation
became even worse than before. In spite of heavy expen-
diture, the tidal way was blocked for upwards of a year,
and was cleared in April, 1580, only by tearing the wreck
to pieces.
During the Irish rebellions of this period, the city
suffered severely from the frequent presence of large bodies
of soldiers, sent down from London for embarkation, but
often detained for weeks by contrary winds. The troops,
impressed from the lowest classes, spent their time m
debauchery and rioting, setting the civic authorities, who
73
74 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
were required to feed them, at defiance. In August, 1579,
when six hundred ruffians were lying here, the Chamberlain
paid 8s. gd. " for making and setting up a gibbet in High
Street, to terrify the rage of the soldiers, who were so
unruly both in fighting and killing." This grim menace
proved so effectual that it was repeated on two subsequent
occasions. In December of the same year another body
of one thousand troops arrived, but was speedily got rid of.
But a fresh batch of five hundred came down in July, 1580,
and was unable to sail for six weeks, during which disorders
were of frequent occurrence, the insolence of the bravoes
often bringing them into collision with pugnacious Bris-
tolians, in which they were sometimes soundly punished.
The unruly soldiery were not the only trouble of the
Corporation. The Government, in forwarding the men,
required the city to provide them, not only with rations
and pay, but sometimes with " conduct money " when they
departed, and shipping had also to be hired for their trans-
port. In the first of the above cases, the outlay was ;^483,
in the second £443, and in the third £1,160 ; and those
large sums cannot have been raised without extreme
difficulty. The embarrassment was still greater in the year
ending Michaelmas, 1581, when, owing to King Philip of
Spain sending some forces to assist the Irish rebels, the
Government despatched great reinforcements by way of
Bristol, and the corporate expenditure on them was about
£4,000. In order to recover the money laid out on each
contingent, the Chamberlain had to ride up to Court, and,
as it was never an easy matter to wring money from the
penurious Queen, the unfortunate gentleman had much to
endure in following her about to country residences, and
" gratifying " officials for their help in getting his accounts
passed. The following illustrates his vexations : —
"STREET PITCHER" APPOINTED. 75
" September, 1580, Paid one of my Lord Treasurers
secretaries for his pains in examining my account, for
it was very much mishked of and evil taken by my
Lord Treasurer, because the charge was so great, being
£1,160 8s. 8fd., so that two days was spent in trying
of the said account, which, thanks to God, could not be
faulted in one halfpenny, los."
How the poor Chamberlain, who had only a single
attendant, managed to convey large sums of money safely
from London to Bristol (on one occasion he brought down
;^2,5oo) is a mystery. But though he was frequently on
the road, and each journey to and from London occupied
three or four days, he never encountered a mishap.
The rebellion partially collapsed in 1583, when the
Mayor and his brethren were regaled at the Tolzey with
a sight of the head of the revolted Earl of Desmond,
" pickled in a pipkin," and on its way to gratify the Court.
It is stated in a previous chapter* that the task of
paving the streets was at this period laid upon the pro-
prietors of frontages, who were severally required to
repair one-half of the street as far as the gutter that ran
down the centre. As each owner fulfilled his duty at his
own time and in his own fashion, the general result must
have left much to be desired, and in September, 1579, the
Corporation initiated a reform. The audit book records :
" Paid the new pitcher of the streets as a reward on
his making his abode here until he pitches all the
streets in the way agreed upon by Mr. Mayor and
the Aldermen, and will take not above i|^d. per yard,
and do his work well, 20s."
Further items in subsequent years show that the new
official was vigorously at work. Difficulties, however,
* Vide ante, page 26.
76 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
arose in localities where there were houses only on one
side of the thoroughfare. Such was the case at Redchff
Hill, and in May, 1583, the Chamberlain paid sixpence
" to a drummer to get company together to carry stones
to mend the highway " at that spot. The summons was
effectual, for four months later the civic treasurer dis-
bursed 4d. for ale drank by the Mayor and his brethren at
Redchff Church style, doubtless after an inspection of the
repairs.
The difficulty of communicating with persons at a
distance before the establishment of a post-office is illus-
trated by the following item : —
" 1580, August. Paid to Savage, the foot post, to
go to Wellington with a letter to the Recorder touching
the holding of the Sessions, and if not there to go to
Wimborne Minster, where he has a house, where he
found him, and returned with a letter ; which post was
six days upon that journey in very foul weather, and
I paid him for his pains 13s. 46.."
About the close of 1580 the Corporation resolved upon
petitioning the Queen for a new charter, empowering them
to increase the aldermanic body from six to twelve. The
matter was placed in the hands of the Recorder, who was
furnished with funds to " gratify " the courtiers whose help
was desirable ; but one of his disbursements proved dis-
appointing. One Dr. Wilson,* it appears, received £10
upon his undertaking to obtain the Queen's signature
approving of the scheme, but the money was no sooner
pocketed than the doctor departed from Court, and is
heard of no more. Secretary Walsingham proved a more
trustworthy friend, but other influential persons wanted
* Secretary of State and Dean of York, although a layman.
NEW CHARTER GRANTED TO BRISTOL. 77
gratifications, and the affair still hung fire. Nearly six
months after the Wilson collapse, when the Attorney-
General was on a visit to Ashton Court, the Corporation sent
him a seven-pint bottle of " hullock " wine and half a pound
of sugar, desiring to " understand his pleasure " respecting
the delayed patent, and remarking that Walsingham's
secretary had twice sent information that the Queen had
signed the warrant. Mr. Attorney, moved perhaps by the
present, but more by the hope of favours to come, promised
that the great seal should be appended with all speed,
and this was actually accomplished in July, 1581, after the
civic body had incurred some further expense in getting
Bristol styled a " city " instead of a " town." The
Recorder, on his arrival with the charter — for which he
had laid out ;^53 — was welcomed with a present of two
gallons of wine (Muscadel of Candia), and another gallon
was sent to the Attorney-General, with the promise of a
more substantial reward. Four hogsheads of wine,
costing £16, were next forwarded to Secretary Walsingham
in gratitude for his services, £10 were given to the secre-
tary's secretary for keeping his master " in mind " of the
subject, and £5 were paid to the Attorney-General's clerk
*' for his travail." The Chamberlain noted that Mr.
Attorney and the Recorder were still to be suitably recom-
pensed, but the following year's audit book is missing.
To meet the above expenditure, the ancient ordinances
dealing rigorously with " foreigners " — that is non-
freemen — trading in the city were brought into operation,
the obnoxious class being offered the alternative of paying
fines for admission as burgesses, or of having their places
of business " shut down." Three dyers were mulcted in
£10 each, and two musicians, whose mode of gaining a
hvelihood is shrouded in darkness, paid 53s. 4d. each.
78 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Numerous others were dealt with, and the total receipts
from the process were £67 lis.
In January, 1581, at the opening of the third Session
of EHzabeth's fourth Parhament — originally convoked
nine years previously — John Popham, the senior
Member for Bristol, was appointed to fill the vacant
office of Speaker. The proceedings were of a pecuhar
character. When Popham's election was suggested,
the Commons were informed that he had been withdrawn
from his Parliamentary duties by the Upper House,
which claimed his presence there as Solicitor-General.
Applications for his release from this service having
been made to the Lords, he was permitted to return to
his proper place. The Corporation of Bristol, much
gratified by the honour bestowed on the city representative,
presented him with a hogshead of claret. Popham, who
had resigned the office of Recorder a few years before,
afterwards became the Lord Chief Justice, whose acquisi-
tion of Littlecote, the home of " Will Dayrell," was long
regarded with deep suspicion by the people of Wiltshire,
CHAPTER IX.
Perambulation of city boundaries — Great dearth of 1585 ',
relief measures of the Corporation — Military en-
thusiasm ; inspection of Bristol trained bands by
Earl of Pembroke ; his disregard of mayoral pre-
cedence— Death of John Carr, founder of Queen
Elizabeth's Hospital — News received in Bristol of
death of Queen of Scots — Richard Fletcher appointed
Bishop of Bristol — Extraordinary feudal claim made
by Lord Stafford against Richard Cole ; indifference of
the Corporation — Alice Cole — Increase in stipend of
Town Clerk — Fines for relief from office of Mayor —
Present to Lord Leicester — Fatal conflict in Kingroad,
due to attempted infringement of Bristol's monopoly of
hides and skins trade.
A PERAMBULATION of the city boundaries took place in
September, 1584. A breakfast for the Mayor and Sheriffs,
consisting of seven quarts of wine and two pennyworth of
cakes, was the first feature of the proceedings. After the
" Shire stones " had been all duly visited, an afternoon
" drinking " disposed of a gallon of " Mathera " —
mentioned for the first time, and costing fourpence per
pint. The only other charge was is. 4d., " paid to
labourers to make the ways open."
The audit book for 1585 has not been preserved, and
we are consequently deprived of precise information
respecting the distress caused by the remarkable dearth
of that year, during which wheat rose to the famine price
of iios. per quarter. The Corporation adopted vigorous
79
80 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
measures for the relief of the poor, importing 4,000 bushels
of rye from Dantzic, and more than 1,000 bushels of
English grain, all of which was retailed at about cost
price. Country bakers were also encouraged to bring in
supplies of bread, and although there appears to have
"been some rioting, order was generally maintained. An
attempt to ship off a quantity of butter, consigned to
France, was promptly defeated by the Mayor, who pro-
ceeded with a body of officers to Hungroad, boarded the
vessel, and brought away the cargo, which was sold in the
market at 2|d. per pound, whilst the sailors who had
attempted to resist the seizure were fined for the offence,
and lodged in prison until they paid the money. The
dearth continued in 1586, but the Government rejected
the Corporation's appeal for permission to import foreign
grain.
The strained relations of the Government with King
Philip of Spain, and the unquestionable design of that
monarch to attempt the conquest of England, led to an
outburst of military enthusiasm throughout the country
in the closing months of 1585. In November the
Common Council ordered a new " ancient," or banner,
for the trained bands, which were mustered in College
Green, and in the following month all the able-bodied
inhabitants were summoned by drums and fifes (which
the Chamberlain sometimes called phifes, and sometimes
fifties) to attend a general muster at Addercliff, now
Redcliff Parade, " to choose their corporals." These
gatherings were prehminary to a grand inspection in
March, 1586, by the Earl of Pembroke, who had been
appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Bristol and Somerset. The
Earl, who arrived with a guard of thirty-two horsemen,
was received with many demonstrations of respect. A
MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. 81
large body of citizens in arms were in waiting, and thirty-
two cannon fired a salute, whilst he was welcomed by the
authorities. The mansion of Alderman Kitchin, in Small
Street, had been prepared for his reception, and every
available delicacy was provided for his entertainment. A
pavilion was also erected in the Marsh for his use during
the inspection. Finally, before his departure on the
following day, he was feasted at a magnificent breakfast,
and an immense present of sugar and sweetmeats,
including two costly boxes of " marmalette " — one
decorated with the arms of the Queen, and the other with
his own — was offered for his acceptance. His visit cost
the Corporation nearly £ioo, but in despite of their
hospitality and tokens of respect the Earl's pique at
being refused the office of Lord High Steward appears to
have been still unallayed, and his arrogance in ignoring
the Mayor's right of precedence in the city, by taking the
" upper hand " of his chief host, gave so much offence
that it was represented to the Queen, who, according to a
local annalist, rebuked him for his presumption, and
" committed him to the Tower until he paid a fine for the
offence." The trained bands were mustered again in
July, when a " picture of a man " was set up in the Marsh
for gun practice, and a third muster took place in Septem-
ber. The Corporation did not bear any grudge against
Lord Pembroke for his discourtesy, as in the following
year, when there were pirates in the Severn, they equipped
an armed pinnace to convey a barge laden with his goods
from Bristol to his residence at Cardiff. But about the
same time, on an appeal from the civic body, the
Government appointed the Mayor Deputy-Lieutenant for
the city, thus avoiding future collisions.
