RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Another volume at the Public Record Office 

 contains the accounts of John Gilbert, fellow and 

 sacrist of the college from Michaelmas, 1536, to 

 Michaelmas, 1548.' These accounts of the re- 

 ceipts and expenditure of the sacrist are of con- 

 siderable value, as showing the nature and amount 

 of the various offerings of the faithful, and from 

 them might be constructed a fairly accurate parish 

 register of Fotheringhay for those twelve years, 

 as the names of the contributors are given in 

 full. 



In 1 541 complaint was made by the clerks of 

 the college against the master, that he withdrew 

 their wages, that they were not chosen fellows, 

 and that they were not suffered to marry and 

 tarry in the college. A decree was issued on 

 30 June, which is entered in full at the end of 

 the volume of the statutes by the ' queens grace's 

 honourable councell,' and signed by Thomas 

 Denys, chancellor to the queen, as well as by 

 the queen's attorney, vice-chancellor, and clerk 

 of the council, entirely in the master's favour, 

 and exhorting the clerks to implicit obedience to 

 the master in accordance with the statutes. 

 Queen Catherine was lodged at Fotheringhay 

 Castle during June, 1541, and advantage seems 

 to have been taken of the presence of the queen's 

 court to secure a judgement after a somewhat 

 irregular fashion. Meetings of the privy council 

 were held at Fotheringhay in October of the 

 same year during the king's progress.^ 



A third volume at the Public Record Office 

 contains full accounts of the whole of the estates 

 of the college for the year 1544— 5.^ In this 

 large paper book the details of the management 

 of their farms, mills, etc., are set forth with much 

 nicety. The management and administration 

 seem to have been good. The salaries of the 

 master, precentor, and the eleven other fellows 

 amounted to ,^64 lis. od.; that of the nine 

 clerks, including extra pay for one who had the 

 custody of the clock, to ^^18 5/. od. ; that of the 

 choristers to ^() 31. id. ; and of the servants to 

 ^18. 



With the volume of sacrist's accounts are 

 bound up various inventories which show the 

 great wealth, particularly in vestments, of the 

 king's college of Fotheringhay.* 



An indented inventory of seven folios was 

 made on 31 March, 1546, between Edward 

 Gryfifyn, solicitor-general, and two fellow com- 

 missioners, John Marshe and Francis Southwell, 

 on the one part, and John Russell, master of the 

 college, on the other part, whereby all the 

 ornaments and chattels enumerated were left in 

 the charge of the master until the king's pleasure 

 should be further known. 



1 Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. No. 145. Full transcripts 

 of the more important parts of this book were given 

 by Rev. Dr. Cox in Arch. Journ. Ixi. No. 244, pp. 

 2 + 1-275. 



5 L. and P. Hen. VIII. xvi. 1269, 1 272. 



8 Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. 146. * Ibid. 145. 



This inventory included 'Jewels belonging to 

 the Church ' and ' Parcell of Plate belonging to 

 the College, to be used in the House ' (the total 

 of all the plate amounted to 1,450 ounces), fol- 

 lowed by an imposing list of vestments, chasu- 

 bles, altar cloths, etc. The quire books included 

 eleven antiphoners, nine of which had the psalter 

 and two lacked it, three legends, one of which 

 was divided into two volumes, and a mass book 

 for the high altar. Fuller details in a roughly 

 written inventory of the 'chauncell' mention 

 twelve ' grayles covered with lether,' and ' a boke 

 of Venite in parchment.' Also twenty-three 

 processionals, four psalters, a mass book of prick- 

 song for the Lady Mass, one fair antiphoner, and 

 an ordinal. Also ' ii faire pair of organs, thone 

 of iii stops very good and lyght, the other of iiii 

 stops lesser and wors, with ii desks and stairs for 

 the players at the same.' The rough inven- 

 tories of copes, vestments, etc., in the reign of 

 Edward VI. include ' a banner of whyte sarcenet 

 with tokens of ye passyon,' 'an old penon of 

 changeable sylke with the Armes of Ye Duke 

 of York,' 'a faire herolds cote of tharmes of Ing- 

 land of gold, the ground velvet,' 'xlii banners 

 and streamers of sylke of dyverse colors, and xli 

 painted with Armes and conysannces of gold, 

 and xl lytell stremers with stripes of dyverse 

 sortes.' The chancel inventory included 

 ' one table of ii yardes length and one ell of 

 depth annexed to the high Aulter the grounde 

 thereof of blewe velvet wherein is imbrodered 

 the Assencion of our Ladye with iii Angells of 

 ether syde of the seid Image. And in the same 

 table bee vi Images, so all the seid Assencion 

 Angells and Images bee sete with rayed perels.' 

 The commissioners were ordered to dispatch this 

 reredos to London. In the Lady Chapel was a 

 candle standard of five branches of laten and also 

 ' two paires of crutches tipped with silver,' which 

 might possibly be votive offerings from those 

 recovering from some form of lameness or acci- 

 dent to the legs.5 



A later inventory in 1548 specifies various 

 plate which had been omitted in the ' King's in- 

 ventory' of 1546, and enumerates 'diverse 

 parcells of silver and plate not found at Fother- 

 ingay on the dissolution of the seyd College 

 which by report of Thomas Gyles ought to have 

 bene there.' 



Among the rough notes of inventories it is 

 stated that there were ninety-three books in the 

 library, all chained to the desks ; and that all the 

 books of the church, with those in the master's 

 chamber, had been piled up in the lower vestry ; 

 that there were five chests and one double box 

 filled with the evidences of the house in the 

 master's chamber ; that in the cloister yard there 

 was a fair well covered with lead, a little cistern 



5 Mr. St. John Hope suggests that the silver-tipped 

 crutches may have been staves for the rulers of the 

 quire. 



175 



