We pick up the story of Loughborough as presented by journalist Edwin Goady, in his serialization in the ‘Loughborough Monitor’ of which he was editor, which ran from 1864 to 1966.
Chapter 8, although only listed as such, actually appears in three issues of the ‘Loughborough Monitor’, so I shall follow suit, and split it over three blog posts, but will also give each post a Part number.
As usual, some of Goadby’s paragraphs are rather long, so in order to make reading the chapter a little easier, I have added a few spaces and created new paragraphs. I’ve also added some notes at the bottom of the post, which serve to clarify things appearing in the text which might not be terribly clear to us today. Other than that, I’ve changed nothing, so do bear in mind that this text is now about 160 years old, and may no longer be accurate, as there are many more discoveries that have been made that illuminate the history of Loughborough, and some terminology will have changed, so some of the information in this article will be wrong. I have not tried to amend these in any way, so reader, beware!
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THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
In: ‘Loughborough Monitor’ 30 March 1865, pg.5
CHAPTER VIII. [Part 1]
A Tradition, and its Final Settlement—Henry VII.’s Progress through the Town—Its Curious Accessories—Thomas Burton, and the Wool Staple—Scarcity of Facts concerning him—His Will—His Deed of Enfeoffment, and Death.
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The year following the curious petition of the Lord Beaumont who was last Lord of the Manor, that is, in 1486, an event occurred that was duly registered in the traditions of the town, but has never before been actually authenticated by historical evidence. We refer to the visit of King Henry VIIth. The curious antiquary Leland [1] appears to have been the only authority for the fact, and his statement, in default of anything to support it, has been generally considered as nothing more than a probable assertion made on the basis of a tradition current when he wrote, and since obscured and confused. Apparent support was given to any scepticism in the matter by the fact, that in one of the Harleian MSS [2]. the Royal progress takes a route which leaves Loughboro’ entirely out of the way, so that there is no mention of it whatever. This document, however, is incomplete, and after considerable research we are now able to supply the other portion of the account which confirms the tradition as to the simple fact, and only leaves us to the mercy of such uncertainty as to the locality of the residence where the King slept [3].
After his coronation, Henry VIIth determined to try, the effect of a tour of policy to the Northern counties, where the memory of his predecessor, Richard III., was still fragrant, and adherents of his cause were very numerous. It is not easy to make out a clear line of route, but he appears to have gone from London to Waltham, and thence to Cambridge. The Harleian MSS. takes him thence by Huntingdon, Stamford, and Lincoln to Nottingham, but the other MS. describes possibly a branch route, and the quotation we are about to give from it very plainly sets forth some of the then common accessories of a Royal progress, namely, hordes of loose people who followed in the Royal train for curiosity, gain, and plunder.
“From Coventrie the King removed unto Leycester, wher by the comaundement of the mooste Rerende Fader in God, the Archbishop of Canterbury, then Chancellor of England, the King’s Proclamacions were put in execusion. And in the especyal voydyng comen Women and Vagabonds, for ther wer imprisoned great Nomber of both.
Wherefor there was more Reste in the Kinge’s Hooste, and the better Rule. And on the Morow, which was on the Monday, the King left ther the foresaid Reverende Fader in God, and roode to Loughborough ; and the saide Lorde Chancellors Folks were comytted by his nevew Robert Morton unto the Stander of the Erle of Oxinforde in the Forwarde (vanguard).
And at Loughborough the Stokks and Prisonnes wer reasonabley fylled with Harlatts and Vagabounds. And after that wer but fewe in the Hooste, unto the tyme the Fielde was doon. On Tewsday the King removede, and lay at nyght in the Felde, under a Wode, called Bonley Rice.”
This account may be relied upon, as it is from the pen of an eyewitness. The preparation, rejoicing, and consternation of the inhabitants must be imagined, since we have no facts relative to them to give. Respecting the site of the house opinions differ. Leland, writing in 1551, says
“At the South est Ende of the Chirch is a fair House of Tymbre, where ons King Henry VII did lye,”
and the description will fit either the site of the present old Manor House [4], jointly occupied by Mr. W. Tyler and Mr. A. Smith, or that occupied by Mr. Deane [5]. The abstract of the title deeds of the former, however, carries it no further back than 1565, so that it must have been a previous house upon the same site [6], if the preference be given to that. But the balance of probabilities is in favour of the latter, some of the middle portions of which are undoubtedly very old.
We know also that a hundred years later there stoed upon the latter site, a very extensive building, called the Great House, or the Lord’s Place, which had been granted by Letters Patent to Thomas Butler and Walter Coppinger of Londen by Queen Elizabeth, and this was very likely the identical house in which the King slept.
The Guilds of Jesus and St. George would no doubt play an important part in the rejoicings and processions consequent upon this visit. They appear to have gradually passed from an exclusively social and religious character to that of trade associations, and so would be sure to embrace all the principal inhabitants of the town. Our great benefactor and Mœcenas [7], Thomas Burton, the Mayor of the Guild, was then living in the town, in a house, if tradition be credited, close by the present schools in Church Gate, once known as “The Dungeon,” from the use to which it was afterwards converted, as appears by one or two portions of it still remaining in the houses now in the occupancy of Miss Fowkes and Mr. Caulfield.
Burton was a wealthy merchant who had acquired his property by extensive trading in wool, a commodity then forming the principal part of the staple trade of England. He was a merchant of the staple of Calais, an honour which requires some little explanation. Formerly, instead of the present freedom of trade, there were certain fixed places whither merchants were by law obliged to carry certain goods, wool especially, to dispose of them by wholesale.
The custom originated abroad in 1248, and it was not until 1353 that any English towns became staple places for wool. The staple of Calais was fixed there in 1348, and it continued for more than a century afterwards to be a noted staple. The merchants collected their wools of the farmers in their own localities, and then exported them. This was long a source of great grievance to liberal minds, and considerably diminished the manufacturing trade of the country. Margaret Paston [8], in writing to her husband about 1465, says
“Ye have many good prayers of the poor people that God speed you at this Parliament, for they live in hope that ye should help to set a way that they might live in better peace in this country than they have done before, and that wools should be purveyed for that they should not go out of the land, as it hath been suffered to do before, and then shall the poor people more live better than they have done by their occupation. Thomas Bone,” she adds, “hath sold your wool here for 20d a stone, and good surety found to you therefore to be paid at Michaelmas next coming, and it is sold right well after that (i.e., for that), because the wool was for the most part right feeble.”
Chapter 8 –
to be continued.
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Notes
[1] John Leland (c.1503-c.1552) was a poet and an antiquary, who wrote “An Itinerary” a kind of travelogue which was to influence later local historians.
[2] Harleian MSS – a huge collection of manuscripts and charters collected together by Robert Harley, who was the 1st Earl of Oxford, and which is kept in the British Library
[3] There is a plaque on the outside wall of what is now Lowe’s which mentions Henry VII sleeping there
[4] The former Manor House is now Caravelli’s, an Italian restaurant
[5] In the 1871 census return, there is a Henry Deane, a 31-year-old solicitor, who is lodging at a property called Burtons Houses, but I cannot be certain that this is the right Mr Deane. Reading further into Goadby’s text, it is clear that he is referring to the former Guildhall, which is now Lowe’s on Church Gate.
[6] Actually, the timbers in the former Manor House, now Caravelli’s have been dendrodated to c.1485
[7] Mœcenas – a word which means generous benefactor
[8] Margaret Paston was a member of a gentry family from Norfolk whose correspondence was vast
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Links to older chapters
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Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
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Posted by
lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
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