94 THE RHYMED CHRONICLE OF JOHN HARESTAFFE 



How all things should be order'd and dispos'd 

 (For he would not his mynd should be disclos'd 

 Till his decease :) And sonne agreed they are, 

 That under's hand and seale he should declare 

 His mynd and purpose, what he would have done 

 After his death by trustie Atkinson. 



But well perceavinge that it would fall out, 

 They could not doe y e thinges they were about 

 Without assistance of some Clarke therein, 

 For Atkinson himself did then begin 

 To be more sicklie : Him therefore they take, 

 Whose pen thus rudelye this Record did make, 

 Him they make privie to their enterpryse, 

 Appoyntinge him to write what they devyse : 

 Who faythfullye their doings did conceale, 

 And wrought therein to manie men's avayle. 



Here seemes it not unfittinge to relate, 



How some yeares past an absolute estate 



Of Aston Mannor* and some speciall groundes 



Of yearlie rent above three hundred pounds 



Ry Atkinson (\v ch Vernon so procur'd) 



Unto Sebastian Harvey were assured : 



Who with condition then passed ore the same 



To Bankes & Broughton (Vernon did theim name, 



As frendes in trust for him) To wit, yf they 



Should thirtene hundred pounds to Harvey pay. 



Vernon had paid two hundred of y' Sume 



And for y e rest the day was yet to come. 



Besydes one Robert Jackson then did stand 



By mortgage seized of some other lande 



In Mackley, Marston, Waldley, Somershalht 



* A moiety of the manor of Aston, near Stone, was in the Swynnerton 

 family as early as Edward I., and hence came to John Vernon. 



t The lands of the four townships mentioned in this line, as well as Rodsley 

 mentioned immediately below, were part of the inheritance of the coheiress of 

 Montgomery, who brought Sudbury to Sir John Vernon. 



