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BENEFACTORS-MEMORABLE PERSONS.

189

with the great offices he had, and good offices he did to posterity:

Hic Gulielmus habet requiem Cordellus, avito
Stemmate qui clarus, clarior ingenio.

Hic studiis primos consumpsit fortiter annos,
Mox et causarum strenuus actor erat.
Tanta illi doctrina inerat, facundia tanta,
Ut Parlamenti publica Lingua foret.
Postea factus Eques, Reginæ arcana Mariæ
Consilia, et patriæ grande subibat opus :
Factus et est Custos Rotulorum. Urgente senectû

In Christo moriens cepit ad astra viam.
Pauperibus largus, victum vestemque ministrans,
Insuper Hospiti condidit ille domum.

"Here William Cordal doth in rest remain.
Great by his birth, but greater by his brain.
Plying his studies hard, his youth throughout,
Of causes he became a pleader stout.
His learning deep such eloquence did vent,
He was chose Speaker of the Parliament'
Afterwards Knight queen Mary did him make,
And counsellor, state-work to undertake;
And Master of the Rolls. Well worn with age,
Dying in Christ, heaven was his utmost stage.
Diet and clothes to poor he gave at large,

And a fair Almshouse founded on his charge."

He was made Master of the Rolls, November 5th, the fifth of queen Mary, continuing therein till the day of his death, the 23rd of queen Elizabeth.†

Sir ROBERT HICHAM, Knight, and Serjeant-at-law, was born (if not at) near Nacton in this county, and was very skilful in our common law. By his practice he got a great estate, and purchased the fair manor of Framlingham of the earl of Suffolk. Herein he met with many difficulties (knots which would have made another man's axe turn edge to hew them off); so that, had he not been one of a sharp wit, strong brains, powerful friends, plentiful purse, and indefatigable diligence, he had never cleared the title thereof to him and his heirs.

I am willing to believe that gratitude to God (who gave him to wade through so many incumbrances, and land safely at last on the peaceable possession of his purchase) was the main motive inclining him to leave a great part of his estate to pious uses, and principally to Pembroke Hall in Cambridge. He departed this life a little before the beginning of our civil wars.

MEMORABLE PERSONS.

JOHN CAVENDISH, Esquire, was born at Cavendish in this county; bred at court, a servant in ordinary attendance on king Richard the Second, when Wat Tyler played Rex in London.

At Melford aforesaid.

† J. Philpot, in his Catalogue of the Masters of the Rolls.

It happened that Wat Tyler was woundly angry with Sir John Newton, knight, (sword-bearer to the king then in presence) for devouring his distance, and not making his approaches mannerly enough unto him. Oh, the pride of a self-promoting peasant! Much bustling arising thereabout, Sir William Walworth, lord mayor of London, arrested Wat, and with his dagger wounded him; and, being well stricken in years, wanted not valour, but vigour, to dispatch him. He is seconded by John Cavendish standing by, who twice or thrice wounded him mortally; my author* complaining, "that his death was too worthy, from the hands of honourable persons, for whom the axe of the hangman had been too good." I would have said, "the halter of the hangman." But it matters not by whom a traitor be killed, so he be killed.

Hereupon the arms of London were augmented with a dagger; and, to divide the honour equally betwixt them, if the haft belonged to Walworth, the blade, or point thereof at least, may be adjudged to Cavendish. Let me add, that king Richard himself shewed much wisdom and courage in managing this matter; so that in our chronicles he appeareth wiser youth than man; as if he had spent all the stock of his discretion in appeasing this tumult, which happened anno Domini 1381.

Sir THOMAS COOK, Knight. -Sir WM. CAPELL, Knight. I present these pair of knights in parallels, because I find many considerable occurrences betwixt them in the course of their lives :

1. Both were natives of this county, born not far asunder; Sir Thomas at Lavenham, Sir William at Stoke-Neyland.

2. Both were bred in London, free of the same company Drapers, and were lord mayors of the city.

of

3. Both, by God's blessing on their industry, attained great estates, and were royal merchants indeed. The later is reported by tradition (since by continuance consolidated into historical truth) that, after a large entertainment made for king Henry the Seventh, he concluded all with a fire, wherein he burnt many bonds, in which the king (a borrower in the beginning of his reign) stood obliged unto him (a sweet perfume, no doubt, to so thrifty a prince); not to speak of his expensive frolic, when at another time he drank a dissolved pearl (which cost him many hundreds) in a health to the king.

4. Both met with many molestations. Sir Thomas, being arraigned for lending money (in the reign of king Edward the Fourth), hardly escaped with his life (thank a good God, a just judge,† and a stout jury): though grievously fined, and long imprisoned. As for Sir William, Empson and Dudley fell with *Speed, in his Chronicle, p. 607.

† See Judge Markham's Life in Nottinghamshire.-F.

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their bodies so heavy upon him, that they squeezed many thousand pounds out of his into the king's coffers.

5. Both died peaceably in age and honour, leaving great estates to their posterities; the Cooks flourishing lately at Giddy Hall in Essex, in a worshipful, as the Capels at Hadham in Hertfordshire now in an honourable, condition.