John Carr, a Bristolian, whose name is ever held to be
7
82 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
in honour as the founder of Queen EUzabeth's Hospital,
died in June, 1596, aged about 52 years. Mr. Carr was the
elder son of Alderman William Carr, a prosperous merchant
and Member of Parliament for the city from 1559 to 1567,
who was himself a local benefactor. The alderman
purchased in 1562, for £3,500, the reversion in fee of
the manor of Congresbury and Wick St. Lawrence,
comprising about 5,000 acres of land, subject to
the life interest of a lady who survived him ; but
£2,000 of the consideration remained unpaid at his
death, when the net yearly value of the estate was
estimated by an audacious jury at only £54. (Although
somewhat less than half the manor now belongs to
the hospital, the annual receipts exceed £4,500.) John
Carr, on coming into possession, paid off the remainder
of the purchase money. He was already an extensive
soapmaker, having works not only in Bristol, but at Bow,
near London, and made a discovery in his business which
brought him large returns. He refers to this subject in
his will, executed in April, 1586, as follows : " Whereas
I have committed in trust to my servant John Dinnye,
the trade of white soapmaking, a thing by me found out,
and put in use here in England," and goes on to specify
the manner in which the secret was to be confided, first
to his widow, who was to have the profits for ten years,
and afterwards to his relative, Simon Aldworth. Carr,
though living in Baldwin Street, probably spent much of
his time at his factory near London, for he had evidently
paid much attention to Christ's Hospital, then a new
institution, and resolved on founding a school of a
similar character. His will accordingly directed that,
after the payment of a number of legacies, and the
liquidation of certain mortgages and other debts, which
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL. 83
he anticipated would occupy five years, his executors
should transfer his estate in Somerset, and most of his
house property in Bristol, to the Corporation, in trust to
found " a hospital or place for bringing up poor children
and orphans, being men children," bom of indigent or
decayed parents in Bristol or on his estates, the system of
governing which was to be modelled upon that in operation
at Christ's Hospital. The testator trusted that the Cor-
poration would erect a suitable building for this hospital,
of which he made them " patrons, guiders, and governors
for ever." The validity of Mr. Carr's will was disputed
by his younger brother, the owner of the Woodspring
Priory estate, but he withdrew his opposition on payment
of £i,ooo, and on being released of a debt of £666 due to
his brother's estate.
The Corporation displayed great earnestness in carrying
out Mr. Carr's intentions, and hurried forward the period
he had fixed for establishing the school by the payment
of legacies, &c. Having effected their purpose within
four years of his death, they obtained a charter from
Queen Elizabeth, which, after reciting that they had
'' bestowed some thousands of pounds for more quickly
hastening " Carr's pious object, constituted the Mayor
and Common Council a distinct incorporation for the
perpetual government of the charity, and relieved them
from the restrictions of the statutes of mortmain, under
which Carr's bequest was invalid. The applicants had
doubtless flattered the Queen by beseeching her to become
the patron of the intended institution, for the charter
further directs that it shall be for ever styled the Hospital
of Queen Elizabeth. The Corporation next resolved on
granting to the school, in perpetuity, the mansion of the
suppressed Monastery of the Gaunts and the adjoining
84 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
orchard. The school was opened in the summer of 1590,
when twelve boys were admitted. In 1597, in consequence
of a bequest by one Anthony Standbanck, of several
houses in the city in trust for the hospital, the Corporation
obtained an Act of Parliament confirming the Queen's
charter, and legalising the acceptance of Standbanck's
estate. The subsequent history of the Corporate dealings
with the school have been published in the Annals of
Bristol in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries.
The Christmas week of 1586 is marked by two sadly
significant entries in the Chamberlain's accounts. The
first reads : —
" Paid a pursuivant for bringing down the procla-
mation concerning the treason done by the Queen of
Scots, which proclamation was proclaimed on St.
Stephen's Day, 13s. 4d."
As no one in those days escaped death when charged with
treason by the Government, the next item is still more
significant : —
" Paid for wood for and making a bonfire at the
High Cross, when the proclamation was made, 3s. 4d."
The unfortunate Queen was executed on February 8th,
after being much tormented by adjurations to forswear
her faith on the part of Richard Fletcher, the servile and
stonyhearted Dean of Peterborough. This man was
appointed Bishop of Bristol in 1590 for his services in
this tragedy and on condition of his granting the estates
of the see to courtiers, which he did so extensively that
he left little to his successors. He is said to have died
from an immoderate indulgence in tobacco.
The minutes of the Privy Council acquaint us with an
EXTRAORDINARY FEUDAL CLAIM. 85
incident which must have occasioned an extraordinary
sensation in Bristol, yet which the local chroniclers, whilst
carefully noting many trivialities, chose to utterly ignore.
It appears that in the spring of 1586, when the office of
Mayor was held by Richard Cole, a wealthy and widely-
esteemed merchant, allied by marriage with two notable
city families, the Smyths and the Carrs, the lord of the
manor of Thombury, Lord Stafford, claimed a right to
seize the person and property of the chief magistrate and
of his brother Thomas, also a merchant, alleging that they
were both " villeins appurtenant " to his manor, and that
he was as free to deal with them as with his cattle. His
lordship having threatened to use personal violence for
attaining his ends, the brothers appealed for protection
to the Government, and on June 19th the Privy Council
addressed a letter to Stafford, ordering him to forbear
from arresting or molesting them and from disturbing
them in their trade, seeing that they were prepared to
answer his claim in the law courts. It was added that
the principal officer of such a place, and his brother,
having been, both themselves and their ancestors, always
reputed freemen, should not be so hardly dealt with upon
any supposition, and Lord Stafford was commanded to
proceed no further until he had acquainted the Privy
Council with the grounds of his pretensions.
His lordship does not appear to have paid much regard
to these instructions, for another letter was sent down to
him in July, when the Goverment had been informed
that he had used violence and threats towards two country-
men, contending that they were his bondsmen, and he
was again forbidden to resort to force until he had legally
proved his alleged rights. The mandate seems to have
been dealt with as contemptuously as was its forerunner.
86 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Nearly a year later, May 7th, 1587, the Privy Council
addressed him again, pointing out that although he had
raised no action at law against the Coles, and had refused
to answer their suit against him, yet he had again violently
attempted to seize them, and that they had been conse-
quently forced to forebear from following their business.
Such conduct was a breach of the Queen's peace, and he
was summoned to appear before the Council to justify his
conduct. It seems clear that he was still refractory, for
on November 15th the Council ordered that the continued
complaints of the Coles and the claim of their persecutors
should be heard and determined on December 5th by the
Lord Chancellor and two other judges. As there is no
further reference to the case, the arrogant peer was doubt-
less defeated. The most amazing fact in reference to the
subject is that the Corporation apparently made no effort
to defend the privileges of the city.
Alderman Richard Cole died in 1599. In his will,
which disposed of very extensive property in Bristol and
Somerset, he bequeathed £-^o to repair the road to
Gloucester, near Newport, " where I was born." His
widow, Alice, sister of John Carr, founder of Queen
Elizabeth's Hospital, was a large benefactor to local
charities, and the funds bequeathed by her are still
administered by trustees.
The Corporation, in December, 1586, increased the
stipend of the Town Clerk from £4 to £10 per annum.
This amount, however, inadequately indicates the real
official income, which was largely derived from fees.
For some unexplained reason, the civic body at this
period experienced considerable difficulty in finding a
well-to-do member disposed to take the office of Mayor.
In the audit book for 1585-6 are the following entries : —
UNPOPULARITY OF MAYORALTY. 87
" Received of Alderman Browne, together with
II pieces of ordnance, in consideration of being
exempted for ever from the office of Mayoralty, £20."
" Received of Thomas Colston for the same con-
sideration, £20."
It is somewhat remarkable that by much the largest
fine paid for similar redemption does not appear in the
accounts. Two years later, when the Common Council
made one of its numerous but always unsuccessful attempts
to reap a profit out of the House of Correction by setting
the inmates to work — proposing on this occasion that the
prisoners should dye and dress cloth — a " stock " of £50
was advanced to the keeper, which the Chamberlain notes
was " part of the money given by William Young,
merchant, in Mr. Cole's year (1585-6), to be discharged
for ever of the office of Mayor." Nothing more is recorded
respecting the dyeing industry, and in 1597 the Chamber-
lain paid £4 " for an iron mill for the House of Correction,"
the purpose of which is not explained.
About the date of the execution of the Queen of Scots
the city authorities were thrown into a panic. The
Chamberlain records : —
" 1587, February. — Paid to sundry persons who
carried precepts of hue and cry to sundry places when
the report was given that London was fired, and that
armour should be in readiness, 3s, 6d."
The alarming incident is not mentioned by the local
chroniclers.
An illustration of the Earl of Leicester's cool methods
of procedure occured in the same month. The Corporation
paid £42 for three butts of sack, which were ordered to be
sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Treasurer
88 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Burgh] ey and Leicester, " in hope of the continuance of
their goodwill and favour to the city." As Lord Leicester
was about to visit Bath, the butt intended for him seems
to have been retained until his arrival. The two others
were forwarded to London by a wainsman at a cost of £4 ;
but on their reaching the capital a servant of Leicester,
by his direction, tapped one of the huge pieces and ab-
stracted between three and four gallons of wine, which
the troubled Chamberlain had to supply by purchase
before making the presentation. In addition to the above
gifts, the Corporation shortly afterwards sent a piece of
plate to Sir James Croft, a member of the Privy Council,
who had presumably taken umbrage at being unrewarded ;
and it was also deemed prudent to forward a rug coverlet,
costing £2 los., to the Lord Treasurer's private secretary,
to keep him also in a good humour.
An account by a contemporary annalist of a fatal
conflict at Kingroad in July, 1587, incidentally throws
some light upon a profitable traffic of Bristol merchants,
which developed largely in the following century. The
exportation oversea of hides and skins was then forbidden
by statute. Nevertheless, some prominent local merchants
had, by a judicious offer of ready money and by under-
taking to surrender a share of their yearly profits, induced
the avaricious Queen to override the law of the land by
granting them a licence to export calf skins, a material
in much demand on the Continent for conversion into
slim shoe leather. Agents were accordingly employed in
South Wales and the adjoining counties to buy up the
skins, but it may be presumed that the prices given were
considered inadequate, and that the exclusive privilege
of the Bristolians was regarded as unjust. At all events,
one Edward Whitson, a tanner in the Forest of Dean, in
FATAL CONFLICT IN KINGROAD. 8»
concert with his neighbours, loaded a large boat in the
Wye, near Tintem, with calf skins, in the hope of smuggling
the cargo on board a French ship lying in Kingroad. It
is probable that this is by no means the first effort made
to evade the licensees, and that they had employed spies
to give information, for knowledge of Whitson's design
had reached the city before the departure of his boat.
Mr. Thomas James (afterwards M.P.) and some other
merchants interested in the business thereupon resolved
on capturing the cargo by main force, and having armed
themselves for the purpose, went down in a pinnace to
await the smugglers. The latter, clearly foreseeing a
collision, were provided with pikes, bows and arrows,
targets, and leather coats. According to the local
chronicler, the Forest men were the first to commence
hostilities, and having wounded one of the Bristol crew
with an arrow, someone, believed to be Mr. James,
retaliated by firing a musket, by which one Gitton, the
owner of the other boat, was killed.
Nothing is said respecting the fate of the smuggled
skins, and the subsequent proceedings are involved in
some obscurity. A local annaHst says that Mr. James
was tried for manslaughter in the Admiralty Court in
London, and as the Forest men (for conceivable reasons)
did not attend to give evidence, he was acquitted. James
must afterwards have appealed to the Government, for
the Privy Council in the first place commanded his co-
partners in the calf skin licence to pay a proportionate
share of his expenses, which they had previously refused
to do, and then (April, 1588) ordered the Mayor and
Aldermen to summon the Sheriffs of Bristol of the previous
year to make restitution of the money and goods that
they had taken from James as a " composition " for
-90 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Gitton's death. The justices were further directed to
require Christopher Whitson, a mercer, to give a bond in
£i,ooo for his appearance in the following term to answer
charges that would be brought against him by the Crown,
(James had probably alleged that Whitson had acted in
collusion with his namesake in the Forest.) Notwithstand-
ing this mandate, the Sheriffs refused to surrender the
confiscated property, and the Privy Council had to content
themselves with directing the Mayor to settle the dispute
as he thought fit. But Whitson was arrested in November,
1588, and lodged in the Fleet Prison on no specified charge,
and there he remained for upwards of two years. In
December, 1590, he appealed for release to the Privy
Council, who by that time had totally forgotten why he
was apprehended. They now admitted that his case was
" grievous," and asked the Lord Chief Baron for an
explanation. His lordship replied that he knew nothing
about the case, but that Whitson had been detained upon
the " often and earnest motion " of Attorney-General
Popham, doubtless a friend of James. Whitson after-
wards became prosperous, and served the office of Mayor.
CHAPTER X.
Dispute between rector of St. Mary-le-portandhis parishioners
— Spanish Armada : Bristol's contingent to national
fleet ; jubilation at rout of Spaniards — Trouble with
the Dutch ; William Colston — Lord Burghley created
Lord High Steward — Thrifty expenditure of the Cor-
poration— Purchase of coal for school over Froom Gate
— Relation of Corporation to orphans of city the subject
of a Parliaynentary Bill (1597) — Arrival in Bristol of
Bishop Fletcher — Renovations and alterations of St.
Mark's Church — Depression of trade in Bristol —
Piratical exploits round British coast.
