The History of the Worthies of England, Part 2 · County 34

The History of the Worthies of England · Part 2 · County 34

p. 346RUTLAND-SHIRE is by a double Diminutive called by Mr. Cambden, Angliae Provinciola minima. Indeed it is but the Pestel of a Lark, which is better than a quarter of some bigger bird, having the most cleanly profit in it: No place so fair for the Rider, being more fruitful for the Abider therein.

Ban…shing the fable of King Rott, and their fond conceit, who will have Rutland so called from Roet, the French word for a Wheel, from the rotundity thereof, (being in form almost exactly orbicular) it is so termed, quasi Red-land; for as if Nature kept a Dye-vat herein, a reddish tincture discoloureth the earth, stones, yea the very flieces of the sheep feeding therein. If the Rabbins observation be true, who distinguish betwixt Arets, the general element of the earth; and Adamah, red ground, from which Adam was taken and named; making the later the former refined: Rutlands soil on the same reason may lay claim to more than ordinary purity and perfection.

Buildings.

Burgley on the Hill belonged formerly to the Lords Harrington, but since so beautified with buildings by the Duke of Buckingham, that it was inferiour to few for the House, superiour to all for the Stable; where horses (if their pabulum so plenty as their stabulum stately) were the best accommodated in England. But alas, what saith Menedemus to Chremas in the Comedy? Filium unicum adolescentulum habeo. Ah quid dixi habere me? immo habui: so may Rutland say, I have; yea I had one most magnificent house: this Burgley being since demolished in our Civil war, so just was the Poets ancient Invective,

foreign Mars, Mars, bane of men, slaughter-stain'd, spoiler of houses.

But when we have first sufficiently bemoned the loss of so many worthy men in our late war, if then we have still any sorrow left, and tears to spare, we will spend them in lamenting the razing and ruining of so many stately structures.

Wonders.

How it will appear to the Reader I know not, but it is wonderful in my apprehension, that this County, so pleasant, so fruitful, almost in the middle of England, had not one absolute or entire Abby therein; producing onelyonly two small appurtenances (of inconsiderable value) to Convents in other Counties, viz.

Okehame, under the custody of the Priory of St. Anne by Coventry, founded by William Dalby, for two Chaplains and twelve poor; receiving in all one and twenty pounds per annum.

Brook, a Cell to Killingworth, founded by Walkeline de Ferrers Baron of Okeham, for black Canons, valued at the dissolution at fourty three pounds thirteen shillings and four pence.

The like cannot be parallell'd in England, chuse so great a parcel of good ground where you please. Shew me so fair a bunch of sweet grapes, which had no more flies to suck them: Nor can I conjecture any competent cause thereof, except because Edward the Confessor by his Will gave all Rutland to Westminster Church, which though rescinded by King William the Conqueror, yet other Convents perchance might be scrupulous to accept, what once belonged to another Foundation.

p. 347Proverbs.

Rutland Raddleman.]

I meet in an **Draytons Poly-olbion.Author with this blazon, as he termes it, of Rutland-shire, though I can scarcely recover the meaning thereof▪

Rad here is the same with red, (onelyonly more broadly pronounced) as Radcliffe de rubro clivo Redcliffe: Raddleman then is a Reddleman, a Trade (and that a poor one) onelyonly in this County, whence men bring on their backs a pack of red stone or Oker, which they sell to their neighbouring Countries for the marking of sheep, well nigh as …scernable (and far less hurtful to the wooll) as Pitch-brands made on their flieces.

Saints.

St. Tibba. Because this County is Princeless, I mean affords no Royal Nativities, we begin with Saints, and here almost we are at a loss, finding but one worshipped therein, and probably a Native thereof. But seriously peruse, I pray, the words of our **Camb. Brit. in Rutlandshire, p. 526.Author, speaking of Rihall a Village in this County,

VVhere, when superstition had so bewitched our Anchestours, that the multitude of their pety Saints had well neere taken quite away the true God, one Tibba, a pety Saint or Goddesse, reputed to be the tutelar patronesse of Hawking, was of Fowlers and Falconers worshipped as a second Diana.

