demand the same, for the better advancement of service, but also, further, to credit him in all such things as he shall, on his Highness's behalf, declare unto you to be executed accordingly. And (considering how much it shall conduce, not only to the furniture of victuals, and choice of the meetest men to serve, but also to the good governance of the common people, and otherwise to the advancement of his Majesty's affairs, to have such men appointed captains and rulers of the rest as have reputation amongst them) I am commanded to require you to take order that all those which were commissioners for taking of the musters within that shire may go forwards in person, if any occasion shall require to have the main force of the same to be advanced; which as I would ye should in that case diligently consider, and see executed accordingly, so in all other cases, sending forth any particular numbers from the same, I also require and charge you to have a good respect to the appointing of able men, and of meet captains for the same. Thus right heartily fare you well. From York, the 24th of May, 1548. Your loving friend, ROBERT EBOR.* To my loving friends the Sheriff and Robert Holgate, a native of Lincolnshire, and originally a monk of the Priory of St. Gilbert of Sempringham, in that county. He was driven from a small benefice which he had obtained in the neighbourhood of his monastery, by the tyranny of a Sir No. VIII. (Talbot Papers, Vol. B. fol. 73.) THE BISHOP OF DURHAM TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. Right honourable, and my singular good Lord, PLEASE it your Lordship to understand that, where of late your letters came to my Lord Nevill to raise the power of the Bishopric, and to come forwards himself with speed before, leaving other behind to bring the country; I trust my said Lord Nevill, taking the horsemen with him of our country, will be with your Lordship before the coming of the footmen of our country; whereof this bearer, Sir George Conyers, is captain of all my tenants, with whom I am bound to send them to Francis Ayscough, a powerful man in his parish, and came to London, where, having abjured the Pope's supremacy, he easily procured a recommendation to Henry VIII. who appointed him one of his chaplains. In 1537 he became Bishop of Landaff, and in 1544 was translated to York, having, as is said, previously bargained to give up to the Crown several valuable estates belonging to the latter see. He was soon after constituted Lord President of the North, and held that high office till the end of this reign. His defection from popery, and the active part he had taken in the reformation, made him one of the first objects of Mary's fury: he was deprived, and thrown into prison on a formal charge of having lived in adultery, from which stroke of party malice the general tradition of his dissolute manners seems to have arisen, though the accusation really meant no more than that he had taken a wife, contrary to his vow at his admission into a religious order. This prelate married Barbara, daughter of Roger Wentworth, of Elmsall in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Esq., and died in 1555, at Hemsworth, where he founded a hospital for ten poor men and as many women, and other public charities. He left considerable property in that neighbourhood, which seems to have been inherited by his brother's children, a part of whose posterity migrated into Hertfordshire and Essex, and possessed certain estates in the latter county till 1752, when it ended in a female. Holgate had a grant of Arms from William Fellowe, Norroy, in 1539.-(R 21, 179.) the field, and there to be at the commandment of the Lord Lieutenant for the time being, both he and they. And if it shall stand with your Lordship's pleasure that he continue their captain, as he hath always been, bringing them to the field as Sheriff, I trust he will do his duty in well serving the King with them, in going with your good Lordship, or with whom you shall command. And thus Almighty Jesu preserve your good Lordship, to his pleasure and your's, and send you victory against all the King's enemies, with the increase of much honour. From Aukland, the 21st day of July, 1548. Your Lordship's humble orator at commandment, CUTH. DURHAM.* To the right honourable and his singular good Lord the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant in the North Parts. * Cuthbert Tunstall, successively Master of the Rolls, Prebendary of York, Dean of Sarum, Bishop of London, and Lord Privy Seal; translated to Durham in 1530. He was born at Hackford, in Richmondshire, about 1476, a bastard of one of the ancient family of Tunstall, appeared at Court at an early time of life, and served the late King in several important embassies. Camden informs us that he was "an able negociator, and a most exquisite master of all critical learning," and most writers concur in giving him an amiable character. He was deprived by Edward VI. under the pretence of his having opposed the Reformation, but in fact for the purpose of investing the ambitious Earl of Warwick with his palatine dignity, which was thus separated for a few months from the see of Durham. Mary restored him immediately after her accession, and appointed him one of her ecclesiastical commissioners, in which office, so odious in that reign, he distinguished himself by his mildness and humanity. He was again deprived, by Elizabeth, in 1559, and died at Lambeth, Nov. 18, in the same year, in the house of Doctor, afterwards Archbishop, Parker. Hayward, and others, upon Foxe's authority, are guilty of an error in placing this Bishop's first deprivation in 1547: it happened in 1552. No. IX. (Talbot Papers, Vol. B. fol. 107.) SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY. My bounden duty remembered to your good Lordship, desiring the same not to be offended for my departing without my taking leave of your Lordship as my bounden duty was. I sought your Lordship at the Court, and at my Lord Protector's, but my chance was not to find; and, because I would keep company homeward with Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Babthorpe I departed the more speedily. Desiring your Lordship, if there be any thing wherein I may do your Lordship service, that I may have knowledge thereof, and, to my power, I shall be as ready thereunto as any your Lordship's servant. I shall speak both with Mr. Solicitor and the Escheator for the office of Mountney's lands, and shall ascertain your Lordship of the proceedings therein. Mr. Babthorpe would heartily desire your Lordship to have a restraint for saving of the game in Wressell and Newsam parks. to My Lord perceiving at the present that Sir Charles Fairfax, one of the Council in the North (in Mr. Savill's place, who had no fee) doth labour my Lord Protector's Grace to have a 100 marks fee by year, I have therefore thought good to inform your Lordship of the state and fees of that Council at the present, that ye may, if it seem good unto your Lordship inform my Lord Protector's grace thereof. And for that purpose I have declared the same, in a paper here enclosed; wherein it may please your good Lordship to perceive that, after the death of Sir Thomas Tempest, I was placed in his room, and should have had the whole fee of 100 marks; but my Lord of Southampton, then being Lord Chancellor, said that if I, being no Knight, should have 100 marks fee, that the rest of the Council would be offended therewith, unless they should have the like fees; and, thereupon, I had only allowed for my fee £50, and lost the residue, which was £16. 13. 4. by the year; and, seeing it hath pleased you to prefer me to that degree, and that, at the establishment of that Council 100 marks was appointed to be the fee of every Knight that was learned, for that the burden much resteth upon them, if your Lordship shall see just occasion, I shall most humbly beseech your good Lordship to move my Lord Protector's Grace therein for me; and, if my diligence, power, or good will and service in the King's affairs may deserve it, I shall apply them thereunto to the uttermost. And because I thought your Lordship should be present at the communication and appointment of Mr. Fairfax's fee, I thought good to open this my suit unto your Lordship; to the intent that, upon the occasion thereof, if it shall so stand with your Lordship's pleasure, and that conveniently, you may be so much my good Lord therein to move my Lord Protector's Grace to be my good Lord, and to grant me the rest of Mr. Tempest's fee (after whose death I was placed in |