Queen Elizabeth, in November, 1587, appointed six
Commissioners to inquire into the merits of a singular
dispute between the Rev, A. Arthur, rector of St. Mary-
le-port, and his parishioners. The rector, on whose
petition the Commission was granted, had been appointed
to the hving about eight years previously. He asserted
that the parishioners had for forty years concealed the fact
that the rectory was in the gift of the Crown, and had
appointed at their pleasure a mere " minister or curate,"
and appropriated the profits of the rectory. These profits
he claimed for the entire forty years. There is no record
of the Commissioners' decision, nor can any evidence be
discovered to support the allegation that the advowson
was the property of the Crown.
Though the sailing of the " Invincible Armada " of the
Spanish King had been postponed in 1587 through the
daring exploits of Drake and other causes, its approach in
92 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
the following year was regarded as certain, and the English
people universally betook themselves to defensive prepara-
tions. In March the Bristolians were summoned to muster
at Lady Day before their captain-general at Redcliff
Church " to choose out trained soldiers," and a large force
was soon in arms and regularly drilled. The Common
Council ordered another new " ancient " — a gigantic
banner composed of 37! yards of taffeta — and directed
the portcullises at the city gates to be " looked unto," and
the town walls to be repaired.
About the same time the Government, availing itself
of the Royal prerogative under which shipmoney was
claimed from maritime towns in case of emergency,
demanded aid from every port in the shape of ships instead
of coin. London was required to furnish eight ships fully
manned, armed and provisioned. The call on Bristol, and
also on Newcastle, was for three ships and a pinnace
similarly provided. The outlay in these and minor
incidents must have been raised by some form of local
taxation on the inhabitants, but evidence on this point
cannot be discovered.
This city's contingent to the national fleet — the Great
Unicorn, the Minion, the Handmaid, and the Aid, pro-
visioned for two months — sailed in April amidst enthu-
siastic farewells to join the Navy in the English Channel.
The Government did not contribute a sixpence towards the
expenditure, yet in June, when the victuals were exhausted,
a letter was received from the Lord Admiral, requesting
the city to furnish supplies. (Lord Howard was, in fact,
unable to extract money from the Queen sufficient to
victual her own ships.) The Corporation appealed to the
Privy Council, representing that the citizens were utterly
exhausted by the efforts already made, and were unable
SPANISH ARMADA. 93
to bear any further charge ; but the Council insisted that
the stores should be furnished without delay, promising
to defray the outlay at a later date. The supplies were
provided, but no repayment was ever received. At the
great fair all the canvas offered for sale was bought up by
order of the Government, and despatched to make tents
for the vast army assembled at Tilbury.
The week was one of intense excitement, for the con-
flict was known to have begun ; and though the Queen's
players came to town, and were rewarded with double the
ordinary gift for their performance, the inhabitants were
thinking of anything but the drama. The civic rulers
sent off a messenger to the South Coast " to understand
some news of the fleets," but the journey seems to have
been fruitless. At length, early in August, a letter was
received from London, bringing " certain news " of the
ignominious flight of the Spaniards, when 13s. 4d. was
paid to the bearer for his promptitude, and the city burst
into jubilation, the Queen's " players and tumblers "
adding an extra flash of gaiety to the rejoicings. The
irritating old annalists do not afford a scrap of information
as to the fate of the Bristol ships. No doubt, like nearly
every crew in the fleet, the men had to take part in the
final rout of the enemy when destitute of food and almost
helpless from want of gunpowder, which no entreaties
could induce Elizabeth to supply.
Whilst the country was threatened with the hostility
of Philip II., the Government was frequently troubled
by the animosity of the Dutch, who had been much
exasperated by the Queen's tortuous policy during their
long struggle for emancipation from Spanish tyranny. In
February, 1588, the Privy Council addressed a letter to
the Judge of the Admiralty Court, setting forth that
94 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
upwards of a year previously William Colston, of Bristol,
merchant (an ancestor direct or collateral of the great
philanthropist), in satisfaction of spoils and wrongs in-
flicted on him by the Admiralty of Zealand, had seized a
ship and cargo of a Zealander ; that the Privy Council, at
the request of the Dutch Deputies, had given orders for
the release of the vessel, on the undertaking of the Deputies
that justice should be done to Colston ; that the latter,
after labouring for ten months, had secured a judicial con-
demnation of the Zealand authorities ; and that neverthe-
less he could obtain no redress. The Judge was therefore
ordered to give directions for the seizure of any Zealand
ship and cargo found in an English port — such ship to be
detained for three months to give the Dutch Government
an opportunity of complying with the judgment given
against them. If they neglected to do so, the ship and
cargo were to be given up to Colston in satisfaction of his
claims. This order having proved of no effect, the Council,
in the following May, sent fresh instructions to the Ad-
miralty Judge, giving further particulars of Colston's
grievances. Their letter states that the Bristol ship was
seized near Flushing in August, 1586, and confiscated,
together with the cargo, the owner's loss being £2,286 ;
and that, whilst Colston was on his way to seek relief, he
was made prisoner by a Dunkirk rover, from whom he was
forced to ransom himself, his total outlay being £600. The
interest on these losses amounted to £381, making his total
claim against the States of Holland and Zealand £3,267.
The Privy Council therefore orders the Judge to grant a
commission for the arrest of Dutch ships until Colston
obtained fulFsatisf action. Being armed with this warrant,
Mr. Colston thought himself entitled to follow the example
set by the Dutch, and not merely recovered his claim, but
LORD BURGHLEY, HIGH STEWARD. 95
continued to make further seizures. In August, however,
he was peremptorily ordered by the Government to sell no
more confiscated goods, and to appear before the Privy
Council to render accounts. There is no further reference
to the subject.
On the death, in September, 1588, of the Earl of
Leicester — which Ben Jonson asserted was caused by a
poisoned potion that the earl had prepared for his countess
— the Common Council followed its usual course by con-
ferring the High Stewardship of the city on Lord Burghley,
the head of the Government. No opportunity was lost
of concihating the powerful minister. In 1590 his second
son, William — afterwards Earl of Salisbury — visited
Bristol, and was welcomed with a present of " 38 lbs. of
sugar, two boxes of marmalade, gilded very fair, and four
barrels of sucketts," entertainment being also provided
for himself and retinue. In the following year a gift of an
undescribed character, but costing £11 los., was made to
Burghley himself, who did not lose sight of his yearly
" pension " of £^. A " sargeant Painter at Arms " was
paid £^ for the Lord Treasurer's portrait, which was
framed for 5s. and set up in the Council House, where it is
still to be seen. In 1596 WilUam Cecil, then become
Secretary of State, was presented with a double gilt silver
cup, weighing forty-four ounces, and costing £15 8s. The
secretaries of both the ministers were duly and sometimes
largely rewarded for keeping their masters " in mind " of
the city's request. Gifts were, in fact, looked for by every
important official. In 1594 a butt of sack was sent to
another of the Queen's lovers. Lord Keeper Hatton,
doubtless in return for some service. The Clerk of the
Privy Council and the Clerk of the Crown also figure for
handsome donations. In 1598 the Clerk of the Parliament
^6 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
by some means got hold of two new white rugs, value
;^5 4s., belonging to the Corporation, and " detained them,
in regard he had been our friend in the late Parliament,"
Though sometimes over-reached in this way by high-
placed cormorants, the civic body was by no means
disposed to spend money profitlessly. On one occasion,
when the Lord Admiral, according to the custom of his
predecessors, contested the city's right to hold an Ad-
miralty Court,the Chamberlain bought a fine piece of plate
for him, in the hope that the gift would smooth over
difficulties, but finding his lordship intractable, the civic
agent gave the silversmith los. to refund the cast and take
the plate back again.
Fuel appears to have been at a very moderate price in
1589. The Common Council having in that year estab-
lished a school over Froom Gate, to teach children, not to
read, but " to knit worsted hosen," forty loads of stone
coal were purchased for 15s. to warm the large room. At
the same time, six loads of charcoal and a double draught
of wood for the Tolzey fires cost 8s. lod. It is difficult to
determine the weight of a sledge load, but as butts of wine
containing nearly 120 gallons were certainly moved about
on sledges, a load of coal can hardly have been less than
one-third of a ton. Firewood was cheap, owing to the
abundance of neighbouring timber. Several trees were
cut down in Lewins Mead in 1589.
Information respecting an ancient Bristol custom,
established by a charter of Edward III. upwards of two
hundred years before this date, is furnished by the minutes
of the Privy Council in March, 1590. In a letter to the
Mayor and his " assistants in Orphans' causes," their
lordships stated that they had been informed that the
chief magistrate of the city for the time being had always
CORPORATION AND ORPHANS OF CITY. 97
been governor of orphans, and had provided for their
education and the preservation of their estates in
accordance with the city charters. But the Council now
understood that this good system was no longer carried
out, and that orphans had been, and were hkely to be,
defrauded by persons having possession of their property,
who refused to give the Mayor full information thereof.
Their lordships, therefore, having regard for such orphans,
command the Mayor and his brethren to pursue strictly
the ancient practice ; to summon all widows and guardians
having the custody of orphans' money, goods or lands ;
and to inquire whether any embezzlement had been
attempted. If such persons refused to produce a full
account of the property committed to them, or resisted
the Mayor's authority over the children, they were ordered
to be imprisoned until they gave satisfaction. It may be
safely conjectured that the issue of this mandate had been
privately solicited by the Corporation through some friend
at Court at an earlier period. Large sums bequeathed to
children had frequently been brought into the city
treasury, and remained there for several years until the
infant owners attained full age, and whilst the Corporation
in the meanwhile dealt with such funds at their discretion,
there is no evidence that they rendered a fair interest on
the capital. The ancient custom consequently fell into
disfavour, and testators sometimes gave specific directions
to their executors to keep aloof from the orphans' court.
The mandate of the Government having failed to effect
its purpose, the Corporation, whilst promoting a Bill in
Parliament in 1597 for confirming the establishment of
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, obtained the insertion of
clauses empowering them to act|as the Privy Council had
directed, and authorising the Chamberlain to take
8
98 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
possession of property when executors or trustees refused
to give sureties for the faithful performance of their duties.
It was, however, provided that if a testator Hmited the
management of his estate to a parent, brother, or other
relation of his children, or if such relation entered into
sufficient bonds for securing the orphans' estates, the Mayor
and his brethren were not to interfere. The decay of the old
system thus continued, and it gradually became obsolete.
Dr. Fletcher, the supple divine in whose favour the
See of Bristol was separated from that of Gloucester,
after being practically extinct for forty-one years, made
his appearance in the city in July, 1590, when he was
welcomed by the Corporation, and presented with thirty
gallons of sack and twenty pounds of sugar. From the
wording of the Chamberlain's record of this gift, it is
clear that the civic body were ignorant of even the name
of the new prelate at his arrival. Being the Queen's
Almoner and a sedulous courtier, the Bishop could spare
little time for his episcopal duties ; but he made another
brief visit two years later, when the Corporation,
honouring the Almoner more than the cleric, gave him
half a hundred-weight of sugar, which cost is. i|d. per
pound. In 1593 he was promoted to the See of
Worcester, and the bishopric of Bristol, which he had
greatly impoverished, remained vacant for ten years.
So far as can be discovered, the Corporation up to
this time had never availed themselves of St. Mark's
Church for religious purposes. The edifice was not,
however, wholly deserted. Thomas Pinchin, one of the
monks of the old Hospital (who were granted a yearly
pension of £6 each when they were dispossessed of it by
Henry VIII.), received £2 additional from the Corporation
to act as Reader in the church, and resided in an adj oining
ST. MARK'S CHURCH. 99
tenement until his death, about forty-five years later,
when a new " curate " was appointed, who also received
40s. yearly as " wages." On the establishment of Queen
Elizabeth's Hospital, the Common Council seems to have
resolved on alterations in the ehurch with a view to
accommodating the schoolboys. A stone pulpit was
introduced, several old pews were removed to make way
for benches, a number of new wainscot pews were
constructed, and the entire interior was decorated
plentifully with whitewash. The work went on day and
night in order to be ready for the Queen's Accession Day,
in November, 1590, from which one migjit presume that
a civic visit in State was in contemplation ; but if such
had been purposed it was abandoned, for when the holiday
arrived cushions were carried from the Tolzey to the
Cathedral for the comfort of the worshipful body during
the sermon. In the following March there is an interesting
item in the Chamberlain's accounts, los. being paid to a
mason " for removing the great tombs of the three
founders of the Gaunts, which are now set at the upper
end of the chancel." Their original position is, unfortu-
nately, not recorded. Through corporate caprice at a
later date, the tombs were removed to the south aisle of
the church, where they still remain.