This Saint of Falconers doth stive so high into the air, that my Industry cannot flye home after the same, so as to give a good account thereof to the Reader. All that I can retrive of her is digested into these following particulars:

1. She was a Female, whose sex (dubious in the English) is cleared in the Latine Cambden, Tibba minorum gentium **Though it be Diva in his first and quarto edi…ion, yet it is Sancta in his last, I mean in the text whereon I rely, though Diva again in the Margin.Sancta.

2. Though gentium may import something of Heathenism, Sancta carries it cleer for Christianity; that she was no Pagan Deity amongst the Britons, (who were not our Ancestors but Predecessors) but a Popish she-Saint amongst the Saxons.

3. She could not be St. Ebba, a Virgin Saint of whom formerly in Northumberland, whom the Country-people nick-name Tabbs for St. Ebbs.

4. My best inquiry making use of mine own and friends industry, perusing Authors ††Caesar. Baron. Not. in Martyriolog. Rom. Fran. Ha…aeus de vitis Sanct. …rent. Sur. Carthusian. Pel. de … … ▪ catal. Sanct. &c.proper to this purpose, cannot meet with this Tibb with all our industry.

But I will trouble my self and the Reader no longer with this Saint, which if she will not be found, even for me let her be lost; onelyonly observe, after that superstition had appointed Saints to all Vocations, (St. Luke to Painters, St. Crispin to Shoomakers, &c.) she then began to appoint Patrons to Recreations; and surely Falconers [generally] according to the Popish principles, if any need a Saint, both to protect them in their despe…are Riding, and pray for a pardon for their profane oaths in their passions.

A Post-script.

foreign at last we have found it. She was no Pagan Deity but a Saxon Saint, as plainly appeareth, because the passage concerning her is commanded to be expung'd out of Cambden by the **Printed at Madrid by Lewes Sanchez A…no 1612.Index expurgatorius, bearing a Pique thereat, as grating against their superstitious practice. The same no doubt with Tibba, Virgin and Anchoress▪ who living at ††M. S. de vitis sanct. Mul…er. Angl. p. 177.Dormundcaster, dyed with the reputation of holiness about the year 660. However, Reader, I am not ashamed to suffer my former doubts and disquisitions still to stand, though since arrived at better information.

p. 348Benefactors to the Publick.

WILLIAM BROWNE Esq twice Alderman of Stamford, Merchant of the Staple, was (as I am credibly informed) extracted from the ancient Family of Brownes of T…llThorp in this County. He built on his own proper cost the beautiful Steeple, with a great part of the Church, of All-Saints in Stamford, and lyeth therein with his wife buried in a Chappel proper to his Family. He also erected Anno 1493. the old Bead-house in that Town, for a Warden, Confrater, twelve poor old men, with a Nurse-woman to attend them: To this he gave the Manor of Swayfeld (seven miles from Stamford) worth four hundred pounds per annum, besides divers Lands and Tenements elsewhere. I am loth to insert, and loth to omit, what followeth in my **Mr. Richard Butcher in his Survey of Stamford, p. 39.Author, viz. That the pious and liberal gift is much abused by the avarice and mis-imployment of the Governors thereof: and charitably do presume, that such faults (if any) are since, or will be, suddenly amended.

Since the Reformation.

JOHN HARINGTON the elder, son to Sir James Harington, was born at Exton in this County, where their ancient Family had long flourished. A bountiful Housekeeper, dividing his hospitality between Rutland and Warwick-shire, where he had a fair habitation. He was one of the Executors to the Lady Frances Sidney, and a grand Benefactor to the College of her founding in Cambridge. King James created him Baron of Exton, and his Lady, a prudent woman, had the Princess Elizabeth committed to her government: When the said Princess was married to Frederick Prince Palatine, this Lord (with Henry Martin Doctor of the Laws) was sent over to the Palatinate, to see her Highness setled at Hidleburgh, and some formalities about her Dowry and Joynture performed. This done, (as if God had designed this for his last work) he sickned on the first day of his return, and dyed at Wormes in Germany, on St. Bartholomews day Anno Dom. 1613. The Lord John his son (of whom in Warwick-shire) did not survive him a year; both of them signally eminent, the one a pattern for all good fathers, th'other for all gracious sons; and pity it is the last had not issue to be a president to all grand-children: but God thought it fit, that here the Male-issue of that honourable Family should expire.

Memorable Persons.

