The Holy State, Book 4 · Chapter 8
CHAP. 8. The life of Sr. JOHN MARKHAM.
IOhn Markham was born at Markham in Nottinghamshire, descended of an ancient and worthy familie. He employed his youth in the studying of the Municipall Law of this realm, wherein he attained to such eminencie, that King Edward the fourth Knighted him, and made him Lord chief *13. Maii. 1. Edwardi. 4.Justice of the Kings Bench in the place of Sr John Fortescue, that learned and upright Judge, who fled away with King Henrie the sixth.
Yet Fortescue was not miss'd, because Markham succeeded him: and that losse, which otherwise could not be repair'd, now could not be perceiv'd. For though these two Judges did severally lean to the sides of Lancaster and York, yet both sate upright in matters of Judicature.
We will instance and insist on one memorable act of our Judge, which though single in it self, was plurall in the concernings thereof. And let the Reader know, that I have not been carelesse to search, though unhappy not to find, the originall Record, perchance abolished on purpose, and silenced for telling tales to the disgrace of great ones. We must now be contented to write this Story out of the English Chronicles; *Fabian. pag. 497 &c. Hollinshed pag. 670. and Stow in 12. of Edward the fourth.and let him die of drougth without pity, who will not quench his thirst at the river, because he cannot come at the fountain.
King Edward the fourth having married into the family of the Woodvills (Gentlemen of more antiquity then wealth, and of higher spirits then fortunes) thought it fit for his own honour to bestow honour upon them: But he could not so easily provide them of wealth, as titles. For honour he could derive from himself, like light from a candle, without any diminishing of his own lustre; whereas wealth flowing from him, as water from a fountain, made the spring the shallower. Wherefore he resolved to cut down some prime subjects, and to engraff the Queens kinred into their estates, which otherwise like suckers must feed on the stock of his own Exchequer.
There was at this time one Sr Thomas Cook, late Lord Maior of London, and Knight of the Bath, one who had well lick'd his fingers under Queen Margaret (whose Wardroper he was, and customer of Hampton) a man of a great estate. It was agreed that he should be accused of high Treason, and a Commission of Oyer and Terminer granted forth to the Lord Maior, the Duke of Clarence, the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Rivers, Sr. John Markham, Sr. John Fogg, &c. to try him in Guild Hall: And the King by private instructions to the Judge appear'd so farre, that Cook, though he was not, must be found guilty, and if the Law were too short, the Judge must stretch it to the purpose.
The fault laid to his charge was for lending moneys to Queen Margaret, wife to King Henrie the sixth; the proof, was the confession of one Hawkins, who being rack'd in the Tower had confessed so much. The Counsell for the King, hanging as much weight on the smallest wier as it would hold, aggravated each particular, & by their Rhetoricall flashes blew the fault up to a great height. Sr Thomas Cook pleaded for himself, that Hawkins indeed upon a season came to him, and requested him to lend one thousand marks, upon good security. But he desired first to know for whom the money should be: and understanding it was for Queen Margaret, denyed to lend any money, though at last the said Hawkins descended so low as to require but one hundred pounds, and departed without any peny lent him.
Judge Markham in a grave speech did recapitulate, select and collate the materiall points on either side, shewing that the proof reached not the charge of high Treason, and misprision of Treason was the highest it could amount to, and intimated to the Jurie, to be tender in matter of life, and discharge good consciences.
The Jurie being wise men (whose apprehensions could make up an whole sentence of every nod of the Judge) saw it behoved them to draw up Treason into as narrow a compasse as might be, lest it became their own case; for they lived in a troublesome world, wherein the cards were so shuffled, that two Kings were turn'd up trump at once, which amazed men how to play their games. Whereupon they acquitted the prisoner of high Treason, and found him guilty, as the Judge directed.
Yet it cost Sr Thomas Cook, before he could get his libertie, eight hundred pounds to the Queen, and eight thousand pounds to the King: A summe in that age more sounding like the ransome of a Prince, then the fine of a Subject. Besides, the Lord Rivers (the Queens Father) had, during his Imprisonment, despoyled his houses, one in the city, another in the countrey of plate and furniture, for which he never received a penie recompence. Yet God righted him of the wrongs men did him, by blessing the remnant of his estate to him, and his posterity, which still flourish at Giddy Hall in Essex.
As for Sr John Markham, the Kings displeasure fell so heavy on him, that he was outed of his place, and Sr Thomas Billing put in his room, though the one lost that Office with more honour then the other got it; and gloried in this, that though the King could make him no Judge, he could not make him no upright Judge. He lived privately the rest of his dayes, having (besides the estate got by his practice) fair lands by Margaret his wife, daughter and coheir to Sr Simon Leak *Burtons Le…cestershire, pag. 577.of Cotham in Nottinghamshire, whose Mother Joan was daughter and heir of Sr John Talbot, of Swannington in Leicestershire.