At this period the commerce of the city was in an
extremely depressed state. The chief foreign trade of
Bristol for several generations had been with Spain and
Portugal, where vast quantities of fish, caught by local
crews in the Northern Atlantic, were exchanged for the
wines, fruit, and oil of the peninsula. This highly
profitable traffic had been largely curtailed long before
the outbreak of war by English adventurers like Drake,
who, burning with indignation at the cruel persecution of
100 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
the Protestants in the Netherlands, and at the tortures
inflicted by the Spanish Inquisition on the crews of
English ships carrying on an illicit traffic with King
Philip's colonies in the New World, set international law
at defiance, and took to the seas as systematic
buccaneers. The eventual declaration of war between
the two powers, of course, suspended legitimate trade
altogether. Maritime relations with Southern France,
the only other important centre of local commerce, were
on an equally unsatisfactory footing, although the two
Governments were ostensibly on friendly terms. The
slaughter in 1572 of upwards of 50,000 Huguenots in
France, commonly known as the massacre of St. Bartholo-
mew, and hallowed by the exultant thanksgivings of the
Pope, aroused a passionate thirst for vengeance throughout
this country, and the bigotry of the infamous French King
was met by a bigotry as remorseless as his own.
Happily, the many butcheries of Romish priests in
England have no connection with local history.
Elizabeth's efforts, or pretended efforts, to suppress
filibustering on the ocean were powerless against the
connivance of the whole sea-going population, of her own
Customs officers, who claimed a share of the piratical
spoils, and of the gentry and merchants of the West of
England, who helped to equip the adventurers. One or
two illustrations of the state into which legitimate com-
merce was brought under such circumstances may be
offered from the State papers. In June, 1592, a French
official, acting for the merchants of Bayonne, informed
the Privy Council that in the previous year a ship belong-
ing to that port was returning home with a cargo valued
at 5,000 crowns, when she was captured by a vessel
belonging to Sir Walter Raleigh, and taken to Uphill,
PIRATICAL EXPLOITS. IQ-l .
near Weston-super-Mare, where certain rich merchants of
Bristol received the cargo, and still held it, having forced
the owner's agent to take to flight by threats against his
life. In another case, reported by the same official, a
still more valuable Bayonne ship and cargo had been
captured by three English vessels, and taken into the port
of Bristol, where several of the pirates lived, and the
plunder was there openly sold, the ruined owner being
refused redress. There is no evidence of any action
having been taken against Raleigh and his accomplices.
The other affair was so discreditable to the second
city in the kingdom that the Privy Council ordered the
owners of the English ships to surrender half the cargo
to the Bayonne man and to pay him ;^6o — a sum so
pitiful as to raise a suspicion that the Government sym-
pathised with the freebooters. This mandate being coolly
ignored, the Privy Council, after the lapse of another year,
addressed a letter to the Mayor and Aldermen, desiring
them to see that the Frenchman received satisfaction,
and pointing out that further delay would provoke the
French to equip privateers to prey on English commerce.
The answer of the Corporation has perished. Whatever
they may have done, the warning of the Privy Council
was soon justified. In September, 1596, John Love and
other Bristol merchants made a clamorous complaint to
the Government that a French " piratical " vessel had
seized their ship, the Adventure, whilst on her home voyage
from Brest, laden with linen, canvas, &c., their total loss
being estimated at ,^5,000. By that time the French had
remonstrated against several other piratical acts of
English rovers (one of which was partly owned by our
old friend, Thomas James), and the Privy Council declined
to take anv action.
m CHAPTER XI.
Philip Langley fined in lieu of serving as Mayor — Further
attempt to deprive Bristol of its Admiralty jurisdiction
— Poverty of Bristol clergy — " Forlorn Hope " estate
of St. Nicholas — Court of the manor of Temple Fee
revived — Merchant Seamen's Almshouse founded —
Dealings of Corporation with John Whitson con-
cerning purchase of corn — Ship-money revived ; in-
effectual protest of the Corporation — Repeal of " Re-
demptioner " ordinances — Piratical outrage of Captain
Thomas Webb — Claim of Corporation on Privy Council
for financial assistance — Bristol Fair — Visit to city
of Lord Essex, who becomes Lord High Steward ;
succeeded by Lord Treasurer Buckhurst.
In February, 1592, Alderman Philip Langley was re-
quired by the Common Council to pay a fine of £50 for
being relieved for ever of the office of Mayor. The charge
seems to have been an unjust exaction, inasmuch as the
Alderman had served as chief magistrate ten years
previously. As he had also represented the city in
Parliament from 1571 to 1581, Mr. Langley was probably
far advanced in years.
The city audit books at this period are singularly
barren of interesting features. In 1592 the Lord Admiral
made another effort to deprive the Corporation of its
Admiralty jurisdiction, doubtless in order to secure the
fees and perquisites in maritime disputes and disasters
arising within the port ; and Dr. Julius Csesar, Judge of
the Admiralty Court in London, was sent down as a special
102
POVERTY OF BRISTOL CLERGY. 103
Commissioner to investigate the subject. He held a
prolonged inquiry, during which the civic body, which
had already spent £30 in " gratifications " to courtiers in
the hope of averting the attack, treated the learned visitor
with profuse hospitality, and made him a costly present
of sweetmeats. In the result, the chartered privileges of
the city were found incontestable, and the Lord Admiral
appears to have withdrawn his pretensions, though his
defeat did not prevent some of his successors from asserting
similar vexatious pretensions. The only other noticeable
fact of the year was the capture of a porpoise near Temple
Back. It was presented to the Mayor for his personal
delectation. The chief magistrate appears to have had
peculiar rights over piscatory novelties. A few months
later, on a " holibut " being discovered in the fish market,
the Chamberlain bought it for 4s. and sent it to the Mayor,
and in the following year his worship was the recipient of
a sturgeon, caught in the Avon. The account books for
1593 and 1595 have perished.
An interesting letter, illustrating the impoverished
condition of the Bristol clergy through the rapid spread
of Puritanism, appears in the Privy Council minutes of
March i6th, 1593. I have already drawn attention to
the fact that the Corporation, when attending the
Cathedral on State occasions, repaired there to hear, not
the liturgy, but the " sermon." In this they followed the
prevalent taste of the age ; and as many of the parochial
incumbents, some of whom held other livings in the
country, seem to have rarely preached, the yearly offerings
that had once been voluntarily rendered to them by their
city parisliioners ceased to be given. The Privy Council,
writing to the Mayor, Aldermen, and the Custos of the
See of Bristol (then vacant), remark that they have been
104 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
informed that the state of the city clergy " is very mean
and poor," their benefices being for the most part not
worth more than £8 or £g a year each, although in time
of superstition they yielded a sufficient maintenance for
learned men. Their lordships had also been informed
that out of the common purse of the city a voluntary
contribution was made to maintain three " preachers,"
while wealthy citizens gave little or nothing to enlarge
the stipends of the poor incumbents. The civic body
were therefore required to cause a reasonable assessment
to be imposed on such burgesses as did not contribute
towards the maintenance of the poor ministers, especially
of those who were preachers, and also towards supporting
common readers until by better encouragement the livings
might be furnished with able and learned men — a remark
far from complimentary to those actually in possession.
The names of persons refusing to subscribe were to be
sent up to the Council, with a report as to their means and
abilities. The request of the Government was obeyed,
though the legal right of the Corporation to impose a tax
for such a purpose might well be questioned, and was
possibly repudiated by many citizens. From a document
of a few years later date the annual sum raised was only
about £44, averaging less than £3 per parish. Out of
this total the vicar of St. Nicholas, whose income was only
£2 13s. 4d., received £10, and the doles to his colleagues
varied from £6 to £1. The " city preachers " maintained
by the Corporation appear to have received about £30
each per annum.
The value of the vicarage of St. Nicholas in 1428 was
officially reported to be £20, a sum certainly equivalent to
£50 in 1593. During a period extending from about 1570
to 1593 the Vestry of St. Nicholas' parish received a number
"FORLORN HOPE" ESTATE. 105
of gifts and bequests from various citizens, who had directed
that the yearly interest should be distributed amongst
poor parishioners in doles of money or of bread. (It will
be remembered that poor rates were still in the future.)
The above benefactions appear to have been advanced
in temporary loans on good security, with the ultimate
view of making an advantageous purchase of land ; and
in March, 1594, when the fund at disposal amounted to
£548, the Vestry, adding £42 to the total from the Church
stock, acquired a house, garden, and about thirteen acres
of meadow near Baptist Mills, in the parish of St. James,
for £590. It may be assumed that from the outset the
rent derived from the estate sufficed to produce the yearly
gifts designed by the benefactors (about £30 in all), but
it can scarcely have done more than this during the
following century, owing to the purely rural character of
the locality, and it is significant that the place obtained
the name of the " Forlorn Hope." In course of time, how-
ever, the growth of the population in the district had its
natural effect. A few houses were built on the property ;
the remainder of the meadow was divided into gardens,
on which some occupiers " squatted " in wooden huts ;.
and in 1821 the Vestry granted a new lease of the estate
for seven years at a rental of £152. Until 1818 the parish
authorities continued to pay the doles originally fixed by
the donors of the charities, and made use of the surplus
at their discretion. It was then determined, however, to
apply all the proceeds (less one-fourteenth as the share of
the Church stock) to the objects designed by the benefactor.
This honourable conduct eventually plunged the Vestry
into painful embarrassment. In 1857 the charity estates
of the parish had risen in yearly value to £450, and the
approaching termination of the lease of " Forlorn Hope "
106 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
was expected to add £200 a year to that amount. Already,
at every approach of the Christmas doles, the parish was
inundated by worthless idlers and vagabonds, who hired
a few nights' shelter to secure a share of the spoil, and
spent their gains in vicious dissipation. The reform then
effected is recorded in the Annals of Bristol in the Nine-
teenth Century. Since that date the old hovels on the
" Forlorn Hope " estate have given place to several streets
of substantial dwellings, which must have vastly increased
the income of the charity.
In 1594 the Corporation revived the court of the manor
of Temple Fee, so long held by the Knights of St. John.
As the criminal jurisdiction of the court had been absorbed
by the ordinary tribunals of the city, it is difficult to con-
jecture why the old institution was restored. It afforded,
however, an opportunity for a feast, the Mayor and his
brethren partaking of a dinner which cost £5. A separate
banquet for the jurymen, who possibly presented
*' nuisances," entailed the modest outlay of 6s. 8d.
An entry in the minutes of the Privy Council, dated
October 5th, 1595, affords information in reference to a
still existing Bristol charity that was totally ignored by
the old annalists, and is scarcely mentioned by many later
historians. Very soon after the incorporation of the
Merchant Venturers' Society by Edward VI. in December,
1552, this body acquired the desecrated Chapel of
St. Clement (which had been built about half a century
•earlier by a fraternity of mariners), intending to use the
building as their hall, and before October, 1561, they had
erected, on an adjoining plot of ground, an almshouse for the
for the reception of aged or impotent seamen. Most of the
€arly records of the Society having perished, it is impossible
to discover how arrangements were effected for maintaining
CORPORATION AND JOHN WHITSON. 107
this institution ; but by some means the Merchants'
Company were empowered to collect two small imposts to
be presently described, and to extend their benevolent
operations. Addressing the Mayor and Aldermen on the
date given above, the Privy Council state that they have
been informed that in time past an almshouse was erected
in Bristol for the relief of aged and infirm sailors, which
was maintained by the levying of i|d. per ton on goods,
and one penny in the pound on sailors' wages, which
imposts also supported a free school for sailors' children,
and afforded a yearly stipend to a minister at Shirehampton
Chapel for edifying the crews of the ships lying at Hung-
road. It being understood that this laudable and godly
order was being withstood by some, especially by those
going on fishing voyages to Newfoundland, to the im-
poverishment of the hospital, the Privy Council required
the Mayor and Aldermen to assist the collectors in gather-
ing the dues from those attempting to evade them.
The years from 1594 to 1597 were marked by disas-
trous harvests, and the distress amongst the poor of
Bristol, great from the beginning of the dearth, increased
to an appalling extent before its close.
A singular story concerning John Whitson's trading
operations during this period is related in Adams' local
chronicle, which states that the Mayor and Aldermen in
November, 1595, foreseeing the probability of a great rise
in the price of grain, commissioned Whitson to buy 3,000
quarters of Dantzic rye. He consequently went to London
and made a contract for that quantity at 28s. per quarter,
to be delivered in the following May. Subsequently the
civic rulers repudiated the arrangement, declined to be
responsible for more than half of the grain, throwing the
risk of the other moiety on Whitson, and laid upon him
108 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
half the expense (over £8) incurred in making the bargain.
