222 Extracts from the Becords of the 



greate losse by fyer And because (af? I am informed) no ordei- hath as yet beene 

 taken for his reliefe I have thaughte good herebie once againc to wish you that 

 in this y'' meeting in these Sessions you would have such a charitable consideration 

 of this man's losse and his distressed estate therebie that he may now receave 

 some conveniente relieffe from yow not doughting but that in y'' discretions you 

 will doe that herein which shalbe both fitt and requisite And whereas there are 

 divers cjllectors of money for the Marshalsea and other charitable uses In my 

 opinion yt were verrie fit that these Collectors should be called to geave up a 

 true and juste accounte of those somes which they have receaved wherebie the 

 money may be broug'it into one hande and then disposed of as the lawe in this 

 case requirith And even so I bid yow hartelie farewell from Littlecote the 

 first of October 1606 



" Yo' loving Frend 



"J POPHAM." 



Then, in more forcible phrases, and in his own handwriting, he 

 adds a postscript (here reproduced in facsimile) : — 



" Though some thyng hath been geven hym yet ys nothing for effect to do 

 hym any relyeff — and yt were better that such were holpen by means of the 

 lawe than that the collectors should dyspose of yt to wanderyng Ilogges that no 

 man can cotroll their * in jt." 



Whether the letter or the postscript had more weight with the 

 court cannot to determined; but they promptly voted the petitioner 

 a grant of twenty marks. 



It was this same misfortune — loss by fire — which moved the 

 heart of His Majesty to urge the quarter sessions to enlarge their 

 generosity towards an inhabitant of Milton : — 



" Whereas the bearer hereof John Marshall of Milton of latte hath taken 

 greet losse by fyre to his gret hinderance by menes whereof he became an humble 

 sewter to his maiesty at his f last beinge in the contrey, who, understandinge 



- • " Usage," or '' using " or " acting" or what else ? The transcriber has struggled courageously, 

 but in vain, with this word in the original. The courteous reader is invited to interpret lor himself. 



+ Probably on the occasion of the King's second visit to Salisbury, which Hatcher mintions 

 as occurring in August, 1606, on his majesty's way to the spoits of the New Forest. Touching 

 royal visits to Wiltshire— rare events which may have been cited as settling a date more in- 

 telligibly than a quotation of any given year of the century — the testimony of John Christopher 

 (to what intent taken— Trinity , 1606 — does noc plainly appear) is to the effect " that he was 



borne at Marston neare Longlete and he served Sr John Thynne eight yeares and 



then went to London where he tooke a howse in Smithfield and kept a Barber Surgion shopp 

 uotill Michaelmas last and sithence for the moste pte he continued at Mr. Horner's where my 

 lady Thynne lyeth at sojorne .... therchence to Trowbridge where he ... . hosted 

 at Robert Robbett's howse .... and saith he is a painter also .... and his travell 

 , , , . was to procure worke according to his profession 



" He saith that he was not .... at Bathe this tenne yeares nor at Marlborough rinc» 

 the King was at Tottenham." 



But when was a Kuig last at Tottenham 1 This versatile genius seems to speak of the event 

 as more remote than the visit to Bath which had not happened " this tenne yeares." His varied 

 experiences tell of a man well stricken in years. Can it be possible that he is talking of King Henry's 

 Tieit to Wolfhall in 1543, supra, vol. zr., 149. 



