BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC.

T. STUMPS, of the town of Malmsbury* in this county, was in his age one of the most eminent clothiers in England; of whom there passeth a story, told with some variation of circumstances, but generally to this purpose.

King Henry the Eighth, hunting near Malmsbury in Bredon Forest, came with all his court train, unexpected, to dine with this clothier. But great housekeepers are as seldom surprised with guests as vigilant captains with enemies. Stumps commands his little army of workmen, which he fed daily in his house, to fast one meal until night (which they might easily do without endangering their health), and with the same provision gave the king and his court train (though not so delicious and various) most wholesome and plentiful entertain

ment.

But more authentic is what I read in the great antiquary,† speaking of the plucking down of Malmsbury monastery :"The very Minster itself should have sped no better than the rest, but been demolished, had not T. Stumps, a wealthy clothier, by much suit, but with a greater sum of money, redeemed and bought it for the townsmen his neighbours, by whom it was converted to a parish church, and for a great part is yet standing at this day."

I find one William Stumps, gentleman, who, in the oneand-thirtieth year of king Henry the Eighth, bought of him the domains of Malmsbury abbey for fifteen hundred pounds two shillings and a halfpenny. Now how he was related to this T. Stumps, whether son or father, is to me unknown. It will not be a sin for me to wish more branches from such Stumps, who by their bounty may preserve the monuments of antiquity from destruction.

MEMORABLE PERSONS.

SUTTON, of SALISBURY.-Tradition and an old pamphlet, (newly vamped with Additions) make him a great clothier, entertaining king Henry the First, and bequeathing at his death one hundred pounds to the weavers of Salisbury, with many other benefactions. I dare not utterly deny such a person, and his bountiful gifts; but am assured that he is notoriously mistimed, seeing Salisbury had scarce a stone laid therein one hundred years after king Henry the First; and as for Old Sarum, that age knew nothing of clothing, as we have proved before. Thus these mongrel pamphlets (part true, part false) do most mischief. Snakes are less dangerous than lampreys, seeing

⚫ I durst venture no farther, finding no more of his name in Mr. Camden.-F. + Camden's Britannia, in Wiltshire.

I perused the original in the Remembrancer's (or Sir Thomas Fanshaw's) Office, C. vii. Par. rot. 147.-F.

none will feed on what is known to be poison. But these books are most pernicious, where truth and falsehoods are blended together; and such a medley-cloth is the tale-story of this clothier.

MICHEL, born at ...... in this county, was under-sheriff to Sir Anthony Hungarford (a worthy knight) anno 1558, in the last year of queen Mary.

Of this master Michel I find this character, "A right and a perfect godly man."+

Under-sheriffs generally are complained of as over-crafty (to say no worse of them); but it seems hereby the place doth not spoil the person, but the person the place. When the writ de comburendis hæreticis, for the execution of Richard White and John Hunt (of whom formerlyt), was brought to Mr. Michel, instead of burning them he burnt the writ;" and before the same could be renewed, doctor Geffray (the bloody chancellor of Salisbury who procured it) and queen Mary were both dead, to the miraculous preservation of God's servants.

Sir JAMES vicar choral (as I conceive) of the church of Salisbury in the reign of king Edward the Sixth, was wholly addicted to the study of chemistry. Now as Socrates himself wrote nothing, whilst Plato his scholar praised him to purpose; so, whilst the pen of Sir James was silent of its own worth, Thomas Charnock his scholar (whom he made inheritor of his art) thus chants in his commendation:‡

"I could find never man but one,

Which could teach me the secrets of our Stone;
And that was a priest in the Close of Salisbury,
God rest his soul in Heaven full merrily."

This Sir James pretended that he had all his skill, not by learning but inspiration, which I list not to disprove. He was alive anno 1555, but died about the beginning of queen

Elizabeth.

LORD MAYORS.

Sir Nicholas Lambert, son of Edward Lambert, of Wilton, Grocer, 1531.

NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF HENRY THE SIXTH, 1433.

R. Bishop of Salisbury, and Walter Hungarford, knight;-Robert Andrew, and Robert Long, (knights for the shire);-Commissioners to receive the oaths.

Rob. Hungarford, mil.

Fox's Acts and Monuments, p. 2655.
In his Enigma Alchimiæ.

Edm. Hungarford, mil.

† See p. 322.

R. is here Robert Nevil then bishop of Salisbury.

WALTER HUNGERFORD was the Lord Hungerford, treasurer of England.

WILL. WESTBERY, Justiciarii.-Surely this justice must be more than an ordinary one of the Peace and Quorum, because preposed to John Seimour, a signal esquire, late high-sheriff of the shire. Yet was he none of the two chief justices of Westminster, as not mentioned in their catalogue. Probably he was one of the puisne judges in those courts; but, because no certainty thereof, we leave him as we found him.*

DAVID CERINGTON.-The self-same name with Sherington, for all the literal variation; and they, I assure you, were men of great ancestry and estate in this county. Sir Henry Sherington was the last heir male of this family dwelling at Lacock in this county, a right goodly knight, and great friend to bishop Jewell, who died in his house at Lacock. He dissuaded the bishop from preaching that Lord's day, by reason of his great weakness, "affirming it better for a private congregation to want a sermon one day, than for the church of England to lose such a light for ever."+ But he could not prevail, the bishop being resolved to expire in his calling. This Sir Henry left two daughters, which had issue; one married into the honourable family of Talbot; the other unto Sir Anthony Mildmay; who enriched their husbands with great estates.

* In 1426, William Westbery, one of the judges of the court of King's Bench, had 100l. a-year out of the Exchequer, for his more decent state, and two robes. See Chronica Juridicialia, p. 121.-ED.

+ See the Life of Bishop Jewell, prefixed to his Apology.