But when the cargoes arrived in July the prospect of
another bad harvest had raised the price of rye to 44s. per
quarter, showing an enormous profit on the adventure,
whereupon the worshipful Aldermen entreated Whitson
to surrender his share of the gain, and offered him £50
for his trouble. Adams goes on to say that Whitson,
being a good-natured man, consented to this cool pro-
position ; but the writer practically contradicts himself
on this point, for he adds that the Corporation, after a
gratis distribution of some pecks and half-bushels amongst
the poor, sold the bulk of the corn at 48s. per quarter,
and thereby cleared £774, whereas the profit must have
been at least double that amount. The Mayor's Kalendar
alleges that the corporate gain was £700, part of which
was expended in obtaining the Act for confirming the
customs of the Orphans' Court (already referred to).
That Act cannot have been very costly, and it is not a
little remarkable that not a trace of the funds derived
from this early exploit in municipal trading is to be found
in the civic accounts, with the exception of a payment of
£y to Whitson for his charges for a journey to London to
buy rye for this city. The foreign supplies, however, were
soon consumed, and in the closing months of the year
the scarcity am-ounted to an actual farnine, one chronicler
recording that wheat rose for a time to the almost in-
credible price of i6os. per quarter. The Privy Council
ordered the authorities of Gloucestershire and Worcester-
shire to permit corn to be sent down the Severn to Bristol
for the relief of the inhabitants, and similar mandates
were subsequently addressed to the justices of Wilts and
Somerset. The Mayor's Kalendar states that the executors
of Robert Kitchin distributed £66 weekly out of his estate
SHIP-MONEY REVIVED. 109
amongst the suffering poor, but the most notable measure
for relief was adopted by the Corporation, who ordered
that the Mayor, the Aldermen, and every burgess " of any
worth " should daily give, according to their respective
means, one meal of meat to from two to eight destitute
people, whereby all were saved from starving or rioting.
In February, 1596, Queen Elizabeth revived the un-
popular impost of ship money, for the alleged purpose of
defending the English Channel against the Spanish war-
ships and Dunkirk privateers then ravaging English com-
merce. The demand made on Bristol was for three ships
fully manned and provisioned, the outlay being estimated
at £2,500. But of this sum Somerset was to contribute £600,
the city of Gloucester (drawing £40 from Tewkesbury)
£200, the city of Worcester £40, Shrewsbury £66, and
Cardiff £40. In the mandate imposing the burden the
Government ordered the Mayor and Aldermen not to
extort more from those contributories than the sums
specified. They were further directed to assemble all the
able-bodied seamen in the port, and to impress as many
of them as would be required to man the vessels.
These requirements extorted a wail from the Corpora-
tion, who, in a piteous supplication for relief addressed to
the Privy Council, set forth the depressed condition of
local commerce. The city, it was asserted, had become so
poor that it was unable to bear the proposed burden.
Londoners had not only monopolised its old and profitable
trade with Southern Europe, but they had, through their
riches, acquired the internal trade of the kingdom to within
ten miles of Bristol, whose merchants could not gain by
any possible adventure. Spanish commerce had once
employed twenty or thirty tall ships here ; but King
Philip's embargo and English reprisals had reduced this
no SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
fleet to eight or ten small vessels. Such laden ships as now
entered the Avon mostly belonged to strangers, who would
not export Bristol goods, " whereby manufacturers are
towards an utter overthrow." The chief merchants of
the city, having lost hope, had retired from business and
retired into the country, whilst the meaner sort had spent
what they had, or were trading without advantage.
Londoners, in short, had monopolised everything. " The
eagle followeth the carcase, and no wonder the enemy so
often falls upon them. But that they, wealthy and strong,
should meanly press the Queen and our poor purses to
secure their own gains is surely a great wonder." The
Privy Council, doubtless believing that these complaints
were exaggerated — although they unquestionably were
based on a sound substratum of truth — refused to abate
their demands. Whereupon the Corporation, by levying
a rate upon the inhabitants, succeeded in meeting the
Queen's requirements, in despite of the Somerset gentry
withholding their quota, and the three ships fully equipped
joined the Royal Navy, and took part in the memorable
sack of Cadiz. One of them was commanded by John
Hopkins, merchant, elected Mayor in 1600.
On their return, when the crews were paid off, the
Corporation made a fresh appeal to the Privy Council,
representing that Bristol merchants had lost £12,000 by
disasters at sea during the previous three years, and com-
plaining that Somerset had obstinately evaded the
contribution imposed upon it. The Government, ex-
pressing great satisfaction at the exertions of the citizens,
sent a strong remonstrance to the county authorities
against their unpatriotic lethargy, but the gentry still
sought to escape the charge by preserving a policy of
silence. After a year's delay the Council sent down a
" REDEMPTIONER " ORDINANCES. Ill
more imperative mandate, which produced nothing save
a lamentation over agricultural distress, which was
common to all parts of the kingdom. The Council next
instructed Lord Chief Justice Popham to " persuade " the
gentry to do their duty at the following assizes, and as
Popham was presented soon afterwards with a butt of
sack by the Corporation, it is probable that his remon-
strances had a satisfactory result.
Some of the proceedings of the Common Council about
this time were of a strangely reactionary character.
During the early years of Elizabeth's reign the mediaeval
corporate laws debarring strangers from settling and
carrying on trade in the city were so far relaxed that
persons of that class were permitted to become freemen on
the payment of moderate fines, a.nd were known as " re-
demptioners." Though the reform must have tended to
promote the general prosperity of the port, it was, of
course, obnoxious to those selfishly animated by the old
spirit of monopoly, and their jealousy seems at length to
have permeated the civic body. On February 22nd, 1596,
a corporate ordinance was passed absolutely forbidding any
" foreign " merchant or trader to be admitted a burgess,
either by redemption or on petition. An exception was
made as regards artificers or men pursuing a manual
occupation, but the qualifications of such applicants were
to be carefully investigated by a special committee, the
members of which were to be fined £100 if they contra-
vened the true purpose of the ordinance. Even for
mechanics the door of admission was rigidly guarded, for
another ordinance of a few months previous date imposed
a fine of 6s. 8d. per week upon every craftsman wha
employed a foreign or stranger workman bringing a wife
or children into the city.
112 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
Some illustrations were given in a previous chapter of
the piratical raids of English merchant ships against the
<:ommerce of foreign nations with whom the country was
at peace. Another local case of a revolting character is
recorded in the Privy Council minutes dated June 24th,
1596. In a warrant addressed to all the maritime officers
of the Crown throughout the realm, the Council stated that
they had been informed of a notable outrage committed
by Thomas Webb, captain of the ship Minion, of Bristol
[one of the Armada ships] , upon a Dantzic vessel returning
home with a cargo from Lisbon. Webb had cruelly
tortured the master and sailors, carried off the entire
cargo, and despoiled the ship of her anchors and cables,
whereby she was wrecked, and all on board were drowned.
As the owners could obtain no redress, because Webb had
sailed to Southampton and Bristol, where sundry of the
inhabitants got possession of the plundered goods, and
retained them under pretence of the Admiralty privileges
of the two towns, the Crown officials were commanded to
seize and sequester the merchandise, to stay the ship
Minion for the better satisfaction of the aggrieved mer-
chants, and to arrest and imprison Webb and his accom-
plices until they gave bail to stand their trial for the crime.
Webb appears to have escaped, and his subordinates were
long concealed through the connivance of sympathisers.
In January, 1597, the Privy Council addressed a severe
rebuke to the Mayor of Bristol, who, after the offenders
had been arrested, had audaciously presumed to liberate
three of them, although they were officers of the Minion,
and Webb's chief instruments. The Mayor was ordered
to immediately recapture them, and to make them offer
bail. The record of the trial has unluckily perished. It
would be interesting to know whether Captain Webb was
BRISTOL FAIR. 113
in any way connected with Alderman John Webb, who
became Mayor of the city in the following September.
In the autumn of 1596, when the city was suffering
under the terrible famine already noted,* the difficulties
of the authorities were greatly increased by the arrival
of large bodies of troops on their way to Ireland, who
had to be lodged and fed whilst awaiting a favourable
wind. The Government sought to alleviate the distress by
directing the justices of Monmouth and Glamorganshire
to facilitate the transport of grain from those counties to
Bristol, but the relief can hardly have been important.
The Corporation on this occasion claimed 8d. per day from
the Privy Council for the diet of each soldier, and los. per
head for their transport to the sister island, sums greatly
in excess of the customary rates, and which led to an angry
protest and demand for abatement on the part of the
Council. The result does not appear. Having regard to the
unprecedented price of bread, the charge for food does not
seem excessive ; but the passage money certainly appears
exorbitant. Only eighteen months later the Chamberlain
shipped off sixty-six Irish beggars to their own country
at a cost of one shilling per head for the voyage.
The vast extent of business transacted at the celebrated
Bristol fair is indicated by an entry in the Privy Council
minutes for January, 1597. A large number of London
tradesmen regularly attended the fair, bringing vast stocks
of goods, and one of them, a mercer, sought the help of the
Council at the above date, alleging that his servants, on
returning home, were robbed of £L,y 00, besides bills and
notes. At the fair in 1590 a party of Irish merchants
brought such extensive cargoes of rugs and other material
that they overstocked the market. Being unwiHing to
* Vide ante, p. 107.
9
114 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
carry the goods back again, and the corporate laws for-
bidding strangers to open a shop, they made a bargain
with the Chamberlain, and paid a fine of £5 " for Uberty to
sell to all foreigners for three days, after that the
citizens had first bought of them for three days before."
" Foreigners " were, of course, residents outside the city
boundaries.
The Virgin Queen's last favourite, the brilliant but
giddy-headed Earl of Essex, paid a visit to the city in
March, 1597, probably during a West-country tour. His
lordship's position at Court being well known, preparations
were made for his reception, including the " cleansing of
the streets of filth " and decorating the High Cross ; and
a sumptuous entertainment awaited him at Mr. Haviland's
mansion in Small Street. On January 13th, 1599, soon
after the death of Lord Burghley, the Corporation's in-
variable desire to secure a powerful friend in the Ro5''al
Palace led to a hasty appointment that had to be regretted
at leisure. The first entry in the earliest civic minute book
that has come down to us records the election at the above
date of the Earl of Essex, Earl Marshal, as High Steward
of Bristol " in as ample a manner as the office was hereto-
fore held." A patent embellished with silk and gold
thereupon received the common seal, and the Chamberlain
was hurried off to London to present it to his lordship, and
to order a fine carving of the earl's arms for the decoration
of the Council House. Before the ornament had been
received, the earl's star had begun to wane, through his
own wilfulness and incapacity, and a puerile seditious out-
break a few months later brought his head to the block on
Tower Hill. Even before this catastrophe the Corpora-
tion recognised its blunder, and began its search for a more
stable patron. It first besought the friendship of the
LORD TREASURER BUCKHURST. 115
Queen's cousin and chamberlain, Lord Hunsdon, to whom
a costly present of claret, " hullock," and sugar loaves was
respectfully forwarded. Eventually, however, the civic
rulers turned their devotions towards a more powerful
minister, the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst, and tendered him
a stiU larger token of homage. On the execution of Essex,
Buckhurst, of course, succeeded to the vacant High
Stewardship.
9 A
CHAPTER XII.
Temporary policy of consideration by Government towards
Bristol — Meat market established ; friction between the
Corporation and Bristol butchers — Cost of travelling in
Elizabethan days — The " Great House " and Red
Lodge — Assessment of the citizens — City roads re-
paired by compulsory co-operation of householders —
Same method applied to maintenance of trained bands.
The heavy exactions on the city in the shape of ship-
money, and the refusal of the Somerset gentry to
contribute their quota of the impost, appear to have
temporarily shamed the Government into a more liberal
policy. Instead of extorting funds for feeding and
shipping off troops for Ireland, as had been previously the
invariable custom, remittances were sent down with the
soldiers in 1597, and confided to the Corporation ; and
on July 15th the Privy Council, in a letter to the Mayor,
Wilham Yate, greatly commended that gentleman's
arrangements for victualling and transporting 800 men —
a course of conduct, they added, that contrasted widely
with the waste and private stealing that had been many
times experienced at other ports. Such trust, so honour-
ably discharged, continued the letter, moved the Council
to think the Mayor meet to undertake further services,
and he was therefore desired to buy up and transport
victuals for the Irish army, which was clearly unable to
find food in the devastated island. The customer of
iie
MEAT MARKET ESTABLISHED. 117
Bristol had been ordered to advance money for carrying
out these directions, and the justices of the neighbouring
counties, including South Wales, were required to render
the Mayor assistance in obtaining supplies. The con-
siderate policy of the Court was of short duration. The
next mention in the civic records of the migration of
troops is a minute of a meeting of the Common Council,
specially convened to demand loans from the members
for feeding and transporting the men dumped down upon
the city authorities.
