After writyng of the premyssis, the Bisshopp was desyrous to speke eftsones with the fryer, to th'entente he myght have cawsed hym to have torned his opinions, not for savegarde or prolongyng of his lyf, but for the welthe of his Soule; and I sir Roger Townsend, beyng presente, sawe the bisshopp handle hymself very honestlye and clerkely, but notwithstondyng that dyvers tymes the said fryer was like to have altred his folishe opinions, yet fynallye he persisted in his errors. My Lord, we hartly requyre you that yf it shall not be thought to the Kyngs Majestie that any Sermon shuld be made before th'execution, to advertyse the Shryf therof afore the tyme before wryten Yors assewredly T. NORFOLK At your Lordshypps comande'. ROGER TOUNESHEND. LETTER CXXXII. The Inhabitants of the Lordship of Holm Cultram in Cumberland, to Lord Cromwell, entreating for the preservation of the Abbey Church there. A. D. 1538. [MS. COTTON. CLEOP. E. IV. fol. 243 b. Orig.] The Cistercian Abbey of Holm Cultram was surrendered to the King March 5th, 1538. The Inhabitants of the lordship, it appears, were anxious for the preservation of the Abbey Church for a double reason: first that they might still have it for their parish church; and secondly because it was the only building in their neighbourhood to which they could fly, or where they could defend themselves, in time of invasion from the Scotsa. Too the right honorable, ande our singler good Lorde mye Lord Prevye Seale. MOOSTE humbly besechith your honorable Lordship, your poore Orators ande Beedemen, beynge eightene hundred houselynge people in the nombre, th’Inhabitants of Holme Coltrane within the west border of the North parties of this Realme of England, that it might please your Lordship to be a meane for us to our Soveraign Lorde the Kynge is Highenes for the preservacion and standynge of the Churche of Holme Coltrane before saide; whiche is not onelye unto us our parish Churche, and little ynoughe to receyve all us your poore Orators, but also a grete ayde, socor, a The Messrs. Lysons, in their Magna Britannia, inform us that in the County of Cumberland, on the borders of Scotland, are some remarkable ecclesiastical edifices. The towers of two of these, Newton Arlosh church near the western coast, and Burgh on the Sands near the Solway Frith, appear to have been very strong, and capable of affording protection to the inhabitants of the villages for some time, upon any sudden invasion from the opposite coast across the Frith. The cattle were probably secured in the bodies of the churches. The description of Newton Arlosh church, built soon after 1303, shews it to have been a place of considerable strength. The tower of Burgh on the Sands is still more strongly fortified; the walls on three sides being from six to seven feet thick. It has a vaulted chamber on the ground floor, ten feet by eight; the entrance to which is secured by a ponderous iron door, six feet eight inches in height: a stone staircase leading to an upper chamber. The tower of Great Salkeld church is also strongly fortified; and has likewise a vaulted chamber on the ground floor, at the entrance to which from the nave, is a massive grated iron door lined with oak. The church of Annan in Scotland, on the opposite side of the Solway Frith appears to have been as strongly fortified. and defence for us ayenst our neighbors the Scotts, withe out the whiche few or none of your Lordshipps supplyants are able to do the King is saide Hieghnes our bounden duetye ande service. Ande wee shall not onelye praye for his graciouse noble estate, but also for your Lordshipps prosperite with increase of honor longe to endure. Your humble and poore beedemen LETTER CXXXIII. John Clusey to Lord Cromwell, in favor of a Nun of Shaftesbury, the natural daughter of Cardinal Wolsey. [MS. DONAT. BRIT. MUS. 4160. p. 11.] The name of this daughter of Cardinal Wolsey has not been handed down to us. Roy, in his "Rede me and be not Wrothe" ascribes more natural children to him; and expressly names one Winter. "Hath he children by his whoares also? Which hath of the Churches goodes clerly His name is Master Winter, To whom my lorde his father Hathe gotten of the Frenche Kynges Grace, That when the bishop of Rone Out of this lyfe is dedde and gone, He shall succede hym in his place"." Of THOMAS WYNTER, the person here alluded to, who was Dean of Wells, archdeacon of York, and provost of Beverley, a particular account will be found in Wood's Fasti Oxonienses. He had various other preferments, but appears to have resigned the greater part upon the Cardinal's fall, in 1529. He kept the archdeaconry of York till 1540. Fiddes has a Sign. d. ij. b Wood, Ath. Ox. 1st edit. vol. i. p. 673. printed the Grant of a Coat of Arms to him by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter, in 1526, the component parts of which are evidently taken from Wolsey's". Reginald Pole, afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury, was sent at King Henry the Eighth's expence, to complete his studies at Padua, whither Wynter accompanied him as a fellow student and companion. Pole wrote to the King, and Wynter to Cromwell, to give an account of their arrival and first settlement there. The Letters, both in Latin, are preserved in the Cottonian Collection b. The thirty-eighth of the Articles exhibited in Parliament against Wolsey, speaks of two natural children which the Cardinal had had by the daughter of one Lark: "XXXVIII. Also, the said Lord Cardinal did call before him Sir John Stanley Knight, which had taken a farm by Convent-Seal of the abbat and Convent of Chester; and afterwards, by his power and might, contrary to right, committed the said Sir John Stanley to the prison of Fleet by the space of one year, unto such time as he compelled the said Sir John to release his Convent-Seal to one Leghe of Adlington, which married one Lark's daughter, which woman the said Lord Cardinal kept, and had with her TWO CHILDREN: whereupon the said Sir John Stanley, upon displeasure taken in his heart, made himself monk in Westminster and there died." RYGTHE honorable, after most humyll comendacyons, I lykewyce besuche you that the Contents of this my symple Letter may be secret; and that for asmyche as I have grete cause to goo home, I besuche your good Mastershipe to comand M Herytag to give attendans opon your Mastershipe for the knowlege off youre plesure in the seyd secrete mater, whiche ys this, My Lord Cardinall causyd me to put a yong gentyll homan to the Monystery and Nunry off Shayfftysbyry, and there to be provessyd, and wold hur to be namyd my doythter; and the troythe ys shew c a Fiddes, Life of Wolsey, Collect. p. 182. b MS. Cotton. Nero b. vi. foll. 118, 122. Other Letters of Wynter occur, Ibid. fol. 163. Nero b. vii. fol. 182. and Titus b. i. fol. 390. e she. was his dowythter; and now by your Visitacyon she haythe commawynment to departe, and knowythe not whethera Wherefore I humely besuche youre Mastershipe to dyrect your Letter to the Abbas there, that she may there contynu at hur full age to be professed. Withoute dowyte she ys other xxiiij. yere full, or shalbe at shuche tyme of the here as she was boren, which was a bowyte Myclelmas. In this your doyng your Mastershipe shall do a very charitable ded, and also bynd hur and me to do you such servyce as lyzthe in owre lytell powers; as knowythe owre Lord God whome I humely besuche prosperyusly and longe to preserve you. Your orator JOHN CLUSEY. To the right honorabull and his most especiall good Master, Master Cromwell Secretary to our good Lord the Kyng. LETTER CXXXIV. John Freeman to Lord Cromwell, upon the unnecessary and unlawful fees granted to various persons upon the Surrender of the Monasteries. [MS. COTTON. TITUS B. 1. fol. 394. Orig.] Yrmay ples your good lordshipe to understond, that in the makynge of this half yeres resaite in Lincoln |