Nor must it be forgotten, that Elizabeth, daughter to Sir William Capel, was married to William Powlet marquis of Winchester; and Mildred, descended from Sir Thomas Cook, to William Cecil lord Burleigh; both their husbands being successively lord treasurers of England for above fifty years.

Sir Thomas Cook lieth buried in the church of Augustine Friars, London. Sir William Capel in the south side of the parish church of St. Bartholomew's (in a chapel of his own addition) behind the Exchange, though the certain date of their deaths do not appear.

LORD MAYORS.

1. John Michel, son of John Michel of Ekelingham, StockFishmonger, 1422.

2. Henry Barton, son of Henry Barton, of Myldenhal, Skinner, 1428.

3. Roger Oteley, son of Will. Oteley, of Ufford, Grocer, 1434. 4. John Paddesley, son of Simon Paddesley, of Bury St. Edmunds, Goldsmith, 1440.

5. Simon Eyre, son of John Eyre, of Brandon, Draper, 1445. 6. William Gregory, son of Roger Gregory, of Myldenhal, Skinner, 1451.

7. Thomas Cook, son of Robert Cook, of Lavenham, Draper,

1462.

8. Richard Gardiner, son of John Gardiner, of Exning, Mercer,

1478.

9. William Capel, son of John Capel, of Stoke-Neyland, Draper, 1503.

10. Wm. Coppinger, son of Walter Coppinger, of Buckshal, Fish-monger, 1512.

11. John Milborn, son of John Milbourn, of Long-Melford, Draper, 1521.

12. Roger Martin, son of Lawrence Martin, of Long-Melford, Mercer, 1567.

13. John Spencer, son of Richard Spencer, of Walding Field, Cloth-worker, 1594.

14. Stephen Some, son of Thomas Some, of Bradley, Grocer,

1598.

Reader, this is one of the twelve pretermitted shires, the

*He was mayor again 1436.

names of whose gentry were not returned into the Tower in the reign of king Henry the Sixth.

SHERIFFS.

Know that this county and Norfolk had both one sheriff, until the seventeenth year of the reign of queen Elizabeth, a list of whose names we formerly have presented in the description of Norfolk.

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S. a fess ingrailed betwixt three flowers-de-luce Arg. 18 Joh. Higham, arm.

S. a fess checky O. and Az. betwixt three nags' heads erased Arg.

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Arg. on a chevron between three martlets G. as many cinquefoils of the field.

20 Rob. Jermin, mil. . . Rushbrook.

S. a crescent betwixt two mullets Arg.

21 Philip. Parker, mil.

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Arwerton.

Arg. a lion passant G. betwixt two bars S., whereon three bezants; in chief as many bucks' heads caboshed

of the third.

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Az. a fesse dancetté Erm. betwixt six croslets Arg. 23 Nich. Bacon, mil. . . Culfurth.

G. on a chief Arg. two mullets S.

24 Will. Drury, mil.

Halsted.

Arg. on a chief Vert, the letter Tau betwixt two mullets pierced O.

25 Carol. Framlingham, miles.

26 Joh. Gurdon, arm.

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Assington.

S. three leopards' heads jessant flowers-de-luce O.

27 Will. Clopton, arm.

S. a bend Arg. betwixt two cotises dancetté O.

28 Geo. Clopton, arm.

29 Franc. Jermy, arm.

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ut prius.

Arg. a lion rampant gardant G.

30 Phil. Tilney, arm.

Shelleigh.

Arg. a chevron betwixt three griffins' heads erased G.

31 Will. Walgrave, mil.

Buers.

Party per pale Arg. and G.

32 Tho. Rowse, arm.

S. two bars engrailed Arg.

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Arg. a chevron engrailed Az. between three scallops S.

34 Lionel Talmarsh, arm.

Arg, fretty S.

35 Rob. Forth, arm.

36 Tho. Crofts, arm.

37 Will. Spring, mil.

Helmingham.

Saxmundham.

193

O. three bulls' heads coupée S.

38 Tho. Eden, arm.

ut prius.

Arg. on a fess G. three garbs O. between two chevrons
Az. charged with escalops Arg.

39 Antho. Wingfield

Letheringham.

Arg. a bend G. cotised S. three wings of the first.

40 Hen. Warner, arm.

41 Antho. Felton, arm.

G. two lions passant Erm. crowned O.

42 Edw. Bacon, arm.

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43 Edwin Withipol

44 Tho. Stutvile, arm.

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Party per pale O. and G. three lions passant regardant, armed S. langued Arg. a bordure interchanged.

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Dallam.

lion rampant S.
ut prius.

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ut prius.

Sotterley.

Bendy wavy of six Arg. and Az.

3 Tho. Playters, arm. .

4 Antho. Penning, arm.

5 Joha. Wentworth, arm.

S. a chevron between three leopards' heads O.

6 Lionel Talmarsh, arm.

7 Geo. le Hunt, mil.

8 Tho. Tilney, arm. 9 Calthorp Parker, mil. 10 Martin Stutevil

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Per fess embattled O. and Az. three martlets counter

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Az. a lion passant O. between three flowers-de-luce Arg.

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