By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



289 



Chaffy n shewed forthe an acquyttaunce delyvered unto hym by the said Agnes 

 Rise as he alleged for the discharge of the same foure score poundes, whiche 

 seemed to be only doone by covyn betwene the said defendaunte and the said 

 Agnes Rise.*** It is therefore this present 18th Nov. 1 Mary, by the right reverend 

 father in God Stephen Bisshopp of Winchester Lord Chauncellour of England 

 and by the said Court of Chauncery, ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the 

 said Thomas Chaffyn defendaunte, his executours, admynistratours, or assignes 

 on this side the feast of Seynt John Baptyst next comyng, shall paye or cause 

 to be paied unto the said Charles Lord Stourton complaynaunte, his executours, 

 or assignes, the sume of fourescore poundes of lawfull money of England together 



with the sum of . for the costes and charges susteyned by the said Charles 



Lord Stourton in suying for the same in this courte. * * * The Lord Stourton to 

 give T. Chaffyn a sufficient acquyttaunce or discharge for the same. 



Agnes Ryce does not appear again in this history, but in the 

 above facts there is enough to show that she must have been a 

 source of no small disquietude to Charles Lord Stourton. In order 

 to tell without interruption all that we know of their dispute, we 

 have been obliged to anticipate events, and must now return to the 

 end of the year 1548 when his father died. 



Various Quarrels. 

 Hartgill's stewardship had begun to give dissatisfaction 

 before William Lord Stourton's death, but that he had not been 

 dismissed down to July 1548 appears from a letter at Longleat 

 written on the 21st of that month by a Mr. Shelden to Sir John 

 Thynne, in which the writer mentions some information he had 

 received " from a man sent by Mr. Hartgill for the despatch of 

 my Lord Stourton's business." But he probably did not remain 

 m office long after Charles's succession, for we find them at variance 

 before the end of that year, in the case of 



The Kilmington Chaplain and his Wife Accused of Poisoning. 



All that is known about this is derived from two letters, the 

 first of which was written by Mr. John Gamege Under Sheriff to 

 Sir John Thynne of Longleat who was High Sheriff for the county 

 of Somerset in 1548, and what he really intended to communicate 

 to his Superior it has not been very easy to discover, for the 

 original composition of Mr. Under Sheriff Gamege is written in a 

 most illegible hand, in a style not by any means transparent, and 

 with an entire and sovereign contempt for those humble but useful 

 auxiliaries to meaning, commas and full stops. 



dd 2 