—JEFFEREY was born in the Parish of Okeham in this County, where his father was a very proper man, broad-shouldered and chested, though his son never arived at a full Ell in stature. And here we may observe **Lib. 7. cap. 16Pliny his observation not true, foreign,

In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi …inorem staturam indies fieri, propemodum observatur, rarosque patribus proceriores, &c.

It seems that Families sometimes are chequered, as in brains so in bulk, that no certainty can be concluded from such alternations.

His father, who kept and ordered the baiting Bulls for George Duke of Buckingham, (a place, you will say, requiring a robustious body to manage it) presented him at Burleigh on the Hill to the Duchesse of Buckingham, being then nine years of age, and scarce a foot and half in height, as I am informed by credible **John Armstrong of Ches…bunt.persons then and there present, and still alive. Instantly Jefferey was heightned (not in stature, but) in condition, from one degree above rags into Silk and Sattin, and two tall men to attend him.

He was without any deformity wholly proportionable, whereas often Dwarfs, Pigm…es in one part, are Giants in another. And yet, though the least that England ever p. 349saw, he was a proper person compared to him, of whom **Lib. 6. fab. 19.Sabinus doth write, in his Comment upon the Metamorphosis:

Vidit Italia nuper virum justa aetate, non majorem cubito, circumferri in caveâ Psittaci, cujus viri meminit in suis scriptis Hieronymus Cardanus.

There was lately to be seen in Italy a man of a ripe age not above a cubit high, carried about in a Parrets cage, of whom Hierome Cardan in his Writings makes mention.

It was not long before he was presented in a cold baked Pye to King Charles and Queen Mary at an entertainment, and ever after lived (whiles the Court lived) in great plenty therein, wanting nothing but humility, (high mind in a low body) which made him that he did not know himself, and would not know his father, and which by the Kings command caused justly his sound correction. He was, though a Dwarf no Dastard, a Captain of horse in the Kings Army in these late civil wars, and afterwards went over to wait on the Queen in France.

Here being provoked by Mr. Crofts, who accounted him the object, not of his anger but contempt, he shewed to all, that Habet musca suum splenum, and they must be little indeed that cannot do mischief, especially seeing a Pistol is a pure leveller, and puts both Dwarf and Giant into equal capacity to kill and to be killd: For the shooting the same Mr. Crofts he was imprisoned. And so I take my leave of Jefferey, the least man of the least County in England.

The Names of the Gentry of this County returned by the Commissioners in the twelfth year of King Henry the sixth.

Iohannes Basinges de Empyngham, mil.

Iohannes Colepepar▪ de Exton, mil.

Henricus Plesington de Burley, mil.

Robertus Browne de Wodehead, ar.

Robertus Davis de Tykencoat, ar.

Iohannes Browne de Tygh. ar.

Iohannes Plesington de Wissenden, ar.

Thomas Flore de Oakham, ar.

Franciscus Clerke de Stoke-dry, ar.

Iohannes Chycelden de Brameston, ar.

Iohannes Sapcoat de Keton, merchant

Robertus Whitwell de eadem, gentleman

Iohannes Clerk de Wissenden, merch.

Willielmus Lewis de Oakham, merch.

Iohannes Brigge de eadem, merch.

Ioh. Basset de North Luffenham, gent.

Iacobus Palmer de eadem, gent.

Iohannes Palmer de eadem, gent.

Willielmi Sheffeild de Seyton, gent.

Iohannes Sadington de eadem, gent.

Rob. Sousex de Market Overton, gent.

Iohannes Vowe de Whitwell, gent.

Willielmus Pochon de Wissenden, gent.

Willi…lmus Swafeld de Braunston, gent.

Henricus Breton de Keton, gent.

Willi…lmus Uffing…on de Pilton, gent.

Thomas Luffenham de Winge.

p. 350Sheriffs.

It remaineth now that we give in a List of the Sheriffs of this Shire; and here Rutland conceiveth it to sound to her credit, that whereas other Shires ten times bigger than this, (viz. Norfolk and Suffolk) had but one Sheriff betwixt them; this little County never took-hands to hold with a partner, but had alwayes an entire Sheriff to it self; though anciently the same person (generally honourable) discharged the Office for many years together, as by the ensuing Catalogue will appear.

p. 351Sheriffs.

p. 353Henry VII.