Down to this period the meat market of the city was
held in the open streets, and the setting up of stalls in
the narrow thoroughfares must have greatly impeded
locomotion. In 1598 the executors of Robert Kitchin,
in accordance with the powers conferred upon them by
the Alderman's will, devoted a portion of his estate to the
erection of a covered market in the rear of a house on the
east side of Broad Street, and transferred the building to
the Corporation, who undertook to distribute the rents
derived from standings in charitable benefactions. It
would appear that the butchers were by no means
desirous of being removed from their usual positions, and
ttie Common Council, finding it prudent to respect ancient
customs, were content to deal with the country tradesmen
who brought in meat on market days, the " foreigners "
being ordered, in April, 1599, to sell exclusively in the
" New Market." Even this arrangement, however, was
unsatisfactory to the resident purveyors, who speedily
complained that their " stranger " rivals, instead of
hastening to dispose of their goods and depart — as had
been their previous habits — now compensated themselves
for the tolls by loitering in their new quarters, to the
great injury of local traders. Again bending to the free
118 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
burgesses, the Council ordered, in the following June,
that the countrymen should close their stalls at two
o'clock in the winter months and an hour later in summer.
The market was, nevertheless, still obnoxious to the
Bristol butchers, and the civic rulers soon after appointed
a committee to consider the desirability of closing the
building altogether. The committee never produced a
report, and there are indications that the selfishness of
the complaining clique, who doubtless wished to establish
a monopoly, brought about a corporate reaction. On
December 4th, in consequence of an inordinate advance
in the price of candles, the Council requested the Mayor
and Aldermen to make an inquiry into the rates which
the butchers were demanding for tallow, and to fix a
reasonable price at which candles should be thenceforth
sold. The butchers seem to have proved refractory, for
the Common Council soon afterwards passed an
Ordinance " to redress the excessive price of candles,"
giving chandlers in the neighbouring country districts full
liberty to bring in and seU any quantity of candles,
notwithstanding the ordinary laws against " foreign "
commodities.
A concluding reference may be made to the cost of
travelling in Elizabethan days. In the summer of 1599,
after a review of the city-trained bands, the Chamberlain
made a journey to Wilton to present the Muster Roll to
the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant, and not finding
his lordship at home, followed him to Court. The worthy
official was fifteen days on his travels, but his inn expenses
and those of his manservant, including keep for two horses,
amounted only to 6s. 8d, per day. The hire of two horses
cost £2, and the servants' wages were 8d. a day. When
in London the Chamberlain took the opportunity to
THE "GREAT HOUSE" AND RED LODGE. 119
present the Clerk of the Privy Council, " for intelligence,"
with an Irish rug, purchased for £2. At this time a
swarm of Government officials received small pensions
from the Corporation, including the Clerk just referred
to, the Clerk of the Crown, the Clerk of the Exchequer,
and the Clerk of the Estreats — the last named con-
descending to accept 4s. 2d. a year, or about a penny
per week.
The story of the spoliation of the Bristol Friaries by
Henry VIII., narrated in the early part of this book, is re-
called to memory by an incident at this period that might
have furnished a new illustration to the celebrated Spelman
when inditing his denunciation of sacrilege. The Carme-
lite Friary, which stood on the site of the present Colston
Hall, together with a portion of its extensive gardens,
was acquired for an insignificant sum by the Corporation,
who soon afterwards sold the building and part of the
ground to Alderman Thomas Chester. The large upper
gardens, extending to what is now Park Row, fell into
the ever-greedy hands of Sir Ralph Sadleir, by whom
they were sold to a Bristol merchant named Rowland.
Early in the reign of Elizabeth a gentleman named John
Young, who had estates in Dorset and Wilts, determined
to settle in this city, where several of his ancestors had
been men of mark ; and having taken up his residence in
the above Friary, he resolved on constructing an imposing
mansion on the site. In February, 1568, he accordingly
purchased the old building from Alderman Chester, and
proceeded so vigorously with the erection of his " Great
House " that it served, in 1574, for the fitting reception
of Queen Elizabeth and her numerous suite during her
week's sojourn, during which its owner was knighted in
reward for his hospitality. Sir John was not s3,tisfied
120 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
with this capacious residence. In 1578 he purchased from
the Corporation the remaining part of their estate,
consisting of a house and garden previously in the
occupation of Nicholas Thome, and he at the same time
acquired Rowland's Lodge and garden on Stony Hill. On
this latter spot he forthwith set about the construction
of the large mansion now known as the Red Lodge, the
beautiful internal decoration of which remains to attest
his cultivated taste and ample means.
Sir John died in 1589, and it may be noted that at
the usual inquest held by the Crown to discover the extent
of his estates the jury declared on their oaths that the
yearly value of the Great House was 40s., and that of
the Red Lodge 20s. Their late owner left an only son,
Robert, then 19 years of age. Within seven years of his
attaining his majority, this young man appears to have
dissipated most of his fortune, and to have been over head
and ears in debt ; and on March 29th, 1599, being about
to adventure as a soldier in Ireland, and desirous of
protecting his Bristol estate from seizure by creditors, he
conveyed both the mansions to his half-brother, Nicholas
Strangeways, their mother's right to reside in the Great
House for life being reserved. Strangeways probably
disposed of the Red Lodge, but nothing more is recorded
about it in the Great Red Book at the Council House.
The prodigal returned from Ireland, where he obtained
the title of knight, but was probably poorer than ever.
Soon afterwards, in conjunction with Strangeways, he
sold the Great House for £660 to Sir Hugh Smyth, of
Long Ashton, and then vanished from history, nothing
being known of his ultimate fate. The Great House
subsequently became the residence and factory of two
notable sugar refiners — John Knight, followed by Richard
ASSESSMENT OF THE CITIZENS. 121
Lane, both of whom were Mayors of Bristol. The widow
of Lane conveyed the mansion, in 1708, for ;^i,300,
to Edward Colston, who there estabhshed his great
school.
Parliament having voted the Queen a subsidy in 1599,
a meeting of the Common Council was held in January,
1600, to assess the members of that body preliminary
to the collection of the impost. The proceedings, though
outwardly grave, were really of a farcical character. A
subsidy in boroughs was a tax of 2s. 8d. in the pound on
the value of each citizen's personal property, and in the
Middle Ages it was doubtless an onerous burden. But as
each community was assessed by Royal Commissioners
selected out of resident inhabitants, the gentlemen
chosen — with a tender respect for the pockets both of
themselves and their neighbours — gradually reduced the
charge by underestimating the value of the goods
assessed, and the results eventually assumed ludicrous
proportions. Thus on the above occasion, although
several members of the Council were merchants of great
wealth, with extensive stocks of merchandise, the maxi-
mum value of the property of any of them was alleged to
be £20, and only fourteen were stated to be worth that
amount, their less notable colleagues escaping with an
assessment of £10. The charge imposed on the general
mercantile and trading class is not recorded, but was
doubtless framed on a similar basis. It may be fairly
assumed that on the average the assessment did not
represent so much as one-twentieth of the actual property
of the taxpayers.
Having made this assessment, the Common Council
proceeded to make use of it for other purposes. The
roads leading into the city were generally in an execrable
122 SIXTEENTH-CENTURY BRISTOL.
condition, and in 1600 were so abominably bad as to
force the Corporation to take action. On April 22nd it
was accordingly resolved that every inhabitant " scassed "
(assessed) in the subsidy book should pay after the rate of
fourpence for every pound so scassed, and that this money
should be employed in the reparation of the highways
within the city liberties. It was further ordered that
every householder free from the subsidy tax should work
one day in the mending of the roads for the space of eight
hours, bringing his own pickaxe and shovel at such time
as he should be warned. Any person refusing to pay or
to work was to incur a double penalty. This system of
compulsory co-operation was in August applied towards
maintaining the trained bands, wealthy citizens being
required to pay the wages of one or more of the troopers
summoned to the yearly muster, and to furnish each of
such men with a coat, the penalty for disobeying the
latter order being 20s. per man. Members of the Common
Council were further required to provide arms and armour
for the soldiers, and fifty corslets, forty-five guns, a few
pikes, and twenty targets were forthwith brought in.
The Corporation being in need of money, it was next
resolved to raise £500 by loans for four years, the interest
on which (probably eight or ten per cent.) was ordered
to be defrayed by the members of the Council, who were
to be taxed upon the basis of the subsidy book. Finally
the old law was revived whereby a citizen was forbidden
to sue a fellow burgess in any court save those of the
mayor and sheriffs. A person who had presumed to
raise an action of this kind in one of the courts at
Westminster was fined £10, and on refusing to pay the
penalty was " discommoned," and dealt with as a
" foreigner."
AN INTERESTING EXTRACT. 123
A final extract, brief but interesting, may be made
from the Chamberlain's accounts : —
1599, July. Paid for the sight of the model of
Bristol, seen by Mr, Mayor and Aldermen, 5s.
What would the dignitaries of the twentieth century
give to behold this remarkable picture of Bristol in the
olden time ?
INDEX
Account Books of Corporation
(quoted), i, 7, 8, 10, 16, 19,
21, 48, 49, 54, 56, 57, 62, 64,
66, 69, 70, 71, 75-77, 84, 87,
99, 114, 123.
Adams' Chronicle, 107, 108.
Addercliff, 80.
Admiral, Lord High, 92, 96, 102.
Admiralty Court, Judge of, 93 ;
at Portishead, 49 ; trial of
Capt. James in, 89.
Admiralty privileges of Cor-
poration, 47, 48, 102, 112.
Adventure (ship), loi.
Aid (ship), 92.
Aldermen, Number of increased,
76.
Aldworth, Simon, 82.
Ale Conner, 28.
All Saints' Church, 5, 22 ; Ward,
Assessment of, 60.
Almshouses, Foster's, 33.
America, Discovery of, 41.
Annals of Bristol, 84, 106.
Anne Boleyn and Corporation,
31, 32.
Archery, Practice of, 7.
Area of Bristol in sixteenth cen-
tury, 2.
Armada, Spanish, 91, 92.
Arthur, Rev. A., 91.
Assessment of citizens, 60, 104,
121.
Ashton Court, 'jy.
Athelney Abbey, 15.
Attorney-General, yj.
Audit Books of Corporation, 21,
36, 102.
Augustinian Friars, 2.
Avon (river), 63, 64, 73, 103, no.
Bailiffs' drinking, 10.
Baldwin Street, 82.
Baptist Mills, 105.
Bath, 47, 53, 54.
Bayonne, 100, loi.
Bear-baiting, 8.
Bearkecpers, Companies of, 8.
Bedminster, Manor of, 16.
Bell I.ane, 29.
Benefit of Clergy, 63, 64.
Berkeley, 45 ; Lord 47.
Bewdley, 52.
" Bill for Bristowe," A, 57.
Bird, William, 30, 31.
Birmingham, 31.
Bishopric of Bristol, 53, 62, 84,
98, 103.
Black death. Ravages of, 2.
Black Friars, 2.
Blande, Mrs., 54.
Boiling Well, 62.
Boundaries, Perambulation of,
79-
Bow, Carr's works at, 82.
Bowles, H. B., 72.
Boy Bishop, Ceremony of, 9.
Brandon Hill, Acquisition of
summit of by Corporation,
59-
Brest, 10 1.
Brewers, Bristol, 28.
Brislington,Chapelof St. Anne, 5,
Bristol, Area of, in sixteenth
century, 2 ; arms of, 49-52 ;
population of, in sixteenth
century, 24, 25 ; inquiry at
by Royal Commission, 4 ;
receives title of " city," yy ;
model of, 123,
Bristol Bridge, 6, 16, 21, 22, 28,
29.
Bristol Fair, 113.
Bristol farthings, 67-72.
Bristolians, Religious faith of, i ;
large bequests of, 3, 105.
Bristol measures, 48.
Broadmead, 2.
Broad Street, 117.
Broke, Davy (Recorder), 19.
Bromefield, 32.
Browne, Alderman, 87.
Buccaneering, engaged in by
Bristolians, 100.
Buckingham, Duke of, 32.
Bull-baiting, 8.
INDEX.
125
Burghley, Lord, 56, 88, 95, 114.
Churches, Spoliation of, 14 ;
Butchers, Bristol, 40, 117, 118.
financial aid to Corooration,
Butts, in the Marsh, 7.
62.
Church plate, 16, 22.
Churchyard, 61.
Cable, Robert, 57.
" City preachers," 104.
Cabot, John, 41.
Clarencieux, King-of-Arms, 49-
Cadiz, Sack of, Bristol repre-
52
sented at, no.
Clergy in Bristol in sixteenth
Caesar, Dr. Julius, 102.
century, 4 ; poverty of, 103.
Candles, Regulations as to price,
Clerk of the Crown, 48.
118.
Clevedon, 49.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 87.
Coach travelling. Introduction
Canterbury, Treasure at, 14
of, 47.
Canynges, William, 4.
Coal ia Bristol, 55. 96.
Cardiff, 109.
