164 Unpunished Bocuments relating to the 



mornyng as he was going to his ship, where when he had broken his fast going 

 throughe my garden as I remember or els the same after none after his coming 

 from his ship walking in my said garden till his Supper was redye, I told him I 

 was warned by Smythweke that I shuld not come at my Lady Elizabeths, and 

 theruppon I said unto him have yow any thing to do there, I take it that I am 

 warned not to meddle in any such matier, and no more I will whereunto thad- 

 mirall answered that he bad nothing to do ther, but (said he) why shuld not the 

 kings doughters be married within the realme, and this muche haue I said to 

 some of the Counsayll who were able to say litell unto yt/ 



16. At another tyme I asked him why he gaue him Self no better to servet 

 seing that every other man dyd so willingly ofEer to serve, hold thy peace man 

 (said thadmirall) it is good abiding at home, and to make mery w' our neighbo's 

 in the contry, I said I thought it wold not be well taken seing it is knowen yow 

 can serve, well said he speake no more of that matier, let it pas/ 



(Sd.) W. Shaeington. 



^Indorsed : — S' Willm Sharyngton. 

 Paper, 8 pp., 3 blank. The remaining five signed W. Sharington. 



The foregoing does not, perhaps, impress us with a high idea of 

 Sharington's moral fihre ; and beyond doubt his proceedings at the 

 Bristol Mint constituted a grave abuse of his position. Yet we 

 must remember that the age in which he lived was one of duplicity 

 and intrigue ; one who lived about the Court could hardly escape 

 being tainted with the prevailing infection; and- on the whole 

 Sharington does not appear to have been worse than most poli- 

 ticians of his time, or even the great Queen Elizabeth herself, of 

 whom Green says : — " It was an age of political lying, but in the 

 profusion and recklessness of her lies Elizabeth stood without a peer 

 in Christendom/^ 



Sharington's evidence produced the effect which no doubt he 

 expected. On February 1st, 1550, an Act was passed pardoning 

 him and restoring him in blood. And by letters patent of the day 

 following,* his estates were restored to him. 



At the time of his arrest, however, commissioners had been sent 

 to his various houses, to take charge of his personal effects. Lacock 

 was visited by John Berwick (or Barwik) and John Pert; his house 

 in Tower Hill by Sir Edmond Peckham and Richard Fulmerton. 

 It is not specified who was sent to Bristol. Apparently these pos- 



* Original at Lacock. 