16. CHRISTOPHER BROWNE, Arm.]

This Sheriff came over with King Henry the seventh, and assisted him against Richard the third … for which good service King Henry the eight granted to Francis Browne (son of our Sheriff) of Council to the Lady Margaret, the following Patent:

HEnricus octavus Dei gracia Angliae, Franciaerex, fidei defensor, & dominus …, omnibus ad quos praesentes Litterae pervenient, salutem. Sciatis quod no… de gratia nostra speciali con…essimus pro nobis & heredibus nostris, quantum in nobis est, dilecto nostro Francisco Browne armigero, quod ipse ad totam vitam suam non ponatur, impanellet. nec juret. in Assisis juratis inquisitionibus attinctis seu aliis recognitionibus aut juratis quibuscunque, licet ille seu eorum aliquis tangant nos vel heredes nostros, ac licet nos vel heredes nostri soli aut conjunctim cum aliis sit una pars. Concessimus etiam, ac per presentes conced mus eidem Francisco, quod ipse de cetero non fiat Vicecomes nec Escaetor nostri vel heredum nostrorum in aliquo comitatu regni nostri Angliae: Et quod ipse ad offic. vic. Escaetoris superius recitat. habend. exercend. faciend. recipiend. aut occupand. ullo modo per nos vel heredes nostros assignet. ordinet. seu compellet. aut aliqualit. artet. ullo modo nec ad ascend. jurat. super aliqua triatione, arrainatione alicujus Assisae coram quibuscun que justic. nostris vel heredum nostrorum ad Assisis capiend. assign. aut aliis justic. quibuscunque; & quod non ponatur nec impanelletur in aliqua magna Assisa infra regni nostri Angliae inter partes quascunqne contra voluntatem suam licet nos vel heredi nostri sit una pars. Et ulterius de habundanciori gratia nostra concessimus praefato Francisco, quod si ipse ad aliqua officia superdict. seu aliquod praemissorum eligat. ipse que & officia superdict. recusavit, extunc idem Franciscus aliquem contemptum dep…rdit. poenam fortisfitur. aut aliquos exutos fines, redemptiones seu amerciament. quaecun que occasione omissionis sive non omissionis aut alicujus eorundem nullatenus incurrat fortisfaciat aut perdet; sed quod praesens carta nostra de exemptione coram quibuscun que justic. nostris & hered. nostr. ac in quocun que loco aut curia de record. per totum regnum nostrum praedict. super demonstratione ejusdem chartae nostrae, abs que aliquo brevi praecept. seu mandat. aut aliquo alio superinde habend. seu persequend. vel aliqua proclamatione faciend. praefato Francisco allocetur. Concessimus etiam, & per praesentes concedimus eidem Francisco, quod ipse de cetero durante vita sua in praesentia nostra aut hered. nostrorum, aut in praesentia alicujus, sive aliquorum magnatum, dominorum spiritualium vel temporalium, aut aliquorum aliorum regni nostri, quorumcun que quibuscun que temporibus futuris pilio sit coopertus capite, & non exuat aut deponat pilium suum à capite suo occasione vel causa quacun que contra voluntatem aut placitum suum; & ideo vobis omnibus & singulis, aut quibuscunque Justic. Judicibus, Vicomitibus, Escaetoribus, Coronatoribus, Majoribus, praepositis Balivis & aliis officiariis & ministris nostris & hered▪ nostr…rum firmiter injungendo mandamus, quod ipsum Franciscum contra hanc concessionem nostr. & contra tenorem exegent. aut effect. praesent. non vexetis, perturb. molest. in aliquo seu gravetis. In cujus reitestim. has literas nostras fieri fecimus Patentes. Teste meipso apud Westm. sexto die Julii, anno regni nostri decimo octavo.

Per ipsum Regem & de dat. praedict. authoritate Parliamenti.

p. 354Tolethorpe (the chief place of residence at this▪ day of Christopher Browne Esquire, who hath born the office of Sheriff in this County, 1647.) was by Deed conveyed unto John Browne from Thomas Burton Knight, in the fiftieth year of King Edward the third.

I meet with a Browne Lord Mayor of London, 1479. the son of John Browne of Oakham.

The Farewell.

Let not the Inhabitants of Rutland complain, that they are pinned up within the confines of a narrow County; seeing the goodness thereof equals any Shire in England for fertility of ground: But rather let them thank God, who hath cast their lot into so pleasant a place, giving them a goodly heritage.