Coat of Arms, Bristol, 49-52.
Carmehte Church, 66; Friars, 2,
Coinage in Bristol {see Bristol
15 ; Friary, 119.
farthings).
Carr, John, 81-84, 85, 86;
Cole, Alice, 86 ; John, 69 ;
William, 82.
Richard, 57, 85-87; Thomas,
Castle, Bristol, 2.
85, 86.
Cathedral, Bristol, 22, 65, 99.
Coleman, John, 48.
Catholicism, Roman, in Bristol,
College Green, 25, 80.
I, 2.
Cologne, Chapel of the Three
Cattaie, 65.
Kings of, 20.
Cattle market licence, 53.
Colston, Edv/ard, 121 ; Thomas,
Cecil, William, 95.
57, 86 ; WiUiam, 94.
Celebrations for twentieth year
Colston Hall, 15, 119.
of Elizabeth's reign, 65.
Compton, Mrs., 21 ; Sir Thomas,
Census of Bristol, 25.
21.
Chamberlain, City, 11, 28, 33-35,
Commerce of Bristol, 88, 99, 100,
37, 38,44,46, 49, 51-53, 56,
109, no.
63. 69-71. 74. 75. H, 87, 88,
Commons, House of, 57.
98, 99, 103, 113, 114, 118,
Common Seal, 49.
123.
Congresbury Manor, 82.
Chancellor, Lord, 21, 34, 44, 61,
Constables, Parish, 27.
86.
Cooke, Robert, 50.
Chandos, Lord, 37, 52.
Cordwainers, Guild of, 5.
Chantries, seized for Crown, 3,
Corn, Dealings in, of Corpora-
4, 14 ; attendance at, 5 ;
tion, 35, 107.
spoliation of, 20 ; census of,
Corporate jurisdiction, Institu-
24, 25.
tions free from, 2.
Chantry commissioners, 24.
Corporation account books
Chantry, Hallewey's, 5.
(quoted), i, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16,
Chard, Assizes held at, 48.
19, 21, 48, 49, 54, 56, 57, 62,
Charity trustees, 33.
64, 66, 69, 70, 71, 75, 76, 77.
Charters of the city confirmed,
84, 87, 99, 114, 123.
37 ; granting crest, 50 ; in-
Corporation, Admiralty privi-
creasing aldermen, 76.
leges of, 47, 48, 102, 112;
Chester, Alderman Thomas, 119.
attendance at obits, 5 ; at
Chew Magna, 33.
Cathedral, 103 ; almshouse
Christchurch, Vestry of, 58.
trustees. 20, 21 ; Brandon
Christmas drinkings, 10, 12.
Hill summit, 59 ; Carmelite
Christmas holidays, 10.
Friary, 119; celebrations
Christmas Steps (Knifesmiths'
for twentieth year of Eliza-
Street), 39, 42.
beth's reign, 65 ; Bristol
Christmas Street, 61, 66.
clergy, 104 ; claims on by
Christ's hospital, 82, 83.
Lord Chancellor, 61 ; Thos.
126
INDEX.
Corporation — continued.
Cromwell appointed Re-
corder, 19 ; corn doles, 35 ;
Custom House at Glouces-
ter, 44-46 ; visit of Eliza-
beth, 59-61 ; entertainment
in Weavers' Hall, 7 ; Earl
of Essex, 114; estates of,
15 ; expenditure of, 11, 33 ;
Bristol farthings, 67-72 ;
feudal claims of Lord de la
Warre and Lord Stafford,
30, 31, 85, 86; fishing in
Froom, 8 ; Bristol Grammar
School, 41, 43 ; royal grant
to, 16; markets, 53, 58,
117; treatment of mendi-
cants, 27 ; noisy meetings
of, 57 ; Merchant Venturers'
Society, 56, 57 ; Duke of
Norfolk, 47 ; ordinances of,
10, 25, 28, 32, yy. III, 114,
117; city orphans, 96;
pecuniary difficulties of , 1 5 ;
presentation to Popham, 78;
purchases from Crown, 15 ;
general procession, 3 ;
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital,
83 ; reactionary measures
of, : 1 1 ; trouble with Red-
cliff, 17 ; relief measures of,
80, 107-109; repair of
roads, 122 ; revenue of, 16,
18 ; treatment of Sheriffs,
12, 13; ship-money, 109;
quartering of soldiery in
Bristol, 74, 113; Duke of
Somerset, 20 ; St. Mark's
Church, 98, 99 ; St. Mary's
Chapel, 21 ; Temple Fee,
106 ; tolls of city, 15 ;
Alderman Whitson, 107.
Corpus Christi, Feast of, 5.
Correction, House of, 87.
Cotham, Execution at, 10.
Cotton, Sir Robert, 72.
Council House, 16, 26, 29, 31, 44,
55. 114-
Crest, Bristol, 49-52.
Crickland, Thomas, 51.
Crime, Suppression of, 27.
Croft, Sir James, 88.
Cromwell, Thomas, 18, 19.
Crown, Clerk of the, 1 19.
Curfew, Proclamation as to, 10.
Currency, Restoration of, 38.
Custom House, Establishment
of, at Gloucester, 44-46.
Customs duties, Bristol, 53.
Customs officers, 6$.
Dale, William (Sheriff), 12, 13.
Dantzic, Corn imported from.
80 ; outrage on vessel of,
112 ; rye, bought by Whit-
son, 107.
Dean and Chapter of Cathedral,
60.
Dean, Forest of. 88.
Defender of the Faith (Henry
VIII.), 2.
De la Warre, Lord, 30, 31, 42.
Deputy-Lieutenant of the City,
Mayor appointed, 81.
Desmond, Earl of, 75.
Dinnye, John, 82.
Distress in Bristol, 62.
Doles to Bristol poor, 105.
Dolphin Street, 2.
Drake, Francis, 91, 99.
" Drinkings " of Corporate
officials, 10 ; of Abbot of St.
Augustine, 10.
Ducking stool, 39.
Dudley, Edmund, Viscount
Leslie, 18 ; John, Duke of
Northumberland, 18.
Dues, Abolition of, 15.
Dunkirk, 94.
Durham, 14.
Dutch, Animosity of, 93.
Edward I. and boy bishop, 9 ;
Edv/ard III., '51 ; Edward
VI., ic6.
Elizabeth, 21, 35, 37-40, 45, 47,
51, 52, 59, 65, 66, 67, 74, 88,
91-93, 114, 119; visit of , to
Bristol, 59-61 ; confers new
Charter, 76,77 ; revives ship-
money, 109.
Esquimaux in Bristol, 65.
Essex, Lord, 19; Earl of, 114,
IIS-
Estates, Local, value of, 4.
Estreats, Clerk of the, 119.
Evenet, Edward, 69, 70.
Exchequer, Clerk of the, 119.
Executions, Public, 9, 64.
Expenditure of Corporation, 11,
74-
Fair, St. James's, Income from,
13 ; extent of business, T13.
Famine in Bristol, 79, 80, 107,
113-
INDEX.
127
Farthings, Bristol, 67-72.
" Great House," 61, 66, 119-121.
Feast of Corpus Christi, 5 ; St.
Great Red Book (quoted), 31,
Nicholas, 9.
120.
Fee -farm of Bristol, paid by
Great Unicorn (ship), 92.
Sheriff, 12.
Grey . Edward, Viscount Lisle, 18 ;
Feudal clairas by Lord de la
John, 18; Elizabeth, 18.
Warre, 30, 31 ; by Lord
Grey Friars, 2, 15.
Stafford, 85, 86.
Guard house passage, 58.
Fish traffic, 99.
Guildhall, 26, 64 ; armaments
Fishing in the Froom, 8.
stored in, 38 ; renovated,
Fishing rights of Mayor, 103.
47 ; chapel of St. George in.
Fitzroy, Robert, Earl of Glouces-
20.
ter, 16.
Guilds, Procession of, 6.
Fleet prison, 90.
Gwylliams, Abbot of St. Augus-
Fletcher, Richard, Bishop of
tine's, 19.
Bristol, 84, 98.
Flour Market, 58.
Hallewey's chantry, 5.
Flushing, 94.
Halton, Robert, 51.
"Foreigners," Ordinances
Hamp, Manor of, 15.
against, "jj, iii, 114, 117.
Handmaid (ship), 92.
Forest of Dean, 88.
Hannam (Recorder), (^"j, 68.
*' Forlorn Hope " Estate, 105,
Harrington, Lord, 72.
106.
Harris, David, 51.
Foster's Almshouses, 33.
Hart, Thomas, 28.
French, Evrard le. Chantry of, 4.
Hatton, Lord Keeper, 95.
Friars, Orders of, 2, 15 ; doles
Haviland, Mr., 114.
to, 12.
Henry Vn., 28. 41; Henry VHL,
Friaries, Spoliation of, 3, 14, 15,
1,2,8, 17, 30. 32, 33-43.1 19-
16, 19, 119.
Heralds' College, 49.
Friary buildings, converted into
Herbert, Sir William, 34.
quarries, 16, 66.
Hertford, Earl of, 20.
Frobisher, Martin, 65.
High cross, 60, 61, 66, 84 ;
Frog Lane, 25.
desecrated, 114; proclama-
Froom (river), 2, 39, 64, 96.
tion at, 15; lantern at, 26.
Froom Gate, 43, 60; lantern at,
High Street, 74.
26.
Hipsley, John, 51.
Fry & Sons, J. S., 66.
Holland, State of, 94.
Fuel in Bristol, 96
Hopkins, John, no.
Hops, Use of, in Bristol, 27, 28.
Gallwey, Christopher, 70.
Howard, Lord, 92.
Gaol delivery, 61 ; profits of, 13.
Hungroad, 73, 80, 107.
Gatcombe, 46.
Hunsdon Lord, 115.
Gaunt's Hospital, 2, 15, 19, 83,
Hutton, David, 31, 32.
84 ; monks of, 98 ; tombs
of, 99.
Ireland, Shortage of corn in, 46.
Gibbet on Canon's Marsh, 64.
Irish Rebellion, Embarkation of
Gilton, killed in smuggling ex-
troops for, 73, 113, 116, 117.
ploit, 88, 89.
Glamorgan, Transport of grain
James I., 72.
from, 113.
James, Thomas, 89, 90, loi.
Gloucester, Earl of, 16, 59 ; pop-
Jews, Bristol, 29.
ulation of, 25 ; seizure of
Jones, John, 57; Roger, 51.
corn by, 36 ; Custom House
Jonson, Ben, 95.
at, 44-46 ; measures, 48 ;
Julius Csesar, Dr., 102.
bishopric of, 62, 98 ; ship-
Justice, Lord Chief, 35.
money contribution, 109 ;
Goderich, John, 42, 43.
" Killingworth," 52.
Grammar school, 33, 41-44, 61.
Kingroad, 48, 88, 89.
128
INDEX.
Kingswood forest, 55.
Kitchin, Alderman Robert, 53,
81, 108, 1 17.
Knapp's chantry, 4, 20.
Knight, John, 120.
Knight of Rodys (Rhodes) visit
to Bristol. 17.
Knights of St. John of Jeru-
salem, 106.
Lacie, John, 56.
Lafford's (Lawford's) Gate, 8, 60.
Lane, Richard, 121.
Langley, Philip, 45, 57, 102.
La we, William, 51.
Lawrence Hill, 7.
Lawrence Tide, Competition at, 7.
Lawsuit of Corporation, 48.
Leicester, Earl of, Lord High
Steward, 52 ; visit to Bristol,
53 ; petition presented by,
63 ; cool procedure of, 87,
88 ; death of, 95.
Lent, Restrictions concernmg
eating of meat in, 40.
Lewin's Mead, Trees in, 96.
Lighting of streets, 25.
Limekiln Road, 25.
Lion (ship), J'^.
Lisbon, 112.
Lisle, Viscount, Estates of, 18 ;
players of, 8.
Littlecote, 78.
" Little Ease " den in Newgate,
40.
Loans raised by Corporation, 122.
London, 16, 41, 44, 47, 49. S7. 88,
92, 109, no; goldsmiths,
58.
Long Ashton, 120.
Lord Chancellor, 21, 34, 44, 61.
86.
Lord Chief Justice, 35.
Lord High Steward, Office of,
20, Si ; appointments to, 20,
37. 52. 95. "4. US-
Lords, House of, 57.
Lord Privy Seal, 19, 21.
Love, John, loi.
Ludlow, Deputation sent to, 34.
Luther attacked by Hen.VUI., 2.
Marches, Welsh, 34, 35.
Markets, Bristol, 58, 117, 118.
Marsh, (Queen Square), 6 ;
wrestling and archery in,
7 ; shooting butts in, 47 ;
pavilion erected in, 81.
Marsh Gate, 39.
Martyrdom in Bristol, 36.
