By the Rev, J. E. Jackson. 



315 



my power in alJ points as any subject or liege man her Highness hath within 

 this realm. And I would ye knew it, your threatenings shall not make me 

 forget the obedience of a good subject, wherefore I overpasse them at this tyme. 

 From Longlete the xxvi th of July 1553. 



"John Thynne." 

 {Endorsed by Sir John Thynne. " The copy of my letter 

 to the Lord Stourton xxvi July 1553.") 



The next document is, in the original, not the actual letter sent 



and received, but a copy of it, apparently in the hand-writing of 



Sir John Thynne. In style and matter it so nearly resembles Sir 



John's own answer (No. 46) to Lord Stourton's (No. 43), that at 



first it seemed to be Sir John's rough draft of his own answer 



(No. 46). But, though extremely like No. 46, it is still a different 



letter; for in the first place it is endorsed as "The copy of Sir 



John Bonham's letter," and in the next, it contains a particular 



expression — " I wol set my foot by your's," not to be found in 



No. 46 : to which words it will be noticed that Stourton specially 



retorts in his reply, " Therefore set thy foot," &c. It is accordingly 



not improbable that Bonham, either as a fellow-magistrate, or 



perhaps, Deputy High Steward of Warminster, had attended and 



supported Sir John Thynne in the scene there with Mr. Kent : that 



Lord Stourton had consequently written to Bonham in the same 



tone as to Sir John Thynne, and that Thynne and Bonham, having 



received one and the same kind of despatch from the angry Lord 



Lieutenant, had prepared between them one and the same sort of 



reply. 



(No. 47.) 1553, July — . Sir John Bonham's Reply to Lord Stourton. 

 [Original at Longleat.) 



" Whereas you write me your letters charging me that I should not only 

 rebuke and revile (that vile and lying knave Kent) but also thretyn him to 

 hang him, and that I had slayn him, if gode hap had not been, for that he did 

 by yo r comaundment proclaym our Soverayn lady the quenes highnes in War- 

 minster by vertue of her highnes comyssion to you (as you say) addressed ; The 

 hole country can and will witnesse with me that ye falsely and unjustly charge 

 me therewith, as manyfestly it did and may appere by my comyng thither myselve 

 and my doings there in that behalve, thinking it more my duty to do it myselve 

 than to comyt it to any verlet : who, hering myn intent, made report over night 

 that I should not proclayme her hyghnes there that day, for the whiche and 

 proclayming your lieutenantsie of thre sheres (3 shires) without showing any 

 cornission from the quenes Ma tie , or letter of your hand signifying the same, 

 was the cause wher I used him as I did, considering the Lady Jane, doughter to 



