Aug. 30. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



147 



honour to the memories of two of our Illustrious 

 Dead, and that a few months will witness both a 

 Caxton Memorial in the shape of a collective edition of 

 his original writings, and the Restoration of the Monu- 

 ment of the Father of English Poetry, 



HattS, 



COIiLAK OF SS, 



(Vol. ii., pp. 89. 475.) 



No less tliaii nine long montlis have elapsed 

 since you adopted my suggestion of limiting your 

 columns, on the disputed question relative to the 

 collar of SS., to a record of the names of tiiose 

 persons who, either on their monumental effigies 

 or brasses, or in their portraits or otherwise, are 

 represented as wearing that ornament ; together 

 with a short statement of the position hehl by 

 each of these individuals in the court of the then 

 reigning monarch, seeming to warrant the as- 

 sumption. How is it that the invitation Las not 

 produced more than a single response? Is it that 

 the combatants are more fond of discussing the 

 prob.ibilities of a disputed point, than of seeking 

 for facts to aid in its illustration? I hope that 

 this is not so, in an age that pi-ides itself in its an- 

 tiquarian and historical investigations ; and I trust 

 that, now the dismissal of the parliament has re- 

 lieved many from onerous duties, your pages may 

 benefit, not only on this but on other important 

 subjects, by the vacational leisure of your learned 

 contributors. 



That I may not myself be chargeable with a 

 continuance of the silence of which I complain, I 

 now offer to you no less than eleven of tlie earliest 

 names, principally taken from Boutell's Monu- 

 mental Sfasses. but some suirgested in your own 

 pages, on whose monuments or otherwise the 

 collar occurs. To most of these I have added a 

 few particulars seeming to warrant the assumption ; 

 and I doubt not that some of your correspondents 

 will supply you witii similar hints as to those of 

 whom I have as yet been unable to trace anything 

 applicable to the subject of enquiry. 



1. The first of these is in 1382, seventeen years 

 before the accession of Henry IV. It appears on 

 the brass of Sir Thomas Burton, in Little Cas- 

 treton Church, in Rutlandshire. This knight, we 

 find, received letters of protection on accompany- 

 ing the Duke of Lancaster to France in 1369, 

 when Edward III. revived his claim to that 

 kingdom.* Being thus one of the retainers of the 

 duke, the assumjuion of his collar of livery may 

 be at once accounted for. 



2. 'I'he next that we have is on the monument 

 of John Gower in the church of St. Saviour, 



♦ N. FoDdera, iii. 870. 



Southwark. The poet died in 1402, 4 Henry IV. 

 It is more than doubtful whether he was a knight, 

 and the only ground that I can suggest for his 

 being represented with the collar of SS. is, that 

 he was in some manner, perhaps as the court poet, 

 attached to the household of the king. Of his 

 transferred devotion to Henry IV. we have suffi- 

 cient evidence in the revision of his Confessio 

 Arnantis, from which he excluded all that he had 

 previously said in praise of his patron Richard II. 



3. Sir Thomas Massingberd died in 1406, and 

 on his monument in Gunby Church in Lincoln- 

 shii-e, both he and his lady are represented with 

 collars of SS. "Why, I have still to seek. 



4. In 1407 there is a similar instance of a knight 

 and his lady benig so ornamented. These are Sir 

 William and Lady Bagot, whose monument is in 

 Baginton Church, Warwickshire. Bout ell says 

 that he was the first who received this decoration 

 from the king. Be this as it may, the Patent 

 Rolls contain sufficient to account for his and his 

 wife's assuming King Henry's livery from gra- 

 titude for the restoration of his lands, which he had 

 forfeited as an adherent to Richard II.* 



5. Then follows Sir John Drayton, whose mo- 

 nument, dated in 1411, is in Dorchester Church, 

 O.xlbrdshire. It may be presumed that he was in 

 the king's household ; as in the beginning of the 

 reign of Richard II. he was keeper of the royal 

 swans ; and early in that of Henry IV., was Ser- 

 jeant of the king's pavilions and tents. Thomas 

 Drayton, who was made Assayer of the Mint in 

 the year of Sir John's death"}", was probably his 

 son. 



6. In the following year, 1412, we have the 

 collar of SS. represented on the brass of Sir 

 Thomas Swynborne in Little Horkeley Church, 

 Essex. Two or three years befi.re, and perhaps 

 at the time of his death, the knight held the offices 

 of ilayor of Bordeaux, and of the king's lieute- 

 nant in those parts. 



The last five of these are in the reign of 

 Henry IV. In the reign of Henry V., I am not 

 aware of any examples ; but in that of Henry VL, 

 we find five other instances. 



7. In Trottcn Church, Sussex, is the monument 

 of Thomas Lord Camoys, who died in 1424, and 

 of l.'is wife ; both of whom are distinguished by 

 the collar. He was a Knight of the Garter, and 

 commanded the left wing of the English army at 

 tlie battle of Agincourt. 



8. A numumcnt, supposed to be that of Sir 

 John Segrave, dated in 1425, occurs in Dor- 

 chester Church, Oxfordshire : of whom I can state 

 nothing. 



9. On the brass of John Leventhorpe, Esq., in 

 the church of Sawbridgeworth, in Hertfordshire, 



* Cal. Hot. Pat. 236. 243. 



f Cal. Hot. Pat. 196, 259.; Devon's Issue Roll, 286. 