Mary (Queen), 36 ; Queen of
Scots, 47, 84, 87.
Mary-le-port Ward, Assessment
of, 60.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew,
100.
Master of mendicants, 26.
Mayor, 9, 25, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41,
49, 51, 54, 60-62. 68-70, 79,
81, 83, 85, 89. 90, 96, lOI,
103, 107, 109, 112, 116, 121 ;
attendance at chantries, 5 ;
wages of, 5 ; entertained in
Weavers' Hall, 7 ; fishing
rights of, 8, 103 ; Christmas
drinking of, 10 ; " pension "
of, 12, 13 ; letter from Privy
Council, 68 ; appointed
Deputy-Lieutenant of the
City, 81 ; claimed as
" villein appurtenant " by
Lord Stafford, 85 ; governor
of orphans, 97 ; rebuked by
Privy Council, 112; refusal
of office of, 86, 102 ; chapel,
16 ; court, 27.
Mayor's Kalendar (quoted), 7.
9, 48, 108.
Meal market, 58.
Meat market, 117, 118.
Mediterranean trade, 58.
Members of Parliament, 16, 41,
43, 45, 78, 82, 89, 102 :
Wages of, 12, 46.
Mendicants, 26.
Merchant seamen's almshouses
founded, 106, 107.
Merchant Venturers' chapel
suppressed, 20.
Merchant Venturers' Society, 20,
56, 57. 106, 107.
Midsummer eve, " Setting of the
Watch," 6, 26, 27.
Military enthusiasm in Bristol,
80.
Minion (ship), 92, 112.
Mint, Bristol, 4, 22.
Miracle plays. Performance of, 6.
Monastic estates. Revenue of,
16.
Monmouth, Transport of grain
from, 113.
Monopoly of Merchant Venturers,
56, 57 ; Bristol merchants,
88.
"Myngo" (play), 64.
INDEX.
129
Newcastle, Boy Bishop at, 9 ;
contributions to Armada, 9 1 ,
92; thorough toll, 13;
measures, 48.
Newfoundland, Discovery of 41 ;
voyages to, 107.
Newgate, 10, 40, 59, 60, 61.
" New Market," 117.
Nichols's Progresses, 61.
Norfolk, Duke of, in Bristol, 47.
North- West Passage, Attempt to
find, 65.
Nunnery of St. Mary Magdalene,
2.
Obits, 3. 4. 5. S'^.
Ordinances of Corporation, 10,
25, 28, 32, jy, lit, 114, 117.
Ore, brought home bv Frobisher,
65.
Orphans, Treatment of 96 ;
court, 108.
Owen, George, 33.
Oxford, Earl of. Players of, 36.
Pageants, Religious and secular,5.
Panic in Bristol, 87.
Paris, Octroi at, 5.
Parishes, Contribution of, to
Corporation, 15.
Park Row, 1 19.
Parliament, Clerk of the, 95.
Parliament, Members of, 41, 43,
45, 46, 78, 82, 89, 102 ;
wages of, 12, 46.
Parliamentary contest, 56.
Partridge, Royal commissioner,4.
Paving of streets, 75.
Pembroke, Earl of, 37, 52, 80,
81, 118.
Penny, Silver, paid to working
classes, 5 ; value of Eliza-
beth's, 67.
Pepwell, William, 51.
Peterborough, Dean of, 84.
Philip II. of Spain, 74, 80, 93,
no.
Pill, 63.
Pillory, 40.
Pinchin, Thomas, 98.
Piratical exploits, 63, 81, 100,
loi, 112.
Plague, Ravages of, 2, 62.
Playactors, Companies of, 7, 8,
36. 64, 65, 93-
Plotneys (in Kingroad), 48.
Police arrangements, 25, 27.
Popham, John, 78, 90, in.
Population of Bristol in sixteenth
century, 24, 25.
Porpoise caught near Temple
Back, 103.
Portbury, Manor of, 48.
Portishead, Admiralty Court at,
49-
Portishead Point, 48.
Postal arrangements, 76.
" Preachers " maintained by
Corporation, 104.
Prior of St. John, 17.
Privy Council, 40, 45, 67, 68, 70,
90, 92, 94, 96, 97, 100, lOI,
103, 104, 108, 109, III, 116;
minutes of, 84, 85, 106, 112,
113 ; clerk of, 1 19.
Procession of trade companies, 6.
Protestants, Burning of, 36.
Public holidays. Number of, 3,
Public scavengers, 26.
Puritanism, 40, 65, 103.
Pykes, John, 35 ; Mrs. Ann, 44.
Quarries, Friary buildings con-
verted into, 16.
Quay Street, 29.
Quays, Repair of, 66.
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, 82,
84, 86, 96, 99.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 100.
Rate levied by Corporation, 45,
no.
Recorder (of Bristol), 12, 13, 45,
51, 52, 56, 60, 61, 67. 68, 76,
77 ; (of London) 45.
Red Book, Great, 120.
Redclifif, 16, 17 ; Church, 92 ;
Church stvle, 76 ; Gate, 2 ;
Hill, 76'; Parade, 80;
Ward, 60.
Rede, William, 59.
"Redemptioner" Ordinances, in.
Red Lodge, 15, 120.
Relief measures of Corporation,
80, 107-109.
Religious Houses, 2.
Revenue of Corporation, 16, 18.
Richmond, Duke of. Players of, 8.
Robert, Earl of, 59.
Rodys, Knight of, 17.
Rowland, Mr., 119, 120.
Rye, Bought by Corporation, 107
Sadleir. Sir Ralph, 119.
St. Anne in the Wood, Chapel
of, 5.
130
INDEX.
St. Augustine's Abbey, 2 ; Back,
1^1 2, 61.
St, Augustine the Less, 25.
St. Bartholomew's Day, Massacre
of, 100.
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 2,
42, 43-
St. Catherine's Eve, 6 ; Chapel,
20.
St. Clement's Chapel, 20, 106.
St. Ewen's Ward, 60.
St. George's Chapel, 12, 20, 47.
St. James, Pari.sh of, 105.
St. James's Fair, 13.
St. James's Priory, 2, 59.
St. John, Chapel of, 4, 20.
St. John's Church, 66 ; Hospital,
2, 31-33-
St. John of Jerusalem, Knight of,
16.
St. John, Priory of, 17.
St. Katherine's players, 7.
St. Lawrence Church, 66.
St. Lawrence Hospital, 60.
St. Leonard's, Spoliation of, 22.
St. Mark's Church, 98.
St. Mary-le-port, Parish of, 91.
St. Mary's Chapel, 21, 22.
St. Mary Magdalene, Nunnery
of, 2, 15.
St. Mary Redcliflf Church, 47.
St. Michael's Hill, 10, 15.
St. Nicholas' Church, 9, 22, 104,
105 ; clock, 12.
St. Nicholas, Feast of, 9.
St. Peter's Day, 6, 27.
St. Thomas's Street, 53.
Salaries of Corporate officials, 12.
Salisbury, Earl of, 95.
Sanitary arrangements of the
city, 25, 26.
Savage (foot post), 76.
" Savages " (Esquimaux) in
Bristol, 65.
Saxie, Mr., 57.
Sayer, Robert, 51.
Scavenger, Public, 26.
Scots, Mary Queen of, 47, 84, 87.
Sergeants, Civic, Attendance at
chantries, 5.
Setting of the watch, 6.
Severn (river), 45, 108.
Seymour, Edward (Duke of
Somerset), 20.
Sharington, Sir W., 4, 23.
Sheriffs, 9, 51, 89, 90; atten-
dance at chantries, 5 ; drink-
ing of, 10 ; financial duties
of, 11-13 ; and abolition of
dues, 15 ; court of , 27.
Ship-monej', 92, 109, 110, 116.
Ships sent against Armada, 92,
93-
Shirehampton, 107.
Shooting in Marsh, 38, 47.
Shrewsbury, 45, 109.
Silk, Thomas, 28.
Silver penny, paid to working
classes, 5.
Skin trade. Monopoly of, 88.
Small Street, 53, 114.
Smuggling, 88, 89.
Smyth family, 85.
Smyth, Sir Hugh, 120.
Smythes, Mr., 69.
Snyg, Mr., 57.
Soap-making, 82.
Soldiery quartered in Bristol,
73, 74, 113, 116, 117.
Solicitor-General, 35.
Somerset Assizes, 48.
Somerset, Duke of, 20, 34.
Somerset, Ship-money contribu-
tion, 109, no.
Southampton, Admiralty privi-
leges of, 112.
South Wales, 88.
Spain, 42.
Spanish Armada, 91, 92 ; In-
quisition, 99 ; trade with
Bristol, 109.
Speaker of House of Commons a
Bristolian, 78.
Spelman, 119.
Spencer's Obit, 4, 36.
Sports, Out-door, 6, 7.
Stafford, Lord, Feudal claims of,
85, 86,
Standbanck, Anthony, 84.
Star Chamber, Court of, 36.
Start Point, 6^.
" Statutes at large," 57.
Steep Street, 39.
Steward, Lord High, Office of,
20, 81 ; appointments, 20,
37, 52. 95. "4. "S-
Stewart dynasty, 57.
Stocks, 39.
Stone, John, 51.
Stony Hill, 120.
Strangeways, Nicholas, 120.
Streets, Care of, 6.
Street paving, 75.
" Street pitchers " appointed, 75.
Style, Redclifi Church, 76,
Suffolk, Duke of, 8.
INDEX.
131
Sword bearer. Attendance at
Unyt, Giles, 49.
chantries, 5.
Uphill, 100.
Tailors' Chapel, 25.
Walker, of Brandon Hill, 58.
Talbot, John (Viscount Lisle)
Wall, Thomas, 71.
18 ; Thomas (Viscount Lisle)
Walsh, Sergeant, 45.
18 ; Joan, 18 ; Elizabeth,
Walsingham. Secretary, 76, jy.
18.
Warwick, Earl of, 53.
Tallow, Price of, 118.
Watch-night festivals, 38.
Taunton measures, 48.
Water supply, Impurity of, 62.
Taylor, Robert, 57.
Weavers' guild, 5,7; hall, 7 ;
Templars, Order of, 16.
chapel, 20.
Temple Back, Capture of por-
Webb, Thomas, 112 ; John, 113.
poise at, 103.
Wellington, 61.
Temple Church, Advowson of.
Welsh Back, Chapel of St. John
17 ; tower of, 47.
on, 4.
Temple Combe, Preceptors of.
Welsh Marches, Lord President
16, 17.
of, 33. 34-
Temple Fee, 3, 16, 17, 106 ;
Westminster, 46.
Gate, 2 ; Street, 2, 17.
Westmorland, Lord, 8.
Tewkesbury ship money contri-
White, Thomas, 28.
bution, 109 ; Abbey, 59.
Whitson, Edward, 88 ; Christo-
Thatch roofing, 28.
pher, 90 ; John, 107, 108.
Thornbury Castle, 32.
Whitsuntide pageants, 5.
Thorne, Nicholas and Robert,
Wick St. Lawrence, Manor of.
41-44, 120.
82.
Thorough toll, Newcastle, 13.
" Will Dayrell." 78.
Thunderbolt Street, 39.
Willimot, Richard. 5 1 .
Tilbury, Army at, 93.
Wilson, Dr., 76.
Tintern, 89.
Wilton, 118.
Tolls and dues. Abolition of, 13,
Wine Street, 58.
IS-
Wolsey, Cardinal, 12, 13, 18.
Tolzey, 8, 29, 47, 75, 96, 99.
Woodspring Priory, 83.
Tombstones used for repairing
Wool market licence, 53.
quays, 66.
Worcester, William of, 5 .
Tower Hill, 114 ; Lane, 39.
Worcester, 45, 109 ; bishopric
Town attorney, 12 ; clerk, 5, 9,
of, 98 ; Earl of, 47.
12, ^3, 59', 86 ; steward, 12.
Working classes, attendance at
Town gates. Salaries of porters of,
chantries, 5.
12.
Wreck at Portishead, 48 ; in
Trade of Bristol, 88, 99, 100,
Avon, 73.
109, no.
Wrestling in the Marsh, 7.
Trade companies. Processions
of, 6.
Yate, William, 58, 116.
Trained bands, 37, 49, 80, 81,
" Yeoman of the bottles," 61.
92, 118, 122.
Yonge, William, 51.
Transport to Ireland, Cost of.
Young, John (Sir), 61, 66, 119,
113-
120 ; William, 87 ; Robert,
Travelling, Cost of, 33, 118.
120.
Treasurer, City, 6, 1 1 ; Lord, 34,
York, 14.
145.
Trinity Ward, 60.
Zenlander cargo ship seized by
Turnstiles, 39.
Colston, 94.
J. W. Arrowsmith, Printer, Quay Street, Bristol.
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