By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



299 



The two letters following are from Mr. John Berwyke to Sir 

 John Thynne. Mr. Berwyke was Agent or Steward to the Pro- 

 tector for that part of his vast estates which lay about Savernake and 

 Bedwyn. He is believed to have been the Mr. Berwick (some- 

 times spelled Barwick) who owned the Wilcote estate near Pewsey, 

 father of the heiress Anne Berwick by whom it passed to the 

 Wroughtons. He died 1574 and his monument is on the north 

 side of the chancel in Wilcote church. The letters are dated from 

 Easton Priory (now destroyed) near Pewsey, which had been 

 granted to the Protector at the Dissolution and was for many years 

 the residence of his son Edward, Earl, and great-grandson William, 

 Marquis of Hertford. 



(No. 33.) 1549, July 12. John Berwyke to Sir John Thynne, {Original at 

 Longhat.) 



"After my moste hartyest comendacons to you and to my good ladye your 

 bedfeloughe, desyring you to be Good Master to your olde frend and myne Mr. 

 Hartgyll. I pereeyve my Lord Sturton hathe complaynyd of hym to my Lord's 

 Grace: And he" (i.e. Hartgill) " bathe answered the same truly as he will 

 abyde by, as he saythe he hathe many thyngs more to declare agaynst my seyd 

 Lord Sturton the whyche he forbearythe at thys present for trowblyng my 

 lord's Grace. I pray you helpe that he maye lyve in more quyetnes or else yt 

 were better for hym to dwell in Turkey, as ye maye pereeyve partlye by hys 

 answer and letter. And thus wysshyng you no lesse healths and felycytie then 

 your gentle herte desyrythe. From Est on the xij th of Julye 1549. 



"Your assured to commaunde 



" John Berwyke. 



Postscripte. 



" Certeyn of thes lewd people of Hamshyre en try d my Lord's Grace parke 

 at Ludgarsall on Fryday last at nyght, brake the parke and toke theyr pleasure 

 in huntyng and kyllyng the dere. But although' Mr. Richard Brydges,* who 

 hathe the custody and profytts thereof, dyd not resyst theym, yet I thought it 

 not ryght to be sufferyd beyng my Lord's Grace's : and desyered theym to 

 remove in the mornyng erly, that happy was he that could runne fastyst> 

 nevertheles takyng many of theym dyd show no maner of crueltie uppon theyr 

 further promyse that they wyll do no more so : and hath bownd them to answer 

 when they shal be comaundyd. Further Mrs. Kyngsmyle, her husband beyng 

 from whome, sent me a letter herein inelossed the whyche I pray you show unto 

 my Lord's Grace for true it ys theys lewd people be evyli dispossed, 



" To the Ryghte Worshyppfull and myne especyall frend 

 Sr, John Thynne, Knyghte, deliver." 



* Sir Richard Brydges K.B., ancestor of the Dukes of Chandos, died 1558. His monument is in 

 Ludgarshall Church. See " Wiltshire Collections," Aubrey & Jackson, p. 359. 



