260 Longleat Papers, No. 4. 



been bought by him from Sir Ralph Sadler (See Archseologia, 

 xxxviii., 126).] 



1. A.D. 1549, April 29th, Greenwich. Sir Thomas Smith to 

 SiE John Thynne, about Sir William Sherington's Money. 



[Sir William Sherington, the purchaser of Lacock Abbey at the 

 Dissolution of Monasteries, got into great disgrace by frauds in 

 the coinage (see " Wiltshire Collections/' p. 91, 7iote 1). He was 

 sent to the Tower and attainted. He owed Sir John Thynne a 

 large sum of money, which had not been paid. Sir John had 

 applied to Sir Thomas Smith to use his influence with Protector 

 Somerset to obtain payment. The following letter is Sir Thomas^'s 

 answer. Thynne, however, did not succeed during the Protector's 

 life, nor for some time after, for among the Longleat Papers there 

 is a letter from Sir Henry Sherington, brother and heir to Sir 

 William, written 11th May, 1555, upon this subject, from which 

 it appears that there was £600 still unpaid, but Sir Henry was 

 preparing to pay it, together with interest, as soon as he and Sir 

 John Thynne could agree as to the items of an account between 

 them.] 



" Sir. I moved my Lord's grace in your mater for M'. Sheryngtons monye 

 His answer was that ye slmld not have it before th'end was taken for all other 

 also. He said ye shuld not lose it, nor ye shuld not be helped alone. I was so 

 bold as to replie and say that ye had wrong in forbering the use of it so long / 

 the which beyng such a som might be som profit / I had the warraunt redy and 

 presented it / but in no wyse I could get his grace to signe it / I will not leave it 

 so / M^ Honynge teUed me it was his graces jjleasure that my L. of South- 

 ampton and I shuld examyn M'. Sharyntons detts / hut I received yet no such 

 commaundment. Yf that be done I see no cause whie your monie shuld lenger 

 be staid 



For your mater with M^ Harman / 1 did not yet attempt. Nor I can not well 

 tell how to do it / How be it if you will / I shall take a tyme, but I had rather 

 furst have your money / Mr. Fulmerston telled me this daye that there was a 

 cabyn for me and my wief now redy at Sion * : for soe he tearmed it. I thanked 

 hym and said I thought no / because I had understod that the lodgynges there 

 were few & the howse pestred [i.e., encumbered] and that my ladie of Suffolk 

 was there. He said she was gone. I answered that my wife had tarried with 

 me now awhile at the court / and lerned weU to play the courtier and mich better 



• Sion House ; whicb had been granted to Protector Somerset. 



